Burnt out - rebuild

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And fog light switch attaches to the light cluster switch bracket. Yes they are in line on the plastic shroud

Excellent many thanks for confirming. I knew it was attached to the saem panel as all of the other column switches but as I am not with the vehicle wanted to make sure before drilling. it is easy enough to measure form the other side ad match up the holes now I know that is what is needed.

That holes for a choke cable

In that case I must have has one previously as well as this shroud is a lot newer than my old one. Is there a specific cover panel for it or is just a case or putting a grommet in the hole to close it up? A long way down the list of priories but if simple and cheap will do now when I refit it.
 
I began to strip my spare steering box today to replace the seals before fitting it. Firstly does anyone have any tips for the seal replacement or is it as straight forward as it should be?

And Secondly:
I don't know what all the fuss is about with removing the drop arm. People always seem to be complaining they need a million ton hydraulic puller to be able to remove it but I have never had that issue with any of the ones I have removed. This one came off quite nicely, soaked it all down in penetrating fluid for about an hour and then my little two leg puller from the '70's (with a strap wrned wrapped around it to prevent the legs slipping off, and it came off first attempt with a bit of a bang but not much of a fight. I didn't even tighten the puller down that hard, much more force is required for the ball join splitter than for this.

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New seals fitted to the drop arm and input shaft. Although this box is unknown donor I am not going to fully strip it so swap it over now I have done the seals. Is there a way of flushing the fluid through it other than filling it and then turning it upside down to drain. Is there a proper drain plug?
Hopefully this box will last long enough for me to decide if I am rebuilding my current one or getting an officially rebuilt one. Including the seal kit it only set me back £30 which is still less than the deposit on an exchange unit.
 
Due to it being Christmas I have not bene allowed to go an play at the barn as I need to be at home to spend time with family, but I hvae managed to hide in the garage for some parts. I have fitted new seals and painted my steering box so that is now ready to fit:

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Apologies for being terrible at before photos, but I have now basically finished refurbishing and replacing the electricals in the raptor dash unit. I have been more sensible this time around and colour coded my wired correctly, and I have also fitted multipin econoseal plugs to allow me to remove the panels without having to unplug everything individually. I have a top panel plug, a lower panel and a speaker plug. I have also provisioned wiring for the gaps for parts that have not arrived yet.
Still to arrive is the radio unit, I have ordered a Pinoeer MVH-S520BT as it was reduced a little in the boxing day sales, but as you can see have wired in the universal connecting plug so that should just be plug and play. The remaining hole on the lower panel is for the rear wash/wipe which is wired on the main bulkhead loom. The two gauge holes are for a boost gauge (ordered) and a volt meter (still to source but hoping @Hicap phill may still have one going spare). I have wired in with no connectors an illumination and an ignition fly lead so that when I have these guages they will just slot into place with minimal work.

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Managed to get a couple of hours this evening so removed my old steering box. This allows me tomorrow morning to dinitrol they gap it has left at the same time as I am doing the inner wings. once removed Have found where a lot of my steering play was coming from but the locking plate was still on both the nut and the arm so not sure how this play has occurred, Will see what it looks like when I remove the arm.

 
Quick electrical question. What is the best way to "T" into and existing wire? I need to pick up a main beam feed for my additional front lights. The factory way to do this is to use a scotch lock off the warning light wire, which is what I did previously. I am going to use the warning light wire again as the main beam feed but am just wondering if there is a better way to add an additional wire than a scotch lock (happy to do this again if it is the best way). I always struggle with soldering, not because I get a bad solder joint, but because the heatshrink or tape wrapping afterwards is never very good and I am not happy with the level of weather proofing/longevity it provides.
 
When it comes to drop arm removal difficulty I recon if it has never been off from new it is going to be hard but having been removed before not to bad.
This is because for many years Land Rover employed Man Mountain Neanderthal to do up the nut. ;):D
Scotch locks are in my top ten of man's worst inventions :mad:just do not provide good contact area or waterproofing.
There are two ways of T connecting, cut the wire or not cut the original wire.
To not cut you need a special stripper that just cuts and pulls back the cover but not the wire. The extra wire is bound to the main with several turns and covered with that self melding tape that blends into its self.
With cutting into main line a wire nut can be used [ just a connecter in a box ]
I have over the years often just used normal chock block electrical connectors, even on trailer lines out in the open. No covering fitted just some Vaseline smeared into the openings. Lasts for years.
Have a look on the you tube many ways to do with out soldering.
 
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Cut the wire and fit a Lucas connector or one of the newer 1 into 2 connectors ...

Perhaps I am just being a little precious as I is new and very expensive but I am reluctant to cut the wire but other than the previous mentioned it is brand new and very expensive I cant really put a finger on the reason why.

