Brought my Project Discovery 1 over here

[Nigelw]

As I am now resident here in the Kingdom of the Netherlands it seems only right that I should bring my project Discovery 1 with me to share with the fellowship of LRCH

This story goes back over 2yrs now and this is it from the start to where we are right now.

This is my project, Rusty, very picture heavy .

Land Rover Discovery 1 1992 200Tdi diesel.



Not too bad looking from the outside, but that's just the beginning!!



This was initial nightmare!!! A careless welder had set fire to the foam insulation on the bulk head and it burned out most of the L/H loom and affected nearly all the circuits in one way or another!!

I am by no means deterred by any of the work I have done on Rusty and many have said that I was robbed when I paid 1200 euro for him but on the other hand I also know the types of people that were looking at him when he was burned out and a non runner!!! All they are looking at is the chance to double their money selling the engine and transmission on to someone else and scrap the rest, but I not only wanted to make him run again, which I have but I want to make him better than he was when new.

I was busy doing some of this...



So once stripped out I got to see what I was dealing with, and it wasn't pretty!!!









So bad bits cut out and it was time to cut and paste it all back together again.





Notice there are a couple of extra cables in the new loom section for a time when I build a roof console to fit even more gadgets in to the truck.



So with the wiring all finished it was time to see if he started......


So for the first time in over 7 months of being stood waiting for someone to send him to the scrap yard I started him with the aid of my little van as the battery although was fully charged had a dead cell so was useless and in need of replacement.

So with the wiring done I needed to turn my attention to the welding!!!



This is just one hole that I knew of but it didn't stop me wondering why on earth the boot floor was not replaced a few years ago when it first rotted through, the little tabs you see are tin strips that are stuck down with silicone, poor effort just to get through the Kuering!!!

So it went from that to this...



Fully seam welded in with some plating done along the edges to replace rotten metal, I had to replace the floor supports as they were rotten beyond salvage but before the boot floor went in I had to deal with this....



All cut out well nearly, as I opted to do a two piece repair as to save the suspension geometry as it can and usually does move!!!









Now I stumbled upon a problem, I needed two more matching 235/75 15" General Grabber for the back axle to replace the racing slicks it came with and the thing is they don't make them anymore and finding them in that size was not to be done so I devised a new plan and wanting to fit taller tyres to give a little diff clearance I decided to fit the 24 spline axles from my old V8 Disco to enable me to use the nice silver deep dish alloys in 16", and well Cooper STT look splendid on them!! This is swapping the back axle and the new tyres....



And new one going in..



And these are the new tyres against the old ones!!



So I still have a million things left to do but the front axle is now top of my list as the old compomotive alloys are sold, but easiest solution was to pull the front drive shafts to enable the wheels to go on and for him to be moved around the yard.

I had already spotted a lot of rust and there was a lot at the bottom of the drivers side "A" pillar which needed an extensive repair and a new bottom section which came as salvage from my red Discovery, as can be seen here....



I also wanted to replace the door hinges as the ones on all of the three doors of Rusty were very badly worn, the rear door especially!! Probably from the weight of the spare wheel hanging on it, but I managed to paint them before fitting but not the hinges for the front door yet, this is the front door hanging on the better hinges..



And this is the new color scheme for Rusty, the horrid blue/grey is gone and a much nicer beige, but I wanted a slight twist and have sprayed a lot of the furniture in a chocolate color to break things up see from the back door, you can also see the nicely painted newer hinges too....



And at last there is a seat and some carpets inside to make it look a lot more like a car again!!!...



Where the door shut is I have made this an almost seamless repair and you won't be able to tell once it has had top coat that a repair was even made at the door pillar, I will be spraying inside the pillars with Motip cavity wax anti rust to prevent any further corrosion and in the summer months I will be coating the entire underside and all cavities with dinitrol to protect him for many years to come.

With the dash being one of the first things removed many months ago, I have done a lot to it, including stripping out all the air vents and getting it ready for a bath...


You can see here very clearly the fire damage to the air vents and this one was very crispy!!


Then with everything removed I used Cilit Bang power spray to clean it all up...


A good scrub with a stiff nylon brush removed all the years of grime and a lot of the burnt on soot and detritus of 20yrs of driving life..


