If it is out you'll get a vibration through the seat of your pants.
Now you know how to do it, you may as well change the parking brake shoes before bothering to take it out. Then you can check everything.
With one wheel at each end off the ground, you can rotate the propshafts. So as you have it with both rear wheels off the ground and both fronts on the ground, the viscous coupling in the transfer case will allow movement but it is hard work and you need to hang on it and wait. If both front and rear can turn, then the problem is stopping the propshaft rotating when you try to undo the nuts..... All you need to do is lift one front wheel off the ground. In fact, if I am doing them, I put the suspension on High and jack up the left front and rear wheels. Disconnecting the propshaft then is simply a case of undoing the 4 nuts at the drum and dropping it down, should take about 10 minutes.
Then, with the 4 nuts on the back of the brake drum you can remove ALL of the propshaft and not just bits of it. Inside the drum is a flange, a sort of mirror image to the one on the outside. It is arranged so the flats of the bolts are against the centre so they can't turn and the bolts can't fall back because there isn't anywhere for them to move back into. The spigot on the propshaft flange is there to stop the propshaft flailing around under the car if the doughnut breaks. Hopefully you marked where the doughnut was attached or you could have upset the balance by taking it apart somewhere you wouldn't normally take apart.
If there's no need to take the engine blocks, then I'll leave the trailer at home. Quite how something that light weight can cause the whole car to shudder is beyond me, it's fine with some weight in it but when empty it is just a nuisance as it bounces from bump to bump. Everything else will go in the boot or on the back seat. I'll bring my chainsaw to make the big bits of wood fit.....
That was a fun way of spending a weekend, not. I mentioned I'd found the source of a coolant leak on the Ascot so decided to deal with it. Unfortunately it was from the RH bank, front core plug, the one hiding behind the engine mount. So it was inner wheelarch liner out, then attack the exhaust manifold heat shield. The first bolt sheared the head off and all of the others were so badly rusted that even the Irwin tapered socket couldn't get a grip on them. No room for the angle grinder so had to resort to a Dremel. Once it was free, it still didn't want to come past the steering column but eventually got it out with BFAI. Then it was the turn of the exhaust manifold bolts. All were tight and I was expecting a real fight with the two rearmost ones but they were the ones that undid easily. Downpipe to manifold nuts off but the manifold refused to come out of it's resting place so I just showed it up and back out of the way. Then had to drag the engine crane out to lift the RH side of the engine so I could remove the engine mount. Like the exhaust manifold bolts, this involved a 3/8th universal joint and multiple socket extensions to work my way in around the steering column, chassis rail, shock absorber and front air spring. Got that off and from underneath I could see what I was dealing with, a core plug that had rusted enough for a drip of coolant to come from it every second or so. Scraped the rust off and it became a constant stream......
I considered doing a bodge job on it with epoxy putty but as I had spare core plugs decided I'd attempt to do it properly. Access was the main problem as the bit on the chassis where the engine mount sits stopped me from being able to get at it easily with a punch and still leave enough room to swing a hammer. Ended up having to hold the punch in very long nosed pliers so one hand was well out of the way and give me room to get the hammer in there to tap it out Thankfully, it came out easily. Then it was a how do I tap the new one in place? Found a socket of the correct size and ordinarily it would simply be a case of giving it a smear of Loctite and tapping it in perpendicular to the block but the aforementioned chassis was in the way. Wrapped tape around the socket and left a flap of tape free so I had something to get hold of with the pliers and was able to gently tap the new core plug into place. All of this done while laying on my back under the car, but once in, put some coolant in and watched very carefully. No drips, success!
Normally putting it back together is a lot quicker than taking it apart but even that was a fiddle. The exhaust manifold kept snagging on the downpipe so ended up disconnecting the other side to let the whole Y section drop out of the way. Got 7 of the 8 exhaust manifold bolts in and the last one (bottom front, the one you can't get at easily from above or through the wheelarch) didn't want to know so I had to slacken the others off again to allow it to move so I could get that last one in. Finally connected up the downpipes, bled the cooling system and fired it up. No visible leaks and everything back together except for the manifold heatshield, which I'm considering leaving off as there's no fixing points left (and from the number of cars I've seen without them it doesn't seem to do that much) and the wheelarch liner to put back tomorrow.
It won't be 09:00 but I'll get there earlier than last time, hopefully around 10:00.
We both like the L322 wheels that are on it as it happens, so no afraid not. The tyres on them are scrap, but they are dated 2003, but I suspect the tyres on your Prolines are no better......
Pierre3 wrote:
So what I need to know is - having removed the propshaft do I then undo the four 14mm [or thereabouts, could be 17mm] nuts from the back of the handbrake drum ? Is it these four nuts which is holding on the drum as there is no Phillips screw visible ?
