Offroad-Express

Is this one ass hole resistant?
Hows the young fella?
Sweet truck as stated above too!

the time frame you do things in is insane

epic.

Now I just gotta figure out how to insure it properly this time. If it had been a total loss I would have been screwed!!!!

AA served me really well, but I'm thinking I will hit up a broker

Just curious Pete why the down grade from the salisbry axle to a rover ?
You got trick parts in that axle ?

Nice work, got me thinking hard about doing something similar as a tow truck

Oh and recomend using a broker... they can also deal with claims

Looks good mate... can't believe you were allowed so much garage time..

A broker is a good idea, I know people talk about them a lot, but I've had great results with Barley insurance, we have everything through them now. John and Suzzane have been really helpful with all the insurance issues we have had due to the earthquakes. They have had long discussions on our behalf to ensure we could buy our current house, that has a major insurance claim on it.

Providing you know what you want, they will find a policy that fits.

have had good dealings with john (and suzanne) barley http://www.barley.co.nz, the specialist 4wd policy is good

they were good to deal with when i had to claim

DieselBoy wrote:Now I just gotta figure out how to insure it properly this time. If it had been a total loss I would have been screwed!!!!

AA served me really well, but I'm thinking I will hit up a broker

hit up FMG

De-Ranged wrote:Just curious Pete why the down grade from the salisbry axle to a rover ?
You got trick parts in that axle ?

Nice work, got me thinking hard about doing something similar as a tow truck

Oh and recomend using a broker... they can also deal with claims

I was thinking the same! although those salisburys hang a fair bit lower than the rover axle

MATT4U wrote:

DieselBoy wrote:Now I just gotta figure out how to insure it properly this time. If it had been a total loss I would have been screwed!!!!

AA served me really well, but I'm thinking I will hit up a broker

hit up FMG

2nd this have been really good to me, and the farms and dads trucking firm

Salisbury here for sale if anyone wants it

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =653124163

nakimud wrote:

De-Ranged wrote:Just curious Pete why the down grade from the salisbry axle to a rover ?
You got trick parts in that axle ?

Nice work, got me thinking hard about doing something similar as a tow truck

Oh and recomend using a broker... they can also deal with claims

I was thinking the same! although those salisburys hang a fair bit lower than the rover axle

If you go back to this post Pete explains why he did it originally
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/viewtopic.php?p=304721#p304721

It survived a 6 day mission at labour weekend with only a few issues

First issue was hilarious, ubz said there was water pouring out the back from the rear windscreen washer. Considering there is no switch for the windscreen wiper and washer, and the wiper has been removed, how was that possible? Even stranger was that it stopped when I unplugged the gps. Turned out the power and earth i borrowed from the washer switch when i removed it, wasn't actually that, it was the circut to make the washer motor go, so plugging something into the multi plug like the gps turned the rear windscreen washer on. Hilarious!!!

Pretty sure the water pump is making strange noises, and it kept blowing stop and reverse light fuses, but other than that, its all good



The shiny paint didn't last long either

Sweeet.
Which truck in the other thread is chris' s.
Hes kept quiet with his new ride

Light blue Defender

Hope you didn't upset spider mum and the kids thrashing around in the scrub with their shiny clear-coat.

Haven't been up to much exciting stuff on it for while, just weeding through the mechanical stuff. It still bugs me a little every now and then, as I had already been through and future/OZ proofed everything on Dusty over the years, and now I have to do it all again, but on a much reduced time frame which doesn't help spread the cost

Cooling systems are one of those things you just can't skimp on with a Turbo Diesel running a alloy head. Its got to be 100% or better preferably.

On the last trip I noticed a strange noise over the diesel rattle and investigation led me to the water pump. Typical to Land Rover and the 300tdi engine, the water pump is right there in easy reach, pop the drive belt off, undo a pully or two and its off. In fact I spent more time cleaning the gasket off than removal and refitting took.

With a a potential OZ trip looming again, i thought i had better do the cooling system properly, so gave it a new thermostat, viscous fan hub and sent the radiator in for quick check and clean.

