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Thread: Stirlsilver's Disco Ute Project

  1. #771
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    Of course, what you are describing is fairly typical for those that get involved in hot rod building and why we have here the LVVTA guides (don't know if there is something similar in Oz).

    And, the longest journey in reno's is always the finishing details.

    So, chin up bro. It'll be a fit testament to your will and creativity as an engineer.
    Alan
    2005 Disco 2 HSE
    1983 Series III Stage 1 V8

  2. #772
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    When i engineered my D1 ute I failed the brake test. I ended up putting TRW pads on it front and rear and passed with no issues.

    Good luck!

  3. #773
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    cjc_td5 is offline ChatterBox Silver Subscriber
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    Can you just get your existing speedo recalibrated say a nominated % slower? I had the speedo in my series 3 recalibrated at an instrument specialist in Perth and just said it reads 30% slow, please fix it. Only cost me about $150. It wouldn't fix the odo calibration of course...
    Chris


    2014 D4 TDV6
    1954 86"
    1963 2A Forward Control (getting the full treatment, Isuzu 4JH1, MYY5T, LT230, Toyota Axles, extended cab ++)
    1980 Stage 1 v8 (gone)

  4. #774
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    Thanks for the very useful advice everyone!

    Chris, I need to pull the dashboard out anyway to fix the heater core anyway, besides I've already got the electric to mechanical speedo driver which can be calibrated to anything you want.

    Stirling

  5. #775
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    Back from holidays! And I got some time in on the project at last.

    First up, dealing with the signal of the vehicle speed to the ECU. I needed to get this sorted out. The problem came from the input on the ECU needing a 0-5V signal, and I hadn't sorted out a way to provide 5V which could be grounded to zero. So a simple addition of a resistor inside of the ECU and that was sorted.


    Here I am testing everything, you can see the little inline speedo transducer which closes a contact internally as it turns. Here I am testing to make sure the ECU is picking up the signal correctly (which it was) and I also tapped in the digital speedo driver to the signal, and I was very happy to see it turn as I turned the speedo cable.


    I did a quick test drive and the ECU was all working great - giving me a gauge showing the vehicle speed on the screen

    Because I needed to fix the leaking heater core, I bit the bullet and and got on with removing the dashboard. Nothing quite like decades worth of dust!

    When the instrument cluster came out I took the opportunity to test the adaptor cable between the electronic speedo driver and the speedo. When I ordered the speedo driver module, they didn't have a Land Rover adaptor cable, but I had a hunch that the Ford cable would fit and I was nearly on the money! Cutting down the clip slightly should get it to connect onto the speedo just like the Land Rover speedo cable




    Everthing is now removed from the dashboard, but it was too late for me to get started splitting the blower assembly which held the heater core within it. So I'll continue with this another day. It's all going to need a big clean!




    Till next time!
    Stirling

  6. #776
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    More progress to share everyone.

    I pecked up the courage and took to the heater box to remove the heater core. Initially I was thinking of splitting the entire assembly down the seam in the middle, but I quickly realised that there were a number of parts like louvre linkages that would need to be cut to make that happen. So I decided against that and instead make a hole to slide out the core.

    There was a strangle little piece which allowed you to see half the core, but that's about it?


    Then the cutting started, I did some shallow cuts on either end to make the plastic fold like a hinge to help glueing everything back together again.


    The culprit


    I decided to split the old heater core end tank open to see if I could find the source of the leak, and I did - in the seal right near where the pipes connect to the header. But what was interesting was the amount of junk stuck in the tubes. No doubt the original radiator the car had would have been in a similar condition!


    Leaking point


    Here the new core is installed and I folded the plastic back up. Just before applying the glue. Which was just black silastic.


    As I had found earlier, the only difference between the Ford speedo cable and the Land Rover one was just the length of the barrel, so I cut it down to match.


    Perfect!


    Because I wasn't going to be using the original speedo cable and instead use the speed signal to the ECU, I could block one side of the speed transducer, which was inline of the speedo cable. Because I wasn't fitting the cable from the transducer to the speedo unit, I simply cut the screw on connector and filled it with silastic to make a water tight cap for the speed transducter.


