"Turbo Herbie", our LPG powered, Range Rover Classic. Named by a previous owner - Herbie because of the HBY registration and Turbo because of its habit of flicking its rev counter needle when started! It's been taken up to M&M4WD at Bwlchau, near Denbigh (01745 550237), for a good look-over and to have a couple of its "Solihull Niggles" sorted. The A-frame ball joint was replaced, along with the trailing arm and steering bushes. And the handbrake now holds it on my drive, without having to put bricks behind it! The headlining is there, but is stapled up and looks like a quilt. There's a glassfibre-backed one in the 200Tdi, which will find its way to replace the 'quilt' at one point, but it's not high on my list of prioroties, as yet. There's some surface rust on the outer sills, which will be treated shortly before Hammerite and Waxoyl are added. Unlike my RRC 200Tdi, it has complete inner framework, which is good news! I'm just starting to remove useful parts from the Tdi and will shortly be fitting them to Herbie, along with parts I purchased but never got around to fitting. These include extended axle breathers for wading and long range spotlights, along with anti-theft devices. At least this RRC has a good heater (my last two vehicles didn't) and it also has the benefit of a CD player, so I can drown out the usual "Solihull" clonks and rattles (well, it is a fair few years old, to be fair!). On April 2nd, I managed at last to replace the airflow meter that had been jammed open when it had a 'blow-back' some time in its past. Quite and easy job once I found the tiny Alen key needed to remove the LPG adapter. Runs a lot better on petrol now (not that it's going to much - not at around £1 a litre!) I've had fun trying to find sources of LPG at a fair price, but it's quite hard just to find LPG. There's one garage in Wrexham (which is the cheapest I've found in the area @ 42p a litre), two opposite each other on the A483 near Chirk, one next to the A55 by the Chester turn off and one in Denbigh. Luck the RRC's dual fuel, though at the overtaxed cost of petrol, it doesn't get to run on it that often! At least this RRC has a good heater (my last two vehicles didn't) and it also has the benefit of a CD player, so I can drown out the usual "Solihull" clonks and rattles (well, it is a fair few years old, to be fair!). It paid another visit to M&M4WD last month, to have the tranfer box oil seal and the transmission brake shoes replaced, along with all the crud cleaned out from the drum. It now doen't judder and sound like something out of Scrapyard Challenge, when you're coasting up to a junction. On the way back from our trip down Aberystwyth way, the air coming out of the heater suddenly went cold and I noticed the temperature gauge needle was heading towards the red, so I pulled over in a convenient layby and as I did the engine cut. I checked the water level, which was low, so topped up the header tank with hot water out of the flask and tried to restart the engine, to no avail. As my wife was with me and it was getting dark, I caled my recovery service (ETA) and 45 minutes later a recovery truck was in attendance. The non-starting problem was found to be caused by the coil to distributor wire coming loose and driving over the bumps into the layby must have been the last straw before elctrical contact was lost. I don't know how it became loose, as it had been checked only a few days previous and was a tight fit. Strange. He toppped up the header tank with antifreeze and followed us for a few miles to see if everything was alright, which it was. Another little annoying thing that has happened, is the exhaust manifold to downpipe gasket has started to fail, so it sounds like a Lister D now. as it's a b*gger of a job to remove the downpipe without breaking the studs, it's been treated to some "GunGum" until I get around to doing it properly. In the meantime, the studs have been soaked in penetrating oil to help loosen the nuts. I 've fitted the roof rack off the old RRC, basically to collect an onion crate to use as a compost bin. Description was a bit vague and this 'light weight' item was forklifted on at the other end. Great fun getting it off back home. If it wasn;t for our helpful neighbour, Ian, it would still be on the roof rack! It's been left on for the time being as I've got to pick up some old plastic containers to use as waterbutts to ensure my new vegetable garden gets an adequete supply of decent water. There's also some stuff to be collected for Aidventures' new Romania project. One thing I must do soon is fit the extended axle breathers. No doubt there'll be an opportunity to go wading before they are fitted! My 'new' seats are also waiting to be fitted, along with my Warn 8274 winch, which will probably use the 110 bumper it's already fitted in. Time will tell. And I need lots more of it! I was on my way to a show at the NEC on 1st May and, because of an accident on the M6, decided to use the M6 Toll. I got up to near the Services and pulled in for a coffee. Well, almost pulled in. Going around the roundabout before reaching the carpark, 'Herbie' decided he didn't want to continue playing and coasted to a standstill. I managed to move it further off the roundabout by use of the ignition key, before trying to restart it both on LPG and petrol. Nothing. The engine just happily turned over with no sign of firing. Checking for the usual loose wires, I couldn't see anything wrong and as it would fire on either fuels, assumed that the coil had probably failed. Ringing my recovery company ETA (again), a recovery vehicle was dispatched. After some considerable time, I had a call saying they couldn't find me. Stuck in the entrance to the only services on the M6 Toll, which is accessable from both north and southbound, I assumed I would be easy to locate. Wrong. They had been looking for me on the M6. Eventually, they found me, but not the fault, so I was taken back home. I called my Land Rover expert, Dave Kelly, who called around in about 15 minutes and in a similar amount of time had located the fault. After checking the coil, he found that the wires from the coil to the electronic distributor had come out of their protective casing and one had been cut through by the alternator. It was joined up, reinserted in its casing and taped well out of the way of the alternator. And 'Herbie' sprang back into life again. Great, except I didn't make the NEC show or picked up my engine. At least I can probably collect it when I go to Gaydon on Sunday 6th May. Aren't Land Rovers brilliant! Watch this space for updates... Tony Pritchard