Someone remind me that this is what I signed up for? The past few weeks have seen some interesting developments with the Land Rover. A cacophony of aliments beset the poor series III after a trip to the James River. My guess is that these faults are not tied together mechanically, but through my purchase and the inherent driving of the truck.
First, as alluded to before, the engine is running a little rough. My hope, still, is that the issue is with the carburetor. With each day, I’m learning more and more about how these things tick (or don’t tick). The theory is that the steep incline from the boat ramp, or just coincidence, led to a “stuck float”. With luck and a repair manual, I plan to get the carb off the intake, disassembled, cleaned and reassembled. With the stars aligned, it just may start again.
The bigger issue at hand is the breaks. All signs point towards the master cylinder as being the root cause of a soft pedal. In a break system, the master cylinder is a hydrolic piston that is compressed and pressurizes smaller cylinders on each wheel. Those cylinders in turn expand to press the break pads and drums together and stop the truck. In my case, I have two unique factory options that were probably a dream for some English farmer but are causing me a real headache. By the 1970s most countries required cars to have “dual circuit” break systems. That protects against a failure in the front causing the back breaks to fail too (or vice versa). About that time “power assisted” breaks hit the market; that is an extra part that, through the aid of the engine power, helps you apply pressure, so its not just the strength of your leg compressing the master cylinder. Just my luck – my series III has both the power assist and a single circuit system – a combo so rare that even Land Rover, famous for stocking original parts for all of their vehicles, does not have anything to help me. So we are doing an upgrade to a dual circuit system. In the end it will be safer and its the right thing to do.
What I am learning is patience. There is not magic fix for these things. If I want the truck to run again, then I have to put the time (and the money, ooohhhh the money) into getting it right. The trade off is learning how these systems work. I’m not sure what that is worth, beyond my own satisfaction of seeing it through, but surely that counts for something -right?
So if you are reading this then you probably won’t see the Rover on the streets of Richmond for the next few days (or weeks, lets hope its not months). But if you are passing by and want to lend a hand, I’ll be the guy on my back in a puddle of oil under the truck. Stop and say hi.