The Greenlaner NEWSLETTER OF THE SOUTHERN LAND ROVER SOCIETY — SEPT 2008

SOLAROS GETS WILD IN JULY! By David Boswell

Getting up at 6:30 AM on a Sunday morning is not exactly something that thrills me; especially if it’s my only day away from the Land Rover Centre in which I am employed. Nevertheless, I was excited about SOLAROS going to the Wild Safari Park in Pine Mountain Georgia. The park is one of the larg-est managed habitats for African animals in North America. I packed up my two children Ashleigh and Madison both holding stuffed Giraffes and Lions and fired up my old 1998 Discovery and off we went. It was about 10:00 when we rolled into the park. We were immediately greeted by other members of the club who had already gotten the attention of a nearby Giraffe grazing along a fence. Once we were all there we purchased food to feed the animals and it was time to jump into the Serengeti! We were immediately introduced to several huge Caribou. The antlers were extremely tall and intrusive yet it was amazing to see how these animals had learned to position there head so that we could feed them from our Rovers. Ashleigh and Madison were so overwhelmed we ended up using a whole bag of food until we came to our senses on the fact that we had just entered the park.

Join Solaros for the Southern Appalachian Expedition on November 5-7, 2008

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Greetings, The summer is fading and fall is fast approach-ing. For many of us, the change of seasons her-alds the Mid Atlantic Rally (MAR) and our own Southern Appalachian Expedition (SAE). Also, the change of seasons means cooler tempera-tures, which equates to better camping weather, fewer insects, and a heightened sense of ad-venture for off-roading. As we head into fall, ex-citement is building for making our 2 most well-attended events possible:

• SAE

• MAR SAE (November 5th – 7th) SAE will be held Friday November 5th, 2008 through Sunday November 7th, 2008 in Blairs-ville, GA. As you may know, the Mountain Oaks Campground, the campground that we have used in the past, , unexpectedly notified our event organizers that they were withdrawing their offer to host SAE this year. With the clo-sure of the Mountain Oaks Campground, we have been pressed to find a suitable camping venue for SAE. A group of us recently met for two purposes. First and foremost, we wanted to find a suitable campground, and second and some would say even more important, to find a purveyor of the best BBQ at the best price that could and would cater our big pig blowout on Saturday night. I am happy to report that we were successful on both fronts. We will be camping at Skeenah Creek camp-ground. Skeenah (Cherokee for “big bear”) is located at the intersection of GA Hwy 60 and Skeenah Gap Rd about 19 miles from Beasley Knob, the venue for our challenge rides and 15 miles from the Suches and Cooper’s Creek trails, the venues for our adventure rides. Skee-nah Creek is located on the site of Skeenah Mill (circa 1848) and was built by Willis Rabun Woody. The site is featured in the Historic Mills of North America. The campground is a full-feature facility, including 30 and 50 amp hookup sites, restrooms, showers, and all the amenities one would expect. They have a few rooms in the Willis Rabun House and several RVs to rent. If

you are interested in either, please contact the manager at 706-838-5500 or 770-761-5300 to reserve a room or RV. The other major objective of our scouting week-end was to find a suitable caterer, and I think you will be very pleased with Poppy’s BBQ. The food was good, the price was right, and the service was as friendly as you would expect from the people of Blairsville. Don’t forget to register for this event and remem-ber that SAE registration fees are waived for paid-in-full SOALROS members. A registration form is conveniently located in this edition of the newsletter and can be downloaded from the web-site. Again, thanks to the event organizers, in-cluding Jeff, Moose, Steve, Rick, Mike, Chris, Roger, Christian, and the many others who have contributed over the last few months; this com-mittee is doing a great job, which will result in a great event. Finally, do not forget to participate in the tee shirt and sticker design contest. MAR Mid Atlantic Rally (October 2nd - 5th) The Mid Atlantic Rally is the other quintessential Land Rover gathering that you will not want to miss. The 2008 Mid Atlantic Land Rover Rally will be held Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 through Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at the Oak Ridge Es-tate in Arrington, Virginia, situated in the shad-ows of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Nelson County. Oak Ridge Estate is a 5,000 acre private estate that offers numerous activities and opportunities for Land Rover enthusiasts. With over 40 miles of guided off-road trails, Oak Ridge Estate's trail system will offer a diversity of terrain appropriate for any vehicle from the stock Land Rover to the heavily modified Land Rover. With more than 350 Land Rovers in attendance, you will have the opportunity to see virtually every iteration of Land Rover since Land Rover’s inception 60 years ago. You will also have an op-portunity to watch and cheer for our club mem-bers who attempt to take home the gold in the Aluminum Man, RTV, Teeter Totter, Slow Re-

