Td5 D2 bodywork - Heater Blower Hole (5)

Following on from the recent work around the Heatwer Blower inlet 'leak', I began to fashion a cover plate for it from the paper template made earlier by 'rubbing' the outline of the intake.

Dug out the remains of an old aluminium printing plate. I recall the image on the plate is from a college project nearly 30 years ago!!

The plate is thick enough to be rigid yet can be easily worked with hand-tools.

When I got down to it though, I felt that trying to get it into a final fitted position would be a challenge as the plenum cover is still in place. I elected to use thinner catering foil trays thinking they would be easier to 'work' under the circumstances. 

Still a work in progress. I have strengthened certain areas by glueing extra pieces of the aluminium tray together.

Although the last image shows near enough the finished cover, trial fittings have shown I need to fashion some kind of fitting for the front edge to the plenum cover.... There is very little space between the top of the intake lip and the underneath of the fitted plastic plenum cover above it, and care is needed to get the intake 'covered' yet still allow air to enter and any water to drain from its surface.

I began to question the whole notion of rainwater entering the intake directly through its opening.  Also, started to question why the intake is the size it is. ? And why does it have that particular shape/outline?

Don't know anything (yet!) about air flow volumes in heating and ventilating systems, but looking at that photo looking down into the blower body, the blower wheel seems small compared to the inlet. ..

I know that the design of the intake inlet remained unchanged throughout the 15 year production of D1 and D2. That makes me wonder if the intake 'moulding' had indeed been 'imported' from an earlier vehicles' design? Maybe even a Leyland bus or truck??

While I mused over that,  I decided to apply some 'Granville clear silicone sealant ' to the area identified the other day with the borroscope. The sealer comes in a handy small tube that allows access to awkward areas. ... ideal!  

I smeared a good coating of the stuff between bolt 3 and 4 making sure the joint with the metal bodywork was covered. 

That was done a few days ago and since then there has been a few prolonged downpours but there has been no visible leakage into the footwell. I have even physically checked the area around the blower motor mounting which is the leak point and it was dry. 

Encouraged by this,  I have decided to monitor the situation before fitting the intake cover.

Fingers crossed...

Td5 D2 electrics - Rear Door Speaker (2)

Since fitting the new rear door speakers, I've been enjoying ten-speaker sound for over 6 months. After a while though I got fed up of seeing the 'messy' original grill mountings that surround the new speakers and I decided to modify the original speaker grill to get it to fit back onto the door card.

I took the opportunity when the door card was removed during the respray work to also think about installing the red marker lamp and it occurred to me that a good position would be on the speaker grill.

This is the original factory fitted grill mounted on the lower rear door card

The speakers I fitted are too wide and project too  much to refit the factory grill around them.

The original grill modified to fit back on the door card. The wire mesh cover was removed and the central hole enlarged. 

I then thought it would be a good idea to fit the red marker lamp onto the speaker grill.

Two photos showing a mock-up of the marker lamp in position on the nearside door card.

I had wanted to install some marker lamps for a long time and had considered placing them on the door edge or higher up on the door card.

Placing them on the modified speaker grill seemed to justify the extra work and satisfy all the requirements.

But, first of all I had to enlarge the hole in the original grills....

First thing done was to make a paper template.  The outer circle represents the new speaker diameter whereas the dotted circle is the original diameter of the hole in the grill.

The new diameter is marked out in pencil.

I used a centre punch scribe to mark indents around the new diameter. 

I then carefully drilled the indents out...

And removed the unwanted plastic by snapping it out and cutting with a craft knife.

Then began a period of trimming the edges to fit around the new speaker while still locating the panel into the mounting lugs on the door-card.

I mainly used the Dremmel tool with a 'hula hoop' sander to quickly smooth out or reshape the aperture. There where some 'alignment' issues with the mounted speaker and the enlarged hole but the Dremmel hula hoop made easy work of any adjustments.