Also the steel frames and supports were washed up in readiness for being painted up and made like new again..


And this is the dash with the all the horrid blue/grey vinyl removed, and back down to the foam..


More to follow of the finished dash with it's new beige vinyl and nice new dash vents.

So a new look was to behold the dashboard.....

And from the grey foam it became this..




And although I tried my hardest to fit the new vinyl covering as professionally as possible it really could not be done all in one piece on the ends, so I had to make some end covers and pop rivet them on to make it look passable, but I like it, and it is good enough for me and bearing in mind Rusty is more than 20yrs old it really is not that important as he will not be a show car or a collectors piece.

All the metal work from the dash once washed, dried and degreased with acetone was sprayed over with a grey metal paint to keep it fresh for a few more years and as this paint was a POR(paint on rust) type paint it was especially good on those that were a little dubious where they were a little close to the fire...


A comparison of the burnt vent along an unburned one.....


Now, there are small neoprene gaskets on the backs of teh above vents and they were all badly squashed and had long since outlived their useful life, so I needed to replace them with some new ones, long out of service as a replacement part so I used some adhesive foam for draft excluding around door frames and windows, looked like this...


Should seal very well and unlike the previous gaskets they cannot move around on fitting of the ventilation system as they are self adhesive :thumbup:

Now a quick test fit of the under bonnet air box saw it a close fit but also a potential rattly one when driving rough tracks so I decided to cure that with the foam again by sticking it to the edges that were a close fit and now even if it rattles a little there should be very little noise from it


Well the interior inspired by Terrance Conran was ok but the cobalt blue was never to my personal liking, and I decided to chance it, I broke my 1998 Discovery 1 V8 a short time before I bought Rusty so I decided to use the nice beige interior in Rusty, the interior in the Discoveries never changed much only bar the dash and I preferred the dash from the 200 series anyway as the 300 series seems to make the cab seem bulky in comparison.

But what about the rest of the plastics?

A little bit of creativity with aerosol sprays, and from using these...


We went from the grey to a chocolate color in stead...


the center dash panel needing masking to keep the ventilation symbols visible....


Even the instrument binnacle was given a new coat of paint to make it fit in with the new color scheme...


This is the center panel after it has had a llick of paint...


I was very lucky as I managed to get a beige steering wheel when I got my replacement dash vents, it will do for now but I do plan to change the steering wheel for a smaller custom steering wheel to make life easier as the steering wheels on Land Rovers are always a little bit too big, so once I have found a couple of electrical gremlins I will be fitting the dash and all furniture in the new color scheme.

Here we go again, so the newest problem of a significant magnitude is the heater box blower motor, now, yet again I am failing to understand the mentality of some people, I remembered it was not working from earlier in the adventure but with so many other things to fix I figured I would get on with them and sort that out just before refitting the interior etc, but as usual, the first thing to check is the fuse, missing, wonder why? OK new fuse and switching only brings clicking from the heater box, so out it must come......

Heater box in position...


There are 4X 9/16 hex headed screws that hold the heater box to the bulkhead and these must be removed...


the ventilation pipes must be removed from the heater manifolds and ducts...


As does the power feed for the blower motor..


In the engine bay the feed and return from the heater matrix must be removed also, note there is precious little room for maneuver as the inlet and outlet are very short and barely stick through far enough, and you need to be careful not to give them too much stick as they are not young and may break and end up costing you more than a few extra minutes in undoing them carefully....


Once the pies are free the heater box can be wriggled free from it's position under the dash valance and above the transmission tunnel, and once out it is a good thing to open it up for assessment, this is the vacuum operated valve for the re circulation flap being removed..


And the pipe from the solenoid valve that controls the vacuum..


As you will have seen from the last pictures there is a ring of screws that holds the cover plate on and these can now be removed, and in we go...


For all those who have read all about the resistor pack and wondered where it lived and what it looked like, well this is for you....


And ta-daaa, one very crispy and rusty looking blower motor....


I mentioned at the start of this episode that the fuse was missing from the blowers fuse position, well this is why...


The blower motor was so badly worn out that it would have kept catching and stalling, and thus blowing the fuse continually, oh well here we go again, more money to spend then.....

