Thanks for that extra information.

Having been involved with the FM connections on other peoples cars in the past with generally less than wonderful results I may be over pessimistic on how well modern incarnations work.

Nice to hear that it comes with sticky pads but ordinary sticky pads and I don't get on that well. 50-50 between near permanent fix or off by week after next. Most annoying when there are two side by side and one hangs on and the other doesn't. I know my dash top has been silicone polished in the (distant) past. Which, even 14 plus years down the line, doesn't bode well for sticking.

I suppose that these days it's safe enough to leave add on technology on display. Old fart here recalls when leaving a GPS stuck to the screen was an open invitation to a broken window and stolen tech. Presumably nowadays its only phones the great unwashed care about.

Clive

How about this stuff for mounting on the top of the dashboard. :-

musthaveideas.co.uk/products/sumo-strip

supposed to be a reusable equivalent to double sided sticky tape. Supplier keeps popping up in my facebook feed with various "wouldn't it be wonderful if it worked" things. Weakened and bought a couple of things off them which did work well.,

Or take off the rubber tray, stick s thin steel sheet in the recess and get clever with magnets let into the base.

I've bought one. The extra discount didn't get applied for some reason but £62 still isn't bad. Wondering if this beastie might be good way to reliably connect it to the radio via FM :-

https://incartec.co.uk/Landrover/Range-Rover-II-P38A/Aux-In-Ipod-Usb-Interface/Aux-in-Interfaces/0

I'd prefer a line input but I gather it's not easy to modify the Apline radio / cassette player. Don't care about loosing the CD player tho' as I presume the car play capability means it can stream musing from the phone as well as displaying Waze. Or is stuff not as clever as I think it ought to be. Looks like 71 = too old to keep up!

Clive

Managed to carve out a few hours quality time under the car today and exhaust is finally off. Fractured most of the way round immediately before the joint thingy. Presumably fatigue because the short bit of tube round the joint thing (can't really call it a flange) sits over the pipe proper effectively doubling its thickness to make a stress raiser where it ends.

Fixing plan A is to weld up the fracture then weld a couple of 3 or 4 inch long semi circular sections of pipe to the flange thingie and clamp them outside the pipe to mostly de-stress the weld. In my experience simple butt welds on well used exhaust pipes are always a weak spot. Even if the pipe is still full thickness. Which is why I shopped doing such jobs for other people donkeys years back, however copious the tears.

Total battle to get the cross member out. Had to break out the Irvine nut extractors again and the worked wonderfully well on nuts that hadn't lost shape to corrosion. Replaced pretty much by hand after cleaning up and greasing the bolting faces. Just a few bonks with my big Thoir dead blow hammer to line things up. No doubt that the nylon faced Thor hammers are much better at the shifting lark than the common rubber ended imports. Twice the price and worth it.

Boot over the nearside CV joint appears to be letting oil / grease out. Hopefully just a loose clip. Another job but something I'd not have noticed for a while if it weren't for the exhaust issue.

Clive

Got the pipes detached from the manifold this morning before the rain came. Hopefully plain sailing form here once i've gotten the lamda sensor plugs unhitched. No the easiest ones to get at.

Used four 10 mm joining nuts ( ex Screwfix) with about 1/2" worth thread drilled out and similar amount of corner off one end. Slot exposed enough stud to get a good weld on it as well as the remains of the nut. Final score 2 sheared studs and two studs unscrewed. About 2 1/2 hours all told so that trick goes into the book as one to jump to early on in similar situations rather than emulating Jerome K Jerome's riverine adventures and trying a number of things. Which wasted a colossal amount of time.

On reflection I reckon the Irwin extractors aren't the best of ideas on rounded off flange nuts as the tapered top to the flange and the slightly tapered hexagon don't give them much to get hold of.

Managed to break my old style strap on headlamp during all this so I splashed out just under £12 on a modern style slimline one from Screwfix. Distress purchase but I'm impressed. £3 (ish) off list so decent value for money. Old one was a cumbersome PIA with battery box and utility lamp bit all hung off the front so had to be pretty desperate to use. The new stye so much more comfortable.

