Front goes up tomorrow then and they all get done. 3 litres of DoT 4 in stock so I may as well change the fluid whilst I'm at it.

But I shall pre-bleed the rears the StrangeRover way first. Don't like working on partially filled hydraulic systems.

Clive

Can the rear brakes be bled on their own with satisfactory results or is it best to do the whole system?

When I changed all my brake callipers couple of years back the rear flexi pipes obviously weren't coming undone so i kicked the can down the road and left them as still being functional.
The metal extension on one rear caliper pipe let go last Monday so I've been dodging the rain for the past couple of weeks of spare time getting things changed. Which included making new sheet metal brackets ANR 5918, ANR 5919 and the "flat with a slight bend one at the bottom" which, apparently has no part number. Searching the usual supplier suspects indicated that availability of ANR 5918 & 5019 appeared to be spotty with daydream prices on some suppliers.

So I drew them out and made a set of four. Drawings can be sent as a pdf if anyone wants them. Not intrinsically hard to make but something of a PIA to mark out and cut to size making for a slow job. I officially have too many toys, including a 41/64 th drill for the hose hole, so getting it done merely took longer. Cutting the blanks would have been an ideal job for the baby CNC mill I've never worked up enough enthusiasm to get going.

Further searches after the event suggests you can get ANR 5918 & 5019 for £5 - £10 each if you choose suppliers wisely but no one seems to have both.

Clive

Agree 125 nm sounds way too high.

Hafta say I didn't look at the book and just went tight, probably in the 50 nm region. Googling around it seems that 40 - 50 nm is the general range for most things. 40 on a Defender I think.

When I have a "looks too tight" issue I either go by the other fastenings list on page 14(?) of the torque values section in RAVE. If I'm feeling techie I'll use the significantly over comprehensive list out of the official BMW workshop manual for the air cooled R series twins.

Having RAVE printed out in lots of loose leaf binders with the pages in individual transparent wallets to permit handling by oily fingers is a great help with this sort of flip back'n forth issue. Two or three folders open at once is easy or I'll make up a special to the task temporary manual with all the relevant pages in one place. Re-filing is a pain tho'.

Clive

UK customs seem to charge on everything thats not from China.

My one and only experience with the GSP from the USA earlier this year was less than impressive. Expensive, slow, Stateside tracking data made no sense and I got done for duty on something that should never have attracted it. I suspect the vendor milked the system. But when its new old stock of something that makes unicorn droppings look common you are somewhat stuffed. Annoyingly the American supplier originally got it from Italy at, presumably uber low clearance prices.

Clive

Didn't you like my pretty grey paint on the radius arms?

Everything I do under a car ends up grey rather than factory black. Obvious what I've done that way and it brightens things up a bit too.

Bolts at both ends are likely to be leak down types with a longitudinal groove cut along part of the thread so any air inside can escape before the bolt comes off the end of the thread. Without a leak path the bolt can be fired off as it reaches the end of the thread. As I remember it the pipe connector end is certainly leak down. Never had the other one off.

Legal requirement on vehicle high pressure air systems I think.

Often a non standard thread to stop folks jamming a plain blanking plug from the local plumbers shop in. Hence ££ or un-obtainium for normal folk. I just measure up and make if I need such. But Clive is not normal!

For the connector end a tapped hole for the standard male BSP thread to O ring fitting adapter would be the easy way if you don't have the official thing.

I found the big issue when removing whilst lying on my back underneath was reaching the bolt heads. My collection of extension bars wasn't able to make up the "best" length to get a socket straight on without the breaker bar or ratchet fouling on something. So I ended up with a UJ in the line to get some deviation. UJ may be handy but it makes it harder to keep things straight and heaving.

Especially with those never to be sufficiently cursed integrated head'n washer bolts. Everything is tapered so the socket cant get a proper seat or gip on things and the head material is intrinsically soft with a bit of surface hardening from the forging process. So once the corners go you are stuffed.

Getting into the habit of just putting the Irwin extractors on right from the start unless I'm pretty sure that things will move.

Not the first time I've been seriously tempted to make an extension the right length by cut'n weld.

10 bar of air really isn't too bad because it generally just leaks and hisses. Not like boiling water under pressure with lethally large amounts of energy locked up in the change of state between liquid and vapour.

