Defender back in action...

I replaced the bent track rod on the Defender on Thursday. First thing was to jack it up and remove the tires to get to the ends of the track rod. Remove the cotter-pin and the bolt. Remove the center guard that keeps the rod from getting bent too badly so you can drive it home after a good bend and the rod pops right off. It wasn't too bad a job other than the ends that were frozen on. It took my father standing on two monkey wrenches attached to the rod while I pulled for all I was worth on the ends with a pair of 16" channel locks. And after all that they barely came off. The rest of the job was pretty simple. Put the caps on the new rod and drop into place. Shannon took it to PepBoys to get realigned on Friday and the job is done. As you can see by the pic it was only slightly bent. :-)

The Defender no longer handles like a wildebeest on crack and goes where I point it.

My next job is to replace the turn signal assembly that is broken. Bump it the wrong way and the horn sounds, and keeps sounding until you pull it back out. Quite annoying in traffic. I bought the new assembly on eBay for $10. Not a bad deal.

: Gumbo from the album "Live Phish 10 - Disc 1" by Phish