Spring check & clean

With 't Kreng still in use as my daily transport, and a pretty hot weather forecast for last Saturday, I decided to hide from the direct sun underneath the carport, and give the car some well deserved TLC! Over the past few weeks the engine bay did have regular checks, so I switched my attention to the suspension and transmission. For no obvious reason I decided to start at the back of the car. But while positioning the axle stands underneath the ... euhh ... axle, I noticed this rather sorry looking exhaust clamp:

Clearly in need of a replacement! And a fine example of what can happen with galvanic corrosion between two different metals. Luckily I always carry a spare in the boot, so that was quickly sorted. After which I started at the back of the car, with an inspection of the half shaft bearings and the brakes. And as you can see in the picture below it was all rather dirty with road grim and mud to start with:

Luckily all vital parts underneath the dirt were in good condition. And the oil level in the differential casing was also spot on. So the back end only needed a good clean and bit of lubrication on some strategic places. But I also used the opportunity to check all the suspension bolts for tightness. In particular I looked for signs of galvanic corrosion between the high tensile bolts and the stainless steel inserts from the poly bushes. But it looks like the non conductive anti seize compound I applied a few years ago had done its job in that all bolts moved freely after the nuts had been undone a few turns. And all bolts proved still to be pretty tight! For good measure all bolt heads and nuts were covered with a liberal amount of clear wax-oil for protection. As did some seams in the area, that showed signs of cracked paint. Should have used a specific seam sealant when preparing the shell 25 years ago, and not just under body protection 😜

Time to switch to the front of the car. Again a fair amount of dirt in the wheel arches. But underneath again nothing wrong; wheel bearings, brake pads and various dust covers were all in good condition.

And last job for the day was a thorough clean of the wheels. Especially the inside of the front wheels had accumulated a lot of dirt and dust. But nothing an hour's worth of washing and polishing could wipe of. All in all it was a very satisfying day!

Daily duties for 't Kreng

With the Land Rover's transmission repairs still under way, and because I still have my "normal" daytime job left to do, 't Kreng has been promoted to "daily driver" for the time being. As a result of which she was able to grace various parking lots in the area, to start with the head office in Roermond:

The city hall of the municipality Onderbanken in Schinveld, for a meeting for the renovation of a large sewage shaft:

And even a work related visit to the World War II Belgian fort at Eben Emael, just south of Maastricht:

From an engineering perspective a very interesting site, but sometimes also very sobering:

Remains the Defender. Though the culprit in the Defender's gearbox has been found (see picture below!) and the gearbox is back together, it still needs to be fitted back under the car. But there are a few other issues that need addressing, like a leaking steering box, and a sticking front brake calliper. To be continued!

Defender transmission repairs

With the transmission removed from my Defender it was time for an inspection of the internals of the gearbox. So time to take it apart:

And I am glad that I can report that our initial diagnosis proved to be correct. The noises seem to be bearing related, as the front bearing of the secondary shaft is shot, the lower one in this shot:

But best of all is the fact that all the gears and baulk rings appear to be in pretty good condition:

Next stage is ordering the necessary parts, mostly bearings and seals, re-assemble the box and put everything back together. And after that some other (hopefully) smaller issues have to be addressed. To be continued!

Some driving and some spannering

Over the past week or so 't Kreng has clocked up a few more miles. Firstly there was our annual Poasjrit (or Easter Tour). A by now traditional opening of the driving season for a few like minded friends on the second Easter day. And as the weather forecast wasn't that brilliant I left the DHC in the shed and took 't Kreng instead.

But I only clocked up some 200 kilometres. Because I didn't have a navigator and Edje doesn't fit in 't Kreng's bucket seats, I decided to "volunteer" as his navigator. Luckily I'm rather accustomed to hairdressers cars, so it wasn't too bad to be driven around the Dutch, Belgian and German border area in a modern Mini Cooper S convertible. Needless to mention I forgot to take some pictures after I left 't Kreng behind on the parking lot ...

And with the Easter weekend behind us, it was time to start on the transmission of my Defender. The reason for this operation was a quickly increasing grinding noise which seemed to be coming from the gearbox while braking on the engine. Also with both the gearbox and the transfer box in neutral there was an ever increasing rattling noise emitting from the gearbox. And this might point to a fault inside the gearbox. Probably a bearing or maybe some of the gears inside?

So I dropped the Defender of at Jan Moorthaemer's place last Tuesday morning for a gearbox operation and headed back to the office, in the knowledge the car is in safe hands. Though he told me he didn't have the time to start on the car immediately. So when I received a picture from him of a rather sad looking central exhaust silencer box, on Wednesday morning, my curiosity was aroused. As I was preparing to take 't Kreng out for a short trip, the route was adapted slightly to have a look at the progress so far. And when entering the workshop I was greeted by my Defender on one of the four-post-lifts and a huge gap underneath were the transmission used to be:

And a few of the bits and pieces that used to sit in said gap. Clearly visible that I will at least need a new centre box for the exhaust system:

But with the box removed from the car, the first inspection of the gearbox didn't really show anything looking, feeling or sounding very wrong. So of for the next stage, dismantling the gearbox. But that'll have to wait for a while as it was time to enjoy 't Kreng on some local country lanes instead:

FHC resto nr. 64; End of an era

Not what I really had planned when I started the restoration of this car, but yesterday it was loaded onto a trailer for the 17th time since I bought the car back in 2013! This time was in the context of the removal of my last pieces from the premises of my late friend René, the body shell and the doors of the car.

Sadly since we planned the move my Defender had decided to throw out what sounds like a bearing from its gear box. So that car was considered unfit for the trip. Actually two trips as we also moved a friends Spitfire body and chassis. Luckily another friend (the owner of Garage Moorthaemer) was so kind as to provide me with a car (trailer included) that was fit for the job. And it was a land Rover!

We already had to postpone the move once last week due to a rather bad weather forecast. Luckily yesterday turned out to be just fine, with lots of sunny spells to high light the cars rather vibrant colour:

And the heavy rain showers that were forecast for late afternoon or early evening had the decency to stick to the forecast. So almost two and half years after the car was painted and moved to René's place for assembly, she's safely back in town. And with not that much to show for its absence ...