Tag Archives: Spares

The end is nigh !!!

Well, the 90 is cleaned and packed with (hopefully) everything we need, all ready now for the truck to turn up tomorrow morning so it can be loaded up and sent on it’s way.

The last couple of days have been spent packing, unpacking, packing again and in the process we’ve added a number of additional tie down points so all the heavy items are strapped down and secured now. The dining room, which has been used as a “staging area” for the last year is looking very empty !

A few random pictures from my iPhone…

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New Propshafts

Fuel and Battery Gauge on DashBoth the front and rear propshafts have been on the “hit list” for a while due to the amount of play in the splines. On my competition motor I fitted a Bailey Morris heavy duty prop shaft after snapping a rear one and decided it was worth the extra money for the quality of the splines and the larger UJs so decided to go the same way with the 90. 2 propshafts along with 2 spare UJs for the spares kit arrived last week.

So, I ticked off a few jobs in the end this weekend – I added a foam rubber strip between the tyre rack and the roll cage at the front as it was whistling quite loudly above 40mph, all quiet now. I also fitted both new propshafts, fitted a new steering damper with relocation bracket to the steering drag link – removing the one from the track rod. In an effort to fix the annoying slight oil leak from somewhere around the transfer box I took the bottom plate off it and resealed it while changing the oil. I had a play with a number of ideas to try and mount the ground anchor somewhere and decided in the end it really is too cumbersome to fit in a 90 !

Sunday was spent doing a final fit and gauge calibration for the infamous battery and fuel monitor, in the afternoon we took it for a long run out to make sure the props and steering felt good and that the fuel gauge and fuel consumption was something like. All seemed good, the new propshafts have fixed the vibration we were getting on overrun, the steering wobble is completely gone and the spare tyre rack was quiet at all speeds 🙂

Just to prove that the battery/fuel gauge thing is actually fitted and working at last I even took a picture of it ! It sits quite neatly above the normal centre dash switches…

Working through the list…

With the impending “container day” now a fixed point on the horizon we’re working our way through the list of all the things we want to get done before then. The fuel/battery monitor is still a work in progress but in the final stages now at least. There is still a fairly long list of items other than that and, while the weather is good, I’m trying to make the most of it by getting some of the “outside” jobs done.

IMG_0389 Roof basketAs fabrication jobs ALWAYS take ages to do I chose the biggest (I think !) remaining job to do first. We want to carry the second spare tyre (not mounted on a wheel) on the roof. We did try it on the bonnet but the amount it reduced visibility was unacceptable. To support the tyre and to allow other light items to be stored up there too we bought a small Thule roof basket. This sits just nicely in the front section of the roll cage. Mounting it meant making up some custom brackets to allow it to be bolted to the cage and it also needed a cutout adding at the back as the tyre is about 20mm too big to sit in the unmodified basket. It took a couple of days thinking, cutting, fabricating brackets, rethinking the design when it didn’t quite work etc… ! Anyway, the finished product isn’t going anywhere and also makes it easier to climb around on the roof as a bonus. We’ll put a vinyl wheel cover over the tyre and store some of the lighter spares inside the tyre – spare coolant hoses etc…

Having read through all the rules/regulation regarding shipping vehicles with air conditioning we’ve come to the conclusion that the various cons of the air conditioning outweigh the benefits so I’ve removed the air con components and pipes apart from the compressor. The extra leg room will be a benefit and the reduction in complexity when working on the cooling system and so on will make life simpler. We might replace the compressor with an idler pulley although I might have time to convert it into an air compressor as an alternative to the ARB for pumping up tyres etc… We’re not anticipating encountering stupidly high ambient temperatures with the route we have roughly planned out and if we do… well we’ll just have to suck it up 🙂

I finally got around to replacing the windscreen hinges and the door hinges too – the windscreen hinges were badly corroded and looked a mess, the door hinges – especially the driver’s door – had a lot of play in them and I’d previously had to adjust the striker to compensate.