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verse, and other competitions held at the event. Last year, several SOLAROS members were on the podium for the Aluminum Man, Teeter Totter, and RTV competitions. Aside from the excitement of the venue and the competition, the trip to the middle of nowhere Vir-ginia is always great fun. It is not difficult to con-voy to the campground with any of a number of groups who leave from the greater Atlanta area. For more information about MAR, log onto www.roav.org . If you like Land Rovers, trail rides of all levels, camping, and just the Rover experience, don’t miss this opportunity. We look forward to your participation in these and the other Land Rover events throughout the remainder of the year. Better yet, come to one of our club meetings held the 3rd Wednesday of every month to find out more about the club, make new friends who share similar interests, and experience the enthusiasm and dedication we Land Rover owners have for the marquee.

Yes, Its that time of year again. Southern Land Rover Society (SOLAROS) presents : The 2008 Southern Appalachian Expedition (SAE) Dates: November 7-9, 2008 Event Site-Skeenah Creek Campground, 20 Skeenah Gap Road, Suches GA 30572 Located near great trails that contain off roading for all levels. Registration Forms can be found at the following link or accessed via the forum under the upcoming events topic of 2008 Southern Appalachian Expedition. http://solaros.com/smf_production/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3211.0;attach=3672 Registration is free for 2008 members. Registration starts at 12 pm on Friday November 7th. Friday Activities Include: Registration, Swap meet , trail rides (day and night), and some tech talk. We are proud to have Bill Davis from Great Basin Rovers with us for this event. He will be answering questions, talking rover and riding some trails with us. Saturday Activities Include: geo caching, blind driving, and events for the kids. Saturday night will have a ca-tered dinner from Poppie's Rib Shack and our famous auction to raise money for Southern Four Wheel Drive (fighting for our trails) and the Cerebral Palsy Assoc. of Georgia. There will, of course, be trail rides going on all day long from beginner to advanced. We are also going to be giving away awards to the own-ers of these great vehicles (some serious, some funny). As the event gets closer there will be a more permanent schedule of events, so you can decide exactly what to participate in. As you can see this is gong to be a fun weekend for the whole family so mark it off in your cal-endar and plan on being in Suches November 7-9. See you there! Cheers, Jeffrey Newsham

2008 Southern Appalachian Expedition

November 5-7 in Suches, GA

Events Calendar—Fall 2008 September 17-20 National Land Rover Rally, Moab, Utah October 2-5 ROAV Mid Atlantic Rally, Arrington, VA Info at www.roav.org October 3-5 SFWDA Dixie Run Upper Tellico ORV area, Murphy, NC Info at www.sfwda.org October 15—Solaros meeting La Madeleine 1165 Perimeter Center West, Suite 330 Atlanta, GA 30346 October 24-26 URE!5—Uhwarrie National Forest, Uhwarrie, NC Info at http://www.theoldnorthstate.org November 7-9 Solaros—Southern Appalachian Expedition, Suches, GA—Info at www.solaros.com November 19—Solaros meeting—La Madeleine

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As we continued through, it was almost surreal to see the long line of convoyed Land Rovers that had made the trip. They fit the landscape so perfectly. We had a good mix of series one and two Discoveries as well as some nice Defenders. Through out the day we came across herds of Zebras that nearly had there en-tire head and neck into my Rover, The giraffes made for some great pictures that looked like they came right out of a mid 90’s Land Rover advertisement. There was a Rhino which I was glad was in a fenced in area. I had been hoping to get a small dent just so I

could say “hey a Rhino hit my Rover” but after seeing the size of that one, I think that a Salvaged Title would come out of it if I was to get bumped by that massive animal! After the hour or so trek through the park we all came back to their lodge in which we had lunch and adjourned. Several of us went up to the “walk through” to see all dif-ferent kinds of animals in a more enclosed environment. It really got you up close and personal with some very unique and rare animals. All in all I gave this ride 7 out of 8 cylinders for fun and excitement with loads of family time. I would definitely recommend this ride to anyone! I look forward to seeing you at our next adventure.

