Or, ‘Well would you look at that.’
As one would imagine we have a bit to do, running a 24 year old car on gravel roads at high(ish) speeds can cause a few things to get banged up even when you stay on the road. In our case we had a number of things that were already on the list before we left for Lanark and we added a few more.
One of them was a roof vent; we knew we needed one but it was hot for early May! Not complaining, just saying. Plus it can be used to suck dust OUT of the car, which might be handy also. That is definitely top of mind – and car. (Sorry – dad joke).
However, the first thing we needed was to remove the right rear caliper from where it was stuck in the wheel, as that’s where it was when Ryan was trying to unload the car from the trailer. Apparently it was still working as a brake which in turn made it tricky to unload, after a 6 hour drive, in the dark, by yourself. Or so Ryan tells us. So after getting the caliper out of the wheel and the car off the trailer all we need is a new bleeder (still on the list). We did have to grind down the inside of the rim to remove the dangerous gouge that was in there, though. So that is done.
Next up Ryan found out that when we hit a loose rock that was bouncing around the racing line – really – we had indeed done some damage. In fact, we scraped up the skid plate, bent the mount, and even bent the Grade 8 bolt that attached the plate to the mount.
It definitely sounded like something when we hit it, so at least we weren’t hallucinating. Sadly no video of that! So maybe it didn’t really happen.
So after the mount got repaired we tried to identify our leak source(s). The good news there is that the transmission and diffs all have all their oil and the brakes and clutch and steering have all their fluids. The ok news is that it appears we have a small coolant leak and a larger engine oil leak, both of which we knew about. The oil is coming from the turbo supply line so we’ll get that sorted out one way or the other, and the coolant… Well, we’ll keep you posted. The bad news is that the transmission is grinding a bit from first to second when hot. Have to keep an eye on that…
As proof that we knew we had some challenges before we started this was our service checklist start point. Not IS it leaking, but how badly. (As all Land Rover owners know, if it isn’t leaking it’s dry, so knowing the severity is key).
Also, when we finished the last stage the gauges looked like this, which in a normal car would mean pull over immediately. However:
- The oil pressure gauge isn’t hooked up (we have another, better one that IS hooked up in the centre console);
- The fuel sender unit is toast (we have a spare plus the secondary fuel pump that will all go in together) so the gauge reads empty when full and eventually goes to about half;
- The temp gauge was fluttering like a butterfly wing at the end of the last stage so we figured we knocked something electrical loose from the temp sensor.
The last thing we knew – from both the handling and the pictures – was that the front wheel camber is WAY too positive. We’re looking into that.
Since after Lanark we had come into a wealth of Talon parts (thanks Tashko!) we could even address some of the bits and pieces on the list that we couldn’t before. We fixed the front corner light that was being held on with duct tape, we replaced the air filter which was held on with a single clip and the ghetto clamp someone unnamed made for us when we forced them, and we now have spares. Serious ones, like an ECU and a turbo and lights and things.
And last but not least we put the RTM stickers on that we finally found when we were cleaning up. Gotta like stickers!
That’s it for now – more work to do but since we aren’t racing at Bear (since SOMEONE organizes it) we have until August to get the car ready and practice our notes.