Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2024 i Land Rover Monthly

I experienced a first the other day – hill walking. Yes, obviously I have walked up hills before in my life, but a Malvern Hill is a bit different to a regular hill, and it’s extremely different to the pancake-flat Fenlands that I am most used to. Land Rover Life editor, Neil Watterson, started the tradition of trekking up the hill overlooking the Three Counties Showground at the first LRM Live last year, and I regretted not joining him then. So this year, along with three others and a very excited spaniel, we set off at 7.00am to tackle the climb, and after quite a bit of huffing and puffing, we were rewarded with amazing views in all directions. I have no doubt we’ll do it again next year, so…

LRM is delighted to announce the launch of a new podcast. Hosted by Editor Martin Domoney and Associate Publisher Steve Miller, listeners will be able to tune in for an hour (or thereabouts) of Land Rover-related chat on their favourite streaming platform, or by heading to tinyurl.com/mpjctath. As well as general conversation about all things green oval, the boys plan to take the podcast on tour, visiting all manner of interesting people and places that have shaped Land Rover’s history, and continue to do so today. In the debut episode Martin and Steve talk LRM Live, and why going to Land Rover events is sure to leave your wallet feeling lighter. They also discuss how wheels and tyres maketh the Land Rover, and reminisce about the legendary tread patterns of…

WE’RE back in action. After losing first gear a few weeks back, my Series IIA V8 now has a fully rebuilt gearbox. A few people had suggested I take the opportunity to replace the gearbox with a full synchro Series III version but that really didn’t appeal – I much prefer the feel of a IIA box (SIIIs tend to feel a bit notchy and indecisive) and it really is satisfying when you pull off a smooth transition from third to second whilst temporarily coasting downhill, approaching a set of traffic lights. I do wonder what the future holds for manual gearboxes; many manufacturers, JLR included, no longer offer manual versions. Back when I was learning to drive, I do not recall any of my classmates learning to drive in…

I had a very smart old Series III Lightweight trailered in with a charging system issue. It was a 24-volt FFR (Fitted For Radio) vehicle which complicated things rather: these vehicles use a very large generator feeding various control boxes and relays whose purpose is not always easy to determine. The owner had got as far as unbolting the generator before deciding that he was a little out of his depth. I had a known good generator on the shelf from a Lightweight I had converted to 12-volt electrics so I fitted that and found that the charge warning light was still on. While I was tinkering around with a multimeter and trying to work out which wire did what, the engine started spluttering and died. It would not restart,…

LIKE many Land Rover fans, and readers of this magazine, I had a romantic dream of setting off around the world, in a trusty Defender, exploring the remote, wild and beautiful places on our planet. In 2006, aged 44, I was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. Not only that, but having returned to work after apparently successful treatment, I was pulled back in as the cancer returned. The second treatment was a very difficult, and thankfully successful, full stem cell replacement therapy, where doctors attempted to kill my cancer by replacing my entire immune system with stem cells from my bone marrow, which hospitalised me in an isolation bubble for six weeks. In my hospital bed, I promised myself that – if I survived – I was going to change that…

WHEN I visited Nick Parr in Kent a few years ago to write about his remarkable collection of Land Rovers (see LRM February 2021) the one you see here wasn’t there. I had to content myself with looking at a few photographs of it, but I agreed with Nick that I would come back when it had returned home. And now, three and a half years later, here I am again in Kent, hugely excited at the prospect of seeing the Automobile Association Road Service 80in for the first time. Chassis number 36102343 is a 1953 model year Series I soft top that was built on the last day of December 1952 and despatched out to Henly’s of London on 7 January 1953. The reason that it wasn’t here during…

THE beginning of April saw a major milestone pass for me – the completion of my 1987 Range Rover, which has been a very slow ongoing restoration for the past seven years. It’s always been in the background, with me doing bits as and when time allowed. Trouble is, many other vehicles jumped the queue and got in ahead of it, and each time it got dropped further down the list. For a while now I have been writing about the Range Rover’s slow progress, and towards the back end of last year I decided to have one last push to see it finished. With all the structural welding work completed quite a while back, it was now reassembly and outer bodywork painting to address. Originally I was just going…