Clive

Looks a bit worse than mine was when Mr MoT man told me to do something about it before the next test a three or so years back.

I got me a used one which, frankly, was not noticeably better although it still had significant paint and a data label. Enjoyed(?) myself with a 2 1/2"twisted wire cup brush on the angle grinder shifting all the grot. Those brushes are very effective but need everything strapped down well or things go flying! I imagine the bigger ones can be quite lethal.

Coat of Krust rust killer, followed by two each of the Blackfriars rust resisting undercoat and grey QD90 metal paint got it looking acceptably smart without needing to faff about with the spray gun so I did a replica label to finish the job. Inkjet print & laminate. Glued on to look the part. Still got the PDF file if anyone wants it.

Shifting the old one took considerable effort and verbal encouragement. The bolts aren't easy to get at and mine were well rusted in. The new one went in with appropriately anointed stainless fixings so it will come out next time. I've no idea whether or not creative cursing about the person who last fitted something has any effect in the afterlife. But I'd rather not find out personally as my verbal assistance tends to be somewhat heavy on the creatively comprehensive side.

Best part of a fortnight elapsed time when all was done, dusted and paint hardened off.

Mr MoT man was happy which is the main thing.

My old one still sits in dry storage waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Sell, trade, gift. As is or paint first.

Clive

Silicone brake fluids were originally developed in the USA for military vehicles. Primarily to allow vehicles to be taken straight from storage and into battlefield service without a regular fluid change cycle on stored vehicles. En-mass fluid change on a battalions worth of transport before deployment being a right PIA and major league difficult on many AFVs. Lower freezing point is handy on air deployments too. Cargo aircraft get cold inside.

It has absolutely no advantages whatsoever in a normal vehicle. It may not be actively hydroscopic but it still entrains water via temperature cycling and similar drivers. Objectively it should only be used in a sealed or semi sealed system. Preferably in a pump fed system with arrangements to extract any entrained water. Our P38s would be a good candidate if fitted with a motorcycle style fexible diaphragm sealed reservoir. Theoretically motorcycle systems can safely use silicone fluids. In practice temperature cycling seems to cause water ingress through the seals and promote corrosion inside.

The Australian Army had some research done into best ways of changing from the normal issue fluid to silicone fluids. With sometimes worrisome results

"In the case of vehicle 37-971, total loss of braking effect and loss of pedal resistance was noted approximately 15 minutes after the vehicle had been returned to the garage. Next day the brakes had returned to normal with no sign of fluid loss or leakage from the system. All brake assemblies were stripped from this vehicle with the liquid contents intact and taken to MRL for disassembly and inspection. All were found to contain residues of OX(Aust.)8 despite the syringe sampling operation which had resulted in the samples to which Table 1 refers."

Full report is at (https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a159501.pdf). Looks like the experimenters were more careful than an ordinary mechanic.

Clive

The tabs slide. Screwdriver in the opening and carefully ease them back under the trim.

Opening is usually OK but closing can be problematical because there is very little meat on that end. I borke one of mine 10 years (and lot of UV) ago. Careful on the first one wasn't careful enough. Very, very careful on the other three was.

Clive

If you fancy using Thule bars with the standard roof rails, probably the easiest fit as it just buy'n fit, do consider potential height issues.

The tops of the standard Thule bars are almost 2 metres / 78 inches off the deck in standard height setting depending on exactly where your EAS is set. High enough to be a worry with the entry restrictors for car parks round my way. I never actually scraped them but too close for comfort really. Ended up only fitting them when I needed to carry something.

Clive

The "Sports Cross bars" STC50252 mentioned by leolito are indeed very neat but you are still restricted to using as a pair due to the roof curvature. The catalogue pictures (https://knook-jaguarlandrover.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Accessoires_LR_2000_Range_Rover.pdf) show them used in centre and rear positions. Dunno if one has slightly shorter legs to fit in the centre mount letting the load ride level or if both are the same so the load rides with a slight up tilt.

I'd not care to remove and refit on a regular basis as the sliding cover over the bolt holes seems to go brittle with age and is likely to break when moved. One of mine did!

My DIY plan was to make short adapter blocks to fit on Thule bars (well actually the £20 LIDL knock offs!) which could in turn be affixed to black anodised alloy blocks permanently fitted in the standard mount recesses. Easy fitting requires the blocks to be tall enough to take bolts through the side. I didn't care fore the look of tall pimples on the roof. Bolting from the top lets them be made near enough flush with the roof. But then, like Granny Ogg and her giraffe, you need to stand on a stool to manage things.

