JayHoe's '72 2.25 88" rebuild

[justMike]

nude........sheesh....

she looks like she's being worked on by someone who gives a chit...

loadsa seatbox bolts I can handle... thanks for the heads up re the handbrake... I'm toying with the idea of swapping levers for a Defender one... original ribs against my leg when driving leaving disconcerting rust stains, invariably when I'm done up like a dawgs dinner t meet clients..

The Defender box weighs a ton... serious brace n lift territory.. all steel construction, and heavy gauge at that...

still toying with the idea of galvanising it prior to paint... need to get the fabrication finished first...

 

[JayHoe]

Had some satisfying fun this afternoon. Took the upper dash off. I released the instrument binacle and worked my way around endless assorted screws (nearly all different ).

When I removed the upper dash the desperate corrosion on the top rail could be seen very easily - it is amazing it held together at all - LOL. The main metal panel of the dash is in excellent condition, just some surface rust and should clean up almost as new.

As for my pile of spaghetti... I am planning to install entirely new replacement looms. Therefore, I was thinking that instead of disconnecting all of the cables, I should cut them all - the existing loom is going to be binned anyway. This would mean that I have correct colour wires on correct terminals which would aid in the rebuild. What do you all think of the idea??

Anyway, some pics for today...


1. Binnacle pulled forward showing first glimpse of wiring
2. Upper dash removed
3. Top rail corrosion
4. Close up of top rail corrosion
5. Back of upper dash
6. Front of upper dash
7. Mmmm, spaghetti!

Anyway, that's me done for today. Its my Birthday, and we are ordering out for some chinese and having some drinks with a few friends. See y'all soon!

 

[matt d]

Your bulkhead looks good, good job you have a new one.
Leave the wiring as complete as possible, you should be able to take it all out in one piece with it all still connected to the instruments. Don't worry about the loom going to the back. Thats easy to figure out. Fitting the new loom is quite straightforward then but I went through the wiring diagrams bit (Some things weren't correct on mine).

 

[justMike]

the existing loom is going to be binned anyway. This would mean that I have correct colour wires on correct terminals which would aid in the rebuild. What do you all think of the idea??

In all honesty Joe... you're right... to a point...

new loom = new copper and there's no substitute for that with electrickery... however... replacement to original spec means the same lousy components, same lousy build quality leading to the same dawgs dinner shoe-horned in behind the instruments...

Putting that lot to rights takes time and expense... whether or not it's justified is a judgement call that you yourself will have to make... As a wireman by professio, I couldn't tolerate the original shoddy connectors any longer... I'm gradually replacing the loom one section at a time. Making that decision liberates me to use far higher spec wire and connectors that all but eliminate any chance for the more common electrical failures...

 

[JayHoe]

"As a wireman by professio, I couldn't tolerate the original shoddy connectors any longer... I'm gradually replacing the loom one section at a time. Making that decision liberates me to use far higher spec wire and connectors that all but eliminate any chance for the more common electrical failures..."

Mike,

fancy nipping down from Aberdeen! The electrics is the biggy that I am nervous of. I understand what you are saying, and I would love to upgrade the electrics, seperate fuses etc. However, I am not a wireman and thinking about wiring leaves me in a blue funk!!!

Unless I can think of another solution, a ready made loom is the only option I can take. You mention failures, but is that generally while off roading etc? I haven't had any electrical problems so far despite the cobbled together bits of wire in places (e.g. half dozen 3-4" strips connected up instead of one 18" piece of wire!!!)

Would it help to solder each connection? Help!

 

[justMike]

John... the standard loom lasted you this long despite some pretty extreme lookin burgery by someone who had more enthusiasm than know how... with a bit of time and effort but MINIMAL cost, there's a lot you can do to improve things...

single most influential thing you could do is loose the damn Lucar connectors for something that's water tight... I really pushed the boat out with HRH's connectors, but there's no real need to go to that expense. even the simple application of nail varnish, followed by vascilene (once the varnish has cured) will go a LONG way towards keeping water out of the wire, thereby slowing the onset of corrosion (it's impractical to try to rule it out altogether...)

Honestly John... there's nothin there to worry about... simple circuits needing simple improvments to bring them up to spec...

I'll post more about it tomorrow...

 

[JayHoe]

That would be great Mike. I would love to read that. It would probably be a good idea to start a thread on electrics - I am sure I aint the only one who has concerns in this area.

Cheers again.

 

[White Fox]

Regarding your wiring, in my experience the messy bits are at the back and front going to all the lights, we replaced ours using multicore trailer wiring cable. Utilising the standard trailer wiring colours as much as possible.

