kiwi_110

My old 90 that I converted to Disco V8 and Auto was running Lucas 14CUX ECU and it used to stall whenever I stopped at intersections. After a few days of this I sort of suspected that the ECU needed to know if we were moving or not. So I restored the speed sensor connection to the ECU. This was tricky because the truck still used a mechanical speedo. I ended up drilling a hole through the back of the disco transducer and piggy-backed the old speedo cable on it. I built a square extension piece that passed from the cable right through the hall effect gubbins and picked up the speedo drive in the transfer case. After this mod, the truck was fine. In fact it was spectacular and remains my favourite truck even though it's just a memory now after some a-hole in a Pissant Safari rear-ended me into a oncoming car which wrote off all three vehicles... Sorry, didn't mean to turn this response in to a nostalgia-trip

I've been waiting for a VDO programmable Speedo from the US, but the supplier says it's on back-order with VDO. Decided to follow up an alternative as a backup and today a nice Td5 KPH speedo arived, all wound up to required distance and ready to go thanks to CwazyWabbit. When I got it home, I jury rigged it to a battery and my Britpart er... Bits and parts transducer and tested it with a battery drill. It ran up nicely, full speed on the drill registered about 175 KPH and it seemed to sweep up the dial without hesitation or jerking. I proceeded to wire it in to the truck, and then mounted the transducer in place of the speedo cable at the LT230 end. Took it for a drive and could immediately notice a problem. It's registering pretty high, 40 kph down my driveway and I'm really doing about 15... So I made a mental note that I'm going to have to tweak the pulse count register a bit. No drama, CwazyWabbit is doing the whole Bus Pirate thing and will soon publish the info I need to use mine to correct the pulse count on this speedo. Out the front gate and down the road and suddenly the needle is bouncing all over the show, gone is the smooth movement I noted with the transducer mounted on the drill. I switch off in case it's got it's knockers in a knit, restart and drive back up to the house. Little or no movement from the speedo needle at all now So I'm thinking the "Oh So High Quality" transducer has plop itself. Why am I not surprised? I'll pull it out tomorrow, fully expect it to be in bits... Ray.

Ha ha, no, that one was taken about 5 years ago, at a pub on the Arnhem Highway between Humpty-do and Point Stuart. We were on our way to Carmor Plains to hunt Asian Buff and pigs, my profile pic was taken there, the boar is now on my wall here in NZ.

We did spot a few other landies and most responded to us waving out. In Laura, we caught up with a nice new 110 towing a tinnie up to Cape Melville. Chaps name was Bob, a retired builder from Adelaide. He was well pleased with the performance of the 2.4 and 6 speed and he had a huge amount of gear in it and behind it. The couple who run Cairns LRS told us they are selling their workshop and only going to run the Parts shop. I was tempted! We also met the guys at Hyper Tuned which I think is fairly new outfit and they were all very helpful. I've snorkelled around the the AULRO forums a few times and there is a faithful undercurrent of Landy activity, they even make it to the pages of the Aussie 4x4 mags occaisionally. Might try and hook up next trip, I'll PM you! Cheers, Ray.

It's pretty much all side gear noise because, again, the carrier, crown and pinion are imobilised by the brake in your test, so their bearings are not in action. Don't be put off doing a diff job by all that pre-load, lash gubbins. It's not rocket science. If you do decide to tackle it some time, do the diff and yourself a favour and replace the carrier with a locker. On the rover diff, it's a piece of cake because you can do the whole thing on the bench and the end-caps screw in and out to give you your adjustment. Salisbury a bit harder because it's done in situ and you've got to work with shims. Have fun with it! Ray.

With the propshaft held by the brake, your crown and pinion are stationary and all that rotation is going through the side gears in the diff to force the far wheel to rotate in the oposite direction. That is extreme differential action, your side gears are spinning hard-out to lose that energy through the other wheel. They will be quite noisey doing this compared to normal road use and cornering where there would be only slight differential action as the turning radius is offset through the side gears. I'd not be too worried about it. You have put EP90 back in the diff eh? ray.

I did take a video with me but don't have anything of the work we did on the truck, I was just too busy under the bonnet to record anything! I do have an old pic of the truck and proud (not so much these days I fear...) owner from a previous trip and I'll put that up. We had a bit of fun in the Kennedy River west of Laura. We took the truck down onto the wide riverbed with the thought of driving upstream a way to camp and hunt the Queens Chain. Promptly got bogged to the chassis rails in soft sand had to reduce tire pressures (easy done with Staun deflators), dig out and self recover with the winch and a handy tree...

