What have you done to your Freelander today

Nodge68 said:

Loaded my engine crane into my trailer. Drove 25 miles to collect my Christmas present from my wife and kids.
Got to where Christmas present was waiting for me to lift it into my trailer using the engine crane. Took some pictures. Tied everything down securely and drove the 25 miles home. Carried out the turnip test. Took some more pictures. Unload trailer using the crane and studied my present.
You may be wondering what the Christmas present is? Well it's a 1947 Lister D type in running and complete condition!!

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what a great present I used to drive a dumper truck with a lister engine I loved the pop pop pop all day
today I have replaced the heater plugs and gleaned the inlet manifold out what a messy job ,the wife came out to see if I was ok and trod in some of the gunge that came out and I heard a yell she had trod it all over the carpet glad it was not me.

Got mine even dirtier, must clean it. What is the 2nd tubular pump looking item under the in wheelarch diesel pump?

Hi all, newbie Hippo owner 2002 Serengeti 3 door hardback 103k!

Did the IRD oil change.

Read every post on the forum on how to do it and all the problems removing the IRD filler plug.

Well 1 owner from new and well maintained seems to have paid off for me..

The plug just undid easily and a bit of old oil came out.

Removed the drain plug:


It had a gooey black residue stuck to the magnet... no fragments and when I wiped the goo away it was black oily in texture:
.
All new filler plug and drain plugs with new copper washers ordered from a helpful main dealer(Hillendale in Nelson)

Refilled with a length of clean hosepipe from above with a funnel.
I used fully synthetic GL5 75w90 oil from Eurocarparts.
It took 1.1l to fill from drained until dribbling out from the filler neck.
All new parts to replace the old and nipped up so I can remove them easily again in the future.

Hardest part of the job is replacing the undertray!

Just hope this helps anyone thinking of doing it?

Any questions feel free.

PS I like to post as I gain loads of info from fellow forum contributions.

Mark

m4xmw said:

Hardest part of the job is replacing the undertray!

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Agreed, fiddly on a grand scale. I found the rear bolts into the subframe are no problem, but lining everything up at the front, squashing the bumper so the brackets all line up to get the bolts in - very frustrating.:frusty:

Assuming that oil's been in the IRD for a while, looks like its in good condition.

Put a new calliper piston and dust seal on , slapped a bit of rust paint on the calliper while it was off.

Took it green laning.

Finally fitted the front fogs today.

Today, I have mostly been playing with VCU's...

Took a suspect one off mine, and bench tested another two, one of which was from Freelanderspares (guess the results from that one )

Testing was done in a bench vice using half an old UJ with a 90cm bar and two 10lb sledgehammers tiewrapped to the end.

My original one took just over a minute to get from 45deg to horizontal.
The replacement s/h one took 40 seconds
The Freelanderspares one took about 2 seconds to hit the deck

After testing we built up the propshaft with nice new bearings and UJ's and used the best of the 3 VCU's.

Just waiting for the weather to turn and then it's going to be refitted pronto

Changed ma hippo's auto oil. Test drove it afterwards. Been carrying stuff on the roof rack most of the week.

Hippo said:

Changed ma hippo's auto oil. Test drove it afterwards. Been carrying stuff on the roof rack most of the week.

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My box has has it's fluid changed 3 times this year. I must say it's changing gears beautifully at the moment. I did run Dexron 2 in it for a while after I changed the engine as that's what I had kicking about. It was a bit thumpy on occasion with that in there. But now it's had 3 changes with Carlube ATF-U it's like a new box

Nodge68 said:

My box has has it's fluid changed 3 times this year. I must say it's changing gears beautifully at the moment. I did run Dexron 2 in it for a while after I changed the engine as that's what I had kicking about. It was a bit thumpy on occasion with that in there. But now it's had 3 changes with Carlube ATF-U it's like a new box

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Same ere. It does make it feel like a new car when it's had a change. the gear change smoothness improved. So there must be some deterioration in the oil, as that's the only thing changed. I used LRN 402 (AFT 402) the LR stuff as I prefer it. Smells nice too.

Hippo said:

Same ere. It does make it feel like a new car when it's had a change. the gear change smoothness improved. So there must be some deterioration in the oil, as that's the only thing changed. I used LRN 402 (AFT 402) the LR stuff as I prefer it. Smells nice too.

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I'm going too change the nearside drive shaft in the spring so the box will get another fluid change then. Long term I think an annual fluid change would be prudent, although I'll still use the ATF-U as I don't mind using a compatible fluid.

Nodge68 said:

I'm going too change the nearside drive shaft in the spring so the box will get another fluid change then. Long term I think an annual fluid change would be prudent, although I'll still use the ATF-U as I don't mind using a compatible fluid.

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When I changed my gearbox oil recently, I was rather hoping it might go into reverse a bit better - but I don't think there's been much difference - still quite 'mushey' and sometimes needs a 2nd attempt. Very little difference all round to the feel of the box. Its a '99 on 85K miles and not sure when last change was - not in our 3 years of ownership.

GrumpyGel said:

When I changed my gearbox oil recently, I was rather hoping it might go into reverse a bit better - but I don't think there's been much difference - still quite 'mushey' and sometimes needs a 2nd attempt. Very little difference all round to the feel of the box. Its a '99 on 85K miles and not sure when last change was - not in our 3 years of ownership.

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That's a PG1 trait If it doesn't engage, lift the clutch pedal to spin the gears and try again!! There's nothing wrong,it's the design!!

Fitted 2 wishbones, bushes and drop links...... Drives like a new car now!!!

C13tay1 said:

Fitted 2 wishbones, bushes and drop links...... Drives like a new car now!!!

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:behindsofa:

Going to do the same on mine this week (Except the ARB bushes-done a month or so ago).
Did you leave the hub/drive shafts intact ?
I have new rear polybushes for the wishbones, did your rear bush housings come off easily ?

How long did it take ?

C13tay1 said:

Fitted 2 wishbones, bushes and drop links...... Drives like a new car now!!!

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:behindsofa:

Going to do the same on mine this week (Except the ARB bushes-done a month or so ago).
Did you leave the hub/drive shafts intact ?
I have new rear polybushes for the wishbones, did your rear bush housings come off easily ?

How long did it take ?

Yes.... Left drive shafts intact.

Did this job on my last freelander so learned from experience and bought 2 new rear bushes and housings so the whole lot was new

On my last one it took me hours to get the rear bushes off and when I did one of them left the inner metal tube on the wishbone...... Didn't want all that hassle again!!!

Fitted a Synergy2,,

Very happy, even the wife noticed the difference..

Back in her good books...

C13tay1 said:

Yes.... Left drive shafts intact.

Did this job on my last freelander so learned from experience and bought 2 new rear bushes and housings so the whole lot was new

On my last one it took me hours to get the rear bushes off and when I did one of them left the inner metal tube on the wishbone...... Didn't want all that hassle again!!!

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:behindsofa:

Thanks for the info....
I have bought a pair of new wishbones, couldn't be arsed with drilling the rivets out for the ball joints. As the wishbones come without the rear bushes, I decided to buy Polybushes which means that the original rubber bushes will have to be removed from the housings.
I recently had to remove the front subframe in order to drill the ARB bush clamp bolts out and the wishbone bush bolts came out o.k. I coated them with copper grease on reassembly so they should come out easily again