Wheel nuts and WD-40.

Colin and daughter China came round yesterday and we had a crack at getting his old Land Rover Series 3 Diesel going, after fourteen months off the road at my place - a broadly similar one is pictured above. I have been looking after it as he was unable to store it down at the boat yard.

First we used Colin's Mitsubishi Pajero (the Japanese import version of the Shogun) to tow the backwards facing Landie out of its' parking position and along the car park area behind my house. With some pushing and pulling and a couple of tow ropes, China (her first driving lesson) and I managed to do a U turn and return the vehicle to whence it came, missing a brand new Honda Civic by inches (what is a new car doing in Manor Road?), only now the other way around. Colin then attached jump leads from the Mitsubishi to the Landie and turned the Landie's ignition key. Personally I was expecting a lot of grinding and farting but not much else. The diesel lump immediately clattered into life without a pause. Great having a hand throttle - we let it run for twenty minutes or so, burning off a little of the fuel oil, chip fat and old cabbage leaves in the beasts' tank. After a celebratory mug of tea we then closed it down as the radiator has seen better days and is going to be replaced; we did not want it to overheat.

The Landie original battery was knackered as expected - over a year without a charge had put paid to that. Colin then undid all the wheel nuts to check the state of the brake drums and the servoes. Liberal spraying with WD-40 and much brute force and just a little ignorance meant that by just before seven in the evening we were all done and dusted. New shock absorbers, brake pads and a set of hydraulic servoes will need replacing before it is ready for a pre MOT check. As the boys get bigger, so do their toys, but then Colin and co. have a very big toy indeed.