Smogged it and renewed the registration. No pictures because no reason to

 

I broke my only key in the drivers door!

 

That happened on my DII many years ago. Locksmiths have tools they can use to extract broken keys from locks. I just called a mobile locksmith and he had the broken key out in a matter of minutes.

 

If you don't have a locksmith available, it's pretty easy to pull the handle off yourself, assuming you can get in the vehicle from one of the other doors. It's just one bolt in the door if I recall. RAVE has a good diagram.

Better than breaking in the ignition.

 

I put the battery in my 2003, and went on a drive for the first time in a few months to blow out the cobwebs.

I think it's time to sell, I just don't have the time these days. Anyone keyed into what the market is looking like these days?

 

check bringatrailer auction website - this is where they command the highest prices

 

I know this thread really ought to be about driving the Rover, not wrenching, but wrench I did. Trimmed back the front steel bumper as well as having it removed and taking some measurements to assess how I want to build a winch mount.

Then....

I noted the coolant was just a skosh low. Thought there was a jug in the back, so I opened the rear cargo door to see. The squeeze handle stayed in the "open" position instead of springing back. So project two for the day became remove the cargo door door-card, remove the latch assembly, clean and lubricate and think about what to do with the door card since 13/20 of the little red nubs exploded, and the seven that didn't are super brittle. But the latch works correctly again.

Working on the back reminded me that the hydraulic step has to go for an offroad rig, so the next morning I got under there to remove it. I was initially planning on keeping the tow hitch that the vehicle had, but on further investigation under the car I came to the conclusion that the one there needed to go, and if I wanted one in the future it would need to be re-imagined to be higher up. So off it came. And with that done I went full crazy and removed the rear bumper as well. All told I probably lost 200 lbs off the rig, which has to be a good thing.

Also took it for a drive with the wife, but just a short one. Still have to track down the noise in the accessory drive. Good news is that the ACE pump is fine. Originally I thought it was the source of the noise, but I am running a non-ACE belt now the noise came back. Time to get the ACE belt back on. Once that noise is addressed, it will go wheeling.

 

This is what I did (a couple of years ago) for the ridiculously low towing bracket. It probably still needs some better tweaking to make it ideal. Sorry for the late winter mud in the photo. I think the departure angle on the D2 might be its worst design feature.

 

Oh lordy! I had a temper tantrum when I had 2 misfires on my "new" engine. Then got a new car at the same time as 2 huge customer projects in the shop. So my discovery has been sitting all winter. I don't mind that as NJ has more salt accumulation than actual snow, so things rot fast! I'll let the new car take the brunt of the salt haha.

Anyway, it looks like it is 2 more injector wires cracked completely! I had already had one and repaired it, so no surprise really.

Also lost a lot of atf somehow, so need to see what's going on there!

I also took an electric conversion class, it was a ton of fun and I think I'm going to try it with my geo tracker! Found a bunch of total Leafs locally. But I should also finish my existing projects first!

 

As people probably expected, the area around the back up lights is starting to rust. You can barely see it if you look closely. Looks like a project coming up.