I bought a length a black rubber finishing trim. Basically a u-shaped edging strip that 'finished' the edge of the enlarged hole nicely and gave it a nice close fit....

Once the position for the red lamp was decided, I used a hole-saw to make a suitable opening in the panel and the lamp unit simply push fits into it, it's molded rubber surround acting as a grommet.

Here is the finished panel, mounted with the finishing strip and red lamp.

Almost as tasty as this...

Fruit salad in a speaker grill served on a bed of  fresh insurance documents..

After that tasty snack I did the same to the nearside door card and attention then turned to wiring up those lamp units...

TD5 D2 bodywork - Door locks and handles

Needed to remove the door handles during the recent respray work on both offside doors.

I was a bit hesitant to do this as I knew it meant fiddling around with the control rods and disturbing their 'status quo'.

I recalled that the 'original' Disco that I had, a 300tdi, was afflicted by the problem of broken door lock springs and also the front nearside mechanism just went out of adjustment one day.. but,  replacement springs were readily available for pennies and an easy fix.

The 'new and improved' Disco 2 has a completely different door lock mechanism based on electronic modules and redesigned handles (certainly not from the BL/Marina parts bin anymore). When these locks go 'wrong' its a new module costing £70 plus...

The Rear Door Handle. 

Before even begining to remove the handle, a lot of work goes into removing the internal door card and speaker trim and then dealing with that sticky gungy vapour barrier.

Getting my guidance from Rave, it seemed that all I had to do was disconnect one control rod, undo one bolt and remove the handle assembly.. what could possibly go wrong  !?

The rear door control rod.

Door handle 's' connection 

                   Door Actuator connection. 

First obstacle was the restricted space inside the door frame. There is no direct line of sight to the internal control rod connections. Rave recommends to undo the rod from the little plastic green connector mounted onto the lever plate attached to the lock actuator.

There are horror stories on the Web about these green plastic connectors crumbling away and causing the lock to 'fail'... and yep... the green plastic connectors are not available separately so it becomes new (£70) module time..!

A nice clear view inside the rear door looking at the door handle and lock actuator. The green plastic connector is the only joint to undo in here...

Two technical views from the Web (showing the nearside rear door)

I figured that the green connector was a tight interference fit around the rod and any leverage placed on it got transferred to the lever plate with potentially worse results.

In the end I fashioned a hook on the end of some thick coat hanger wire and with a short sharp pull as near to the green connector as I could the rod just pinged free from both connections and flew into the lower door cavity!

I really thought that the green connector had snapped or been damaged but it seemed ok

Two views of the green connector minus the control rod but showing it's 'clamshell' construction. It's easy to see how these protrusions can be snapped off and the rod fall out....

All was well till it came to reconnect the rod. Once again I'm working blind and somehow the green plug decides to fall out of the lever plate into the door cavity.  I must have dislodged it when jerking the control rod free. Luckily I had gained experience of fishing things from the depths of the door cavity when I retrieved the control rod earlier.

Getting the green connector back onto the lever plate was fun. I had to use a bent piece of wire and get access from the outside of the door through the handle aperture. Happily it just popped back in.

I did not reconnect the control rod till the outside panel was 'mopped' a few days after its painting. This meant that the handle did not operate the lock but access was easily achieved by use of the internal handle. 

I figured the less I disturbed that green connector the better. When the handle was finally refitted for good, the rod was clicked back into place in the green connector.

Door Handle Repaint.

While the handle was removed I took the opportunity to give it a spray of 'Pro-Cote' matt black. The trim plates were more faded then the handle was, but it all looks good now. 

It's a good test for the 'Pro-Cote' longevity. This is the paint I intend to apply to all the external black plastic trim..

FRONT DOOR HANDLE . 

Once the door-card and vapor barrier are dealt with, it becomes a question of removing the control rod and the single mounting bolt. There is a lot more access available then with the rear doors. 

