All reports from my customers who used Admiral used to point to them being a stickler about UKLPG database registration but an increasing proportion of their customers are telling me they're not asking for database registration.

Gilbertd wrote:

Lpgc wrote:

Potential inconvenience with the filler fitted so close to the towball if you do a lot of towing though?

Bearing in mind that I probably fill up just as often with a trailer on as not, nope, never had a problem with any filler, Dvissier, Gasguard, various continental Italian cup fillers (there's 2 or 3 different ones) and Acme. As long as the trailer is straight or off to the right, access is simple.

Well you've certainly got more experience of filling P38's with a trailer on than me!

Dunno if you agree with the 90degree point either.. But if the filler is fitted at 90deg (and fitted where yours is) it looks like the trailer could be in the way for filling from a pump on the driver side?

Is it about to take a piss... of coolant or something Miles ? ;-)

Potential inconvenience with the filler fitted so close to the towball if you do a lot of towing though?

Can be a good idea to fit the bayonet so bayonet lugs are top and bottom (at 90 degrees to normal) if the filler is fitted at the back - the fill pipe from the gun then points sideways toward the pump which gives a bit more slack on the pipe and prevents the retractable type pulling sideways on the filler. Not supposed to fit them at 90 degrees but can make sense to.

Around a fifth of people who ask me about replacement caps reckon they had theirs nicked... hmm have to wonder lol.
Still they don't go for the locking version, more expensive, too much faff, the chance of lost key or seized lock. Don't blame them.
Though more than one person hoped the lock version would both prevent the cap being nicked and prevent LPG being nicked by syphoning...

Anyone had one nicked? You can buy locking versions hehe!

At one time there was only one brand of 70mm round housing available in the UK, Then some lesser known suppliers started selling cheaper versions and then mainstream suppliers started offering the other types besides the original type to compete. The other types are not as strong or well made as the original type, especially if fitted on a slightly curved body panel it can be a problem to remove/refit the cap. Also the caps between brands are not interchangeable... I've never bought spare caps because it doesn't seem the original type of cap (just the cap) is available separately to the full 70mm housing that the cap comes with. Moral is probably that if you need a cap buy a full 70mm housing (original type) from a supplier in the know such as TinleyTech, tell them that you need the 'original brand best quality' type, just use it's cap and dump the 70mm housing bit... That is, of course, if you have the original brand high quality 70mm housing, but you should have that type if your install is more than about 6 years old. Some of the cheap types are so poor that even if fitted on a flat body panel the cap may have to be filed to make removal/refitting easily possible. Not worth my time messing like that so when ordering 70mm housings I always stipulate the original brand and if I need a spare cap I buy the full housing. Don't know any of the brand names but TT will know what you mean. ;-)

Hate doing stuff twice, was kicking myself when I realised I'd put it back together with the input shaft not in properly even though I had doubts about it so it all had to come off again but at least it'll all go back on the car easier this time and I know the input shaft is in properly. Judging by the amount of waddling the box about it took to get the input shaft in properly there'd have been little chance of doing it under the car anyway but with the bulk of the gearbox weight taken up by rope from the crane I was able to bounce it about a bit on the elasticity of the rope and adjust the crane height to line it up - I think in this case better than using an adjustable angle gearbox jack and far easier than the 2 jacks and bits of wood that I actually did use last time.

At various points throughout I've had the weight of the front end of the car (without and with the engine box and subframe) supported entirely by the old tanks. I've had the weight of the front of the car just on the forklift tanks but not with the weight of the subframe etc on. When dragging the subframe assembly out the car was just on the forklift tanks, the exhaust downpipes were still on the engine on the subframe at that point... had to keep making sure an exhaust didn't swipe one of the forklift tanks so when driving the ML I just drove a few inches at a time before rechecking clearance between exhausts and forflift tanks, side-swiping a forklift tank supporting any side of the car could've been unfortunate!

Yes nearly all the weight is on the 2 Calor bottles at the moment, I put the tanks and chock of wood back under the front end just in case (it gets windy etc) to prevent it all going sideways lol. Much safer when the weight is on the old tanks than on the forklift bottles. I could use the crane now to lift the front of the car, shift the bottles and let it sit on the tanks again but that'd mean repositioning the bottles again when I need to slide the subframe back under.... and I don't think it's forecast to be windy ;-)

Hehe! Yep I did the lot in the yard in the same place I dumped the van with it's seized engine, as usual been having to scrape time tio work on my own cars between working on customers cars and couldn't have my own car in the way. Much of the weight is on 2 x Calor forklift bottles but I wouldn't get underneath it like that, I'll push the assembly back under the car and get the front of the car supported by the engine crane first.

