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.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.
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.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.
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.Seems to have been a long hard day today with no giant leap forward
Chopped the ends out of the seat box
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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
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Sprayed the new panels which came today, others should be on their way
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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.
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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.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
That's exelent I am looking at a local welder to see if he might be able to help me with this.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
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.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
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!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.
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.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
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 joyJames 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.
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?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?
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.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
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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.