My SWB TT Z32...

[jap.slapper]

After taking my eldest to football today I did manage to watch the F1 but thought the race was a bit flat if I'm honest with Rosberg basically playing it safe. I haven't seen or heard anything about TA other than picking up on issues with it being co-ordinated alongside Trax (I guess it didn't go as well as it could have/should have?). Not having pits sounds like a complete ball ache.

I did actually manage to grab an hour or so this afternoon to work on the zed, I stripped down the rear sub-frame and whipped off the prop ready to be sent off for balancing. When I removed the driveshaft's the diff started leaking some fluid from the drivers side?

I'm not overly concerned about it but will do a bit more investigating tomorrow.

Our holiday cottage has been fully booked up throughout the Summer so it's been all hands to the pump trying to get that sorted each time with rapid turnarounds and with the kids and Summer holidays it's been a nightmare. Having said that the kids are back in school now so hopefully in the next few weeks I'll at least be able to drop the various parts off to the various specialists for machining and paint etc.

I was hoping to be able to chat through build options with Mitch from Drift Garage but he sent me a text today and unfortunately he's working overseas at the moment so can't take on any projects. I've seen his fabrication skills first hand and it's top notch and he's a trustworthy bloke so I think the plan will be to get all of the bits bought, get the parts machined and sorted for when he gets back and then try to get the zed up to him to sort out.

The VG is looking good now though (polished/ported lower plenum + new fuel rails and 850's thanks to Marty) but I've said that plenty of times before. I'm just thredder's with the whole thing now. Everytime I make progress with something, something else seems to need sorting.

I've now got to order some injector and CP connectors in the next few days and get the soldering iron out to modify this series 2 loom back to a series 1.

Like I said I'm just thredder's now but to be honest it's got bugger all to do with building the zed, there are other major issues that we're contending with at the moment but these things are sent to test us I suppose.

[pablo]

Why does life and grown up stuff have to get in the way of us having fun. Suppose the only thing we can do is stay calm and keep going. Oh and if everyone could buy a Honda or Honda could stop wasting money on F1 that would help.

[Stuart]

Focus man, focus You've had F1, BTCC, and Time Attack all happening today. Plus you've got a car to build, never mind your own 5-A-Side team. Focus man, focus

hahahahhahhahahahaahah

£54m is obscene and particularly when those that are going don't have much say in what actually happens anyway. The Rothschilds 'run tings' globally, and pretty sure that they were at Time Attack watching the fun and games

It's all bollocks Pez.......you and I can't change a thing other than how we react to external stimuli. Anyway, I'm off to the beach!

[jap.slapper]

It's just the blatant bluff of it all, case in point is the ridiculous amount of metal fencing that was 'purchased' for 'security'....now I'm not meaning to be sceptical but I'd hazard a guess that one of the old boy network supplied it for a silly amount and was then also paid a silly amount to 'dispose' of it.

Strange old thing that exact same fencing is being removed right now and loaded up to be shipped over to Calais to improve immigration security.....imagine that they've been paid to supply it in the first place, paid to erect it, paid to take down, paid to ship it to Calais and paid again from EU funding to stop those pesky immigrants in their tracks....genius!

Lucky that they can't climb fences eh!

[jap.slapper]

Like I said.....Audley Harrison!

[Stuart]

Audley Harrison for PM

[jap.slapper]

Just got back home, what a bloody ball ache. The AA were spot on (all 4 of them) but this has really dented my confidence in the D3. It's a bloody nice wagon to drive but the snow ball effect of one small malfunction and the grief that comes with it makes me feel that trading up is the only feasible option.

To put this into perspective the battery warning light came on after 300m and within 700m all of the fault warning lights for ABS, gearbox, power steering, hill decent and loads that I'd never seen before led quickly to complete power drain from the battery!

Luckily I'd just managed to barge my way through the traffic to pull it up on the side of the road in a Liverpool council estate.

As everything is electrically operated it seemed impossible to get the gearbox out of 'Park' and to take off the handbrake....by the time we'd eventually got it to the top of our mountain we'd figured that there were some levers and wires under the centre console that enabled the gearbox and handbrake to be removed manually, though it still took a while to offload the bloody thing.


Anyway, I'll be cracking on with this in the morning and will be ordering the replacement alternator (it was the alternator that had burnt out causing the battery to drain rapidly) and figure that I might as well replace the suspension air compressor whilst I'm at it.

What a pain in the hoop!!

[pablo]

Bloody cars, nothing but trouble

[jap.slapper]

I've got the battery on charge at the moment so hopefully in a few hours there will be enough charge in it to enable me to shift the Land Rover from the top of the driveway down to the main house and hard standing. I'm hoping that the fact that I knocked over a 5 week old cup of tea in the workshop covering myself in rancid PG Tips, isn't an indication of how today is going to pan out.

On a positive note that crisp coolness of the end of Summer was in the air this morning.

[jap.slapper]

Ok so the battery is toast, it won't hold any charge.






However as luck would have it the Bosch battery from our van is the exact same model that is required for the Discovery 3, so by swapping them over I've managed to get the wagon shifted to a place where I can work on it.








Typically the plastic covers and pipes are a piece of piss to remove and came off with no trouble at all, however the viscous fan requires a specific tool and spanner pairing to remove so I've just shelled out £35 on those.















I've asked for confirmation from a Land Rover specialist as to the best alternator to buy, just on the off chance that a more robust unit had been developed. I reckon that'll be around the £200+ mark and I think the new compressor will be around the £500 mark.

At least I won't have to shell out another £150 on a replacement battery as I'll just leave the one off the van on there for now and replace that as and when required. It's still got another 4 years of the 5 year Bosch warranty left so that's one less thing to worry about.

The actual job (touch wood) looks to be a relatively straight forward task with the viscous fan removal being the only real pain in the 'arris. The general consensus on the Disco 3 forums is that it's far easier to do if you have the correct tool pairing for the job, so I'm going to hang fire until they arrive I think.








In the meantime I've had to replace the drivers side headlight bulb on my wife's Mitsubishi Grandis, now that was a pain in the hoop. A million and one broken plastic clips, nuts, bolts and scraped knuckles later and it's all good. Then I noticed that the passenger side side light had stopped working....however a short sharp 'Ah fuck off you cnut!" and whack with an open palm and what do you know....it works!


Now for some dirty jobs on the zed