[I'm back]

Glad you are back and both on the mend.

 

[Could this be the understatement of the year?]

Since the shock cover either metal or rubber boot is only there to keep it clean I don't see how having it in place or not is any form of safety issue, from my experience the metal type of cover (seem to be older "standard" shocks) easily fill with dirt and rubber boots can do the same. I can see that having them might prevent some scratching, chipping or corrosion on the chrome rod so having them missing might reduce the life of the shock as the rod rusts but on the other hand being able to see the rod allows it to be checked easier. So long as the shock actually works I would just keep going and change it out when it fails.

As for which way up a shock should go I would assume it would depend on the make and type, I have generally fitted them with the body down but not for any reason other than that's the way I have always done it.

The axle bracket does seem like others have said a bit of a bodge to reduce the risk if a known problem with the axle happens, better to fit a properly welded axle, an axle should not snap like that unless it is being seriously abused, I have seen people snap the end off but it has always been the bolts failing after a big impact or the tube bending never a crack.

[Post your long-term feedback on paints / rustproofing / coatings etc,]

Not quite paint but thought people might be interested.

To keep machined parts rust free between stages in the workshop I bought a small drum of Castrol Rustillo rust preventative, its is advertised as a dewaterer / rust preventative, basically think in terms of a light version of waxoil, it leaves a thin waxy coat on the steel which cleans off easily with brake cleaner. to give it a not very scientific test I got two pieces of mild steel swarf, sprayed one with the rustillo and left them both out side the workshop for a month, the results are below. Considering the recommendation is that parts are dipped into the fluid and I used a spray (ex WD40 spray bottle), it is rated for indoor protection and the surface of the drill swarf is rough with lots of hard to reach pitting I don't think it did a bad job, the rust may well just be spots I didn't get good coverage on.

 

 

Another case of corrosion, this is the prop shaft off a yacht, 316 stainless, and as you can see a total right off due to corrosion, may well have snapped it actually used in anger, this was due to not being earthed back to the zinc's correctly. Main corrosion was just out side the sealing gland and where the cutlass bearing was running on the prop end (tapered at the top of picture) can clear be seen. The replacement was made with duplex, the prop also replaced as that was un healthy as well, the earth was fixed by the owner before they the boat was put back in the water.

 

 

 

[Not Landrover but nice truck]

15 minutes ago, Bowie69 said:

I'm assuming, that given the condition, it wasn't this one : 

Military truck in Taunton rams through police road block - BBC News

 

 

I was thinking the same thing!

[O/T scratch repairs, not on a LR]

Well just to close this out.

My boss agreed for it to be paid via my expenses, and then it started again, the link to a card payment option they provided goes so far and then spits out errors of invalid number refer to vendor, tried several different browsers and couldn't get past the error, never even got to the part where I enter the company card details, got a friend to try just to make sure I wasn't doing anything silly and he couldn't get any further either. They have no customer services number to call (probable to many complaints!), there online helps advise was talk to customer services as they didn't have a clue so not a lot of help, rung the bookings number to see if I could get transferred internally, they tried calling internally but couldn't get hold of anyone from customer services either and had no idea what to do, they suggested a couple of other numbers to call both of which rung out with no reply. Gave up and emailed customer services (copied in damages payment person so they were aware of the problems with there system) explaining the problem with screen shots and asking for a solution, got an automated reply and a case number nothing else.

Two weeks later no reply from customer services but got a demand for payment and a threat of unspecified legal action against me personally via a 3rd party collections agency if I didn't pay immediately. The only other payment option is a direct bank transfer to a German bank account Bank: Deutsche Bank IBAN: GB24DEUT40508119796509 BIC: DEUTGB2L, since its a corporate hire it needs to go on the company card and to the best of my knowledge its not possible to make this sort of transfer from a credit card, I don't have any access to the actual bank accounts to make a payment, if I pay it from my personal bank account they will get funny with expenses and probable reject it as they want everything to be paid via company card.

