DFB's Garage

[oneheadlite]

Can you help Bill so I don't have to go down to Florida? Not that I'll get another chance to work in a garage as nice as his, plus maybe he'll put me up and feed me Floridese food.

I'll happily share repair info with anyone who PM's.

As far as popping by to lend a wrench, unfortunately FL's a bit of a hike from MN, and I'm short on vacation time...

[Bill D]

Fortunately with my current cars,doing an oil change is no problem. Don't have to worry about a new car for some time yet.

[DFB]

Something that I have had done a few times now, but never done by me, replacing the drive gears and pawls on my beloved Rover ProCut 560.

These are a wear item that need to be maintained, either by periodic cleaning and lubrication or via total replacement. The symptoms that something is not right include one wheel driving rather than two, excessive noise and the wheels locking up in forward or reverse. All present on my unit.

With nearly all Rover spare parts gone for the ProCut models, I was lucky to score two sets of cogs and pawls from an online retailer. Mine arrived loose rather than in the Rover packaging.

Rover Self-Propelled Pinion Gear Kit A03370/1K
– Power Mowers



The process for replacement is not all that hard, especially after you watch a video of someone else doing it, apparently in in under 3 minutes...............



I say "apparently" because I broke the tiny circlip that retains the cog assembly on the driveshaft. I should say, it came off easy enough, but putting it back on without the correct tool meant I snapped the 10 year old circlip. A trip down to the local bearing store had me sorted in no time, along with the CORRECT circlip pliers to get the job done properly.





Anyway, first you must remove the hub cap, then remove the press fit wheel retaining washer. The wheel then slides away from the axle.



You then remove that bloody circlip, slide the washer, cog and pawl away from the driveshaft. Each side has it's own cog, with L or R stamped on the reverse side.



After cleaning each component, in particular the groves on the wheel, I put a small amount of marine grade grease on the axle and driveshaft. The cog then slides back on, the pawl inserted in the driveshaft slot, washer and circlip reinstalled.

Before sliding the wheel back in place and securing with a new press fit washer, I applied graphite powder to the wheel and cog. You aren't supposed to use a liquid lubricant on these, over time the oil mixes with dust and debris and thus turns into liquid sandpaper. The graphite is the dry substitute.



Only the left-hand side was not driving, which is no wonder considering how much grass and dirt was in there, but I also replaced the right-hand side parts too.

With both sides done, a quick test revealed a successful result, no more single pegger! An oil change, and the Rover is back in action.

But, I have a problem. After 10 years of hard use, the pressed steel cover that limits the amount of debris entering the wheel assembly has worn through and is letting dust and grass to enter the drive cogs and wheel.



And of course, the part is NLA in Australia. I have found it in the UK as a POA part. Now waiting to see if I can get two replacements. Naturally, these parts don't affect the operation of the drive system, but they do prolong the working life of the parts in question.

https://www.powertoolspares.com/rove...ov00030/spares



Here's hoping I get lucky and score another set of covers. It does mean removing the wheel and drive cogs again though.

[vaced]

Nice job!

Thanks for sharing, I learned a bit.

Good luck with the covers.

[DFB]

Wash day for both the Jaguar and Ranger.

The Ranger was first, and finally following up with my intention of doing an engine bay clean. I had a few people ask me how to do this, so here goes.........

You probably don't need to, but where possible I like to cover the battery, fuse box and alternator with a plastic bag. I find a saturated towel helps weigh down the bag and prevent it from being blasted off with the pressure washer.



My engine bay was not terrible, but I needed the assistance of running water and chemical to get into places a towel and detail spray couldn't access. After an initial rinse, I applied APC to the whole engine bay. If the underside of the hood is dirty, apply it here too.







Then with a couple of different brushes, scrub and agitate wherever you can reach.





After that, rinse thoroughly. The main thing to be mindful of with this is to keep the nozzle or hose moving. After the rinse, I liberally applied Meguiar's Hyper Dressing at 5:1. I have access to an undiluted bottle of Hyper Dressing, but if you have the RTU bottle, you will need to dilute that further as the 1:1 ratio is too rich for this job.