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Geocaching: A modern-day treasure hunt

A Web site and a GPS become your digital map to

find a hidden geocache

By Kelsey Zottnick Gainesville Times

Elachee Nature Science Center volunteer Erik

van Dyck sifts through a geocache container

that he found on the West Lake Trail at the

Elachee Aquatic Center. Once the cache is

found, geocachers are to take something from

the cache, leave something in the cache and

write about it in the logbook.

On a recent Thursday morning at Elachee Nature Science Center, Erik van Dyck was searching for something that was off the beaten path. Specifically, van Dyck was looking for a geocache, a hid-den container found through an activity known as geocach-ing. What started as an idea for a challenging, high-tech treasure hunt involving an Internet forum and a GPS, or global posi-tioning system, has evolved into the worldwide sport of geocaching. "The military has had GPS technology forever, but until May of 2000, they scrambled the signals so for civilian use it wasn’t nearly as accurate. Then in May of 2000 they de-cided to make GPS available to civilians, so that’s when geocaching started," said van Dyck, an avid geocacher. Van Dyck said he got involved with geocaching when someone suggested he try it out. During a Boy Scout camping session, van Dyck said he tried to geocache the old-fashioned way. "I spent two hours stumbling through the woods looking at coordinates based on a map," he said. He didn’t find the geocache, but the challenge remained. So the following weekend, van Dyck bought a GPS, went back to the camping site and found the geocache. Since then, van Dyck has been hooked. He volunteers at Elachee, occasionally leading geocaching expeditions. Van Dyck also is involved with the Georgia Geocaching Asso-ciation, which meets once a month and often hosts geocach-ing challenges. Later this fall, van Dyck said Elachee would host a geocaching competition in which some 70 geocach-ing enthusiasts would race to uncover geocaches planted specifically for the event. With more than 5,000 geocaches hidden in Georgia, geo-caching is an activity that can be enjoyed by all ages. The basic tools needed to geocache are a handheld GPS, access

LEARN ABOUT GEOCACHING

FROM AN EXPERT AT THIS

YEAR’S SAE EVENT.

At this year’s Solaros sponsored SAE event our resident expert on Geocaching, Erik Van Dyck will be giving lessons on how to get involved in this engaging combination of technology and the great outdoors. The following is a reprint of an article that ap-peared in the Gainesville Times on July 30, 2008. Erik will be more than happy to share his passion for this sport with any of the Solaros members and guests at SAE.

GREENLANER—PAGE 6

to geocaching site geocaching.com, a mode of transporta-tion and a bit of time. To start, you enter a ZIP code into the Web site to find geocaches hidden in the area. When you plug in the corresponding coordinates, your GPS gives you the longitude and latitude of the geocache, and from there the geocacher follows the GPS directions. This is easier said than done. Those who hide geocaches have a few tricks up their sleeves, prompting the develop-ment of difficulty ratings to appear on the geocaching Web site. After searching the geocache hot spot for a bit, van Dyck refers to the information sheet he printed about the geo-cache. A cryptic hint points him toward a fallen tree. Some geocaches, like this one, come with a puzzle to solve, and some are multistage affairs. Oftentimes the most difficult geocaches to find are the most inaccessible ones, van Dyck said, such as geocaches hidden in Lake Lanier that are only reachable by boat. It doesn’t take much longer before van Dyck spots the geocache — a metal box disguised by branches. Geocachers usually bring a trinket to place in the geo-cache box, take a trinket from the box and sign their name in a little notepad enclosed in the geocache to log their find. They also log the find on the Web site, which helps hiders and finders track the geocache. Van Dyck notes the contents of the geocache — which is almost filled to the brim with the trinkets of past find-ers — before he puts it securely back in its hiding spot for future geocachers to discover.

Erik van Dyck holds up his geo coin, a token

that many geocachers leave as a memento of

their adventures.

Van Dyck finds reasons for geocaching’s allure simple. "It takes people on really neat hikes; it’s great exer-cise, and it’s good to have a destination," van Dyck said. "You feel like you’ve accomplished some-thing when you find it."

