I get to feeling I’m going to need to make a pact with the Devil to get this damn thing to work…..

I had the cassette out of the car earlier. With no glass in it, the mechanism moves beautifully smoothly, with both sides perfectly aligned with each other.

Put the glass in (cassette out of the car) and it works beautifully too.

Put them both back in the car and no…. (see “pact with Devil”).

As the glass is put in from above it’s initially outside the aperture. The winding mechanism isn’t strong enough to pull the back of the glass down ‘inside’ the car. Once I’d climbed up and pushed the glass gently down into the car, then the mechanism works well - the glass retracts back inside the roof. Then it comes back out again, but stops at the point where the ‘tilting’ action is trying to lift the back of the glass panel “outside” the car.

I think (could be of very little value) that when I refurbished the glass and put a new seal onto it, I added some sealant/bonding agent into the seal before putting that around the glass. I now wonder whether the whole thing is just marginally too big (back to front) and providing too much resistance for the motor/mechanism to overcome.

No problem, just get another new seal, trim off the old (new) one, and make very sure it’s fitted as close in to the glass as possible. Unfortunately though these part numbers seem to be NLA - EEQ100400 or STC171. That must be fairly recent as it’s not that long since I got a new one….

Does anyone know of a source of these? Or an alternative part number? Failing this I’ll just need to cut an inch or so off the end and see if I can buy something similar by the metre from the likes of Woolies trim.

On the plus side, my car left the garage today for the first time in about 5 or 6 months! All warning lights went out! Sitting nice and level on its springs, brakes really sharp, almost ready for an MOT…. if I could just get the sunroof to play ball.

Edit - finding a similar patterned extrusion will not be as easy as I first thought. Three suppliers I looked at have something close, but not close enough. Maybe if I sent them a bit.

But I have found that I have two ‘used’ ones in the shed. I think that’s my way forward if there’s no source of new ones. At least Ikd be able to say conclusively what the problem was.

The question is as simple as the title suggests. Does anyone have a good idea what size I should order for the sunroof E clips?

As you may know there are two used on each side as part of fixing the glass to the mechanism, but they are tiny, and being springy have an exceptionally high tendency to launch themselves into the darkest recesses of the car, no matter how careful you’re being.

Unfortunately also, on my vernier callipers the jaws are too wide to fit into the grooves that the clips engage with. I can get that it’s a 6mm overall diameter; I think the pin OD is 4mm; but I’m guestimating if I say 3 or 3.5mm groove diameter.

I realise this is a bit of a specific query - and I could just order several clips in the closest sizes - they don’t cost much. But I thought I’d ask anyway.

Edit - In the meantime I have ordered a couple of little bags of 2.3mm and 3.5mm clips, where those sizes correspond to the smaller, groove diameter. I have an idea 2.3 might be too small, and possibly 3.5mm be too big… going to see if I can find some 3mm ones somewhere.

I’m pretty sure I had to cut at least one of mine in half. This allowed me to get something meaty like vice grips/mole grips on to the bottom section (where the issue was).

I think they were more or less just bonded in by the rust on the axle mount, and not at all as easy as I expected given that I was removing a plastic part that’s just held in place by wire clips. On one of my fronts, I had to get a hacksaw blade in between the bag and the axle mount and cut off the lug.

Are you stuck top or bottom? If it’s bottom, can you get some sort of drift or bar onto the D section that fits into the axle and “tap” it upwards. When I say ‘tap’…..

Very timely post. Because the plastic around much of my dash switchgear is starting to “go off” badly (covered in a soft, sticky residue) I was wondering about replacement switch surrounds, including around the window switches.

As you say, many are 94-02, which did strike me as odd, as I thought there was a facelift ca. 2000my.

So I’m afraid I can’t answer the question, but will be interested in the answer.

I know Turner Engineering would supply the engine, and you could have some confidence that it was done well, but I didn’t think they did any of the garage work?

Yeah, it was hard to get any sense of where the hissing was coming from. I was at the back of the car, and I could tell it was ‘driver’s side’ - but couldn’t be any more precise.

I dislike working with brakes and brake fluid, but I suppose there’s not much more involved than syringing as much as possible out of the reservoir and then sticking lots of blue roll around it to catch any residual fluid when levering it out? I am wondering about the accumulator. If it’s the original it would be 22 years old by now, but I’ve no way of knowing whether it is or not.

