minn200

Normal Service Has Been Resumed Main Posted by min200 Sun, December 07, 2014 19:34:02 The bike crisis is over. I have picked up exactly the same bike as I own today so I can now get back to commuting as it should be done in a city. When I say exactly the same bike I do mean exactly the same bike! Its the same model year engine size and colour! What are the odds? I was going to borrow some cash and spend a lot more and get something newer but when this came up for £750 fully serviced with new boots battery exhaust system and my old bike sat there basically with every spare that I could need it was a win win situation. The old bike will be stripped down and boxed up for the time being so I will have no worries of expensive repairs for some time to come! My plan was to MOT the Landy by Christmas but the bike issue has out me back a couple of weeks on that plan. A turn up for the books is that Wifey has informed me that even though it looks like next Saturday was full of things to be done and visits to be made it is just for her and work friends so that leaves me with a full day to play with the project so maybe just maybe it could get an MOT before the new year. I am not going to rush it though I want it done right but tis the time of year for miracles...

Well you all understand these diagrams a damned site more than me! I struggled to figure out what wire was for what :-D:-D This diagram was emailed to me to help out which it did BUT does anyone have the correct one for my 1983 FFR please and I will post that up onto the blog

Cheers chap I shall have a look to see if it does that or not. Im not going to be putting any radio kit back into it so it was used as a guide and it worked out well indeed Now I want to go outside in the dark to see if the "brake" light comes on or not.

Murky Mornings. Main Posted by min200 Wed, December 03, 2014 22:03:32 I am impatient to get this project done and I really don't want it to finish. You must have been there yourselves with something you have done at some point, you put in hours upon hours of effort relishing the challenge and hating the project at times. You sacrifice your pocket money the time you should have spent with the kids and offer up the odd limb or two in order to christen it with blood the Landy gods require if you want it to ever fire up into life again. With December now upon us I have had a look at the calender for the month and to say the schedule is hectic would be a mild understatement. If I want to get any sort of time on the project it is in a small hour long window sometime from waking up to leaving for work. No really I am being serious! If I want any time to myself to do as I please I have that one option for most of the rest of the month....having a family seemed like such a good idea at the time! Its amazing what you can do in a couple of hour long stints though. First I set to getting the old drivers side seat out. This is straight forward enough by simply lifting the base out and then folding the back of the seat forward. You will probably find that it doesn't want to go past the steering wheel of course but I found that just by moving the steering wheel from side to side a couple of times helped my "persuade" the seat back down. The single bolt removed from each side saw the back out pretty easily and quickly too. That seat was pretty tatty and probably wont be any good for anyone but that wont stop me throwing it up onto fleabay on a free listing for 99p though! Hey any money back is a bonus and yes I am that much of a tight git...at times. The seat frame was looking a bit rough... and I still had some green left so that got liberally splashed around the frame and rear bulkhead... Onto the passenger side and that too was past its best so I got to splash it about a bit more... It does make a hell of a difference a quick coat of paint even though I know these parts wont really been seen that often its nice to just "know" I have done it right. I have bought off of the tinterweb a passenger side door top it as brand new unused and seeing as I had to fit a new window kit to that side anyway I decided for the price of £15 I may as well "know" both of the door tops are new and that the glass wont be dropping out every tome I close the door like it does at the moment. The current passenger side door top is pretty rusty and will need a bit more exploration when its taken off to see if it would be worth keeping as a spare. The new one was the wrong colour so while I had the paint out... Once the kit arrives I will get the glass in and tops changed over. Next it was time to fit the windscreen wipers and I could not find them for love nor money. So after scratching my head and looking in many boxes along with all of my "safe" places I gave up and ordered a new pair convinced I had thrown them away by accident along with a load of rubbish out of the back of the Landy. The next morning I found them of course in plain sight on top of a toolbox. In my defence it wasn't a safe place toolbox and the mornings are very dull along with the wipers being very small and black. Anyway it turns out I have two different types of wiper arms fitted to the Land Rover one being a series one and one slightly thicker one. A drill bit and some persuasion soon had both of the wipers fitted. I think I will replace the arms at some point but I will get the MOT done first. http://www.justturned40.co.uk

The mechanics were sound the bike is just a bit tatty looking...seen worse! Still we will see what else is around as well

Indeed! Spoke to him today and he is now replacing the exhaust and sorting some of the bodywork out...might be a contender after all....maybe

Oh and thanks for the compliment The old Landy is getting there now!