Wanting to see my hard work and effort in the flesh I decided to have a little break away from mechanical jobs and decided to fit my labor of love(also known as my self made recovered dash 8) ), This is what it looks like inside now.....

Repaired heater box going back in and onwards......









So what do you all think so far? I like it

But as always with this car, for every good bit there seems to be a seriously bad bit to follow booooo :thumbdown:





And WTF was going on here? Why on earth would you stick a little bit of tin on the bottom of the door post like this?

If you saw my own fair hands work on the other side door post bottom then you already know this is not acceptable as any type of welding repair!!!!





Oh well time to break out the welding gear again At least it is much warmer now and I can work in comfort in the evening, I also found the time to replace the piece of broom handle with a fully functioning window regulator and now the door card is back where it is supposed to be

The front 10 spline hubs went from this....










Now as I am a little bit old fashioned I do prefer oil lubricated wheel bearings and drive members and opted to remove the oil seal from the 24 spline stub axle to get the oil from the swivel housing to the bearings, I was a little dubious of the little rubber caps for holding the oil back and rightly so as on one side it was already weeping badly within an hour of fitting, so new plan and new parts which came in the form of Bearmach heavy duty drive flanges supplied by LPI in Landen, Saint Truiden, don't they look shiney Although they are hidden by the deep dish alloy wheels once fitted



Bush swapping for poly bushes, the old ones are drilled through the rubber all the way round the center sleeve and then the center sleeve is pushed out using a socket and spacer then the outer sleeve is cut through with a hacksaw and then knocked out with a cold chisel, see how it goes...













New bush is a two piece poly bush with a steel center sleeve that can be pushed in with fingers but the sleeve does need pressed home in the vice or tapped in with a wooded dolly and a hammer.



The chassis mounting bush is simply secured by a 30mm nut to the trailing arm and removing the nut allows the bush to slide off easily..







Assemble all the pieces of the new bush and lightly fasten a new nyloc nut for now as it will need to be aligned correctly before torquing up once on the truck!!

I gave Rusty a bath a few days ago and this is what I found under all that dust and grime...







Not looking too bad after all the work so far!!

Oooohhhhhh!!!! Shiney bits!!!

Went shopping today and bought Rusty a new exhaust, center and tail pipe came courtesy of LPI in Landen, took me all of 30mins to fit and the hardest part was getting the rubbers hangers on the stirrups

When Rusty came to me he had a badly bent tail pipe that had been bashed into the mud shield, now in the interest of longevity I wanted to fit a whole new set as it future proofs him for a few years without worrying about needing to buy and fit new parts later on and I can just enjoy driving him.









After fitting the exhaust I needed to fix the back door handle as it was seizing in the unlatched position and not allowing the rear door to close again until I had levered it back down with my pocket knife, so I basically had to strip out the rear door to enable me to remove the handle and lubricate it thoroughly, this was in the form of oil being worked into the pivot and then thoroughly greased to prevent the oil from drying out over time, job done and a happy boy I am, now I feel some momentum being gathered hopefully the rest of the build should go a bit faster now.

Today is the first day off that I have dedicated to Rusty and busy I have been, although not without a few issues through the day!!!

A viscous fan that was seized on the shaft solidly was my first battle!!!
I even went as far as to buy one of those special 32mm cranked head spanners just for the job and hey presto bent that and ruined it so back to my big adjustable and a few gentle blows with a hammer and punch being careful not to damage the water pump and after more than an hour and a half of struggling it came free.



I did a bit of work on my old mates Disco over the winter, namely the timing chest seals, now, allit took was one slip and we had punctured the rad, trouble is Paul needed to be back in Germany in the morning so the solution was to rob Rusty of his radiator to get Paul mobile and home and I could set about this one for re-core, well I can buy a brand new one for the price of a re-core here so ended up using a brazing rod and a propane torch to solder it all up and it has been good as gold since, but one thing I actually overlooked was that Rusty was filled with the long life OAT antifreeze, now not a problem until I decided I needed to get him filled up again as the rad was back in, and then I came home with my old favorite ethylene glycol, the two do not mix well at all and especially longer term running it sludges up and will block the rad and cause over heating, so mistake only noticed after filling it up, but too late and not wanting to risk freezing the block I left it alone until now, he has barely covered half a Km with it in so just draining it out, flushing it through and refilling the whole system should do, I think

Hose pipe going intothe bottom of the rad to back flush it through.


