Thread: Expedition Home-build - AU to IE

Originally Posted by agrojnr

Great stuff

I am going to be using your post to help me when I wire my lights up.

Glad to hear that my thread will be of some use

You must pop over to WA some time for a beer

I may very well take you up on that. Once I get on the road, I'll be posting my progress on a regular basis. Anyone willing to share a beer with me if I'm in the area, just has to ask

Absolutely. Would love to catch up when you reach Perth

Don't suppose anyone following this thread has a spare Defender or Discovery water sedimenter lying around that they want to sell/donate? I realised just now while plumbing up the second tank for SVO that I don't have a sedimenter for the second fuel tank.... Any help would be appreciated

May have found you one Mike will let you know soon

Adam

Originally Posted by agrojnr

May have found you one Mike will let you know soon

Adam

You're a good man Let me know what you turn up.

Well, i will say your a brave man, lol.

The advice the other blokes gave is spot on, know the vehicle inside out, get good manuals, new tyres, serviced, have the tools you will need for most everything, oh and dont forget, Duck Tape, roll of Wire, Zip ties, few rags lol.

Or...buy a GQ 4.2l Diesel non turbo tray back, service it, drive it round the world ten times, it wont ever let you down...lol, previous GQ owner, so im a bit biased, but honestly i would stake my life on a good one of those, i took reasonable care of mine, did 220k KMs trouble free, bar a few very minor issues that could be driven around, it took me through everything i aimed it at, and being 18 when i got it i aimed it at everything lol, water over the wipers many times.

Its still going solid with over 450k kms on it, original everything except the tape player

Originally Posted by Fish78

Well, i will say your a brave man, lol.

There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and I'm still not too sure which side of that line I stand. But how and ever....

Decided to finish off the diesel side of the fuel system a few days ago and see if the old girl would still turn over. Plumbed up the new fuel lines to the electric fuel pump, and wired it up. As it stands, the pump, via a relay, comes on when the ignition is turned on, and turns off when the ignition is turned off. When the vehicle is switched to SVO, the fuel pump relay is also disengaged. This setup works, and indeed is the setup used in many older cars, but ideally (and I'll be looking into doing this), I'd like the fuel pump to be run through an oil pressure switch, as currently I can't leave the ignition turned on while parked without risking damage to the pump. But it will get me out of trouble for now.



It wasn't until this stage that I realised I didn't have a fuel sedimenter for the second tank. While strictly speaking it's not essential, considering the strong possibility of fuel contaminated by water in other countries, I knew that I would feel better if I had one fitted. While I had a Toyota sedimenter sitting on the shelf, in the interests of keeping everything Land Rover, and standard, I decided to hold out and see if I could get a stock sedimenter somewhere. For now I have taken the sedimenter from the rear stock tank, but I'll replace it as soon as I get another.

Before I fitted the sedimenter in its new home, I gave it a quick clean, or what I thought would be a quick clean. Holy crap! Literally. If you haven't cleaned out your sedimenter lately (or ever), then the following pics will scare the bejesus out of you.



That can't be good... lets drain out the water and see what's in there....





I guess I can take solace in the fact that all that crap is in the sedimenter, and not being forced into the injector pump, and it's just re-enforced my decision to have a sedimenter on each tank.

Just a wee bit cleaner than before....



The sedimenter in it's new location. I made up a mounting bracket that utilises existing holes in the chassis (no drilling), and the sedimenter is bolted to this. In the background you can see the fuel pump, and the fuel lines (two for the front tank, two for the rear) running along the chassis rail.



Cables for the fuel tank sender. The rubber or cork gasket used for the sender means you aren't guaranteed a good earth through the tank, so IMHO it's worth running a ground line back to the chassis to ensure trouble free readings.



Tank all mounted and plumbed in. Just need to run some 40mm line from the tank to the filler, and shes good to go. The angle of this photo makes the tank appear to be hanging much lower than it is - in reality it's sitting at the same level as the bottom of the chassis rail.

If you'll remember my roof console from a while back...



