steve200TDi

If you say the break is on the half shaft and not the CV then you can remove the whole swivel/steering assembly of the end of the axle by removing the 7 12 pointed bolts. Then using a magnet etc remove the broken half shaft. I guess you will need to split the swivel to sort out the other end of the half shaft as they're normally a tight fit into the CV. Steve

It looks like a standard intercooler to me. So from the overboosting and maybe just life span of the intercooler it is starting to fail. It may have not split yet, but looks like it'll fail imminently! And yes a holed intercooler will reduced boost! Steve

This last week I've been playing with a new ebay purchase - a tyre changer. Read all about here: A week to go until the last round of the SCOR 4x4 comp safari series. Just need to made a gopro mount, adjust the kick down cable (ready to adjust at the track) and fit a few tyres. My Dad has also bought an L322 with a 4.4 V8 diesel, so we can test that out too Steve

Thanks for the tips, yep the bar is so much easier over levers. Yep, I know the core tip and also I learnt about fitting the valve tool to the inner tuber when fitting the tyre so the valve does get lost inside the tyre! Steve

With my Comp Safari racing, getting a puncture could be a common sight on race day and getting it sorted at a garage afterwards is a pain and a added expense! So I've been thinking about getting some form of tyre changing machine for a while now. I bought two tyre levers a while back, but just trying to change a tyre on the garage floor with your Dad standing on it isn't ideal, safe or easy! I thought about one of the old school tyre changing posts with a bead breaker would be good and wouldn't take up too much space in the garage. I then thought about buying a full on tyre changing machine, getting a cheaper one, but it'll take up so much space and wont get used that often. I went back to the tyre post idea.....you could buy a brand new manual tyre changer for £35 but I think it'll break the first time you use it! Last week an old school manual tyre change with a tyre lever and bead breaker came up on ebay locally and I thought I'd put a bid on it as I quite fancied it. The tyre levers along are £40 each so I thought it was worth it. I put a bid in of £55 and soon won it for £52! This was how it looked when I collected it. the chap (and advert) said it hadn't been used for many years and so would need a bit of a rebuild! He also talked me through how it worked. I knew there was a bead breaker and that the tyre sat on the top and was held in place by a locking pin. What I didn't realise was the bead breaker also held the wheel in place. As you can see in the photo to use the bead breaker you take it away from the lower bracket to use, but then the ram also pushes down on that bracket and pulls the central pin down to clamp the wheel in place. ( Hope that makes sense). I didn't know that it did this until the chap told me, so I was well impressed when I collected it! I proceeded to strip it down and give it a quick wire brush and clean all the dirt and cob webs off of it. The valve block just needed cleaning and freeing up, the cylinder worked fine and the central post that sits in the central tube needed freeing of too. Once it was all back together the plan was to bolt it to my trailer and have a play. Then if it worked I would then go about painting all the parts properly and make it look pretty! As luck would have it the bolt holes lined! So I was already to have a go. I had a wheel and tyre that the bead was already broken on so I used this first. So I used this end to remove the tyre. This end seems to be so much easier that a flat tyre lever and the bar is a lot stronger than the levers as the bar was not flexing! I then refitted the tyre just for practice. It took a while to get the right technique, but should get easier over time and I'ver ordered some of the proper tyre lube/soap/paste stuff so that should make it easier still. I then had a go with the bead breaker. In the past when I've used a high lift jack to break the bead it's always been a nightmare of a struggle, but this made it look easy! None the less I ended up with a garage full of wheels and tyres off rims. I can now mounted the tyres onto discovery rims to match that of the racer! All in all I'm well happy with my purchase and will strip it down again for some paint and relocate it on the trailer in a neater position over the winter. Steve

Yes, Facebook seems the place to see all the action. Well done Mike! It was the first outing right, so not back to finish and finish on the podium! Where's your next event? Steve

Who was the mate?! I might get him to fit mine! Steve

This is on the list of jobs for me too. I already have the heated windscreen and am thinking of making up the wiring harness myself rather than spending the £100 odd pounds buying one. Regarding the windscreen fitting, people say it's doable by a home diyer like us and I even asked a windscreen fitter if he would fit it and he said it's relatively easy and I should be able to fit it myself! There's also the worry of someone breaking it, so I will gather my courage up and fit it myself! There's yet another winter coming our way....will I get it fitted in time!...... Steve

So I'm not going or competing, but I'm sure someone must be going! So who's going? Who's entering? This is a que for pictures! Entrants and photos from the weekend. Lets see what we get Steve

I thought they were all the same and I've just trimmed mine down to suit. I think I bought them from newbury or Billing and there was a pile of them, chose 4 and bought them. Steve

Sounds good! I would enter if it was a little nearer and I was off that weekend. Steve

Yes, I haven't checked the rules, but my understanding is for a given course length the average speed should be below xmph and so giving you a minimum time the course length should be. The faster crews were coming in below this time and so changes had to be made. Yes reliability is good now, just need to work on my speed! Steve

Thanks Bowie, I will have to adjust it next time out! Yes I do still have a rangie shifter, I could look out for a replacement, although the fancy ones are quite expensive. Has anyone retrofitted one from another vehicle? With good results. I've been running in high box, so will check and adjust the shift point at the next race or sooner if I can find someone with some land to test on! Steve