    One thing that I was baffled by was that in the heater unit, a pneumatic actuator controlled by a solenoid valve was used to actuate the louvre to recirculate the air in the cabin. The system uses vacuum and that doesn't work when you have a turbo charged engine! So i've saved that for another day... If anyone has any ideas, i'm open to suggestions!


    Here is the electronic speedo driver mounted, the speedo cable runs behind the fan and up to the speedo console




    Given that the dashboard was off, I pulled out the seats and ripped up the carpets and pressure washed everything, including the dashboard. Ignore the carpets on the left.


    Everything removed from the inside


    After fooling around with the wiring, and fixing some mistakes I had done earlier on, I wired up the speedo driver and put it into setup mode, and I was happy to see the needle spring up on the speedo!


    That's it for now, I still have some more wiring work to do, but after that I'll be able to move onto putting everything back inside.
    Stirling

  7. #777
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    Quote Originally Posted by stirlsilver View Post

    One thing that I was baffled by was that in the heater unit, a pneumatic actuator controlled by a solenoid valve was used to actuate the louvre to recirculate the air in the cabin. The system uses vacuum and that doesn't work when you have a turbo charged engine! So i've saved that for another day... If anyone has any ideas, i'm open to suggestions!
    Even turbo cars make some vacuum under conditions of no boost (idle, low RPM etc).
    The puma for example has power assisted brakes (like most cars in the modern day), and uses a brake booster to accumulate vacuum to assist the brake pedal. The puma also has a brake vacuum pump on the engine, assisting to create vacuum. The 2.4 tdci is belt driven on the front, the 2.2 has a vac pump on the back of the engine, which IIRC is camshaft driven.
    The old 60 series landcruisers had a vacuum pump on the back half of the alternator.

    So it's possible to have vac on a turbo car, and not outside the realm of possibility for the heater to tap into this vac system somewhere.
    -Mitch
    'El Burro' 2012 Defender 90.

  8. #778
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    Quote Originally Posted by Toxic_Avenger View Post
    Even turbo cars make some vacuum under conditions of no boost (idle, low RPM etc).
    The puma for example has power assisted brakes (like most cars in the modern day), and uses a brake booster to accumulate vacuum to assist the brake pedal. The puma also has a brake vacuum pump on the engine, assisting to create vacuum. The 2.4 tdci is belt driven on the front, the 2.2 has a vac pump on the back of the engine, which IIRC is camshaft driven.
    The old 60 series landcruisers had a vacuum pump on the back half of the alternator.

    So it's possible to have vac on a turbo car, and not outside the realm of possibility for the heater to tap into this vac system somewhere.
    This is true, I was considering hooking it in to the line of the brake booster just down stream of the non return valve. However, I think I'll save that for another point in time. I just figured they would have used an electric solenoid.

    Anyway, trying to squeeze in more progress before my 1.5 week overseas trip tomorrow. Good progress, but still plenty more to go!

    Interior is going back together, the clean carpets made a huge difference, and I even had a go at using an upholstery spray on the seats which did clean them up somewhat.



    I had a friend come round on Friday evening because I was having trouble getting off the intercooler. It was a two man job to try and prise it off the studs and lift it away. The reason I needed to get it off was to give me the access to run the pipes to the heater core. In the same session we also ripped into dismantling the rear axle and made some great progress there.




    Here is the engine bay with the coolant lines run up to the heater core. But I couldn't tee them into the lines of the LPG evaporator because I didn't have any 16mm tees. It was an absolute PTIA to run one of the pipes and fit them with P clips. Anyway after a lot of screwing around, I got there.




    The intercooler is looking pretty good, and spotlessly clean inside!




    While I had some leftover time, I decide to move onto plumbing all the 6mm breather lines and also the solenoid valves for the lockers... Unfortunately, the old MAC solenoid valves that I had didn't quite work when I tested them, so I'll need to wait for some new ones to come in. Anyway, here is a manifold. Can't go wrong with rivnuts!


    Then the father in law was around and he and I ripped in to what was left of the rear axle housing. Old one out and the replacement housing was in within a few hours, fantastic!

    The old, bent housing, just before pulling out the differential.




    New housing in and the diff refitted.


    While I'm away, hopefully all my ebay orders will arrive - brake disks, bearing kits, brake pads and so on. Rather a lot of money!! In that lot was a set of replacement front pads, because the engineer was't happy with how they were holding up for brake fade. So I got a set of Bendix 4WD pads, hopefully they will handle the heat better!

