Happyhippo
Active Member
- Posts
- 126
Greetings all!
I’ve not been posting for a while but I’m still here and still plodding along with the same old L-series diesel hippo I’ve owned from new and now on 170k plus miles. She is still pretty reliable and returning between 30-40 mpg depending on conditions.The thing is I’ve done most maintenance and repair jobs on this model and some at least twice but this time I’m a bit baffled. Let me explain.
Recently I pressed the switch to lower the tailgate glass only to be met with that familiar clunk which told me that one of the lift cables had snapped. All fairly straightforward and a fairly easy fix or so I thought. I’ve learned from experience that it’s not really worth replacing the cables, much easier to buy a complete unit less motor for around 25gbp. Anyway new unit arrived quite quickly and I got on with job of exposing the damage. Once exposed the damage was quickly assessed as a broken cable. So far so good.
Old unit stripped out. new unit fitted after a bit of head scratching and time to check operation before fitting glass. Mrs H was summoned to operate switch while I watched operation of mechanism. My spirits lifted with the operation of the mechanism only to be dashed a moment later when my call to operate the switch in the opposite direction resulted in……nothing. A familiar feeling when working on land rovers.
I then got thinking about how the motor knows when it has reached the required travel and how does it know to reverse direction? Time to visit landy zone. I searched on various related topics but there seemed no definitive explanation. I’m wondering if my window lift failure was not so much a failure of the mechanism but a symptom of a different failure. If for example the motor mechanism is controlled by the relay which clearly worked at the time, or is it the switch which most probably reverses polarity for the other direction.
Today I will set about the operation with my trusty multimeter to carry out further and better investigations. Sorry about the spiel but I’m looking for answers here and I’m hoping that some acknowledged expert in this field might give me the benefit of his or her wisdom.
Yours aye Happyhippo.
I’ve not been posting for a while but I’m still here and still plodding along with the same old L-series diesel hippo I’ve owned from new and now on 170k plus miles. She is still pretty reliable and returning between 30-40 mpg depending on conditions.The thing is I’ve done most maintenance and repair jobs on this model and some at least twice but this time I’m a bit baffled. Let me explain.
Recently I pressed the switch to lower the tailgate glass only to be met with that familiar clunk which told me that one of the lift cables had snapped. All fairly straightforward and a fairly easy fix or so I thought. I’ve learned from experience that it’s not really worth replacing the cables, much easier to buy a complete unit less motor for around 25gbp. Anyway new unit arrived quite quickly and I got on with job of exposing the damage. Once exposed the damage was quickly assessed as a broken cable. So far so good.
Old unit stripped out. new unit fitted after a bit of head scratching and time to check operation before fitting glass. Mrs H was summoned to operate switch while I watched operation of mechanism. My spirits lifted with the operation of the mechanism only to be dashed a moment later when my call to operate the switch in the opposite direction resulted in……nothing. A familiar feeling when working on land rovers.
I then got thinking about how the motor knows when it has reached the required travel and how does it know to reverse direction? Time to visit landy zone. I searched on various related topics but there seemed no definitive explanation. I’m wondering if my window lift failure was not so much a failure of the mechanism but a symptom of a different failure. If for example the motor mechanism is controlled by the relay which clearly worked at the time, or is it the switch which most probably reverses polarity for the other direction.
Today I will set about the operation with my trusty multimeter to carry out further and better investigations. Sorry about the spiel but I’m looking for answers here and I’m hoping that some acknowledged expert in this field might give me the benefit of his or her wisdom.
Yours aye Happyhippo.