Don't want this on my credit rating so contacted one of our IT guys to see if he could work anything out, with him remoted into my PC he hit the same errors as I did, fiddled around with settings and still couldn't get anywhere, eventually he tried via his PC and changed some more advanced setting (no idea what its above my IT knowledge!) and managed to make the payment he said it wasn't easy.

It really shouldn't be that difficult for me to actually give them money and says something about them that its impossible to actually get any sort of reply from customer services on how to make a payment but you get threatened with legal action for not making the payment.

There didn't get a good write up on Trustpilot which added to plenty of other complaints, there rating is 1.4 on a scale of 1 to 5.

Rant over and I didn't even trigger the swear filter!.

[Transmission adapter clearance issue]

When I fitted at LS1 and 4L80e into a P38 RR using a LT230 transfer box I made my own adapter and when I mocked it all up on the floor found there were clearance issues, the adapter ended up pushing the transfer box back about 8 - 9" from the back of the gearbox I think and also ended up clocking it round slightly to give a bit more room. A normal diameter prop did fit just, but I acquired a thin solid prop and from memory fitted one half of that and then half a tubular prop which I adjusted the length on to get it to all line up.

It all worked fine in the end although there were plenty of other issues mostly to do with the P38 axles having the diff on the other side, which was solved by running the set up backwards with the engine behind the driver, which then involved turning the diff upside down and so on, it all got a bit involved!.

I did get an adapter secondhand during the build (Marks adapters in Australia??) but decided to keep the one I made instead, not sure if I still have it in my pile of junk spares, I am away from home at the moment but when I get back I will have a search and if I can find it will take some pictures, I think I have it bolted to a spare LT230, it is definitely quite long.

[Benches and Tools]

On 8/19/2023 at 4:59 PM, JeffR said:

In my distant youth I was a student mining engineer at a local colliery, in the big machine shop there was a (redundant by then) lath used for fettling coal wagon wheels, directly opposite at a height of 30ft or so was a 4 jaw chuck key embedded in the breeze blocks handle end first.  The machinist supervisor remembered its escape bid from when he was an apprentice.

 

When I was at school, (quite some time ago now!) we had wood work lathes which we used semi supervised, I expect this is not done much any more for HSE reason etc. We were all given a very strict talk about what to do and not do with threats of dire punishment or possible removal of body parts if we didn't follow the rules. Part of this was looking at a chisel embedded in the roof beam above the lathe as a demonstration of what could happen and how fast and hard the chisel could fly off, we were all given an opportunity to try and pull the chisel out of the wood which no body managed. At the time it seemed very real, now I wonder how the chisel got there and suspect it was hammered in and possible even secured in place out of sight from the top of the beam.

[O/T scratch repairs, not on a LR]

At work at the moment and been too busy to reply for a while.

Witnessing it getting checked on return wasn't an option, it was hired for me by the office via a corporate travel agent to go from home to a heliport to get to work, so I dropped it off in the afternoon after the office had shut and then flew out the following morning before they had opened. I know the company and travel agent are currently doing an assessment of various suppliers of travel, in many cases for flights etc there is no alternative but plenty of different hotels and hire car companies in most places so they are ranked in preferred suppliers. I don't (and probable never will) know the full results but my case and all the correspondence has been submitted and I have been led to believe this particular company is significantly higher in terms of lodging damage claims than others, with probable 10 hire car being used every week from different suppliers and a few long term hires all being picked up or dropped off at different home locations (although generally to or from airports at one end of the hire) you would think it would average out about the same when it doesn't it makes you think....

I absolutely should have taken pictures before and after but knew it was a long drive so wanted to get going and then was tired when I stopped, and to be honest didn't think about it at the time, I will now. We normally seem to use europcar and I have never had an issue with them, I had a broken indicator on one from a stone/object flicked up on a motorway a few year back, they charged me but it was honestly damaged so no complaint, the charge was on the higher side but not unreasonable, about the list price for the indicator plus a bit. Never had a claim like this before.