As ever its hard work being factory neat. Can't abide obvious DIY.

Clive

I assume you don't have the longitudinal roof rails fitted.

The longitudinal rails bolt down via tapped holes attached to the roof structure. Sliding covers over them. If they have not been moved for years its easy to break the tag so good clean and squirt with your favourite "wonder-spray".

The official Land Rover cross bars can be fitted at any point along the rails. But the longitudinal rails follow the roof curvature so you need to set the cross rails roughly equidistant from front and rear if whatever you have on top is going to ride level.

Longitudinal rails are findable from breakers but not cheap. Official cross rails seem to be hens teeth rare and, usually expensive. Found my cross rails at an affordable price mainly because the seller didn't know what they were and I was feeling lucky that week! Dunno if L322 ones will fit. Design is similar but not sure if the clamp end is different.

Before I went factory i looked into making three QD cross rails picking up on small blocks bolted to the official rail mounting point. Three rails is probably better for a canoe which that sort of system will give but you are pretty much stuck with permanent pimples half inch - inch (ish) high on the roof if the system isn't going to be a right pain to fit. If you don't mind fitting from the top it can be done very neatly.

Thule bars will clamp to the longitudinal rails. Might still even have the set I used before I found the right cross rails lying around somewhere. Her-ladyship half inched them for her L322 roof tent project, then we found some proper Land Rover rails and I can't remember if my Thules ever came back. Roof tent idea died after she drove into a car park height restrictor and knocked it off. L322 died soon after in protest at being looked after by a Defender and Jeep specialist! Of somewhat questionable competence.

Clive

Just need to update the drawings to include a version with the taper roller bearing outer as the compression element. Much simpler unless you have a high end toolroom or similar machine with effective taper turning attachment.

Hopefully all done by the weekend. PM me your E-Mail and I shoot it over when finished.

Clive

Ha! This years resolution was to make an effort to get out and put miles on my Norton Commander (the rotary engined one) and Yamaha GTS100A (the funny front end one).

94,125 miles on the Commander (all mine) so I really intended to do a Richard and photograph the magic 100,000 miles.

The GTS was my me to me 65 th birthday present, sheer indulgence but my "have fun in retirement" fund got diverted and could no longer stretch to a cool low mileage Hass to replace the Bridgeport.

Back issues, heat and waiting for an operation got in the way. But at least they picked up five miles each going for an MoT. Hefty, long legged bikes aren't the thing for popping around town.

Clive

Yup its getting a straight start thats important with the radius arm bushes.

Well worth spending some quality time with a workmate, sawhorses or whatever and packing to support the arm level before you start. Those things are heavy and your arm gets tired pretty quickly when trying to position and hold them just so to start pressing. Its not just taking the weight. the bend means that the darn thing wants to slide sideways out of alignment. Holding against the slide as well as supporting the weight is what really sets the muscles trembling.

One bush on my ownsome with no extra support was quite enough for me thank you!

But 66 is not the new 26 so maybe younger members will manage better than the old farts brigade.

Clive

Pretty sure that one of the inexpensive import universal bush removal sets has the appropriate pusher and receiver for the panhard rod bushes. Not sure about force screw tho'. I'll have a check in the next day or so and verify. I did mine with a home made hydraulic press and stuff to hand.

The radius arm bushes are larger than the holes in the arm so need a tapered compression section in the installer. I can send you drawings in PDF for a comprehensive tooling set for removal and installation that can be made on any half decent lathe, or a Myford if desperate. I bought a set of tools from Laser that were supposed to do the P38 and didn't so I ended up rolling my own. Cutting the compression taper is the only difficult part but since I made mine it has been demonstrated by romanrob, see his You Tube video, that an inexpensive taper roller bearing outer race works fine as a compressor section. Much easier. Hopefully I've updated my drawings.

If you do take a set of drawings to make your own installer odds are that you'd not need to make everything but I made my tooling as a potential loaner set so it had to be complete.

My tooling does exactly the same job as romanrobs method but its neater, doesn't need jubilee clips and incorporates an alignment device so the bush has to go in dead straight. Gotta get some return for all that time spent on a lathe!

