Member Since: 12 Feb 2013
Location: Fife
Posts: 6528
Looking good,
It's funny how lots of little bits and pieces make a big difference
Do the black badges just pop in or need stuck with something? What did you use?
I left my mudflaps long as I can always shorten them if needs be but I quite like the look of the longer ones
D3 57 xs Stornaway grey
D2 02 commercial silver gone but a great servant and won't be forgotten
Iid Bluetooth
31st May 2014 6:35 am
LandRoverAnorak
Member Since: 06 Mar 2014
Location: Surrey
Posts: 1172
Thanks Alan.
I bought the black badges from Beanie and they came fitted with adhesive tape on the back. Once the old ones have been removed (which destroys them in the process), the new ones then just stick in.Darren
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia
Member Since: 06 Mar 2014
Location: Surrey
Posts: 1172
Having sold my Sankey trailer yesterday, I've bought myself a little consolation prize today:
Click image to enlarge
Not quite as cool as a wide track, but more suited to my current needs Still, I've got a few modifications planned...
For now though, gratuitous picture time: I was in a meeting earlier in the week and realised that I could see my Land Rover from the meeting room window, so had to take a picture
Click image to enlarge
Darren
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia
Last edited by LandRoverAnorak on 22nd Mar 2024 9:40 pm. Edited 1 time in total
7th Jun 2014 2:25 pm
LandRoverAnorak
Member Since: 06 Mar 2014
Location: Surrey
Posts: 1172
Spent a bit of time today making my new trailer a bit more Land Rover friendly by adding some marker poles to the rear corners. This enables it to be seen in the rear view mirror and makes it much easier to reverse:
Click image to enlarge
The poles are 20mm plastic conduit with the top eight inches or so primed and painted bright yellow. They slot into ordinary conduit saddle clamps that have been bolted to the sides of the body, and can be easily removed when not needed.
I also bolted a nice stainless bracket to the front of my garage as an anchor point for a bit of security:
Click image to enlarge
I've got a jockey wheel and some prop stands on order and I've started drawing up plans to make a lid for it.Darren
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia
Member Since: 06 Mar 2014
Location: Surrey
Posts: 1172
Not sure yet, to be honest. I plan to change the front valve block as I have the 'front sinking overnight' problem. Changing the dryer just seems like a good idea given the age of the vehicle, and I thought I'd see if I can do so without removing the compressor. If not, I'll need to buy some spare nut inserts as I gather they're a pain to re-use.Darren
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia
Member Since: 06 Mar 2014
Location: Surrey
Posts: 1172
Front Valve Block Replacement
Well, changed the front valve block this morning, which seemed to go ok. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if it's cured the 'front sinking overnight' problem, of course.
In preparation, I put the vehicle in access mode yesterday, as I figured it'd make depressurising the suspension easier. I hadn't thought through supporting it properly though, as it was then too low to get an axle stand underneath I ended up with some blocks of wood under the chassis where the front suspension arm bolts on, which worked ok.
Anyway, I removed the front RH wheel, removed a variety of plastic rivets and screws from the wheel arch liner and pulled it back to expose the valve block. I used a bungee to hold it back to save fighting with it:
Click image to enlarge
The valve block was easy to reach and pull its' rubber mountings off of the inside face of the front bumper. Here it is after I'd just removed the electrical connector plug:
Click image to enlarge
Following instructions I'd read on here and seen on a Youtube video, I then cracked the seal on the brass Voss connector to the green pipe until I could here air escaping and went and made a cup of tea. When I came back the hissing had stopped, so I was able to remove it completely. I then went to remove the other two, which was slightly tricky as they wouldn't revolve on the pipes and so took a bit of fiddling to release them. I was a bit surprised to still find some air pressure behind the top connector, but again it only took a minute or two to subside.
With all connections removed, I pushed the pipe through each connector in turn to expose the small brass collets on the ends. These were then broken off with pliers so that the connectors could be slid off the ends of the pipes. The pipes were then pushed into the new connectors already mounted in the new valve block, the electrical plug re-connected, and the whole thing re-mounted on the bumper:
Click image to enlarge
One interesting thing to note was the presence of fine white dust inside the ends of the three pipes. This is clearly from breaking down of the desiccants in the air drier, so replacing this is next on the list of things to do.