Clive

Took a day off for domestic stuff and make space for a fresh look.
jack
The laser tools impact stud remover looks very interesting. I think I know how it works. I wonder if it tolerates out of roundness enough to go over the remains of the nuts. Hafta measure up to see if 12 mm capacity will go over the remains.
mad-as
Nail trick won't work on this as the nuts are too mullered but something to remember.
Thanks
Clive

Pretty sure there isn't room for a nut splitter. Certainly not for mine. Probably not the best idea even if one would go in. The original nuts are hard, high tensile, plane nuts. An excellent chance that the splitter base will ride up along the flange so only the hex bit gets split whilst the tip of the blade digs into the thread on the stud. So it will still be pretty jammed.

I'm annoyed with myself for getting overconfident and not engaging the "old car" brain before diving in. So used to pretty much everything that was factory assembled unbuttoning fairly easily. Should have realised that putting the Irwin extractors on lopsided corrosion would have produced an effect equivalent to a rotabroach channeling a wobble broach cutting the nut down to an off centre circle.

Being hard the Eclipse flexible silicon steel blades I keep to put in padsaw handle for confined spaces just bounce off. A fickle doesn't do much either.

Three options for the next step I think:-
1) weld an extractor sleeve with a hex on the remains of the nut using the sticking out bit of the stud as guide.
2) run an 18 or 19 mm rotabroach down the stud to chew off the nut. 18 mm rotabroch is 8 m bore and will take thread off the stud, 19 mm is 11 mm bore so a bit of nut will be left on.
3) make a guide to drill right through the middle of the stud to take a split type extractor and use larger drill to take the stud and thread inside the nut off. Then use the extractor to pull tear remains of the stud.

Make up my mind tomorrow. Getting too old for this crawling around under cars thing

Clive

Got front wheels up on the ramps yesterday and out under this afternoon as the drive was finally dry to start removal.

Score so far is 6 manifold flange nuts well mullered. All were seriously rusted and well undersize on the hex. So lopsided that the Iwin gripper extractor things didn't work. First time they have failed me. Worst thing about the Irwin devices is that if the fail you have usually only got a round bit left.

Managed to get one off by hammering a socket on.

Looks like tomorrow is going to be a looong day! May end up welding nuts onto what remains. Urgh.

Separating the joint to the centre section 80% sheared the pipe. Do I weld up or buy new that is the question. Who makes good one for a year 2000 V8?

Clive

Thanks for the advice from experience. Plus gas dousing starts after I've done the weekly shop so it should be well worked in by time the gaskets, studs and nuts arrive. For the price it's not worth the risk of not having studs if I need them. Got a Coventry die head in the workshop so making studs is trivial but it's more faff than I want to be bothered with halfway through car fixing.

Clive

I have a leak in the exhaust pipe just forward of the centre silencer flange so the pipe will have to be dropped to weld it up.

Only potential problem I can see is getting the flange nuts off without snapping the studs. Pretty certain mine have never been off since the car was made. Obviously new nuts needed but should the studs be changed too.

Whats the approved method for removal without potentially creating major league problems. Drilling out snapped studs in-situ, especially upside down, is not on the list of Clives 6 million favourite things to do! Drilling out clean and in line isn't silly hard. Especially if proper drill guide is made first. But it's the principle of the thing. Last exhaust I dropped out it situ had brass nuts on the flange side! Not gonna admit how many years ago, or what vehicle, that was.

If heat is desirable I'm wondering whether one of the affordable induction current heaters is up for such jobs. I know the pro ones work very well indeed but are the £150 (ish) things off amazon et al up for it. £150 to avoid ages struggling and swearing under the car is worth it. £700 to £2,000 for low end of proper jobbies is not.

Really not a fan of waving a gas axe or similar open flame around near the engine bay.

