Re-Wiring my Dashboard

Apologies for the gap in posting, what with cold weather and having other things to do I haven’t updated anything in a while!

 

So, I took my new dash binnacle that arrived last month and decided to fit it.

 

What follows is lots of pictures of my wiring, with some brief description to help other people out. Took me 2 hours in all, including having a rolly, finding tools and having a cup of tea!

 

This is the back of the Water Temp and Fuel gauge pod. The layout (on mine anyway is…)

1 Green wire that splits into 2 go on both the fuel gauge and temp gauge.

This is the light for the pod. It was black when I pulled it out, nice and clear now! Much brighter!

This goes in the bottom of the Fuel gauge.

The Green only one goes to the water gauge.

And finally, this pulls out to reveal the cold start light. Again, pitch black!

This is what the pod seal looked like after I’d removed it. The Speedo one wasn't much better. I just used an elastic band on both when re-fitting.

My fuel gauge. Didn’t take the water temp one out as it was spotless clean, and VERY fragile! 

I presume this rusty specimen has something to do with the Speedo is here.  Dark Green went on the left, Light Green is on the Right.

The far left is the Oil Pressure light.

White/Green in the middle is Beam

Beam light again, with an earth lead coming off. This fixes on the earth point with the light blue wire.

 

White & Blue/White is Cold Start.

This is the master light switch (off, side & side + main)

This is the heater switch. Which doesn't work at the moment as the heater needs to be wired up.

The left side is the old wiper switch. I have no idea how to wire up the proper switch so will be making forum posts and updating this accordingly. Right is the wash switch

Everything fitted. No random holes, cracks etc. Need a new fuel and water pod as the glass has cracked but it’s only cosmetic!

 

Amazing what happens in 2 hours.

Saturdays Log

  Had a really good day today. But the batteries in the camera were flat, so had to use my phone. For a 5mp camera, it takes appalling shots, so apologies!

I started off by removing the rear drivers side driveshaft, and everything attached to it, see below pictures…

 

The rear brake hub looked like this:

Which wasn’t as bad as it could be but still bad! But all the bearings were in great condition!

I dunked all the bearings, bolts and other fixings in white spirit (using gallons of it atm!) which promptly turned black. I then ran the steam cleaner over them to rinse them off and filled then back with grease, resealed them in bags and put them aside. I then painted the rear brake hub with primer, and set about assembling the brakes. Whilst it went fairly well, it was an epic challenge to get the shoes on with the springs attached. Also, being britpart springs, they were made by a 4 year old. The ends weren’t bent properly, so after an appointment with the vice they were amended. In the end, I got the bottom one in, one half of the top, then put the spring in the leading shoe (they are different) and levered it in with a big screwdriver.

In the end I had this! The primer was very grubby by now, but not too fussed as it’ll get filthy when its on the vehicle.

Whilst I was waiting for the primer to dry, I ventured inside the cab (not literally, as the rear was off the ground with a jack and axle stand) to clean a window. Whilst I was using the steam cleaner, I had a go at the drivers window, and it got the paint off in a flash. So, I took the drivers seat out and set about the rear quarterlight. It came up amazingly well. There was spray paint, emulsion paint grease and some rock hard stuff that isn’t 100% off all over it. So, a good steaming, then a good scrub with white spirit, a rinse with windowlene then a buff with some furniture polish and it almost looks brand new!

All the mould and crap came out of the rubber seals as well, which is good. The paint came up ok as well, in places it took off the top bodged overspray and revealed the original lighter shade of blue, others it did nothing but cleaned the new paint off. I gave it a quick buff with the polish for fun and it shined it up a bit. It’ll never be perfect, as the paint is rough and badly applied, but hey, it’s better than it was!

I put the 6x9 in behind the drivers seat as well, using wood and a bit of thin aluminium. Very Blue Peter, but it works VERY well! So I can now have music on without having the speaker thrown on the passenger seat. To celebrate the occasion I burnt disc 1 of The Best of Symfo Rock, and listened to Paintbox! Below are some pictures of the interior…

 

You can see the switches for the rear lights in one of them as well, I’ll paint up the bracket and find somewhere to fit it later, for now it sits in the dash. The seats will also be replaced, the passenger one has collapsed and their too big for the vehicle. Shame, as the drivers one is VERY comfy!

 

Until Tomorrow!

Some Pictures

Just after I pressed upload on the last post, I found some more pictures I took, so here they are (Dial-up users, look away now, or upgrade!)

The Oil Bath Air Filter. It’s no wonder it runs oddly! All it took was an hour some white spirit and lots of rags to get it to the top picture. I also sprayed WD40 on the cloth/rubber hose, to stop it drying out. I may put a K&N filter on eventually, if not I’ll prime the unit and hammerite it in some funky colour! I’ll put a new air intake hose on as well (possibly!

 

All the current pics I have of the interior. Dash hasn’t changed much, apart from getting the wipers working, but the radio cassette has gone, as has most of the random LIVE wires lying in the dash. To the right you’ll see a plate with a switch in. That now houses 2 light up toggle switches that control the fog lamp and rear work lamp. Eventually, when I find a place that works it’ll be fixed to the dash. Will take updated pictures tomorrow for you!

Some random pictures now, The truck hot off the press. That was taken outside Evans house, after the long drive back from Stoke!

