Paul64

Thanks for that Jim. I should get to some nice photos today as there was a big snowfall overnight and I am shortly going up into the mountains! Cheers, Paul

Will do, thanks. Not seen those web pages before, very useful. Cheers, Paul

Your opinion would be appreciated, so look forward to the meeting. I tried to replicated the thud sound fro starting but couldn't achieve it no matter what I tried. Typical eh! What's it like in Bucharest? The snow is falling thick and fast here!

Late last evening the wood was delivered after we loaded the horse and cart at Istvan's house. These two horses were so well behaved and the young lad that handled them managed to work them with such fine control. In the video clip below, he had slightly over run the gates to the house, so he put the horses into reverse before swinging them round into the drive. After the cart was loaded we followed in the Land Rover just in case any pieces of wood fell out. On arrival I opened the gates to my garden so the horses could enter. Once inside the garden I unloaded the cart with the help of my friends and piled it close to the guest house, ready for my neighbour to cut with his portable circular saw this morning. My neighbour made quick work of cutting the wood with this fine contraption! Once finished my neigbour disconnected the prop shaft to the saw, raised the rig and then drove off to the next customer. All of my wood was cut in less than twenty minutes. I collected as much of the sawdust as possible as when mixed with a little diesel makes a good fire lighter. Foxy had other ideas though as he wanted to dig where I was collecting. He could see that I was digging faster than he, so decided to slow me down by rolling in the stuff!

I don't know what to say regarding the Britpart issue Cip. I will just have to wait and see if I start getting complaints from customers buying parts from me. I am printing off all the comments about the clutch to give to the mechanic, maybe as early as tomorrow. The other point I forgot to mention was a new noise that appeared after the clutch was changed. A dull thump sound as I take up drive? This happens when gears are changed but also when I put my foot down at low revs in too high a gear for the speed I'm doing. I know they have to take the prop off for the clutch change, do you think it has anything to do with that? When are you next up to the mountains to your weekend retreat. I could pop over and treat you to lunch for a 2nd (3rd or 4th) opinion! Cheers, Paul

Thanks again. I have had a journalist here all morning from a local paper. I took him for a little off road excursion using gears a lot more including low box. I maybe imagining it but the gearing is slightly easier now. Far from perfect but a little easier. When I was last in the UK I visited Britpart. I have to admit this changed my opinion of them. Their set up is huge and I was also given a tour of their testing dept. Parts are examined, tested etc before they go on sale. It just does not make sense to shove stuff out untested only to be returned and complained about by disgruntled customers. I have now used numerous parts without any complaint. The only part that has caused problems was a poorly fitting fuel sender. I am not saying all Britpart goods are perfect but it is easy to jump on the slag Britpart bandwagon without personal experience of failing parts. Point taken about the clutch Cip, however, britpart sell a lot of them and as yet I have not yet seen any poor press. Cheers, Paul

Thanks once again for your replies. Ralph- the mechanic did reset the master cylinder rod to gain an improvement, which it did to some extent. Before the adjustment 1st gear was grinding too. Cip-The mechanic said that the clutch pedal was sticking which is why he adjusted it. Regarding the HD Britpart clutch, are they so bad? I had a look around and couldn't find any bad press about them. Is your opinion based on the Britpart nam or from some information you have? Britpart buy from many sources, so I think it would be unfair to say everything they sell is of poor quality. My cousin said that the mechanic may have wanted me to bed it in for a few days in the hope that the springs on the clutch may slacken slightly? Cheers, Paul

Thanks for all this information. I have just sent a text to the owner of the garage asking for his e-mail address so I can send him all your suggestions. Just a little more information. I can engage all gears at 2/3 clutch pedal depression. Biting point is at approximately the same location on the way back up. However, as stated 1st and reverse remain difficult to engage whether the clutch pedal is at 2/3 or flat against the bulkhead. Thanks for the explanation David as to why reverse becomes even more difficult to engage when running at full temp. Cheers, Paul

I will have to nip out and test the clutch pedal as described. I can say straight away though that the biting point is quite high (closer to A) relative to the B point on your diagram. Cheers, Paul.