With the new valve block in place, re-fixing the arch liner and re-mounting the wheel was straightforward. With everything back together, it was time to start it up and test the suspension. Everything worked pretty much as expected, although I did get a 'suspension raising slowly' message, which I've put down to the fact that the system was completely empty. Unfortunately, I also got an 'extended mode' warning when trying to select access mode, which I'd also got whilst doing the same as preparation described above. This seems to be related to the rear, as it's that that ends up extended. It seems to clear after a couple of attempts but it's clearly indicative of another issue. Deep joy Darren
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia
Last edited by LandRoverAnorak on 24th Mar 2024 2:59 pm. Edited 1 time in total
23rd Jun 2014 7:19 am
LandRoverAnorak
Member Since: 06 Mar 2014
Location: Surrey
Posts: 1172
May have spoken too soon Front end stays up overnight still, which is good, but for the first time ever this morning I got a red suspension light half a mile from home and a series of messages warning max speed 30mph and special programmes unavailable. Stopped, turned it off and on again, and the problem went away. I briefly got a 'normal height selected' message and then the whole thing was fine for the rest of the ten mile trip to work. Hmmm
I shall do some fault code reading when I've got some time later.Darren
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia
Member Since: 06 Mar 2014
Location: Surrey
Posts: 1172
Air Drier Replacement
Well, following my last post, the suspension did settle down and there were no more warning lights. The only outstanding issue was that it wasn't possible to select access mode. Every try resulted in it thinking that it was getting hung up on something and then going into extended mode. No faults, warning lights or other issues, but frustrating nonetheless. Reading up on the symptoms on here suggested that it could be a blocked air drier, for which I'd already bought a replacement, and yesterday was the first chance I'd had to have a go at swapping it.
I began by putting it into off-road height and then onto ramps, to make crawling underneath easier:
Click image to enlarge
I then thought I was going to fail at the first hurdle when the first bolt that I touched sheared off
Click image to enlarge
With the other bolts removed and the bottom cover out of the way I was then slightly dismayed to be faced with a broken bracket:
Click image to enlarge
My original plan was to remove the entire compressor and I'd bought replacement spire nuts for the chassis with that in mind. Given the state of the bracket though, and the fact that I couldn't work out how to remove the top cover to get to the top bolt, I thought I'd have a go at doing it in-situ. The drier is a push-and-twist connection to the compressor but the challenge is a single securing screw that needs to be accessed from above. However, with most of the foam from the top cover removed and by using a small ratchet spanner fitted with a bit holder, with some perseverance and a little swearing, I managed to extract the screw:
Click image to enlarge
With all of the pipes and cables removed and/or disconnected, removing the old drier was then quite simple, although I did need to prise it away from the compressor spigot with a screwdriver.
Fitting the new one was essentially the reverse. I cleaned up the compressor spigot with some wire wool as it was a bit 'crusty' and swapped the small 'O' ring on the spigot with the new one supplied with the drier. The new drier was a tight fit and needed some persuasion to go back on the spigot but generally all was good. Putting the securing screw back in was a bit easier with a lightly oiled thread.
Click image to enlarge
With the air pipes connected back to the blue and red push-fit connectors and the electrical plugs re-connected, I started the engine and the compressor ran for a few seconds and then cut out as normal. When back off the ramps, I selected access mode and after almost getting there, it still failed in extended mode. However, on subsequent tries it's worked perfectly, which is great.
I took the old drier apart and found the top part of the chamber to be full of sand-like granules, which is clearly the desiccant breaking down:
Click image to enlarge
The lower part of the chamber was absolutely stuffed with more desiccant and the pads at top and bottom were very compressed. Not sure if a new one is the same (I didn't feel the need to disassemble my new one before fitting!) but it does fit with the idea that the thing was choked and hampering performance.
Click image to enlarge
Anyway, I'm pleased with the result so far. I don't expect the compressor to last forever but I think I've probably extended its' life by a useful amount.Darren
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia
Last edited by LandRoverAnorak on 24th Mar 2024 3:07 pm. Edited 2 times in total
27th Jul 2014 4:46 pm
LandRoverAnorak
Member Since: 06 Mar 2014
Location: Surrey
Posts: 1172
Another task completed yesterday was changing the oil in the front diff. I've noticed a feint metallic vibration through the steering wheel recently and reading on here suggested it could be wear in the diff so changing the oil seemed like a good idea.
With the front end up on ramps over a plastic sheet, I removed the steel undertray to expose the diff. The filler plug was removed from the side using a 1/2in drive 8mm hex key and then, with a large tub underneath, the drain plug was removed with a 3/8th drive ratchet. What came out may have been oil once, but it now resembled thin liquid mud. The picture below doesn't really do justice to the browness of it:
Click image to enlarge
The magnetic drain plug wasn't a pretty sight either. On the plus side though, no big lumps of metal:
However, after cleaning up with white sprit was much more presentable:
With it all back together, filling commenced, which is a tedious process. I rigged up a funnel and length of pipe, the top hanging from a length of wire and the bottom cable-tied to the steering to keep it in place. I then spent the next hour slooowly pouring in the required 600mm:
Click image to enlarge
The oil I used was this, which was the closest I could find that meets the GL-5 spec:
Click image to enlarge
I plan to use it as a flushing oil and then change it again in a few hundred miles with something a bit more high tech from the likes of Opie. Having seen the state of the oil that came out, I plan to do the rear diff too!Darren
"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia
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Still, I've got a few modifications planned...
