Do you park on a slope nose down?

I do and mine used to play the same coolant settles at 1/4" or so down trick.

Until it decided that the best way to mark its territory was to leak at the joint where the hose from the water pump joins the thermostat during cool-down.

Clive

Price is low end of aftermarket range but not silly so should be OK.

Holes not lining up seems to be standard these days. I paid a lot more for allegedly OEM a couple or three years back and the holes didn't line up.

Clive

Gilbertd wrote:

Clive603 wrote:

Running General Grabber HTS tyres at their recommended 35 psi all round.

Recommeded by who? Pressures should be 28 psi in the front and 38 psi in the rear, although I tend to run a couple of psi higher all round, particularly when doing a long distance towing job.

35 psi was off the General Grabber list for HTS tyres. Some of the other Grabbers were closer to the standard. Queried that with the type shop at the time. They said try it on both and see. Certainly seemed happier at the General Grabber settings than book. Wear pattern is good and its been generally well behaved until very recently unless there was something needing fixing.

Morat
Thanks for the heads up on the viscous coupling. Certainly sounds a possibility. Time to read up in RAVE. Hopefully if it is the coupling I have plenty of warning before "bang" as gotta drive off to Southend airport in a few minutes to collect brother off the Aberdeen flight. Usual hour (ish) wait on the M25 to get to the Dartford Crossing coming up.

Raised the front at the weekend for another look. With only one wheel up the lifted one turned smoothly by hand with noticeable stiffness. So I guess the VC at least somewhat functional and not locked up.

Clive

Running General Grabber HTS tyres at their recommended 35 psi all round. Which worked fine when first fitted perhaps 15,000 - 20,000 miles ago. Still have reasonable tread but there will probably be new Vredesteins going on next year.

On reflection this wallowy & roll issue has been hanging around in the background pretty much all the time I've had the car. Its what has shown up whenever other suspension / steering things have got to the worn / end of life stage. I'd just put it down to being thats what P38s do when bits underneath get too worn. Everything I've changed has either been well worn or clearly getting old so its not as if anything wasn't pretty much due. Even if I'd gone the just do the knackerd bit route I reckon everything would have, of necessity, been done within the next 10,000 miles anyway.

Clive

Four new height sensors fitted on Saturday in friend Mikes "barn" workshop. Nice level floor and lift with headroom to get car right up to make life easy. One of the new rear ones ones was way different calibration compared to the others. Actually had to swop sides as its was right not the lower limit when fitted to the drivers side. See what its like after week or so but looks like I'll have to get that one changed under warranty.

After all the fiddling around I think the original "iffy sensor, or two" issue might actually have been poor connections not align sensors. But nice new ones now.

Car seems a touch more stable but its still very wallowy and doesn't seem to be running quite true. Clearly the problem is still evolving. On further reflection the issue seems more roll related than damper travel as I managed to find some straight across the road bumps and hollows to play on and it seems much better behaved when both sides hit at the same time. Single side bumps, hollows et al feel awful and roll is certainly excessive. But its had new factory anti-roll bar bushes and links fairly recently so that ought to be OK. Front Panhard rod bushes are still good but I shall be sourcing used panhard rod to fit new bushes in for a change-over.

Frankly I'm out of ideas.

Clive

Bumper comes off so easily that the main issue is finding somewhere to put the thing whilst you are busy. I have pulled it of solo but its a ot easier to remove with an assistant.

Be careful with the union nuts as they are verye asily distorted.

Clive

Nooging around t'Bay tonight (22/08/2019) I was surprised to find 4, yup Four, Holland and Holland versions up for sale. At prices ranging from OK I guess to pushing it.

Given that there are only 100 around in the UK that sounds a high proportion looking for new owners in a random week.

Clive

You are a brave man. A very brave man to risk melding two incompatible control systems. Heck even BMW couldn't manage a sensible job of it when they rushed the L322 up to production status about 2 or 3 years early leaving total and utter dogs dinner mishmash of the control buses. There is a reason why the NanoCom doesn't support the early L322!

Might be interesting to look a what Simtek did to shove a TDV6 into a P38. Heck of a lot of translation gubbins and, even then, I believe the gear change bit was never properly sorted with tendency to harsh changes.

Hafta say that if I were doing it I'd keep the BMW gearbox, it is an auto isn't it, and sort out the mechanics of hanging the transfer box on the side. At least that is pure engineering. If its done right it will just work.

