argonaut

Very useful tip, I have to do a complete bleed on my P38 as I had to remove the modulator unit. I'm not looking forward to the bleeding malarky, a bit of a pain.

They do indeed look like Scalextric motors. They are made by Mabuchi Motors, you can find similar items available on the Internet, from what I've heard though the armature spindle is too short and will need modification. Look here for an example: http://www.surplus-deal.com/FC_280PC_22125_p/MOT-01.htm

Sorry for the long delay, some more progress on what has now turned into a full engine strip and rebuild/restoration job: Episode 4, A New Hope. Well, the engine strip down continued today. So far, I hadn't found anything wrong but today I removed the Main Bearing caps and found that the bearings are shot. They are all in pretty poor condition which means I will be getting the crankshaft checked out thoroughly and will probably be looking at a re-grind. BTW, can anyone identify the size from this number "ERR 1765"? I have googled and searched on suppliers' websites but was unable to find that number. I know I can measure the crank to find out if its already had a re-grind but I was wondering if someone out there can identify anything from that number. Anyway, I also removed the spigot/flywheel alignment boss from the end of the crankshaft and found the shim behind it. I haven't measured it yet but it's a tad over 2mm thick. Checking on Microcat, I find that there are 10 different thicknesses listed, all of which are described as being for the V8 engine. Unfortunately, Microcat doesn't offer any more information as to which thickness belongs with which set-up. I should point out that my engine is not the original. Here's my new theory: the engine was at some point replaced, probably just dropped in without much checking of anything. It may be that the gearbox is the original. Could it be that the replacement engine came with the wrong thickness shim? If you check my picture Nr. 2 a few posts above above and look at the flexplate remains you can see the marks caused by contact with the flywheel reluctor ring rivets. I'm wondering, if the wrong shim was fitted could this cause the distance to be so far out that the flexplate is pushed from the centre and flexes causing bending and contact with the flywheel rivets? A kind soul on a different forum pointed me to the correct pages in RAVE to see how to check and adjust the shim thickness (they range from 1.2 to 2.1mm according to Microcat) but as usual, RAVE isn't 100% clear on this point. It mentions fitting the flexplate "assembly" - I assume theat this means including the flywheel? Cheers

Just dragging up an old thread here as I am stripping my engine. I also have main bearings identified as "ERR 1765" - can anyone shed any light on what they might be? Microcat couldn't recognise that number at all. Cheers

Well, to be honest, it's a bit of bad luck and a fairly steep learning curve. I bought my Rangie of the Fleabay, unseen and probably paid too much for it. I was under the impression that anything built by Land Rover was built like a tank and shouldn't give many problems - how naive can you be? ;-) I think like many people, Land Rover have a great reputation but it's not built on reliability. Anyway, I did my research on buying a RR pretty much after I'd bought one. On the plus side, other things that give people a lot of trouble seem to be OK with my car. I just really want to get this flex plate issue sorted and I'm determined to suceed now - yesterday was quite encouraging as it's the first time I've found anything that could be described as an "ah ha!" moment in the search for a common cause of flex plate failure. Thanks for the encouragement, I will get it fixed :-)

Indeed - I'm already planning to drop the sump (the gasket leaks and it's much easier to do without the gearbox in position) and I will check crankshaft endfloat at the same time. Have you heard of TC's causing this fault (flex plate failure) previously then?

I’ve now removed what was left of the flex plate – it was in 6 pieces and that’s after only around 2,000 miles. I found very clear signs that the flex plate has been in contact with the rivets on the flywheel that hold the reluctor ring in place – there are circular depressions worn into the flex plate (see pics) and some scoring on the flywheel itself that corresponds to worn/polished areas on the flex plate. To my understanding the only way that the flex plate could come into contact with the flywheel is if the torque convertor is pushing it too far – a worn TC can expand too far and maybe that’s the problem or as already suggested, if it’s badly out of balance it will wobble or follow an eccentric orbit causing the flex plate to twist? My money is on the entire TC pushing back too far as the rivet wear marks are evenly spaced and not elongated which suggests to me that the pressure on the flex plate was more or less constant and not intermittent. So my question, has anyone ever seen such rivet contact wear signs on a flex plate? I now have a spare (used) plate that shows no such signs at all. Cheers

Well my replacement parts arrived today. I have a question regarding various torque convertors and hopefully someone here can help out: the TC I removed from my car is marked "M19" whereas the replacement I now have is marked "T27". From what I have been able to find out it seems that the T27 flavour was used for the 4.0L and type 22 gearbox. Does anyone know if I can safely use this on my 4.6L with type 24 set-up? Externally the TC's look the same although I have not yet had a chance to measure the diameter to compare. Many thanks in advance!