I would prefer something a bit more upright like a Bandit this time but would settle for a winter hack for now just to get to work on.

How much can you cram into a day? Main Posted by min200 Sun, November 30, 2014 19:58:53 I was up early. I just cant seem to have a lie in like other folk after 6 hours of snoring I wake up wide eyed and ready to start the day whether I want to or not. After staring at the ceiling in the dark I lay there determined not to get out of my pit until 7am. At 7am I was just finishing my first cup of tea waiting for the light to come in enough so I could potter outside on the Landy. A bowl of cornflakes later and a play online the light was good enough for the chickens to want to come out so it was good enough for me to get myself into my baby grow and get stuck back into the electrics. The washer bottle and pump were the last of my wiring issues so I bolted them back into place, wired the washer pump up filled the bottle full of washer fluid and wondered if my luck could hold out for it to work. It bloody worked!! I pushed the button the pump whirred into life and the fluid worked its way through the pipework and squirted onto the screen! Um that's all the electrics working then...I mean all of them the lot everything electrical on a Land Rover is operational. This must be a first on the planet and must be worthy of a prize of some sort! That done its about 8am and the family are enjoying a lazy lie in and snoring away so I decided I would get the old leaky tank out and the new shiny one in place. First I had to start taking the bits out of the tank. The feeder pipe had to be swapped over as well as the fuel sender. I then undid the four bolts that hold the tank in and that dropped out soon enough. The new tank went in easy enough with the use of my jack to help balance it in place whilst I added the bolts to hold it in place. Soon enough it was done plumbed in and wired up. Being a tight git I drained the fuel out of the old tank checking it was clean and added back into the new tank. I should say here when I removed the fuel line from the old tank I folded it over itself and used a cable tie to stop any fuel leaking out. Im glad I splashed out for a new tank because it should give me many years of service and that is the whole of the fuel system now replaced. I fired it up and all is well in fact I love being able to turn the key when ever I want to and hear it running it never fails to bring a smile to my face! By now the tribe were up and around and we had to head down south to look at a replacement bike. Don't you hate it when folk lie to you about the condition of a motor. This was supposedly on mint condition but after arriving it was scraped and scratched and dont get me started on the state of the nearly rusted through exhaust! So a wasted trip of a 130 miles but we did call in on family and it was very good to see my baby sister and her fiancée back from Australia then we got fed a big fat roast to boot! Now home and relaxing for a couple of hours wondering how the weekend flew by so quickly and still looking for a bike. www.justturned40.co.uk

