It has been over six years and my poor old landrover has been patiently waiting for someone to show it a bit of affection. That time has finally come… On Saturday (05/03/2011) I, along with my friends Dave and Jim, started the task of moving my SIII 109″ from its resting place to a new home. Years of growth had to be cut back. The brambles didn’t give up the fight easily and after three hours of blood, sweat and tears we had access.
Next came the task of trying to move the beast! There was no way in this world I was going to try starting the engine, even if it did by some miracle jump into life, I didn’t want to risk mechanical damage. As it was unable to move under its own power I was left with two options, push it (yeah good luck with that one!), or pull it out. Dave’s father had kindly offered the use of his Transit, so we hitched up a length of rope and began to pull…
Nothing, except the first tantalising whiff of burning clutch. Hmmm! A mechanical seizure had always been a concern of mine. So out came the block’n’tackle and a length of chain. If we were unable to pull it out, maybe we could drag it out. Luckily my father had (many years ago) fitted a steel gatepost and, as was his way, it had been (slightly) over engineered. You could have moored an oil tanker to it with no problem! It made the ideal anchor point for fitting the lifting gear. After several tugs it was obvious that three of the wheels were rotating freely, one however was locked solid. However, after a little bit of swearing and a few more tugs there was a sudden ‘clunk!’ sound and the rear wheel started to turn. I suspect it was a spot of rust between the brake shoe and drum. I hope that’s all it was! I won’t know until I strip it down.
This sudden freedom of movement allowed us to try the Transit again and other than a little bit of 3-point turning (again, all by hand) we had the lanny on the driveway…
Part 2 – The open road
It was such a relief to see it parked on the road. So many things could have conspired to prevent us getting to this point. It was now a (simple) job of towing the lanny to its new home. And it really was simple! Other than a slight metallic rattle from the gearbox it couldn’t have gone smoother…
The only other bit of hard work was pushing it up the drive and into the garage. Dave volunteered to drive, Jim and I pushed. Five minutes and the job was a good’n!
Now starts the hard part, the strip, clean and assemble…