Dr Mark's Tardis

A snorkel - is it worth it. After years of searching for a snorkel, I finally agreed to buy an old one from Grahame. My other option was to adapt pone from a LandRover defender (Nigel had done that very well). It is not a snorkel First lesson is that it is not a snorkel. It is a raised air intake. The crucial difference is a snorkel is expected to be waterproof, but this design is open in the vehicle wing, which is not sealed, it has drain holes. So if left standing in very deep water, then the engine would suck in water not air. A raised air intake is supposed to be good for drawing in air with less sand and dust. But the key feature is that it looks cool. Fitting is Difficult It is a large plastic item, that stretches across two steel body panels. The fixings points don't line up well. It is prone to vibration and so the mounts need to be flexible. To keep water out it needs to be fitted tight and various holes sealed up. And the indicator light needs to fit...

Rear Diff oil leak again With help from Leigh at the Overland show, the cause was diagnosed as slight play in a propshaft universal joint. Replaced the UJ, replaced the oil seal again and this time with a new flange and new nut (both cheap stock clearance items) Parts UJ 8197741 40x92mm Vexi £60 (stock clearance Ebay £18,95 ) Oil seal 40101693 Vexi £26.90 Flange 7166992 Vexi £99 (stock clearance Ebay £44.00 ) Nut7162213 Vexi stock clearance £3.00 All looking good so far.

November 2018 to April 2019 We are on the road in Morocco, we did not have any breakdowns, but did take opportunities to do preventative work and "nice to do"  repairs. In fact I'd taken some jobs with me. Camper brackets Glued and screwed to strengthen the camper where minor cracks were forming. Tyre swapped So easy to do with the military 3 part split rim Ball joint Rubbers I had replaced the rubbers with parts from ebay a year ago. They were already cracked. In fact micro cracks appeared within a month - absolute rubbish and an enormous waste of time. we got some new rubbers fitted at ExtraTec in Laayoune.  They provided rubbers by buying ball joints of a similar size and taking the rubber off for me. £200 for the whole job. it really was an independent garage in Morocco with a very high standard and english speaking staff.

We set off again in December 2018. A quick dash to Agadir and then flying back to the UK for a short Christmas break. So we set off in the new year to explore the southern part of Morocco, including the Western Sahara region. The motorways are behind us, adventure ahead, what better way to start the new year. We now put our trips on PolarSteps :

I clearly had a water leak, but with coolant catching the fan is was splattered all over and impossible to trace. I found it eventually by pressurising the header tank, thanks to a little hand pump that I had inherited from Rich. It was from the water pump. So new water pump: Parts: Pump 500361919 (Iveco £167+ ) o-ring 14472681 (discontinued)           94.62mm x 5.33mm white tube 4697947 (Iveco £2.64 +) o-rings on white tube x4 17278481 (Iveco £2.64+)           17.17mm x 1.78mm circlip on white tube x 2 11066976 (Iveco poa) Gasket for rear pipe 9843478 (about £1) New jubilee clips for water hoses  Antifreeze (Red 5ltr £9.99 eurocarparts) The pump included the studs but not the o-ring seal. The large o-ring is discontinued by Iveco. available on line ???? The white plastic tube becomes brittle, and as predicted, it broke during disassembly. Order of Work Front Grill off Radiator out Remove fanbelt and fan Rem...

Preparations for the next trip November 2018 Oil and filter changed by the garage 2994057 Antifreeze changed (red, 5 year lifetime) New front brake pads 1906430 (1906040 is equiv)

It seemed like a simple oil leak to fix, but I ended up finding four different places that the oil can leak out and fixed all of them. Flange to casing Oil was clearly leaking from the front of the rear diff casing and "wetting" the case. There is a major seal part number 40101693 (£26 Vexi). The job involves Undoing the rear propshaft flange to drop the end of the propshaft out of the way. Undoing the 36mm nut holding the flange adapter. Forum reports suggest this is very hard to remove, and then the seal comes out easily. I found the opposite. Nut is 36mm and should be torqued to 200Nm, mine came off easily. But the tab needs drilling or prizing out. The flange adapter then slides off exposing the splines The seal is a tight fit and needs to be prized off without  damaging the splines or thread. New seal goes in. It's a tight fit; must go in square and needs a soft mallett or piece of wood to put it in. Put the flange back and tighten the nut. You could bolt a...