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Post by valhalla on Jun 18, 2023 21:50:20 GMT 1
Progress has been made, and I hope to get some nice photo's of the work in the morning (when the camera has sprung to life again).
Broadly-speaking, the chassis is being used as a hanging-rack for all the suspension arms and brackets that are going to be needed to attach the front and rear axles to the frame. All brackets/arms/axles have had their respective doses of enamel paint, and that is curing-off as I type this.
I had a load of trouble with facilities and tools during the week - probably the heat - meaning that I had to spend much longer than scheduled to strip and clean the various bits of suspension. The final straw came on Thursday night, when the hydraulic press decided to go on strike. In the middle of the first upper-A-frame arm de-bushing. With my 24mm deep impact 1/2" drive socket wedged within the bush outer cage (remains of rubber were jammed inbetween it and the cage). All tools that were broken, are now fixed and have done their jobs/
More orders have had to go out, the last tonight, as I realise more and more bits that I thought I had, in-fact I cannot find. So standard-rate front springs have had to go on the order-sheet tonight, for example.
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Post by valhalla on Jun 19, 2023 23:00:23 GMT 1
Everything painted (so-far) is still hung underneath the new chassis, curing to itself today;
The painting was the easy bit, although the enamel I'm using is a bit like hard-work when it comes to getting enough on in one go, without it going to curtains. I found that I didn't need solvents this time (I probably should have used a small proportion of solvents, but I don't have enough to go around.....). There are several bits hung under the chassis which have cost me a lorra, lorra time; the fulcrum bracket for the self-leveling Boge was one of them;
It took me over 2hours to get this separated from the rest of its components, and get the main balljoint out. All the "forum heros" on other sites (mainly Landrover "experts") would all be shouting right now, "Just fit a new bracket". Well, if you want the extra bit of metal that carries the lower balljoint for the Boge strut, unlike many Defenders (which don't have self-leveling) then you have to be prepared to cough-up for £550+VAT of unobtainium, rather than the usual £60 which includes the main balljoint for the axle on everything else. I went for the "restoration" option on this one......my time is still worth it here.
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Post by valhalla on Jun 19, 2023 23:08:06 GMT 1
The rear axle was not as bad as I feared it would be - mainly because I was spraying, not brushing - but the front axle was extremely fiddly. Once you take the track-rod off the front axle, the front wheels just want to flop everywhere, and if the brakes happen to be sticking, rotating the axle around its drive-axis is not easy, not least when you have a gravity-fed gun still in one hand.....
The aim of the axles, at this stage, is to get enough painted between the spring and damper mounts, so as to allow the axle to be bolted back up with the suspension under the chassis. This then allows you to work on the outboard stub-axles, brakes, swivels, etc. without disturbing any new paint, and at the same time, once it all looks good mechanically, you can make a decent job with a small overlap of the paint. Trying to do the outboard bits with a loose axle is just "hard work", and they always fall off the central jacking beam if you try (I have, in the past).
Enough paint seems to have stayed on the axles, so they will go on the chassis by the end of this week;
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Post by valhalla on Jun 22, 2023 22:58:18 GMT 1
Progress has been steady this week - I'm about on-target for the end of this week. Not a great amount of progress, but some.......
The biggest issue yesterday was reassembly of the Boge self-levelling strut and joints. I had to wait for three joints to turn-up; 2-off of the little joints top/bottom of the strut, then the main balljoint A-frame to axle that sits in the Boge fulcrum bracket. I almost thought that the supplier of the Boge strut joints had forgotten to pack them - I found them in another box inside the first.....
Anyway, reassembly of the Boge was much easier than disassembly, but still a nightmare to assemble the respective seals and gaiters, all aligned correctly, whilst still being able to get inside to spanner the joints into the actual Boge strut itself. I nearly lost the plot, but finally got there last night at 8:30pm.
Biggest "wasted time" delay has been the fuel tank. I cleaned it up yesterday morning, but it did not look great on the top surface. Having prevaricated about a better replacement, it turns out that nobody does a better one off-the-shelf, so I went back down the route of "fixing it" with an epoxy sealer......until this morning, when I came to clean the tank again ready for rust-conversion prior to epoxying.....it was a lot worse in the new cold light of day. So a new, cheap-and-cheerful Britpart tank has been ordered, just as c**p as the old one, just less rusty at this precise moment. I'm hoping to get the new one treated a bit better than this one (I fitted it in 2013, and it did have a load of paint and wax at that time) with some really decent enamel all over, cured-off completely, then flooded with wax.
The rear axle is going on to the chassis right now, and I hope to get a photo or two of the progress by tomorrow night.