If you're sure you're still in lock (you've jacked up a front wheel and can't turn it) and conditions permit, try crawling underneath with a 1/2" ring spanner. I'd try reaching up over the front prop-shaft output and undo the nut which secures the D/L linkage to the D/L selector shaft. Then try turning the shaft directly, it has a flat on it and goes anti-clockwise to unlock. If this does not help, remove the front prop-shaft to get you home where you can have a proper go at it.

1. I'm sure I read somewhere that you're not supposed to use "proper" hose clamps on these hoses, can't remember why. 2. Each replacement hose comes with the the poxy ones already fitted. To be honest, if' I'd known I was going to be doing so many hose replacements and refits, I'd have gotten some "proper" ones...

TD5 coolant hose clamps....

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Steve and I hopped the Tasman to Aussie with a 4WD and bow hunting trip up Cape York in mind. Steve keeps a 2001 TD5 130 on blocks in Brisbane for trips like this. This truck was originally part of a small fleet (about 10 I think) built for Telstra (Aussie Telecom) Techs to use up in the Territory. Telstra had some outfit in Darwin extend the cabs by about 10” back from the B pillar, a/c fitted, and a large alloy box body with twin spare wheel mounts, fold-up sides on gas struts, ladder, long-range diesel tank, water tank, Warn 9000, etc. The basis for a pretty good camper. By far the best thing is the stretched cab. They did a nice job, the roof was stretched to match the sides, as was the hood lining and an extra bit of glazing went in between the B pillar and the corner glass. You can rack the seats back miles, there’s a ton of leg-room even with the a/c bulges under the dash. The truck hadn’t been used for 4 years and Steve told me it had been using water when last used, he thought from around the water pump. He’d filled the diesel tank and topped it off with conditioner just before putting it on the stands. So in our luggage, we took over a new water pump, thermostat, turbo and centrifuge gaskets, injector harness, front brake hoses, suspension bushes, shocks etc. I had no room left for my hunting bow and had to pay extra to take it… When we arrived, we got the truck off the stands and while Steve went off in a borrowed wagon to get a new battery, I swung the A/C pump and Turbo out of the way, dropped the centrifuge and replaced the water pump and thermostat. I had some trouble getting those poxy spring hose clamps back on, little did I know, this would come back to haunt us. I pulled the valve cover off and swapped out the injector harness. Checking the ECU connection under the drivers seat, I found oil had in fact migrated up the loom that far so I cleaned it up with solvent and air. Did all the filters, new oil, new coolant. When I did the pump, the coolant was green and that’s what we put pack in. At the time I wondered if the TD5 was supposed to use OAT, red stuff, but didn’t say anything. On fitting a new battery, we held our breath and turned the key. The TD5 fired within a second and ran sweetly. We were pretty impressed with it after four years of sitting idle. We ran the winch out and back in and did some bushes that we could see were starting to go. After a couple days mooching around Brisbane, picking up supplies etc, we hit the back roads north intending to go through Miles, Roma, Emerald, Charters Towers, Mt Garnet to Cairns and from there to Mt Molloy, Lakeland, Laura, and on up to the Jardine River and the Top. I figured 2 days to Cairns. It took us 4, just because I completely underestimated the distances to be covered… Our first hint of trouble was after about 10 hours driving when we stopped at some road works near Emerald. We hopped out to stretch our legs and saw coolant dripping off the firewall… Flipped open the bonnet and saw foam in the header tank, squirting out around the cap. “Oh faahh….” Much grumbling. I figured right then and there that the truck had originally been losing water due to head gasket failure. I’m certain it was just a small leak given the top up’s Steve said he’d been doing on his last trip. The temp needle never moved from normal so we decided to push on. Over the next couple of days, we just topped up the reservoir each morning, it always took about a pint. The top hose never ran dry, we always got a little squirt of water and foam from the bleed screw so I remained sure it was a minor leak but that we’d better seek advice in Cairns. On about the third day, going over the hot dry roads to Mt Garnet, I suddenly saw green stuff on my (passenger) side of the windscreen and wing, shouted at Steve to stop, we’d blown a hose. In the 30 C heat, we got out and opened the bonnet. Sure enough, hot coolant pissing out of the top hose where it tee’s off to the heater. We had a full set of spare hoses so boiled the billy while waiting for it to cool down. Had more problems with the poxy hose clamps. They really are a bugger on the TD5 when you’re working in confined spaces like down the thermostat end etc. Anyway, topped off with coolant, bleed the system and resumed. We’re starting to notice a few rattles now, from the front