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The 6 hour tour… David Stephens

Last year, after driving with the original 2.6L 6 cyl in my 1972 SIII 109 for a while, I decided it was time to either rebuild or replace the motor. The continued low oil pressure problems, inability for the truck to move beyond 30 mph without sounding like a dying – or maybe just forlorn – wookie, and the constant “now what was that noise” questions were just too much for my fickle soul to bear. I then set about to price out the rebuild, from bearings to oil pump, and was NOT pleased with the outcome. When Trevor from Rovahfarm called me and said “David, ya sittin’ down thah?” I knew it wasn’t going to be good news. Trevor had seen it as an interesting challenge to dig up what it would take to rebuild it, and was just as shocked at the prices as I was. Thou-sands of dollars – more than I paid for the truck – to just get the basic parts for the rebuild, not too mention ancillaries, electrical redo’s, and whatever else quickly put the thought of rebuilding it out of my mind – and Betsy’s pocketbook. I had posted up on the SIII forum that I was in search of some bearings – my immediate need, and the usual suspects were out of the right size – and a nice gentle-men from North Carolina rang me up with the neces-sary bearings at a good price. While talking to him, we started talking about the SIII’s, the 6 cylinders, and the topic got around to the Robert Davis conversions that use the GM/Mercruiser 3.0 181ci block and parts. This kit, and Mr. Davis, are both top notch. However, they also have a top notch but worthy price that was-n’t too far off from the 2.6 rebuild parts. At this point, the gentleman from North Carolina mentioned that he

had one of the kits in his garage that he had bought years before and never used, opting instead to blueprint and rebuild his 6 cylinder. Side note: Many of you saw this 6 cylinder 109 at MAR last year – it was the light blue one you could eat bangers and mash off of the bulkhead and still not get the bulkhead dirty. Anyway, He and I worked out a pretty darn good deal on the motor and kit, and I high tailed it up to Charlotte to pick it up. Our own John Dillingham, in exchange for my old 2.6 which would do him some good on some forthcoming projects, offered to assist in swapping the motor out up at his well appointed shop (ie it has a lift and plenty of ventilation, so the 90wt that invariably permeates the air won’t mess with the missus’ potpourri). We then com-menced what is supposed to only be a 6 hour swap (as reported on the LRFAQ site that advertises the builds. We figured it would take us a bit more than that, but in my mind, I didn’t think it would take a year before I was able to drive the truck again. Yep, a year. Now, I’m not talking a year to do the swap entirely. Really a year to do the swap and then work out all the other little odds and ends, while also trying to hold down a rather demanding job, raise a family, and enjoy the boating season, as is one is wont to do. Really, the bulk of the work was done many months ago, but an intermittent problem with starting, running, stop-ping, and everything in between led me to reach a heightened state of frustration with the vehicle and it adorned my driveway untouched for much of the time. At some point in the recent past, I had taken the truck to a mechanic, who promptly indicated that the top end needed to be rebuilt , as it would suddenly lose compres-sion and stop running. I’m not a mechanic, I’m a parts changer, so I said “damn” and took the truck home, thinking the worst. I contacted Mr. Davis – who had patiently provided support to me throughout the ordeal. His basic response was “hogwash, those guys are idi-ots!”. Of course, I’m paraphrasing, but that was the gen-eral sentiment. Instead, he did suggest that I look at the cam gears, as he had experienced a bad grouping of them about the time he had built this particular motor – years ago – and it may exhibit the same symptoms. I promptly ordered the parts and there they sat for a bit while I worked up enough interest to start disassem-bling the radiator mount, fan, etc. In the interest of full disclosure, It should be noted that I never actually worked up the appropriate level of interest to undertake the task…so there she sat.