So taking a vehicle that I've spent the last 9 months rebuilding and modifying straight to a comp safari with no testing and completing 11 out of the 12 laps with a minor mudflap issue, I think, is pretty good going! I drove it out of the garage to sort the last few bits out before loading it onto the trailer for Sunday. Bush farm was a new site over at Robertsbridge in East Sussex. The ground was grassy and damp in the morning so it made for a slippery morning or racing. The circuit was good with lots of wide open bits and tight bits between the trees. After the first 4 laps the course was closed as it was getting to fast for current MSA regulations and so some course changes were made adding some chicanes in to slow the course down. The course now included a tight C section down and up a steepish bank (kind of like the bank down by the A27 at Slindon). This progressively got more and more difficult to get up and by late afternoon when everyone was completing there last laps there were some failed accents. A few were me and because of the steep angle (and maybe my long mudflaps) I had no choice but to drive over one of my rear mud flaps causing the rear bracket to bend. I managed to get it home the first time and straighten it out in the pits, but the second time was more severe and had to stop on the track to straighten. After this we chose to DNF the 12th and last lap as it was just going to happen again! There was a high rate of reliability with only 2 vehicles falling short of the 12 laps. It was a lovely sunny day again, we truly have been lucky with the weather! The shocks did their job , but come mid afternoon it was getting bumpier again. Now the surface in the morning was damp cut grass with longish (growing) grass, (It made for very slippery slidey cornering!) and as the day went on the ground dried out and the grass disappeared. The ground was drying out with a washboard effect, I think, causing it to be bumpier. I have extended bump stops fitted and so I've already swapped to standard height ones for the next round as I don't know but the axle could be clipping the bump stop?... The car performed well, everything worked, nothing broke. I have already straightened the rear wheel arch bracket and trimmed the mud flaps. I've also fixed the rear view camera - the cable had come unplugged in the dash! The main thing I need to look at and maybe adjust on each lap at the next round is the kick down cable. I tried it low box and could hear it kick down when I had my foot to the floor, but I think it may have been to slow, but I tried it in high box and it wasn't really kicking down. Whether this is due to high box being too high, I'm not sure, but the engine wasn't revving as high as others! I had a look at the kick down cable and found you can pull it out until it stops then you can overcome some resistance and pull it out a little more. Now I'm guess this is the kick down bit and as far as the cable will come out, so this is where it needs to be adjusted too. But slackening this off will change your shift point right? I will also true doing manual gear selection at the next round too. So I'm pretty much ready for the last round over near Dover as I did all my repairs on Monday! Steve

It's been a busy couple of month, but in between all of that I've spent all the time on the Racer and now we're in good shape to take part at round 6 of the SCOR 4x4 Comp Safari. I've been fitting new rear arches and mud flaps, modifying the rear boot lid and adding new boot catches. It's now a half boot lid which may get changed over the winter to something more aesthetically pleasing! And I got the numbers on too! On the front I've got the engine/wheel well dividers installed, I used 2mm HPDE sheet and its great - I can cut it out with scissors! Also secured all the brake lines and painted the bonnet. I've also done the front wheel arches and mud flaps, but you'll have to wait for a final picture for that. Still a few bits to put back on the car, but we'll be racing! See you on Sunday! Steve

There will be a specified torque to tighten them too also, but I guess you know that having rebuilt it!

Excellent explanation Neil! Also a good write up here: https://www.aulro.com/afvb/projects-and-tutorials/66259-td5-cylinder-head-removal-how.html Steve N.B. I did try and explain in your other post Bob/Rob

Before you started taking the engine apart you should have bought a set of timing pins to insert in the required locations. The first in the lower bell housing and the second in the top of the cylinder head. 1. You can rotate the engine over using the front pulley, just be careful of the chain getting caught/bunched up. 2. Can't quite remember, but there could be some flats on the camshaft to use a spanner or adjustable to rotate it. It will jump round as it's still trying to push the valves down. 3. They can just be blanked off. 4. Yes. 5. I think that is one gasket as it's sort of a crush gasket. 6. Use two nuts tightened together to wind it in. 7. Carefully clean cylinder bores with a rag, but if they are badly rusted or dirty the sump and pistons may need removing. The cylinder head can be stripped down and cleaned in a parts washer. There are good how to guides on cylinder head installation as well as the Haynes manual. Steve

I guess first you need to find the cause of the leak! Is the washer being squashed evenly? Can you see if the mating face of the injector is flat? Or it could be the seat in the cylinder head which is dirty, scored, damaged etc. But if you do require new nozzles, best let a injector specialised do it as they can re shim them up to 200 bar opening pressure! Steve

Did you sort it?! Always handy to know the outcome/fix! Steve

Yes, I would try to avoid sitting the engine on it's sump. Maybe try and support it on each of it's engine mounts. The gearbox and transfer box are all solid, but as the transfer box drops down diagonally, it may need chocking with wood as the whole unit (engine ans boxes) may topple over! Steve

Initially it leaked from one of the output seals, but they happily sent out a replacement seal free of charge and it cured it. It's been running fine ever since. And after a couple of months they collected the old transfer box too. Steve

It's all a learning curve! I now have understanding that things may degrade for no apparent reason and is worth swapping things out. Now it's working I have no reason to fit megasquirt! I can continue improving and tweeking it! Hopefully at the next round I'll be running on 8 cylinders with a properly adjusted kick down cable and obviously new suspension! I can crack on with getting finished now! Thank you to all of your suggestions and things to try, I might take a bit more notice next time! Steve

I've just fixed my V8, it was the ignition amp - it may have failed or it was a poor earth. Steve

It'll forever be ingrained in my brain to check the ignition amp next time I have a problem. *Thank you for taking the time to quote all the times you said it! Steve