Few weeks ago the fanbelt came off on my ML, I'd just dropped the missus off at her mums 10 miles away and was on my way back to work with loads of work that had to be finished the same day so was short on time already.. I heard a rattle that sounded a bit like stones thrown up by wheels hitting the underneath of the car but immediately noticed lack of power steering and the alternator light so knew straight away what the noise would have been. Only a few miles from home so I thought keep moving while watching the temp gauge. The temp gauge very quickly rose (just a few hundred yards) but luckily this was just before a layby on the A638 near Redhouse (Doncaster area) just after the dual carriageway section has turned back into single carriageway. Rather than blow the engine causing myself even more problems and still not make it back to base any sooner I stopped in the layby and turned the engine off, popped the bonnet, belt twisted up and only half it's original width but not completely broken. No tools on me but set about trying to put it back on... no chance with the extremely stiff spring tensioner on the ML. AA was with me in 10 minutes and we put the remains of the belt back on together, then he followed me back to base. Haven't had time to touch the ML since!
I once bought a Chrysler Grand Voyager (I've had quite a few of these) just for it's gearbox and a BRC LPG conversion that were on it from somewhere around 30miles away, it had a blown coreplug. I went to collect it prepared with a few 5 gallon drums of water and tools to remove the thermostat, bits and bobs to try to block the core plug hole. Attempted to drive the 30 miles.. winter time so had the heater on (would've had it on anyway to try to keep things cool). Used all my water and then the heater soon stopped working so I knew I was very low on coolant, temp gauge went up to the max and then curiously back to normal even though there was no water left in the engine. Still I kept driving and the engine started sounding very rattly lol. Another mile and it was smoking from the exhaust.. I kept driving lol. Then the inevitable drop of power, pulled onto the hard shoulder and it stalled. Wasn't seized, would crank, but no compression and the engine was dead. Hello RAC.... I never did get time to remove it's gearbox but did remove some other parts including all the gas bits before scrapping it. The injectors are now on Morat's Jeep.
It is UV that makes them go yellow. Some of the 'headlight restoration kits' contain a UV blocker to wipe on after cleaning and yellowing has been removed. I bought such a kit the other day, just contains a cleaning wipe (not sure how much good that would do) and the UV protection, instructions say to go at lights with wet n dry 'if they feel unsmooth' but wet n dry isn't included. In truth I bet any amount of yellowing would have to be removed by wet n dry and/or polish. Can't see the cleaning wipe doing much and can't see the UV protection lasting.
hugh wrote:
Changed the plugs - hell of a difference - all sorted.
Seems 17k is spark plug lIfespan on LPG.
Good!
One thing about it Bri, if the chassis/body are oily they won't rust anyway... One of the 2 positives of an engine oil leak, the other being the engine should always have new oil hehe!
Thanks Rob,
The problem with putting an over-pipe around these AC pipes is they're very curvy, it's only a couple of short sections that corrode and in that short distance there are several tight bends.
I'm now thinking just give them a coat of Hammerite or underseal and check every year I own it. Underseal should do the job nicely? Dunno why I didn't think of the obvious before! I hate painting Tetraseal on though.
I use Hammerite a lot on welded brackets etc I make, get it to match the colour of the car perfectly... as long as the car is black lol.
A guy told me the other day that he uses a heat gun or blowtorch to restore colour of ABS.
On some model vehicles I convert I put the pipe onto the spud (manifold nozzle), cut the ears off, apply loctite to the spud threads and pass the pipe through a narrow gap before screwing into the tapped hole I made on the manifold by turning the pipe to hand tighten (hence the loctite). The gap is so narrow, space around the position of the fitted spud so restricted and access to the spud so restricted that no other type of pipe to spud fixing mechanism would allow the same (besides perhaps some sort of glue which I wouldn't want to use) or even allow position/tightening of whatever it was I'd use instead to fix the pipe to the spud. With the lugs cut off the spring clips are very tight on the pipe and don't increase the overall diameter by more than a few thou, basically left with a couple of tight bands around the pipe with no protrusions.
Gilbertd wrote:
Lpgc wrote:
While on the subject of cleaning plastic lights... Not that I have any need for this at the moment but has anyone ever tried similar with glass headlights or even windscreens? Not yellowed in the case of windscreens but the tiny marks and scratches they get over the years.
Jewellers Rouge and an awful lot of elbow grease......
Windscreen insurance and a brick through the windscreen then lol. Hadn't thought of jewellers stuff, was thinking wet n dry first then cutting compund then Tcut.
@RutlandRover Dave, there is room for a small type of wormdrive Jclip but they're fiddly and not usually necessary. The spring clips are good because they will self tighten if the rubber 'gives' a bit... Tighten a wormdrive clip to the extent the pipe won't come off even if the rubber gives a bit and eventually the pipe can snap at that point. There are other types of (tighter) spring clip but they're at least as fiddly as the small wormdrives. Or it is possible to fit the 'eared' spring clips I'll have fitted on yours but designed for 5mm id pipe rather than 6mm id pipe which makes them tighter.
@Hugh, that does point more to ignition but could also be a fuel trim or lambda (leading to fuel trim) issue.
Thanks for all the tips.
Will definitely be sanding lights with finer stuff, didn't know about using soap. ...I'll look into the Tcut kits but I wonder if the coarser Tcut is just the equivalent of coarser paint cutting compound? I've got Farecla cutting compound somewhere.
Maybe I'll get the machine polisher on them, will get a new polishing head for it. Would've been easier before I put the lights back on!
I don;t expect the lights to look new when done but they already look much better than they did, reckon I'll get them looking better still with a bit more effort.