Can I come at the suspension question from a different direction and focus on the behaviour at the back. With new Dunlop sensors, just calibrated, new air springs, I’d have expected the back to behave perfectly - not rising up beyond the target height, jigging up and down, and then dropping down to the bumstops. Could this also be linked to the valve block? I can’t see what else it could be unless there’s a problem with the ECU?

I must admit it didn’t occur to me last night to check whether there were any errors showing on the Nano.

Thanks - every day’s a school day with this car.

I’ll maybe try re-bleeding first, or see how the car goes once I get it tested, but will also research the suggestion above. Is it complicated to take the reservoir off?

I’m sure I have one of those ‘toy things’ somewhere…. I’ll try and track it down and try that tomorrow.

There was something unusual doing the calibration. Because the bags were empty, and connected, lifting the body caused a vacuum in the bags. Except… lifting and raising the back was causing a hissing sound somewhere, and because I was working alone, it was impossible to be working the jack, and listening for the noise at the same time.

More progress….. and more questions…

Got the brakes bled OK - all seemed to go as per the book. The car’s not MoT’d so no chance for a road test. The question here is that after a bit, with no pressing of pedals or anything, I turned on the ignition again and the ABS pump ran for about 10/11 secs. After another little bit, turned the ignition on again and it did the same. A problem with the bleeding, or the accumulator?

Then the EAS calibration. That too went without a hitch. So, I turned the engine on (nice to hear it again!) and waited a bit. Lots of pops and bangs from both axles and…. Up went the back; not much action on the front…. then the back dropped down a bit. Selected ‘high’, back went back up, not much movement on the front. Selected ‘standard’ and the back dropped down to almost access height.

While all this was happening I did the soapy water leak test on the front air springs, the valve block, and the reservoir - no leaks there. And, the back axle moves ‘consistently’ - as in both sides do the same thing.

The springs are all new now. Brand new sensors on the back, used/good on the front. Have I ballsed up the valve block rebuild when I did that a few months ago?

5 of the shield bolts came out OK - I think I was very liberal with the plusgas - the 6th sheared. I tried to drill and remove it, and ended up with a sheared bolt-removal thing stuck in the hole. So I just drilled another hole alongside and tapped that. A bodge, certainly, but I don't think it's structurally significant, and it is just a brake shield.

The brackets had disintegrated to the point of being unusable. I think it's one of those examples where the RH one is £4 and the LH one is £44 - or something like that. So as with the chassis brackets for the brake lines and ABS sensor I bought a suitable sized piece of stainless, cut and drilled that. All very solid now.

"Thumbs up" Gd, thanks very much. I absolutely assumed that's what you'd meant, but just wanted to be sure. I haven't tapped the access blocks yet, but it's on the list.

Time flies...fun... etc.

I won't bore you with all the details and photos, but good progress is being made. All the shiny refurbed bits are gradually coming back into place, and things are looking more car-like.

Bit of (dodgy and rough) fabrication work to make new brackets from stainless:

Re-assembled axle "getting there":

Back under the car:

More or less built up:

And the car back on its wheels!

At this stage the air springs were just manually inflated, and three out of four managed to leak down again by the following morning, but I'm happy that it's off the axle stands.

Next things will be to do the brake bleeding, and then the EAS calibration. Then getting a working sunroof - or at least one which will plug the hole; and to get the interior fixed. At that stage it would be fingers crossed for a fresh MOT, and this time one I'd have more confidence in.

How apt that to find this thread I had to search for 'idiot'....!
As you might guess, I didn't get this done yet, but an axle refurb will do that to you.

I was reviewing what's above - all very clear, but then I noticed the reference to the "extended" blocks. I thought that "extended" was a special ECU setting which the car went to automatically if grounded, and wasn't something that would be set by the user.

I have made up blocks in 4 heights - High, Standard, Cruise, and Access.

I was going to start with the High ones, and work down, as outlined above. Just checking that I haven't missed anything?

Excellent - thanks again. With a fair wind I might have it mobile again this weekend… though an MOT could be another story.

