Land Rover Hybrid - Defender90 (body and interior)/Series3(chassis)/Discovery(engine and axles)

Since I got my Land Rover the gauges never worked. Never really a problem so this weekend I pulled the gauges out and found some wires that lead to a switch to the right of the steering wheel, don't know what it's called but there are three switches there, one is a hazard switch, no idea what the other two are for as they are worn away to just blanks. Anyone know what they are?

Anyhow the right hand switch had a broken wire so put a new connector on it and reconnected that and now I have lights on the gauges for first time ever. Found another broken wire that connected the negative side of the Temp and Fuel so now they are working as well. Sweet. The Speedo still doesn't work but at least I now know how much fuel I have. The Temp does seem to go high very fast but after checking the radiator it's not that warm on top? Possible bad earth or a faulty water pump?

So tonight I must see if the centre of the speedo cable turns while I drive, any advice on the Temp gauge? It looks like it is earthed on the common where the fan control is on the left side? Also any way to see if the water pump is broke?

Thanks
Dave

ZVDefender90 said:

I pulled the gauges out and found some wires that lead to a switch to the right of the steering wheel, don't know what it's called but there are three switches there, one is a hazard switch, no idea what the other two are for as they are worn away to just blanks. Anyone know what they are? Fog lights and heated rear screen

Anyhow the right hand switch had a broken wire so put a new connector on it and reconnected that and now I have lights on the gauges for first time ever. Found another broken wire that connected the negative side of the Temp and Fuel so now they are working as well. Sweet. The Speedo still doesn't work but at least I now know how much fuel I have. The Temp does seem to go high very fast but after checking the radiator it's not that warm on top? Possible bad earth or a faulty water pump? More likely it's just not wired up properly

So tonight I must see if the centre of the speedo cable turns while I drive, any advice on the Temp gauge? It looks like it is earthed on the common where the fan control is on the left side? Also any way to see if the water pump is broke?

Thanks
Dave

Click to expand...

Assuming it's Defender wiring have a look at and/or download the Rave manual for it

Ya it's got LR Ninety wiring as the cabin came straight off a Ninety.
Cheers

Open the expansion tank and rev the engine quiet hard, if the pump is working you will see the water being pumped in. simples.

Might be a faulty sender for the temp. Why not run a length of wire from the battery neg to the gauge and see if thats any better at least that will rule out an earth fault.

One of them switches could be a heated rear screen. No idea about the other though.

On my 90, the far right one is for the dash and interior lights, the middle one is for hazards and the left is for rear hated windscreen, i hope that helps.

Thanks ever so much for help guys, I'll update you later on how it goes

Ok time for an update

I removed the speedo cable from the back of the gauge and took the landy for a spin and found that the cable was not turning.
Put the cable back onto the gauge and removed the cubby box and the plate below that to get to the transfer case. The speedo cable is between the handbrake and the main body of the transfer case. It is held in place with a 10mm bolt and a small y shaped plate.
After removing the cable I turned it manually and for the first time ever my speedo needle moved. So I was at least happy it was not the cable and not the gauge. I found the inside of where the speedo goes into was all muck and that there was no washer or gasket or anything between the cable and the transfer case. I cleaned out all the gunk and put the speedo cable in (temporarily with no washer) and took the landy for another spin. But still nothing happened on the speedo. My thinking was that the speedo cable was loose inside the gearing so I tried to flatten the end of the cable without luck so I used a bit of magic insulation tape around the end then pushed the speedo cable in until it felt a little tighter.
Took the landy for a spin and lo and behold I have a working speedo.

I didn't have any washer so I used a bit of 3M 2mm thick plastic double sided tape to make a temporary one until I can get a proper set of copper washers.

I still have the temperature to sort out, still not sure if it is actually high temp or a faulty gauge but I mentioned in another thread that the coolant is rusty brown so I'm gonna flush it out and maybe even swap out the radiator.

Thanks all for the excellent help I've received so far. This really is a fantastic site for people like me that is new to the world of landys

Heated window, interior lights (down is off, middle is on with door, up is on) and hazzards. If I remember rightly not all fenders had heated windows but it doesn't take a genius to figure out if it has.