I converted 3 cars in the last 7 days. The last car for conversion came in early on Friday afternoon, so I worked on it Fri afternoon, sat afternoon and all day Sunday to get it done so I had yesterday to fix a few little problems on other customer cars, drop my subframe again and put the gearbox on properly this time. This morning I've had a Lexus dropped off to convert so my car will have to wait again until I've got the Lexus converted.

Went with dropping the lot out from underneath but instead of using the garage beam and pull lifts used an engine crane to lift the front of the van

Already had swapped the engine at this point, putting the gearbox back on here (for the 2nd time... read on!).

Just a bit dodgy!

This was the second time I've dropped the running gear off...

The first time around I dropped the subframe and removed the gearbox from the engine while they were on the floor under the car and used the ML to pull the engine and subframe out while leaving the gearbox on the floor under the car, used the crane to swap engines on the subframe, pushed the subframe and engine assembly back under the car and re-attached the gearbox under the car. However I wasn't confident that I'd located the gearbox input shaft in the TC correctly and I didn't check it by trying to spin the crank before putting most of the car back together, I did have a look at flex plate clearance through the starter hole and it seemed OK.... But then when I did try to spin the crank using a ratchet after refitting the job lot (exhausts, props, steering, ancillaries, lots of wiring, etc) it wouldn't spin, so then I realised I'd goofed up in a big way and the gearbox would have to come off again!

Second time around I pulled the whole lot out with gearbox still attached to the engine, used the crane to help me get the gearbox back on properly after making sure I hadn't bent the flex plate, made sure it was mated up properly.

At the moment the subframe with engine and gearbox on are still sat on the floor in the yard waiting for starter motor etc putting back on.. But at least have learned a bit about what parts must come off when dropping the subframe now and will be a bit quicker at putting it back on this time. Starter motor, AC compressor, front drive shaft, possibly downpipes and heatshields can be left attached, PAS pump and alternator still have to be fitted when the subframe is back on.

Where does the trade turn to when buying driers? I plan on getting the Elgrand back on the road soon then fixing it's AC system but the system has been open to atmosphere for a long time so I think it will be best to change the drier after pressure testing.

Thanks Sloth, raised my eyebrows with DIY kits in the UK aren't allowed to contain actual refrigerant - I have charged completely empty AC systems using DIY refills and they've worked so obviously the gas contained in the refill was refrigerant of some type?

Knowing what I (think) I know now if I still ran cars that used R12 I'd fill them with LPG (propane) and probably see what I could come up with regards compressor oil. Back in the day when AC in the UK was fairly unheard of I used the services of several AC specialists, visited them at their homes, they probably only usually worked on commercial systems since hardly any cars had AC. Filling quantities were guestimated (except for the sight glass) and it was expensive but propane would have been cheap. All the specialists also seemed to over stress the dryer needed changing and would have charged about £700 for that lol, I never changed a dryer and never had a problem.

Surely anyone working on car AC systems should know the clutch won't come in if a pressure sensor reading / switch reflects very low pressure.

I too have had AC specialists try to fob me off with under filling systems and made them put in the full correct amount. I think just about every car I've had with AC (which is just about every vehicle I've personally owned since about 1989) has had a plate with info on how much gas the system should hold... But it seems AC gas capacity data supplied to chain store type AC centres is often a lower figure than the figure on the plate - so particularly in larger/chain AC companies it might not be the technician that's trying to fob people off, it might be the firm's policy to save money by underfilling systems and the technician might be unaware.

Sloth, what are your thoughts on the DIY AC refill kits from e.g. Halfords? They have a pressure gauge and you're supposed to get the LP side pressure reading 'in the green' on the gauge... Is reading LP pressure a reliable way of knowing if the AC system is properly filled? I've used them plenty times especially for top ups and they do work but I'm always left wondering about if the system is under/over filled.

Also, can you use propane in R12 systems?

Yeh that makes sense Gilbert

Could just plug the evap line Gilbert, maybe save a bit of petrol too.

RutlandRover wrote:

romanrob wrote:

a TSB about a rocking front seat :o)

That one sounds interesting. Every so often I think I can feel my seat move ever so slightly but don't seem to be able to replicate it!