 

 

The rest are the door on the drivers side. I pulled the old newspaper that was filling the hole, ground all the useless metal off and primed it all up. This means there are some gaps there but I’d rather have all the rust taken out and converted than leave it there. Then there’s the serial tag from the heater matrix, a nice front on shot, the state of the old heater/coolant hoses and the engine, along with a working watertight thermostat housing (where the big rubber pipe at the front comes out of the engine)

And some tools and fluids I bought from Halfords. That red tool chest is £50 at the moment, with 10% off as well! Seems good so far, has tackled some big bolts on the front hub.

Drill was £15, and does a good job of undoing nuts quickly!

And an action shot of the work light and fog light working. Eventually the other fog light will work, but I need to grind the cage off the left lights, and take the ruddy crane off to get to the wires that run across the truck. The numberplate light needs replacing too. The 2 back steps may or may not go back on the new rear crossmember it needs. The Landrover badge is in the garage waiting to be painted.

A delayed update!

Well, I did some work last weekend! I also found a program called Windows Live Writer, which works just like Word, but updates the blog without having to use Bloggers appalling site!

Anyway, back to the landie!

(With funky effects!) We have one drivers side rear shoe set. Which was a pig to put together. So in the end I haven’t done it. I attempted it..

 

As you can see, the shoes fit. But the springs are a different story. On the initial offer-up, I could get the top spring on, but only on the outside of the shoes, which I’ve been told is INCORRECT. I have the right springs though, which is good. So, after a trip to my favourite forum, I was given the idea of taking the whole hub off. This offers 2 advantages. Firstly, the reason the springs are such a pain to install is the driveshaft is in the way. I couldn’t even get the bottom one in, so with it all off, I can work with just the brakes and back plate. The second, and probably most important reason for doing it is I can have ALL the parts on the bench, in the warm and light, don’t have to have the radio loud to hear it on the drive and don’t loose washers in the gravel, or loose the light!

Therefore, I have to take the driveshaft's out. I took the drivers side one out, mainly whilst I was procrastinating drinking a cup of tea!

It’s in pretty good shape, and the large nut in the picture above this one shows it’s not been bodged about with (theoretically the only thing that hasn’t!) Again, using  this method should save ALOT of faffing around, and enable me to overhaul the whole hub assembly too. The only thing I’m worried about by doing this, is the truck hasn’t moved much since the first picture, where it’s on the drive having all the rust hoovered out of it! Therefore, it’s got to be turned around to get to the passenger side! So I’m thinking of doing the rear and front drivers side brakes/hubs, connect the new brake pipes up, fill the system and bleed it enough to enable it to be turned around.

That brings me to the engine coolant problem. My fix didn’t work! I’m going to have another go with the epoxy, as I’ve got nothing to loose, but ultimately I’m looking for other methods. Answers on a postcard please!, as the vehicle is pretty much useless with that problem.

 

On a more positive note, Evan lent me his old HT leads, after he bought some new ones to troubleshoot his engine, and it turned out to be the distributor. So, with those in place the engine fires up, which means it won’t freeze/seize and the new oil can be sloshed around. I’ve only had it running for minute long bursts, revving it for the last 5 seconds and filling up the engine with a watering can! Also, by replacing the fuel sender the fuel gauge works! I put a jerry can of fuel in it, and it currently rises to just above the E mark, which is promising. Also means the wires are not stuffed!

Talking of wires, I spent an hour sorting out the front light that doesn’t work. I didn’t take any pictures sadly though, but the story is…

The drivers side front light turned off one day, so I left it, not driving it, but it bugged me. I checked the current carrying wires, which were all fine. I then dug around for the earth. The earth, for the front lights consists of a 4 way bullet connector, where 4 earth leads, 2 for the main ones and 2 from either the side lights or indicators plug into. This was white with corrosion. So, I unbolted it and scrapped it. I then, using the old trusty dremel with a wire brush on took the metal underneath down to bare metal and put a smear of Vaseline on the metal to delay corrosion.

That done, I took all 4 earth wires off one by one, and overhauled the connectors. I bought 1--- assorted ones from fleabay for a fiver, so am going to be lavish with them! I renewed them all in the end, as the wires were mouldy and thin. I then crimped on ring connectors to the earth point end, filled the crimps with Vaseline and heat shrunk it all together. I then connected it up to the lights with female spade connectors and IT WORKED! Brighter than before as well! Being a negative earth, the earth completes the circuit. It’s amazing how much current a little bit of corrosion takes away! And how much current comes back after 5 minutes cleaning it up!

 

I must point out that I’m not using bona fide wires. I’m just removing the outer insulation of normal appliance wire and using that. I’m only using it for low voltage bits, mainly lights and the stereo. As and when (and if) I replace it I’ll use proper wires. I then cable tied everything neatly together!

Lastly, tonight, I made myself a new tool, a PC for the garage! Cobbled the parts together out of the garage, so I can stream radio, stream music and video from my main pc, post here and mainly ask questions on forums. I used my laptop last weekend to ask the question mentioned earlier, and although I used an old keyboard and mouse I was so scared I’d plaster oil all over it! So, one pc running a thinned out version of XP that can get as dirty and bashed as it wants with no worries!

 

A lot of my inspiration has come from Mark Evans, and his great series ‘A 4X4 is Born’ As I write this, I’m watching ‘An MG is Born’ which is equally as good, but not as landie related! I’ve also come to the conclusion that I need to invest in Air tools! So, Julie (boss) if you read this, can I have a pay rise?! A welder and a course on welding would be invaluable too, given the state of my chassis!

 

Until tomorrow my Landrover Friends…