Thanks Folks!
I'll look up the specs on my charger again, but it's only a tiddler with a 10A fuse on the 12V output. A trickle charger is definitely the correct solution. Maybe even solar in the current weather?
Dumb question time again!
The battery on the Duchess is low, good enough to run the systems but not enough to crank. Can I hook up my (not particularly powerful) charger straight in there and avoid all the tedious window setting, radio codes etc?
It isn't a trickle charger, but seeing as you can hook up a whole car to jump start I don't see why it would be an issue except various google searches warn against this.
So, I thought I'd ask experts instead of Google :)
edit: very low :( 8.1V
**Crossposted from Opening Time
Martyuk wrote:
Morat wrote:
It's longer than mine but there's honestly a lot of stuff there that you could knock off in pretty short order.
If you want to compare....
- Viscous Coupling (arrived yesterday)
- Nasty scratch/dent above rear left wheel arch. This needs proper surgery and probably a replacement door. Super annoying as she had great bodywork when I bought her.
- CD player just shows "Error"
- Sat Nav doesn't get a signal
- I think the mid speaker in the driver's door card is dead
She's drivable but I don't want to put any more miles on her until the viscous is replaced or it'll just wear out the front tyres even more and damage the UJs and diff at the front. I'm tempted to DIY but not that tempted. I'll need a prop tool and probably a gear puller.
3/4 probably mean "Android head unit" but that'll have to wait.
5 Yeah I should do that. One day.I'd probably get a few more propshaft nuts... at least a couple of the new ones i put on at the back were already starting to round... even with the propshaft nut tool! The access to the nuts at the back is a PITA because of the angle it comes off at. You'll probably get another use out of them anyway, and they aren't done up stupid tight - but up to you... They're 3/8 UNF and an be had on the likes of eBay in packs of 10, probably cheaper than what a LR place would sell them to you!
Marty, I appreciate this post. I'm currently getting the Jeep through the MOT which needed tyres and is going to consume my spare funds (quite apart from Her Ladyship's Birthday and two weeks holiday!)
BUT, thinking about it:
I'll jack up one side this weekend and see how the rear propshaft looks. I know it's in better shape than the front was - but that's not saying much :)
For the front I reckon I'll need:
New nuts/bolts, a couple of litres of Dex III and some RTV should sort it.
On the tools front, I've already got a breaker bar with 1/2" end. I'll need a pumpy bottle thing (like this? https://tinyurl.com/y5cb4ohg) and a propshaft nut tool which seem to be available from most LR sites in 1/4 and 1/2" drive.
Some say you need a gear puller to get the viscous unit out but Marty reckons some wood and careful hammering should be OK.
I've seen mention of a bearing that needs to be swapped over, not sure about that one..
I'm off this weekend but only because it's a busy one for the family. I'll probably start stockpiling the parts and have a go next month.
Apparently Zinc Chromate is the stuff for etch priming Aluminium but it's carcinogenic and quite rare.
I was thinking of the steel bit, surely the Al shoudln't be rusting?
https://www.bilthamber.com/electrox
have a go with some of that...
Mint!!
But check that viscous or it's £320 to Ashcrofts :(
Hmm, mine have been in for... err. 19k? Then again, she did take a while to fire up all 8 after she'd been sitting for a few weeks.
Toasty! I remember driving a black Fiat Coupe through France in summer when the aircon quit. Luckily GF of the time was a heat-o-phile but I was a mess!
It's longer than mine but there's honestly a lot of stuff there that you could knock off in pretty short order.
If you want to compare....
She's drivable but I don't want to put any more miles on her until the viscous is replaced or it'll just wear out the front tyres even more and damage the UJs and diff at the front. I'm tempted to DIY but not that tempted. I'll need a prop tool and probably a gear puller.
3/4 probably mean "Android head unit" but that'll have to wait.