Clive

Thanks. Pie dish idea sounds interesting.

Hafta get it up and have look at things once the official unofficial kid sister has gone home after her annual visitation. Which brings everything to a shuddering halt for a month!

Clive

Thanks. About what I was thinking. Avoid the cheapest and expect mid range to last half as long sounds about right. Which ought to be about 12 years by which time I'll be 84 and most likely past worrying.

I can't really let my mud shields go. Got a decent relationship with MoT man but he does expect things to be attended to after second notification.

Clive

Big red beast passed its MoT today with an advisory about replacing a distorted CV joint gaiter on offside.

Internet search says Britpart, Allmakes, GKN and Land Rover themselves all supply gaiters. Ruling out OEM as silly expensive what breed of replacement is of decent quality and likely to last? Word on the street is that many modern gaiters are sadly short lived due to material deficiencies. I suspect mine are original so they have had a decent innings.

The buggeration factor is such that it makes sense to do both side this year. If one has gone the other is unlikely to be far behind.

Also got an advisory calling for replacement of rear brake mudshield plate. Britpart are around £80 a pop and OEM twice that, which seems expensive for a simple plate. Is this something a breaker could supply economically, bearing in mind that a used part will almost certainly need sand blasting and painting or is breaking out the welder and sheet metal stocks the only feasible method of doing an inexpensive repair.

Clive

Thanks for the comprehensive reply which will be very useful if I decide go ahead. Doing things the way I want to do them with a nicer wood panel rather in place of the black plastic is going to run out at approaching a £1,000 so I need to be sure I'm going to get what I think I'm getting.

Plodding through the blurb its not at all clear what runs concurrently when the radio is doing more than one thing at time.

My Garmin is probably somewhat older than yours. No rear camera input. The live traffic function was less than wonderful so I let the subscription lapse. Realistically the beast is getting past its sell by date hence the interest in serious upgrading. I find Waze very good for diversions.

Presumably a PAC-SWI-RC unit will interface the steering wheel buttons to the Pioneer I'm considering? Probably go for the cross over instead of the attenuator and amplifier . Keeping it simple is always good.

Modified ashtray area is the fall back position for a neat installation. Obviously will work fine with a USB stick but I'll still need to run a cable or two up top to keep the live phone happy. If I use the old iPhone as a media player it seems best to have it where it can be easily seen.

Clive

Been looking into mutiliating a dashboard centre panel and fitting a modern large screen "radio" (or whatever the proper modern name is ) to my HSE. Primarily for hands free phone, reversing camera and nice big GPS map display.

Naturally done neatly without wires trailing all over the place.

Downloading and reading the instruction manuals suggests that the Panasonic SPH Evo950DAB will do the deed. £££ but I've not got teh patience to deal with integrating a more affordable import. Seems to have an appropriate feature list and run Waze natively. I assume running Waze via the phone means I loos navigation if I have to deal with a call. But it needs a wired connection for the media player. Looks like either a USB stick or my old iPhone SE can act as a media player but I'd like a baby binnacle / plug panel with the necessary sockets, including one to charge the phone I'm using, to sit neatly on the top of the dashboard. Nearst I can find is the USB & iPhone connection panel out of an L322 which is still short one connector and needs neat box.

Does anyone know of anything more appropriate?

The instructions say to sit the GPS antenna on either dashboard or parcel shelf on top of the supplied metal plate that, presumably, acts as a ground plane. Which is likely to be best or won't it matter? I guess the DAB aerial sticks to the screen and the wire tucks inside the A-post trim. Head lining has to be done so routing the reversing camera connections over that shouldn't be a problem.

Attenuate the audio outputs or bypass the door amplifiers? I suppose whilst I'm in the doors giving the locks et al their 10 year service & clean tip I could change the speakers but is it really worth it given my 70 year old, never wonderful, hearing.

Clive

I have a Britpart Lynx code reader and Panasonic Toughbook computer on the shelf with half a decade of dust on top.