Smug bugger. Main Posted by min200 Sat, November 29, 2014 17:43:24 Oh I am feeling like a proper smug bugger today. I had a friend call around who is a Land Rover nut and a good mechanic to boot. It was his first meeting with the old project and he was a mine of information. It turns out the Landy has had a recon engine installed because its a nice green colour and considering its only showing 24,000 on the clock anyway I wonder if they were changed at the same time or not? The timing and ignition are spot on so no worries there which has saved some buggering about. The words he seemed to use a lot this morning relating to me and the Landy were "bugger" as well as "Jammy". You see he really was impressed with the overall condition of just about everything so fingers crossed for the dreaded MOT. After he left I still had an hour to kill before Wifey came home so we could go motorbike shopping and with the last electrical jobs niggling me I decided to have a stab at them again. Now before I get into this I would like to take the time out to show you the first picture of the day.... Now I am clueless when it comes to electrics but with this diagram of a 24v FFR wiring system in colour along with a multimeter set to the correct voltage even I was able to track back the wiring issues. It is daunting though when you open up the centre consul and find this lot looking at you. I started to panic when I was finding wires like this lot and wondering !Are these supposed to be connected somewhere???" But I took faith in the diagram and started to follow it back to get the horn working. I traced back from the relay to the change in wire colour testing for power at connections until I found out where the horn actually lived which is behind the grill on the nearside... There was no power at the horn itself but there was at the connector on the offside by the headlight so through my cunning powers of deduction I realised the problem was between the two and quite obvious once I saw it... "No way" I thought to myself "It cannot be that easy" after all we are talking Land Rover electrics here and they are a bain of every owners lives. I cleaned and connected the wires back up then turned on the ignition and pressed the horn....a dolcit grumpy sounding tone emitted loudly from the front end of the motor and the grin that spread across my face made my cheeks ache. Another electrical job down. Could I beat that today? Could I get the rear fog lights to work or would I be removing them as they were not a legal requirement in 1983? I grabbed my multimeter and diagram then attacked the wiring with gusto tracking the right colour through relays getting power all the way to the switch. Im getting into this electrical lark now you know. The power died there so having seen the prices of a replacement 24v fog light switch I took to cleaning and WD40'ing (new word you know) it up then the moment had arrived to see if it had made any difference and whether I could crown myself the king of Land Rover electrics!!!!!!!! Nothing. I rechecked my work and pushed the spade connector into place properly and with the sounds of heavenly angels playing me soft music the most wonderful light came to life on the dashboard! That little yellow light on the top right held promise that the rear fog lights should be working and low and behold there was light!! I felt epic! The lighting system now works across the board on the old girl and the only electrical component to refit now will be the washer pump when I get a chance. Isn't it amazing how good you can feel when something new that you have learnt actually works out as it should. The way this is going I really may have this old mouldy Land Rover back on the road by the new year. www.justturned40.co.uk

I know what you mean chap someone must be watching over me at the moment!

Something just collapsed!!! Main Posted by min200 Fri, November 28, 2014 21:27:24 So I was eagerly heading home around the Nottingham ring road banking left around a bend through some traffic lights and over some cross roads when the front end of the bike just kinda gives out...thankfully I was not travelling very fast but I took up both lanes to recover it from going shiny side down and my first thought was "front tyre blew out" Nope the tyre is fine. I limped the poor old bugger home and the bike too! The front end wobbling all over the shop but I was only a mile away so a slow crawl at about 5mph saw me back soon enough and safely to boot. I grabbed a torch had a quick look and it would appear the frame at the front is giving up the will to live. This is all in the dark so a closer inspection in the morning will show to what extent it has gone BUT I am sitting here at home with the Mrs having a beer and listening to some tunes so life is still good. Wifey doesn't know why I am smiling and being happy to still be in one piece she thinks the bike issue wasn't such a big deal! Hey I don't care because I kept the bike rubber side down...somehow http://www.nickysmith.me

Midweek Blues Main Posted by min200 Wed, November 26, 2014 07:44:14 Work really gets in the way of the fun things in life doesn't it. I came home last night to find a nice bog brown box waiting for me... It contained the majority of my service bits for the landy as well as the nice shiny new fuel tank. Its now Wednesday morning and as I sit here I realise that I have forgotten to order the oils...bugger. Well I guess I wont be doing that online now so I will have to run down to the cheap car parts store down the road as I first planned but I would have saved a few quid online...hey ho nothing I can do about that now apart from push back the service and set up but that is definitely happening on Saturday! So I shall have to hide away my frustration at the lack of progress this week and make sure I get as much done as I can on Saturday. http://www.nickysmith.me