Thanks for the further replies. Not quite so straightforward maybe.
I've a set of the four valves ordered. I don't need them anywhere else but on the RR, and I only have one of those, so I guess it's likely they'll stay with the car. It's also more or less at 'standard' weight - no winches, bars or anything.

I think there's a distinction above between filling the whole system, or individual corners? There's an attraction to the permanent 'tee' system, but for me at this stage, just trying to lift the car off the bump stops temporarily, do you think a 'cigarette lighter' tyre inflator would lift an individual corner OK?

Ta

Thanks Gents,
So - Tees = permanent. Keeping them in the boot (whether 3 or 4!) means you disconnect the bags from the valve block when needed, and add these on the end.

Then, when pumped up, assuming no leaks, they just individually hold pressure until released?

I know I could find this, but as I'm here, what sort of pressure are we talking about (in psi) - a bike pump, or 12v tyre inflator?

I noticed the recent thread about the via-Air compressor and filed it away for future reference.

Thank you.

Hi guys,

I’ll update my ‘ups and downs’ thread, but I have been making progress. The refurbished rear axle is back under the car and in place. Just a couple more things to sort out and I should have her back on her wheels. Hopeful for next weekend.

Now as with the top end engine rebuild I’m thinking there will be a lot ‘going on’ when I first power up - brakes will need bleeding and the EAS will be empty and need calibration (new rear EAS sensors).

So I’m thinking that I might take one of them out of the equation (EAS) by pulling the relay, but that it would still be nice to have the car off the bump stops.

So is there a view on the best ( or easiest - not necessarily the same thing) way to have a manual back up EAS, or the best/decent kit to buy, and where to install?

I don’t doubt this has been done before, but I did search and found nothing in the first page or so.

I’m hoping to have a sound and reliable EAS system, but apart from this refurb start up, it does seem like a good thing to have tucked away for emergencies.

Any suggestions gratefully received. Ta.

Hi Chris,
I’m about 4 or 5 years behind you, but lots of parallels. Have owned a 300Tdi 110 for 20 years, and bought a P38 for £1000. Not so much to stop using the 110 but initially as a fun, stop-gap while I had the Defender off the road for a bit.

It’s my 3rd Range Rover over the years, but the first P38. My list of stuff I’ve done is very, very similar to yours. Been sticking up some pics, daft questions etc for general entertainment on my “ups and downs” thread.

The beast is currently in the garage, chassis on axle stands while I completely refurb the rear axle, but so much looking forward to getting it back on all fours, fitting a working sunroof and my nice leather seats so I can enjoy the warmer months.

Nowhere near Telford though….!

I’d found the Drizz Developments via Google, but haven’t been able to watch the video yet.

I have been thinking though that whether it’s DIY or not depends on the space and the tools etc you have available - specifically a hoist or ramp to help separate the body from the chassis; and then a forklift or similar, to lift the bare chassis on/off the trailer.

If you were able to separate the body and the chassis; and had an engine crane, I don’t think it would be that far from DIY.

Once I’m mobile again, I’m going to get in touch with an underseal/rust treatment place and see what they reckon their chemicals can do. I’m told it was ca. £600 to prep and treat a Defender, and that’s a bit cheaper than £3000 to do the chassis - which I suspect is probably a bit low away up here.

Edit - OK, just watched the first two videos, and I’d agree that it’s at the furthest end of the DIY spectrum. It doesn’t really seem technical in any sense, just a bit involved, and lots of heavy lumps to shift about. If I’d a ramp and a hoist then I suppose I might think about it more seriously in the future, but for the moment this is definitely not on the agenda!

Thanks Harv - a bit of perspective there! We were about 2 or 3 below on Tuesday; about 3’ above freezing yesterday; and they’re forecasting 10’ today!

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be doing anything in a garage at -28!

Thanks David, assuming that's a "before" pic of yours, then there are parts of my chassis that don't look too bad.

I think you've touched on something important there though, about not being distracted by the size of the problem. I've probably been doing that and thinking that it wasn't worth doing anything if I wasn't doing it 'properly'.

Another issue right now is that it's winter, so not all the paints and coverings are happy going on below 18'c, in an unheated garage. And let's face it, how often does the north of Scotland see temperatures above 18'C even in the height of summer!