And here it flows out the top, just keep it going in for a while and block it off a little so that it has to pressurize and blow a little, it helps to remove any sludge from the lower rad tubes and should help with future cooling.


Push the water through the engine block too via the thermostat housing, it runs back out the bottom rad pipe so you need to keep an eye on how clear it runs before you get over excited and turn it off.


And then fill it up again.


The 5 liter bottles are ready to use diluted antimix, perfect as no need to try and guess how much neat and how much water went in.

I also decided to go full poly bush and you saw earlier in the thread me fitting them into the rear trailing arms, well I managed to fit them too so just the front radius arms and panhard rod to do then all done and ready for my real world test

Just need to bleed the back brakes and then I will be on the front axle 8)

long way to go but getting there slowly.

[Nigelw]

So my list is getting smaller one moment and then bigger the next

Managed to find time today for a little bit of fettling, and did I mention I went shopping too?


I know frivolous spending but trouble is the price was right and so was the bank balance too, but hell, why hold back it was getting them at some point

So first job was to finish the bleeding of the brakes, soon done but I am not happy with the pedal feel, although the discs are red rusty and will need a good run around to burn the rust off the discs before I change the pads ready for the safety test, so 30 mins on the rear brakes.

And these are my home made gaiters for the gear shifts and H/brake, made from the same material as the dash was covered in.



Thought I might see for myself what the worry is with running 235/85 16s on a Disco, safe to say that yes I will have to do a camel cut to the rear arches




The rest was for stripping off the front bumper.





Only to find this lurking behind the bumper



Not so bad but still needs done



Test fitting my new winch bumper.





Will be fitted fully with the winch after the welding has been tackled, just have to elongate the mounting holes a little for a better fit but I am very pleased with it.

Also thought it a good idea to remove the rear bumper for a better look at the chassis and rear body cross members too, Chassis is perfect but the rear body cross member requires some remedial work to ensure it lasts a few more years.





Now, getting the rear bumper off was interesting as it had to be cut off on one side due to an impact of some kind by a previous owner that had bent the mounting for the bumper, will need to straighten this out and remove the bolt before the 300 Tdi rear bumper can go on.



I have opted to use the later bumper for now, as I want to have rear lights in the bumper and because I have it, bonus here is that I can fit the new loom for the bumper lights ahead of the new H/D bumper that I want which will have lights in also.

Bit more done tonight, for those that don't know this about me and my projects, I only work 3hrs per session on my truck if after work and max 8hrs if on my day off, it stops me from getting stale and bogged down too much, although there was a point where I was almost sick of the sight of it!!!!

But first off I removed that thing most of us know as a mud plough, others call them tow bars :blink:


Even found and unplugged the proper LR wiring loom for it too

Then on to the more enjoyable task of.......

You guessed it cutting out the rot and welding in new metal, couple of patches on the rear cross member is all that was needed :rolleyes:




And one right in the middle above the bracket bolts for the plough



Then all sealed over and now painted in a snazzy red hammerite No.1




So not much left to finish the back end off completely, just the wiring harness for the bumper lights and then fit the 300Tdi rear bumper for now and can call the back end done.

Bumper fitting time, needed to get the bracket off the chassis first and see how bad it was bent, no less than 5 penny washers as spacers under there to hold it away from the corner of the body



Apply heat to gas mark 8 and watch it glow,



Then repeatedly bash a piece of thick wall pipe through the gap between the body mount and chassis body mount until it yields as straight as it is going to.



Then offer up the bumper to see if it fits.



Bingo we have a winner, now the plastic tread plate can be re-fitted with a bit of silicone and a few rivets as I hate those plastic clip things with a passion and job done for tonight



For tomorrow I am going to do a full walk through for fitting the relays on an 200 series Disco that does not have the lights in the bumper originally, all will be revealed.

300Tdi bumper fitted and now it is on to the wiring up of the lights.

For those that don't know, if you intend on running the extra lamps on an earlier 200Tdi and don't want the trailer lamp and/or buzzer going off every time you indicate you need to wire them in with a relay for each indicator lamp, this is how I did mine.

