RearEngined

Have located a tidy 4 HP-22 which comes with a traceable history to prove it was working ok in that i once drove the car, sold it and the new owner stupidly crashed it a few weeks later. The price is very reasonable (the owner just wants shot of it). I'm thinking it'll serve as a spare to hand for my offroader. Problem is it's ex a BMW car so how compatible is it and is swapping over adaptors etc to allow mounting of the transfer case a simple process? I am assuming here the torque converter performance will be different and will the gear ratios be totally wrong for a 4WD Rangerover setup? Thanks... Pete

OK so today i disconnected the rear driveshaft at the diff and raised the front wheels. All wheels drive through the diffs so no broken axles as far as i can tell (i have had plenty of experience here with ordinary cars). The transfer case rotated properly in H and N plus in L without any nasty jams or massive clunks (although it was as expected hard work in L compared to H and N). The only thing i noticed was the huge (i feel) amount of backlash in the whole system on the diffs and in the transfer case. The output for the rearward driveshaft (the flange) is loose as hell in the transfer case i.e. i can rock it side to side and up/down more than i would have thought possible. I've never worked on Rangie stuff so what i am getting the feeling of is that the system is truly on the worn side but still working. It would not pass on a classy RR of this year and model but on this hard case machine who cares. Re-attached the rear driveshaft and following Bowies procedure selected the transfer case through the 3 stages. This time things worked and in L i now understand how the machine has immense torque being fed to the wheels for use at slow speeds and therefore low engine revs... The main ZF trans wasn't as hot as when i had the machine at the beach last and the trouble last occurred so i'll test it again once in that situation. It's possible the trans is in need of help.... Thanks for the guidance and help guys.

Yes, selecting main transmission into neutral (engine not running). Engine not running and handbrake off or the transfer shift remains locked. Once in 'N' or 'L' and the engine fired and running selecting 'D' just results in grinding nasty expensive noises for both 'N' or 'L'. and no movement. although i don't want to rev things as i do not want to destroy something half broken! Incidentally this is done on hard wet ocean beach sand which i hope is more giving than on normal tarmac where I certain something will explode if i bring the revs up.... As this stage I'll disconnect the rear drive driveshaft. Raise the front wheels off the ground (axle onto stands) and see what how this feel rotating the transfer case handbrake drum...

Just a quick question everyone. While i am not 100% familiar with the Classic RangeRover 'setup' when it comes to gear selection and actual resulting operation my machine has recently shown signs it is not happy. OK, this is the only automatic 'oldschool Rangie' i have ever driven so i am not that experienced in what it should be doing (which is kind of dumb really i know). This is my road-legal rear engined offroader with the transmission and transfer case selectors turned round. At this stage i could simply go buy a wrecker's (breaker's) ZF and BW and take a gamble they are ok and swap them over. The main trouble is that when shifting the transfer case 'H' provides drive. 'N' and 'L' when shifted to (which can only be achieved with the engine shutdown and handbreak off) results in a nasty grinding noise, no movement and loadup on the trans once the engine is running. Obviously something has grenaded inside. (Interestingly in soft sand things go very 'screwie' as the machine tries to pull side to side while in "H") so most beach driving is done on hard sand and the problem doesn't occur on the highway. My thought here is that a mostly failed transfer case is no longer transferring torque to the diffs properly...? My last bit of advise i need is should i simply 'invest' in another rebuilt exchange 4HP-22 and LT230 (13-61-005) and be done with it (= big dent in bank balance)? The engine and diffs are fine. Sorry to sound like an utter newbie but yuh need to learn at some point.... Thanks.

Things now fixed i hope... Here's a not a very good video...

Yes! Hello Mike.... I have just been given a message from a very meaningful person that my Photobucket album is wide open revealing way too much info of a personal nature such as email, phone number contacts etc. I guess that's where i know more about playing around with engines and electronics than using websites. I'll work through fixing links in the next few minutes.. but as a Newbie to this Forum it 's starting to look like things are a bit of a lost cause now. SORRY FOLKS is all i can say... What i need is to access the previous posts and replace the links with new 'uns which i guess only a Moderator can do... I feel a right plonker... I know i should really post them directly here but as a Newbie i don't want to go filling your servers up with rubbish!I've never had trouble with Photobucket until now as well.

The most basic description: entire axles flipped over (front steering 'kuckles' rotated 180 on end and remounted in newly drilled and tapped mounts). Flipped rear axle mounted to chassis using same system as front axle (turned round). Rangie fuel tank upfront and a big fat aftermarket alloy radiator. Part of the engine in the rear and putting it's weight across the rear axle goes a lot towards being so useful in sand.

