My Land Rover beginnings

 I started out as a child, working at age 12 on a sight seeing boat. I would walk the 3 miles to work at the local wharf every day, work, then walk home. I did this for 2 summers and holidays in good weather of the tourist season. First trip was 0900 and the last one depended on the crowds, usually 5 sometimes 6. I got a dollar an hour. The cruise lasted 45 min, no lunch breaks.
    On the way to and from the wharf I would walk past an antique store on Chestnut Street. It had been antiques my whole life.
    Then one day I saw what I now know to be a 109 parked in front of the store. As I walked past I could see there was a cabinet built in the LH side and a 2 burner stove sat on the top. It wasn't a Dormobile. I remember thinking how cool it would be to be able to go somewhere and cook inside.
    This was before the days of RV's, peoples were pulling trailers if anything. A few years later peoples started to convert school buses and milk trucks into RV's.

    Now I'd seen Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins and Jim go driving about Africa in thier Land Rovers and seen a few in movies so I knew the body style and go anywhere ability.

    I only saw that Rover maybe 3 times, always wondered what happened to it. Probably melting away somewhere................

    Fast forward to 1973, That was the year I got out of the Navy. As of yet I'd never had a drivers license or a car. My town was small enough to walk most anywhere or ride a pushbike and Mom didn't drive. But at age 22 I was ready for wheels, Land Rovers long forgotten.

   Looking in the local paper I saw an ad for a 1964 Land Rover 88. IIRC he wanted $1000 for it. My brother drove my out to see it and the owner took us fourwheeling. I was hooked! I bought it! My brother drove us home and to the bank. We returned and I paid the owner. My brother started to drive it home and I remembered I could drive on my learners permit with another driver so I had him pull over and I drove it the rest of the way home :^)  That was in August of 73. A 9 year old 88. It was limestone and had Arabic writing on the left front wing. Don't know what it said.

   Come January of 1974 I'd by now gotten my license and a job doing my thing. I then learned that there was a Land Rover dealership "over the hill" in Los Gatos. So I went over one day to look at the new model and look for trinkets. Then I fell into the clutches of the evil salesman...........

     I traded in my 64 for a new 73 Series 3 88, but, only if they would put a winch on it. They said come back in a few days and the winch would be on!

     When I came back sure enough there was a winch on the front bumper. It was a bomb lifting winch with no fairlead and about 30 feet of cable on it. I was expecting a Warn..............but it worked. The 88 had the new plastic dash and syncro gears seats in the back, Brand Frelling New!!! My first new car, sticker priced at $4,800USD

    Of course I proudly drove it home the 30 miles and showed my Mom. The next morning I went out to adore it and found a puddle of oil under it. I called the dealership, they said " drive it over and we'll fix it!"  Even with limited experience with a  car before I knew this was a bad idea.(see I learned something in the Navy!)
    So I went out and looked to see where it was leaking....The oil filter cannister was loose! So back on my feet I went the mile to the local Grand Auto Supply where I bought a socket set and hoofed it back home. Once there I tightened the cannister, added oil and cleaned it up. The next week I went over to the dealer and ordered a mechanics workshop manual. Started doing my own repairs and never looked back!

   I have owned the 64 88, the 73 88, a 67 109 5 door, a 63 88, a 60 88 diesel, and my 60 109 3 door. All were runners, the 63 went to my son then to his sister and sold last year to a guy in San Francisco. The 73 was hit by a vw bus and broke the frame behind the spring and eventually sold. The 67 had a Chevy 250 in it and went bye bye as I couldn't afford it after the divorce, sold to a fellow in Portland OR.

Black Rock Desert driving out on the playa on a Fourth of July trip.

coyote attack!

  Those of you who know me know I live in a side valley to a steep walled valley in the central coast of California. These valleys are formed by the rising of the earth due to the Pacific Plate pushing against the North American Plate and the water erosion caused by rain. The San Andres Fault lies just over the hill not 10 miles as the crow flies from where I live. Each of the valleys around here have steep sides and creeks matriculating to a single river flowing to the Pacific Ocean. Once orginal growth redwoods it was heavily logged at the turn of the previous century. In fact very few of the orginal trees remain outside State Parks, these were too remote and difficult to log. Now all is covered with second growth redwoods, oak and madrone now around 100 years old.
    Get the picture? Heavily wooded rural, deer, mountain lions, bobcats, people, coyotes, chickens.