This is basically the bottom back of the looms from my old 300 series V8, you need the wiring and plugs for the lamps and a bit of spare cable.


The relay needs a live feed from the battery and an earth, I chose to run a cable direct from the battery under the body and entering the rear at the light units, this feed will have a 10A inline fuse in it too.


Next you have to find the wires from the multi plug on the back of the light cluster, easy really as they are the same as the colored cables in the lower loom, green with white stripe for the indicators and red with an orange stripe for the side lights, and the black wires are earths, I chose to pluck the terminals out and bare the wires back and solder in the connecting wire for the side light and the trigger wire for the relay, small wrap of tape to insulate them a little.




The earths are mounted to the body via one of the old M8 bolt holes that would have been used for the dickie seats in the rear.


I had loads of the old relay holders from the 300 series and used one her with a small strip of tin riveted to the body with a smear of silicone to seal it and job done, you can see the small inline fuse at the bottom, the cable from the battery will go into a new fuse box when I rebuild the inner wing that side and will have further protection there.


And all working as it should, and no trailer light warning lamp to be seen.


The connections for the relay goes as follows

30= 12V live
86= earth
85= trigger wire from existing L/R indicator
87= supply wire to new indicator

Incidentally if you do not have the back bumper loom from a 300Tdi Discovery then you will need to get the super seal 2 pin connectors that will fit the back of the light fittings, these are LR part No. XBP100180 and are the bulb holders that fit in the back of the lamps, these lamps are available as new items for sensible money as I have found out. The cables you can choose for yourself but correct colors are...

red/orange stripe side light R/H side,
green/white stripe indicator R/H side,
red/black stripe side light L/H side,
green/brown stripe indicator L/H side,
black is for the earthing for all lamps.

Tonight was another productive but unproductive night working on my Rusty.

Power steering boxes eh?

Undoing all the bolts and pipes.


And suddenly........

It vanished


A good while ago I decided to buy a seal kit just in case I could get away with new seals and it would be good for a few months so time to pull it apart to see what was going on inside?


But this will come as no surprise for some when I tell you that most of the bolts were unusually easy to undo as were the hydraulic hoses, you guessed it, someone had been there before me and left me some sort of present.


That black/grey/blue gunge is some sort of silicone sealant, and it was under the dust cover, nice hey, professional repair

But not too surprising that Rusty got passed on relatively quickly considering the cost of buying a new box here is stupid money and above €150 more than I would pay shipping a LHD box direct from the UK. Oh well.

The reason for the seals failure is pitting on the sealing face of the shaft, for me I am actually wondering if this could be overcome with being built up with weld and turned down on a lathe? Not too sure really as not my field of knowledge. But it did look like this.


Oh well these things are sent to try us.

I am currently looking to refurbish this steering box if possible by fitting a sealing sleeve, the sleeve will become the sealing surface for the shaft and will be like new, but first I need to rebuild the box with the new seals and then locate a speedy sleeve to fit the shaft, this is the state of play so far.



New seal going in.


New seal retainer and dust seal.


All secured with the circlip.



Just need to find a supplier for my speedy sleeves to fit the shaft and then it is game on.

This is merely an experiment for me to see if it is possible to actually make a semi-permanent solution to the leaky power steering boxes, but the seal cannot be fitted as per the norm of fitting to the shaft and then re-assembling because it will not pass through the roller bearings in the housing, true enough I could replace the roller bearings and fit new bearings to the shaft then the sleeve but the cost of new needle roller bearings is colossal!! So in order for this to work the seal will have to be fitted from the outside going in, basically the shaft will be fitted and the sleeve then knocked up the shaft under the lip of the seal, who knows if it will work??? Other option which I found out today is possible is to have the shaft built up and turned down by an engineer in Houthalen.

Time will tell, but for today I was busy with this

Got to wait for my speedy sleeve to be delivered as they do not have one the size I need in stock, but oh well, some other fun stuff to do today, like tackle the rotten inner wings and the horrendously rotten front body mounts.

But first a little cleaning, the turbo to intercooler pipe was oily and filthy and I was not happy to refit it in such a grubby state so a good degreaser and hot soapy water made it look like new and I also did the air cleaner too and have decided to paint that when I have done a spot or two of welding,


Took off the front grille and lamp surrounds in readiness for combat.