Not just Rangerovers, My old ML has the same problem.

I can't speak in detail specifically about P38s like Gilbert but I also don't see it being wrong. A lot of automatics with torque converter lockup won't lock up the converter until the gearbox is above a certain temperature. Some will lock the TC in gears as low as 2nd if gearbox temp is too high. Only really happens on autos controlled by an ECU that switches electronic solenoids that control flow of trans fluid (some only do this for the TC). After having the battery disconnected or clearing gearbox related error codes some take a while before they start to lock the TC again. Some autos that are purely controlled by an ECU and electronic solenoids will both refuse to lock the TC and shift gear weirdly/harshly until they have effectively re-learned to shift gear properly, what they are actually re-learning is overlap between turning off solenoid(s) and turning on other(s) which equates to learning how much fluid needs to be shifted to engage clutch packs etc, they want the gearbox to be fully up to temp for the learning and the gearbox will warm quicker when the TC isn't locked.. Even if the ECU only controlled TC lockup (not shifting) might expect it not to lock up if the battery has been dead for a few weeks. Even locking the TC can be too harsh or too soft. On some electronic controlled autos you can read figures from the gearbox ECU relating to how long the solenoids have to open before a clutch grabs and when that figure is high it can point to clutch packs nearing end of life. I've had lots of fun with Chrysler Grand Voyager autoboxes lol.

Hehe sounds like old skool advice that's since been seen to be wrong.. On a pressurised system such as your sequential system it's not important to have equal main feed pipe lengths. If it were important we'd see little difference between fuelling to different banks anyway at low loads but would see a difference in fuel trims at higher loads (when the pipes have to flow more so restrictions leading to drop of pressure at the end of the pipe becoming more apparent) with the bank fed by longest pipe having more positive fuel trims, not seen on anything except maybe extremely powerful engines with exaggerated differences in feed pipe lengths. An electronics analogy would be like having 2 lengths of 3amp cable, one length 10cm long the other length 5 metres long, stick a 12v LED light at the end of each length with the other end connected to a car battery and there'll still be 12v at the LED end but stick a 90watt halogen bulb at the end of each length and there'll be a lot more voltage drop at the end of the 5 metre length, but if we changed the cable to 60amp rated cable there'd be little difference in voltage at the bulb ends of either length, the 12mm internal gas pipe is more 60amp than 3amp lol.
Same with pipe lengths between injectors and manifold, if you have a 3mm nozzle in the injector then different lengths of 6mm internal pipe aren't going to cause different flow of fuel to each cylinder (and this can be proven by switching individual cylinders back to petrol). Still don't want too long pipes between injectors and manifold but that's because it effects the pulse of gas to the port rather than overall amount of gas to the port so instead of a quick pulse flowing X amount of gas at the correct time there can be a longer pulse still flowing same total X amount of gas so less of a pulse more of a continuous steady flow. Not much problem with more continuous steady flow instead of quick pulses during cruise conditions but can be detrimental to accuracy of fuelling during changing throttle/rpm conditions, throttle response and smooth idle.

When using just the vehicle battery does it turn over at normal speed or slow?
If you use jumps leads on the first attempt at starting will it fire straight up?
Run ok on petrol once started?
Among faults that will make the LPG ECU refuse to work on gas are main feed voltage issues, if it doesn't see a petrol injection pulse for one or more cylinders, any LPG sensor electrical issue or reading out of range issues.

Finally started doing a bit of work on the dead Elgrand - Removed the front bumper and radiators which allows good access to the front end of the engine and PAS / AC pipe and wiring connections, obviously would need to do this if I were removing the engine from the front anyway.

Since the pic I've removed the PAS pump, alternator and AC pump.

Now I'm umming and ahhing as to whether to remove the engine or engine and gearbox from the front or to go with Gilbert's suggestion of dropping the entire front subframe with engine, gearbox, front diff etc still on it. Problem with just pulling the engine out the front is access around the bellhousing bolts is tight, problem with pulling the engine and box out the front is the front diff might be in the way of the transfer case/gearbox, problem with dropping the lot out on the subframe is that the van will have to be very high off the ground to clear the height of the engine -Just out of shot low down in front of the engine there's a chassis crossmember that isn't removable and isn't part of the front subframe.. Would be easier to cut the crossmember out and weld it back in when the new engine's fitted but I'm not going to do that lol.