The cynical side of me wonders if the charge is set at a level where many people or companies will decide its not worth there time (and cost of that time) to investigate themselves or pushing back too hard and will just give up and pay.

Trying to make a charge for a car you never even collected is fairly obviously attempted fraud with an out for them of then blaming it on a computer / technical fault to wiggle out, if you had actually had the car it would have been more difficult to prove you hadn't done anything and frankly on a 6 month hire they is bound to be some sort of minor scratches of some sort, from other people walking past if nothing else.

At the moment this is with my boss, as he will have to sign it off on my expenses, I have done my best to appeal with absolutely no success and very little in the way of communications back other than "please pay this now", it is how ever me personally being billed and threatened with unspecified additional action being taken so not to happy. If it was a personal hire I would wait and see but I expect the office will agree to pay and again the cynic in me says this is what they count on.

[O/T scratch repairs, not on a LR]

A few replies to peoples points.

I appealed on the grounds I couldn't see any damage in the picture provided, direct quote from there reply "Upon reviewing the matter below, even though the damages are not visible on the photos below, the scratches can be seen on the vehicle when returned by one of our representatives.", so they admit no damage can be seen in pictures but still demand the money.

I wasn't there when it was inspected, it was dropped off in the airport carpark on there instructions and key dropped at there desk, from the time of my ticket for going into the car park to the time it was inspected was 4 days, so yes anything could have happened in-between, I questioned that and as far as they are concerned the hirer is responsible until they decide to pick it up or inspect it, I guess you might get somewhere if you could prove it happened after hire (good case for videoing the car when you drop it off) other wise it is up to the hirer to park it in a safe place if it gets damaged it wasn't a safe place so hirers fault.

With regard not actually doing the repairs they charge for, as part of the claim they sent me a package of picture of all the pre-existing damage, they claim I was given this at the hire, (according to the claims people every hirer is handed a package of photos of all pre-existing damage to check off on the vehicle and gets to keep it for reference when checking the vehicle back in again) I wasn't, although they attached a digital copy of my signature to it anyway, on that was this picture. Not only does this show what I would actually consider damage unlike the ones they sent me but they left the date on the top of the image. So it has been there for over a year not repaired, bet some one was charge for the repair though.

I have never had trouble with Enterprise either and would go there again, I won't name the company here, it was a corporate hire for work so not down to me, otherwise I might open the forum to trouble but I will say it is an international brand. I won't say what I think of them and there ethics either or the swear filter will be doing overtime!.

Separately what's a unit of frequency?........

This has seriously annoyed me and not done good things to my blood pressure, so mostly posting just to let off a bit of steam, I shouldn't be bothered to much as ultimately it will go in via expenses so its not my money but its still annoys me, at best its very poor customer service (there customer service is only available via email, they have no facility to actually speak to someone at all which is not good). It was a 9 hour drive, all but a few miles on motorway or duel carriageway, if they had claimed for a few stone chips on the bonnet I would have unwillingly admitted it was possible and paid up but I genuinely believe I did not do this, I just can't prove it (will get the phone camera going next time though at both ends of any hire), there attitude has been we are claiming it up to you to prove you didn't do anything not us to prove any damage even exists.

[O/T scratch repairs, not on a LR]

3 hours ago, smallfry said:

Apprenticed body and paint in the late Seventies, got out of as a job as I hated it. No idea on up to date prices really, but to touch it in doesn't really work as it can be seen usually, and I imagine a panel spray will cost north of £300 these days. 

I cant really see anything much with the photos, so they might polish out. There are also scratch concealing polishes which are not too bad.

Someone like Chips Away will give you an idea on price, but I can normally spot their work, and if you want it done, have it done while the weather is warm.

Is this a lease car by any chance ? They will have you bent over a barrel !

