Thread: L322 Winch Mount

This was a tough one..
Nothing quiet fitted together like I expected it to, after spending a cumulative total of about five hours studying the instructions. It took a few attempts at each step or cuts to get it to fit properly. I had intended to clean every part of the car to perfection before re installing and get every cut perfect however on Sunday afternoon, needing to drive it to work Monday I stopped treating it like my pride and joy and treated it like one of the jets i used to work on.... In the sense that it needed to "fly " and i have a job that needs doing and it has to be done to the appropriate standard.

While the standard is pretty dam good, pretty dam good is below the standard I like for my own things.

The instructions were ambiguous, I honestly think I would have done a better job and taken less time if I just ripped everything out of the box, laid it out in front of me, and took my best guess rather then follow the instructions. There were 20 spring washers but no picture showed them being used, so I ended up putting them on everything. In the instructions defense they did have the torque values for each bolt.

This is it with the cover on, I was going to take the cover off but as you can see from how I have mounted the number plate I cannot with out having to take the number plate of. It is my intention to drill holes in the number plate down the bottom big enough for the quick release screws so I can get them off with out removing the number plate. I thought about just mounting the number plate higher but it looked horrible so until the euro plates get here this is how it stays.



Mounting of the solenoid is as per the book, however as you can rather then run the ground wire to the switch to complete the circuit i simply attached my ground wire for the solenoid to a existing earth.. Also in the instructions there are a few different ways to do it, one suggests just running it straight from the battery the other insists on the solenoid. I used the solenoid as on the night I opened it I didn't have a jigsaw to cut anything so I did as much as I could before I needed to cut anything. One of those things was the solenoid, if i had to do it again i wouldn't bother, it draws no current until you plug the remote in and give it a command.



I cut a corner out of the fuel cooler air vent at the front to route my wires and then just put a small cover over it, as opposed to drilling a 50MM hole out of the metal. If you haven't I recommend having a look at your fuel cooler, i doubt air had any path through mine it was that clogged full of bugs.



As you can see it is pretty neat underneath.



On a lighter note and if you are looking at doing this job yourself, I highly recommend a WORKS 12v Transformer Jigsaw... Bloody awesome bit of kit.

Originally Posted by Chrisnussey

I have one on my TDV8 Vogue. It is supposed to put the front axle over weight.

Is that the only reason they say not to use it on a TDV8? or are there airflow / cooling issues?

Also, what changed on 2010 onwards facelift for this kit not to be applicable on all engines - I would have thought behind the bumper it would all be the same?