Rave recommends the control rod is released from its lower mounting which is the rectangular white plastic adjuster mounted on the door actuator. It's clear to see that the control rod has a threaded end that sits enclosed in this connector and actually is the method for adjusting the operation of the door handle. I was very reluctant to disturb this setting and a lot of the online research told of the awkwardness of undoing this connection.

Two views from the Web showing the lower white plastic control rod connector. The threaded portion of the control rod is the means of adjusting the 'throw' of the handle /lock combination and I am weary of disturbing it.

I looked instead at the door handle end of the control rod and realised it was easier to undo the connection from there. The rod is held in place by what I call a 90° clip. To undo it, I simply turned it 90° to un-clip it from the long straight rod. The curved end of the rod then simply pulled out of the handle.

The drivers door handle has a second control rod for operation of the door lock by the key barrel. It is permanently but flexibly attached to the handle and it's other end resembles a giant cross-head screwdriver that locates in a suitable socket on the lock body. Easy enough to remove but a bit fiddly to locate properly upon refitting the handle.

Two close up views of the drivers door handle

showing the attachment points and the attached key cylinder control rod.

Td5 D2 electrics - P38 Courtesy Light (1)

Last year's big effort with repairing and converting the manual sunroof to electric was the start of looking around the interior and wondering what to do with it.

Lighting wise, changing the courtesy bulbs from tungsten to LED was the easiest. I choose red LEDs as a homage to those 'darkroom' days and even fitted some into the front footwell to add to the effect (they all dim-out with the ignition).

But the one thing they highlighted was the ongoing lack of a fitted map / reading light.

And then I discovered this..

Final late build 'special edition' models of the Disco2 had a lot of extras added to their build in an attempt to tempt buyers who were holding out for the upcoming new model Discovery 3. 

These two photos show the overhead console from the top of the range Discovery2 'Metropolis' with the fancy extension to its overhead console housing the sat-nav unit, the re-positioned sunroof controls and a new courtesy light unit c/w map lights that replaced the original one.

Well, it did not take me long to find out that the light unit shown above was also fitted to the 5 door Freelander and the P38 Range Rover.

A quick search on that well known Internet auction site had loads of them coming up and  I soon managed to get me a brand new 'NOS'

item for a bargain £12. 

Brand new, boxed, with its protective film still on and for a bonus, all three bulbs as well.

Studying the blue label on the box revealed the stock date to be 11/09/98, exactly four years before Hx was first registered.

The central light is a 10w Tungsten festoon and the two map lights are 5w Tungsten 501s mounted behind little directional lenses. Each light is then controlled by an individual push button switch.

All I have to do is mount it to the console, wire it into the light circuit in Hx and remove the existing front interior light. 

What could possibly go wrong....?

Td5 D2 bodywork - Front Window Regulator

27-06-16.   Suffered a failure of the front passenger door window regulator. Rather embarrassing and quite bizarrely it happened while the former owner of Hx was in the passenger seat and being driven around by myself. 

While opening or closing the window, the mechanism just let out a loud crack and then it sounded like a broken cog missing some teeth. I knew straight away it was terminal and was just grateful the window made it back to the closed position.

Research on the Web and in Rave soon got me up to speed. I found out it is a common problem and the replacement mechanism is readily available for under £20. I went to the local LR indy garage and purchased one the next day. I was a bit dismayed though to find out it is a 'Britpart'.

Removal of the broken mechanism from inside the door was straight forward. I followed the simple directions in Rave and had no problem at all. Rather then tape the window pane closed as per Rave, I choose to prop up the window pane using a suitable wooden block placed inside the door cavity.

When removed and compared to the replacement 'Britpart' the only difference observed was in the design of the roller bearings inside the arms. These parts are known weak points and are what usually fails. 

Basically the new Britpart has nylon wheels while the fitted part had oblong 'slider' components. The above photo tries to show these differences. 

