Your setup seems very well thought out!

I guess the idea with a dual battery setup (other than increased capacity) is to stop non-vehicle items from draining the vehicle batteries, which means the vehicle batteries should always be in good enough state to start and run the vehicle. If somehow the vehicle batteries do run down then your "reach around" method is perfectly adequate, adding in an automatic slave start feature will probably just be adding in more complexity unnecessarily.

I'm looking at potentially going for a MPPT & DC-DC charger combination unit for my installation. I'm in South-Africa so solar makes complete sense here, I just want to keep it as low as possible to the roof and haven't quite decided how to do that yet (wind resistance reasons). The dc-dc part is needed because I want to go for LiFePO4 batteries, mostly due to the weight savings and longer life even at deeper discharges.

A friend of mine has the same Waeco fridge as your newer one and he is very pleased with it. I like it too and have had many a cold beer from it in unpleasantly hot conditions.

Looks very neat, I like it! Definitely making me rethink my plan for the wheel well.

What is the unit on the right with the blue and white label/sticker? I assume it is the split charge unit?

Any plans to add solar in future?

Looks really good!
This is basically exactly what I have in mind for mine (someday in the future). I was thinking of cutting out the whole spare wheel well and welding in a new box, which will allow me to make it more rectangular as opposed to the rounded current shape. Your frame idea is making me rethink my plan.

What are your plans with the space on the left of the batteries? I'd like to add in a reserve fuel tank as well as a water tank somewhere under the floor too, with the batteries. I suspect that in my mind there is more space down there than there actually is.

Nice work. Really cool fuse/relay box too!

Managed to steal some time yesterday and finished off the chassis mount.
Not much progress but some at least!

Started the day off with this:

The bracket that the bumper locates into and bolts onto (inside the end of the chassis leg) has been modified and now uses two longer bolts that go right through (instead of two from the left and two from the right) and screw into two captive nuts welded onto the chassis mount bracket. This will allow me to cover the big diagonal cutout in the rectangular tube (in the photo above) with some plate, stiffening it up considerably.

Three of the four new mounting bolts that screw through the chassis into a captive plate with weld nuts that fits inside the chassis leg:

View with the bumper in place:

Chassis mount with wet paint:

More wet brackets:

Hopefully I'll make more progress in the week!

I got the lasercut parts just before the weekend and got going with the build.
My first feeling when receiving the bits was that they are quite small, it really is a bit tough to judge size on CAD.
I also struggled to get the correct size pipe for the bearing mount. I was looking for 57mm OD with 2mm wall and finally found a supplier. Got the pipe home, measured it and turns out they gave me 60mm-OD 2mm-wall. Dammit, should have measured it when I picked it up!

The major disadvantage with the bigger pipe is that it's harder to center the bearings, but the larger OD does mean that the load will be spread better through the rectangular tube of the swingam. Gave it a go and it turned out good:

Next I got the bumper off and started with the bolt on support for the bearing mount. It had to be shortened quite a bit and trimmed along the curve of the bumper too. I knew this might be required as it's a bit tough to accurately replicate the bumper shape etc on CAD (for my experience level anyway).

This:

bolted on here:

had to be shortened and trimmed:

and ended up like this:

The bumper fits tight over this bracket, but it does fit. Next step was to locate the bearing carrier and make the necessary holes for the M20 bolt to run through. You can see the location of the hole in the previous photo, circled in green on the bumper lying on the ground and a dimple on the forward piece of rectangular tube.

The M20 bolt will enter through the top smaller hole and bolt through into the M20 nut which is sunk into the rectangular tubes and welded to them.

Some spacers to space the bearing through the bumper and you end up with this:

Here you can see the bottom of the bolt screwed into the M20 nut which has to still be welded to the bolt on bracket:

And the back corner from outside:

I have deviated quite a bit from the original CAD model in terms of location of the bearing mount on the bumper (it's moved left and forward) but I expected needing to make some changes and I'm happy with the outcome. It's been fun spending the weekend welding and fettling and measuring, a nice break from the PC.

Happy Monday all!

After reading through TKing88's thread on preventative maintenance (paraphrasing here) I realised I hadn't greased the U-Joints since owning the car so that got done last night.
After cleaning out the grease gun (no idea what grease was in there) and refilling it with a known grease the job actually went quite quickly. Good.

One not good thing was that I noticed that 3 of the 4 rear propshaft bolts on the transfercase side were completely loose, like rattling. Not good at all. They tightened up fine but I'm sure they are damaged so I'll probably get 4 new ones and replace them (any advice before I tackle it?).
Also, is this a common problem? Do they get loose over time, or is this a PO that didn't tighten them up properly? I checked all the other prop bolts and they were all as they should be.

