Ferryman wrote:

Reasonable? The LR price for RVH100030 (valveblock only) is €1450.- ex VAT
One might expect something for that money.

Wouldn't have been anything like that price in bulk to LR ready to bolt on as the car comes down the production line. Parts have always carried a monster mark up relative to actual cost as part of a vehicle. Always used to be reckoned that it would cost you around 4 times as much to build a vehicle from parts as it would to buy. Thats DIY with no labor costs, no factory overheads no yadda yadda to pay either. Just dealer mark-up. Wild guess is ex-factory from whoever makes them is £300-£600 range for small batches. Equivalent in series production price could well have been under half that. Given that its obsolete technology and small market, can't see they would sell many at that price. Of course you do have to factor in the LR "hello Mr Parts Customer, here is your green box now turn round and bend over" bit! LR direct show around half that price for pattern or 2/3 rds for OEM in different colour box which isn't stupidly shabby considering what folk have to pay for similarly complex parts for vehicles that are in production. In many ways we P38 pilots are spoilt because so many parts are flat out cheap by modern standards. Certainly what folk are paying for bits on ordinary VW, Fiat, Renault, Honda and the like scare me.

Still be interesting to see what a functional equivalent from modern standard units would come out at?

Clive

The brass is the hard material in this case so thats what wears. Might well be better material options. At a price. Usual automotive cost-material-design compromise I imagine. Whole valve block is a fairly standard way of doing such control for its era but the usual industrial rated way of doing things would have been too expensive so i imagine the engineers had to work hard to get the price down to something reasonable. Those sort of compromises tend to bite after 10 or 15 years.

Personally I'd look for a screw in valve with fully threaded housing rather than modifying one to be trapped by an O ring. Looks easy enough to modify the hole size and tap appropriately.

Wonder if it would be practical to duplicate the whole unit with modern, miniature, " join the blocks together" style electro-pneumatic parts. Pressure might be an issue as many of the less expensive ones top out under 100 psi. Distributor price for that sort of valve seems to be of the order of £30 to £50 a pop which will be too much but careful direct from China shopping might make it work. Order of £250 for all new, industrial quality, drop in replacement would certainly attract me should I have more problems.

Clive

Thanks for the link Sloth. Looks a likely cause for mine too.

Clive

Sending one kit claiming to fit all years of P38 is proof that Goodridge don't know what they are doing, unless they put extra hoses in to cover the difference. Did a bit of noogling around t'net and found that Goodridge official site doesn't list the P38 but some others do, including a spiffy Goodridge box. Couple say 6 hoses on the box illustration with NB note further down saying "this kit only contains 4 hoses". OKay.

Really does wonders for your confidence in more arcane engineering matters if they can't even count. Having in the past demonstrated how easy it is to pull official Goodridge supplied for motorcycle hoses out of the connector I'm no great lover of them in out of sight out of mind applications. Can't see that the flexi / stainless issue makes any practical difference on a P38 anyway given that its a proper power braking system. Its arguable that an ultra solid system isn't the best of ideas when a high pressure ABS system starts rattling away. The touch of compliance in ordinary flexis might give things an easier life.

Drifting off topic I do use them on motorcycles where the extra firmness is very noticeable. But I make the lines. Properly. (My rotary engined Norton Commander needs all the help it can get on the stopping side. Big, fairly weighty, powerful, very fast when in the mood and absolutely no engine braking effect whatsoever. Both Commanders had serious brake upgrades pretty much out of the box as the standard ex-Yamaha XJ 900 units were a joke in bad taste and the current one has had another uplift since. Hoping for decent weather this year as I really need to make some inroads into my second million miles and Grandad Norton's second 100,000.)

Clive

I have a similar damp problem but on left had side. No sunroof. On the to-do list if it ever stops raining or I manage to sort the garage enough to get inside. Its likely that it appeared after I had the first screen replacement as the guy who did the second one said he had to bung up a hole at top left where t'other folk had let something fall out.

Bit I don't get if its the screen seal is how the water manages to work backwards as the car is always parked 10 degrees or so nose down yet my headliner is wet back past the top edge of the door. Headliner is well saggy now so its all got to come out to be re-done. I can see a Maritrim kit and lots of swearing in my future! So whilst its out and the screen finishers off where should I be looking for ingress points and how best to fix them.

Thanks

Clive

Sloth is smarter than me for sure!