The wiring in the dashboard will normally be fine.

You should really look at getting rid of all the lucar connectors, I found it easiest to use solder joints covered in heat-shrink tubing. You can get heatshrink with glue inside, which makes it totally waterproof.

WF

 

[JayHoe]

Fox that sounds interesting. Do you have a link to the sort of connectors you are talking about? So do you think that for *me* the solution is to by a pre built loom/harnesses and then just attempt to 'upgrade' the various connectors?

Thanks for your help on this guys.

 

[justMike]

John.. as I said, the connectors I've selected cost a fortune each (8 pieces to buy for each mating pair), but given the spec of wire I've elected to use, for me, the spec makes sense... I'd had a belly-full of maintainence and replacement issues that were all fairly easily preventable had any thought been put into the long term survival of the original loom...

that said... there's a lot you can do to prolong the use of the original spec loom, and similarly, a lot you can do to preserve it; it's all a matter of time and budget...

The connectors I've used are Harting Han E series (available through RS, Farnell et al), totally proof against anything that can happen under the bonnet up to and including a mild fire; splash and immersion aren't issues I need to worry about. The main advantage of this series is that once assembled, the contacts are housed in a cast aluminium housing, the housing is quickly disconnectable (for isolation or disconnection purposes) and ideal for diagnostics.

I'm working on a more detailed electrical post... I'll link to it when posted...

 

[White Fox]

Fox that sounds interesting. Do you have a link to the sort of connectors you are talking about? So do you think that for *me* the solution is to by a pre built loom/harnesses and then just attempt to 'upgrade' the various connectors?

Eliminating 'Lucar' connectors.

There are no connectors to buy.

All you do is strip back 10mm or so of each wire.
Tin each end with solder.
Cut a length of heatshrink about 30mm.
Slide on the heatshrink tube and push it further back up one of the wires.
Hold the two tinned ends together and heat with soldering iron till the solder flows between them.
Let it cool.
Lastly slide the heatshrink over the joint, and use a heat gun or lighter flame to shrink the tube over the joint.

Tools required:
Wire cutters
Soldering iron
Solder

Equipment required
Heatshrink (you can get heatshrink with glue inside - ideal for anywhere it might get wet)

With a bit of practice it is easy, and it's never going to fail.

WF

 

[biosbill]

Good work Jayhoe, you look to be at almost the exact same stage as me, but my bulkhead is free aside from the steering. Be prepared for those damned sills, they are a real pain!

As for the wiring, have been looking at loads of different connectors nd looms, and am going for the build my own loom from high grade thinwall, just seems so much better specced and more space saving, mines on trailer cable too, nd will be left on that to the back, but the front Ill make the loom. As for connectors will be going for something similarly expensive but good quality.

 

[JayHoe]

Thanks for the info Fox, and I appreciate the advice guys. Mike I like your electrics article and by the sound of it, your connectors are gonna be a bit too pricey for me I think!

Bill, ho hum, back to the sills today I think - LOL Good luck with the loom.

 

[justMike]

your connectors are gonna be a bit too pricey for me I think!

thanks for the comments on the article..

it could be bias talkin here, I donno, but I reckon the advantage electrics have over mechanical options is that there's literally dozens of ways to do the same thing... after fighting an already shot loom for over 14 years, I'd had a gutfull of Lucas issues... So I opted to go for a no compromise loom that was designed from the ground up for safety, reliability, ease of maintainence and simple to fix in the field... Provided I just have a Swiss army knife, I can change any part of the electrics under the bonnet and connect them securely enough to get me home where I can throw proper tooling at the job...

I'll be honest, I've spent more on wire and connectors for the job than some fold spend on buying their vehicle, but I'm not after cheap "it'll do" motoring... I intend to keep HRH for many years to come; the loom and connectors should (if I manage to look after them) last as long as the chassis...
That said, my way is by no means the only way... far from it... Specifying a loom is all about assessment... what the compromises are, which ones you can live with, what tooling you need to carry "just in case"... You can certainly achieve a very respectable loom spending little more than the cost of a new replacement, simply soldering the Lucar bullets and water-blocking the connections... But that leaves you stuck with the problems built into the original loom, problems I was no longer prepared to put up with...

Case in point... why should a radiator panel removal job have to start with disconnecting the wiring to both wings...?? It's nuts... With my loom, I don't have to; the only wiring near the rad panel is for the horns, while each wing now has its own loom running from the large connectors on the bulkhead...I can disconnect the electrics in both wings without having to mess with their connections... takes 2 secs per wing... and the same to remake the connections...