Thanks for the positive comments!
We'll see how the final items turns out, this is probably the most complicated fabrication project that I've taken on. I've done some fabrication before (built a carport at my girlfriends place, as well as a rotisserie for a Fiat X1/9 and some other minor projects) but this is definitely the most intricate with a bunch of little parts that all need to work together correctly.

I am planning to offset the wheel to the right as far as it'll go without interfering with the RHS taillights as well as keeping the tailgate button within reach. Hopefully this leaves enough space on the left for another swingarm that can carry a jerry can or two in future. I'm getting ahead of myself though, let's first see if this works!

Pic showing the offset to the right:

I'm not really sure if a production run of something like this is worthwhile? Shipping something like this from South-Africa to the UK for example might be a bit pricey. Once I've verified the design and there is enough interest then making the design available for replication might be an option.

If the swivel assembly doesn't work out like planned then I'll go over to the trailer stub axle idea. The current solution is strong enough to carry the wheel, definitely in the closed position, but in the open position an adult climbing on the far end of the swingarm might deform the M20 bolt according to the maths. The trailer stub axle is quite a bit stronger, but is also larger and less elegant. I'll go with the design as is and then we'll see if it is an issue.

Thanks for the kind words Dave!

I agree, converting to a swing arm door is going to be quite complicated and I do quite like the drop down tailgate.
Ultimately the swing arm will likely get a fold out table which will go nicely with a fridge slide on the left side of the boot area. It'll make for nice little camp kitchen setup I think.

I edited the album permissions. Are the pictures visible now?

Hi all,

Thought I would share this project of mine with you all.

Since fitting the larger tyres to my P38 (235/85R16) the spare doesn't fit into it's usual spot anymore. This past December break I fitted the spare to the roof while we went on a little roadtrip here in SA. It worked, but isn't the ideal spot, mostly because I don't like the look and added wind resistance, but also because my windsurfing gear has to go up there in future. I started designing a spare wheel carrier for the rear in August last year and I've been spending a few hours on it here and there. This afternoon I just finalised the first design revision and sent the parts off for lasercutting. I'll document the build process here.

Spare location on the roof:

Proposed location on the rear:

I'd like to retain the original bumper in this first revision, additionally I'd also like to retain the ability to unbolt the major components and possibly update or change them in future. I'd like to minimize the amount of welding to the existing chassis also.

Overall view:

The carrier will attach and hinge on the chassis on the right rear corner. This will attach to the rear chassis longitudinal member here:

The chassis mount will be bolt on, with only holes drilled into the chassis, no welding. The bolt on plates will be supported on two planes and supported on the inside of the chassis with backing plates to support the load:

The standard bumper will cover all the modifications to the chassis (if I managed to measure correctly, if not, I'll have to make a plan on the fly) with only a hole in the bumper on the right hand side for the swingarm bolt to pass through, as well as holes for the fasteners where the center mount attaches to. The center mount will support the swingarm vertically in the closed position as well as supply a position for the closing clamp to attach to. The center mount attachment will be welded to the rear crossmember (round bar behind the spare wheel well and inside the rear bumper), which is removable and can thus be welded off vehicle.
Center mount attachment:

The swingarm assembly is supported by two deep groove ball bearings (replaceable) and is bolted to the chassis mount with a high tensile M20 bolt. The swingarm assembly will support the spare wheel as well as a mounting location for a high-lift jack.
Swingarm Assembly:

The center mount will bolt to the center mount attachment through the standard bumper and give the swingarm a pace to locate into and clamp onto:

Swingarm located into center mount:

The swingarm is has a secondary locking pin that locates into the chassis mount and this secondary locking pin will also lock the swingarm in it's open position, allowing normal operation of the tailgate.
Secondary locking pin and swingarm bearing assembly:

Hopefully I'll get the lasercut parts before the end of the month so that I can get going with the fabrication!

Cheers,
Justus

Thanks for all the info and advice, this forum is superb!

Mine isn't slipping at all when accelerating from standstill, so I guess I don't need to be in a huge hurry to get this done. I'll get the bits ordered in January sometime and then post here again when I tackle the job.

Cheers everyone :)

Hi all and Merry Christmas!

I've been doing some offroad driving with my 2001 P38 and I suspect I've heard the transfer case chain slipping.
I heard it with quite a harsh downshift from 2nd Low to 1st Low on a steep descent, so the force on the chain would have been in the opposite direction to the usual when accelerating from a stop. It hasn't slipped at all when accelerating, well, not that I have heard anyway. Is this the chain slipping, or possibly something else?

I have been looking through the Ashcroft website (https://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/diy-rebuild-kits/borg-warner-rebuild-kits.html) and I'm thinking the following bits are a must:

• Borg Warner Chain P38
• P38 Rebuild Kit (I'm guessing this will include the same seals as the Borg Warner Seals listed further on?)