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Post by valhalla on Jun 24, 2023 0:00:51 GMT 1
Axles are both on, as is the rear A-frame & Boge assembly. All is torqued-up to spec as-of this evening, and all would be well in this world if;
a) The camera had not packed-up on the mobile again b) It's p***ing with rain, so making it not easy to get the big, posh camera down to the workshop c) I realise my first, really big omission on the parts-schedule : The panhard rod has not been de-scaled and painted, yet, so the front axle is not as secure as I would like it, in order to push the chassis around the workshop, also the Polybushes for the same are missing out of my SuperPro kit for this rebuild (on the shelf since 2016) meaning someone else's Defender has had a "free" set of panhard Polybushes....
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Post by valhalla on Jun 25, 2023 23:07:50 GMT 1
Well, the photos are a bit "busy" - comes from having a chaotic workshop right now - but hopefully this imparts the general scene;
Although the front springs are new, the rear ones have been reused, and I haven't even painted them. It lets the job down a bit, but they are easy bits to swap later-on if they really nag on my conscience. The rear springs are the originals, and they are finished in a way that makes me think I cannot really improve them much, not least after the paint starts peeling back off them. They survived being outside and alongside the "rusty bits" at the back of this vehicle, so I think a wipe over the coils with an oily rag would be the best policy here.
The area that caused me so much trouble was the Boge assembly;
It is typical now of all the other bits of suspension, with new joints throughout, and all fixings in A4-80 stainless steel. This is a pain to work-with, as you cannot use speed-tools with it (nut-runners, etc.), but I like to manually do critical things up anyway, just in-case there's trouble ahead before the full torque has been applied. All suspension front and back is all torqued-up now, so the big deal is to get the panhard-rod and steering gear all painted, dried and fitted. I'm still waiting for the fuel tank, and that will be the critical path to getting the chassis properly mobile, as the rear towing equipment cannot be fitted until the tank/cradle are in.
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Post by OldGit on Jun 26, 2023 7:22:04 GMT 1
Did you change the ball joint on the fulcrum? They were a 'popular' item on the Range Rover where the same self-levelling was used Item 16 above
Looking good!
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Post by valhalla on Jun 26, 2023 22:28:24 GMT 1
Did you change the ball joint on the fulcrum? They were a 'popular' item on the Range Rover where the same self-levelling was used Item 16 above
Looking good!
Yes, I put a new Lemfoerder joint back into the fulcrum. Needless to say, new fixings were required.....
It was the job of getting the old balljoint out that took quite a bit of time - this vehicle was on its original from 1998 - which required the "full monty" of techniques to move. I usually power-wire-brush around the back of the joint where the fulcrum is hollow, then soak these in penetrating oil overnight. After that, it ought to be possible to remove the two screws securing the joint to the fulcrum, securing two longer screws into the holes, then using a puller-arm against these whilst it is fastened over the balljoint itself. Not a hope in this case. Even with heat to the fulcrum-bracket surrounding the joint.
"No worries" I said to myself, "we will slice around the joint flange, slip a large socket over the top of the balljoint, and just pull it out on the balljoint thread." Still no hope, it just stripped the balljoint thread on both joint and nut.
"Right, you b******, now you are in trouble" Angle-grinder applied across whole joint, to bring the remains flush to the securing-face of the fulcrum. Big socket around the remains, all upside down on the anvil, lots of heat, 5lb club-hammer on biggest drift through the void in the back of the fulcrum bracket. That moved it, just took 2hours longer than expected........
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Post by OldGit on Jun 27, 2023 7:14:08 GMT 1
I remember doing them in the early 90's without the benefit of having removed the body from the chassis... *shudder*
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Post by rhyds on Jun 27, 2023 11:36:11 GMT 1
"Right, you b******, now you are in trouble" Angle-grinder applied across whole joint, to bring the remains flush to the securing-face of the fulcrum. Big socket around the remains, all upside down on the anvil, lots of heat, 5lb club-hammer on biggest drift through the void in the back of the fulcrum bracket. That moved it, just took 2hours longer than expected........
Apply the high speed rotating noisy spanner! (The slow speed rotating noisy spanner is you with a scaffolding pipe and swearing)
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Post by valhalla on Jun 27, 2023 13:00:17 GMT 1
I remember doing them in the early 90's without the benefit of having removed the body from the chassis... *shudder* I think that is why so many RangeRovers used to drive around with shot A-frame balljoints, and sloppy back-axle location to go with it
Even MoT stations used to "look the other way" on the two (smaller) joints on the self-levelling Boge unit - on the basis "You find it, you fix it ! " and nobody wants the job of replacing these sorts of things on a wet Monday morning. In fairness, it's only the owner that knows about the Boge joints, as they only have to just look OK for the MoT (the Boge doesn't locate the axle) and you can always turn the radio up to hide the knocking over rough roads.
The thought of having to do this job with an assembled vehicle......is exactly why I went out of my way to sort it all out now. I'm not getting any younger, and the last thing I need is the main A-frame joint to wear-out in a year's time. The old joint was OK, but the gaiter was split badly, and I couldn't really hide it anymore; it had been "gone" for a couple of years, and I thought I had pushed my luck as far as it would go, with continual washing-out with solvents and refilling with Moly grease each annual service.
