[sanjayatarizona]

The Yeti always strikes gold, unlike us mere mortals .

Congrats to the proud owner.

P.S: I have a good home and a good heart for anything on 4 wheels. Any stranger out there(owning a Landy / Rangie/ anything ) listening ?????

[akas_chauhan]

Congratulation Sam. There are few lucky people, you are one of them.

[Sam Kapasi]

It is a Turbo-Diesel engine. It's got a roar that would scare a small animal. Heck, even a big animal. When I revv it while it's stationary the whole car rocks back and forth like it wants to rip someone's head off.

Cool.

I've spent the past few days reading up on the heritage, history, maintenance and more. The car will not be mine for 2 more weeks. I can educate myself.

Even my inexperienced eyes can see that this is not going to be a cakewalk.

I phone Gogi (V-16):

Does this car have an AC?
Umm should have. Not all of them had an AC, but some did. It depends. Have you got the Land Rover yet?
No.

Hmm. I guess I'll have to find out. It's not necessary to me, the AC. But this car looks like a Range Rover and it would be nice to have an AC...
Besides, it's got power windows and stuff. AC to hoga...

A week later I visit the Land Rover again.
Does it have an AC I ask the owner.
I don't know. I think it does. I've never used it. I'm not sure. No.

I sit inside. Man it's not very clean inside. The seats are made of fabric and they're old and dusty and look like they got wet once too often.

We'll need new seats says a familiar female voice. It stinks in here. Maybe new carpets too.

I heard this some time ago. A man usually looks at something and thinks "What do we have here?"
A woman looks at something and thinks "What can I make of this?"

So, stinky interiors, a large old pillow on the drivers seat (i wonder why), no ac, iffy 2nd gear.
But the engine roars and the car looks imposing.

I think we're good to go.

[Sam Kapasi]

Eventually the day came. It was about 7.30 in the evening. I went with Jenny, shook hands with the owner.
It's a tough drive out of the garage. Maybe I should get it out for you.
I nod.
Soon the car is at his gate and he is in his other car behind me, waiting to follow.

I sit inside, nervously realising I've never driven this before. To make matters worse, he's in another car just sitting behind me. I grin nervously at Jenny and start the car up.

ROAARRR!!!

I dunk the gear shift to the left, push upwards.
OK Sam, don't lurch the car to a halt. Don't stall it. Don't make a fool of yourself.

The car moves without stalling. Backwards.

Dammit.

I glare at Jenny who's dying to giggle. She nods sympathetically with a serious face. It's fake. I can tell. She's going to giggle. I don't have the time to glare at her.

I put the car into 1st gear and I'm off. I turn left and stop. He overtakes, cheerfully waving and then he's gone.
All OK Sam?
Yes.
You want me to..
NO! says I before she can say the word drive.

I am a MAN. In a Land Rover. NO.

The seat's too high, I mumble. I get off and take the pillow off. Oops.

There's a big cavity in the driver's seat. One needs the pillow.
I get it into first and revv off. I cannot get it into 2nd.

GRRRRRRR

The gears are making this noise, like I'm changing gears without pressing the clutch. I remember what he said and slow down. It slides into 2nd and it's fine.

It's dark and I am nervous. I need to drive her again when it's brighter. But man this car feels GOOD. And it belongs to ME.

Ahem. I hear a familiar female voice. US.

Of course my love.

[sammyboy]

Congratulations Jenny on getting the Land Rover. Oh and congratulations to you too Sam hee hee. Wish you both a wonderful ownership experience. I am sure this will pave a way for many more Yeti blogs, which we all love.

[Sam Kapasi]

Eventually:

With the help of Steeroid, I was able to get some plastic trim parts for the car. This was step one.
The back light thing was broken as was one corner of the bumper. See?





Steer took care of both those things and a friend carried the parts down.

My driver fell deeply in love with the Land Rover and is constantly fussing about it, fitting stuff, cleaning up and more.

I got the car cleaned. Got new seats made.

The front (driver's) seat - the frame was broken. I had it repaired and welded perfectly.
The fabric from the seats was ripped out and I got all new awesome seats made in faux leather. Nice beautiful fawn and brown combination..

I travel, a lot. One day when I returned, I came to a beaming Akbar. I sat in the Land Rover and he said
Window neeche mat karo.
Kyun?
Buss. Mat karo.

Triumphantly he turns a little knob.

AC. He says.
Kya?
AC. He's beaming like a kid.
AC?
AC! AC!

Turns out while I was gone, he decided to clean the engine bay and he saw the compressor. There was no belt on the compressor. The other belt close to it was badly corroded.
Maine soch liya ki iska belt gir gaya hoga sadke.

He has figured out that the belt had probably corroded and fallen off. The previous owner never used the AC so he simply did not know or care.
Of his own accord, he took it to the AC guys.

But what did you do about the belt? Where the hell did you get it from?
We tried every size. The Ford Escort belt fits perfectly!

He got the AC cleaned, oiled serviced. New belts. Checked for gas leakage. Charged it, turned it on and voila.

Worked perfectly. Nice and cold.

I now had a Land Rover with Air Conditioning!
I got the car sunfilmed. Some 3M sunfilm.
Got the power windows greased, even though they were working perfectly.

AC!! Now we're talking!

[extreme_torque]

wooo hooooo... congrats Yeti boy!

[offroad_maniac]

WoW.. this thread is Offroader's fairytale. A nice n big LandRover as a gift. A "REAL" thing!