Lynx isn't VIN locked either. Just model locked so mine does all P38 both GEMS and Thor for the one licence. It is cheaper than nanocom, but not after buying the computer, and I thought larger screen would be nicer too. Up to there with it after it dumped mine on the bump stops and couldn't get it off. Had to make a cable and use Mr Storeys' EAS unlock software to sort that one. That said the bits that work actually do function quite well, albeit in an incredibly cumbersome way, so its not completely bad. Logic says E-Bay it and get something better but I'd feel bad about selling on something so flawed. Bottom line is they sold version 2 (fine in lab if you know what you are doing, mostly) but version 4 would have been the first ready for market one that any normally mechanic savvy person could use! Doesn't look like there ever will be a version 3 let alone 4 tho'.

Clive

Nanocom seems to be the one folks are most happy with unless you are uber-geek enough to need a faultmate. So thats probably the one to get.

I bought a Britpart Lynx expecting to need to look at her ladyships L322 as well as my P38. Big, big, big mistake. The blue box should have been a clue! Fair number of things it only does "sort of" as in just enough to tick spec sheet boxes but not enough to be really useful. Various upgrades promised on initial release have never materialised. No way I can find of getting tech support or questions answered. Runs dog slow on my Toughbook. Publicity blurb seeks to give the impression that its directly derived from the official Testbook as being made by the "same" company Omnitec. Some more detailed digging suggests that Omnitec now isn't the same company as Omnitec then, a takeover or two in the way, and that they don't have rights to or proper access to the official Land Rover Testbook code. Even for what it does it doesn't run as well as Testbook. After P38 experience theres no way on earth I'd risk hooking it up to herselfs L322. I like life!

Hawkeye also runs Omnitec code but in a stand-alone box so probably no better.

Clive

Maybe one of the fine fibreglass "scratch" brushes would work inside the socket. Smallest seems to be about 2 mm diameter so there is a chance it would get in OK. 4 mm next size up which ought to be decent at doing the male end and housing, could be trimmed to get inside sockets I guess. On my to try list should I ever get a really filthy connector to clean. 4 mm refills are about 30 p each in tens, 2 mm about 80 p each and holders in the £5 to £10 range so not gonna break the bank.

Clive.

Spray with contact cleaner / lube then make and unmake a few times. Repeat if necessary. But check the instructions on the cleaner. Some say leave to dry some say mate / un-mate wet. Unfortunately the elfins seem to have banned the real good stuff.

Was what we used to do at RARDE / DERA / DRA / QintetiQ & DSL (same place same lab just different names for the firm) on military and experimental gear. Always got stuff working, eventually, despite squaddies best efforts. Was willing to work very hard to avoid re-making soldered up, fully sealed, MIL standard Plessey and similar circular connectors with 50 or more inputs and outputs. Molex and similar extractable ones are easy in comparison.

Clive

When I did my hoses I got hoses and cobra type clips as a complete set for pretty much same price as hoses alone elsewhere. May still have supplier details. Since found out that the nearest motor factor also does hose and official clip size deals.

Problem with Jubilee type clamps is that the pressure is quite uneven around the circumference of the hose. Also routinely overtightened. Way back when I was handling very high pressure air / gas stuff in the lab for MoD research had to do some training on pipework and joints and was very surprised by how low the clamping forces needed for ordinary stuff was. Bit of a difference between radiator hoses and 5,000 - 10,000 psi tho'. Apparently one really bad thing about jubilees and similar is that the more you tighten them the less even the pressure is. Not that they are the worst by a long way. Stupid sheet metal hand tighten ones on our laser cooling systems were only good for about 4 psi and if gorilla student on vacation placement took a pair of pilers to them you could see the hose being pulled out away from the stub. Its the ring round the end or barbs that do the work really.

Clive

Doing coil packs by feel with size 6 hands isn't too bad but how folk with bigger mitts manage I don't know. Pushing on probably not too bad but pulling off the one (OK, OK two) put in the wrong place might be a different matter. Cheapy borescope from Mr LiDL just the job for visual check once you get your head round which way is up on the screen.

Clive

Autopaints! Now that really takes me back. Didn't they have a place at Lewes too at one time?

They did me a large aerosol and lacquer for a SAAB, Scarab Green semi-metallic, pushing 15 -20 years ago for £ very reasonable which was not only an excellent match but also sprayed very well indeed and covered much better than I expected. Been using it for little odd jobs ever since, just finished it off in November last. OK I don't do much where dark green is a good colour but to keep working after so many years must say something.

Clive

As moderator for the Bridgeport_Mill yahoo group I see very little spam. Almost 3,400 members. All very well behaved, years since I had to jump on something in a legitimate forum discussion. Did have to pull about a half a dozen spam messages last year which all appeared to come from hacked E-Mail addresses belonging to ex- or inactive members.