The Boge joints were well and truly worn, definite knocking over bouncy roads with a load in the back, and no question about free-play once it was all on the bench. I don't know how long these are going to last - they are not Lemfoerder or equivalent, and the bottom one did not inspire me with confidence on the "nip" against the plastic thrust-knuckle under the pin. I did it up good and tight, but a few extra thou's of nip would have been a bit better. We will see.....
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Post by valhalla on Jul 1, 2023 0:18:27 GMT 1
Well, overall this week has been a bit slow; Monday morning was occupied by spraying the second batch of parts (fuel tank cradle, towing framework, etc.) with enamel - but it went wrong.
Having precluded being able to work around the (still wet) parts until Tuesday a.m., the rest of the day was spent in the electrical room doing other things. It wasn't until Tuesday that I realised that the paint was "reacting" pretty badly - what actually had happened was it that it went on too cold, too thick, and with too high an air-pressure out the gun behind it. So it went rippled and skinned, and one particular item, the drag-link, was just awful along the bottom side of the spray.
So I had to scrape some of the paint back off, and bake the rest during Wednesday/Thursday in the back of a spare Volvo estate that was parked in the sunshine (what little we had). The rest of the enamel work this week was subsequently done by brush, including repainting some of the worst bits from earlier in the week. This was helped by the new fuel tank arriving on Wednesday evening, meaning that I now have the bulk of the critical components to get the rear of the chassis dressed, and that was the primary item to hang-up and paint alongside the other parts;
The tank has had a moderate first-coat on Thursday night, and at the same time I was able to paint the overhauled O/S swivel housing, and the cleaned-up N/S swivel housing;
But....I have boxed myself into a corner with parts-supply again, because it transpires I need not only new brake calipers all round, for various reasons, but also I now need 4 fairly critical brackets to go either side of the swivel-pins on both sides of the axle, to carry the (new) brake mudshields. This means that the swivel preloads I have set-up are going to be disturbed slightly, when I come to fit those new brackets, and I'm also going to drop a bit of swivel-grease out the N/S swivel seal, all over the paintwork I have just done, as that side has not been drained - no overhaul of bearings needed, just a re-shim on the top-pin. You cannot easily drain these housings on later Landrovers, as no drain-plug is provided; they are designed for special "filled for death" swivel grease - or until the pins need overhauling.
The ultimate boxing myself in has come from the fact that I need a new O/S stub-axle to go onto my overhauled swivel housing, and that is also somewhere on the road between here and Derbyshire right now. The old stub axle is not too bad, but the wheel bearings are not a brilliant fit over some wear that has occurred from spinning internal races at some point in the past, so new bearings (whatever their providence) are not going to adjust correctly to achieve a wobble-free feel on wheel-rock. Just to add to my woes, I have decided to order-in some genuine Timken bearings for this corner, as the Britpart stock I have is not as durable, and I don't want to have to touch any of this for a few years again.
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Post by valhalla on Jul 1, 2023 0:27:02 GMT 1
As I intend to paint the second coat of enamel on the fuel tank with it fitted in-situ, what I am doing is getting all the fittings for the tank sorted-out right now, so they can be built into the tank and painted as part of it. The main component is the sender unit on the side of the tank, a new OEM part I have bought for this job;
What the photo above shows is that although this is an OEM part, I have modified it slightly with a belt-and-braces approach, always needed on this era of Defender fuel tank, to ensure that the fuel pick-up pipe cannot suck air. Cheaper units do not have decent glue between the metal internal pickup tube and plastic flange, so the pipe drops-out (or wobbles) and air just gets drawn up to the engine every time the fuel level drops below a 1/2-tank. Not a well-known problem, but very common, and I despair of other forums that deride the 300Tdi for being "cranky" in old age - it is just the fuel system!
So what I do on every sender unit, OEM or not, is to epoxy around the pickup tube to flange joint, and let that cure for a day or so before fitting. This OEM part will probably not fail like cheaper parts, but it has a second line-of-defense now.
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Post by OldGit on Jul 1, 2023 9:02:30 GMT 1
I like that! Obviously it can only work reliably on a new unit, well worth the time spent.
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Post by valhalla on Jul 1, 2023 22:35:26 GMT 1
I like that! Obviously it can only work reliably on a new unit, well worth the time spent.
I have done this on a used unit once, but yes, it was pretty evil to get the whole lot clean and de-dieseled to make a good bond on the plastic flange side. I think I ended-up drilling-out the flange orifice very slightly to oversize it, and making sure I drilled a rough hole! It was all an emergency at the time, fortunately the engine had run for long enough to get the fuel-level down below the bottom of the flange, and I was able to jack the nearside of the vehicle up to tilt the tank to the driver's side. On that occasion, it was a clear-cut problem; a cheap-and-nasty pattern sender had been fitted 2weeks prior, and now the vehicle was dying.....it lived just as far as my workshop. I had no spare senders in-stock for the 110/130, so it was either wait a week, or fix what I had around me.
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