I'm planning on making a mechanical replacement for the VCU!

I was just wondering if anyone had made a mechanical replacement for the VCU so it can be switched between 2 and 4wd when required.
If so where there any problems or issues that I might need to know about?
Thanks

why bother, just buy a vitara

kev1nlm said:

I was just wondering if anyone had made a mechanical replacement for the VCU so it can be switched between 2 and 4wd when required.
If so where there any problems or issues that I might need to know about?
Thanks

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yes a transfer box

essexpestcontrol said:

why bother, just buy a vitara

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lol Ive had a vitara before and loved it but I love my freelander more!

Thor1950 said:

yes a transfer box

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lol thanks for that! I'm hoping to make a direct replacement for the VCU

kev1nlm said:

lol thanks for that! I'm hoping to make a direct replacement for the VCU

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Being honest, sounds like a total waste of time? The car automatically switches between 2 and 4 wheel drive as and when required anyway, plus with the advent of traction control automatically sends power to whichever wheels have the best traction.

This is very true but I think the ability to manually switch between 2 and 4 will stop any concerns about the transmission when the VCU starts to give up and I wont need to buy a full set of tyres everytime they wear out!

Doing the work necessary would, in real terms, cost more than the cost of some £80 tyres which wear out every few years

I don't anticipate that it will cost that many man hours to make and I'm expecting the total cost to come in around the price of a VCU

I'm intrigued. How do you propose to do this?

I like the idea a lot, it would prevent most of the drivetrains issues caused by the vcu, please keep posting your updates

yu are ****ing in the wind - see yo other thread - this was discussed and actioned 6 years ago.

I don't really see how I'm ****ing in the wind, I couldn't find how the other chap did it other than what you said which was that it was done with a ford dog clutch. Its a reasonably simple idea, hopefully it will be controlled electrically and fit as a direct replacement for the VCU with a bit of simple wiring to a switch.

good luck.

wonder how long before yu go very quiet.

lol Im not really one to give up and given some of the projects Ive done before its really one of the simpler/easier ones, but I'm always open to suggestions and ideas

kev1nlm said:

I was just wondering if anyone had made a mechanical replacement for the VCU so it can be switched between 2 and 4wd when required.
If so where there any problems or issues that I might need to know about?
Thanks

Click to expand...

MHM is right, it's a huge job to even think about, we discussed this a good few years back (in the days before slob was banned lol)

You might want to start with below?
http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f9/ere-ming-ni-aussietrail-63871.html

There were also mega threads with input from Ming, Aussielander, ianh1 and Taipan but these all seem to have been lost in the archives or LZ moving to better servers etc I think it was ianh1 who actually started doing this, but think he was in Tasmania or New Zealand???

Been driving my Hippo for years, can't see it happening within the next lot of years tbh

Ah!

The (good) old days !

Yo memories are better than mine, NI. There were a couple of try's weren't there? Not sure anything came of either of them.

That looks like quite an overcomplicated way of doing it I'm just thinking about it as 2 individual props that need to be joined and separated, I intend to make a mechanical coupling that literally does just that which is operated by an electric solenoid. I understand what people are saying about ratios etc but I really don't think it will matter if the only time its in 4wd is when its been snowing etc I suspect it will need to be treated with as much care as any other selectable 4wd system

Your biggest problem is that the props will both be spinning, but the controls need to be fixed to the body..

This is true but I am going to get around this by fabricating a housing which will bolt up to the body using the prop bearing mountings which the control part of it will be secured to