Purchased because her ladyship was running an L322 at the time and the Lynx could do those as standard as well as the P38.

I shall never use it again as I have a Nanocom now, juggling the computer whilst sitting in the car was too much of a PIA for Clives temper!

What's a fair price? Does anyone here want it or shall I just E-Bay / Facebook it? Toughbook batteries still charge but how long the computer will run for is anyones guess.

Clive

Re using the M10 x 1 mm (extra fine / special fine) thread rather than the standard M10 x 1.5 mm thread (coarse) or M10 x 1.25 (fine) for pipe fittings.

All about thread depth. The fine thread is shallower so it's safe in the relatively thin walls of pipe.

Clive

Pete

Just looked and turns out it wasn't RAVE itself that I printed out. It was pdf versions of the hard copy manuals :-

LRL 0326 ENG for mechanicals and body

LRL 0086 ENG for electrical

Only (!) 2,000 pages.

Sorry but it was around 11 years ago. Found the files on one of the sites offering RAVE at teh time (maybe Green Oval) so I remembered it as the same thing.

5,000 pages is bit much even for me.

Clive

My answer to the oily fingerprint problem with my RAVE printout was to use ring binders and put the pages in transparent sleeves. 5-Star brand are affordable and decent quality. Name brand ones like Rexel were stupid expensive when I did the printout thing.

Ring binders make it easy to assemble a job specific manual by pulling pages out as needed and temporarily putting them into a workshop binder. Pulling pages can be a faff but it helps get round the hop about from one section to another issue that makes dead tree RAVE harder to use than electronic Rave which does the jumps automatically. I find pulling pages helpful to remind me of how I need to do the job and what tools to set out.

Another ring binder holds useful stuff collected from the internet, forums et al. Mostly extra explanations, how I did it et al. Not forgetting the Nanocom manual.

Dead tree RAVE in ring binders needs about 3 ft of shelf space tho'.

Uneconomic if you only have an inkjet printer tho'. My old LaserJet MP4+ did the deed affordably. Albeit one side at a time. 40 pages a night got it done in acceptable time without going crosseyed.

Clive

romanrob

Nah.

Not loctite.

Comes from Bristol 603.

Had one stuck out front under a cover for about 30 years waiting for there ight combination of energy, funds and time to arrive so I can finally sort it out. Got scammed into it in the first place and trying to find folk to do the bit of fixing thats beyond me has proven impossible. Not helped by redundancy and carer thing putting a huge crimp in things over a decade or so from 2004.

I really need to get it moved on as I'm 70 in four days I'm unlikely to sort it. Lovely though the "gentleman's sporting carriage" is the P38 suits me better.

Was tempted to change handle to CliveP53 just to confuse the living daylights out of everyone! (Hint. Think Bike!)

Clive

Totally agree that the best loctite to use is almost certainly the one you already have on the shelf. I have about 6! All old style stud fix, bearing fit, screw fix et-al labels.

If you start seriously perusing the data sheets it's very easy to end up wondering "what the heck is the difference between various grades". Way back an overly cynical co-worker reckoned it was all the same stuff with different colour dyes! Which may be taking things a teeny bit far.

However when I see a new to me grade mentioned I tend to have quick look at the data sheet just in case there is something special about it. No cure time / strength curve for aluminium and a low peak strength with stainless steel on the 2700 data sheet rang a few alarm bells as, way back, I've seen reports of cyanoacrylate joints being weak due to unsuitable substrates inhibiting proper cure. Loctite is basically a cyanoacrylate. I've certainly undone a few loctited bolts where the loctite apparently did next door to nothing beyond gum up the threads a bit. Where I'd done the assembly in the first place I couldn't blame the other guy. But it did hammer home the act that the stuff is not infallible.

But in a practical world how much strength to you need for loctite to be effective. Even not gone right off is probably more than enough. The oil filler spout joint is a respectable area so even something as weak as sellotape stickum would probably hold.

Clive