Spending Main Posted by min200 Sun, November 23, 2014 08:45:57 Talk about feeling sick. I had the shakes cold sweats and was distinctly light headed...I had to spend quite a large chunk of cash again. You know the Landy is crawling closer to its first MOT and I am feeling a bit nervous about it if I am honest. The initial build is nearly done and it seems it will only be a few weeks before I get the insurance MOT and then send off for the age related number plates providing I have done my job right. Does anyone else worry that they have missed something? I am glad another landy nut is coming over to give it the once over before I book it in and he will definitely call me a tool and point out any shortcomings if I have made them. But this is not what has me feeling as bad as I do. I have ordered all of the service bits which on a standard Land Rover is not too bad but for a 24v FFR the parts are a bit pricey to say the least. But it had to be done so the money is spent and all is ordered but the oil which I will go and collect myself from a little place down the road which is the rare oasis that is a reasonably priced car parts shop. My other large outlay was a brand new fuel tank. As I have written before the second hand unit I fitted is leaking and in all fairness the chap I bought it off of has dropped around another second hand one but I feel that seeing as I have spent this much so far on the project I may as well put my hand in my pocket one more time for the new fuel tank. Seems a bit excessive? With this large buy it now means I have replaced the fuel system up to the Carb completely so it shouldn't give me any more problems for some time to come. Time for a bit of an add up on costs and they are crawling up considering I originally wanted to do this rebuild on a tight budget but as it was pointed out to me the other day how many other Land Rovers could you buy for that price with the new parts fitted and a rebuild being done to that extent? I also have the knowledge that it's all been done right (I hope!). When you look at it that way they are good points. So with sweaty hands and a sick feeling in my stomach I have updated the costings... Landy Project Costs Land Rover £375 Sanding Discs £11.70 Ignition Barrel £20 Heritage letter £21.75 2x Batteries and rear 1/4 light £35 Pair Battery Terminal Clamps £3.99 Floor pan nuts & bolts £6.50 Grinding disc £2.25 Under Seal £8.99 Complete set of lights £85 5 Litres Primer £24.99 4 Discovery Wheels £10.20 Rear Door £21.00 Front Door £20.00 Handbrake spring £1.50 2 Discovery wheels Two seatbelts Wing Mirror 2 Headlight surrounds 2 headlight frames £60 2 Front Doors £60 Nato Green Paint £36 Rear Window Seal and insert £9.99 Wiring connectors £3.00 2 tins of silver metal paint £7.00 Fuses & Sandpaper £4.50 5x tins black spray £5.00 5x more tins black spray £5.00 Clutch fluid Exhaust putty WD40 £8.49 Car Boot Bits £13 Front & rear shocks £59.45 Front & rear brake rebuild kits £81.62 Fuel tank & filler £40 Wheels complete with tyres £250 Fuel pump Fuel hose Indicator stalk Bonnet strap Brake switch Fuel pump gasket Fuel line clips £67.74 24v Wiper motor 24v flasher relay 24v heater 24v front loom oil cooler Door tops x2 Rear bench seat £67.50 Roof rack £100 Wheel nuts £8 Brake pipe kit £39 Wheels & Tyres £250 Exhaust System & Flexi hose pipes £66 Number plate light £5 Seat set £90 Fuel tank and service parts £136 CREDIT FOR BITS SOLD OFF OF PROJECT £446 TOTAL £1616.16 That's a bit freaky..... £1616.16. Once the oil has been costed in and the price of an MOT we should be in the ball park of £1700 out of my own pocket and around £2200 all in with the bits taken off of the Landy and sold chipping in a good chunk of change. For that sort of money and to me this is a lot of money I will have a cracking Land Rover that should last me a good few years before it wants a full rebuild again and that is not too shabby at all. http://www.nickysmith.me

For anyone that needs it it is 538393

Next question....What is the code for the drivebelts on a 1983 24v FFR please. I want to make sure I buy the right ones as they are not cheap!

