|
Post by valhalla on Dec 21, 2019 1:03:53 GMT 1
Day_23 in the workshop;
The bushes on the front axle radius arms were the worst I have ever encountered on any Landrover job like this (Disco/RR/Defender); totally rusted to a paper-thin shell that was glued solidly to the inside of the radius arm eyelet. The bushes on the chassis ends of these arms are notorious for this, but I have always been lucky - until now.
A late start due to a call-to-arms in the shop this morning, but I now have the fundamentals of a front axle assembly loosely bolted to the front of the chassis frame tonight. I still need to attach spring-pans, etc. etc. then get the front coils in-place to allow the dampers to be secured top and bottom, at which point the see-saw action of the whole job under the ramp-arms will cease to be a problem. At the moment, it is a bit exciting as the whole lot crashes backwards onto the towing drop-plate.
I got another load of black Waxoyl into the box-sections this evening, and I reckon I now have a fairly good protection for the body. I am going to cheat on the front axles and its various brackets, by just waxing with Underbody Waxoyl the exposed surfaces, rather than painting first. This will give a reasonable cosmetic finish to everything without holding the whole resto up whilst I wait for paint to dry, and I can always go back in the future to clean and paint the front axle if I want to. I have done this with some success on other Landrover resto's in the past, and it seems to last a couple of years of hard use. The front axle in this case is largely still in its factory-finish paint, preserved as it is under the TD5 engine.........
|
|
|
Post by valhalla on Dec 22, 2019 0:25:23 GMT 1
Day_24 in the workshop - and it feels like something might be happening (for a change);
I got the front axle properly mounted into the frame, spring mounts and springs all aligned nicely, but then the usual disaster struck. I came to put the spangly new front dampers inside the spring coils before lifting the axle up, and thought to myself, "Someone is having a Toffee Crisp here". Yes, indeed, the lovely Monroe dampers have been built (or sourced like this) upside down - the bottom bobbin that bolts to the lower spring pan/axle-mount is at the top of the damper assembly. You cannot do anything about this unless you're prepared to push the upper and lower bushes out of the damper eyes, and swap them over. Twice. Without breaking anything that happens to be under gas-pressure.
I will contact the supplier on Monday and see what they say. I rather suspect that they can have them back, because there is definitely a Volvo sort of "GSF part number" etched into the side of the shroud, suggesting to me that these are not for a D2.......
Other than that, the chassis now balances, the front axle is sprayed with wax, the steering box, panhard-rod, and steering damper are in-place, and the last job I did tonight is to fit the fuel tank. That was a very tight squeeze this time, so it will have to stay in-place for the future of this car!
I did start to fit the rear air-suspension bags, but there might be complications there.....
|
|
|
Post by valhalla on Dec 23, 2019 22:40:57 GMT 1
Day_25 in the workshop, and we have skipped a day here - got nothing done yesterday due to domestic duties.....
I got a half-day in the workshop this morning, and the main obbective was to get the suspension components as complete as possible. To this end, I descaled both front and rear anti-roll bars (effectively these are the Landrover ACE - Active Cornering Enhancement - units with hydraulic rams that connect the two sides of the bars at each end). With them fitted in-place, it was not too messy a job to give them a quick blow-over with black Waxoyl, and they should be fine for a few more years yet.
The rams have to be "locked-out" in the even-keel mode of operation if the ACE system is to be bypassed. I do this hydraulically by blacking the ram hydraulic ports with welded-up banjo unions, after having filled both sides of the rams with 32-grade hydraulic oil with the suspension dangling evenly on its damper rebound limits - so keeping the anti-roll bars square either side of the vehicle. This means that the anti-roll system is working at its stiffest all the time, which can lead to a harsh ride over rough roads, so what I do is leave just a tiny bit of air-gap below the banjo unions.