end as we’ve been pounding dirt road for the last few hundred k’s. At Mt Garnet, a local garage specializing in Toymotas (every bugger over there drove one except us…) told us about a guy in Heberton that might be able to help. So we did a detour and drove through Heberton looking for him. Spotted an old scrapped Disco outside a shed and took a punt that it was him. It was. Turns out he’d been into old Rangies for ever and fixed all Land Rovers but got out of them when things became too electronic. Range-Rover Guy was now building race engines and doing custom engineering work but he did offer some advice. “Try to get some turns on the head bolts, flush the coolant real good and bung some Camywell in the cun…..” Er, ok, will do. “Don’ let those cu..s sell you anything but Camywell. My mate reckons you can have the whole bottom hose drop off and that stuff’ll still seal the cun….” Er, yes, quite, excellent stuff, er, Camywell you say? “Yeah mate, Camywell”. Nursing the truck on to Cairns over the next couple of days, we find the front end is now hopping up and down like some LA low-rider thing and inspection reveals the front shock bushes are gone. We manage to run a flush through the coolant system, draining it by pulling off the bottom hose, more bloody clamp dramas, and calling in to motor shops trying to find the elusive “Camywell”. Pondering the Aussie accent and vernacular for a while, and taking in the array of additives on a shelf, I decided to extrapolate. Sure enough, “Chem-i-weld” was a silicate coolant system repairer supposedly capable of repairing cracked blocks, heads, gaskets, radiators etc. Bagged two tins of it and headed for Cairns Landrover Specialists. There we picked up another top-hose as a spare, some front shock bushes, turbo to intercooler hose (the short 90 degree one on the truck was decidedly soft and had a cut almost right through). We visit Allied Bearings and, with the cam-cover removed in the car-park, the guy lets us try various torx sockets on the head bolts. Turns out we need an E14 but it only comes in a set so $80 later, I’m swinging gently on the head bolts with the breaker bar and a shiny new E14. I got only a small ping out of each bolt except the 4 around #4 cylinder, these ones twisted easily and woudn’t take up. That had to be a problem. We needed to let the head cool right down and try again so we popped the lid back on and repaired to the shelter of a tree in the Coles (like Tescos) carpark. There we changed the soft Turbo hose and the front shock bushes. They’d gone like jam and the holes in the mounts had gone egg-shaped. The engine cooled right down while we did this and I had another go at the head bolts. The 4 suspect ones all pinged when I swung on them again so I felt that I had achieved some take-up on the gasket in that area. We ran clean water through the system and followed the instructions on the Chem-i-weld tins. That was about all we could do for now. We resolved to push on up the Cape but not to go too far up. Costs run from $3000 (1500 of your real actual genuine Pounds) for recovery from the Cape to Cairns. We drove up to Port Douglas, then over the hill to Mount Molloy. On the way over we passed a stranded brand new Toymota towing a caravan, his bonnet was up. Laughing fit to bust we then heard a huge pop and hiss from the front end. Quickly stopped and opened our bonnet. The turbo hose had come off. Seems I had not done the hose clamp up enough. Later that day, we’re steaming up a hill towards Lakelands and I notice a spray from the wing over my side of the screen again. Quickly stopping (this is becoming a habit) I find the bypass hose has blown off the Thermostat. I had not set the clamp far enough over the bulge on the thermostat fitting… We topped up and continued. At this point, there’s still evidence of the head gasket leaking but I fancy it’s reduced, either due to the take-up on the head bolts, or the Chem-i-weld. Who knows… Over the next few days we hunted on some stations and up some rivers, pushed up to the Haan River and then back down and across to Cooktown and back down to Cairns via Wujal-wujal, Cape Tribulation and the Daintree River. We lost clutch near the Daintree, master cylinder had lost fluid and my left foot was the recipient. We topped up and bled the lines. The Turbo hose blew off once more, and we noticed the reservoir cap woudn't hold pressure. It’d probably been stressed out, over pressurized during these last couple of weeks. We picked up a new one when we got back to Cairns and because we thought it had finally stopped losing water, we drained the Chem-i-weld and refilled with OAT red stuff coolant, after double checking the listing at the auto-store and finding that the TD5 is supposed to have red stuff. Couldn't get a master cylinder or kit by the time I left. I flew home on Sunday, Steve was joined by his wife for another two weeks. I’m yet to hear if the truck is holding up ok. I’m just sorting out an order for head gasket and top kit, bolts etc because I intend to get back there maybe next year, do the head job and complete the trip up the Cape. Ray.

And as for the build/assembly quality.... this is fresh out of the blue-box...