     So on Monday I was in my living room around 1245 when I heard a commotion outside at the same time my eyes were drawn to movement in my neighbors horse corral. I saw a brown blur and recognized the sound of swawking chickens, my neighbor has 6 or so she lets run loose. Suddenly one chicken darts under the fence and crosses the road into my neighbors driveway followed by the coyote. At first I had thought it was another neighbors dog which gets out occasionally.
    The coyote caught the chicken in the middle of the drive in a POOF of feathers! The chicken escaped and turned and ran up the lawn, whilst the coyote went back across the street to the corral with a ring of white down around its mouth.
    I called the chicken owner and left a message. I must admit I was torn between watching nature at work or saving the chickens. Then I went outside.
   My neighbor was out with the dogs chasing off the coyote. The rest of the chickens were up in a tree and there was about 100 feathers in the driveway, but no blood.
   As we were out looking around cars started to drive by, one of the neighbor girls was having a birthday party for her fifth birthday. Little kids, yummy for coyotes... so I spread the word about the attack.
   I never saw the coyote that day but the chicken owner saw it circle her house after she had chased it off but no chickens were lost in this story.

land rover 109 starter issue

     So last week on Wednesday I went to the local post office and mailed a package. When I came out the 109 wouldn't start. I would put power to the starter and the solenoid would click just once, then nothing. But every third time I tried it it would blow a fuse. The fuse I put in from power to the combi switch.
   When the switch has power and I turn the key it sends power to the starter/glowplug circuit on one wire and to the fuel shutoff soleniod on another. Off the first wire to the start switch I had 2 more circuits wired in. 1 to a usb/power outlet, the other was the charge lamp circuit. On the other wire were the fuel guage/tank circuit and the voltmeter.
   I spent about an hour+ crawling under and over my engine checking for loose wires, bad grounds, getting a jump from a kind stranger, hitting the starter and solenoid whilst some one else turned the key. Nothing helped.......frelling frustrating!
   So I put all my tools away and walked home and had lunch and called the tow company. Hey I've been paying for it for years why not use it!? They said he'd be there in an hour. So later I walked back into town and was about 10 min early. He was almost an hour late. I did get to meet some of the local folk who admired my rebuild of the 109.
    Eventually it got towed home. I futzed around with it for a bit while one of my neighbors looked on. Nothing helped, again all it did was go click and blow fuses.....I went thru about 8 30 amp fuses.
   The next day I checked the battery by hooking up my charger and seeing if it needed a charge. The needle went right to 0 so the battery was fully charged. Next I pulled the starter out. Luckily I got it out thru the bottom past the exhaust down tube. Once out on the ground I put jumper cables to my battery and the starter, with 1 foot on it I touched the + cable to the terminal on the solenoid and the motor turned very fast. Then I touched the spade terminal for the control circuit, the solenoid popped to life kicking out the gear posthaste!
    Perplexed, I again went over all the wiring looking for wear or loose connections. Nothing. I made handdrawn wiring diagrams of what I have and compared them to the factory diagrams. Here I will admit 'lectrics is not my strong suite. Carefully using both a test lamp and a multimeter I chased down wires and terminals and then chased them down on the factory workbook diagrams. All made harder I think because I put a more modern diesel in an older car.
    After my brain turned to mush I loaded the starter in my rangie cleaned everything up and called it a day. Then on Valentines Day I scurried off early to the local FLAPS, only 15mi away, who tested my starter. And yes it worked for them too! Twice.  So I did some grocery shopping and came home.
  Once the groceries were put away I changed clothes and put the starter back in. Then came the fun stuff.
   I disconnected the abovementioned usb, charge lamp from #1 wire and the voltmeter, fuel circuit from #2 wire. Then bumped the starter......lo and behold it turned, so I did it again...and it moved again. No blown fuse. Then 1x1 the disconnected circuits were re connected and the starter bumped,,,every time it moved! Then I went for the full start, no glowplugs, it started the quickest since I've had it running??? Only about 2 sec on the starter. Usually it can take repeated attempts with up to 8 sec on the starter.
   So I did move 1 of the circuits. I put the charge lamp and the voltmeter on the same wire. Some things just need to be on keyed circuits.
   Bottom line is I don't know what went wrong or if it's fixed. Could have been just one of those starter moments where it was in a position where the field energy wouldn't make it turn. I have no idea why the fuse was blowing. There should not be any real amperage flowing thru the combi switch on starting.

Yesterday I drove over to Hollister Hills SRVA for my grandsons 9th birthday party. I followed his parents over they have modern trucks. My speedo was showing 70 on the freeway and I wasn't keeping up on the hills. When asked, son in law said his showed 65. I drove back at my own pace, speedo at 60ish. I put 138 miles on it when I refueled today with 7.3 gal for 18.9mpg. But it started every time!