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Recently, a friend of mine that enjoys puttering on any-one else’s projects but his own, decided that we needed to get it going so that when boating season ended, we’d have another toy to entertain the kids with. I should point out that he has 3 boats, 5 ATV’s, 2 motorcycles, a 6 wheel thingie with a camera boom on it, and a myriad of other “projects”, so of course, 1 more toy would make a difference in our children’s lives. Anyway, it became his mission in life to help me get this truck running and he would frequently come over during the day – while some of us slave away at our day jobs – and tinker. Suddenly, little things started getting done, and a small fire under my arse, started turning into a raging inferno, not unlike one you might experience after drinking stag-nant water in parts unknown. My interest re-invigorated itself and the other little things started getting done even when he wasn’t around. Betsy, of course, was thrilled, as she had so missed the smell of 90wt that she had asked me to put a spray bottle of it near the garage door. No, not really. She hates it as much as anyone. We had yet, however, to quite figure out the intermittent operational issue that plagued us. Everything else was buttoned up and ready, but without that, it was still just another pretty yard ornament, albeit one that isn’t on blocks. We could get it started – sometimes – and then it would die. Or we couldn’t start it at all. Or it would have spark. And then not have spark. And then have spark again. Wait, what? And thus started the path to Valhalla. We traced all of the wires, took the dash apart, reran various things that we couldn’t see the middle of, and still no reason for the spark to be intermittent. During one of these times, however, a hand was behind the dash while we were trying to crank the motor, and in a bit of frustration, it hit the back end of the ignition module/key tumbler thingie (look it up, it’s in the oompah loompah parts manual that some of you may remember from my historical treatise on the oompah loompah uprising and how it effects Solihull from a few years ago) and it fired up. Eyes raised, we tried it again, and again, and finally determined that there was a small crack in one of the tabs that holds the contact points to the other contact points and it was obviously not maintaining the afore-mentioned and somewhat required contact. A quick call to George Laird at RoversDownSouth, and I had a new module a couple of days later. In breaking the other one apart to inspect it, the corrosion that was

within the contact points was a bit obvious, and the root of those intermittent issues. From there, at least from a continuous ability to run point of view, it’s simply been a matter of cleaning out the fuel, tuning the carb, setting the timing, and plugging a vacuum leak, and the ice cream getter is now operational, yet still not usable. While finally rebuilding the master cylinder – which I now had need of – I broke a brake pipe and had to get that fixed. While subsequently bleeding the brakes, I broke something else. Fixed it, temporarily anyway, and now after a nice pump or two, the truck will stop on a dime, well, maybe a roll. Laid end to end. Flat. And some pennies. But anyway, it goes, it stops, it’s clean-ish, and since I broke a window today, it is also drafty. But that’s another story… Who to thank for this ordeal… Chris Brown for parting with it Camille Brown for making him sell it to me Betsy for saying OK (not Yes, mind you) Moose for the use of his trailer for the long ass drive to Jersey John Dillingham for 6…hundred…hours of use of his shop and his mind Jack Walter for answering my calls for knowledge (and some Antique White wheels on loan) Robert Davis for not blocking my calls Some that will go nameless as they aren’t known to the club and thus I shall protect their privacy (If you are in the club, and I didn’t name you, it means I’m protecting your privacy, not that I forgot how critical your help was…you know who you are… (even if I don’t))

6-Hour Tour...cont’d

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Swivel ball rebuilding –

Curing the “Death Wobble” on a Series truck

The swivel ball housings on a Land Rover front axle enclose the universal joints in the Series trucks or constant velocity joints in Range Rover Classic, Discovery I and Defender vehicles. The assembly consists of the swivel balls themselves, the outer housing that the stub axle and brake components bolt to, the upper and lower swivel pins with their respective bearings and bushings, and the large seal that keeps the lubricant in and the dirt out (hopefully). Many Land Rover own-ers have experienced the infamous “Death Wob-ble” when they hit a bump and the whole front end starts jumping and vibrating all over the place as the Land Rover attempts to rearrange your fillings. Commonly this is caused by either loose wheel bearings, loose bolts in the front suspension, or wear in the Railko bushes at the top swivel pin. In addition the Land Rover may be leaking out of the large seal that wipes the surface of the swivel ball as the wheels are turned left or right. The first step in attacking the death wobble is to do a careful inspection of all of the suspension components. In Series trucks you’ll want to look at the tie rod ends (all 6 of them), check for ex-cessive play in the steering box, and carefully inspect all of the bushings for the leaf springs

