Ulysses

AWESOME!

That's one angry sounding Jimny, it's fantastic. People are going to expect it to be a tricked out JDM, not a 4x4.
Mike

Brilliant, proper sleeper now

The steering damper had been bugging me for a bit.

The one on Ulysses was a left over from the grey one and been fairly well used by now. It still works, but has a little soft spot in its travel, which is weird?! I was getting issues with bump-steer at speed so decided to buy a new damper for it (rather than a whole new kit). RTC is something I had wanted too add as well.

The brackets are ones that came with the original damper from Dave and are still as strong as they day he made them.

Balls! the new one I had ordered is for a defender and is 1) longer and 2) different fitting (eye instead of pin at one end). Its also RTC (return to centre) style, which means the spring forces the steering back straight if left alone.

Old one off and new bracket made for the steering arm end of it:







OK on the test fit so new bracket off for some paint, then as it had dried in 3 hours, it was full fitting and test run out.



Works well. The steering self centres much better (even when not moving, which is a bit disconcerting!). It doesnt feel any heavier than before and seems to help with the bump steer from the short test run out. Overall happy with it and it only cost £65 for the damper/spring combo

In other news, I have welded a couple of tiny holes in my home made exhaust and that has toned down the overrun pop and crackle a fair bit, but not totally. Theres probably more odd gaps, but I quite like the noises I get with it like this
The new throttle bodies are working well, have had an issue or two with getting the original injectors seated correctly, but seems sorted now. Power is nice, but the fuel consumption hasn't exactly improved (though my heavy foot could be the problem there!). The new S80 ECU has arrived at JDM dyno, so I need to get booked in to get the second set of injectors wired in and the dyno run re-done to see if makes any difference.

Be nice to get out in Ulysses for a trip with the lads, but thats all on hold at the moment of course Drumclog has opened up again with pre-bookings so that might be a good place to scratch that itch!

Riccy Riccy Riccy.... you are one inspirational individual thank you

Dull stuff yesterday; oil and filter change. Just posting it so I have a date to remember by.

Gearstick has gone really heavy/stiff to get in or out of 2nd, 4th and reverse. Checked the oil and its full, so bit of a head scratcher for today. Have new oil to see if that helps and spare gearstick bushes. Hope its not the clutch or the box itself...

The Gearstick problem turned out to be fairly simple thankfully:

The gearstick itself, or rather the box it goes into turns out to be the problem. Took it off and opened it up to find loads of gunk and water/rust:







so stripped to bits and cleaned it all. There is a bearing in the selector shaft bit of the housing which has gone with the rust. Ive picked out all the loose bits, packed it with grease and been out for a play fairly succesfully today. Its still a bit stiff sometimes, maybe the heat is making the grease too soft. New bearings needed really:



However it worked enough to get out for a play around some lanes that had no comments on Trailwise in far North East Cumbria...

Having fixed bodged the gearstick it was time for some lanes, solo unfortunately, so nothing strenuous allowed

This was mainly a voyage of discovery because the lanes chosen for this route are ones that have no trailwise comments to them (I will be duly updating them soon).

Cargo, NW of Carlisle:


Travelling further in towards Longtown:





Not trying that on my own


Quite a few former fords that have been let go. No way in or out of them:






and some on the normal roads, more scenic than anything:



And a fair few dull tarmac lanes through livestock fields with plenty of gates:


Some blocked by overgrowth to the point chainsaws are required:










An absolute pearl of a river crossing though. Lane of the day for me, even though its really short:








Then to end the day a trip up to the top of the fell NW of Bewcastle, where you get the most amazing views (even if the track is rather dull and full of gates):






In all, not a bad day out on my lonesome. Social distancing wasnt an issue at least The odd people I saw out & about were friendly and waving back too

Bah!

Looks like you had a great wander Riccy!

Firstly I haven't got the Jimny Buggy finished yet, and secondly we in Wales are still on lockdowm, so we're not allowed out and about

So very jealous!

Soon though....

Few more pics from the top. It was beautiful up there today, I could have quite happily camped there if it wasn't for work tomorrow... and the army comms post ontop of the hill 200mtrs away



Mad disused quarry there that looks like its seen its share of off-piste activity, no harm done really I guess I didn't feel the need to venture for a play, the scenery and sounds of birds was enough