If you decide to do the radius arm bushes on a hydraulic press the angle of the arms makes it quite difficult to hold them dead square if working on your own. Especially if its a cheapy type with a bottle jack'n prodder hung on springs. Best done with a helper. Copious cursing doesn't seem sufficient assistance!

If I ever do another set of radius arms I shall make a mini hydraulic press using one of the inexpensive 10 or 12 ton ram assemblies sold as spares for import hydraulic pullers. Which will also work fine for steering balljoints. With 20-20 hindsight thats what I should have done before starting the whole bush'n steering balljoint lark replacement lark. Something like the eyewateringly expensive Land Rover official balljoint tool or similarly wallet hostile Sykes Pickavant 2242 set. £50 for the ram and an afternoon in the workshop being more my speed. Less actually as I have a couple or three rams kicking around already.

Clive

Coming to the conclusion that when it comes to EAS its sensible to do everything in one hit each time airbags are changed. Bags, pump seal, valve block O-rings, dryer and any odd bits that seem to be showing their age.

Airbags seem to be good for around 65,000 - 70,000 miles in UK road use, pump seal and O rings will go further but how much further is in the lap of the gods. Unlikely to make it through till the next bag change. So, given the relatively modest cost and simplicity of the work, early replacement when the air suspension is down anyway seems far less trouble than waiting until you actually have a fault.

On condition rather than scheduled replacement of "system blocks" never seems to work well with the P38.

Clive

I'm at Crowborough in Sussex. Not too far for a quick test to be arranged. Was supposed to be meeting a 7 pm flight at Luton airport this coming Sunday which would have been ideal with an early start for a quick afternoon deviation to Dorking.

I have a Nanocom and a set of suspension setting blocks too. (Memo to me must re-set the standard height as its riding a little high.)

Clive

You really need to try a car with recently fitted dampers to see what the new ones you plan to get are like. I'm on recent Bilsteins so if you're close enough a try is possible. Monroe have the thumbs up from the forum too.

Wouldn't touch adjustable with a barge, let alone the pole. All they ever seem too do its to fiddle with the basic absolute rebound damping setting ignoring the velocity sensitivity. Which is a very bad thing to do on road vehicle as it upsets everything in sight. Especially a big heavy roll prone 4X4. Either, like a lot of motorcycles, the setting does nothing except amuse the owner, or you have serious risks of the suspension pumping down at speed.
If you are being ambitious off road with uprated springs and, possibly, lift tweaking the rebound will stop the suspension crashing too far, too fast downwards when you hit a hole. But you will be compromising a lot of other things which may well bite you in the ass at any sort of speed.

If you want to muck around with suspension characteristics on a road vehicle with a high centre of gravity you have to get into the shim stacks and do it all from first principles to keep things properly balanced and the natural frequency responses front and rear sensible. The odds of any ordinary person finding a better overall set-up than a decent factory are tiny. Competition guys pushing the wrong kit up to the ragged edge may think they are doing better with what is mostly a bodge fix but road car suspension operates in continuous transition regions which is much harder to achieve balance with. Serious natural frequency mismatch whether front to rear pitch, roll or (eek) diagonal is scary.

Superflex, poly bushes and the rest don't last on a P38 because roll puts considerable plunge and tilt forces into the bush. Which they aren't able to cope with. All these polybush systems are basically poor boys rose joints with a little flex over relatively short movements to handle the minor geometrical infelicities that prevent you from using proper rose joints. Fine on something like a TVR with fairly pure geometry, short movements and hard springing to keep movements pretty close to the proper geometry range.

A P38 has long link / radius arms both ends with the axles well located on the arms so the geometry is anything but pure. Long travels too. When it rolls either the bushes have to take up serious plunge and tilt force or the arms and axle have to twist and bend. The glass fibre arms at the rear do twist and bend. If you look back into the history of the GKN glass fibre leaf spring and suspension arm design its precisely what they were developed to do.
Good luck on twisting the front radius arms. The axle to arm bushes have to handle it all. A rose jointed P38 front suspension is pretty much locked solid. Despite its apparent simplicity its actually a very sophisticated design.
Big, fast, 4 x 4 suspension is hard to do. Which is why most of the more modern incarnations with apparently more up to date designs fall apart with monotonous regularity over any sort of mileage.

Clive