Forkliftfred's Quarantine garage. Cleaning, painting etc

Anyone else get hit with the "blood rain" the other week?



My new new ECU arrived from House of Torque, Immobiliser removed and remapped to around 220 bhp along with my new standalone wiring harness to suit and new gaskets for the axle tube ends and the diff cover.



New front axle stub shafts (for the rear), new rear discs and one new drive flange 'cos I had to cut the other one off.



New bolt on rear caliper brackets.



I mock assembled everything and measured how far the half shafts engaged into the rear diff. I calculated them to mesh at about 36mm. With everything removed, I measured the splines on the end of the shaft and fully engaged they are 40mm. I suspect that even on a standard set up they wouldn't be fully engaged as the end of the splines is tapered and they would have some "float". Everything assembled again, I measured the rear caliper to disc interference. I neglected to take pictures of this but I worked out the raer calipers needed to be spaced away from the rear discs by 3mm. So I rescued some 3mm plate from the scrap bin at work, made a CAD template and made two of these.



They have been left un-painted as I wanted a good fit to the axle flange and the caliper brackets. All mounted up and torqued, it looks like my measurements were good. The discs runs centrally to the caliper and turns without chaffing.









I took the gearbox/transfer box out of the Defender and put it up for sale. Standard method of using an engine crane through the doormade easier in this case due to the lack of interior fitted.



While I had the engine crane out, I mocked up the engine with the P38 bellhousing fitted, the Discovery R380 gearbox and the transfer box I rebuilt over a year ago.



Because the input shaft of the Discovery R380 gearbox is longer than the one used in a P38, I will need to make up a spacer between the bell housing and the gearbox. I make it around 16mm.



I have been reconsidering my gearbox decision and have been looking at maybe using a manual BMW 6 speed one. Apparently my engine is called a narrow block as it's from a 3 series. 5 series cars would have had a wide block so I need a HGA box which is a bit of a Unicorn or a GS6 37DZ which I think is from a 120d. The problem is, this code is printed on a white sticker which generally fades with age or get's cleaned with harsh chemicals which make it unreadable. There are numbers cast into the casing but no-one seems to be able to identify from them. It would be nice to have 6 gears and it would be able to handle the power from the engine. The Landy box is called an R380 because it's rated to handle 380 newton torques. The M57 will be delivering more than that. I don't want to feel like I need to hold back when driving for fear of killing the box. Also I have no flywheel or clutch for either box and I would prefer to only buy one once!!!! I would have to buy or make an adaptor to make the BMW box fit the transfer box (currently around £800!)

My options are;

R380 5 speed will possibly break
P38 bellhousing (already bought)
BMW flywheel and custom clutch (around £600)
Will need to make a gearbox spacer


BMW 6 speed should be good for the increased power
Bolts straight up to engine
Can use standard 330d flywheel and clutch (around £300)
Will need expensive adaptor to use transfer box (I think I would make one)
Would need to make a selector

I've been giving the Disco of dailyness some love over the weekend. I took advantage of the fantastic weather and did some cosmetic work. Starting with respraying the faded plastic wheel arch spats and the front grille.







And then polishing the headlights as the MOT tester advised them as having reduced intensity.



After that I spent over an hour wrestling the old windscreen hinges off  the Defender and replacing them with solid aluminium blocks.



I bought some "T" profile aluminium strip to reinforce the cut I made in the Defender roof (over a year ago ) and to try and hide the join.







While that was clamped up and drying I went round the inside join with the seam sealer too.



Then I fibre-glassed the step on the rear of the roof to A. waterproof it and B. smooth out the step between the two roof sections. I ran out of resin More has been ordered.

What did you use to paint the Discovery bits? The wheel arch pieces on ours have faded and gone 'bobbly'.

Still plodding along on this. I made the decision to swap to a BMW gearbox (specifically a GS6 53DZ HGA). One was found down in Portsmouth. The seller strapped it to a pallet and sent it up to Essex. The R380 Landy box was sold along with the P38 bell housing. The new gearbox was bolted to the engine and I mocked up the position of the transfer box on the box.



The BMW gearbox is on the left and the transfer box is on the right. I've butted up the input shaft to gauge the spacing. I've now dropped it round to a local Engineering company who are going to join the BMW output flange and the Landy input shaft together.



I've got it all balancing precariously in the air as the transfer box needs to be "clocked". It actually sits at around a 45 degree angle compared to the gearbox. I'm hoping to get it mounted back in the car around the standard position so I don't have to mess around with having new driveshafts made. Once the new gearbox shaft is made, I will be able to work out the spacing and make up an adapter from there.

While the shaft is away being made, i've been tackling other jobs. Rusty door frames.







Carefully opened the folded over door skin, cut out the rot and welded in new repair sections before carefully folding the door skin back over the primer and seam sealer to protect it all.







Unbelievably, this is the best door! I spent ages trying to get the panels gaps somewhere near acceptable. Then stepped back and saw this.....



What an ugly duckling0

They came as part of a job lot of Landy parts I bought. I have just order some more from Ebay so we will see how good the quality is when they arrive.

Do you mean from a Landy or a BMW? Many people use the engine and 4WD gearbox from the X5.

I wss thinking of one of these.




But looking at your recent pics the gearbox output shaft spline is larger.

Progress on the adapter has been hampered by failing equipment. The gas valve in the torch of the welder was leaking gas through without the trigger pulled so a new one was ordered. I got it fitted up and found the earth lead had almost fractured through and was burned and only hanging on by a few strands. So that got cut back and re-terminated. I neglected to take any pictures of this. Then I discovered the regulator on top of the bottle wasn't regulating any more. The pressure gauge was at max! So another regulator was ordered and fitted. With all that done, it's back up and running again. Got strengthening ribs added in and I made some ears on the top to add extra mounts either side of the selector. My welding improved a little after I turned up the wire speed.





As it is destined to live under the car between two gearboxes, I guessed access to it might be difficult once the engine is in, so it got painted with some brush on zinc coat, then the welds were covered in seam sealer, finally a couple of coats of matt black paint.







Still fits and I have access to all the bolts. I guess mounting the whole assembly in the car is the next job. I should be able to use one original transfer box mount so i'll have to fabricate one for the passenger side and then i'll need to make two engine mounts.

Haven't read your thread for a while, some super updates - those seats look a marked improvement. Good to have her indoors too, as you say.

How much of your shopping list did you manage to get?