A week later the radiator came home with a new heavy duty core

While it was away, i took advantage of the clear space to sneak a extra cooling fan in, one of a large collection i seem to have built up

I stuffed it in here, hopefully it will help with those long slow climbs, and other low speed, high load situations:




One serious radiator, complete with heavy duty large core adding extra cooling capacity and strength to handle pressure washing and general abusive treatment



The intercooler sat for the week with with a mix of diesel and petrol in it to dissolve any crud and oil residue, and cleaned out the core.




All installed together and ready to drop into the engine bay



Another mission complete

Awesome work man

Thursday night I arrived home to a Diesel slick running out the back of the truck. I had filled it up on Wednesday night. Yipee

Nothing for it but to put on some old clothes and go get covered in Diesel. I have now found the downfall of having a dual tank system, you gotta have a lot of containers on hand to drain the fuel into


The tank has had a good hit in its previous life, the dent to the actual tank is a lot worse than what the tank guard allows you to see. I filled the gap with silicone a few months a ago, but obviously it was to far to late and what ever has been going on between the guard and the tank has finally caused a leak.



Luckily http://www.landroverspares.co.nz had a replacement tank and guard in stock. Very fortunate considering how close to xmas it is. I picked it up today, mission on


The old tank came out quite easily. This truck has definitely seen some off road time






I however did manage to root the fitting on the pickup, it snapped when i was trying to undo the hose from it. Ok, i didn't realise it was plastic, it was in a cnut of a place, and yes, once i had the tank out on the floor i realised i could have removed the whole sender/pick assemble from the tank with the hose attached and it would have been fine. Hope there's one of those in the country!!


Oh, and the drain plug thread is different to the thread on the attachment for the long range tank feed. I have a feeling its gonna be a tricky one to solve, maybe a banjo bolt

Would be so boring if every job was straight forward

Either way tomorrow is Trials time, so the tank can wait

Before you put new tank add some 10mm spacers between tank and guard on the bolts that way you can wash all the crud out which causes the corrosion on the tank base and maybe another coat of paint . the truck is looking real flash cheers

lokrite wrote:Before you put new tank add some 10mm spacers between tank and guard on the bolts that way you can wash all the crud out which causes the corrosion on the tank base and maybe another coat of paint . the truck is looking real flash cheers

Good idea, was wondering about using urethane to seal the guard on, but that's even better

Been churning all day on the issue the of drain plug on the new main tank being different to the old main tank.

The problem being that drain plug is used to link the main and aux tanks together and equalise the level as the fuel from the main tank is used.

Its a pretty ugly system, but it works:


I'm thinking now might be the perfect time to rectify the uglyness and get the hose up out of the way. Brand new tank, never had fuel in it, and its out of the vehicle so couldn't ask for a better opportunity.

I could put a proper fitting in about where the yellow circle is, it would do the same job and get rid of the hose hanging down below the tank


So the question i want to ask all those engineering types out there, what in your opinion is the best option to put a fitting into the tank???

Do you braze in a brass fitting?? ( I have one with a barb to take the hose)
Tig on a nut and screw the brass fitting with barb into that??
Tig on bit of pipe??
Get the mig out and burn a bloody big hole in the tank trying to weld something to it when I should have taken it to someone with Gas or a Tig

Tig on a nut.. Im no engineer, but you can bush rig a fix in a welded nut easier than a flogged out brass fitting or a broken pipe. Go for something really common thread wise and larger.

Easyflow will be the easiest your local hose doctor or engineer should have some.

Weld/brase a BSP socket so you can screw a hose tail into it. BSP should be a good pipe thread to uses as there will be heaps of fittings available for it. NPT is another thread type but seems to be less popular in NZ.

+1 for braze unless you are confident with a tig torch.
A much better seal since you can sweat the bronze into the gaps.
a leak/ pressure test is always a good idea when dealing with fuel tanks.