This is what I am up against in today's mission.






I think had we had any type of front impact it would have been a disaster after a few slaps with a hammer the body mount looked like this.


Only one solution for this......


Now lets see what the pig tail cup wire brush makes of the tin work....








And time to start cutting it all out and rebuilding it.



I know a lot of folk will say, "just buy the panels from YRM" well yes, I am going to, but not yet, this is a front end patch up for now as I have an awful lot of money already tied up in new parts and I really would like to drive this thing this side of Christmas, but as usual my birthday saw this plan scrapped.

I have gone with the speedi-sleeve route as my first attempt to see if I can help others find a cheaper solution to the dreaded leaky steering box, now in hind sight(such a wonderful thing is hind sight ) I should have actually ordered the size smaller sleeve due to this shaft obviously having seen a sheet of emery cloth before now but hey ho, the size for the shaft is 32mm I got a 32mm sleeve but really would have been better off getting the 31.75 to give a better friction fit, live and learn hey but I have fitted the sleeve with a lock and seal compound so it should not move once cured, I had originally wanted to go down the route of grinding and building up but for the benefit of others I have chosen to explore other avenues to see what can be done and how cheaply it can be done too, so I had built the box up ready for a refinished shaft to be fitted.



So before I could begin it was a case of removing the circlip, dust shield and seal retainer washer, and then the seal, once out the shaft could be refitted and with a good wipe around with acetone to clear off any grease or oil back to bare metal, when burnt off a cotton bud dipped in the lockseal can be wiped around the area the sleeve will sit.



Then basically just reassemble the seals and dust shield/retaining washer and circlip and wait for tomorrow to fit it, the lockseal should have cured by then.

Let us see how long this repair lasts shall we.

Since re-sealing my power steering box I have not really done much apart from look at my truck and laugh at myself for being such a divot!!!

But last night I did go shopping for some more goodies.



Now in that little lot is-----

4x Terrafirma Prosport std height shocks.

1x pr front brake discs and pads (Bosch)

1x pr Rear brake discs and pads (Bosch)

1x pr head lamps, Genuine!!!

2x 2nd hand Good year wrangler tyres in 235/85-16 flavor(these are almost the same tread pattern as my STT but struggling to find the €200 for 1 spare and these came up as a pair part worn with 10mm tread for a quarter of the price of a new one!!!)

Plenty to keep me busy when I get round to going back out in the cold.

Unbelievable!!! I managed to run out of welding gas today when doing a few bits for work, rubbish!!! Good job I have some other stuff to do until I can get more on Monday.

Today saw me in shock fitting mode, those shiny new Terrafirma shocks have to go on there some time

Rear shocks tonight as short on time for the fronts.

Shunt back and forth until CDL is in and lamp is illuminated and then chock front wheels and apply H/brake and leave in gear with the keys removed.

Then crack off all ten of the wheel nuts.


Once all nuts are cracked off, jack up the axle and rest on axle stands.


Ooohh!!! Rusty.......


Now the rear shocks on a Discovery 1(the same as a RRC/90-110-130) are a top eye and lower pin configuration, so getting the old one off requires the 19mm nyloc nut and domed washer to be removed, and good luck chuck with the lower pin on an age old shock, just get Mr. Angry out and buzz it off in seconds if you think you may want to keep them as spares then you need to be a soaking the nuts in penetrative spray for a week!!!




I fitted a later 1998 24 spline rear axle to my truck and it has these funny little bushing cups, think I gonna name them the "bush bra"


Ooooh!! Shiny I bought a full truck set of Terrafirma Prosport shocks, yeah, yeah, heard it all before, and I have nothing to loose with the deal I have with my supplier, better than OE guarantee wise;)


Before fitting it is best practice to extend and close the shocks three or four times before putting them on the truck.


Be sure to wipe some copper slip on the shock bracket and inside the steel insert of the bush, it stops corrosion and makes future dis-assembly much easier, then secure with the domed steel washer and a new nyloc nut.


Remember the "Bush bra" from earlier? Well, normally you had two washers in the new bushings kit with the shocks, these went between the bushes and the axle mount, but the "bush bra" does away with the need for these washers and you only need the top retainer and the outer/lower bush retainer and with the 22mm nyloc on you just need to wind them up tight.


