Just got the Defender back yesterday from Dean’s. The occasional starting problem persists. In the past, it would fire up immediately after two cranks. Now it does that only after a recent use. If it sits for a while, especially overnight or longer, it takes any number of cranks, or a second try, and then sometimes it fires up on with a labored startup. Right now, it always fires up on the second try, or sometimes on the first if I turn the key to the second position to let the fuel pump prime the engine. The best guess is that that has something to do with the new RPI Tornado chip (for the more powerful engine) I had installed after the I brought the Defender back home in 2016. I hate leaving for my trip with this problem still lingering and undiagnosed, but I have to take the risk. Under a worst-case scenario, if the vehicle acts up on me again at the most distant point expected on the trip, it will cost me $5600 to have to shipped back home again. But I am sure I would do exactly what I did in 2016 before I resort to that option, but this time I will rent as vehicle and drive home. But I am confident it will not come to that, so off we will go.
Other than the starting issue, the Defender is in the best shape it has been in for years, if not ever. Well, almost. On the way home from Dean’s yesterday, the horn sounded a little weak. So, when I got home I tired it again and it was gone. Hopefully, Dean can order one on Tuesday and have it installed by Friday so I can leave as planned.
I am now in the red zone for planning and preparing. This means I will have to spend just about every waking moment working on my To-Do list to get on the road. But as my rules required, I will not leave until I am 100% ready to go. And I am as determined to get on the road again after a one-year delay as much as I was to make it back home with the Defender and take it on another journey two years ago after the engine failed on the Alaskan Hiway.
ED & Donner
