Bit of a sort out

I should change my avatar picture now all that rot has gone

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Brown said:

My goodness me that looks crumbly! I'm sure with the help of YRM you can get things a whole lot better.

Mine's not quite as far gone fortunately, but one thing I have done is reinforced my B pillars with 3mm alloy sheet, with holes drilled in to take the bolts for the door striker and that bracket in A1203's picture. Plus a few more besides. Makes things a lot more rigid, and it's more difficult to force the doors open. The X Trouser door strikers from X Eng are good too, as they have less bits sticking out so you're less likely to slam your seatbelt in the door as well as less likely to catch your clothing.

If the speedo drive mechanism really won't come out, just swap that whole 'nose cone' over.

One thing I learned doing mine is that it helps to make sure everything is working before putting your floor pan and transmission tunnel back down. I was in a bit of a hurry to get everything back together, so put the transmission tunnel back in, and reinstalled all the matting, only to have to take it all out again to readjust the linkages for difflock and high-low, get the, difflock warning light working again, get the speedo mechanism working, and a few other bits of troubleshooting.

Stick a new handbrake cable on while you're at it. I was amazed how much tighter it felt with a new one.

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its one of those jobs where you cut one head off and two more appear, ordered some more bits from YRM yesterday and so I will spend the next couple of days on cleaning and painting, been wire brushing the various bits and I will paint them with rust treatment, then POR paint, I'm going to replace the seat box sides and I have some stainless sill plates I bought from YRM ages ago.
I looked at the handbrake cable and it looks pretty good so I may leave that one.
I spent an hour yesterday setting up the diff lock and high low linkages, they have always been a pain so I cleaned them up and lubricated them too, but I will take your advice and give it a run as soon as the seat box, wiring, and battery are in place.
By the way the tub caps are not so good so round two is looming.

I found that mine seemed to work on first reassembly but it kept slipping out of high out on the road, leaving me without drive. I moved it round a couple of notches on the splines and that seemed better. It still happened though and I worked out that it was so free and easy now I'd had it apart and greased it that the foam pad that goes round the gear levers was pushing it out. It's that sort of troubleshooting that took almost as long as putting the overdrive on and fitting the Ashcroft limited slip diff.

Looks like a good arrangement with the engine crane. I didn't have one when I did mine, so I had to lift it on manually. Made my arms hurt and took several goes before I got it hooked over the studs, but I managed it.

Brown said:

I found that mine seemed to work on first reassembly but it kept slipping out of high out on the road, leaving me without drive. I moved it round a couple of notches on the splines and that seemed better. It still happened though and I worked out that it was so free and easy now I'd had it apart and greased it that the foam pad that goes round the gear levers was pushing it out. It's that sort of troubleshooting that took almost as long as putting the overdrive on and fitting the Ashcroft limited slip diff.

Looks like a good arrangement with the engine crane. I didn't have one when I did mine, so I had to lift it on manually. Made my arms hurt and took several goes before I got it hooked over the studs, but I managed it.

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That must have been a pain to do it manualy mine took a while to get the output shaft into the transfer box I was starting to wonder if there were two different types of splines but finally a tap with the soft hammer persuaded it to go.

Seems to have been a long hard day today with no giant leap forward
Chopped the ends out of the seat box


Now I know where the water comes from in the space under the driver's seat, I think the door seal must allow the water onto the side panel which was like a lace curtain, lucky I changed the hinges and seal recently


Sprayed the new panels which came today, others should be on their way

rubbed down the box ready to paint it with Rustoleum first time I have used it and i found it gives a poor finish, may be my painting skill, post a picture when its dry. .
Does anyone know where I can get the flange which bolts on the bulkhead and goes into the transmission cover? Tried YRM and looked on T bay but cant find one.

raywin said:

Seems to have been a long hard day today with no giant leap forward
Chopped the ends out of the seat box
View attachment 123446

Now I know where the water comes from in the space under the driver's seat, I think the door seal must allow the water onto the side panel which was like a lace curtain, lucky I changed the hinges and seal recently

View attachment 123445
Sprayed the new panels which came today, others should be on their way
View attachment 123447
rubbed down the box ready to paint it with Rustoleum first time I have used it and i found it gives a poor finish, may be my painting skill, post a picture when its dry.View attachment 123448 .
Does anyone know where I can get the flange which bolts on the bulkhead and goes into the transmission cover? Tried YRM and looked on T bay but cant find one.
View attachment 123449