Christmas is finally here; I might get something done tomorrow worth posting about, so we will have to see what Santa brings then. What he has brought today is THE WHEELS AND TYRES, which is the best Xmas present ever.... It means that I can get the running-gear down on the ground and the rear EAS pumped-up to a moderate pressure for leak-checks.
|
|
|
Post by valhalla on Dec 25, 2019 2:37:55 GMT 1
Day_26 in the workshop;
With a little help from my pal who is now with me, but not intending to spend the whole holiday playing with the D2 (it needs to be out of the way!!!) I did get a little bit done this evening.
The rear brakes are now fully built-up and overhauled as-necessary, allowing the rear wheels to go on properly, and this has finally allowed the rear axle to go down onto the floor. So the air suspension unit was rigged-up with a slave electrical harness to drive the compressor and each of the rear delivery valves to the rear suspension bags, and we now have a chassis that is able to support itself safely at the back end.
Photos to follow, but with Xmas now well and truly on top of me, I might not be 100% up-to-date with the progress.
|
|
|
Post by valhalla on Dec 29, 2019 2:33:38 GMT 1
Well, I have lost what time we have spent, or not spent, in the workshop.........
The axles are both populated with new brakes throughout, and that has allowed us to roll the frame and running gear forwards onto the 4-post ramps whilst the body is dropped-down to floor level again for more work.
I have been able to start on returning all the wiring harnesses and pipework back to the inner wheelarches where it belongs, and my pal has reproduced the manifold of brake lines (3-off) from the ABS modulator down to the nearside wheelarch bracket in CuNi line today. With a little more painting to the bracket that the lines run towards, and with new "jump hoses" that couple these to the rear lines along the chassis, the whole of the pipework on the car, except for one section over the back of the engine bay (plastic-coated steel line for the offside front brakes) is renewed. This is quite important, as I have noticed once or twice on these cars that the peripheral lines get replaced, but the engine-bay lines are often neglected to the point that the (almost hidden) unions and lines within are very rusty just inboard of the wheelarches - not a great way to improve safety!
The main lines along the chassis for the rear brakes are fabricated and clipped in-place, and I have been able to get the crossmembers under the bulkhead and gearbox (a common problem area) cleaned, painted, and bolted in-place. This is less than straightforward with a new chassis, as there are 8 fixings per crossmember, all with a relative tolerance to one-another and also across the chassis frame - often too tight with a new chassis. This means that it all has to be jacked to fit, and all with fixings that have been hand-cut to a precise length for this application - so they don't start into the chassis captive threads too well.........
I will try to get some photos posted, but the weather discourages me to take the camera down to the workshop, lest it gets deluged!!!
The plan is to try and get the powertrain into the frame this weekend, but that depends on a dry stretch of weather.......
|
|
|
Post by voicey on Dec 29, 2019 9:33:26 GMT 1
Sounds like you are making progress. What is your expected lifetime of the car after these works?
|
|
|
Post by rhyds on Dec 29, 2019 9:36:49 GMT 1
Keep plodding on chief!
|
|
|
Post by valhalla on Dec 29, 2019 21:06:49 GMT 1
Sounds like you are making progress. What is your expected lifetime of the car after these works? I would expect a minimum of 7years, but typically I have seen 20years on the vehicles I have restored - given that there was a good reason to restore them in the first place.
It's a bit tricky when you have a separate body (prone to rusting) on a new chassis, because the body itself will often dictate the length of service you could expect. In the case of things like a Classic RangeRover, which are particularly prone to re-rusting with allacrity if the corrosion is not stamped-out 100% at restoration, it can take about 5years before the rot starts again. It will not make a vehicle null-and-void, but it takes the shine off the restoration......
So in this particular car's case, I would expect about 5years before some light remedial work is needed, and a further 7years before some more serious work is going to be needed (things like footwell corrosion or major bits of inner wheelarch - that sort of thing).
One thing that will not corrode, even on Skye, is the chassis. As that is the single component that kills Discovery 2 vehicles, having something that is measured in decades, not years, is a very good thing! Expectations for the chassis, notwithstanding accidents, are around 35years minimum.
|
|
|
Post by valhalla on Dec 29, 2019 21:18:23 GMT 1
Some nice CuNi brake-line work happened today. All of the system is now ready for mating together at body-drop, which is a major step forwards.