These days you can get accurate work done relatively cheaply by CNC workshops and the "free to small users" Fusion 360 CAD program is more than up to doing the design. A whole different world from 10 or so years ago when you'd be talking proper engineering designer and toolroom skills to make the bits. At least a magician with a Bridgeport or Beaver. Electronics / computer side becomes basically stopping the immobilisers fighting and persuading the BECM that there is still an engine in the car. OK its more complex than that but at least you don't have to go down the rabbit hole of persuading the various ECU's to talk to each other all the time.

Best of luck.

Clive

PS I hope it doesn't end up like my Bristol 603 project, bought 25 years ago by a supremely logical evaluation process, that turned out to have a been very well bodged leaving few issues a bit too far for me to cope with then. It's still under a cover out front!

+1 on the Martrim kit.

But if you've not done that sort of thing before 3 novices are better than 2. I ended up with a couple of creases up the front because Roddie and I didn't manage to keep the tension just so when stretching it gently into the recess where the sunroof normally goes on my solid roof HSE. If I ever do the job again I shall get a long broomstick or similar to poke through the middle of the roll and persuade, bully or bribe (last resort) two folk to hold it clear of the base whilst I smooth it into place. In retrospect I wonder if a sunroof one is easier to get really nice and smooth as you can push all the wrinkles into the bit over the sunroof aperture which will be cut out. I found the back end very easy.

Once the Martrim adhesive grabs its grabbed. No adjustment possible.

Might be wise to be a bit careful with your breathing when spraying the adhesive. Just as I finished mine Inspector Wasp buzzed over to investigate. Nice 6 point landing. Two or three "sniffs" with the proboscis. Then it curled up and died.

Clive

Well done on getting the sensor out. Green with envy!

Wondering if pulling the sensors, cleaning, greasing and re-inserting should be an every 3 years or so service job. Perhaps replace the tolerance ring style fittings too as they are cheap enough.

Clive

Theoretically the air gap between ABS sensor and reluctor ring can self open up reducing the signal and causing problems. Seems unlikely to me as I've never met one that could be removed without destruction. They do self adjust after a new one has been put in all clean and nicely lubricated but after a few years ...

Worth an inspection of the wiring loom and connectors. I'd not expect troubles with the sensor cable to main loom connector as that is very secure and well protected but advisable to check.

Low speed only issues certainly sound as if the sensor output isn't high enough so basically air gap, connectors or wiring to suspect.

Clive

Delrin is lovely stuff to machine. Sharp tool and reasonable speed with a decent cut does the deed. My fave plastic.

Don't care much for nylon. Tendency to birds nest when turning and its easy to overheat it at the tool tip getting melted bits. Especially when milling. Unfilled grades tend to move around with humidity changes too. Which is a bummer if you make some nicely fitted bearing bushes with material which hasn't been properly dried first!

Clive

Having been through everything else the EAS is about all thats left.

Now if I read certain internet references correctly the EAS is working all the time to keep the car stable when running. Obviously there is smoothing and delay but into the system so it doesn't try to be a true active ride system reacting to every twitch and bump. But it is monitoring the sensors all the time and, should things get sufficiently out of kilter, it will alter the air spring pressures to suit. Sensible, simple, system but it does rely on the sensors working linearly and tracking each other correctly. If you have sensor track damage and nonlinearities floating around the poor suspension ECU is likely to get its knickers in a twist and react wrongly. I know from work experience that fairly slow reacting systems with quite heavy damping but plenty of actuator power can do really strange things if the tracking side is off.

Anyway I've bitten the bullet. Four new Dunlop branded sensors from Island are due about 2 pm today. A metre of 30 mm delrin arrives tomorrow or Saturday to do the setting spacers and by this time next week we should be up and running with new sensors. From other occasional issues I'm pretty sure that at least one is getting up to its sell by date anyway.

Clive

Radius arm bushes. Yup thats where I started the front end re-furbishment process.

With 20-20 hindsight all the suspension refurb work I've done, except for the EAS, has been chasing this not quite right, wallowy ride feeling. Each fix made things a bit better for a while before the issue came back. So obviously I've not hit the real cause of the problem yet. What ever it is deterioration clearly continues. So far as I can see the height sensors are about all that's left. Over the last year or two it has been occasionally intermittent about sorting itself out on start up and on the low speed / high speed up and down business.

Height sensors were on the set the clock back list anyway so no worries about changing them.

