Thread: Stage 1 LT95 Removal for Dummies

Starting with the biggest bits:-
The removable cross member of the Stage 1 supports the gearbox and is bolted onto the chassis with 4 bolts. This turned out to be much easier than I was expecting. Surprisingly the bolts came free quite easily and the cross member dropped out with a little bit of leverage at each end. I was expecting much more of a fight.





The front section of exhaust pipe comes next. The manifold nuts were new (because the old ones had vibrated off!) so they were easy to remove but I had to grind out a couple of the bolts on the coupling. Then with a bit of wiggling (thats a technical term) the front section came out. There is a hole under the bottom hanger that I'll need to weld over but otherwise the pipe looks ok. I'm considering welding in a flexible coupling into the down section near the manifold. Not sure if anyone has had success with this - there is not much straight pipe to play with. But anything that will decouple the vibration of the ISUZU engine from the rest of the car has got to be a good thing...

Originally Posted by captainslow

I'm considering welding in a flexible coupling into the down section near the manifold.

My Rover P6 3500 had a flexible pipe at the Y-section just behind the sump, which someone had put in. It made reinstalling the primary pipes much easier.

With regard to the vibration - are there supposed to be flexible couplings on the Stage 1 where the pipes hang?

Cheers Charlie

Originally Posted by chazza

With regard to the vibration - are there supposed to be flexible couplings on the Stage 1 where the pipes hang?

Cheers Charlie

I'm almost certain that the stage 1 never came with a flexible coupling. There is a pretty good chance that the pipe in the photo is the original (but who knows). The 4BD1 ISUZU sure knows how to shake rattle and roll so I'm thinking it may be worth a try.

Thanks for this, following it with interest as no doubt I'll have to do something similar with mine at some point

The front and rear prop shafts are next on the list. Mine doesn't have the dual Cardan joint at the gearbox end of the front shaft. I'm not sure if this is standard or a replacement - perhaps someone from the ISUZU forum will know. I've marked each of the joints with a Dremmel grinder to ensure they go back in with the same orientation. All the bolts came out with a minimum of fuss but there is a mixture of lock nuts and spring washers. I'll source a new set for replacement.

Here are the front set with the engraved marks:-





This bolt looks like its had a bit of an accident somewhere along the line...



The rear prop shaft wasn't quite as easy. There are captive bolts projecting from the rear of the hand brake flange and one of them wasn't quite as captive as it should have been and rotated freely when trying to undo the nut. Here's where my favourite tool comes into action - the Dremmel with a cut-off wheel. This has got me out of jail many times. So I ground a slot into the top of the bolt which allowed me to hold the bolt with a screw driver while removing the nut. You can see the offending bolt below - there's bound to be a rounded off bolt head inside the park brake that will need to be replaced.



And the rear diff with the rear prop shaft removed

It isn't the best idea to engrave stressed components such as the bearing yoke, or even to punch them, because doing so creates a stress-raiser, which might one day cause it to fail at that point.

I use the white correction fluid used on stationary; it sticks well even on oily surfaces and it can be written on with pencil,

Cheers Charlie

The cover over the gear selector can be removed easily to allow access to the gear lever retainer. Below you can see the gear leaver and the reverse indicator switch - and a bit of oil that is escaping. Remove the wires from the reverse switch and remove the three bolts from the gear lever retainer.



The gear lever should pull straight out. So this is why there is a bit of oil around. The foam washer has disintegrated into three pieces. Its interesting that this washer appears in the parts list diagram but isn't given a number. Fortunately I'd already been given a replacement (I believe it is a part that often needs replacing).



It doesn't hurt to cap the selector hole off with a bit of plastic to keep the dirt out.



There are a couple of P clips next to the gear selector that have to be removed



And a gearbox breather. Rather than try and pull the hose off the breather I thought it best to remove the breather bolt - reomove the hose fitting - cover the holes in the bolt to keep dirt out - and replace the bolts back into the gearbox housing.

I've removed the panel under the center seat position to get access to the Park brake and Speedo cables. Here's a view of the Park Brake coupling from above. Remove the split pin and pull out the pin.



Now its under the car to remove the brake cable adjustment bracket. This is made a bit harder with the overdrive sitting over the top of the cable.



And then there is a P clip to remove that holds the brake cable and the speedo cable.



While your down here, there is an earth cable that needs to be removed with the same spanner.



Now, back up in the cab we can move the park brake cable out of the way to get to the clip that retains the speedo cable. This clip is held on with a stud - if you have the same problem as me the stud will unwind rather than the nut - a bit of locktite will fix that on reassembly



And the final thing that needs to be done from this area is remove the breather from the top of the transfer case