You wait until I go back to this same guys house later this week! He had a cable coming from the bonnet on his Diesel VW Passat, into his house, and plugged into the wall. I asked what it was and his eyes lit up once again. Back on with the jacket and boots to investigate. It was a homemade coolant heater made up from bits and bobs. Photo to follow! On another note the 1kg of honey I bought was absolutely delicious! Next time I drive over to the UK I will take a few jars over with me if anyone is interested.

Hi Cip, The slave cylinder is the right way up with the bleed screw at the top. I pumped the pedal as said but it made no diffence when trying to engage 1st and reverse gears. I have no idea what make the old clutch was, but it has never been replaced in the 3 years that I have owned my LR. No groaning please but here is the make of the HD one that was installed. Yes, the clutch kit and the fork were the only items replaced. Thanks, Paul

Makes no difference Cip. If anything after the 25km trip back it was worse! I can't say re the plate going in back to front as I never saw in go in. However, these guys fit clutches all the time, so I can't imagine that happening, I hope The slave cylinder is as before the clutch change and everything was working fine before clutch went. My babe just before clutch went!

Unfortunately after another long session at the garage they couldn't resolve the problem. They checked the master and slave cylinders which they said was all working properly and they then adjusted the two nuts and rod in the master cylinder box and took up play with the nut o the front. All this and only a slight improvement. All gears are difficult to engage, but reverse is the worst with a horrible crunch and first no longer crunches but is a real pig to engage! Any ideas would be appreciated. Cheers, Paul

Hi, yes they did change it and showed me the old one. They did however have to reuse those two ring things that sit on the fork pins. The new fork I bought said heavy duty?

Its been a bad week with my clutch going completely 4 days ago. I was in the middle of a 3 point turn in the village and was in reverse. When I came to go forward I couldn't get out of gear and was stranded in the middle of the road! A couple of villagers came to my rescue and rocked the Defender gently until I managed to get it out of gear and into neutral. I then had to start the engine in 1st gear the maintain revs and momentum to get through the gears to a town where I know an English speaking mechanic. Luckily I had a new clutch and fork on the shelf, and although he had never changed a LR clutch before he went to work with two of his staff. I should have taken some photos of this event because they were working in a poorly heated garage with next to no heating and temperature inside and outside was well below the freezing point. Lifting equipment was non existent for the gearbox and four guys had to lower it onto wooden beams across an open pit. Once changed they noticed that my old clutch plate was completely destroyed along with the bearing dislodged and one spring broken. They said the new clutch is not opening properly so will strip down the master cylinder on Monday as they believe this to be the ultimate culprit. The only good news to being stranded in the village is that I have been following up some of the stories previously documented on here and on my blog. One subject (O/T - excuse me) that seemed to generate a lot of interest and attention was the wood burner in my house so I thought you may be interested in what I found this morning! Istvan is one of several honey providers in the village. He has 130 hives and produces 1500 kgs of pure honey per season. His hives are placed on a clearing in the forest high in the Vrancea mountains. He actually lives there with his bees in a small caravan for 3 months in the summer and has his 3 Alsatian dogs with him to protect the hives from honey seeking bears. In the winter Istvan brings his hives down from the mountain on a tractor drawn trailer. He performs necessary repairs and spends the winter preparing for the next season. I love Istvan's completely natural honey, and on a visit to his house to buy some we got talking about keeping warm in the long winter. Istvan's house was particularly warm and I asked what heating system he has. His eyes lit up and he asked me to follow him to the boiler room! Istvan is a physics teacher by profession and he has designed this amazing heating system that runs on sawdust. It heats a large family home and heats the water as well. To the left of the photo above you can see the hopper which is filled with sawdust in the morning. One hopper full is required per day to heat the house during the subzero temperatures of winter. Istvan acquires his sawdust from a local sawmill, which just goes to show that nothing at all in the village is wasted. The fan at the bottom of the burner is driven by a 12V car battery and is thermostatically controlled. Sawdust is simply fed into the top of the hopper by the sackful. At the bottom of the hopper is a chain pulley system which drives a finned shaft which slowly rotates feeding sawdust into the burner. The speed of the feed is determined by the temperature in the house and is thermostatically controlled. Istvan in his sawdust store.

Yes, its the ford as you leave the village for the ridge in the hills. You were here in the height of summer so the water level was much lower.