True to form, this is the remains of the broken nylon slider that caused the regulator to malfunction. Its just another exhibit for the little shop of horrors..

Two views of the broken regulator (minus the motor) removed from Hx. The upper horizontal channel attaches to the window glass and the 'scissor' action is what propels the window up or down via the large semicircular cog wheel at the bottom left.

The ends of the two arms are free to move along that channel via nylon rollers or in this case, rectangular sliders. 

The forces exerted on these joints over time can be enough to cause them to fail. In this case the slider in the top right position has failed and broke in two.

 .. a close up of the failed slider.

This view shows the end of the arm bent out of alignment by the force of the motor. That plastic slider was held captive around the spigot on the end of the arm.

Any of these joints can break as the image above from the Web shows. The lower, smaller horizontal channel is bolted to the door body and acts as the fulcrum in the lever mechanism. In the above photo, the arm that attaches to it can be seen to be badly twisted out of shape. 

Repairs to the mechanism are possible. The twisted arms can be re-aligned and the broken rollers replaced with suitable alternatives (nylon sliding door wheels or even just washers) although the 'spigot' may itself need to be drilled out and replaced. It should be noted that each regulator is 'sided' and cannot be installed into any other door other then the one its designed for.

There is another fail point on the mechanism that can be fatal..

It is the riveted attachment of the 'cogwheel' to the central arm. If these fail and no other damage was done then they can also be repaired.

This is the same area on the removed regulator. Around this time I started to think that the 'broken' regulator did not look all that old. The photo at the top of this blog shows both regulators together and without knowing which is which, it's hard to tell them apart.

The original window motor needs to be swapped over to the new regulator. It is held in place by 3 torx bolts and once removed the mechanism is free to move around and I worried about aligning the new regulator in the same position when installing the motor on it. 

The answer was simple. The above photo was taken before dismantling and the number of teeth visible from the bottom of the cogwheel up to the drive 'cage' was counted.. 7 in all. It was easy to ensure the new regulator replicated this.

As mentioned earlier, the apparent age of the motor looked older then the broken regulator. 

This lent more thought to the idea that the regulator I was replacing was not the original factory-fitted item. Here is another clue that I overlooked...

When I removed the door panel, the vapor barrier looked like this. It is obvious that someone had been here before me. When I removed all the black tape and folded the barrier back on itself, all the mounting bolts for the regulator were easily accessible.

hmm..... After a verbal and paper search it was confirmed that both of the front door regulators on Hx had been replaced before my ownership began. I have receipts for work done in Dec 2008 to replace the nearside front regulator for £136.39 and then in Nov 2011 for the offside front regulator for £105. Both jobs were done under warranty which may explain the hefty labour charges. 

All very well, but I then found myself wondering why the mechanism should fail like it does..

Read somewhere that component failure in any manufactured item is down to one of three things. Design, Build quality or Operator abuse! 

DESIGN  -  It turns out that the design of the window regulators is a carry over from the original Disco 1. This may well explain the relatively cheap and easy availability of new replacements, but points to a reluctance to improve the design.  Afterall, the original design lasted the full 15 year production run.

The principal design and layout of a window regulator is the same across all vehicles whether manual or electric. The small but powerful motors used in electric window regulators do introduce other design considerations. 

The motors are well capable of lifting or 'driving' the window up or down till it comes to its bump stops - either fully open or fully closed. However the simple controls on the motor allow it to continue to 'drive' the window mechanism into an overload situation for a second or two till the overload cut-off kicks in and the power is cut. It's the same for the inbuilt safety feature if something gets trapped by the closing window. After a second or two of 'overload' the motor cuts out..

This brief overload situation places great strain on the joints of the mechanism right where the nylon roller/ sliders are. Over time, all this flexing and stressing probably leads to fatigue cracks and failures. So what can be done to prevent this overload situation..?