I ended up finding a M14 Banjo and Bolt that fitted the drain plug, its in and working a treat

Gotta say cheers to Lilpigzuk and LR90NZ for bailing me out with the fuel tank saga just before xmas, what a mish that turned into

I have been mostly doing boring un-post worthy stuff, replaced all the bushes and ball joints on the front end, new clutch, rear main, H.D clutch fork, slave cylinder just that sort of thing.

A couple of fun things that I have managed to get done and remembered to take pics of, are the roof rack, which started off as this:


....and ended up as this:



The stainless container takes 11 liters of emergency water, it will always be full. The jerry cans will always be empty when on the roof, they will be carried inside the vehicle when full and put into the main tanks as soon as their is room so they can go back on the roof empty. The tin box, buggered if I know, but I'm sure it will get used. The empty space in the middle will fit an empty 20L water drum if required. Might even chuck a full sized axe up there. The basic idea is to keep it really lite up there.


I also needed to increase the water storage capacity, so sneaked in another 20L drum under the rear guard, taking the total potential water capacity to 91 litres:


Strapped in with a little tie down:


The support frame:


Bonus is that a 20L Jerry can of fuel could go in there instead.

I finally tracked down a K&N Air filter for a resonable price, so all you other 200 and 300Tdi owners, go and see http://www.nzperformance.co.nz/, $150 to my door

Went for the washable filter due to the fact that one cleaning kit is half the size of an airfilter, and that kit will recondition the airfilter four or more times.

All the talk in one of the other threads about the Toyota 1kz's cracking heads got me thinking about the alloy head on the 300Tdi. It dawned on me that one really easy way to help dissipate heat from the head on this particular engine was to remove the thick, heavy and dense rubber sound proofing off the top of the motor. That's got to allow a bit more heat dissipation, but also required an extra good scrub up of all the alloy under there!!!!

Before (ish )


After:


I feel like its going to help, so that what counts

Another fun bling mission, electronic speedo conversion time

I have replaced the mechanical cable driven speedo on which the trip meter had died, with a VDO electronic replacement.

Straight forward job, remove old speedo and cable, crimp a few spade terminals on, run a length of wire and fire away an email or two.

For those that might like to follow in the future, here's the parts list:

VDO Electronic Speedo, 4", 0 - 200k's"
http://www.egauges.com/ProductDetails.a ... de=437-156

Installation and Calibration instructions for the speedo:
http://www.vdo-gauges.com/media/instructions/0%20515%20012%20051%20--%20Programmable%20Speedometer(c).pdf

The following parts can be sourced locally from http://www.Landroverspares.co.nz

Land Rover Discovery 300Tdi Inductive 2 Wire Speed Sensor: YBE100540

Speedo Drive Gear to match speed sensor: FRC9339

Wiring Harness to fit plug on speed sensor: STC4637

3m of 2 core trailer wire

Box of blade type crimp connectors

The new Speedo:


The dash removed with the old speedo in place still:


New Speedo fitted:


The Wiring Monster was unleashed, a blur of snipping, striping and crimping ensued, and there was no way in hell i was going to photograph the evidence

From the speedo down to the transfercase I just ran a 2 core trailer type cable:


Here's a really bad shot of the speed sensor and wiring harness. I just cut the bullet connectors off the harness and put a two pin narva plug on inplace, then wrapped it with heaps of insulation tape. Wiring Monster stylz



Really simple job to do, although I did cheat a tiny bit as I had the gearbox out on Saturday so fitted the speed sensor up while the box was out

The calibration was easy, I initially used the GPS for speed and distance for the auto calibration to get it in the ball park, then manually fine tuned it from there, again based on the GPS speed reading.

The Legal Stuff if your Diesel powered:

Simple really, email rucassessments@nzta.govt.nz and tell them what your up to.

They will require the invoice for the new speedo, the current reading on your old speedo, and reading of the new speedo. They will enter the data and then you had down to the post shop or where ever and get your new lable. I haven't done this bit yet, only emailed them to find out what I had to do, so fingers crossed it is this simple