At this point, you can close the hood and walk away. In my case, I hit the engine bay with my blower to further distribute the Hyper Dressing and speed up the drying. However, because Hyper Dressing is self-leveling, this step is not always required. I should also point out that you want to do this process BEFORE washing the rest of the car, you will manage to get some APC and dressing residue onto the surrounding paint, which the wash will sort out.

After that, the wheels and tyres were cleaned with Brake Buster, the paint with the delightful Opti-Coat M-Wash, the drying aid a throw back to my past, Meguiar's Last Touch. Interior was vacuumed and given a wipe down with KCx ASC, tyres dressed with NV Onyx..........still love that stuff.

With the Jaguar sitting in storage uncovered for a while now, it swapped places with the XR6 and was in desperate need for a wash. In this case, the wheels and tyres again sorted with Brake Buster, the exterior washed with the Halloween Edition of NV Snow..........which is exactly the same as the normal version in every way, including scent. Drying aid here was P&S Paint Gloss, tyres dressed with Angelwax Elixir.

During the drying process, I noticed the front number plate protector was shattered. I had a replacement in stock, so got it swapped out, in the process ridding the car of the dealer propaganda version. What I initially thought was a rock strike, removal revealed that the plate was dinted underneath, so I suspect someone nudged into it while parked down town.

[Big Dave]

I hadn't thought of using a wet towel to hold the plastic bag on the fuse box and alternator, makes sense though, but the last couple of times I cleaned the FJs engine bay I didn't cover them at all. I figure the way water gets everywhere when I go off roading without any effect, they must be protected reasonably well.

Annoying about the number plate and cover, but it could have been a lot worse. When I had my blue Commodore I had a fist sized rock smack into the front bumper at speed on a freeway. I watched it fall off the coupling between a tipper truck and the dog, I tried to dodge it but couldn't. If only I'd driven straight, it would have hit the number plate, no way to guess that though. I caught up to the truck and got the name on the side, and got the drivers attention, blasted the horn and waved, but he wasn't stopping. They actually paid to fix it, it does help to be polite, sometimes.



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[DFB]

I hadn't thought of using a wet towel to hold the plastic bag on the fuse box and alternator, makes sense though, but the last couple of times I cleaned the FJs engine bay I didn't cover them at all. I figure the way water gets everywhere when I go off roading without any effect, they must be protected reasonably well.

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I find a lot of people tend to forget that aspect when shouting at me about pointing a hose at an engine bay, completely forgetting the engine bays on most cars are not completely sealed from the environment, be that from underneath or through the grill openings. Granted, water from a wet road or rain filtering through the grill is different to pointing a hose directly at an engine bay, hence covering certain components and keeping the stream of water moving.

It's also very engine bay dependent. Some are completely exposed, in particular my XR6 (the black plastic coil cover is particularly prone to moisture intrusion on this engine) or Ranger, some have large engine covers that generally shield most of the engine bay, Jaguar and Range Rover.

[Big Dave]

I swear sometimes the FJs engine bay looks like I've sprayed it with a foam cannon filled with muddy water, even on the underside of the hood, I guess that's why they didn't bother with an under hood insulation pad.

I don't even drive crazy in mud puddles, I'm too worried about hidden rocks or holes under the water. Slow and steady gets you to the other side, and home again. The below shot is from May last year.

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[DFB]

After hours of trawling, I'm not sure what to do with these. The only vendor listing these for "possible" sale advised me they are NLA, and I bet they wont even bother changing the part listing to reflect that.



I have also sent emails to a couple of places selling used parts, but of course, no one has responded. How, in this day and age, can a business attempting to sell products NOT answer emails despite advertising an email address or having an enquiry portal on their own website. I just don't get it. I guess I could call, but frankly, I can type my question quicker and with more clarity than playing that game. It's not 1985 anymore!

Anyway, I'm wondering if I can hammer them back as best I can and use some sort of filler or have them brazed. Or keep an eye out for a donor unit to steal parts from.

[vaced]

Saran wrap, masking tape, and aluminum foil is an alternative to a plastic bag, as mentioned in some long ago threads here and maybe elsewhere.