Junglie

Dampers have nothing written on them, or iof they do it's rusted over. They're pale blue though. Probably 10 years old, I'd guess. Rear ones are black, were apparently replaced the year before I giot the truck (so already 5 years old!) but have done little real work. They look OK. Springs are rusty as a rusty thing but no worse than everything they're attached to. I really don't want to open a whols can of worms removing suspecnsion links and so on if I don't have to. Is there a vaguely practical way of derustung without disassembly? I don't have a bead gun or a decent jetwash...

Yeah, sadly I've already boiught a set from YRM. Next time...

Huh - every day's a school day. Especially with Land Rovers...

Checked, and I can move them at more like 2-3" per scond with minimal force in compression, though probably about 1cm/second in extension (rebound). To me that says they'd get compressed and hit the bump stops really quickly as they're well damped in rebound... I suspect I'll just get replacements as they're pretty scabby anyway. Let me try to get a part number off them tomorrow and I'll review from there.

Ah, these will be oil filled. I need to investigate further I think...

Now I appreciate that with some of my other posts that may be a difficult question to answer, so let be qualify it. Today I removed the flaky pastry and mud cones masquerading as shock turrets. Surprisingly easy. Then I pushed the top of one of the shocks and it went down. And, um, stayed down. The other one did the same. A little effort allowed me to pull them back to the original position. The impression was that they actually provided roughly root zero damping and are probably borked, But could someone just validate that for me? They should want to stay fully extended, shouldn't they? (Caveat - I have little experience of standalone dampers as bikes tend to have the spring/damper as a single unit)

Good article!

Oh, and hit a flock of seagulls in a Hunter T8 when we found a ploughed field that wasn't in NOTAMS. I was on a jolly but had the stick at the time. Jet pipe temp went up, nose came up (despite having the stick all the way forward), revs dropped, P1 says (very calmly) "I have control. Eject. Eject. Eject." And that's how I joined the Caterpillar Club.

I hit a sheep in a Lynx doing a night time low flying exercise. That made a hell of a mess... I also hit a barbed wire fence in a Wessex, which was quite exciting as it didn't want to come out of the ground. Aeroflot. Climbing out of Sheremetyevo heading for Irkutsk and as we rotate my seat slides back in its runners until it's resting on the bloke behind me's knees. Stupidly steep approach to Irkutsk and the revers happens - I slide forward 'til my knees are against the seat back ahead of me. Another hop and we suddenly stopped climbing at about 5000 feet. Like top of a roller coaster suddenly. 15 minutes or so and my translator/FSB escort goes to see what's going on. Comes back, sparks up a fag and advises me that "Is OK. The window fall out but we stay low." Which we did. For 8 hours...

So cynical... but so right. Stainless is roughly 60% more expensive than galvanised, it weighs the same (give or take) and it's moot because Maer can't supply a right hand drive one anyway. I don't know enough about it to be an authority, but isn't stainless generally less ductile than regular steel so perhaps less tolerant of vibration and abuse such as you might find on a Land Rover?

Nor me - it's just that they're the only people I see doing it...

Maer have no stock of RHD bulkheads anyway, though they do certainly look good, and stainless is an interesting choice over galvaniused.. I'm looking at SP as what seems to be good quality for a decent price - any horror stories before I make a terrible mistake?

I think that's one of the ex Singapore military Landys that seem to be quite common on the market at the moment. I'd also concur with what many others have said - drop a V8 in it instead of messing with diesel as they're relatively easy to source in the US. Or leave it as is - the NAD will still work post nuclear apocalypse which may be worth bearing in mind... 😉

Yes, I understand now. New bulkhead on the way anyhow I'm afraid. Repair is too much for my limited skills.

Yes, I was surprised but reading stuff more clearly now I'm not - they are good quality, I just foolishly expected them to be more substantial. But the bulkhead repair is beyond me anyway (see the other thread) so it's moot.

OK, my bulkhead may well be borked. But I've been an optimist and bought some weld in panels from YRM. Is it me or are they, um, not very good? The bulkhead top repair sections don't have bonnet hinges (or mounts) and they also don't seem to accommodate the double skin that the original has. I've also got some replacement A-pillars which are needed and they look OK but the bulkhead overall is pretty ropey. So can anyone suggest either the best source of replacement panels or (probably) the best replacement galvanised bulkhead to go for? Cheers

I'd have to add an apostrophe...

I've found Plus-Gas better than WD40 but that's maybe for next time. Good luck. My bolts always sheer flush anyway so I never get to try this method...

I was there in '85 on a Harris Kawasaki for the F1 - got a very fast practice lap but didn't start as the gearbox sh*t itself. Only time I've been happy to have a mechanical failure. I hated the TT and was scared for the whole time I was there.

Zolder... My last race was in 1986 at Brands Hatch - a vaguely promising race career ended with highsiding an importer sponsored GSX-R 1100 at Clearways in practice and actually landing on the grass outside the crash barrier (it was different then)... Didn't break anything but hurt too much to race. Wasn't really fit for the next round either so I ended up sitting out the rest of the season and that was it.

If you ever decide to move it on I'd love a chance to make an offer... I had two - a 900SS which got turned into the race bike and a Mike Hailwood Replica which was my road bike and also got messed around with for testing...

I raced a Ducati 864 for a couple of seasons in the 80s. It was a real love/hate relationship but I wish I still had it.

750 Sei, so six cylinders. Basically a 500 Honda K4 with half another one bolted on the end. The CBX is a lovely engine. The Benelli had everything that was wrong with early 4 cylinder Hondas multiplied by 1.5 with the random Italian quality control multiplier applied afterward...

I did something similar to this with a 750 Benelli motorcycle engine. Removing the engine, took the weight in my arms leaning over the frame, got my then girlfriend to pop the last mounting bolt out. Weight of engine immediately overwhelmed me and I ended up smashing my face into the frame and crushing my fingers under the engine. Life lessons indeed... Plus she was laughing so hard she couldn't help for a few minutes.

It's brilliant and works very well. But like many other things with those undoubted benefits it is also intolerant of the careless, ill-informed or stupid. For instance (and you may choose which of those criteria apply) I was jacking my Landy in the rain and did not consider that the handle would be slippery when wet. I managed to get most of myself out of the way when my hand slipped off the lever when lowering it and only caught myself a glancing blow, but it instilled a very healthy respect for the potential for proper injury. And resulted in my christening the tool with what I believe is still an appropriate name - it reminds me, you see, and I have been known to forget things...