 

[JayHoe]

Good idea about the wing wiring - forward planning!

Well, I got back in there for a while this afternoon (I have to go out to work shortly). I pondered the OS sill again and was thinking about grinders (!!!) and then thinking about a fuel tank inches away After a while, I thought I would go back to the NS and see what I could do. I managed to get a couple of the sill plates bolts out and then drilled the rivets out of the chequer plate, got that and the sill plate off, just leaving the little stubby sill end and the sill frame. I then decided to take a cold chisel and club hammer to one of the front fixings (which was now starting to round off as well!). It took a while, but eventually I split the nut - took a while cos the nut and bolt started to turn when hit.

Having done the easy one, I progressed with the more awkward ones under/in the foot of the bulkhead. They took much longer as getting good angles with the chisel was harder and again, they tended to start moving after a while.

Eventually success! The sill frame is mucky but sound. The bracket mounted on it at the read end that goes behind the front of the tub is covered in white corrosion.... from the tub. The Ali tub bottom looks a little... soft

Any way, one sill down, one to go... maybe tomorrow. Anyone know why there are SIX bolts holding the sill panel on??? Its just trim after all. Madness.

I also just decided to 'have a try' at the crud covered nuts on the front of the bulkhead mounts... and both sides moved smoothly with very little effort! Life can be good

1. Outrigger and b/head leg after sill removed

2. BHead end of sill frame

3. Tub end of sill frame with mount bracket

4. Soft bottom of front of tub - nb, the skin is not bent, just the seal

5. Sill frame, sill panel and chequer plate - I think I will sell this lot if a slider can replace them all

6. One of the Nuts/bolts that finally released - The nut didn't even crack but eventually spread enough to slide off. Bolt is all bent as well

7. Near side bulkhead mounting nut - just cracked it to see if it would move... and yep, smooth baby

 

[JayHoe]

This evening I attacked the second sill and cracked the nuts again. This is a PITA but unless you have tasty new bolts would seem to be the only way to do it.

I removed the passenger end of the lower dash revealing the windscreen wiper motor. Then back to the engine bay, I removed the heater fan. It seems solid but has some bad surface corrosion and will require quite some time to clean and paint.

Tomorrow I plan to drain the coolant, remove the heater matrix, the rad and rad panel, grind the welds holding the winch on, remove the winch and see what next. I will flush the rad while the innards are still wet instead of letting any crud in it congeal and set.

When I have finished that lot, things should look a lot different.

1. OS Sill removed fully exposing tank

2. Passenger dash removed, wiper motor exposed

3. Fan removed

4. Grotty looking fan - but it works, tested at two speeds ok

 

[biosbill]

Well done! Glad too see that you've got the NS off anyway, im putting off the OS sill too, as really not sure if to cut or to undo, all my bolts started to round off too, so also turned to the cold chisel and hammer worked eventually.

As you say, very annoying that there's so many bolts holding the sill on, all really tiny and hard to get at as well, mine were all rusty aswell, so took ages to get the trim off undamaged! You cant get the hacksaw/grinder in very well either, might try the die grinder on the NS though.

Hope the OS goes well, Ill tackle mine sometime in the week.

 

[JayHoe]

Thats both sides now bill. Definitely chisel and club is the answer. I lost two brackets from the sill trim of the OS. However, if I use sliders, I aint gonna need it again....

 

[biosbill]

Thats my thinking, Im hoping to use sliders too, but if the budget doesnt allow, they'll be going back on again, so am going to prepare them to get them on again.

 

[JayHoe]

I spent the afternoon with some friends, our kids and some other local kids making rafts on a local small river - hilarious! However, I eventually had to stop playing

I drained the coolant and removed the one (!!!) bolt holding the rad panel. I removed the panel and rad as one and placed it outside ready to flush tomorrow. I then finally to the grinder to the welds holding the winch in place. Once cut, the blighter still wouldn't come out as it jams between the front rail and the bumper.

I then removed three of the bolts holding the bumper aiming to swing it forward enough to remove the winch before finally taking the bumper off. The fourth one is trouble. The nut appears slightly over sized and round - nothing fits! I struggled with it for a while before the Mrs came home. I shall take the chisel to it tomorrow, then the bumper and winch can come off.

1. Rad and panel awaiting flushing

2. reverse pic of the same

3. unattached but jammed winch, and one bolt bumper!

4. Light looking engine bay - less stuff on there now - ooh err