Requiring an E-Mail message containing relevant reason to join followed by holding the first post for moderator approval before conferring full membership privileges seems to be pretty effective at keeping the riff-raff out. I reject any empty joining requests with no message out of hand but usually ask those with a simple "Hello, can I join up" attached for more details. About half never reply but the returns from those that do can be amusing demonstrating that said hopeful oiks not only have no idea what a Bridgeport is but are too darn lazy to do the relevant research. Odd one or two are legit from folk who don't quite get how its done.

Clive

When I made preliminary enquires about LPG conversion, aborted as the local Autogas supplier shut down, the folk I talked to said they wanted the engine recently serviced and to have done a "reasonable" mileage on petrol after significant engine work before they would touch the vehicle. My impression was that this was more to ensure the customers took things seriously and to pretty much avoid having to deal with any non-LPG related issues during installation. I suppose its logical that any adjustment and tweaking due to settling down issues after significant engine work are best dealt with on petrol before putting LPG on top but how much that actually applies, if at all, in practice if the job is competently would be a whole n'other matter.

That said I do recall one serial optimist with another species of vehicle who reckoned that doing an LPG conversion would magically reduce fuel costs and eliminate the need to actually fix the sadly worn engine!

Clive

There's a Bridgeport with 3 axis DRO standing in the corner of my man cave so knocking out a spacer or three should be no problem given dimensions and material. Safe sorta job for me too whilst I'm on light duties after hernia op last week! Must remember that 61 is not the new 21.

Would probably have had a spacer on the go already if the green-machine, needs head job, deal hadn't gone pear shape for reasons I don't understand. Getting tired of the official unofficial kid sister moaning about the 22 mpg fuel consumption of her TD6 L322 and astronomical costs of servicing and new parts (4 sets of front suspension arms in 40,000 miles!) so throwing an LPG converted P38 her way ought to keep her quiet long enough to decide she does like P38's after all! Even if only for fiscal reasons.

Clive

True. You are stuck with making the installation shrinker even if the set provides everything else. There are ways of doing rather better than the bit of threaded rod for folk without a press. Once made an adapter to take the screwed body of the common import hydraulic puller which reportedly worked a treat. Even a simple screwed pusher with similar large diameter fine thread would put a lot more force on than the bit of chinee threaded rod.

Clive

I admire folks who have the determination to make improvised methods work but I bailed out on the Haynes Book of Errors style tooling years back after one set of scars too many. Easy to say tho' when you have enough machine shop equipment in the man cave out back to make producing a functional equivalent to proper gear almost as fast as finding stuff to improvise with.

I figure something around £10 to £15 plus materials would cover pullers for both front and rear bushes if I could do a batch of 5 or 6 so as to use up a length of bought in steel stock. Maybe £5 more if you wanted sophisticated with roller thrust bearings under the nuts. For one or two I might well have enough offcuts about the place. I do wonder about those cheap E-Bay £30 - £40 (ish) 28 piece bearing and bush puller sets. Dead useful or every size except the one you want? I really should get one to see.

What annoys me about the bush removal tool pricing is the make surcharge. Same thing but different size is under £30 in pretty box for Vauxhall Vectra et GM al put pushing £100 naked for our P38s and even more for Bimmer/Merc boys. Looks like Laser charge more for the combined front & rear set than they do for the two separate ones which is seriously annoying. Not that I'd ever buy one of course.

Clive

Given the dimensions I can easily make up bush removal and insertion tools for £ very reasonable. Only simple turning jobs after all. Laser components appear to be taking the P with their version:- http://www.lasertools.co.uk/product/6505 at £200 (almost). OK its got a (tiddly little) thrust bearing in one nut so its um "sophisticated" but not an extra £170 worth over a simple bush and allthread kit used with smooth finished well greased washers.

How much pressure does it take to shift the front ones? My press is only 12 tons. Still a decently scary bang when well tight stuff lets go.

Clive

Clive

Pity you are so far away 'cos I have small hands. Can do both the HT lead change in situ and coil pack removal with very little verbal encouragement.

Clive

Mine behaves itself up to 20°C on auto, which is as hot as I ever run it.

Have you checked the cabin temperature sensor fan runs properly and that there is no fur or dust insulating the sensor itself. Both my SAAB 9000 hatchbacks came with similar heat distribution issues. Cured when I unjammed the fan on one and cleaned out seriously furred sensors on both. Big balls of lint'n crap on them. I suspect there is a fallback setting inside which limits how hot the face air can get if the system inputs are out of range. SAAB certainly had one.

Clive