What have you done to your Landie today.

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took it to one of them valet places with jet wash. They pointed at the windscreen and I was sat inside and got squirted in the face.
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I've started doing a few jobs seeing as it is Christmas and all good Christmases are spent beneath a Land Rover. On checking the propshaft, there does appear to be a little slack, which may have been contributing to the clunk on drive take-up and the noise and vibration on overrun. So I've got another to go on. This one is usefully designed - there are arrows indicating optimal alignment, and a grease nipple in the end of the bearing cups:
IMG_0367.JPG
The arrows haven't shown up too well in the photo, but you get the idea.

I'm trying to get my centre difflock mechanism to work again. Here, you can see I've renewed most of it:
IMG_0365.JPG

All the holes were slightly oval, so new levers and links and new top hat washers mean that the little tab on the transfer case now moves enough to select centre diff lock. But no warning light. Investigation reveals that the switch doesn't operate until the button is depressed right into its housing and even then it retains about 10 ohms of resistance. Maybe not low enough to light the light. Shorting out the pins on the multiplug with a split pin off the handbrake mechanism illuminates the light, so it must be a switch problem. It doesn't look like it is serviceable, so I've ordered a new one. Sadly it won't come 'til after Christmas. I'm also renewing as much of the windscreen wiper system as I can. New wheelboxes and spindles have arrived:
IMG_0366.JPG
Imagine my sadness on opening the packaging and discovering they were in Britpart boxes. However, they seem well equipped, as they come complete with outer rubber seals and those funny laminate washers where they go through the bulkhead. They've got a much stronger fixing between the gear wheel and spindle:
IMG_0368.JPG

There is actually a couple of dollops of weld on there. Maybe this will put an end to the tragedy of the gears slipping on the spindles. The other critical issue that kills Land Rover wipers is the way the rack tries to jump a tooth on the gear and succeeds in jamming the wipers mid-screen. Then the park switch continues to supply current to the stalled motor until the coils are completely baked, whereupon the fuse blows. So that bit of curved sheet metal above the gear has to be bent to Angstrom precision to prevent that happening. I'm supposed to be getting a new motor and rack today but it's getting late and with each passing minute the likelihood of a delivery declines further. Anyway, I've got the wheelboxes in position which is the fiddly bit, so if the motor arrives all I have to do is poke the rack into the tube, screw its clip around it and plug it in.
 
I've started doing a few jobs seeing as it is Christmas and all good Christmases are spent beneath a Land Rover. On checking the propshaft, there does appear to be a little slack, which may have been contributing to the clunk on drive take-up and the noise and vibration on overrun. So I've got another to go on. This one is usefully designed - there are arrows indicating optimal alignment, and a grease nipple in the end of the bearing cups:
View attachment 196848 The arrows haven't shown up too well in the photo, but you get the idea.

I'm trying to get my centre difflock mechanism to work again. Here, you can see I've renewed most of it:
View attachment 196853
All the holes were slightly oval, so new levers and links and new top hat washers mean that the little tab on the transfer case now moves enough to select centre diff lock. But no warning light. Investigation reveals that the switch doesn't operate until the button is depressed right into its housing and even then it retains about 10 ohms of resistance. Maybe not low enough to light the light. Shorting out the pins on the multiplug with a split pin off the handbrake mechanism illuminates the light, so it must be a switch problem. It doesn't look like it is serviceable, so I've ordered a new one. Sadly it won't come 'til after Christmas. I'm also renewing as much of the windscreen wiper system as I can. New wheelboxes and spindles have arrived:
View attachment 196855 Imagine my sadness on opening the packaging and discovering they were in Britpart boxes. However, they seem well equipped, as they come complete with outer rubber seals and those funny laminate washers where they go through the bulkhead. They've got a much stronger fixing between the gear wheel and spindle:
View attachment 196859
There is actually a couple of dollops of weld on there. Maybe this will put an end to the tragedy of the gears slipping on the spindles. The other critical issue that kills Land Rover wipers is the way the rack tries to jump a tooth on the gear and succeeds in jamming the wipers mid-screen. Then the park switch continues to supply current to the stalled motor until the coils are completely baked, whereupon the fuse blows. So that bit of curved sheet metal above the gear has to be bent to Angstrom precision to prevent that happening. I'm supposed to be getting a new motor and rack today but it's getting late and with each passing minute the likelihood of a delivery declines further. Anyway, I've got the wheelboxes in position which is the fiddly bit, so if the motor arrives all I have to do is poke the rack into the tube, screw its clip around it and plug it in.
While your doing that you might be interested in this.
 
While your doing that you might be interested in this.


Interesting, but I'm not to worried about fluid delivery thanks. There seems to be plenty for the current UK climate.

The post has started working again after Christmas so some of the things that said they were coming on the 24th have finally turned up. I've put the wiper motor in and together with the new wheelboxes and rack they give a very positive wipe with a consistent sized arc and no jamming so far. I was also able to change the difflock warning light switch (which meant having to take all the mats out and get the transmission tunnel up again) and now I have a centre difflock that works both mechanically and electrically. I still have the problem that the heated rear window warning light comes on with the lights. There's a white wire with a black stripe that goes to the light on the heated rear window button and to the relevant terminal on one of the the multiplugs on the instrument cluster. This becomes live when the sidelights are switched on. I think something has chafed through inside the wrappings of the wiring loom. I'll replace it one of these days. It keeps my lights on and keeps me legal for now.

I think it's a little quieter in the cab now that I've done up all the screws in the dashboard assembly nice and tight. I have also retrieved the rubber pad that goes between the wiper motor and the bulkhead from where it had fallen inside the dashboard and refitted it, which seems to have got rid of at least one rattle.
 
I've driven over to Wales today, putting my windscreen wipers on periodically just for the sheer joy of watching them work. It;s a much smoother drive with the new propshaft. Less clunk on releasing the clutch and less vibration on the overrun. It must have been deteriorating gradually for a few weeks. I was thinking I'd just got very rattly old Land Rover now I've done over 100,000 miles in it, but this has smoothed everything out again. Less bulkhead rattle too. I have some rattles from the rear bench seats which can be abated by putting my hands on part of the framework, but that's not too worrying.

The warning light issue seems to have resolved itself spontaneously.
 
I've put my new drive flanges on the rear, and taken the steering wheel off and moved it round a couple of splines so it looks like it is straight when driving straight ahead. It's been at an angle all weekend.
 
Hosed the weekend's mud off it and put a new passenger side seatbelt on it so It will actually work now and Xylia can be safely strapped in.
 
Last few days...
Removed the bent track rod, and replaced, did wheel alignment in proper landrover fashion- bit of bailer twine run fore and aft, and twiddle the rod until both sides are straight at once.

Replaced the emergency braking system, also known as the front bumper.

Replaced the radiator grill with a shiny new one, and cut a radiator muff from old trailer tarp..

Drained brakes out, replaced master cylinder, refilled with clean fluid, and it now stops properly for a Landrover, i.e. I hit the traction limits of off-road tyres on road, and have no problem stopping on a 1 in 3 slope off road.

Tidied it!

Most difficult bit? Figuring out which nuts are metric and which are imperial- who has a 7/16, 1/2, 17mm, 10 and 9mm on the same system!?
 
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