I have started to rebuild all the engine-bay items removed as a sideline to getting the extra welding done, and as of tonight the inner wheelarches have wax-protection and electrical harnesses.
Tomorrow should bring a mating of the powertrain with the chassis, but the weather really needs to improve before I can risk that - the high winds and persistent rain make lowering the powertrain down (outside the workshop) too difficult with the digger, and a bit dangerous.
|
|
|
Post by valhalla on Jan 7, 2020 1:49:30 GMT 1
Well..... many apologies for suddenly going so quiet here.......
To cut one of my long stories short, we have a guest with us at the moment, but we have also appeared to have imported a very nasty cold virus that has wiped-out the household for several days! So, no blame or pack-drills here........
Despite the awful state of health, my pal and I have still been able to slot some Disco2 work in amongst whatever we were supposed to be doing - effectively mobilising my fleet of old & dead Rovers/LR's one-by-one, then getting them into the new workshop extension.
Where we have now got-to is that the powertrain was partially overhauled and serviced (where I could find the parts in-stock to do the work) and the rest is possible later. The body is now back down on the chassis, and solidly secured to torque on all 14 fixings. This means that the whole vehicle as a contiguous unit can be wheeled in and out of the workshop front end, as it rolls very nicely with its new and spangly brakes, allowing said classic Rovers to be brought through one at a time. Most significant to this is Mrs. Valhalla's RangeRover 2-door classic, as that needed the Disco2 body right out of the way to get through; the cars would go under the 2-poster ramps up in the air, but not the RR.
The rear end of the Disco2 is a bit close to the floor, as I have only put a small amount of air into the system by running the EAS module manually, so that is one job I may have to deal-with tomorrow, albeit this time I will have to power it through the main harness now. Having a low tow-ball makes it difficult to push/pull the vehicle without scraping something against the concrete......
There are still loads of jobs to do - both planned in the schedule-sheets, and unplanned in the scheme of things - to get this thing running properly. One of the special jobs for this particular vehicle was to deal with the transmission WXYZ position switch plausibility error/s that were creeping in when I inspected the car initially. I was able to point my pal in the direction of the likely culprit ("Just look where that P-clip used to sit on the harness over the transfer housing, strip it all back, inspect each wire individually, repair with new as-found") and he was able to find an immediate 3-wires that had failed inside the insulation. So hopefully that will have fixed all the problems there, but everything else is easy to track-down with the car together again. As it turns-out, I have advised LR owners of D2 Auto's for several years, and hundreds of times now, all to no avail on this subject - they never blinking-well listen when I tell them to leave the WXYZ switch alone and just concentrate on the harness/connectors running to it! I have personally found one failed switch on dozens of D2's that exhibit failed harnesses, so the odds are in favour of a harness failure.....
I really will try to get some photos - the camera is a bit fragile, and not mine......... - but I have been able to do lots of one-off repairs to this restoration to save money and improve the design a bit. Easy when it's a LR....
|
|
|
Post by valhalla on Jan 12, 2020 0:50:35 GMT 1
I finally got some time on the Disco2, as my pal went home yesterday morning, meaning I am now free to tackle to immediate crisis of no "works transport" ie. 4x4.
Yesterday was largely taken-up by ABS wiring for the front sensors, specifically running a complete new cable from FOS hub to ABS controller plug in LH footwell. I still have a small repair to make on the FNS sensor lead (cut to lift the body) but that should be fairly quick and easy.
By end-of-play tonight, I have been able to reassemble all the electrickery into the LH footwell and reinstall the heater blower module, get all the carpet and ducting back in-place on the centre console and lefthandside of the car, get all the lower dash and glovebox reinstalled, fit the sill finishers, and improve the rest of the dashboard security by inventing some better replacement fixings to the centre console. So, in-effect, the interior of the car is now back to "standard body-lift job" status, except for the missing passenger seat; I'll leave that out until the last minute, as it's handy to be able to access the gear-selectors and centre console switchgear without having to mine through a great leather impediment.