And all done

Also had fun and games with the tyre fitter last night as I wanted my new tyres fitted on their respective rims, and well, the steel rim was a doddle, no problem, but getting the other on the alloy was a right PITA!!! Ended up having to leave it there while he stuck a tube in it and blew it up over night then fitted this morning ready for me to pick up, so thought I ought to fit the alloy on the spare carrier tonight now they are done.


And holy cow it's a tight fit with 235/85 R16 tyres :huh: :huh:


Guess I can do the front axle shockers tomorrow night.

The front shocks although not past their sell by date are also being changed to give me a balanced performance of my suspension, new shocks all round should equal predictable ride and handling I hope.

[Nigelw]

I have illustrated here the procedure for changing these shocks as a double up on changing front springs also as you do not need to remove the spring if you are only changing the shock!! This will become clear later on.

This is how it went.

Hand brake on and CDL locked with rear wheels chocked you need to jack the vehicle up high enough to allow the axle to gain full "droop", I placed my 2T axle stands under the chassis rails behind the radius arm mount, I also went as far as to put some support blocks under the front chassis cross member before letting it down.



Remove road wheels and it is game on!

At the top of the shock turret the shock is secured with a nyloc nut and a bush on the top with some washers.


And exactly the same at the bottom.


Be sure to use a good penetrative spray on the lower nuts a few days before you plan to do this and a small wire brush helps loosen and remove scale and rust, on the front axle there is no room to get the grinder in and you have few options available to actually remove the shock, one is a hydraulic nut splitter, I have these and they are great!!! Or you need oxy/acetylene to cut the nut off, I shy away from flames when rubber bushes are involved, the acrid smoke has been classed as a carcinogenic substance and has been linked to cancer so be aware!!

First slide your trolley jack under the radius arm and support the axles weight and then undoing the nut on the top is easy, you have good access to the top of the shock where there are two flats on the end to enable you to get a spanner on there to help, it comes apart looking like this.


The bottom requires the use of either a set of stilsons or a chain wrench similar to what you might use on oil filters.



Now, with the nuts removed you may find you need to remove your brake caliper at this point, but you will only know for sure as you slowly lower the axle down on the jack until it is resting on the bushes. Now comes the dangerous part!! I have used spring compressors a lot and needed my set here to persuade the spring to compress enough to let the shock out.


once compressed the spring can be tilted out and removed if necessary or just the shock slid out the middle.


This picture shows the shock turret has also been removed.


Here I have refitted the spring as to show that if you are only changing the shocks then the springs need not be disturbed and simply removing the turret from above will allow the shock to be extracted and a new item fitted and relatively quickly too!


Be sure to prime the new shock by compressing it at least 3 times and then it is ready to fit, the bushes are the same top and bottom and are assembled just so too.



You can just see my trolley jack as it is now lifting the axle and supporting it as I position the shock to slide into the turret as I inch it up on the jack.


Then it is a case of tightening down the turret and then the top and bottom shock mounts and another job done, the road wheels can be refitted and the vehicle can be jacked up and the axle stands and blocks can be removed. I personally like to check and re-tighten if necessary the shock mountings after 50 miles, it just gives me a warm snug feeling to know they are tight after everything has settled.

Shiny new bits.....





Then mutilate inner wing until there is space enough to put the new bits under...





Once gutted of its rot then it can pop back on so it can all be spot welded back together, also note repairs to body mount and there wasa patch made up on the back of the light box under the battery tray too....







As well as a repair to the battery tray....



When I find the camera I will upload and post some more of the progress.


Sorry it is so long but that is a years worth of work and I wanted to bring it all over with me

[Nigelw]

Thought there were more pictures on my camera of how it was going with the drivers side inner wing build but here you go.













More to come

[Nigelw]

Found some more pictures so you can see how much better it all looked once it was finished and how bad the other side was too.





















And that was the drivers side all done and complete, loads of stone chip spray on it inside and out along with a good thick smear of seam sealer along the joins, inside the arches will be done with body schutz to give it longevity against the elements and then Dinitrol all round.