(especially the rear ones). You’ll also want to look at the spring hangers and bolts to see if there is any slop where the hole has gotten ob-long over the years. You’ll also want to see if one or more of the wheel bearings is loose (or disintegrating). On coil sprung vehicles the panhard rod and its bushings are always the primary suspect but you also need to carefully inspect the boltholes in the brackets that attach the ends of the panhard rod to the axle and frame as an oblong hole can al-low some side to side movement. Again check tie rod ends and wheel bearings and make sure all suspension bolts are tight. If all this stuff checks out its time to put the Rover up on jack stands and remove the front wheels. You may see some signs of leakage around the big seal but to really check what’s going on you need to disconnect both tie rods at the right front wheel. The Series IIA manual calls for 12-14 lbs of force applied at the tie rod hole that links the two front wheels together. I use an old spring scale like the type used to weigh fish (of course I’ve never caught a fish that would ever approach 12 lbs). With the right swivel housing turned to full right lock put the lower end of the spring scale in the tie rod hole and pull it gently at right angles to the big seal until the swivel housing starts to rotate. Watch the reading on the scale and try to see what steady state force it takes to turn the housing. Repeat several times until you’re getting consis-tent readings. Repeat this procedure for the left side. If it’s much lower than 10 lbs there are too many shims in the top swivel pin or the railko bush is worn. We’ll get back to this whole shim thing later. I’m going to assume that you want to tear the whole swivel housing down to inspect all of the components and replace any worn pieces. We’ll start by removing the brakes, hubs, stub axles and front axle shafts. After all that stuff is out of the way look just inboard of the big silver ball and you’ll find six bolts that need to come out. Once they are out the whole assembly comes off

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the front axle housing. The “Peanut Gallery” at the 2005 MAR is familiar with this step as they sat around watching me do repairs on my Range Rover in the field where we camped.

Once it’s off you can remove the six bolts that retain the large seal on the inboard side of the swivel ball. Be sure to note that the forward bolt is the adjustment for the steering stop and needs to go back in the same bolt hole. Carefully lift the seal out so you don’t tear up the lip – many times leaks are caused by grit being caught in the lip of the seal. A careful cleaning of the seal and the swivel ball surface will frequently cure small leaks without having to spend any money.

Now unbend the locking tabs for the upper and lower king pins and remove the fasteners. There are bolts on the top of the swivel housing and studs with nuts on the lower end.

Remove the upper and lower king pins and note the shim stack on the upper king pin. Keep these sorted with the same swivel assembly you’re working on and don’t mix them up. Also be careful not to lose the phenolic washer that may be stuck to the lower end of the upper king pin. Once the upper and lower king pins are removed the swivel ball hous-ing can be removed from the swivel ball. The ta-pered roller bearing on the lower end of the ball will fall out as the housing is removed. Clean all the parts thoroughly (there will be lots of grunge inside of here) and lets inspect the parts to see what needs to be replaced.

Once the housing is removed you can inspect the swivel ball surface for wear and pitting. If the big chrome surface is showing severe pitting or corro-sion it will have to be replaced. I usually polish the outer surface of the swivel ball with fine

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Scotchbrite to get it as smooth as possible. The cheapskates among us have reported some success with filling in pitted areas with a good two part epoxy and sanding it smooth to affect a “temporary” repair.

At the top of the swivel ball is a large steel bush-ing with a phenolic lining – this is called the railko bushing in the shop manuals. The upper king pin should be a slip fit inside this bushing – if there is too much side to side play the bushing will have to be replaced. There is also a phenolic washer that is around ¾” diameter that fits between the lower end of the king pin and the bottom of the steel housing. This and the shims are used to set the preload on reassembly. If the bushing is worn the whole housing is tapped out of the top of the swivel ball using a drift and a large mallet.

Check the tapered roller bearing and its race for signs of wear or pitting. If it is worn you can drive

the old race out once the railko bushing is re-moved by using an ap-propriately sized socket, an extension and a mal-let. The new race is driven in place until it is against the lip and the new railko bush is simi-larly driven in to seat against its stop. If you have a bare swivel ball remember that the bear-ing goes in the more outboard of the two holes in relation to the mounting flange of the ball. With the new or cleaned up bushings in place it’s time to start reassembling the swivel ball housing.

First be sure the studs in the lower end of the housing are lock-tited in place. Steve Dempsey lost a couple of these on a Rich Mountain ride years ago and snapped the other two off. It rapidly got ugly from there as the lower king pin fell out of the housing and the whole front end collapsed. It took several hours to put it back together (the effort was further complicated by the use of BSF – Whitworth threaded studs on earlier Series trucks). Then replace the O-ring on the lower kingpin, put the tapered roller bearing in its race in the swivel ball and slide the swivel ball into the housing. Insert the lower king pin with the at-tached steering arm and install the locking tabs and nuts to a snug fit. Make sure the arm faces the

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opposite direction of the fill plug on the back of the swivel ball housing.