Yep its a hire car, and these are the best shot of the scratches they can provide, even they admit the can't be seen but "Upon reviewing the matter below, even though the damages are not visible on the photos below, the scratches can be seen on the vehicle when returned by one of our representatives." so basically cough up.

Just though I would see if anyone else could see them, they are charging me £420. I never saw the scratches and car was dropped of in the airport car park and left there for 4 days before they looked at it and then they sent the bill with this as proof. Seriously not happy but it appear I have to prove I didn't scratch it so looks like I will be paying eventually or have to take it to court which would likely cost more even if I won.

Anyone looking at hiring a car I would advice taking close up video before collection and after just in case, I didn't but wish I had.

[O/T scratch repairs, not on a LR]

This is completely off topic of LR so mods feel free to delete if you wish.

I know there is a lot of experience on here some in the motor trade so can any one say what is involved in fixing the scratches in the pictures and roughly what it would cost (commercial price), it is on a Kia Sportage and standard colour, no metallic etc.

The scratches are inside the white marker pen lines.

Front driver door

Passenger front wing

Passenger rear bumper

All estimates or comments are welcome!.

[O/T - - Decent boots with a side zip...]

We get issued Diablo ones from work, pretty comfortable. Normally a pair last me 18 month to 2 years depending on how busy work is and what job I am on, no idea of cost as they are issued. 

I have found them mostly water proof up to a few inches which considering I am often walking about in inches of oil based drilling fluid and rock cuttings isn't a bad thing, generally either the zip tab breaks off (paper clip through the remaining part keeps them going a bit longer) or the rubber sides start splitting from the leather where it flexes whilst walking, I rarely wear the sole down. Guess this would depend on what sort of use they get though, I am normally walking on steel decks either solid or gratings (not a place for anyone afraid of hights when you look down through the grating at a 200ft drop to the sea!) also there is often a LOT of steps depending on where I am, earlier in the year 16 flights each way to go for lunch or pee, after a while you are either fit or dead.

[Axle positions]

Just a thought, it looks like you have already made an adapter for the engine to gearbox, would it be possible to remove the Dodge transfer box and make an adapter for a LT230 transfer box, then it would drop the right way for the axles, I did this for the back of a 4l80e gearbox. Not sure how this would work with final ratio's but you can get different ratios of LT230's and the diffs so I expect it could be sorted somehow..

[New to me machine/toy]

As Blanco said essentially unbolt one and bolt on another, depending on specific machine you may need a sleave on the bolt so it all matches up. 

I have a Dixon type tool post, its what I would recommend although to be fair I have little experience with anything else so may be bias. There are multiple sizes depending on the size and spacing on your specific machine, I can explain but best to just google the sizes and measurement and work it out for you application. Once on it is literally seconds to change from one tool to another and the holders can be set to the correct hight for each tool, no shims etc, you cannot have to many holders!. The repeatability of position is good enough for most applications unless you need high accuracy. Tool holders are plentiful and not to expensive in the smaller sizes, I have tried a few Indian manufactured one, there aren't as good as the original or Bison ones and needed a bit of filing to fit well but again probable good enough for most purposes and considerable cheaper

[Steve200TDi Garage and new shed build]

There are a LOT of variables, so very difficult for anyone to give solid advice, quite a lot will depend on how high the wall will be, any existing slopes or ground conditions etc, etc. One thing that will be required (and is sometime missed) is decent drainage through the wall, if you effectively make a muddy pond the weight of water building up will do very bad things.

Now the safety bit no one likes, if it is going to support material from going onto some one else's property or a public space (pavement/road) then you really need to take qualified advice from someone on the ground (I expect several people on here who are involved in ground works could do that), otherwise if it collapses and someone gets hurt it will get very messy. Worst case you need to be able to stand in court and say it was safe to the best of your knowledge, advice from someone on a forum doesn't really count, advice from someone who visited in person and has relevant qualifications or years of experience does.