I don't think that winter photo does Ojdula justice as the photo is taken from one of the low lying hills across the village and then out to the plain. Ojdula is surrounded by hills on three sides with the plain opening out on one side. Anyway, I decided to venture out this morning to take a couple of pics myself. I then ventured further into the mountains as the weather is so nice today! This last photo was taken on the river behind my house. Some of you may find this of interest too!

Photos resized Mr Chip, and thanks for the cold weather explanation, as I have learned something there too!

You can take a 944 over the Transfagarasan though. You just have to take it easy at altitude as there are few bend barriers, so make sure your brakes are in good working order! I took these photos in June and there was still plenty of snow and ice around. Although the views are spectacular the Transfagarasan is all tarmac and very tame. you should consider visiting us if you want to see similar but with real dirt in your tread!

I am about 45 metres from both wells. My neighbours have been encouraging me to arrange a well as the pipework to the nearest cooperative water supply will be too expensive. 2 nights ago it was reported to be -32oC in the town of Covasna (25kms away). On the news there were lots of pictures of people in hospital beds with black toes!

There is a place further north with a huge area of forest where many weird things have reportedly "happened". It is known by the locals as the Bermuda triangle of Romania and they give the healthy warning "STAY OUT". Just out of interest Vlad the Impaler's (Vlad Ţepeş) castle Bran is only an hour and a half from me! Hi Jim, Yes, it is very cold but I have to say it is a very different cold than I am used to in the UK. Because it is so cold here it is very dry and the snow is powdery. There is very little wind too so you don't have the wind chill factor to contend with either. Seasons are very distinct so you really do know when it is spring, summer, autumn and winter. The dowser could see the scepticism on my face so handed over the tools. I have to say there was a definite tug on the wires as I walked over te area where he said the stream was.

The plumber I used for the central heating system is going to talk to friend of his for a quote for the bore hole. I have to get this right as both my neighbours have wells. One had his dug 14 metres in depth and has water all year round. The other neighbour went down to 10 metres and only has water until late August. I had an old boy around in the summer to give me a quote for traditional well and he mapped the stream for me in my garden by dowsing! I wasn't sure whether to take this seriously but the villagers tell me this is the method he has used for more than 100 wells, and you don't want to get it wrong if your digging for up to 2 weeks. I will be back in the UK end of March for a couple of weeks so I will have a good look at some of these UV filtration systems. Can you recommend any system in particular? The last time I lived in the UK was 1998. I worked in Germany as a civilian Nurse with the British army for 9 years and moved here March 2008. I have always been an outdoors person, so after 24 years in the Nursing professions and always working inside, I was gagging for a change. I used to work in the same village as a volunteer medical aid worker in the early 90's and have been coming back each year for my holidays since. I have no regrets at all and the hardest decision that had to be made was to give up a good salary and pension. But in the grand scheme of things I now realise that quality of life is far more important. Cheers, Paul

You are 100% correct about bore hole water. There are two underground streams that can be tapped into where I live. The lower stream is safest, but when the ground water level is high the lower stream is sometimes contaminated by the upper stream. A lot of the villagers use open septic tanks, so this upper stream suffers as a result. I drink bottled water for a cold drink and boil everything from wells or bore holes. I did look into the UV and filtration system you suggest which I think was around £300 in the UK, but yet to find anything similar here. 220V Your welcome anytime. Wood is very cheap here too!

Yes, I read that thread referring to MT's and loose chains, so maybe the chains are better going on my 7.50x16's, which really negates the need to have a specific winter tyre. If they go on now, they can stay on as you say. Not much tarmac to be seen here unless I go into town. Things get back to normal tomorrow so I will pay a trip to a motor factors in Covasna that have a huge range of chains. It will also be good to compare prices with the UK too.

That makes very interesting reading. Looks like I will have to drain some of it off. I did check the resevoir this morning before start up and it was free of ice. However, it was a bizarre sight to see my windscreen washer resevoir full of frozen blue liquid. This was put in neat as well! The wood burner is very efficient, especially when using hard wood. Mine is a VIADRUS which I think is made in Czech. It has a water pump connected which kicks in via an external thermostat, when the burner hits a core temp of 40oC. The burner also has has a built in thermostat which operates the vent flap via a pulley system. This flap starts to close when the core temp hits 60oC which slows the burning. This is very good when you have large chunks of wood in the burner for overnight use. Usually you still have red coals in the bottom of the burner by morning, and this thermostat pulley system takes away the need for overnight top ups of wood.