Clive

The big red beast is showing definite "Yank Tank" wallowy ride characteristics. Seems more at rear suspension related than front. I'm pretty sure that it used to be much taunter, by big 4x4 standards anyway, but its hard to evaluate the handling of your own car as one tends to adapt. Doesn't help that the roads round here are terrible for lorry humps and similar vehicle upsetting features running more or less in the direction of travel.

Normally I'd go straight to shock absorbers but new Boge labelled "OEM" units with the correct Land Rover part numbers went on about 15,000 miles ago. Unfortunately I missed putting them in service record spreadsheet so don't know exactly when. When it stops raining I'll verify that there are no leaks but they certainly looked dry on Friday.

Rear Panhard rod got new factory bushes around the same time as the shock absorbers were changed. All the front end bushes, steering assembly bearings et al have been done over the last year except for the front Panhard rod bushes which, according to the MoT man, are in fine fettle but will be done soon anyway as I have new ones. The rear ones were certainly well past their best so the front ones must be showing their age.

I've heard that dying height sensors can give wallow issues. If so what breed to go for. Britcar show genuine Land Rover factory ones at near enough £64 and £67, cheaper than Dunlop or Britpart. Island show Dunlop about £5 cheaper with OEM quality similar prices to what Britcar wants for the factory version. At Britcar prices I'm inclined to go genuine. Obviously if it is likely to be height sensors I'll change the lot. At that age if one is past its best the rest can't be that far behind. if nothing else the arms on the rear ones are looking distinctly manky.

Anything else I should be considering remembering that all the EAS stuff has been done relatively recently. Airbags, compressor rebuild, valve block re-build and so on.

Thanks

Clive.

This whole viscosity thing and oil behaviour inside the engine is monumentally complicated.

Quite a good introduction here https://www.kewengineering.co.uk/Auto_oils/oil_viscosity_explained.htm .

Fact is once the engine is up at running temperature there is very little difference in absolute units. Probably the major difference in the engine itself is the oil film thickness needed to support the load. Thin oils tend to squidge out of wide clearance bearings whilst thick oils can't get in narrow clearance ones. The actual load carrying film is generated dynamically by the spinning bearing. The effective pressure is huge!

Oil pressure is more a measure of the internal leakage in the pump. If its high enough you know there is enough oil getting around the motor to fill the feed galleries so oil can be swept out into the bearings. If its too low then you can't be sure the galleries are full.

These days with all the modern additives viscosity is more a proxy measurement than a statement of actual lubrication ability. Its arguable that the only thing where viscosity is directly important is in defining the ability of the oil pump to actually deliver enough of the stuff to the right places. Unless the motor is completely knackered if the pump can push enough oil up to the various bearing feed drillings to keep the hydrodynamics fed even an too thin oil will do the deed. Of course if the oil is too thin the bearings need to be spinning faster to build up a thick enough film inside the bearing.

Clive

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

Just popped over to see what all the fuss was about.

Oh Barf, doubled, in technicolour.

They just redefined seriously, impossibly, unbelievably bad. With multiple McEnroes. Makes Yahoo groups as is now look wonderful.

Seriously pissed that I didn't follow through and scrape the technical contents when tempted a while back.

Would the Wayback Machine be able to find any of the useful stuff?

Clive

Looked at my licence and its a bit scary what old farts like me got as standard.

B+E of course but when you consider it also has things like C1 and C1E which, theoretically, let me loose with 7 tons or so of lorry or 8 tons with trailer (ish) with no checks .....

Especially as its thirty odd years since I've hauled a trailer of any serious description. And that was only the once when a (then) workmate was running off with the postman's wife (don't ask) and a Transit Luton was clearly going to be insufficient for all his goods and chattels.

I shall sign up for a training course should I ever have to go haulin' but how many wouldn't if the extra training and test weren't mandatory.

Clive

Have you verified the condition of the big rubber bushes at the rear of the radius arms?

Also check the tightness of the nut.

Slack panhard rod bushes could contribute too.

When I re-did my front end there were certain issues with the nut and threads on the ones I fitted as recon units in place of my originals so things didn't get tightened down properly. Braking stability wasn't quite what it should have been which I put down to ageing panhard rod bushes not playing well with the new tight parts. When verifying that the new stainless steel exhaust had been fitted correctly I noticed that the radius arm rear bushes didn't seem properly compressed. After re-tightening to the correct torque braking stability was back to what it should have been.

Clive