5 Yeah I should do that. One day.
RutlandRover wrote:
If anyone is reasonably local we meet at The Royal Oak in Cossington on the first Wednesday of every month from about 7:30 but some people turn up early and have dinner there.
Morat wrote:
I think we need to investigate this as a club/forum!
Also, my Father in Law lives in Rutland so I could kill two birds :)Whereabouts in Rutland? I used to live in Uppingham.
He lives in Exton, I'm not sure what the village purity committee would think of muddy 4x4s :)
For the Duchess? :)
Seized VCU which means the front half of the drivetrain is under a lot of stress. I don't know how long it has been knackered but the front diff popped a couple of years ago and maybe the VCU was seized then. The current front diff is whining despite being only about 12k old.
Anyway, the VC needs to be changed before it undoes all the good work from this weekend. We replaced the UJs in the front prop-shaft, Marty donated the rear flange from a spare prop which meant she was up and running again. Then we changed the front radius arm bushes which went incredibly smoothly. That was all done by 1730 so we had dinner at the hotel :)
This morning Marty was going to replace my door latch but it quickly became obvious that the drivers door latch was actually fine, it was the Door Ajar wire that had corroded through and snapped. Marty did a repair there and then discovered a similar wiring/connector issue at the door outstation end of the loom which he fixed as well.
The door now works properly too!
Then we spent some time swapping Marty's brakes over for new calipers all round and I had a leg workout during the bleed procedure. After looking through Marty's impressive pile of transfer cases it became obvious that all the VCs were toast so his generous offer of a good second hand unit didn't work out.
I was back home by 1930 :)
So, I need to replace the Viscous asap but Marty gave me one of his knackered ones so I can get a replacement from Ashcroft before taking The Duchess apart again which should make things easier. I'm not sure if I fancy doing that in the driveway so I might let the garage have a go at that one!
I'll have a close look at the rear prop and maybe swap those UJs too now that I know how to do it. They'll get greased at the very least! I'll also be greasing the UJs on my Jeep which uses UJs instead of CV joints at the front wheels as well as the UJs in the prop shaft.
Once again - HUGE THANKS to Marty for sharing his knowledge, workshop, tools and generally being a very generous chap. Without you, The Duchess would be a wreck by now and I'd be sad.
Well I made it to the hotel.
But as I turned into the parking space BANG clunk clunk clunk. It did sound very much like a diff. Rut roh!
That's like Marty's door latch test kit. Homemade and massively impressive :)
I think we need to investigate this as a club/forum!
Also, my Father in Law lives in Rutland so I could kill two birds :)
heheeh.
sadly, moving the prop doesn't help. I need one of these, I reckon: https://tinyurl.com/y6ad7akn not for the locking thing (although that would help) but because it has a smaller cross section that the thing I've got. I could use a needle one, but more faff.
But I'm out of time.
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 :(
OK, sounds good as I did buy a couple of bearmach greasable ones.
Here's the vid if you want to confirm, although the aircon was running which makes it hard to hear until the end :(
The main question is: would you drive it to Swindon (4hrs)?
Are they permanently heated like some BMW door mirrors?
With a day off I've slung a battery in The Duchess and I'm trying to get ready for the annual pilgrimage to Swindon so familiar to P38 owners. This time it's Radius Arm Bushes because I missed the meet.
I'm a little concerned setting off as she makes a nice loud cheep noise related to road speed. It's most obvious when coasting, disappears under power and for a Brucey Bonus there's vibration when coasting downhill. Steering left/right makes no appreciable difference. There's a reasonable amount of clonking during low speed manouvring too but I'm putting that down to the radius arm bushes. I did think it might be UJs in the driveshaft but wiggled the front one earlier (by hand) and it seemed solid side/side. It looked nice and fresh too, it that's any indication.
She's getting washed right now but when I get her back I'm going to get her up in the air (as far as I can with the standard jack). What should I poke/prod/pull when trying to diagnose? I'll try to get a video as well.