Congratulations sir!
Have a wonderful experience with her . TC. (If I can say, please don't mod it)

[Sam Kapasi]

It has been many weeks since then.

The car has been cleaned inside out. Engine service/wash. Flush, oil, change - new oil filter (courtesy Steer) and Mobil 1 oil.
I added a nice large magnetic compass that lights up.

New head unit, new speakers.

Doors greased and cleaned.

The owner gave me a thick book on how to maintain and repair everything in the car. This one.



Shows what the car meant to him.

At a friend's garage, he diagnosed that the car needed a new clutch. Again with the help of Steer I organised a brand new clutch. Getting it down was difficult. The thing weighed a ton. To my rescue was Mad Monkey. I was very grateful for his help, he carried it down to Mumbai himself.

It was fit as per the book at my friend's place.

To be honest, the 2nd gear iffyness didn't go away. It still exists. Maybe I'll take it to a Land Rover expert someday, maybe I won't. If Allan is reading this story, perhaps he has a solution for my problem. I hear he is a Land Rover champion.

It drives amazingly well. I thought it was special, but my friend at the garage was amazed at how powerful and quick the engine was.

Full kar do I said to the petrol pump attendant. Saada Diesel.
I watched the numbers turn. 20litres. 30 litres. 40 litres. 50 litres. 60litres. Holy crap.
Accha buss buss. Rok do.

How many litres does this behemoth carry? I dunno. I stopped filling.


Next: Driving experiences.

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Full kar do I said to the petrol pump attendant. Saada Diesel.
I watched the numbers turn. 20litres. 30 litres. 40 litres. 50 litres. 60litres. Holy crap.
Accha buss buss. Rok do.

How many litres does this behemoth carry? I dunno. I stopped filling.

.

Amazing Sam, simply amazing, looking forward to next chapters

[Sam Kapasi]

So how does this 4X4 thing work anyways?

You may laugh. Other Land Rover experts will think of me as extremely naive. Maybe so. I don't know much about these things and I wished to educate myself. No shame in that.

I knew from basic experience that the second gear lever was for 4X4 driving. I asked around. My second gear lever looked like this.





I was told by most 4X4 experts that city driving require 2X4 and off-road required 4X4. However I didn't get a clear and satisfactory answer as to the usage of my 4X4. I searched on the net, Land Rover forums and downloaded as many PDFs as I can.

Here is the first thing I learnt. My car was permanently in 4X4 mode.

Taken from a Land Rover Manual:

THE DIFFERENTIAL LOCK

Unlike many four wheel drive vehicles, all Land Rover products have permanent four wheel drive. This is achieved by the inclusion of a lockable differential between the front and rear drive shafts.

With the differential locked, the drive shafts to front and rear axles are (in effect) joined together, causing both to rotate at the same speed. This is a normal feature with all four wheel drive vehicles and enhances traction on difficult off-road surfaces. However, with the differential unlocked the different running requirements of the two axles can be accommodated, thereby enabling Land Rover vehicles to operate permanently in four wheel drive for both road AND off-road use

Lesson 1 learnt. I hunted around further to understand what the ideal position for the little gear shaft would be.

My answer lay in another section of the manual

TRANSFER GEARBOX
The second gearbox (known as the transfer box) is used to select either the high or low range of gears and, in addition, also controls
the central differential (known as the ’DIFF LOCK’).

So the "little" gear shaft was the transfer gear box. That's what I would call it now.

High range (’H’)
The high range of gears should be used for all normal road driving and also for off-road driving across dry, level terrain.

I then realised that my normal driving position was bottom right. Where it said H.

The other stuff?

Low range (’L’)
Use low range gears in any situation where low speed manoeuvring is necessary, such as reversing a trailer or negotiating a boulder strewn river bed; also for more extreme off-road conditions where progress in high range cannot be maintained.

A boulder strewn river bed? Even more extreme off-road conditions?

Was this company telling people that it is perfectly fine to drive on a boulder strewn river bed?

Cool!

’Diff lock’ central differential
Use the ’unlocked’ position for all normal driving, and use the ’DIFF-LOCK’ position to improve traction in extreme conditions where wheel grip could be lost, such as: wet grass, mud, sand, ice or snow. Return to the ’unlocked’ position as soon as dry, firm, ground is reached.

DO NOT use the ’diff lock’ unnecessarily!

Man, this was serious stuff. I did the one thing that any man would have done.

I got into the car and put in into "differential lock" mode unnecessarily. lol.

Of course. Don't give me disapproving looks. Any man here would have done it too.

[maxbhp]

A big man with an equally big machine. Wooha ! great find Sam. Its oozing with so much of character that it can make a straight man turn gay .

Can you please post some interior pics or are you working on them right now ? Are you planning to mod in anyway ?

[trammway]

Congratulations. Incidentally I was offered to takeup a Range Rover v8 petrol 1992 model yesterday by a vendor as he seen my offroading and restoring the 4x4 enabled vehicles. Unfortunately that didn't attract me as I'm no good to maintain a white elephant.

I'm hooked to your thread now... waiting to see you doing offroad. Welcome to our society, soon you will find the journey starts when the road ends ;-)

[Akshay1234]

congrats sam. your one lucky guy. and your starting to sound like clarkson now.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

To be honest, the 2nd gear iffyness didn't go away. It still exists. Maybe I'll take it to a Land Rover expert someday, maybe I won't. If Allan is reading this story, perhaps he has a solution for my problem. I hear he is a Land Rover champion.

Iffy meaning does it crunch or grind when you try to slam it into 2nd quickly? Could be just worn our syncros for 2nd.