That's what my local LR and Rangie wrecker says, pity about the body! He was amazed at our first meeting with the huge amount of work that someone has put into it. I too still take my hat off to the builder, an ex-pat Brit whose now living in NZ. The body is the remains of a 1941 Willys and bit's of recovered Mahindra!!!.... (or is that where i should be washing my mouth out using such words here)? The engine pic is my work sorting out cooling and tidying up nightmares like leaking power-steering and blocked trans coolers. Here's some more pics... (apologies if they are displaying too large)...

Hmmmm, i am starting to worry now (real worried) about that entire added-in 150 x 150 stepped box cross member. This has been welded into a cutdown (shortened) Rangie chassis. (The engine being moved to the rear meant the forward section of chassis where it originally 'lived' wasn't needed anymore). I'm wondering just how theoretical maximum loads from winching will be distributed and whether the entire 6mm thick 150mm x 150mm piece could ever effectively peal/break away from the chassis once the winch/recovering mounts are correctly made and correctly attached to this new cross-member. If the truck was a genuine competition winching truck it'd be a full review of the entire front cross-member (down to how it should be tied into the chassis) and i'd expect that Safety Scrutineers at any event would pick up on this very quickly and give me a short sharp shift). I've bought a machine full of someone else's 'designs' which has at least met the really stringent Complience Rules for low volume motor vehicles for New Zealand so it can at least be used on the highway. Thanks for everyone's input so far. As i've said, it all helps and i want to make certain what work i do is correct because one day the machine might belong to someone else and i don't them to have to mess around sorting other people's dangerous mistakes...

There's a full bash bar that has a 'foot' 65 x 65 slotted box section that sits down into that 150 x 150 step and bolts on. There are fairlead mount clearances in that which i will fettle once the winch is in its proper mounted SAFE place. This is (was) all fabricated by the previous owner but never completed. My main use for this road-legal machine is to access the local wild and desolate ocean beach for surf-cast fishing (my other hobby) which includes traveling over some pretty rough ground. Some of the sand dunes section (the 'Bombing Range' was once used just for that when New Zealand had an Airforce. Some days the Army closes the area for live firing training). The fishing is brilliant though. With the 3.9 V8 now in the rear on what is a shortened down Rangie chassis and running gear i really want to make sure things are 'right' because i certainly don't want them going wrong so far from help.

Thanks for the advice. I'll be making a full review of things. Someplace i was given the completely wrong advice... A little about the machine: It is a jeep body but the rest is all RR with the V8 in the rear and the diffs flipped.... !!!

Yes, this is the precise honest response i needed, so thank you. Back to the drawing board and i'll be buying a fist-full of cutoff wheels to remove those tabs to make way for a full plate...

I have added a winch (and second hook) as per safety requests but the question has arisen from a fellow Offroader who has suggested that i will soon crack out the welds on the two 6mm plates which have been attached to a 6mm 150 x 150 box section. I've said that what will more likely happen is the cheapie winch from China will break it's case etc before any welds are going to let go... What are your opinions, considering the 'truck' is not used competitively, or that winching will ever be done in 'anger'. The step forward of the winch is for the base mount of the main bash bar system and a forward section of the tabs are a tight sliding it onto it. Here's a picture:

Excellent information, thank you gents.... my last quandary is polarity on the transducer. Unfortunately the wrecker failed to supply me the plug and a piece of loom (i foolishly forgot to ask for it) so that i can connect up to the transducer (even for bench testing) to prove if this unit is reliable. I will hunt one down soon however for now can i please ask which pin of the two receives the +12v directly, (the rough pulses obviously coming from the other). I have included a closeup photo and made it 400x600 but it seems to have been auto-enlarged here so i apologise... The updated speedo is part project sorting my offroader to have a much more accurate readings on everything. At present it's at least 20kph out using the iPhone App GPS Speed as a rough comparison, the fuel guage read E when full etc. The guage i will use is a part of set from VeeThree. Very cheap (7 gauges plus sensors = NZD$400) and hugely 'programmable' but i may need to add a small circuit to clean up the transducer pulses hence wanting to do a few bench tests. I've read and seen other websites showing folks who've already done such a mod using the RR VDO electronic gauge because they were fitting it into a RR. My machine's interior has nothing that is RR. The entire cluster set will mount on a single aluminium panel which i am having laser cut.

OK my first question i hope someone can help me. The speedo in my "WillysRR" is not accurate. A search has mentioned that substituting the speed transducer YBE100540 or AMR1253 into the LT230 TransferCase for the flexidrive cable will produce a pulse signal. Does anyone have any info on what that signal is please ie what amplitude and what connection polarity needs to made. The speedo i will be using is made by VeeThree. The other query is, should the spigot centre piece of the transducer that contains the square shaft tip be uncaptive? The unit pictured is an early AMR1253 which is i fear quite worn, supplied by a wrecker (breaker) here in NZ.