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I've found, with Rusroleum, that you have to stir it and get right down to the bottom and stir for a canny while. Shaking the living daylights out of the tin doesn't cut it.
I cut the bottom off my tunnel flange and fabricated new feet. I araldited the parts together. Didn't look for a replacement, just went straight for the repair.
Jobs looking great, it'll be a different driving experience having something solid to sit on

Al2O3 said:

I've found, with Rusroleum, that you have to stir it and get right down to the bottom and stir for a canny while. Shaking the living daylights out of the tin doesn't cut it.
I cut the bottom off my tunnel flange and fabricated new feet. I araldited the parts together. Didn't look for a replacement, just went straight for the repair.
Jobs looking great, it'll be a different driving experience having something solid to sit on

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Ah maybe that's the story, I only shook the tin, I'm not too worried it will be covered up by the rubber mat.
Yes it's turning into an epic but I hope it will be worth the effort, I thought about trying to fix the bottom of the flange, wondered if I could weld or rivet it.
Tomorrow I don't anticipate the other bits will turn up so I will finish coupling up the transfer box then filling it with oil, and doing some other bits.

Found a few pictures of my tunnel flange refurb.
Made some card templates of the feet and cut the pattern out of my old B pillar supports (avoiding the rusty bits)

Cut the ends off the tunnel and folded the cut outs

Cleaned them back to shiny metal and etch primed.

glued them together

Worked a treat

Al2O3 said:

Found a few pictures of my tunnel flange refurb.
Made some card templates of the feet and cut the pattern out of my old B pillar supports (avoiding the rusty bits)

Cut the ends off the tunnel and folded the cut outs

Cleaned them back to shiny metal and etch primed.

glued them together

Worked a treat

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That's exelent I am looking at a local welder to see if he might be able to help me with this.
I thought that YRM might have one I can imagine it's a common problem.

Well a few thing were getting in the way but I have cracked on late last week and over the weekend



I put in the new cross section, and the ally "tray" in the top, lots of holes to drill and bolts to pull up, I noticed the white powdery surface on my galvanized chassis this was only fitted 12 months ago I am wondering if I have more galvanic corrosion than most.

Transfer box is in position and new prop shaft bolts fitted ( ones in the picture were too long) filled it up with 75 - 90 Semi Synthetic oil.


Sprayed the bottom of the seat box with stone chip it seems to be in decent condition. bit of a gap in the pictures as I was up to the neck in it and wishing to press on
but


Looks a bit better now I put thin rubber strips under the edge at bottom of the picture and between the triangle section at the bottom right, just hope to slow down the dreaded white rot.

getting it back together now wire brushed as much of the mess off as possible.

That bloody center tunnel drives me mad, I put some silicon grease on the sponge insert which goes around the gear stick before pushing it in, re connected all the electrics and hooked up the Nanocom then checked the operation of the high low and diff lock selector, fired up the engine and it went first turn.
So I put back the fuse box and tidied up some bits


decide to but two new seat belts, drivers side was frayed, added a thin plastic shim to try and separate the metals it may look like its made from a Tesco milk container. sprayed the cubby box with Halfords vinyl paint its a bit better but it has to be on the hit list now.

and so after all that work there's not much to see for it, but at least I don't feel like I'm driving a vehicle made from Jacobs cream crackers
And I still haven't fitted the subwoofer.

One thing to add, the Discovery transfer box is now in, I have only tried it over about 4 miles but it seems like all the gears have moved up a bit, first is now usable to set off, second pulls nicely, third and fourth are almost how forth and fifth used to be and fifth is like an overdrive.
So need to re learn how to drive it and use it for a bit to get a verdict

Abit late to the party but next time if you struggle to remove the speedo gear use a flat screwdriver or small chisel to spin the housing so it frees it up and then it will pop out. Which gear did you use in yours? Mine has a dark disco one think it was black, I've not had chance to test the speedo with it yet assuming it's not gana work though

alexc2701 said:

Abit late to the party but next time if you struggle to remove the speedo gear use a flat screwdriver or small chisel to spin the housing so it frees it up and then it will pop out. Which gear did you use in yours? Mine has a dark disco one think it was black, I've not had chance to test the speedo with it yet assuming it's not gana work though

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Thanks for the tip but I tried with all sorts of implements from mole grips screwdrivers to chisels I think it's possible to see in the picture I took some lumps out of the insert. I even took off that part of the housing and tried to punch it out from inside but no joy.
The one in the disco box was a black gear but the defender one was blue so I ordered a blue one , I have not tested it against the GPS yet but must give it a go.

raywin said:

Thanks for the tip but I tried with all sorts of implements from mole grips screwdrivers to chisels I think it's possible to see in the picture I took some lumps out of the insert. I even took off that part of the housing and tried to punch it out from inside but no joy.
The one in the disco box was a black gear but the defender one was blue so I ordered a blue one , I have not tested it against the GPS yet but must give it a go.