I know the feeling lol I will be ordering lots of bits online tonight though for a service

Sorry to hear of your troubles chap On the plus side I am learning alot off of you! Hope you are road worthy again soon

New Shoes! Main Posted by min200 Fri, November 21, 2014 13:23:09 Had to go and collect a new battery for my bike first thing this morning as the old one has declared itself dead. So at the counter in the shop I tell the sales chap what battery I need and off he toddles and comes back with it asking "You do have a battery charger don't you?" Well why would I? so my answer is no. He then informs me it needs to be charged as they store them dry until they are sold when the acid is added. Is it just me or is this a bit odd? When you buy a car battery its charged and ready to roll so why wouldn't a bike one be the same? I then asked him "Do you have a battery charger?" to which he replies with a grin "Yes yes we do" "good" I reply "Stick that battery on it and I will be back to collect it in the morning" The sales girl next to him burst into laughter and he toddled of back out to the rear of the store muttering "ok then see you in the morning" Back on the driveway in no time as the shop is just around the corner I know I am going to potter a bit. I have cleaned out and dressed my gammy finger this morning so I know I cant do too much but I figure I can manage to fit the new front wheels. I set up with the jack and wheel brace and my mobile rings with my middle daughter calling me from her trip into London this morning to a University interview. No let me point that out again...she is in London. We go through the normal "Hellos" along with me saying "Everything ok down there are you all right?" to which she replies "Yea all good here....you are working on the Land Rover aren't you! You are not supposed to be doing that!" How the hell do they know? I hadn't even started just set up?? I have to admit I looked around to see if they have set up a couple of cameras but cannot see any if they have. I told her I was "just looking at it" and promptly got to "looking" at the old wheels being changed for the new again. There's nothing really wrong with the old Series wheel rims that were on it but I fancied a set of the early Discovery steel wheels with chunkier tyres on. With the front end still on axle stands the series wheels just fell off so no hassle there but I had donned my babygrow so I could use my legs to help manhandle the new wheels on. Doesn't it look smart with its new shoes on!! I love it nice and chunky tyres and the matching Nato green looks a lot better on them than I thought it would. You could be forgiven if you are thinking I had forgotten to take out the axle stands from under the front but no they are gone!! It really sits that high up! I am loving the look of it even if I do say so myself! I am happy to say the hand/axle/transmission brake works just fine the bricks are under the rear wheels as a "just in case" measure on my downhill driveway that leads directly onto the main city ring road. The last job of the day was to change over the rear number plate light. Yes I have done this once but since then I have managed to pick up a Land Rover one which looks a lot better than the truck one I had stuck on before...I had a word with myself about being too much of a tight arse at times. I need to update the project costings again but that can be done over the weekend. http://www.nickysmith.me

Spare bolts. Main Posted by min200 Thu, November 20, 2014 16:52:04 I met up with the folk from the Nottingham Land Rover Club last night at the pub and as always it was a pleasant evening with lots of tall tales and laughter. My engine does run but is desperate for a service and a bit of a tune up. Now give me a mini and I will do it blind folded and I am sure tuning the engine and Carb is about the same on the Landy but for the first go I really wanted someone looking over my shoulder telling me I am doing it right or wrong whatever the case may be. I found/bullied a volunteer to come along with the bribe of cakes and chocolate so as soon as I am paid next week I shall get the bits in and then we will be very nearly ready for the MOT. Now I find myself wondering if I have done everything right! I know there will be a few tweaks and the place I am taking ot too will help me with those final tweaks before we put it in so that's good. Dont want to fail on the brakes needing adjusting up a bit more or the headlights pointing the wrong way! The problem with the Landy sitting on the drive is the temptation. Whatever window I pass it seems to sit there beckoning at me and now the finish line is in sight I really do want to cross it as quickly as possible! Obviously I am putting the brakes because a) Clumsy fat sore fingers. b) I don't want to rush the last bit and spoil it by missing something simple or breaking something big. Little bits then. I am running out of those this week those little things you can do with one hand. But I did remember that one of my wheels was leaking air so I rolled it out of the greenhouse and down to Wifeys car. Here I had to be careful because even though the inside of her car resembles a skip in the footwells most of the time (Im pretty sure most women are like this with cars...dirty buggers) she would be most unimpressed if she knew I was throwing a big land rover wheel in the back of it! Cant see what the problem is myself... The tyre was leaking air from the rim so the nice chap at the local garage unburdened me of the contents of my wallet to take the tyre off and give it a good clean up reseal and balance. That sorted and back I wondered what to do now and came up with the idea of loosening up the nuts on the drivers side window top ready for replacing with the better one in storage. I didnt know the strength of my left hand as I snapped the first one off but managed to a bit more gently persuade the second loose in one piece. There are two things that for me are must haves in a rebuild. The first is a box of nuts and bolts that you have collected over time and thrown bits in "just in case" And a mixed box of washers as well... Amongst these I found the two washers and bolts I will need to fit the new door top on saving myself a few pennies and a trip to the local ironmongers. I then really wanted to change the tops over but my hand is healing nicely I have to go back to work next week if I want to eat and my fingers were warning me I had pushed far enough so I put the kettle on instead. I did try to start my bike but it seems the battery has lost the will to live so that's a job for tomorrow. Autumn mornings are one of my favourites and with scenes like the last picture I took whilst walking the dog you must be able to see why! http://www.nickysmith.me

