Last year was a bit of a fiasco on the MOT test front for the1960 longwheel base Series II landrover I use for carrying just about everything around between demonstrations and for moving logs, planks and firewood.
Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong. This year I was determined not to suffer the same embarassment, and at 49 years old this year, I think the old boy deserves a bit more care and attention than he normally gets.
Fortunately most of the jobs had made themselves known in plenty of time, so I was only caught out by a couple that were in hiding.
The usual run of the mill items, like the blown exhaust manifold, Leaking brake cylinder, a broken brake return spring, delaminating windscreen, faulty indicator lamp, headlamp dip switch, handbrake adjustment and so on. 
Yes, this is the closest to the speed limit this landrover will ever get. An annoying intermittant fault in the speedo led to a cable test using a power drill!
In checking the vehicle I found a loose swivel bearing on a front wheel which had to be reshimed and a couple of chassis welding jobs (always close to the fuel the tank).
After a couple of days work, I put him in for the test and despite some trepidation on my part in the end he passed with flying colours. Indeed the tester told me he had difficulty finding something to put down as an advisory warning. In the end he went with 'engine oil leak' but in my book, on a 49 year old landrover that's actually a chassis protection system, a feature in the design, now used by many enthusiasts to extend the lives of their vehicles.
But now its time to move onto the next job, as the shortwheel base 1965 landrover I use for lots of jobs in the woods has just gone on strike with a broken starter motor. I had to use the starting handle in Sainsbury's car park. Much to the bemusement of the other customers, who appeared totally ignorant of how to hand crank a car. And probably why you would want to as well, when you could call a 'man who can' or get £2000 pounds for it by scrapping it instead? Somehow I find it hard to call it progress, but then I think I'm having a bit of a grumpy old man attack at the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment