Morat wrote:

Once again - HUGE THANKS to Marty for sharing his knowledge, workshop, tools and generally being a very generous chap. Without you, The Duchess would be a wreck by now and I'd be sad.

Mine would be very sad too. When I was at Marty's earlier in the year he performed emergency surgery on mine as well.

I think we need to pool our resources and perfect human cloning in such a way that the new person retains the knowledge of the original. Marty is too valuable to the P38 world to be limited to one body :P

Glad you got home alright Morat!

Let me know how you get on with the rear prop shaft and the VC - sorry there didn't seem to be one there which is OK... probably explains why people were happy to send me 3 TC's at a time as part of a job lot... because they were pretty much junk otherwise!!

I was going to message you to make sure you had got back OK - but promptly been busy working on a RF filter backlog for a few people who had emailed the website about them, and finishing a HEVAC for another owner - so it's been somewhat of a busy week... I haven't even unpacked the tools from the car yet!

Thanks for lending a hand (and a foot... or 2 by the end of the bleed procedure) with my brakes - it's a big check mark off my list of things for the MOT this year!

Happy rovering over the summer!

**Crossposted from Opening Time

Martyuk wrote:

Morat wrote:

It's longer than mine but there's honestly a lot of stuff there that you could knock off in pretty short order.

If you want to compare....

1. Viscous Coupling (arrived yesterday)
2. Nasty scratch/dent above rear left wheel arch. This needs proper surgery and probably a replacement door. Super annoying as she had great bodywork when I bought her.
3. CD player just shows "Error"
4. Sat Nav doesn't get a signal
5. I think the mid speaker in the driver's door card is dead

She's drivable but I don't want to put any more miles on her until the viscous is replaced or it'll just wear out the front tyres even more and damage the UJs and diff at the front. I'm tempted to DIY but not that tempted. I'll need a prop tool and probably a gear puller.

3/4 probably mean "Android head unit" but that'll have to wait.
5 Yeah I should do that. One day.

I'd probably get a few more propshaft nuts... at least a couple of the new ones i put on at the back were already starting to round... even with the propshaft nut tool! The access to the nuts at the back is a PITA because of the angle it comes off at. You'll probably get another use out of them anyway, and they aren't done up stupid tight - but up to you... They're 3/8 UNF and an be had on the likes of eBay in packs of 10, probably cheaper than what a LR place would sell them to you!

Marty, I appreciate this post. I'm currently getting the Jeep through the MOT which needed tyres and is going to consume my spare funds (quite apart from Her Ladyship's Birthday and two weeks holiday!)

BUT, thinking about it:

I'll jack up one side this weekend and see how the rear propshaft looks. I know it's in better shape than the front was - but that's not saying much :)

For the front I reckon I'll need:

New nuts/bolts, a couple of litres of Dex III and some RTV should sort it.
On the tools front, I've already got a breaker bar with 1/2" end. I'll need a pumpy bottle thing (like this? https://tinyurl.com/y5cb4ohg) and a propshaft nut tool which seem to be available from most LR sites in 1/4 and 1/2" drive.
Some say you need a gear puller to get the viscous unit out but Marty reckons some wood and careful hammering should be OK.
I've seen mention of a bearing that needs to be swapped over, not sure about that one..

I'm off this weekend but only because it's a busy one for the family. I'll probably start stockpiling the parts and have a go next month.

I've changed a VC on a late Classic with the same transfer case as on a P38 with it on a ramp. Fairly straightforward, no puller needed (on the one we were changing or the old P38 one we were stealing the VC out of) the hardest part was cracking the seal made by the RTV. RAVE says to rotate the cover but we found it needed a couple of whacks with a mallet to twist it and off it came. Although we had access to a ramp so used it, I wouldn't worry about doing the same job on the floor.

Right. I'm back from holiday and while I was chugging around the Oxford Canal and the Thames I ordered the prop shaft tool, some spare nuts and bolts and read up on the procedure. Assuming I can get the prop flange off the viscous it should be OK.
I just need some dexIII a 30mm socket and a pump thing but I can get those locally.
I'm going to leave the rear alone unless it shows up on the test drive.

OK, I've got the viscous housing undone and the coupling lose but I can't for the life of me get it out past the cross-member. It looks like I'm going to have to take it off after all.
How essential is it to support the gearbox while the cross-member is out?

Errm, fairly important as there's nothing else to support it......

Fair enough! I've now supported it using an old Hankook battery and the standard jack - it wouldn't reach on its own. Thanks :)

Trouble is I can't shift the damn bolts at the ends of the cross member. I've got the centre ones out because I can reach them with my long bar but that leaves 8 more :/

I think it's time to get an impact gun of some sort, preferably before I round off the nuts.

When I took mine off I got all bar one out with a breaker bar. The last one seccumbed to the angle grinder......

Hmmmm. Maybe I'd be OK with a smaller bar... mine is a 3ft monster with a 1/2" drive so the head is too big to get into the angle where the nuts show. I'll have a poke around the local tool shop tomorrow. If I don't find anything then I'll just "have" to invest in power tools ;)
(although it might be a corded one)
Did you grind out one of the end nuts or one from the centre? because I'm trying to work out how you'd get a grinder onto the end nuts!

I used a 3.8 drive socket and ratchet with an extension on the ratchet handle.

For the one I had to cut, I used a 1mm thick cutting blade and cut through the nut along the length of the bolt. That way you do minimal damage to the bolt but the nut comes off in two pieces.

Re Impact wrench. Does anyone know if there is enough room to get a LiDL (Parkside branded) mains electric one in? Body is about 10" / 250 mm long behind the socket and 3" / 80 mm diameter.

I don't use mine anymore, got me the top end Makita battery one now (a proper beast), so no great trouble to pack it up and send it to you.

Book says 250 ft lb / 320 nm undo, 75 ft lb / 100 nm do up torque. I think the undo is optimistic but its always removed anything I needed to shift. Might take a couple of minutes rattling but its gotten there in the end.

Clive

That's a kind offer Clive!
I popped out this morning and got a 3/8" bar and cracked all but the last two (passenger side, forward - the ones part obstructed by the radius arm on the outside). I couldn't shift those with my bar so my neighbour offered me the loan of his new toy - a DeWalt impact driver - which rounded the nuts off instantly.
There's no room to get a grinder in there either :(
Arse.

I think my only hope now, unless I take the radius arms off (no thanks) is to work on the 13mm side with a spanner (to get to the nut cleanly) and a pipe for leverage. Or a super long 13mm spanner.

Is the flange off the VC?

If so, then you can get it out without removing the crossmember - it IS a wiggle, and you have to rotate it in a couple of different ways to get it past heat shields etc, but I did it here on the side of the road the day before my PS pump went pop.

I don't think it will come out with the flange still on, but without it, it's possible. There will be cursing involved though... typically it took me 10-15mins of cursing and getting dirt in my eyes to orient it in the right way to get it out, but when I went to put it back it, it just popped back in first orientation I tried.

The flange is off but I can't for the life of me get the VC out, I was there for more than 15 minutes although I was probably held back by wearing safety glasses and not being able to see properly*. Basically, I just don't have your skill or perhaps I wasn't using the right words although I did try a lot.

I can't get the VC and cover back onto the transfer case, and I can't get it to disengage from the spline either so I can only go forwards with the cross member now!

I've bought a set of nut extractors which should do the job. Well they would apart from skipping from 14 to 16mm - AGGH!!
I popped into Screwfix on the way back from ToolStation and they'll have these in for me tomorrow:

https://tinyurl.com/y3on6ywx

My neighbour has very charitably left me with his brand new impact driver and an offer of help so with luck I'll have the last two nuts off tomorrow night.

*in other news, it seems I'm losing the sight in my right eye (Hospital appt. tomorrow) so I'm a bit paranoid about getting crap in the other one.

Hope you eye is OK Morat.

Thanks Simon!
Thankfully the 2 month delay in getting an NHS referral after the crappy work BUPA scheme failed to pay up hasn't cost me anything. I'm getting some injection into my eyeball on Thursday which stands a very good chance of preventing any further damage and a small chance of reversing some damage. Guess I'll just have to wait.

In the meantime. Nut Extractors!

I've managed to buy two sets which don't have a 15mm option. They skip from 9/16 (14mm) to 5/8 (15.8mm labelled as 16mm)
Seeing as I've never used on of these before, how important is it to have the exact size? If I can smash one of the two 14mm onto the nut is that OK?
Thanks again from numptyland!

BTW, I didn't buy these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B07RNZBT3F/ref=acr_dpproductdetail_text?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
but I probably should have done - except they don't seem to have a 15mm either. Is it a magic gap in the Imperial measuring system?

I've used those type of things (the Irwin branded ones in my case) to remove rounded off nuts (and sump plugs!). They do work, provided you can get them to bite well enough. They have a tapered sprial thread up the inside that cuts into the side of the thing your hammering it onto.

We have used them to remove the remains of a snapped wheel bolt on a Merc (locking wheel nut that snapped when trying to undo it) as well.

+1 on Irwin nut removers, give them a few good whacks with the hammer before turning. Don't worry about the exact size, pick the smallest one that fits. Irwin just seems to follow imp sizing, and thermoset metric equivalent. Those splines will cut into the soft nut, once it's on though leave it on until you have got it off ( ie don't take it on and off).
Nut splitter (and impact wrench) if you have enough room to get one on ( the supporting outer ring is very thick, so you need enough clearance around the nut).
I know the grinder option has been discounted, but do you have a dremel and cutting disc? That saved me a bunch of times, ie being able to cut from a different angle and better access

Victory!!
Or progress, at least :)
The nuts are off, the nut extractor thingies are worth every penny and the 16mm one grabbed the 15mm nuts and didn't let go until they were off. It took a good 30-40s on Full Rattle to get them off and my ears are still ringing but it's done.
So, for the cross member my neighbour and I used a pair of pry bars to get into the tube at the end of the crossmember and levered it down halfway. (this would work with one person, but would just take a lot longer). That gave us enough space to finally wiggle the B'Stard Vicious viscous unit onto the ground where it was pounded with a hammer over a couple of bits of wood until it fell out of the case. The bearing was in perfect nick so I've no qualms about re-using it.
A press would have been ideal but frankly, a soft blow hammer and some protective wood and the new one was in after about 5 minutes so all good there.

Now I've just got the remaining nuts and bolts to re-fit before the test of my RTV skills when I refill the TC with my brand new 500cc syringe. I've got three nuts/bolts in on each side of the cross member so I was happy to remove the jack supporting the gearbox. As long as the RTV holds I've got the front prop to re-fit and then I'm feeling optimistic for a test drive this week. So, I'll finally know if The Duchess will actually handle like a car or continue to steer like a narrow boat in a cross wind!

Thanks for the help and messages, I'm a very Crap Mechanic and work at the pace of a snail so every reassurance is muchly appreciated! :)