Jeff R's Journal

I finally got back my Land Rover Series III after a 3 year restoration. The vehicle looked and ran like new. In fact, it looked better than new. I bought this LR new in 1974, so I know what new looked like. I figured that nothing can wrong now. No more breaking down in out of the way places, and no more worrying about it getting started on those cold winter mornings.
After driving anywhere I could the first day back, I parked in the garage (it will now be garaged as opposed to living outdoors as it had been for the last 40 years), looking forward to the next day of adventure. As luck would have it, when I went to start it the next morning, nothing happened. The starter just whined but wouldn't engage. I knew it had to be a hung up Bendix, but how could that be, my LR just had a full restoration. No way this could happen.
I immediately emailed the restorer who wrote back that the old starter worked just fine, so he reinstalled it on the rebuilt engine that was put in the vehicle. I couldn't believe he could do that, but as they say, it is what it is. I got the LR started with the crank (lucky to have that) and ordered a new starter from British Atlantic.
Since everything is new, replacing the starter wasn't really a hard job, but still frustrating insofar that it never should have gone bad in the first place.
Oh well, at least it's OK now.