Practically Classics Forum

Broken wire soldered, all seems fine, also repaired another damaged wire I found, now the low fuel light works as well.

I also stripped a load of filler out of the bodyside of the minor, no great suprises. Just the usual corrosion around the wing mounting flange.

Next up mot on landie but I need to change the steering relay first.

Never a dull moment

Did the landrover steering relay today, battery tray steering arms etc were fiddly but came off easily enough
Then I removed the bottom retaining ring to reveal a rusty mess, my first thoughts were this is never going to move. Used a selection of 3/4 sockets and extensions to jack it up from underneath, front wheels off the ground no movement whatsoever.
So I started hitting it from side to side using a chisel wedged between the chassis and relay.
Lo and behold it started to move, after plenty of knocking backwards and forward it eventually started to move up, the rusty liquid Is all the wd40 I have been squirting down the side.

New one and the hole were heavily greased.
Which then slid back in with no problem, another half hour or so of assembly and the job was finished.
Driving it the difference is amazing it feels like a different car the new relay has reduced it from 3.5 inches to half an inch play at the steering wheel, it's almost got steering feel!

Also screwed the loose indicator in so we should be good for the mot.

you did well to get that out!

Kev

Well done. I recommend penetrating fluid rather than WD40 though - it is an excellent Water Dispersant but a poor penetrating fluid.

what would you reccomend mr luxo? ive been using wd for years & it got me out of a lot of sticky situations.. ive been using 3 in 1 recently & its quite good too, but i just like having the tins in my garage... although i was listening to a report recently & heard if you have more than 2 tins of penetrating oil in your workshop you may be suffering from aspergers syndrome... i have 3xwd40 4x 3in1 & a tin of something else too

I agree with Luxo - WD is best at protecting and not at lubricating or releasing. I was told that in no uncertain terms by an Everest fitter about thirty years ago!

Plus Gas is the daddy of releasing fluids (there was "A", "B" and "C" - if I remember correctly, "A" was conversion, "B" protection and "C" was the releasing fluid). I have heard good reports about Halfords "Shock and Release", so also have a can of that in my stash of various aerosol lubricant and releasing fluids - some of the others include silicon spray, rubber and nylon lubricant and 3-in-1 (as well as an ordinary can of it). Not to mention spray grease, Chain lube, white grease, carb cleaner (four diesel engines but the mower and rotavator are petrol) and brake cleaner (I haven't done any brakes for three or four years, but used two or three cans of brake cleaner) ...

For the really tight, diesel works well if you leave it long enough!

Keep up the good work Kev, it's an enjoyable "blog"! My Landy has moved this week - I sowed some grass seeds where it was, so had to move it. The clutch is still seized, in spite of half an hour's "rolling" (for grass seeds!).

I used what I had to hand, hence the wd, in this case the fact that you can fill the cavity around the top probably helps, I have used diesel with sucsess in the past but in my experince nothing beats heat.

Agree, nothing beats heat when you have the opportunity, and I was also going to mention straight Diesel is actually pretty good, maybe thinned down further with a little bit of paraffin.

Apart from that, with the branded ones TM has got there first, PlusGas is good and I also use the 3-in-1 branded penetrating fluid, seems to work as well as any.

No, I don't think you ahve aspergers by any means, I think you're just "well prepared"!!


Cheers!