I quite like Mer, gives a nice shiny finish to paintwork without the elbow grease needed with wax. It's a wipe it on, leave it for a couple of minutes and wipe it off job. I can do the whole car in about 15 minutes on the very rare occasions I do it. Not sure what's in it but it doesn't make the black bits go white like wax polish does. Good on fibreglass too and as one of my other cars has GRP bodywork, I originally got it for that.
I thought about using brake cleaner but figured that would wet it and make it even harder to get off. Air line might shift some of it (the engine stays pretty dry except when I spill oil down the rocker cover after missing the filler) and I was concerned that as well as drowning the electrics the pressure washer could end up blasting a dust and water (i.e. mud) mixture into the alternator which probably wouldn't do the bearings and brushes a lot of good. However, having given it some thought while sitting in a traffic jam today, all I'm going to do is wipe the fan blades off so they are clean and see how much gets blasted off by the airflow on my 800 mile run on Friday night/Saturday morning.
Edited to add that if I knew what APC was I could use it but these cleaning products are pretty alien to me. I've got T Cut, Turtle Wax, Mer and AutoGlym glass cleaner and that's about my lot as far as cleaning goes.
WD40, Water Dispersant formulation number 40. It was originally formulated as a waterproofing agent for tents and the like (in fact, if you buy a can of tent waterproofer, it smells exactly the same) but they found that it will also do other things, ish. It's the jack of all trades, master of none in an aerosol. Great if you want to use it to disperse water but other than that, use something formulated for the job you are trying to do. Plus Gas is my preferred option too but when I ran out I used Dave's favoured 50/50 mix of Acetone and ATF. Missus was not impressed that I'd nicked her nail varnish remover though.
Unless they charged you an arm and at least three legs, I doubt they fitted the later receiver (especially not in Switzerland with their prices), and if they had, then the remote locking would still work. I suspect all they did was unplug the receiver completely so it does nothing.
Opened my bonnet last night to find that it isn't only my tyres that are covered in Billing dust, so is everything under the bonnet! Can any of you detailing freaks tell me how to clean it off? I've got a pressure washer but am a bit concerned about spraying water around under the bonnet. Obviously I wouldn't spray on the ignition coils but what about everywhere else? What bits should I avoid?
You could always try putting a small container (aerosol can cap?) under the pipe. If it fills up it's coming out of the pipe, if it doesn't, you've got a crack in the tank.
Grounding the green/red wire should simulate operating the CDL switch in the latch and cause the doors to unlock.
If the earth is disconnected, or connected last, the doors will lock. Looks like you've had a real bodger in there, biggest cause of most problems on an older P38 (that'll be all of them then) people messing with things they don't understand.
C'mon lads, can we get this thread back on topic? Have you managed to bodge your pipes and get the AC working again?
Definitely sounds not good. If the pressure has got high enough to causes hoses to leak. Did you try water glass?
That's OK then, I'm up for that. I've heard others talk about detailing and I got the impression it was going a bit further than throwing the car at a group of Eastern Europeans at a disused filling station where they attack it with pressure washers and big soapy mitts to return it to the original colour. Mine got that treatment on Saturday before heading off for Billing but as they put the stuff on the tyres that make them look black and shiny,the dust stuck to them so I've now got brown tyres.....
No AC would have been a very bad idea. It was 30 degrees and you don't get much airflow at walking pace. At one point we passed one of the course marshals who was dripping in sweat and losing a battle against a swarm of flies that had mistaken his safety jacket for a very large yellow flower. As we were one of the few cars driving around with all the windows shut, he made a comment about us being cold so Dina opened the window to let him feel the air from the vents. We very nearly picked up a passenger.....
I'm not sure if anyone else was there but there was a distinct lack of P38s. At least 80% were either Defenders or Discos, a few newer ones, a few RR Classics and I didn't see more than about 10 P38s if that. There was me, Paul, a neighbour of mine that now owns OldShep's Vogue, one of the CVC cars which was a factory demonstrator kitted out for police forces restored in full police livery (the owner asked if I intended restoring mine to original police livery but as I said to him, doing 25,000 miles a year it wouldn't really be practical, I use my car, not show it), a red HSE in the camp site and a couple of others. Unlike mine which was a special order and built by LR Special Vehicles to the specific requirements of GMP when they ordered it, the CVC cars were standard HSE spec taken from the production line and used as demonstrators for press, dealers and anyone else.