THE East Northants Land Rover Club was formed early in 1989 by our president Ken Sharman and his friend Stuart Abbott. By April that year the club had 25 members and the following February joined the Association of Land Rover Clubs. With membership climbing, in 1991 we were invited to marshal the off-road course at the first Land Rover Owner Billing Family Show, now the Billing Off Road Show. In 1992 the club joined the RACMSA, now Motorsport UK, and officiated at the second Billing Show. Our activities expanded into hosting RTV trials and greenlaning, and we became actively involved in helping local councils with greenlane clearance. Then, in 1992 we helped set out and run the Nationals RTV course at Cannock. Another proud moment in the club’s early history…

THIS left-hand drive 2001 130 Double Cab HCPU (High Capacity Pick Up) was initially booked in for a new chassis and bulkhead. The Defender had originally been in the Netherlands and was imported to County Galway, Ireland in 2006, where it has since been working hard towing trailers and horse-boxes. After I purchased the new galvanised chassis and galvanised bulkhead from Richards Chassis Ltd, the owner asked me about converting his Land Rover to right-hand drive during the rebuild. There is certainly no better time to carry out this conversion, when both the chassis and bulkhead are being stripped. New coil-spring chassis are manufactured to suit either left- or right-hand drive configurations, as per the original Land Rover chassis. However, the new bulkhead was manufactured for an LHD Defender, so…

DISCOVERY’S LIGHTS AND LOCKS ISSUE There is a problem with my Discovery 2’s interior lights. For the last two or three years they’ve functioned at random: the main switch always powers the front lamp, but when put on the automatic (centre) setting they only work sporadically. The centre light over the rear seats hasn’t worked for years. My local Land Rover specialist garage did fix them temporarily at the last MoT, saying that they were controlled from the door locks. This repair only lasted 24 hours. The wiring diagram looks nightmarish. I was wondering if there is a problem with the body ECU. The vehicle is a 2001 and has been kept in a carport from new. The mileage 49,700 – yes, very low. Any help or advice would be…

Telly troubles On a recent and outstanding tour of the Portuguese mountains with Dream Overland, we were led to a summit called Alto de Trevim in the Serra da Lousã by the incomparable guide, Jose Almeida. After enjoying the wonderful vista we returned to our 1996 Defender to continue the journey. Like many Defender owners we have a Thatcham immobiliser fitted to the vehicle (in this instance a Cobra unit) and on presenting the transponder to the contact we were surprised to find the unit would not register and disarm the system. After trying the spare set of keys with the same result it dawned on us that we were sharing the top of the mountain with a number of large TV masts. It seems the transmissions from the masts…

EMAIL YOUR PICTURES TO MARTIN@LRM.CO.UK…

SOME very interesting JLR news stories broke cover recently, although whether they are true or false, or somewhere in between, is difficult to determine. The first was an item released in mid-April by no less a source than Reuters, coming from its New Delhi desk in India. It claimed that JLR owner Tata Motors is planning to manufacture JLR luxury cars at a new $1billion plant that it is building in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Reuters stated that the information came from ‘two sources with direct knowledge of the matter’. If true, this will be the first time that JLR-branded cars have been manufactured from scratch in India, although the possibility that it might happen has been a recurring theme, pretty much since Tata acquired the Jaguar…

Nelson the Defender is now in Windhoek, Namibia, in the capable hands of John Darby, a 78-year-old legend in the world of old Land Rovers in southern Africa, for a bit of well-earned TLC while the rainy season passes over and I spend time with the family back in Scotland. The Bosch injector pump has been dripping puddles of diesel since Angola (which thankfully stopped once the engine warmed up) so is being refurbished and the fuel tank, (last welded in the Gobi desert) has started to weep so is being replaced. I will return with new crew for the next part of the tour, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, etc, all the way up to Kenya. A ‘hot’ war in South Sudan and issues in Ethiopia mean the route north…

AFTER a year of high anticipation, the Malvern Hills once again came alive with the thrum of engines, beat of great music and the sound of thousands of happy Land Rover fans for Land Rover Monthly’s second LRM Live event, held on the 18-19 May 2024. You arrived in droves on the Friday, and as roof tents popped up and camping chairs unfolded, the sun bathed the valley in a warm glow as campers relaxed around their pitches and traders busily prepared their stands for the weekend ahead. As the sun hung low in the sky, local band Funky Junky Monkeys plugged in their amps and started to build a buzz in the beer tent. Great music filled the air and the drinks flowed freely, and the hard core stayed…