If it is entirely on your property then it easier as it's down to you, and any collapse would be your issue. Personally I tend to over engineer things so buttresses etc would be my way but it will add to cost, also possible if you support the shed on the walls or pillars then it would reduce any tendency for the walls to be pushed out by the weight behind them.

Hopefully there is an experienced builder on here that could give you some guidance, there are normally rules of thumb for these things, x high needs a base y wide etc but local soils and ground conditions will be a major factor.

[1/1.2mm Cutting Discs]

Guy I work with does blacksmithing when not away at work and did a comparison of different cutting disc's a while back, I though it was a youtube video along with a bunch of blacksmithing ones he has done but can't find it so might have been posted somewhere else, I watched it on his laptop.

He made a jig and then cut slices off a piece of steel with the same pressure and compared speed / reduction in diameter / cost. There was quite a range in speed and wear and they didn't tally with cost very well. He ended up making a table and working out a cost per mm of steel cut (wearing the disc to a set diameter), the ones he found best for economy were "BlueSpot" ones.

I think it was done a few years ago so don't know how prices have changed since or if anything new has come on the market since but it was interesting to watch.

I still have a stock of other ones but plan to give them a go when I order some more.

[Wheel spacers - wheel stud/bolt]

16 hours ago, landroversforever said:

Not all, but then they will usually have a washer type thing on the wheelbolt instead.

From what I have seen most alloy wheels are designed to use a different type of bolt/nut, steel wheels usually have a taper on the nut bearing onto at tapered hole in the wheel, alloys usually have a nut with flat face with a washer bearing on a flat face on the wheel.

I am sure there are plenty of cases where this is not the case with multiple variations for specific cases and if they are coming from the car maker then I assume they are tested and safe, mixing aftermarket stuff can get messy as to whether it is safe or not but then the same is true for fitting all after market stuff so make your own mind up.

[Whitworth BSW Taps]

Sorry got it wrong above, not selling any more of the 9/16-12 taps, got a few more 5/8-11 to move on but not that many, loads of the smaller sizes though.

[Whitworth BSW Taps]

Few set gone now, I am down to only a few 5/8-11 taps and I want to keep what's left of them for myself, all other sizes still available though.

[Whitworth BSW Taps]

 

One for the series people or just general fixers.

I bought a job lot of Whitworth BSW taps and got a few more than I was expecting or every likely to need!.

Most of the standard sizes and a few odd ones as well

 

Since there are more than I am ever likely to use if anyone wants any let me know via PM. 

I have  1/8 - 40, 5/32 - 34, 3/16 - 24, 7/32 - 24, 1/4 - 20, 9/32 - 20, 5/16 - 18, 3/8 - 16, 7/16 - 14, 1/2 - 12, 9/16 - 12, 5/8 - 11

All are used but seem in generally good condition, certainly usable, some sizes there are more of than others.

I was thinking £2.20 to cover postage (Royal Mail 1st class) and then 50p per tap and finally a £1 donation to the forum per lot after you have them.

 

Mods I have put this in tools section but if you think it should be in the for sale section instead feel free to move it.

[EV conversions]

Just a thought but if you repower a LR with an electric power system how easy is it to get the registration changed so it shows as zero emissions for the purposes of lower (0?) VED/road tax rate and access to the various low emissions zones in cities etc. I know getting some changes registered can be difficult at times.

I think for re-power kits to be anything other than an oddity for wealthy people the kits will have to be less than £10 thousand in kit form, ideally a lot less, I can't see this at the moment but I guess as Tesla's etc get older and get crashed more donor parts might get easier to come by and someone will either rebuild them into something suitable or supply the parts for other people to do it. Not sure what the regs would be on getting a home built electric vehicle through an SVA or similar, at a guess the power connections / battery management stuff would need to be signed off by someone professional, I know many people could do it safely but you only have to look back at some of the kit cars in the 80's that people made in there driveways (and some scary LR's as well) to know that some people should not be let near a spanner but will try anyway.

[EV conversions]

16 minutes ago, landroversforever said:

How do you know where the end of it is at a given time? And which way it’s pointing? 

