trouble while on the road in mongolia

russia went fine. alot of flies. but lovely roads.
now in mongolia and after 7000km i have some issues.
wheels have taken a beating on the roads, suspension holding up fine. have had to tighten prop shaft bolts a bit.
have a speed wobble that comes through the steeering wheel when the car is about 40 to 50mph and the steering is straight. a tiny turn to the left stops it.
the wheel has a little play between 12 and 6 that goes when the foot break is held down.
steering box is new, fitted before we left. could it be back lash in the box? wheel bearing?or swival bearing?
i have spares and tools for all. just need some advice.

also i have lost in total 7 wheel nuts on these roads. the wheels where torqued up to 170. should i just go breaker bar tight? its infuriating!

cheers for any help. long way to go yet!

Jack up each wheel in turn and have someone pull/push the wheel in all directions , lift with a bar under the tire [like they do on an mot] while you watch for movement in the hub for bearing play, ball housing for swivel play, check all steering joints/trackrod ends and check that drop arm has not come loose on steering box. Good luck.

There could be various things making the steering wobble. I'd be thinking about bearings, first of all. Wheel bearings and the bearings in the swivels that serve as a king pin. They might need a shim taking out. When I replaced mine the rollers had indented the bearing tracks on the old ones, and that was just 60-70 thousand miles on UK roads. They're only little roller races and they take the whole weight of the car on their respective corners. Also check ball joints, bushes and the like. Yes, I suppose it could be the steering box but this would be a bit further down my list of culprits.

Just go round all the wheel nuts and tighten them daily, if I was you. Maybe you do this anyway.

Congratulations on getting so far. Get us some pictures up if your internet access is good enough.

tottot said:

Jack up each wheel in turn and have someone pull/push the wheel in all directions , lift with a bar under the tire [like they do on an mot] while you watch for movement in the hub for bearing play, ball housing for swivel play, check all steering joints/trackrod ends and check that drop arm has not come loose on steering box. Good luck.

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Beaten me to it.

All of above ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ and check carefully for wheel/tyre damage. A buckled wheel could give that effect. No idea why wheel nuts are coming undone. Recommended torque is 108nm, 80ft/lbs.

Are they the right nuts for the wheels , is your torque wrench correct ? Do you have a steering damper fitted?
As previous posts check hub swivels .(disconnect from track rod see how easy they turn , also try looking for up down movement use a lever, there shouldnt be any discernable)

Movement at 12 and 6 with foot on break most likely to be bottom swivel pin bearing??

swivels feel ok. havent got a spring with me to test load.
bar under wheels confirms left front 12 and six. all others fine. will try to buy spring in village tomorrow.
steering damper fitted and no dead spots.
not sure about torque wrench being correct. how can i test in the field?
currently destination bottom of long hill. parked on slop facing downhill. just noticed BOTH lower links for the rear suspession have 1cm gap between bush and metal plate at the end of the link. will turn car to face uphill and tighten them tomorrow. could this be the issue or just something else?

swivels feel ok. havent got a spring with me to test load.
bar under wheels confirms left front 12 and six. all others fine. will try to buy spring in village tomorrow.
steering damper fitted and no dead spots.
not sure about torque wrench being correct. how can i test in the field?
currently destination bottom of long hill. parked on slop facing downhill. just noticed BOTH lower links for the rear suspession have 1cm gap between bush and metal plate at the end of the link. will turn car to face uphill and tighten them tomorrow. could this be the issue or just something else?

I suppose you could be getting a bit of rear steer from loose bushes at the back, but I'd still be looking at your steering if I were you.

Unless you're changing the cylinder head (or something exacting like that) I wouldn't worry about calibrating the torque wrench. Just get everything tight.

The nuts on the end of the trailing/radius arms tighten against a shoulder on the arm itself and can't be screwed up indefinitely to squeeze the bush, I'm afraid. Depending on the bush, there may be an anti-crush tube inside it to stop the rubber getting squeezed too. So unless you can shorten this, they're difficult to adjust in the field.

have all landrover dealerships forgotten about the classics and the passion driven owner? or is it just the international ones?

decided to take the car to the dealer in ulaanbaatar as i was head through on my way west and although i had all the parts for a timing belt change i had not found the time to do it before i left. so i booked in a belt change and oils change if they had time.

belt took from 9am to 6pm including 3 hours to correct their miss aligned timing first try. so no timing for anything else. argued that i shouldnt have to pay for those 3 hours and pointed out that the parts were all mine which reduced the price to 273 pounds!!!!

drove out of the city and pulled into the hills to make camp to find oil almost opooring out of the bottom of the timing case. weekend here now so nothing to do but wait till monday and go back. three extra days lost.

i will change the wheel bearings today to feel positive about just sitting around.

bunch of cocks.

Wheel wobble gone. Changed the bearing in very sterile conditions in a muddy field and the wheel movement has cleared up and it's driving nicely now.

ONLY TROUBLE IS I'm now back at the dealer and they have found the oil leak - he put the new crank seal in badly, it's split - and there is no replacement. The real kicker is that the timing belt was showing no signs of wear so I propbably didn't need to change it for ages. Now I'm stuck in a garage, waiting for what maybe a bodge fix, eating up my visa days and money.

Plus they have a TV screen where you can watch your car being worked on. sounds great, but actually it just makes me more nervous.

NiallRussell said:

Wheel wobble gone. Changed the bearing in very sterile conditions in a muddy field and the wheel movement has cleared up and it's driving nicely now.

ONLY TROUBLE IS I'm now back at the dealer and they have found the oil leak - he put the new crank seal in badly, it's split - and there is no replacement. The real kicker is that the timing belt was showing no signs of wear so I propbably didn't need to change it for ages. Now I'm stuck in a garage, waiting for what maybe a bodge fix, eating up my visa days and money.

Plus they have a TV screen where you can watch your car being worked on. sounds great, but actually it just makes me more nervous.

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That is terrible, kind of similar to my dealings with Land Rover in France, they just don't want to work on older Land Rovers.
Does this muck up a lot of your plans? I hope they don't try to get you to pay for anything else.

Is it a case of "if we can't plug a a diagnostic into it, so our semi skilled 'mechanics' can deal with it" they just don't want to know?

Totally mucks up my plans and i have to be sensible here too and make a decision to sacrifice more days and get the right part sent to the next city.

The mechanic who shredded the correct seal I gave him to fit on friday went and got a 'new' one from somewhere in town. he handed it to me in an old Bearmach box, opened. The seal had part number HB0960G on it. when I pointed on that it wasn't the right part he protested that it's the 'new' part number. No it ****ing isn't!! Didn't fit anyway. So I'm sure we'll be bodging something and I will have to get some parts sent from UK to LRDealer in Kazakhstan (next major stop) and get the right bit fitted.

I'm tired, hot, and ****ed off. and sitting in a room waiting for a them to work it all out, and there is a poster proudly saying '80% of all landcovers are still on the road'. Yeah but no thanks to you!!!!

on another note, some amazingly good damage to the inside of my wheel hub and axle spotted with changing the bearing. Think that oil has had a lot of water in it for some time. Opps.

Sorry to hear of your troubles Niall,just an idea but is the old seal still around it may have not been totaly trashed getting it out.

Very sorry to hear about all your problems Niall. Hope that you will get every thing sorted out soon.
Will be traveling next year through Kazakhstan and Mongolia on our way to Indonesia. Would like to know anything you know about land rover dealers along the way.

Cheers