AS an avid reader of LRM and the proud owner of a Defender 90 Td5 which acts a licenced recovery vehicle for Motorsport UK, I thought I would share a bit about what we do as RSR Motorsport Safety, and how Land Rovers play such an important part in our work. RSR is a volunteer motorsport safety charity, consisting of Land Rover enthusiasts and specialising in rescue and recovery utilising its fleet of Land Rovers. Its goal is to ensure the safety of participants and spectators in high-risk environments involving challenging terrains whether that be motorsport, equestrian or community-related. The charity plays a crucial role in mitigating the impact of accidents and emergencies, providing a rapid response, medical assistance, casualty extraction and vehicle recovery. The fleet currently comprises a Land…

THE Discovery 3 and 4 are without question among the most useful and versatile Land Rovers ever released. A strong separate chassis, independent, air-sprung suspension and a boxy bodyshell capable of swallowing huge amounts of kit make them a popular choice for work and play. But, as with every standard vehicle, improvements can be made. In the boot of the Discovery on either side of the main boot space, are large plastic trims that shroud the wheelarches and house various things like the spare wheel equipment, removable towbar, and lots of modules and other important things. The space above them is generally not usable unless the boot is completely chock-full of other stuff, but for general day-to-day use, it’s a bit pointless. Italian Land Rover enthusiast and parts supplier, Out-Rack,…

DUTCH Land Rover specialist and parts supplier, Smet Works, has launched a brand-new website. Aiming to be the most intuitive and best-looking Land Rover parts online shop in the world, the site caters for those looking for rare and obsolete new-old-stock components for all models, as well as a huge range of quality aftermarket and even used parts. On top of the vast array of spares, Smet Works offers various interesting Land Rover automobilia, from vintage brochures and documentation to stickers and decals. Owner and founder, Laurens de Smet and partner (and fellow Land Rover nut) Jess Jackson also document their adventures and travels on the website’s blog, so be sure to check it out – smetworks.com.…

“IF you’re going to pick up live bees from the other end of London in your Land Rover, I am not coming with you,” the Fella states. “Can you imagine what it will be like in there, full of annoyed and confused bees? Oh, and I’m allergic to bee stings.” I ask him why on earth he didn’t mention this allergy before I started the bee-keeping course he bought me for Christmas, and he rather sweetly says he didn’t want to dampen my enthusiastic campfire. “They wouldn’t actually be flying around, they’d be sealed up in a polystyrene box,” I counter whilst realising that, if I am to be collecting bees in the Lightweight, it will be a lone task and, to be honest, rather an intimidating one. The early…

WHEN did you last have your timing belt changed? This is one of the first questions I ask when a new customer brings me a vehicle that I haven’t seen before: more often than not the answer turns out to be either “can’t remember,” or “never”. Not all Land Rover engines have toothed rubber timing belts: the Series engines are all chain-drive, as is the Rover V8. Timing belts became popular in the 1970s. Not only are they cheaper than a chain and hydraulic tensioner, the Kevlar reinforcement in the belt prevents it from stretching; anyone familiar with the old two and a quarter diesel will know that the injection pump timing has to be gradually advanced as the engine gets older, to compensate for the timing chain stretching and…

UNLIKE many of the other Land Rover projects that grace the pages of Land Rover Monthly, the Defender 90 you see before you wasn’t dragged kicking and screaming from a hedge, rescued from the scrapyard’s crusher or brought back from the brink of extinction with a pair of vice grips and a box of welding rods. “We spotted it on Auto Trader. It’s an ex-RAF runway vehicle, and when it left the services it got bought by a fellow enthusiast, so it was actually in fantastic condition when we went up to Newark to buy it,” enthuses Miles Stephenson, who’s responsible for this now stunning 90, along with his brother, James. “We cruised back down to Dorset in awe of how sweetly it drove; it really is a credit to…