I see the output shaft is also listed, should I be adding this to the list too, or not required?
Viscous Coupling? Mine seems to be performing perfectly at the moment, so no immediate reason to replace it, but if there is a chance that it might suddenly fail while out in the bush somewhere then it might be worth doing while I've got the transfer out? Bit pricey though.

Airtex waterpump seems to have done the job, quite pleased with that :)

Yep, thought so. I'll do some calling around tomorrow and see what I can find.
What do the dealers supply as genuine these days? Will that be an Airtex?

Thanks again Gilbert!

Yes, I think you're right. It seems to be leaking out of the weep hole on the side of the pump and being blown back and behind the waterpump by the fan. It then runs down the back of the waterpump and down the front cover.

Any thoughts on the Britpart XS Proflow water pump quality? It's all that my local part supplier has in stock.

Morning all :)

I have a coolant leak, but struggling to figure out from where. My initial thoughts were that it is the water pump gasket leaking, so I replaced that, but I still have the same leak in the same area behind the water pump above the Cam Position Sensor connector.

These are screenshots from a video I recorded of the area, since my phone actually managed to get in there.
The album and video is here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fpU8XPnhs76Cmcmc7

I'm not sure what else is in that area that could be leaking coolant? Do any of the front cover bolts enter the water jacket somewhere? I replaced the cam recently so the front cover has been off aswell.

Thanks!
Justus

Engine is all back together and running beautifully.

Fitted a helicoil where the threads in the block was damaged, which actually went quite smoothly. I bought a kit to do it with which included the correct drill bit and a helicoil fitting tool which made it easy. Was a bit nervous torqueing that head down for the 2nd time, but it all went smoothly! Happy :)

I ended up spacing the rockers by 20thou to get the tappet preload within spec. I used stainless steel shim stock, because it is what a mate of mine had on hand in the right thickness. It was a bastard to punch, but went together beautifully. Happy with that too!

I'm not sure if it is the new cam, magnecor leads, tappet pre-load setting or the new Bosch coils, but the fuel consumption seems to have decreased by around 1.5l/100km.
Mind you I've only done around 150km so far, but there is definitely an improvement, and mid range torque also seems up. Super happy with that!

All in all a good outcome. Now I just hope the headgaskets hold!

Turns out you were right Gilbert! Started torqueing down the head this evening, and the suspect bolt (nr. 10 in the sequence) wouldn't reach it's torque, damn threads pulled out. Meh.

This is definitely the spot where the headgasket was leaking though, evidence of combustion escaping into the water channel could be seen on the block so at least there is conclusive proof of that.

So while I was waiting for the ARP studs to arrive from the US I also decided to replace the camshaft and lifters, so everything to get at them has also been stripped off. The nose of the vehicle is sitting quite a bit higher what with all the weight that has been stripped off and away around the engine :D

The AC condensor was actually damn dirty and clogged with years of muck which also took a while to clean. This has turned into quite a big job!

Yes, the porous/cracked block issue is definitely something I am concerned about!
The previous owner of the car had the bottom end rebuilt while he owned it, and had the rebuilders fit top-hat liners, so slipped liners won't be a problem. Obviously this won't solve anything if the block was cracked behind the liner, so it is still a concern.

After I redid the headgaskets the engine ran beautifully and wasn't using any coolant, or pressurising the coolant system at all, until last weekend when the problem appeared and started getting worse quite rapidly (within probably 80km of driving). If the problem is a crack behind the liner then surely it would have used coolant from the start, or at least over pressurised the coolant system from the get go?

The "stretch bolt going elastic", as you put it, is the design intent with stretch head bolts.
Quite a nice explanation here: https://www.enerpac.com/en-gb/boltingtheory
My concern is that the quality of the bolts supplied isn't consistent, so applying the same torque to the bolts might make a weaker bolt stretch more than the others and possibly go into the plastic deformation stretch range instead of remaining in the elastic range as it should. This would cause the gasket to not be clamped sufficiently in the area around the bolt causing symptoms consistent with mine (I hope!).

Should I be looking at checking and setting the tappet pre-load (http://www.v8engines.com/engine-4.htm#preload) while I wait for the head studs to arrive? Am I correct in saying I'd need to remove and bleed down the lifters before doing this?
Would a 10thou skim from standard be enough to push the tapped pre-load out of spec, or is this something worth doing anyway?

Thanks for the info Gilbert, especially the idea with using the headgaskets as a guide for drilling and tapping the holes if the threads are damaged.
The engineering shop that skimmed my heads were busy with a 4.6 rebuild and the owner of that engine insisted that they replace all the threads with helicoils as a precaution. Hopefully the shop has some extra helicoils on hand if I need them. I'll find out when I strip the engine.

I did chase the threads with the correct thread chaser when I did the headgaskets before and they felt good thereafter, but you never know until they fail.