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Yeah my friend did the same when he did his, said he tried spinning after told him and worked 2nd go spin and shock is easiest way they are a right bastard though. Put s whole disco gear&xfer box in mine then tried to remove it to see colour and put a transducer in was mare from under the van!
If you put some copaslip on the lip it stops the two surfaces rusting together too just don't get any behind the seal won't do oil any good
If you used blue are you on standard tyres? With a td5 speedo I'm guessing? I've updated mine to td5 clocks too so I had no clue which to use

alexc2701 said:

Yeah my friend did the same when he did his, said he tried spinning after told him and worked 2nd go spin and shock is easiest way they are a right bastard though. Put s whole disco gear&xfer box in mine then tried to remove it to see colour and put a transducer in was mare from under the van!
If you put some copaslip on the lip it stops the two surfaces rusting together too just don't get any behind the seal won't do oil any good
If you used blue are you on standard tyres? With a td5 speedo I'm guessing? I've updated mine to td5 clocks too so I had no clue which to use

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James advised me that the diver gear is the same but there are variation's on the driver ones which seem to come in different colours I found a chart somewhere giving different ones. I think there is a setting in the ecu for tyre variation I will try and change it with the nanocom and see what happens.

raywin said:

James advised me that the diver gear is the same but there are variation's on the driver ones which seem to come in different colours I found a chart somewhere giving different ones. I think there is a setting in the ecu for tyre variation I will try and change it with the nanocom and see what happens.

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Mines a 300 tdi I haven't put an ecu back into it was tempted for an alarm but just gana fit a custom one so I'll just have to trial and error the colours joy

Here'sthe stuff about the different speedo gears

• Colour: blue/20 teeth - Part number: FRC3310 - Tyres: 7.50/16 or 235/85/16
• Colour: green/21 teeth - Part number: FRC3311
• Colour: yellow/22 teeth - Part number: FRC3312 - Tyres: 205/16 tyres
• Colour: red/24 teeth - Part number: FRC3313

I didn't get a notification about your update. Odd!
Anyway, looks like a top job. Very neat and tidy and I bet very satisfying knowing that it's all solid under there now.
I couldn't see the corrosion on the chassis you were talking about. Funny you should mention it though cos at the weekend I noticed white powder between my tow assembly and rear cross member. The tow assembly got galvanised too, so that's galv tow plate against galv chassis with white dust in between?

Al2O3 said:

I didn't get a notification about your update. Odd!
Anyway, looks like a top job. Very neat and tidy and I bet very satisfying knowing that it's all solid under there now.
I couldn't see the corrosion on the chassis you were talking about. Funny you should mention it though cos at the weekend I noticed white powder between my tow assembly and rear cross member. The tow assembly got galvanised too, so that's galv tow plate against galv chassis with white dust in between?

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I couldn't see any either Al per yours though could it be caused by the bolts? I know with some bolt finishes you can get bimetallic reactions even with galv. Has it affected the finish any or is the galv still fine?

oooh, hadn't considered the bolts. Good shout. I hope it is.
Just took a couple of snaps. With the flash so not sure what they'll be like.
here we go


Hmmm, doesn't seem to run right along the join. More toward each bolt, so you might be right.
Might give it a clean and squirt some dinitrol in there.

Al2O3 said:

oooh, hadn't considered the bolts. Good shout. I hope it is.
Just took a couple of snaps. With the flash so not sure what they'll be like.
here we go
View attachment 124315
View attachment 124316
Hmmm, doesn't seem to run right along the join. More toward each bolt, so you might be right.
Might give it a clean and squirt some dinitrol in there.

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Looks to me like it's from the two bolts above where the crossmember bolts to the tub lines up with them galv is known to powder when it's new though it shouldn't peirce the layers though. I don't know if stainless be any better? I heard can react with it too though. Cheridised maybe. I'd stick with normal HTS bolts for the actual tow bolts though. Maybe a smear of copaslip on the mating faces so they aren't meeting bare should stop reaction.
Hoping mine won't do that as it has the tub that sits over the lil peg bits. Not with em sticking infront like.