Wabbit, just as an aside, if you need a home for that KPH speedo, I'll take it off your hands for what you paid, plus your handling/Odo setting fee, plus postage to NZ if you want to get shot of it at some point. That way I'll have a backup if I blow it trying to doctor the VDO when it arrives...

I'm a Windows type, me, and only slightly micro-p savvy. Though I did do a hi-reliability hand-soldering course 30 years ago in the RNZAF!!! Ray.

Wabbit, I'm looking forward to you getting your Bus Pirate and posting how you use it, I've ordered one too. Just waiting for it and my VDO speedo to turn up. I had worked out that I need to set my Pulse Per Km rate to around 2400 based on my T/Case ratio, diffs, wheel size etc and was pleased to see that your KPH speedo had revealed a similar value. I will be able to set it through the push-button on the VDO, but I need the bus-pirate to set the Odo to my current distance. I was quoted $160 by a shop to do it and the Pirate is less than half that and should be a bit of fun! Good work guys! Ray.

Over here I think they'd have a conniption about it. I had The Kid driving hers without the VCU for a couple of weeks while I imported one, but I waited until after it had passed the WOF (MOT) before I removed it. Ray.

Yep, with those performance figures it's either already hugely over-geared, or got a severe power deficiency!

I think that idea around the blanking plate is that some have been worried that an over-attentive (@nal-retentive?) MOT inspector might take issue with a coupling sticking out without a propshaft attached. "'Ere, where's the rest o' your drive train then, Guv? I can't pass this motor wiv that lookin' like that. More 'n my jobs werf..." Ray.

Dare I suggest that the manifold is too light? What wall thickness is that tube? I suspect that as your manifold expands and contracts you're getting enough movement to cause stress failures, even with the strut under the Turbo. that strut is not going to stop the turbo moving in an arc as the manifold heats up and pushes it away and pulls it back as it cools. You may need a thicker walled tube, or an original cast manifold and a heavy adapter housing. My conversion uses an original cast manifold with a box welded up from 10mm plate to adapt to the turbo. It's Nissan engine and a Toyota turbo, but the issue being addressed is the same as what you are now dealing with. Great concept though, to retro fit a VGT, on yer!. Ray.

I'm interested to know why you're bothering to do this, are you after one of the particular ratios this t/case offers? The differential is fundamentally the same as that in the LT-230. Ray.

Ashcroft Transmissions have them. Ashcroft You can leave the t/c connected to the g/b and chassis. You drop the bottom cover for access to the intermediate gears, take the hi/lo selector housing off the top to allow removal of the entire front housing complete with diff and hi/lo gears. It's a mission, I'm sure there's a post in the tech archive covering it. I've always just dropped the whole t/c and done it on the bench... Then you can give it a full bearing and seal kit which are cheap enough. Have fun! Ray.

Certainly do the timing gear, and consider an after-market set like a duplex roller-chain. If you can get a tappet out for a look-see that will tell you if you need to do cam and tappets but don't replace either without replacing the other. Likewise your rockers and rocker-shafts. Pushrods, unless bent, are generally ok. If you're happy with the V8 then give it a good going over and it will continue to serve you well! My mate has a 110 just a bit older than mine, it has the two-piece doors with sliding windows. It's still the original V8, been running on LPG for the last 15 years, done about 320,000 k's with one major rebuild. I guess the motto is, "If you can afford to run it, enjoy!"

The Rover V8 is pretty forgiving. If it was starting easily, not burning much oil, had good oil pressure, you can get away with a top end only job. But if you have the time and the cash to do the bottom end too it will definately give you another quarter million k's. The distributor shaft/gear might warrant some attention by now. Ray.

With an LT-77 in 5th through a 1.667 t/c and 3.54 diffs your donkey is doing a tad over 3000 rpm at 55 mph. If you drop in a 1.410 gear set (you don't have change the whole t/c) you'll drop the revs by about 400 rpm and a 1.22 gear set will drop about 600 rpm. The gearset can be changed with the transfer case still on the vehicle. Ray.

I'd recommend somthing with a genuine Binzel handpiece on at least a 3m cable, duty cycle around 60% or better at max current, up to 180 amps, that'll do 0.6 to 8.0mm jobs, does both gas or gasless. Nice to have infinate voltage and inductance controls. Here in NZ, a reputable brand machine is around $1000. That's about 500 of your real, actual, genuine British pounds. Plenty of no-name ones to be had for half that on our local version of Flea-bay, but "ya gets what ya pays for..." Caveat emptor. Ray.