The convoy attempt was errm, interesting. It was supposed to start at 5pm and it may have done at the front but it was 6:30 before we started to move. The pic shows the cars that had completed the 3 mile course and were lining up in the finish field when we were only just starting out and hadn't even reached the Start marker yet.
I've not seen anything to say if the record set by the Germans (632 assorted Land and Range Rovers) was beaten but as we approached the start I was given a numbered wristband with 890 on it so if I was number 890 in the convoy, there must have been over 100 more cars behind me. Leading the convoy was the original 1948 Land Rover prototype and the restored police P38 followed up at the rear with all his lights switched on. Or at least he was until they managed to get an ex-Army Land Rover ambulance started and he tagged on the back. Whether the record attempt will stand or not I've no idea. The rules said that there should be no more than a two car lengths between each car but at times there was much more than that, 40 mph on a dirt track trying to catch up with the rest of the convoy when the dust kicked up by the Defender in front meant you couldn't actually see the track certainly proved the EAS although the new air filter I'd fitted the previous day probably needs changing again now. The AC came in handy though, the guy in the Defender in front drove most of the route holding his door open trying to keep cool!
There was a company at Billing yesterday doing a replacement headlining in two pieces, bloody expensive too. You'll get a far better finish doing it yourself with one of the Martrim kits.
I had the exact same problem a few years ago, with the same results. The first time it did it I dropped a jump lead down the side of the engine, clamped it to the positive battery terminal, crawled underneath and splashed it onto the positive terminal on the solenoid that was connected directly to the starter to spin it over and the engine started. Ordered a new starter thinking the solenoid contacts were on their way out. It was intermittent and would sometimes be fine but not at others and I could start it with the jump lead anyway so not totally critical.
Then went out in it and on the way home I started to get faults coming up on the message centre. EAS decided it wasn't gong to do anything, then gearbox fault, then ABS fault then the radio and HEVAC shut off, then it died..... Checked it and found about 8V from the battery so called the AA. While waiting for them checked the battery terminals and found the loose bolt. Tightened it up, AA gave me a jump start and all was back to normal. As it was before I'd added the extra cable from the battery to the alternator, as well as there being no feed to the starter, the alternator output wasn't getting to the battery either. Clamping a jump lead to the battery terminal had pressed the cable against the main terminal so it worked fine while the clamp was on there but not once it was removed. New starter became a spare.
Put the TPS back in the original position. If the RSW software shows you a voltage for the TPS it should be around 0.6-0.8V but is likely to be higher, the stored value will be lower than this which is why you had high idle (it thinks the throttle is slightly open). Resetting the adaptive values should set the stored value the same as the actual value. It should self adjust over a period but I've found that it self adjusts upwards but not downwards
I found that using a hex bit, a short 3/8 drive extension (exactly as you have used) and a 3/8 universal joint with insulating tape wrapped around it to stop it flopping around too much to be the quick way. It brings the ratchet out to the exact position it needs to be in to clear the back of the starter but not too far so the engine mount is in the way. Took me about 10 minutes to change a starter last time although it took me a lot longer the first time to work out how to do it.
I am very averse to disconnecting the battery (resetting the windows isn't a problem but resetting the 9 channel graphic equaliser on my stereo takes days!, I even took my engine out with the battery still connected) so I carefully slacken off the main power feed nut and take it off with fingers (as they don't conduct, not at 12V anyway), shove a length of heater hose over the end of the cable to insulate it and tie wrap it to one side.
But you've done a really nice job on the starter. I've still got the one I took off to refurb.
Yes, that will reset the adaptive values. Definitely worth doing every so often when running on LPG as they can drift off.
That was a couple of years ago just after I'd had it gassed. Since then it's had to have a new condenser and be re-gassed again and I haven't checked it since. I would do again except I've no idea where the thermometer went or how accurate it is (as it was only a couple of quid from a man in China, I suspect not very).