I got lucky for a change with finding a supplier for the P clips to secure the cables with and the brake pipe clips are genuine parts too as he had them in the stores, need to find the right size/part number for the bigger single clip that holds the speedo cable in place now though as I lost/can't find the one that came off, put it in the box but as usual it vanished.

So this is how bad the other side was, not an uncommon sight on a truck as old as this.







Also found a good sized hole in the bulkhead too.








Right,now start digging around under the under seal and see how bad it gets.













Remove brake pipes and start cutting.....



Nice hey.

More to come........

[Nigelw]

Some more pictures

Thought I had better grace the thread with some pictures now that I have fitted the shiny new steering damper, also managed to locate some more from the inner wing saga too











After test fitting the washer bottle and the expansion tank I could drill the holes for them and the body earth from the battery, after the paint had dried I did sand back the paint and the eye of the earth lead to ensure a good contact was made and after fitting the nut and exposed bolt end were painted an the bolt head and eye were smeared in vaseline to try and prevent future corossion.





And the steering damper

[Nigelw]

To add some more pictures of what has been going on these past few sessions.....

We all love a bit of rot, but time to investigate how much more I have to deal with and it turns out a lot more than I had realized :blush:

As I had just finished the passenger side inner wing it seemed fitting to carry on and sort out the door post and foot well......





So first bit of trauma to start me off was the sheering off of the brake line as I attempted to remove the union that holds it all together and passes through the door post and floor support strut.



So trim out a bit of the rotten floor and get the door post braced with my make shift iron work.



I used this on the other side when I did that too, it works, fashioned in a way as to allow you to cut right through the door post and it won't move anywhere.



Then start cutting......





I hate this bit, it is not until you actually cut it open that you find the full extent of what you are dealing with, and you can guess how it goes, poorly executed previous repairs to the sill, door post and the support really showed how incompetent the previous owners were!!!







Only one solution, chop it all out and start again....



First repair piece going in but loads more to go.



Rear passenger side sill body mount, and yes this really is only being held on by a little bit of tin, as you can see the rest has rotted away.....









The last bit to be attacked...





Could be busy a while longer....

[Nigelw]

So time to bring this up to speed.....

Inside the new door post bottom you can just see the extra support I fitted to help brace the pillar and add strength.



Now this being a new second hand repair section it had a small amount of rot that needed addressing, think I did a better job than the last guy who attacked this door post with his welder.







Time to sort the floor out....







There is a support strut that goes in to the door post that has a brake pipe run through it and had to make a new one and also mangled the brake line when disassembling it as it was so rotten.







All seam sealed over the welds and stone chipped, looks much tidier.

Will get round to the brake line when flaring tools eventually turn up, bloomin Christmas holidays

But the rear sill body mount next, it was not actually attached to anything it was little more than a rusty pile of, well rust and bushes.











So still some fettling to do.

[Nigelw]

After the weld-a-thon was over I decided to do a bit of tidying up and as my brake pipe tools are still not here I had to do some of the other jobs, oh yes, wire in the new relays for the head lamps.

Very pleased with this little job and although it took me ages to do I think that I did a good job



You can see the nice little bracket that I made to mount the relays onto, even painted it with 3 coats of paint too





As I forgot to take my pictures and had completed the other side I was sure to get some progress shots of the drivers side.



On this side you can see I have opened up the split conduit and threaded some new wires through to connect to the new relays, but why?



Simply because I had the wiring still from my 300Tdi shape V8 and the wires to the head lamps are thicker on the later model, so to me it made sense that as I was ensuring the highest possible currents going to the lamps I needed to make sure the cables were strong enough to handle the loads and also because the newer connectors were in much better condition too.



As there is no bracket to mount them to this side I will mount the bracket onto the inner wing panel at the back here and it will still look very tidy compared to what it was.



There are future plans afoot that will most likely see a whole new under bonnet fuse board and relay board, but this is proficient enough to give me the best light output for normal driving, and when SWMBO allows me some more tokens I have my eye on some very nice LED light bars that will go on the modified winch bumper, but that is for another day.

[Nigelw]

Brake pipe being freshly formed using the old one as a template and a some tape to hold it all in place while I formed the rest.







Then thanks to outside help the ends were flared for me.



Once fitted, time to get busy......



Next installment is the last of the fun bits.