Flat Bed Disco 2 Project - Anderson Connector Finally Fitted.

Stunning views in the snow , access is key when drilling out don’t struggle get as much as you can out the way, and most important get your centre punch point perfect

But don’t worry if you balls it up and can’t keep the origanal threads a good helli coil kit will see u good

Latest:
Exhaust manifold has been removed and dewebbed. Dewebbing relaxed the warpiness a bit but it's still not flat. Unfortunately there's nowhere up here where I can get it skimmed for a fair price or in a reasonable time frame so it's been refitted as it is with a new gasket and Wurth uprated studs. Seems to be OK on the test drive I just did.

Before refitting though I had to get three snapped studs out. All three snapped below the surface of the head so getting them out was going to be a challenge. However, I have bought myself a micro lathe so I made up a drill guide from the shank of an old bolt by turning and facing it on the lathe and centre drilling it with a 5mm bit. I drilled out the respective holes in the manifold to 10mm and turned down the bolt to be a snug fit in the manifold. I then temporarily refitted the manifold with a couple of nuts to hold it firmly in place and used the guide to keep the drill bit straight and centred on the stud. It worked a treat. I managed to perfectly centrally drill each stud. They still didn't want to come out with stud extractors though so I used progressively larger drill bits to remove material until they were just gone. The threads in the holes just needed a quick tap and they were fine.

Once the exhaust manifold was refitted I fitted the new water pump. No overheating issues now either. Fingers crossed I can get plenty of road time on it before the next thing goes wrong.

Oh yeah, new water pump:

Been fitting a new winch over the past couple of days. I've actually had this winch for four years. I aquired it in a liquidation auction for less than half the retail price at the time.
Of course none of the bolt holes or the fairlead cut-out lined up from previous winch installations on this bumper so I had to sort all that out.
The supplied power leads were super long so I took the earth lead off and made up a much shorter one that connects to the chassis just behind the bumper. I cut the power lead short so that it would nicely reach the isolation switch I installed under the bonnet and crimped a new connector on that and the bit I cut off to go from the switch to the positive post on the starter. A pretty simple and easy installation. Fitting the fairlead meant moving the number plate a bit higher. And finally, I made a small bracket that bolts to one of the ECU mounts that takes a fuel line clip to keep the leads tidy and take some weight off the switch.
The grille needed some butchery and I'm not really happy with how it looks now. At some point in the future I think I'll make a new one but this will do for now.

Rigid tow pole mounted on the roof rack. It's just a scaffold pipe with a tow hitch bolted to it and a shackle at the other end. Been used a few times and works well.

So a couple of problems cropped up the last time I took PD off road. I destroyed the rear prop doughnut and damaged the prop, and dislocated a spring which didn't seat properly when the axle returned to a more normal position. To be fair, this is the hardest I've driven it off road so far so probably got off lightly.

Link: Prop post here.

I've since sourced a good used prop and fitted that along with a new doughnut and bolts.

Link: As for the rear springs, I've fitted an Adrenaline 4x4 rear spring dislocation kit.



The last time out with the club was a new location; a working quarry. The quarry owner was kind enough to use his big digger to create some courses for us. To be fair, for Shetland, this is a fantastic location which we will be using a lot more in future.

Been a long time since I posted any updates here. Really haven't had anything to post and this one's just a little job but it's something I should really have done while building it. Oh well, better late than never. I finally got around to fitting an Anderson connector under the bonnet where the battery used to be. Wired it through the winch switch so it's not live all the time. I've also adapted my jump leads to plug into it. So now it's a damn sight easier jump starting not having to climb onto the bed and remove the battery cover panel. Just plug and play now.