Thread: ZF auto conversion on my 83 Rangie

Okay,

After the LT95 transfer case decided to throw in the towel, I decided to fit the ZF auto that has been sitting in my shed for the last 7 months. I had been putting this off for many reasons (because it's a **** job ) but the inevitable happened, and I had planned to do this for a while so here goes.

Saturday morning started with removing the floor, seats and parts of the dash so that i could get to the rear bolts on the bellhouising. there was nothing too problematic here and was surprised that most of the bolts had come loose with some WD40 and a bit of persuasion (no angle grinders were used for a change [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img] ). This took at least til lunchtime, but the 'box was ready to be hoicked out and also I was able to spend a good hour removing the clutch foot-pedal, slave and master cylinders, lines, etc..

Had a feed, went to Kennards to pick up a engine crane (someting I don't have in my tool collection, bummer!!). The monstrosity that I hired was bloody handy but bulky plus with fixed wheels at the front trying to swing the box out so removing the LT95 lump was a bit of a task. It took at least and hour to do so, but it came out finally and was ceramoniusly dumped next to the shed

So that was Saturday. it was getting late so i called it a day. Beer o'clock it was anyway, several times [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

Sunday I got the ZF/LT230 unit ready to be fitted. I did a trial fitting of the LT230 and hit a snag. The transfer was an ex-94 Disco and the shaft was too short on the splines, so off to the local LR wreckers to get another (I had been told about this so I wasn't too annoyed for a change). The next task was a ripper, the torque converter was taking a bit of persuasion, but I had read on this and other forums about this problem and forcing it on could do, so I cracked another beer for some 'inspiring' then got to getting this little debarcle sorted out. After a few goes it slid all the way home, so I was back in buisness [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

The ZF installation took about 3 hours and with the limited space we had to work the transfer was removed from the ZF (I was hoping to put the complete unit in but it didn't want to cooperate :twisted), so off it came reluctantly which also made manovering the ZF much easier (they're light gearboxes ZF's, picked it up on my own without too many problems) .

That's as far as I had gotten, but hope to finish it next weekend and probably do some bits during the week. Also got to chase up a output shaft an a couple of small items.

Will post pt 2 next week sometime. Some pics of the 'work in progress' on my webshots site tonight at http://community.webshots.com/user/aquarangie

Trav

The ZF has a 0.7:1 or something overdrive (someone here on this forum may know exactly). The transfer case would fit straight on, but your'e better off getting onje complete./ the ZF auto has a lower high range gear set than the T/F auto unit (1.2:1 compared to 1.003:1) which was possible mainly because of the 4th gear overdrive in the ZF.

First low is about the same (slightly lower byut not overly noticeable) but the major diffrence is that is a much better match to the stock Rover V8, wheras on your 5 liter job it should also be fine. There are a few Rangies running around with 4.6's in front of the ZF's so I can't see hy it would be a big issue.

Regards,

Trav