    Till next time!
    Stirling

  9. #779
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    So it's been some time so I figured it was time to give an update on progress as there has been a bit.

    Right, so where do I start?
    The engine was re-assembled with the coolant connection to the heater core, and tested and all worked perfect, no leaks. I do hope I won't have a leak because pulling the intercooler off is a PITA!!


    We left off last time with the whole saga of swapping the diff housing over for one that was actually straight. So all that was left was reassembly of the hubs:
    While working through everything I decided to check the diff breathers, because it's something that I've never really checked, and to my amazement it was in a terrible state so it needed some good and proper cleaning!


    With the new diff housing in I decided to run all the diff breathers and locker pressure lines, for the rear I ran them along the top of the A frame.
    Rear Diff


    Front Diff


    ARB's come with a 5mm air tube, and I was using 6mm, so because I couldn't be bothered buying a 5mm to 6mm push fit union, I made my own by drilling out some parts I had.


    Then it was on with the rear hub rebuild.

    Axle stubs on.


    It was nice to get some more use out of the dial gauge again! I changed the discs while I was at it with some DBA disks. I didn't go fancy in the rear because I don't want too much braking in this area given it is a ute and lin


    And finished, with a set of Bendix 4WD brake pads


    One of the problems that came up with the brake tests the engineer was performing was that my front left swivel was sliding undoing the caster correction and affecting the handling

    Right hand side held up


    Left hand side did not...


    So after getting everything aligned up again, I drilled and tapped in some M8x16 grub screws with thread locker, it isn't going to slide anymore!


    Because the brakes could really be smelt during some of early brake tests done by the engineer he recommended upgrading the pads to Bendix Ultimates. Well on checking, they don't make performance pads for old Land Rover Discoveries, so I settled instead for some Bendix 4WD pads which are supposed to be heavy duty. The pads I pulled out were hardly worn given the car has only done 600km


    At this point I was making good progress through my final punch list.


    I took the car for a spin on the new brakes and was happy that everything worked. Even the electronic speedo driver was working perfectly!! Some petrol head neighbors nearby gave me the tick of approval as I went past their place.

    Now, on to the snorkels. I first had to deal with the problem of making a reasonable 3" to 2" transition in the space available between the body panel and inner guard.


    So things ended up getting complicated to achieve that!


    Initially I was thinking that I could have welded the 3" to 2" transition onto the snorkel, but I quickly realised it would be impossible to remove, so there was an added requirement - a removable connection. Things got even more complicated.




    Probably one of the most complicated pipe connections around, but it allows me to have a cone reducing down to 2" and using 3" silicone tube for the airtight seal around the outside with some hose clamps.








    Then it was on with the rest of the snorkel build up. The car had a snorkel on it previously so for the left hand side I was reusing the mounting point, so I made a stud plate for that.






    Then it was a case of slicing up tube and 90deg elbows to get the route I needed. Here is everything tacked together.








    All welded up




    Now I need to get one of those sanders to sand down and polish all the welded connections... And then do it all over again for the other side!!
    Stirling

  10. #780
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    Another frantic flurry of activity to get the car done. This time getting the other snorkel done.

    Having learned my lesson from the last time, I fitted up the 2 to 3" adaptor/connector in a better way which made finishing much easier.


    Because I didn't have a piece of flat 3mm steel I had to make my own by welding tow plates that I cut out of some angle. Talk about going about it the hard way!




    Then it was a process of measuring and cutting pipes and bends. A fiddly task...






    While I was welding up the second snorkel, Derrick gave me a hand with polishing up the one I had made earlier with the pipe polisher I bought. Later I would find out how hard this actually was because the machine is actually quite difficult to handle!! Sorry mate!




    After a real solid push by sanding, re-welding and sanding again, eventually I got everything done. All the welding caused the shapes to change slightly so I'm going to have to slot a couple of the snorkel mounting points, and adjust the cutouts on the guards... Plus fibreglass some rather large holes.

    But all in all I think they came up a treat! Naturally a quick test drive was in order there is a nice hill nearby which gives you a chance to go full throttle and gives an idea of the power the engine is producing!












    Now it's time to pull the tray off and prep the car for a paint job! Exciting times!!
    Stirling

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