Those 4 nuts is what you should have undone to remove the propshaft and left the doughnut where it was. The nuts are 9/16th but 14mm is close enough to fit. Once those nuts are undone, the propshaft can be moved back far enough for it to drop down and out of the way. No need to remove it completely as you have done.
This shows the rear propshaft, the main picture is for a petrol with a UJ at each end, the diesel, for some reason, has the rubber doughnut instead of the front UJ. So you have split the propshaft into two and only removed the rear section not all of it.
There's no point in disconnecting it at the doughnut as the flange that is bolted to the back of the drum is what is holding it on. Inside the drum is the output from the transfer case with captive bolts so you can undo the nuts and remove the output flange, drop the propshaft off (as it will move on the sliding joint further back) as long as the suspension is on High so the propshaft is at its most extended. That then allows you to get to the Philips screws and pull the drum off. The only thing that is different on yours is that you have the rubber doughnut on the propshaft which the petrol versions don't have.
It wouldn't stop the mirror from working, only the door latch.
However, if the door won't open and the inside handle has gone all floppy so doesn't do anything, the horseshoe shaped bit of plastic that the interior handle cable attaches to has got stuck at one end of the travel (plastic on a steel pivot that rusts and causes it to jam). If it has, all you need do is poke around and move it and the door will then open normally without resorting to destroying the latch.
Bit of this, bit of that on all 3 of them. Lubricated one bonnet catch on mine, traced the slight coolant leak on the Ascot and got the red one running a lot better by changing the CPS and TPS.
The state of the fleet today.....
Does anyone recognise the red one? The registration number seems familiar to me but I don't know why.....
Marty, I'll be down on the 23rd to pick up the steering column, ABS modulator and a front bumper to send to Spain and give a hand clearing the remaining stuff out. Do you want me to bring my trailer so I can drop the two engines off at V8Dev to save you having to pallet them up and send by courier?
Anyone else going to be there on the 23rd?
We had a TD5 Disco at work and that would always start easily during the summer, come the winter and it would fire up but cough and splutter for the first few seconds. Turned out only 2 of the 5 glow plugs were working....
Chrisp38 wrote:
it's an empty box behind the battery on petrols.
Only on the Thor, it has the engine ECU in it on a GEMS.
I'm not a diesel guy either but one job, in fact the only job, I have done on a diesel is the spill pipes. That started normally it was just using a lot of fuel as it was chucking most of it over the floor and the underside of the car.
Ascot now has an Mot, with no advisories! It also has a rattle which is the front passenger seat belt buckle. Doesn't rattle with the belt plugged in but drives me bonkers when it isn't.....
Hi Karl, glad to see you are still around. Insurance is one concern I have at the moment. Dina, my partner is currently paying £163.50 for fully comp on a 2007 Mercedes SLK280, a two seater sports car with 231bhp from a 3.0 litre V6. But she wants to claim the Rioja Red 4.0SE P38 we have just picked and is talking about selling the Merc. Now the 2007 SLK280 is the worst to get from the point of view of road tax as it is rated at 227 g/km so, as that is over the 226 g/km for the highest band, she is currently paying £59 a month in road tax. The 2008 model of the same car has been factory remapped, produces the same 231 bhp but has CO2 emissions of 225 g/km so the road tax would be halved. The P38, being a '98, is on the flat rate of £26 a month but what is her insurance going to be?
I can relate to the insects, on one trip through Poland we went through a swarm the size of small birds with a shell like a flying beetle. Went with an almighty splat against the windscreen and wipers and washers stood no chance.
Anyway, today, preparation for the Ascot MoT tomorrow while Dina got stuck into cleaning the interior of Cherry, the name she has given to the Rioja Red new one. Seeing the state of the interior she was dealing with, I thought I'd got the better end of the deal.
Did a bit on it yesterday as it would fire up on petrol on all 8 but when cold on LPG it would only run on 6 which told me that one of the ignition coils was failing. Replaced them with a spare set of coils someone had given me years ago and it fired up instantly on all 8 on both fuels so I figured all I had left was the cosmetics to at least make it vaguely respectable. Started off by putting the suspension on High and blasted the underside with Screwfix degreaser, left it for a couple of minutes and then rinsed it off with the pressure washer. Then dropped it down to Access and started on the rest of the bodywork. Pressure washer to get the worst of the bird droppings off it, then Snow Foam and a soft brush to get the rest of the muck off (and the green on the roof) before rinsing it with the pressure washer again. It actually started to look respectable. The wiper blades were completely shot but I had a pair of nearly new Bosch ones in my car from when I took them off to fit the Aero blades as the ordinary ones were freezing solid and not wiping in Latvia in December, so put those on it. Checked that the washers worked and they did, so about all that was left was the lights.