I have modified the headlamp shell supports (three plastic ball-sockets per unit) that always crack-up on these lamps - and in my case 4 of 6 are broken - with tie-wraps to ensure the lamps don't fall out on the first good test-brake! The little plastic bits are becoming very hard to source, except for buying them with new shells, so I'm looking around for a longer-term solution, otherwise I'll have to get busy with some nylon bar and decent adhesive.
Tomorrow (Sunday) could prove to be a short day, as explained elsewhere, due to Mrs. Valhalla's shop till throwing its toys out of the pram.........
|
|
|
Post by valhalla on Jan 12, 2020 21:46:33 GMT 1
A short day, but productive in one or two respects;
Having given-up trying to find all my TD5 stock, I placed an order for another load of service parts last week, which yielded the cam-cover gasket and cyclone oil filter that I needed to finish the engine servicing (oil leaks fixing and injector harness replacement). This is not as easy as doing the work on the bare engine in the chassis, as the bulkhead obscures the back of the cam-cover on the Discovery's (Defenders are much easier) - I'm hoping that I don't get a new oil leak down the back of the 'head after tonight........
The air-con system is now all in one sealed piece, and all its harness extension to the standard engine-bay loom is now clipped solidly and plugged-in.
A break in the FNS ABS loom near the wheelarch has been solder-repaired, and should suffice for an MoT - if the light stays out long enough for that, I'll be happy....
I am going to have to investigate a slight nagging doubt I have with the rear air suspension; the car appears to be leaning ever so slightly to the driver's side, which may be due to the front coil springs, or an imbalance on the rear air-bags (which I only manually refilled with a tape-measure), but either way I'll need to make sure that the car can sort itself out once the battery is back on it again. The worry is that the car was leaning ever so slightly the same way when I first inspected it last year.....and had put that down to having an EAS sensor calibration error due to the rubbish materials selection that the supplier of the sensors chose - alloy bushes within a rubberised housing, secured by a steel screw - which had exploded assymetrically on one side of the car. I will have to wait until I can fire the EAS into life properly.
|
|
|
Post by valhalla on Jan 14, 2020 23:50:32 GMT 1
Yesterday was somewhat interrupted by power-cuts.....
Today, a short day (due to my duties to the shop) put a conclusion on the bulk of the interior work around the centre console and all the associated wiring. I'm having to clean everything up as I go along with the reassembly, meaning that the vehicle is looking much, much smarter tonight than when I first dismantled the car. This is the advantage to having all the trim in sections on the floor in front of the car; I can get around the whole periphery of each item and properly blow it clean, wash it in trim shampoo, and get it properly dry. The centre console of these "lifestyle" Landrovers quite often contains enough food and crumbs to feed the 5000, so it is always a relief to clean a car out before starting to use it!
I'm using a general purpose fabric & trim wash, neat and with a toothbrush, to "detail" all the nooks and crannies, and so-far it is working well. One or two bits of the most vulnerable surfaces are going to need a better finish - probably a re-colouration paint from somewhere like Woolies - but the first-impression of the centre console is that it is like new, and all the switches are likely to stay working for a few more years......until they next get filled with KitKat crumbs......
The list of jobs for the recommisioning is growing longer, as each control cable and adjustment is needing a fine-tune once the battery is reconnected. Today's worry is that the plausibility between the gearbox WXYZ switch and the interior position/detents is not quite as good as I had first thought, now that the lever (and hence the detents) is properly fitted. I'll see.........
|
|
|
Post by studabear on Jan 15, 2020 0:10:34 GMT 1
Can you see light at the end of the tunnel yet then?
|
|
|
Post by rhyds on Jan 15, 2020 12:01:42 GMT 1
Can you see light at the end of the tunnel yet then? Not if there's a power cut!
|
|