Looking like paint or tape for the pipes, most likely paint, most likely Hammerite lol. But Morat set me wondering if there isn't a better aluminium paint. I wouldn't spend a lot on special paint though, pipes I fitted look like new and should be good for quite a few years even if I don't treat them. Covering them with an outer pipe would be a none starter as the sections that corrode are short and have many bends..
While on the subject of cleaning plastic lights... Not that I have any need for this at the moment but has anyone ever tried similar with glass headlights or even windscreens? Not yellowed in the case of windscreens but the tiny marks and scratches they get over the years.. I've wondered if they could be sanded and polished, how much of a ballache would that be lol...
@BrianH I posted your insurance cert last night mate.
I thought they used enamel on series Landrovers?
'Tis looking like it'll get Hammerited lol.
Waiting for a customer picking his car up I just converted, I've been wet n dry sanding my yellowed headlights. Got rid of the yellow and they now look great when wet but are hazy due to the sanding when dry. The finest paper I have here at the moment is 1200 grit, I intend on getting some finer stuff which no doubt will get rid of the haze... But I wonder if Tcut would work just as well and be less effort or if Tcut would make the plastic lenses yellow again? I've got a large machine polisher somewhere but it'd be too big to miss the surrounding paintwork and (much worse) the rubber around the headlights.
Will have to wait for now though, I've got another car coming to be converted in the morning, another on Sunday (being left all week) and the Bentley GT Continental on Monday (if he doesn't put it off due to health problems again).
Seems that if aluminium and steel have an electrical contact and are damp the aluminium will be the bit that corrodes.. dissimilar metals with water = electric cell and either the anode or cathode corrodes. I'm not that clued up on it! But seems to be what's at play here and is a common problem on some (other) cars such as Peugeots where the AC pipe is held in a thin rubber bushing close to the front of the car that gets wet. And of course the AC pipes do have electrical contact with the body of the car.
That'd do for the steel but is it compatible with the aluminium ac pipes? Would be unfortunate if in an aluminium/zinc combination aluminium were the sacrificial bit lol.
Sloth wrote:
Sorry I missed this, if its working though that's great :)
Might be worth coating the pipe in something to prevent corrosion in the future - thick oily goop maybe? Something that won't wash off too easily but keeps it protected. Sounds like a pain to get replacements for!
I'll probably just stick some Hammerite paint or pvc electrical tape on the section that corrodes. The section of pipe that corrodes is the narrow singular (non-concentric) two pipes that attach to the rear evap. Seems a bit of a design flaw with those pipes being exposed right behind the rear ns wheel, in fact the whole area that the heater box sits in seems design flawed really... no drains from there (except from the evap) so the area that the rear heater core sits in may get damp due to condensation from the heater/AC box and rust from the inside of the car out. Will be Hammeriting maybe undersealing the car around the rear heater box area.
Gilbertd wrote:
Fixing aircon just as the weather starts to get warm? Whatever next......
Againts Sods law but seems I managed to pull it off ;-) Once you see the vacuum has pulled down and held steady on the machine for a few minutes you know you've cracked it. Mind you, I didn't know for sure that the compressor that came with the replacement engine was going to work hehe.
Is it a constant or intermittent misfire Hugh? Constant would point more to an LPG system problem, intermittent to ignition. Going straight from running OK to this sort of problem would point more to LPG, gradually getting worse point more to ignition (usually).
Any unusual noises such as popping when you switch to LPG?
No probs if you want to come see me... I'm busy but a problem with one of my conversions gets priority treatment ;-)
@RutlandRover Dave, did the pipe just come off or did it come off during your manifold removal lol?
Aircon working very well now!
Removed the rear heater / AC box from my car and fitted the replacement evap from the heater box from the scrappers. While it was off I removed the heater drain bung from my heater box but the metal pipe the bung fits on snapped off... So I also had to swap heater cores between the 2 boxes. Easy job to swap AC and heater cores once the heater box had been removed though and even removing the heater box wasn't that difficult (carpets up, under floor ducting out, rear seat out, rear inner trim off.
The original front>rear concentric AC pipe would have been 1 piece, mine was 3 piece so was already a replacement (which had rotted again). The concentric pipe from the scrappers turned out to be 2 piece but the rearmost section of the 2 piece is the same as the rearmost section of the 3 piece. I had already removed my rearmost section but the plug I'd fitted at the end of my middle section had come out and I could expect the end of that pipe (and my original rear evap) to be full of crap. So I removed the middle section, cleaned and flushed it, refitted it and used only the rear section of the pipe from the scrappers.
Let Kwikfit Wheatley Hall Rd Doncaster regas it for £60, good set of lads, entered the correct 0.99kg on the machine, added dye, set machine to change as much oil as possible (dunno what difference if any that makes). Boring waiting for the machine to go through it's motions so I helped one of the lads change rear pads on a VW van while we were waiting.
Maybe some of the others will reply with type of grease gun they've used.
I have a grease gun with end that seems to get into tight spaces, bought it specially for greasing the new wheel bearings I fitted on my boat trailer (my old grease gun wouldn't fit), if you're headed South on your trip you might want to call in en-route and try it, you can even have the grease for free lol.
Gilbertd wrote:
I tried to encourage him to get it to Simon to sort the LPG side of things out but he reckons that even £40 a week in fuel is too much so wants to get rid
Didn't think I'd heard from him, thanks for pointing him to me though.
I'd much prefer an auto P38 over manual but might be different for a collector wanting something more unusual...?
Would think the auto better for off-roading, no clutch to burn out?
Morat wrote:
OK, well I've now got a grease-gun, grease (Lithium ASGII) and a bendy hose for it. I'll see if I can find where to stick the grease!
edit: Grrr, need a narrower fitting to reach the nipples :(
Does turning the prop by moving the car help with access?
Where to stick a bendy hose to pump grease - I prefer syrup of figs though, not greasing my nipples either :-)