Switched the sidelights on and none were working, no little green tell tale on the dash either. Dip and main beam worked as they should but sidelights are mandatory for the MoT so I had to get them working. Checked at the BeCM and I could ground the requisite pin and the sidelights came on. Checked on the wire from the switch and no ground with it in the sidelight position. Faulty switch then. Fortunately I had a spare light switch which I'd found the other day when looking for the aspirator for Nigel I thought I had but didn't find. Fetched that and started taking the dash apart to swap the switch. Now the dash only went back in a few days ago as it has an intermittent distribution blend motor problem. As the book showing on the HEVAC isn't an MoT fail I thought I could leave that until any more serious stuff had been done. So out comes the dash, switch out, plug in the new one and still no sidelights. Checked continuity between the switch and the BeCM and there wasn't any. Somehow, a single wire (at least I assume a single wire as everything else seems to work) has broken somewhere in the loom between the dash and the BeCM. Chopped it off at both ends and soldered a new length of wire in. Checked it before putting it all back together and I now had sidelights, so the dash went back in (again).
Final check, LH rear sidleight bulb blown and one of the side marker indicators was a bit feeble. Pulled that out to find an amber bulb (as it has the 2000 style clear indicators) that was just about managing to light but only just. Pulled it out of the holder and the wire terminal broke off the bulb. Bugger, don't have a spare, so put a clear bulb in so the indicator is a dirty white (from the moss growing inside the lens). I'll find out in the morning if the tester takes exception to it.....
However, this is nothing to what Dina has achieved.....
As I mentioned previously, the interior of Cherry was absolutely disgusting. Filthy and full of dog hair everywhere (even inside the front passenger seat belt buckle). I took the centre console sides and gear lever surround off and took them into the house to clean them in the sink while Dina started with the drivers door panel. Her theory was to start at one side and work her way across to the other before getting stuck into the back.
This is what all of the door panels looked like.....
and the carpets......
But this is how the first door panel came out
Door panels and dash plastics were done with Auto Glym Vinyl and Rubber cleaner, while she used Vanish carpet cleaner on the carpets and other cloth bits. I'll get some more pictures later as most of the front of the car has been done now. The filthy seats have come up pretty well and the pillar trims were taken off as the flock covering had turned black with mildew, so the flock was cleaned off leaving the shiny plastic underneath. It looks so much better already and Dina reckons she's still got another full day to get it all done.
Pierre3 wrote:
I can never understand why car manufacturers make it so difficult to change stuff like light bulbs. They must think that their bulbs never fail when you see some of the stupid steps you have to go through, just to change a bulb.
OK, I know the wire clips holding the bulbs in on a P38 are a bit fiddly but they could be worse. Try changing the sidelight bulb on a Renault Megane, you have to take the headlight out but to do that involves taking the inner wheelarch liner out and the front bumper off to get at the fixings for the headlights. Then there are various models of Audi where you have to jack the front of the car up so you can open the little flap in the wheelarch liner, then do a degree in Gynaecology so you can change the bulb by fell through the little hole....
why are manufacturers stopping putting oil dipsticks in cars ???
Because they know that the modern car driver never opens the bonnet and wouldn't know how to use a dipstick anyway. A woman (not being sexist but it had to be) took her car into my mates garage as her washers had stopped working. He filled the tank and they miraculously started to work again. The owner wasn't aware that she had to fill it.
And, lastly [thank God, says the reader], what has happened to having a spare wheel ?? These days, when people get a flat tyre, they sit on the side of the road for a couple of hours until their roadside service provider turns up and fills the flat tyre full of gunk so that [a] the owner gets home, and [b] the tyre garage chucks out the tyre and fits a new one.
Because it's extra weight so the fuel consumption goes up (by 0.001 mpg). Most modern drivers aren't capable of changing a wheel anyway.
I can relate to everything said here. I bought my P38 (for £600) with 205k on the clock, a burst rear air spring and running on 7 due to a head gasket blowing into the Vee. Got both of those done in the first couple of days of ownership and started using it. For the first 18 months or so, I didn't trust it as far as I could throw it. Every time I used it, something else packed up but after working my way through everything, I finally got it to a state I was happy with. Everything worked and it seemed reliable. By 287k miles though the engine was getting decidedly tired and I had a dilemma. Did I spend my money on rebuilding the engine or did I sell it and replace it with a newer, lower mileage one? I decided that I wouldn't get a lot for it as the odd police spec, high mileage and tired engine meant it wouldn't appeal to that many people and if I bought another I would only have to start again doing all the odd jobs I'd already done on mine. People rarely sell a car that is perfect, they sell it for a reason. So I decided to stick with the devil I knew and it still repays me for the attention I've given it every time I use it now.