The Land Rover Writer

Behind the Steering Wheel [Courtesy, Rovers North News, September 2005]

By Jeffrey Aronson

All Land Rover drivers enjoy their cars more when they can work on them, and blissfully, Series Rover, Range Rover Classic, Defender and Discovery I owners can maintain their vehicles themselves. Brave Range Rover P38-A and Discovery II owners can do the same but you need more electrical knowledge.

It’s a small example, but take the exhaust system. Rather than require welding or numerous clamps, these Rover exhausts bolt together by crimping together collars that sit over a bubble flange at the end of each pipe. That also means there are gaskets to dissipate and leak. Of course they can corrode together and be difficult to dislodge, but I’ve always been able to disassemble and rebuild my Series II-A’s exhaust. Engineering like this really appeals to me, and to my surprise, appealed to my Volvo-owning summer neighbor.

There aren’t enough weeks in summer like the last one in July. When I drove around my island town with this friend searching for firewood, the appalling roads finally vibrated away rusted metal on the downside end of the header pipe. Using about a half a can of PB Blaster, I could unbolt the header pipe from the intermediate pipe and find the split. I’m frugal so I first tried some muffler putty. That “fix” lasted two weeks. Now I had to confront a full header pipe replacement.

Sunny, warm, pleasant breezes, dry grass, these were perfect conditions for working on the exhaust. My efforts looked entertaining to my neighbor who wandered over to watch. I crawled underneath the car. The intermediate pipe connection unbolted easily but the exhaust manifold end would prove trickier. Three studs screw into the bottom of the manifold; then comes a collar and you hold the whole thing together with nuts best reached from underneath the car. A few extensions and long ˝” socket on a 3/8” ratchet should easily tighten and loosen the header. Two nuts unbolted easily [I do tighten and loosen them every couple of weeks to prevent seizing], but the third, the one that can only be reached from underneath, refused to loosen. Oops – time for more PB Blaster. I heard it creak instead and the entire stud unscrewed itself. You don’t want to have the stud extract itself break a stud because you often have to remove the exhaust [and intake] manifold and install a new gasket. It’s not a huge problem but it’s more than I wanted that day. Besides, I had a header pipe but no exhaust/intake manifold gasket. Oh, you can run the car with two bolts but the exhaust flutter was what annoyed me in the first place.

What to do? My neighbor and I pondered together. “This is really fun,” he enthused, “what would it take to get a Land Rover?” I scowled at him. This was not really fun, but a pain, I grumped to myself. However, I remembered that about 10 years ago I bought a closeout tap and die set. During the decade, all I’d ever done was loan it to fisherman for their boats and gear. What did I have to lose?

The kit came with a tiny feeler gauge filled with toothed blades. Lining them up against the thread on the stud, we confirmed that we had 24 count thread – which was great because that’s the size of most of the dies. Using vise grips to hold the stud in place, we cleaned up the threads on the stud so it would screw into the manifold and accept a nut snugly.

So I lay under the car and reached up the screw in the stud. Holding my breath, I felt it bite nicely into the manifold. Happily, I hadn’t stripped the thread. Putting everything else back together took longer because I wasted time trying to force the pipe under the front crossmember; once my neighbor suggested otherwise it seemingly popped into place. I tightened up all the bolts and started the car. It sounded wonderful and when I put a rag at the end of the tailpipe, you could feel the back pressure.

My neighbor looked blissful. “This was great fun,” he said. “What a great feeling to accomplish something like this!” Now maybe he understands why I love my Land Rover.

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New England summers match only foliage season and holiday ski weeks for traffic volume. Northern New England is filled with states that have only a few major roads, stuffed with SUV’s loaded to the gills with vacation gear – kayaks on the roof and bikes on racks behind the rear bumper. No wonder everyone needs a vacation; they’re exhausted from just loading up the car.

On the plus side, these millions of visitors provide a larger audience for drivers of classic Land Rovers, Range Rovers, Defenders and Discoverys. My ’66 Series II-A, refurbished with Genuine Land Rover Parts from Rovers North and skilled labor from East Coast Rover, no longer looked as though mothers should shelter their children as it came by. Resplendent in its pastel green and capped with a new soft top, it putters proudly down the streets and dirt lanes of my island town in Maine.

Back in July I took off for the village with the top’s sides and rear rolled up. I approached the town wharf that doubles as a parking lot in the village. Two lovely, tanned young girls screeched “We love your car!” Heaven, I’m in heaven, I began to hum, until a local woman hollered “Not you, the Jeep!” Nonplussed, I waved to the young ladies as I pulled into the parking lot. I dismissed my critic as yet another jealous local who knew how to offend me deeply. “Jeep, my foot,” I sputtered.

Last weekend I ran in a road race filled with thin, whippy, oxygen-laden, well-rested summer people (do you sense an excuse building?). Well, who should be running but the two young girls. Of course, they dashed off the three miles well ahead of me but when I recovered at the end of the race, I passed them in the Rover and they hollered for a ride. “It’s like being on safari,” one said enthusiastically as they clambered in the back. They live in Savannah, GA and had never been in a Land Rover. “This is the best thing that’s happened all summer,” said her sister.

Of course, it was the Land Rover ride, not me, that made their summer. If and when your Land Rover might drive you to distraction, remember a driving moment like this one. That’s why you want to be behind the steering wheel of your Land Rover.

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Solihull is famous world-wide as the home of Land Rover. Until I carefully read the Wall St. Journal one day, I had no idea that is was also the home of Enterprise Inns, one of the largest owners of pubs in Briton. What a perfect combination – Land Rovers and pubs!

If Land Rover continues to reinvigorate the SUV (witness the LR3 and the Range Rover Sport) so, too, is Enterprise trying to reinvent the traditional British pubs. The Journal called pubs “best known for fireplace[s], bad food and warm beer.” Our overseas cousins seem to enjoy sophisticated foods, purchasing better and cheaper beer at markets and enjoying wines, all to the detriment of “the local.” The reason: Britons are drinking less beer these days, and even less at the pub. Changes in Britain -- a newfound interest in sophisticated food, the expansion of supermarkets selling cheap beer and a boom in wine drinking -- have made the traditional "local" look out of date.

"There is very little future for the sort of pubs that were there 10 years ago, where all you were offering was a place to sit and drink a glass of beer," said Ted Tuppen, chief executive of Enterprise. This is a shame as that’s the main reason I like to enjoy a pub when I’m able to visit England.