Well, certain 'upmarket' manufacturers build micro switches into their designs which control the power to the motor as the regulator arms get to their travel limits. I guess it's a question of cost analysis versus longevity. I like to think that someone in LR worked out the maximum cycles of operation the designed mechanism can safely operate and thought. .. 'that'll do'...

BUILD QUALITY   -  'OEM' is often taken to mean 'factory fitted' and the assumption is that the part would pass any quality control measures the vehicle manufacturer specified. It often means that replacement parts labelled 'OEM' are more expensive then other aftermarket or pattern parts. You pay your money and take your choice....  and end up with 'Britpart'.

OPERATOR ABUSE  -  Although I would say I am not a great user of the windows, I have to own up to some more regular abuse!!

Many times at the end of a journey, I will operate the window buttons just to check the windows are fully closed. This simple action is precisely what places the greatest strain on the parts of the mechanism that are most prone to failure! 

And while I can't do anything about the motor driving the window auto-down onto its bump stops, I can stop manually driving the window up into its closed position by anticipating it's travel to reduce the amount of 'overload' placed on the mechanism.

Td5 D2 bodywork - Buffin the peel away.

Having recently resprayed the offside doors and wing, the time has come to finally buff the peel away. I had already started on this task but I figured it was best to complete the task once all the panels were resprayed and I could 'match' them up better.

Back in May when I started the respray work I knew nothing about 'buffing' the paintwork, and I thought that to get the panel to shine only required the application of lacquer..

I recall how the excitement of respraying the rear door quickly diminished when the finish was closely studied... orange peel all the way.

Still, a bit of research and encouragement soon got those pips to squeak!!

Things to buy....

It is possible to hand buff a panel but the amount of labour and effort required for an even finish is too much. Power tools are available ranging from a basic big Orbital Car Polisher up to powerful rotary polishers that resemble angle grinders with foam 'mops' instead of cutting wheels.

The 'Silverline' machine shown above was chosen as a starter for a reasonable £20. It comes with two 'bonnets' and has a big 10" orbital polishing head. 

The next thing to get is 'rubbing compound'. Basically fine abrasive paste which produces the required shine when used with the polisher. 

'Farecla G3' in the middle of the photo is the industry standard compound and the other one is Halfords own brand at half the price. I bought both for a comparison. Other compound grades are available from Farecla who produce a whole range of them for body-shop use.

Wet and dry abrasive 1200 and even 2000 for fine work. 

Plenty of clean micro fibre cloths.

Lots of clean water from a handy spray bottle.

When paint spraying the door panels, I had the presence of mind to spray a piece of metal plate with the colour and lacquer coat so that I could practise with the buffer before committing to the door panels. As I recall, doing this used the last contents of both the original colour and lacquer rattle cans.

The painted section is only about 12"Sq. but the presence of orange peel can easily be seen on its surface. The 'peel' effect produces a diffuse sheen finish that is in no way mirror like.

My first attempt at buffing began by taping over one half of the painted section on the plate and then working the exposed area by wetting it and lightly sanding with 1200 grit. This produced an even more diffused surface but it did feel smoother under the finger. I then applied some compound using a damp cloth and rubbed it all over by hand. I sprayed the surface and the buffer liberally and switched on, and held on!!

I stopped after a minute of light pressure and of just getting used to the feel of the machine. Wiping the surface down revealed the start of a mirror like shine! I was impressed already, and repeated the process with more compound to get a 'deeper' shine. When the tape was removed from the untreated side the comparison was startling...

I decided to use the result obtained on the metal plate as the first 'target' finish for the door panels.

This photo attempts to show the 'orange peel'

texture in question. It is a close up of the practise panel described above.

And here is the same panel with its upper half buffed to a mirror like shine. The near vertical lines are reflections from some nearby vertical window blinds. It can be seen how the orange peel texture creates a 'sheen' and the buffed area creates a 'shine'...

Not bad for 5 minutes work. The shine could go a lot deeper if desired. If I can get the newly painted door panels to look like this I'll be a happy bunny.