The extra wire is bound to the main with several turns and covered with that self melding tape that blends into its self.

What tape are you referring to there? the only self amalgamating tape I have used it very bulky and form a huge mass over the joint?
 
Perhaps I am just being a little precious as I is new and very expensive but I am reluctant to cut the wire but other than the previous mentioned it is brand new and very expensive I cant really put a finger on the reason why.

Surely there is a connector at the ends or in the line that you could chop and then add 2 wires too a new connector.
May involve more wire to get to where you want your "relay" I guess but neat.

J
 
I have made some progress, I have fitted the replacement steering box. Although now I have removed mine I think I will look to reseal it and try and adjust some of the slop out of it, although from the vid above a lot of the slop in the steering may have been coming form the loose drop arm! I will then at least have a refurbished spare if this unknown one has any issues.

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I have also now replaced the engine loom with a new 300tdi one so I have the correct connector plug to mate up to the bulkhead loom. I made some modifications to the engine loom before fitting it as it was very easy while off the vehicle. I have uprated the alternator wire to 16mm2 so it should be good for 110amps. I will be fitting a 100amp alternator as I previously had so this prevents the need to modify in the future. At the same time I also ran a cable for the alternator w terminal so I can run a tacho again. I ran an additional feed from the reverse connector and changed it form a two pin to a three pin econoseal so that I have a feed from the reveres switch to trigger the rear work lights. I then made a little extension loom to connect to this as I am running an lt77 the reveres plug on the 300tdi loom is too short and also made for the later reveres switch fitted with an econoseal plug rather than the spade connectors on the LT77. The engine loom also has the provision for a handbrake switch (if I can find a cheap enough newer version handbrake lever I may swap this over so I can use this. But more interestingly it comes with these two wire here (black, gray/pink):

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According to LRworkshop (link) this is for a transmission oil temperature warning light? Is this the case and if so does anyone know any more about how this is suppose to work? Although I have managed this far without one If it is something that is easy to do it might be worth while to try and wire it up. Conversely if it is not possible to fit one to the LT77 I am running is it worth fitting it to my transfer case to get a warning light, I currently have a romerdrive sump fitted (link) which has a threaded hole for a temperature sender.

I have also made some progress on lots of the little annoying things that I still had to tidy up. I have run new breather hose up to the bulkhead awaiting a new manifold to run to the top of the snorkel, I have mounted the foglight and dim/dip relays and I finally got around to refitting the master fuse box after ordering the "correct" (ones that worked) spade connectors for the original plug (many thanks to @mystery for his recommendation on my specific thread). I know there were other options but I am trying to keep the wirirng as "original" as possible for the main looms with any additions as complete stand alone additions rather than hacking the vehicle looms about.

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I have also successfully managed to add the foglight switch hole to my lower dash cowl. I was all set with calipers, a tape measure and some stepper bits to work out where to drill it but when I sat down to start noticed it is helpfully molded to allowed the insert to just be cut out so was a far easier job than I was expecting and I know it will be in the correct place. I now just need to find and order some more of the little brass inserts that allow the screws to thread in.

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I have also undersealed the inner wings, after pressure washing I was surprised at how much of a difference there was between my original inner wing that has done nearly 400k and my replacement wing which I assume has done much fewer miles (I know not many do as many miles as I do), with mine showing far more surface rust. With a couple more little bits of wiring running additional looms for the winch and refitting the bumper I should now be ready to refit the wings.

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Surely there is a connector at the ends or in the line that you could chop and then add 2 wires too a new connector.
May involve more wire to get to where you want your "relay" I guess but neat.

J
There is only a few centimeters of wire before it disappears into the loom wrap which I do not want to undo. the factory solution is a scotch lock here at the warning light plug:

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There is only a few centimeters of wire before it disappears into the loom wrap which I do not want to undo. the factory solution is a scotch lock here at the warning light plug:

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"depin" and solder crimp a new pin with 2 wires? Neat as F.

J
 
mad I am not with the vehicle you can probabaly guess my next question. Do you know what pin they are so I can get some more To do that.

Nope sorry. But the guys that made it would, I would hope they would chuck some in the post for pennies;)
As you are dealing with needing 2 signal wires basically? (very low load) I would guess its 1 of the smaller gauge wires but as you have some larger gauge wires in the same connector you may need 1 of those connectors to get 2 wires in?
If you are carful you could reuse the existing maybe;).

Nothing at all left on your old harness?

J
 
Perhaps I am just being a little precious as I is new and very expensive but I am reluctant to cut the wire but other than the previous mentioned it is brand new and very expensive I cant really put a finger on the reason why.



What tape are you referring to there? the only self amalgamating tape I have used it very bulky and form a huge mass over the joint?


The tape I use is what TV sat dish guys have.
 
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