Owut took about 80 secs.
All tyres are identical I will look into getting a brand new vcu and bearings.
I can get one with bearings for about £400 and I've been quoted £120 labour.
Get a recon VCU from Bell Engineering. That will be ~£270 with bearings iirc. £120 for fitting is a **** take. It's an hours labour, tops. You should be paying less than half that labour charge. ;)
Alternatively take a day trip the Bell and get them to fit it for you. You'll be getting a good recon for half the money, fitted;)
 
My opinion for what it's worth,
60 secs means worn but still OK,
80 secs means no immediate danger but put it on the to do list.
120 secs means fix it asap,
180 seconds means you're in imminent danger of catastrophic failure,
anything higher than 180 secs means your on borrowed time, have the cheque book ready.

All just my opinion and I could be wildly wrong as I have a car which was in the 180 secs category and no apparent damage caused but maybe I was lucky. I suspect a soft tyre on a car with a good VCU will not do much harm but on a car with a 3 minute VCU could be a big issue.
 
My opinion for what it's worth,
60 secs means worn but still OK,
80 secs means no immediate danger but put it on the to do list.
120 secs means fix it asap,
180 seconds means you're in imminent danger of catastrophic failure,
anything higher than 180 secs means your on borrowed time, have the cheque book ready.

All just my opinion and I could be wildly wrong as I have a car which was in the 180 secs category and no apparent damage caused but maybe I was lucky. I suspect a soft tyre on a car with a good VCU will not do much harm but on a car with a 3 minute VCU could be a big issue.
I agree Ali.
Would you not consider £120 an excessive labour charge for the VCU change?
 
I wouldn't consider 120 excessive. The whole prop assembly has to come off and then the props have to be split from the old VCU. Assuming 2 hrs at 60/hr - if so I would say that is pretty good going.
 
It's less than an hours work with the vehicle on a 2 poster. Only the rear prop section needs removing completely. The VCU is then slid off the front prop that simple needs supporting on a transmission jack or hung on a strap from the X member.
I wouldn't dream of charging £120 for changing a VCU. Although if people are happy to pay it, I might just charge it ;)
 
It's less than an hours work with the vehicle on a 2 poster. Only the rear prop section needs removing completely. The VCU is then slid off the front prop that simple needs supporting on a transmission jack or hung on a strap from the X member.
I wouldn't dream of charging £120 for changing a VCU. Although if people are happy to pay it, I might just charge it ;)
I guess for a big garage probably with two guys at it for most of the time and providing warranty on the work, plus the use of the lift of the hour or so then £120 isn't too bad.
 
Get a recon VCU from Bell Engineering. That will be ~£270 with bearings iirc. £120 for fitting is a **** take. It's an hours labour, tops. You should be paying less than half that labour charge. ;)
Alternatively take a day trip the Bell and get them to fit it for you. You'll be getting a good recon for half the money, fitted;)
Would you
Get a recon VCU from Bell Engineering. That will be ~£270 with bearings iirc. £120 for fitting is a **** take. It's an hours labour, tops. You should be paying less than half that labour charge. ;)
Alternatively take a day trip the Bell and get them to fit it for you. You'll be getting a good recon for half the money, fitted;)
Thanks for that.are the recon vcus a good buy I have been advised against them in the past???
 
Bells have a good reputation and anybody from here who went there were very pleased with their work.
1st choice is brand new. Expensive but OEM so you know it is right
2nd choice is a recon from Bells. Good rep and fair price.
3rd is a homebrew Recon. Vastly cheaper and you know exactly what has been done but a pig to do and you need to be as stupid as me to go there.
4th choice is a recon from ebay but you're playing Russian roulette with your transmission
5th choice is dump it and drive on in 2wd only.

All my own opinion, for what it's worth.
 
Given my surname, I am already well predisposed towards going down the Bell option - but seemingly, new GKN VCU's are about a 100 quid more.

Has anyone done a back to back test for these two options: is the Bell engineering option really just as good as a brand new GKN?
 
I'm not sure if there are any tests accurate enough to determine that.

All we can tell when they are new is whether they perform roughly the same in viscous mode - and I believe (presume!) they do. I don't believe we can tell whether they perform the same in 'hump' mode.

As for lifespan we really need a sample of Bells's units driven over long durations/distances and compare that to the expected lifetime of a GKN unit. We know a GKN unit will last roughly between 20K and 200K miles !

What you should be asking is if either are as good as Alibro's :)
 
I'm not sure if there are any tests accurate enough to determine that.

All we can tell when they are new is whether they perform roughly the same in viscous mode - and I believe (presume!) they do. I don't believe we can tell whether they perform the same in 'hump' mode.

As for lifespan we really need a sample of Bells's units driven over long durations/distances and compare that to the expected lifetime of a GKN unit. We know a GKN unit will last roughly between 20K and 200K miles !

What you should be asking is if either are as good as Alibro's :)
How very dare you! :eek:
 
Lol! :D

How many of us are running Bell VCUs?
Lots of Bell VCU's going about. I've never heard of a bad one.
Mind you Alibro has made a few himself of late. It's much cheaper doing it yourself and satisfying too ;)
 
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It definitely was :)

When I do eventually get to recon the VCU sitting in my garage, I'll be happy if I do 1/2 as good a job as Alibros.
Ah shucks guys thanks, I've got a nice warm feeling now.



















Bugger! I think I've just pished myself.





Again. :oops:
 
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It definitely was :)

When I do eventually get to recon the VCU sitting in my garage, I'll be happy if I do 1/2 as good a job as Alibros.
If you only do half as good a job as me you need a severe talking to. I accept I did a good job of cutting the top off and cleaning the disks but any idiot could do that. The welding on the other hand was something else. They all leaked and had to be redone at least once and were probably a little out of balance because of the dodgy welds.
BTW I've a spare prop shaft and VCU coming soon so when I finish working at Bertie I'll refurb it too. I think it is a lot easier and quicker to just cut the end off so I'll do it that way then I'll have a spare for my off roading antics.
 
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