Tool in the string normally about 30ft behind the bit which we can trigger to take a survey giving inclination and azimuth with a high degree of accuracy, once it takes the survey it pulses the data to surface, we drill with a flow of drilling fluid (mud) down the string, a valve in the string causes an obstruction which increase the pressure at surface, we decode the resultant pulses to get the survey. Add all the surveys up down the well and with enough maths you get the final position. Normally steering uses a steering head directly behind the bit with ribs, I tell the steering head what to do in terms of how much force to apply on a specific vector by pulsing a signal back down the string with negative pressure pulses by diverting a set amount of flow at surface. We pre programme the steering head with a quite extensive set of possible instruction, sync the surface gear and then just send the best option, the electronics in the tool then decide the pressures to actually apply to each rib. The steering head, survey tool and the power/pulse unit are getting on for £1 million, we normally also have a series of other tools attached for measuring various geological information and they can cost similar amounts of money each.

[EV conversions]

A lot of this will come down to economics, currently there is an undeniable shortage of supply (and potential reserves) of various products required for batteries or motors, this will mean they get more expensive (demand and supply economics), once the price goes up it will be financially worthwhile to invest in ways around it, either more actively finding new sources, better ways of extracting them or finding alternatives, some of these won't end up working long term, others will. I work in oil drilling, there were predictions in the 70's North Sea oil would only last 25 years, its still going long after that, some of this was finding more but a lot was technology, oil fields drilled 30 years ago but written off as to difficult to drill are now being drilled and produced, from my side of this, thin twisted reservoirs used to be unviable, but now we are drilling and turning the well accurately enough to put enough hole in the reservoir to make them viable. To give some idea of current technology I drilled a well earlier in the year and at the end was just over 2ft from the planned position, to envision this, bury a car in the ground in any orientation and we can drill a hole 4 miles long and turn the path to line up and drill through it length ways, 20 years ago that just wasn't possible, now we do it regularly. Similar improvement will come about with required materials for EV vehicles, but on what time line I have no idea, its not likely to be quick.   

At the moment most EV cars are roughly  150-200% more expensive to buy than a similar new ICE model so it takes a bit of work for them to be viable for a lot of people, sure this will change as some of the products are mass produced and become cheaper or alternative systems of some sort are invented. National grid infrastructure is not currently up to providing the power to charge a nations worth of EV's, again it can be fixed but will require some serious money and investments in generation and cable running. How this is got into vehicles when no off street parking is available will require even more investment, again nothing that can't be fixed if enough money is thrown at it.

For renewable electricity generation to upscale and start being a realistic alternative to traditional generated power, some form of mass energy storage will be required, if I knew what form that is going to take I would be investing and making lots of money, unfortunately I don't, again economics will likely be the driver to investing and coming up with something. The basic idea is not new, I am sure I have read about a project somewhere where from quite a few years ago they pump water up to a reservoir during low demand and then let it back down via a turbine during the peak demands.

[New to me toys]

There were some cheap mills going near me last week, auction of a local machine shop that went bust. couple of Bridgeports for about 1000 each, two KRV 3000 in good shape only went for about 700 each (plus VAT), if I had any where to store them and power them (KRV300 is a 5hp motor) I would have been tempted to put a bit in. Couple of Triumph  2000's with taper turners only went for 1500 each. They need to be shifted out the workshop and loaded by the buyer and were down in the SW which I assume must have put people off, I had expected a dealer would have bid more than that just to move them on. I got a few machine vices, a bunch of acytal and a couple of lots of random duplex bar.

[LT230 tc grinding and clunking noise]

If the UJ is making a clunking noise in one direction at least one of the bearings have failed, with the prop shaft off have a check on each of the,. I suspect you will find there will be movement in one. Replacement UJ's don't cost to much and relatively light so shouldn't  cost to much postage either if you are getting it shipped in, they can be a bit fiddly to change but shouldn't stress any mechanic.