Thread: Puma Dash Removal

How about trying one of those "snake cameras"to find it & then (possibly) remove it ?

G'day James, I was chasing a rattle in mine not that long ago. I was pretty sure it was in the windscreen wiper rack as I had traced the rattle by taking out the centre dash panel.

So the only thing for it, take out the dash. Mate its pretty simple really you just need to take your time. What I didn't realise though is the very bottom part of the dash directly in front of the gear and transfer box lever, there is a piece of the dash which is underneath the heater outlet. To get the dash out because of this you will need to remove the whole rubber floor mat, the gear and transfer box levers, the foam pad around the levers, the plastic transmission tunnel cover and loosen off the handbrake mounting bracket. You WILL NEED to remove all of this otherwise you will break the dash bottom. Then after removing all of the screws you will be able to remove the dash. There is also 1 screw each side at the very bottom of that centre piece on either side of the heater outlet.

While you have the dash out you might as well remove the windscreen wiper motor and worm drive and give it a good grease and also the wheel boxes. This cured my rattle as it was the worm drive inside the metal tube (rack) that was rattling. To alleviate any further rattles I bought some closed cell foam pipe lagging from Mitre10 and cable tied it to the outside of the said rack. Now I can barely hear the wiper mechanism working. When driving at say 50kph, I can't hear it at all, it's like a 'normal' car

While I had everything out I put some dynamat on either side of the metal portion of the transmission tunnel as well.

When the dash goes back in the fixing screws need to be tightened in a sequence, a bit like torquing a head down or similar.

It wasn't that bad, I did it over a weekend, out on the sat and back in on the sunday. Just take your time, oh yeah, I also put some window seal foam (self adhesive) on the inside sections of all of the aircon ducting pieces as they are pretty sloppy and just blow the air inside the dash. By the way to do the wiper work I pulled out all of the mentioned aircon ducting, as it sits in front of it.

There is also a silver metal bracket that runs from the bulkhead just under the bottom of the windscreen down to the metal rail that runs across the entire dash. It the bracket that the back of the factory radio rest in. It's only held to the fixing point by those expanding plastic toggle things (technical term ). This was a bit of a rattle possibility, so I replaced them with nuts and bolts.

Phew, I'm tired now, hope that all mad sense, I just typed as I thought about it. Just ask away if you're confused.........

Mick

Thanks heaps Mick, that was exactly the kind of advice I was hoping for. Ill give it a go.

Not a problem James, if you need anything else give me a shout.

James, I just had a thought, when I first got my Puma I had a rattle (yeah I know there are a lot but I've got rid of all of them) and it was the weights at the bottom of the gear shift lever. There are a number of metal weights at the bottom of the gear lever in the white plastic to counterbalance the length of that great Ford gear lever.

These come loose and rattle, the fix is just some super glue to stick them back into place, I did this and never had the problem since and I've got 35 000kms on it now.

Just a thought............that's all.

To get the lever off, prise the rubber boot off downwards and you'll expose the white plastic base of the lever. On either side is a flap so to speak, you need to pull these outwards and then pull up on the lever. Once you've got it off just shake it or hit the base onto your palm, if its the weights you'll hear them rattle.

To put back on, just slide on and the flaps click in place. The rubber boot is a bitch to get back on, you'll have sore fingers by the time its back in place.

PS And when you do the dash, to get the transfer lever off, just pull up HARD, there's no trick to this one. When I did it I couldn't get it off, I posted here and defender2 how to get it off but had no replies. I got the sh_ts and just pulled harder..................it came off, no tricks.

Mick

For investigation, the centre dash section (where the radio sits) is easy enough to pull out and put back in.

See: Easy DIY relocation for the 12 volt outlet to somewhere more useful (puma 110)

Hi everyone,

ive searched the forums and found this from Jamesb71 is exactly what im experiencing.
Its driving me nuts, and it does sound exactly like a coin rolling back and forth.
Ive even tried private messaging James, but no response. So has anyone or does anyone know of an answer?
Would really appreciate any help.

Cheers Rob

Bit OT, but I know of a steel car ferry that was built in Oz that had a large ball bearing deliberately placed on a horizontal steel stiffener inside the wall at the head of the 'master stateroom' during the construction phase.

Someone had really upset the builders.

cheers, DL