Land Rovers and "that was close!"

We went away for the weekend, to do a navigation event. When we got there I
had to change the battery - took over an hour

One hour into the first roadbook and the autobox suddenly shifts to 1st. Oh
dear. A quick check in the rear view shows smoke - lots of it. Slam on
achors, shout to "clear the car" and leg it. Wait a few minutes and look at
smoke pouring out from bonnet

Pick up courage and open bonnet. ATF all over the engine and manifolds -
thankfully no external damage. Smoke dies away and we call for help.

AA diagnosis - "You need a new geaebox mate...". Useful.

Luckily I know of a spare gearbox - more luck - it's only 20 miles away at
my friends house! I am duly towed there - and at about 4pm we begin
stripping the underside of Piglet.

I now hate propshafts, exhausts and ANTI-ROLL BARS with a vengeance. Afte
disconnecting the wiring andbreathers and linkages - we retire to the pub.
6pm.

Next morning, at 10am we begin to remove the gearbox, usual problems - stuck
bolts etc. Had to laugh at the back of the engine - as it had "this side
out" written on it.....

When dropping the box we noticed RPI had not blocked a sensor hole - so my
bellhousing was full of tixover mud Must remember to tell them about
that.

Box dropped, LT230 split and TC removed. We began to remove the good bits
from my box, as the spare had been in a fire damaged Discovery. As we remove
the control box we see the failure- the clutches have failed massively and
blocked all the oilways!!! It's about 2pm now and we are rebuilding the
gearbox. By around 4pm we offer it and have it running sometime around
6pm....

By 8pm all the rubbish around it is all bolted up .... 800 yard test drive,
load up the gear and passengers and drive back home - 120 odd miles. Baptism
of fire.

Got to Daventry to drop someone off and it wouldn;t come out of
drive....which was a pain as he lived in a cull-de-sac. After much
swearing - Maddy fixed it!

Home now and Park doesnt..but hey?

--
Neil
http://www.pigletsplace.com

The Neffalump wrote:

[SNIP TALE OF AUTOBOX WOE]
> Home now and Park doesnt..but hey?
>

Want a nice little LT95?

P.

Who now has 2 immobile landies waiting for his attention.

--
If Mind over Matter is a Matter of Course
Does it Matter if Nobody Minds?

> When dropping the box we noticed RPI had not blocked a sensor hole - so my
> bellhousing was full of tixover mud Must remember to tell them about
> that.


Why am I not surprised, I spent £5,000 having a full house 4.6 fitted by
RPi, after a week the engine was jumping around the engine bay, they'd
fitted it back with the original engine mounts from the 3.5 that had covered
135K. When I queried it I was told we don't replace them unless you
ask........Nice ....

The engine lasted less than 35,000 (on road use only) and blew both heads,
needed a complete rebuild no warranty of course.

I got it sorted elsewhere, decided to sell it for other reasons (mainly
couldn't insure the wife on it) so I put it on Ebay, whilst it was
advertised I was contacted by three other people who had the same conversion
I had, all wanted advice and information about how the engine lasted, all
three of them had similar problems to mine. One poor guy had a valve drop at
less than 8000 miles a few months old taking a lot of the top end with
it...would they repair it under warranty...would they hell....all three had
gone within 12 months and none of them were getting any joy from RPi.

Would I go there again...not on your nelly...

Muddy

Hmmm....worrying. I'm at 22,000 miles atm. Had to replace the front crank
seal (but then again it is run around under muddy water a lot!) - it's eaten
2 sets of cats and the rad is struggling. Fitted a TD5 fan to it and that's
sorted the cooling to some extent.

Did sound like I had a sticky tappet - but turned out to be mud again - this
time in the starter.....!

--
Neil
http://www.pigletsplace.com

Blown rad was the first indication of my engine failure.

No oil in the water, had it compression tested just in case and everything
appeared hunky dorey.
Figured the rad was crap so got a new one fitted...it lasted a week....

Lots of head scratching later, compression test still fine so my mechanic
(who happens to be a friend) suggested a leak down test, not something I had
any knowledge of....

Anyhow this diagnosed one cylinder on each bank in dire need of help.

Muddy

"The Neffalump" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hmmm....worrying. I'm at 22,000 miles atm. Had to replace the front crank
> seal (but then again it is run around under muddy water a lot!) - it's
> eaten 2 sets of cats and the rad is struggling. Fitted a TD5 fan to it and
> that's sorted the cooling to some extent.
>
> Did sound like I had a sticky tappet - but turned out to be mud again -
> this time in the starter.....!
>
> --
> Neil
> http://www.pigletsplace.com
>
>