BACK in 2020, I wrote on these pages about the two surviving Stage 1 88in prototypes, both of which had just been restored by Dunsfold Land Rover. Four prototypes were built in total, together with a V8-powered ‘concept vehicle’ that was coincidentally built at around the same time at the company’s Drayton Road Vehicle Engineering facility. The concept vehicle survives in northeast England, while the other two prototypes ended up in the Middle East and have never been seen again. These were followed by a batch of 24 vehicles often referred to as ‘production’ examples, allegedly ordered by the Jamaican Police. The enduring but unproven story is that the order fell through, and the vehicles were eventually sent to Rover’s agent in Trinidad and Tobago, Trinity Motors (H T Robinson)…

I’VE got to be honest; I haven’t had to do much to my cars since the last Writers’ Rovers update. Maintenance-wise, there isn’t anything major to report other than replacing the dying battery on the Range Rover. I’m not complaining. I used the Series I almost right up to the start of December, whence into the garage it returned. Historically, when I started using the SI again each spring, I’d have issues with the carb running rich now and then, to the point where it fouled the plugs enough to stop them working, and the engine would cut out. Since Martin Lawrie of Fuggle’s Fettling worked on the carb – swapping the emulsion tube and the incorrect air correction jet UAO was fitted with – the old car has been…

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17 PAGES OF TOP LRM EXPERT ADVICE THERE’S a significant price difference between aftermarket bearings and Genuine Land Rover versions. And often there’s a significant quality difference that can outweigh any savings, especially when figuring in the labour costs of paying a garage to replace a prematurely worn cheapo bearing. This applies to the roller and ball bearings that keep transmissions, drivelines and wheels rotating quietly and smoothly. Shell bearings on engine crankshafts and camshafts are nearly always manufactured by established specialist companies and they rarely fail prematurely. If they do, it’s almost always because of incorrect assembly, failing to pre-lubricate them during an engine build or allowing contamination to enter – cleanliness is vital, as it is when fitting ball and roller bearings. Also vital is the use of…

LAST month we got a snapshot of the plans for the Discovery V8 base vehicle that father and son race team, Sean and Reece Mathieson, are restoring. All restorations fall into a fairly set pattern and, sooner or later, they hit the structural repair stretch which characteristically seems to take forever. That, broadly, is where our team is now. Sean has got stuck into the welding repairs to the structure, while Reece and fellow team spannerman, Tony Devenport, have tackled mechanical jobs. Since our last visit, the major rear-end repairs have been completed and much of the rear has been reassembled. At the front, the footwells, sills and inner arches are largely repaired and painted. Whilst Sean has been busy cutting, grinding and welding at one end of the car,…

June 21-23 LAND ROVER SERIES ONE CLUB NATIONAL RALLY Land Rover Series One Owners Club York, North Yorkshire lrsoc.com June 22 RTV TRIAL TBC slroc.co.uk  NORTH YORK MOORS 4x4 TOUR North Yorkshire offthebeatentrack4x4.co.uk  NORTHUMBERLAND RELAXED AND SCENIC TOUR Wooler, Northumberland trailsandtracks.co.uk  LUCAS CLASSIC CAR EVENT Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb, Shelsley Walsh, Worcerstershire thelucasclassic.com June 22-23 CHARITY WEEKEND Newnham, Devon cdlrc.com June 23 CCV TRIAL Llanfair, Harlech, North Wales nwlrc.co.uk  TRIAL Mow Cop, Staffordshire penninelandrover.co.uk  4x4 TRIAL Ratlinghope, Shropshire shropshireoffroadclub.com  PUNCH HUNT Wadhurst, East Sussex twinaxle.com  PAY & PLAY DAY Dersingham, Norfolk mudmuncher4x4.co.uk  EAST YORKSHIRE 4x4 TOUR East Yorkshire offthebeatentrack4x4.co.uk GREAT BRITISH LAND ROVER SHOW Newark Showground, Newark, Nottinghamshire gblandrovershow.co.uk LAKE DISTRICT CLASSIC & PERFORMANCE MOTOR SHOW Hutton-in-the-Forest, Penrith, Cumbria greatbritishmotorshows.com June 29-30 BILLING OFF ROAD SHOW Little Houghton, Northampton thebillingoffroadexperience.co.uk TRIAL Sewell, Dunstable,…