Now for the fun part – setting the preload on the railko bushes. It helps if the swivel ball flange is clamped in a smooth jawed vise or temporarily fastened to the end of the axle housing for this operation. First insert the phenolic washer into the railko bush and apply a light coat of grease to the whole interior of the bushing. Then clean the shims from the upper king pin for that swivel assembly and put them on the upper king pin and slide it into position. Tighten up the nuts on the bottom steering arm and then gradually tighten the bolts retaining the upper king pin. Gently rotate the swivel pin housing back and forth using the steering arm while tightening all four nuts on the king pin. If it binds up and doesn’t move, stop now because you need to add a shim or two to the king pin. If you get them all tight and the outer housing turns back

and forth with little or no resistance you know you need to remove a shim.

If it feels like a nice smooth resistance to turning using the steering arm is felt it’s time to break out the fish scale again. Hook one end of the scale in the hole in the steering arm where the tie rod be-tween the two front wheels connects and establish a nice steady pull as you rotate the swivel housing. The scale should read between 12-14 lbs of force. If it reads less than that you need to remove a shim – more and you need to add a shim. Too loose and you get the dreaded “Death Wobble” – too tight and you can’t steer. This may take two or three tries to get it right – it helps to have a supply of shims of varying thickness and some patience. Once you’ve got everything set right be sure to torque the king pin bolts and bend up the lock tabs. Be sure to recheck the preload with the fish scale once everything is torqued.

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After this it’s an easy job to center the big seal on the back of the swivel ball and fit the retain-ing ring. Be sure to keep the seal centered on the swivel ball while gradually tightening the retain-ing ring and remember to but the steering stop bolt in the forward (3 o’clock) position of the ring. Fit the swivel ball housing back onto the axle housing and remember to fit the bent washer to the forward bolt where the steering stop bolt will contact it. Refit the stub axles, brakes and tie rods and be prepared to see how much better your Land Rover will steer.

Another source of the wobbles is the steering relay. It has a shaft with tapers at either end and some split phenolic bushings that are forced up the tapers by a VERY stiff spring. There is a

special tool required to reinstall this spring and it is a somewhat hazardous operation to rebuild the steer-ing relay. This unit is filled with oil through one of the small bolts in the top seal cover plate. I just cleaned mine up and installed new seals at either end since the play seemed to be within spec. Just make sure your relay is full of oil and not leaking. Having rebuilt one of these in the past I’ve found that if there is enough wear to induce wobble the ta-pered shaft is usually pitted enough to need replace-ment. If yours is showing obvious wear just replace the whole steering relay as it way too much trouble to rebuild them. They aren’t that expensive and get-ting that spring back in the housing without losing a finger is a real problem.

Websites of the Month: Here are a few websites that Land Rover enthusiasts might enjoy checking out. Submit your favorite finds and we’ll include them the next newsletter. Doug Richardson has been a Land Rover enthusiast since the late 1960’s—his Demolition Bumper predates the ARB by fifteen years. http://www.landrover-motorhome.com/

Dirk Burrowes has the largest collection of Rover vehi-cles on this side of the Atlantic ocean—and probably one of the top collections in the world including a very rare Rover P6 wagon by FLM Panelcraft and several pre-war Rover passenger cars. http://www.roveramerica.com/

GREENLANER—PAGE 6

SOLAROS

1325 NORTH POINT WAY

ROSWELL, GA 30075

Solaros club meetings are held the third Wednesday of each month at La Madeleine 1165 Perimeter Center West, Suite 330 Atlanta, GA 30346 just north of Pe-rimeter Mall (in the REI/Circuit City parking lot) Meetings start at 7:30 PM For more information see the club website at:

www.solaros.com

SOLAROS MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

Solaros Membership Dues are $40/year due on January 1 Membership includes a subscription to The Greenlaner, a SOLAROS club decal for your Land Rover and membership in the Southern 4WD As-sociation. Additional decals are available for $3 each or 2/$5. The Membership Coordinator is: Scott Wold Contact him for enquiries about membership at:

membershipcoordinator@solaros.com

To contact the club by mail: SOLAROS (Southern Land Rover Society) PO BOX 1185 Roswell, GA 30077

Inside this issue: Wildlife Safari ride

Southern Appalachian Expedition info

Mid Atlantic Rally info

Geocaching with Erik Van Dyck

The Six Hour Tour—re-engine of a 109

Curing the Series Death Wobble

Websites of the Month