Defender Auto

bigjak said:

Right I think I have the speedo sorted in my head.
Now how do I marry a 1999 Discovery handbrake to a Defender lever? Will a newer lever take the Disco cable? I don't want to fit the Disco lever on the seatbox.

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fit the earlier hand brake to the t/box requires 2 x 8mm holes drilling and tapping in speedo housing

So what did I do today? Fitted engine and boxes in one go.
https://flic.kr/p/BJmkgo
Thanks to tacr2man for the advice on the crossmember.

Rest of car now in paintshop.

Bulkhead already done!!

Blimey flying along!

bristolbulldog said:

I have done this to my 110. I went from lt77/ 200 to 300/4hp22

You have had good advice here.

Avoid the disco t/box. The 4hp22 lockup and 4th is similar to a v8, so too tall for a defender.

Also, the standard cooler lines are too long. And IMO too restrictive.

Purchase a 30 row oil cooler with an10 lines off ebay, use m16x1.5 to an10 adaptors (male/male) and it will plum straight in to the box. Use 90 degree elbows box end.

It will flow better, and cool better.

Acceleration is as good as the manual if setup correct, offroad far superior and you can cruise at 65/70 as opposed to 55/60 whilst keeping the revs nice.

Fuel economy is good. Noticed no difference to my 200/lt77.

Heat and fuel economy will be better with the def t/box due to earlier lockup.

Totally transforms the defender into a semi refined drive.

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Further to this post, I have the standard auto oil cooler and want to plum it in using flexible hoses.
Where can I get the M16 fittings to attach to the box and cooler? And then piping to suit?

Moving on at a pace. Went to paintshop today and I have to say it is looking good, real good.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/130401096@N08/shares/8Q320J

Looks fab, nice colour. You'll have to get the chopper sprayed to match!

Decided not to use pop rivets to put rear windows in. Used M4 flanged head bolts and the filler still fitted fine.
https://flic.kr/p/DF33nN

bigjak said:

Decided not to use pop rivets to put rear windows in. Used M4 flanged head bolts and the filler still fitted fine.
https://flic.kr/p/DF33nN

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Looks a lot neater than pop rivets IMO aswell

bigjak said:

Further to this post, I have the standard auto oil cooler and want to plum it in using flexible hoses.
Where can I get the M16 fittings to attach to the box and cooler? And then piping to suit?

Click to expand...

You need a place which makes hydraulic hoses.... round here we have this lot - decent helpful mob

www.hgvdirect.co.uk

they have a few branches now in the north west.... try searching for someone similar, if these guys are outside your area..

there are also mobile folk - main in a van will come to you and make what you want - know a firm in Sheffield who are a very good - also know of a few others who can be pricey. ( PM me for any help if you want )

Only my opinion, but don't bother with the the standard cooler. Having spoken to ZF technical, they said that you won't overcool the box, so I fitted a much larger cooler to my 4HP22, from these guys:-

http://www.alutec.co.uk/?page=main

very good in my experience of them ( and you can have more or less any shape, and get it the right way up etc. )

( usual disclaimer - no affiliation - just a satisfied customer of both the above )

Next on my jobs is wiring, I need some help identifying the connections on my new 300Tdi ignition switch.
My current switch has big terminals because the glow plug wiring goes through the switch but I am putting the D1 glow plug timer on to reduce the wiring to the newer standard.
A photo would probably be good enough.

IIRC, the later switch has four positions-
0: everything off
1: accessory position- radio etc will work
2: ignition- power to the fuel pump solenoid, glow plugs activate on the timer
3: start. fuel pump still powered, radio etc switch off

And you're converting from the older type with the separate glow-plug position, which works like this-
0: everything off
1: run- fuel pump etc powered, radio etc also powered
2: glow plugs- fuel pump powered, glow plugs powered, everything else off.
3: start- fuel pump, glow plugs, starter motor powered, everything else off.

So the new switch will have one input terminal- thick brown wire from the battery.
One terminal will be active in positions 1 and 2, but not 3. This is your accessory connection- white wires.
One terminal will be active in positions 2 and 3, but not 1. This is your 'ignition' circuit- white/black wire to stop solenoid and glow plug timer.
The other terminal will be active in position 3 only. This is the starter motor connection.
The best way would be to test the switch with a multimeter to identify which terminal is which.

I found a pinout diagram for the timer relay here:

Looks like you need a connection to the 'start' terminal on the switch too.
One exception I would make to the diagram is that, since you're converting from a wiring system with no 'accessory' position on the switch, pin 4 should go to the white/black wire connected to the stop solenoid, not one of the white wires. This means the glow plugs won't activate if you're just parked listening to the radio.

I'd install the relay behind the instrument panel, as then you can use the existing glow plug wiring that formerly went to the key switch.

I have sited the timer relay on the bulkhead and I think I have all the wires sorted. Just need to feed the timer wires into the mix.
Thanks.

Just popping in to take a look at this thread.

Ordered the full Ashcroft auto kit for my 300TDi 90 yesterday, they said it should be ready to ship in 3-4 weeks time (auto-box, shifter, ancillaries, console etc etc) so roll on Easter!
I spoke to David Ashcroft as I was a little unsure about which transfer-box to use (I have run a Disco T-box & 265/75x16's since new) and he said that if I don't do a lot of heavy towing (I don't) then my existing set-up should work just fine. I will run it around the rest of this year and see but I am taking it all apart for a galv chassis refurb next year so if I find that the gearing is too high I will swop to a standard T-box then.

If you don't do a lot of motorway driving then the discovery transfer and 265/75 is too high , TCL doesn't occur until about 54mph , which on single carriageway roads means your not in top for most of the time

Like I said, I will see how it works for my type of driving. Have no issues about swopping the Disco T-box at a later date but may as well see how it performs on the existing gearing (which is how it has been since new). Could well be that it doesn't work but as it is all coming apart again in a little over 12-months it is no problem.
If I decide to swop next year I will just be buying a recon T-box outright as that way I still have my R380 / Disco T-box set-up sitting in the garage. The engine / drivetrain has still covered under 40K miles from new so I would rather keep them ready for any future project. I have never liked the R380 (the worse LR gearbox I have ever owned) but I have it so will store it away.

Couple of pics

So pleased with today's work, after bleeding the diesel through my project fired up quite easily. The engine hasn't been started since September and has had all the EDC gubbins chopped away and a mech pump fitted.
https://flic.kr/p/FW3SSN

Getting close to MOT time!!