...now that the roof had been lined, it was time to do something with it. My plan had always been to keep the electronics as out of the way as possible, from dirt, water, and whatever else came my way, therefore my radio, and any other additions were being mounted in the console. This had the additional advantages of freeing up the clutter on the dash in terms of ventilation and such, as well as making the radio accessible from the rear.

The easiest way to make an enclosure for the radio was to use the radio itself as a jig, and form the various panels around it. Here you can see 6mm MDF being rebated to take the radio fascia, and glued.



Cut a slot in the roof console and insert the new enclosure - much easier than trying to build an enclosure into the console, piece by piece...



... then sand the front smooth to match the rest of the console.



A quick glimpse of what the radio will look like fitted.



Same idea for the UHF radio. You can see where I cut a slot just right of centre (drivers left hand side), but the accessibility to the radio was not the best, so I relocated it to the drivers right hand side. I'll cut some ply to fill the slot later.







I wasn't kidding when I said that I wanted to keep all of the electronics out of the way



Although it looks a mess, every wire has a purpose. After much thought, rethought, rework and redesign, the layout is to be as follows:

ROOF CONSOLE CENTRE
- Radio/CD/MP3 Player
- Switch, Front Spots (via relay)
- Switch, Roof Lights #1 (via relay)
- Switch, Roof Lights #2 (via relay)
- Switch, Rear Work Lights (via relay)
- Speaker Switchover internal/external speakers
- Switch, Diesel/SVO (via relay)
- Switch, Rear 12V Sockets (via relay)
- Switch Spare
- Switch Spare

ROOF CONSOLE ABOVE DRIVER
- Switch Internal Rear Lights #1
- Switch Internal Rear Lights #2
- Switch Fan #1
- Switch Fan #2

- Main Battery Voltmeter
- Ammeter
- Aux Battery Voltmeter

CENTRE DASH CONSOLE
- SVO Fuel Gauge
- Turbo Boost Pressure
- Diesel Fuel Gauge

Some of these things may seem facetious to some, but everything here has been borne from a lot of experience, of both myself and others who have taken on similar trips. It would take forever do abreakdown of the wiring here - if anyone has any specific questions, I'll be glad to answer. Fans and interior lights are double switched, i.e. can also be switched off from the rear sleeping area. Speaker switchover means that you can run a set of speakers on a cable from the Defender to your tent/picnic area/cooking area/whatever without having to crank the radio up to a million decibels.

When you are running wires, try not to fall into the trap of buying a roll of red wire, and running the same colour wire for everything - nothing is more confusing when you are trying to faultfind something. I colour code everything, and write what each coulour wire is for in a diary, so should anything go wrong, it's much easier to track the fault. And label *everything*.



Wiring for the centre dash all crimped and ready to go. Just waiting fro the gauges.



I was trying to decide how to keep everything neat and tidy, when fellow forummer Agrojnr was kind enough to offer his lasercutting services, and once I had the layout of everything figured out, a good half day was spent sketching, and finally drawing up panels to fit onto the console. True to his word, Agrojnr had a batch of stainless steel in the mail to me within a week, and I am very much in his debt for the quality of the work that he did for me. Here is some of his work, still coated in plastic. The centre console piece is pretty obvious; the two and six-holed plates are switch plates for the rear of the truck.



And here's one I made earlier To cut a long story short, I first coated the console with the same carpet that I used on the roof panels (the edges still need to be trimmed), and then screwed both panels in place. Every switch and gauge fitted first go. The panel over the passenger seat has been cutout to be used as storage for maps, etc.



Roof console bolted in place. I made use of the screwholes for the old sunvisors, as well as rivetting a metal plate above the CD player protrusion (for want of a better word) and screwing into this too. The result - one rock solid console.



What's above the driver....



... and the midsection of the console. I've also relocated the console light and changed it for a tidier, low profile light/clock/rear view mirror combination unit.



The birds nest of cables earlier looks a lot tidier now that every cable is plugged into something.



And a view from the front of the Defender. As much as the console holds, it's obscures very little of the windscreen.



I'm aware that I've brushed over the details of what is wired to what, but it would take forever to discuss every wire that has been run. If anyone has specific questions on how any of this is done, then I'll be glad to help.