Got my 1st Landy

Took delivery of my first landy yesterday. Went to Liverpool from Norwich to pick it up and got back in 4hrs just, on one tank of fuel. With no experience of these previously, I tried nudging the cruising speed up and up to what I thought it could handle comfortably and settled at a steady 80mph.
The temp guage soon told me it was unhappy with this, (fully in the red), so backed off to 70mph which allowed the temp needle to drop to 3/4. 1st lesson learnt
I`ll post pics when I can, if I can. Some of you who browse ebay may have seen it for sale. White `94 90 with 300tdi.
It doesn`t like full lock, the chunks of tread on side of tyres clunk against
a steel arm, but the tyres were a little under-inflated. Are they really that sensitive for clearance?
Dash lights once night fell were virtually non existant, so will have to sort that pronto. Any tips/suggestions gratefully rec`d.

:welcome2:

Hello, welcome to the loony zone! Get a load of pictures up as soon as you can, include pictures of your engine from all angles, under neath (i.e. the chassis rails) and the bulkhead so we can get a good idea as to how well its been looked after and give you any pointers from that perspective .

First things first, it's worth giving it all a thorough once over just to find any potential problems before they spring up un-expected. Give the brake pedal a good firm stamp and apply some body weight. If it gives way and drops straight to the floor you've got a leak / split pipe, if it stays relatively firm you're breaks are good - it's worth the check. I've heard of people using liquid metal to botch break lines into callipers as opposed to the proper threaded plumbing.

Obviously check the oil levels, there are three main places to check:- The engine, the gear box and your axles, and swap them just for upkeeps sake. If it's an LT77 gear box it needs ATF (automatic transmission fluid), which seems a bit odd for a manual box. You'll never go wrong with a filter change, this consists of your oil, fuel and air filter, all of which are simple jobs which will take the best part of 20 minutes if you do them all at once.

What's the chassis like? If it's clean and shiny black leave it be, but if there are rust patches, sand them down to clean shiny metal, spray them with metal paint and then give it all a good coat with waxoyl. You'll easily get years more life out of the vehicle if the chassis has adequate rust protection.

If you have a jack, raise the vehicle and give the wheels a really good wobble / shake to check all the bearings are in good shape. If there's any movement they'll need tightening up / swapping. The sooner you get to a problem, the less time and money it will take to rectify!

Other than that, theres nothing else that immediately springs to mind! Just remember that you're driving a tractor, not a car. By all means it will shift, but by no means is it designed to shift, the buggers have the aerodynamics of a breeze-block with a doorstop taped to the front. It's also the kind of vehicle that you will have to be willing to work on. They are by no means invincible and there will always be little bits and bobs that need sorting every now and again; so it's a kind of continuously working project that seems to run on and on. Don't let that put you off though, the engine sare rock solid so they'll take a fair bit of work, and with the right care and attention, they'll get well past the 300,000 mile mark! They're hot pickings with thieving bastards at the moment too, so keep it secure. It'll pay you to devise various security systems that'll scare them away.

Enjoy!
-Pos

adjust your lock stops on your hubs to cure that prob ( unless there well knobbley tires then u need spacers ) try putting the switch all the way up for the dash lights ( right hand side next to the hazard switch )
80mph ....... that down hill with a tornado behind you ... lol

80mph:hysterically_laughi

80 didnt think the speedo went that hight on a landy ?

wiltshire landyman said:

80mph:hysterically_laughi

Click to expand...

think that's his subtle way of saying the speedo is broken - or maybe it's a KMH one ?

Thanks for the response guys. All info gratefully rec`d and will be put to good use.
As for the speedo, it seems to be working fine, but perhaps I should have said `indicated 80mph`
Anyway, I shall stick to 70mph from now on (a real 65mph ) , but it did occur to me that as a 300tdi engine has been fitted, perhaps the sender is from the original engine and thats what is making it appear to be running very hot and not the extremely fast speed it was doing ! Could it be?

The speedo drive comes from the transfer box so an engine swap would not change the speedo, you are right about the temp sender though.

The 300tdi doing 80mph on the original transfer box would have had it going a bit fast, it would take it but I would not want to drive about with the engine revving like that for long journeys.