Behind the Steering Wheel [Courtesy Rovers North News, January, 2007]
By Jeffrey B. Aronson
Despite ample evidence to the contrary, I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about daily maintenance issues for my two 1966 Series II-A’s, the QE I and the QM I. It’s been pointed out to me – often – that if I were that good I wouldn’t write so many “Lite Break” articles.
Back in June, 2006, the last time the QE I ran poorly, I changed the fuel pump, fuel filter, even replaced the aged Weber with a fresh one. Only then did I actually remove the points, find them pitted to near death, and replace them. Then, of course, the car ran perfectly. I detailed this embarrassment in the Fall ’06 issue.
In November, the same car began to run poorly again. Demonstrating that old dogs can learn new tricks, I checked the point gap and found it accurate. Each spark plug wire seemed tightly connected; pulling one wire at a time while the engine ran demonstrated that the plugs had fired properly. The car continued to run poorly, stumbling and hesitating under load. Adjusting the carb, which is minimal anyway on a Weber, accomplished nothing. In the busyness of island life, I waited until a furious, cold downpour before I actually opened the hood to stare at the points with any care. The hard rain made certain that I dribbled plenty of water inside the distributor so that the car would not start at all. I had a spray can of compressed air, used generally to clean laptop keyboards, and a long shot of it dried out the distributor nicely. Once I was wet enough, the car started just fine.
It continued to run poorly, however. One morning, as I pondered what the electrical problem could be, I drove to the local breakfast spot to get a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin. As I walked in, a local fisherman said to me “you’ve got water in the gas.” Hah! What could he know – he’s not even a Land Rover owner. On the other hand, he’s around motors every day on his boat.
So I decided to crawl underneath the car on a dry day, reach up to the fuel bowl, unscrew the bottom clamp, and slowly remove it without spilling gas down my arm. I stared at the bowl… it was fairly gnarly in there. The fisherman was right. In fact, if you look at the photo, you can see the gas, water and crud that had collected over some time. Once I dumped it out, sprayed a lot of carb cleaner into the bowl, and put dry gas in the fuel tank, the car ran better – but not perfectly. It still seemed wrong at low idle, just like when the point gap is too small.
I ordered a fresh set from Rovers North, installed them and gapped them, and the car ran perfectly. Why the new points and condenser had conspired to pit up the points so quickly is still unknown, but once again, that was the problem. I felt much relieved as with the onset of winter, the QE I must once again become a mainland travel car, required for safe, secure daily transport. See how much I’ve learned? Yikes!
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I also know that there are thousands of readers who routinely run their Rovers only opening the hood to check the oil. Numerous enthusiasts do not have to fiddle with their cars, even their Series Rovers, weekly as I seem to do. One man I envy is named Brian Carvey, of Hasting, East Sussex, Great Britain. According to his local newspaper, he has been driving the same Land Rover for an astonishing 50 years - and it’s never broken down. He calls his car “Bessie” and it now has over 305,000 miles on it. Oh yes, he bought it second-hand in 1956 for just 260 pounds.
Carvey is a retired undertaker, so he probably drives with car. Still, “nothing has every gone wrong.” He changes the oil himself and has bought eight sets of tires over the years The 71-year old enthusiast said “I don't ever want another car - why would I? Bessie has never let me down. It doesn't matter what the weather - rain, snow, ice or mud - Bessie can handle it. Every time I turn the ignition she gives her reassuring rumble and we're off. She has never faltered." Brian first saw the bronze-green motor when it was new in 1950 and the 999 number plate stuck in his mind. He bought Bessie when it was advertised by a garage.
"I called her Bessie after a girl I was with," said Brian. "My wife Ann doesn't hold that against us."
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With sufficient amounts of Guinness, Boddington’s, Old Specked Hen, or even Budweiser, you can listen to a group of Land Rover enthusiasts all lathered up over when Land Rover switched from “the world’s most versatile vehicle” to a “lifestyle accessory.”
For diehard enthusiasts, this is a serious matter. The mere shift in naming vehicles, from aspirational monikers like “Defender” and “Discovery” to meaningless drivel such as “LR3” and “LR2,” sends these enthusiasts into blustering diatribes. When you actually get to the changes in the vehicle’s design and engineering, well, that’s when the fur starts to fly.
Despite the fact that the first Range Rover rolled off the Solihull assembly line in 1970, some have not forgiven Land Rover for its creation. It took a decade before the model shed its rubber floor mats, gained carpeting and four doors, and then moved resolutely upscale. To purists, the Range Rover begat a cadet branch of the family, such as the Discovery, the “people-hauler” never intended as a utility vehicles. The P-38 and current generation Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and LR3 really aren’t utility vehicles at all; they’re engineering marvels
The financial reality that these higher-priced, higher profit vehicles saved the company from financial disaster does not matter to the Guardians of the Faith. Land Rovers are to be only working vehicles – or are they?
Thanks to correspondent Steve Ayers, Evanston, IL, we’ve received two sales brochures, one from 1963 and one from 1973. The two color NAS brochure, fresh from the US office in New York, highlights the specifications of each Land Rover version, 88” and 109”, available. There’s no reference to the “Land Rover lifestyle.”
A decade later, British Leyland is trying to promote Land Rovers in the US during a decade in which your individual preference meant everything. No more dry specification sheets or farmer’s friends – we have recreational rock climbers using their Land Rover to enhance their lifestyle.
Jump ahead to 2007; even the new Defender has a genuine artificial substance dashboard with an entertainment and climate control center. To comply with the latest EU regulations, even the rear jump seats now face forward and all have seat belts. So maybe the shift from utility to sport occurred a lot earlier than we want to believe.
Autoweek reminded readers that the much-maligned Freelander [now in its second LR-2 iteration] “performed a vital corporate function, breeding confidence inside a company that hat see its future as its past – trucks for farmers, public utilities and soldiers, not cars for lifestyle buyers or soccer moms. Without that widening of horizons, it’s doubtful great cars like the Range Rover Sport and the upscale LR3 would be built.”
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Last month the Associated Press noted that Prince Charles is “putting his money where his environmentalist mouth is” and converting his personal fleet of Land Rovers and Jaguars to run on 100% biodiesel.
"From February, we are going to look at the diary and see what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint," a spokeswoman for the prince's London residence, Clarence House, said yesterday on condition of anonymity in line with royal rules. "Wherever possible, we will be making less use of helicopters and chartered planes and rely more on car journeys, scheduled flights, and trains."
Energy-efficient boilers that burn wood chips are being installed at his country homes at Highgrove in southern England -- where he farms organically -- and at Birkhall in Scotland. For the first time, the prince's annual accounts published next summer will include details of his household's carbon emissions and set targets to reduce this.
The royals have traditionally used private transport. But pressure to be more cost-effective has seen the scrapping of the royal yacht Britannia and cuts in the use of the royal train. Charles's mother, Queen Elizabeth II, recently took a scheduled train for the first time, to Norfolk in eastern England, but has not announced any plans to cut emissions produced by her palaces.
I certainly applaud the shift to wood heat; if Prince Charles needs help splitting wood, I’d be delighted to fly over – even flying commercial carriers – to help if he’ll let me use one on the Royal Rovers. Maybe the Britannia would cross the ocean, pick up the QE I, my II-A, and let me show the royal crew how we use our Rovers to cut, split and haul wood in New England.
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Copyright 2007, Jeffrey Aronson and Rovers North
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