@ David - thanks for the tips, yes I was aware that the TC has to go on to the gearbox before offering it up to the engine, I was planning to do that anyway. Thanks for the Ashcroft tip - very good idea, I will check there. @ Bowie69 - thanks for the tips, especially regarding aligning, very useful. I was also planning to make up some sort of strap to fix the TC whilst I get the gearbox up and aligned. My replacement parts haven't arrived yet, I'm still hoping they turn up before the Christmas break but if not then I've still plenty of other stuff to do - I'm giving the underside of the car a good clean up. I also noticed that I have an oil leak from the sump gasket so I'll be tackling this too. As I will have to drop the sump to do this I will also check the crankshaft endfloat - it occured to me that if the crankshaft endfloat is out then this might potentially also cause excess flexing of the drive plate leading to premature failure. I've worked out that the interval (distance in miles) between flexplate failure is reducing so that would tend to suggest that whatever is causing this problem is gradually getting worse. Unfortunately I have not yet had an "Ah ha!" moment and I have not found anything wrong that would cause these failures. Changing the TC is following suggestions received here and it's worth a try. I will also try to get a dial gauge to measure run out of the flywheel flexplate mounting face just in case the crankshaft might be bent. Since there's already mission creep on this job is there anything else I should do whilst I'm there? Gearbox filters and lower pan gasket maybe? Cheers

Depending upon the vagaries of the weather and the delivery of the replacement items I will hopefully soon be getting ready to reassemble my gearbox etc. I have a question regarding alignment of the torque converter / oil pump. RAVE shows that a special tool can be used for this but looking at the pictures of it (poor images) and also looking at my torque converter it seems that the "tool" can only be something that bolts into the TC using the flex plate mounts. That being the case I suppose that I could use a couple of longer bolts that also fit these holes so that I have in effect a couple of handles to manhandle the TC into position. That's all well and good but does anyone have any tips on how to make sure the TC aligns and engages correctly with the oil pump drive? My idea is to make sure that the oil pump drive is aligned at say 12 o'clock and that the TC slots also line up to this. I want to make 100% I get this right as otherwise I end up with a knackered oil pump / gearbox. Has anyone got a tip for me? Cheers

A brief status update: after a couple of days playing with the car I now have the gearbox removed, not too bad a job really. Both alignment dowels are present, there does not appear to be anything wrong apart from the large split across half the diameter of the flexplate - this confirmed my diagnosis anyway. I also discovered that 3 of the bellhousing bolts were loose and 3 of the flywheel bolts were loose too - that probably didn't help things. Now I await the replacement parts but in the meantime I will be doing plenty of cleaning and fettling under the car - any good tips for a decent paint or sealant to use? I don't do very much offroading but I'd like something decent. I plan to remove all surface rust and treat/coat/paint the affected areas.

Cheers!

That's the spirit in which I understood it - I couldn't see how a tyre balancer would be able to do it anyway. Well, let the games begin, Rangie is now sitting proudly on my ramps - access actually looks pretty decent. The ramps are jackable and at the moment with them on the lowest setting there's easy crawl access under the gearbox and I think that when the time comes to remove the gearbox from underneath the car, with the ramps raised a bit it should be straight forward. Driving up on the ramps was a wee bit hairy - I'm here on my own with no-one to guide me so I used a couple of old mirrors so that I could see how lined up the car was as I was driving up - worked a treat.

Yes that's what I'm planning to do - swap it for a hopefully known good one. As an aside - would getting it balanced by a tyre firm actually work? The flex plate has actually failed four times, three times during my ownership of one year (I bought the car last Christmas) and the previous owner told me he'd had it replaced shortly before I bought the car. I did send the PO an email asking if he'd any theory or if he knew what was the root cause but I didn't receive an answer from him. I am however, becoming an expert on diagnosing failed flexplate from the sound :-)

Yes, I was aware of the issue with the oil pump - the thing is though that one of the suspected causes of the repeated flex plate failure is unbalanced torque convertor - if I was certain that the TC is OK then I wouldn't remove it but since I'm not sure and I'n going in there anyway to me it makes sense to replace the TC at the same time. I discussed this problem at length with RPI and one theory is the TC, the other theory (from Ashcroft) was possibly missing alignment dowels which I can only check once I've disconnected the gearbox and moved it back enough to check. Have you any alternative theory that might account for the flexplate problems? It's now failed three times. I'm grateful for any suggestions as I really want to fix this issue once and for all.