All joking aside I did consider that! Thought it might get a bit damp though

So I am set for any refurbs on the seats then lol

Seats! Main Posted by min200 Wed, November 19, 2014 15:50:27 Well my new seats have arrived! I say new but they are a set of "County" seats I bought off of a chap on Facewipe. They are in great condition and will look the business when fitted. They will be the last thing to go in as they are made of cloth and the front door windows are not completely water tight yet. They are a bit flat from packing & postage but I shall leave them out in the dining room over night to puff back up a bit well until Wifey gets home and gives me some grief about that! Being home this week does have some advantages! http://www.nickysmith.me

Throbbing. Main Posted by min200 Wed, November 19, 2014 13:55:21 I awoke to just the one finger hurting the one with the big slice in so I thought to myself that it was a bonus the finger tip bruising is easing off. That lasted until I got up and tried to use my right hand which informed me in no uncertain terms I am still a cretin that tried to remove his fingers with a fan blade. It's right I am a complete tool! Thank god I still have a full set of fingers! On that note have you ever tried to wipe your arse with your left hand? No? me neither until this morning and what an experience it is! It wasn't until I had lets say finished manoeuvres that as I sat there the dawning realisation of the task before me hit home. Its not really something you think about is it wiping your arse? I mean you just do it like so many other things it just has to be done... I ended up laughing at myself when I realised I was sort of hovering and balancing on my right leg whilst trying to aim my left hand with a safety "just in case this goes wrong" huge amount of loo roll thinking to myself "well which way do I normally wipe? Back to front, front to back?" It really isnt that complicated is it! Needless to say mission accomplished but my word it took some thinking about! There was me thinking that brushing your teeth left handed was weird with the toothbrush facing the wrong way! SO what could I do to the Landy today then? Obviously not a lot... I mean we know I am not allowed to do anything and after yesterdays near miss I wasnt up for pushing my luck too far, well that and my eldest daughter was kicking around the house in that semi awake state teenagers seem to live in and I am sure she was supposed to be at college so there may be a plot at keeping an eye on me going on here. All I could come up with to do was to take the battery box cover out of the painting room (greenhouse) and fit it. Looks good enough and has just shown me that I need to paint the inside of the Landy as well as the outside! I then mooched around outside for a bit seeing a few things that "I could be getting on with" so quickly retreated indoors. Here I found in one of those cheesy gift magazines that kick around at Christmas time possibly THE most inappropriate gift I have ever seen... FART PANTS. Pants that absorb the smell of your arse when you drop a doozy. Who thinks of these things? Who set up the photo of the bloke with his nose up the girls backside!??? If these places pay for stupid ideas I am going to be a very rich man! http://www.nickysmith.me

OK then folks my kids have told me I need a Facebook page for my blog as well as the site itself. So the link is below and please join up folks and "Like" the page and "Share" it...well thats what I am told anyway! https://www.facebook.com/groups/396056643881797/