Andrew's Amazing Journey

I tried to do a few more things on the landy today, mostly failed.

I can’t seem to get the transfer case fill plug undone, and I’m worried that I’ve started tot strip the socket.  I think I might need to weld something to it in order to get it out, and I’m not looking forward to that.

I also didn’t manage to replace the axel bump stop, the bolt just didn’t want to come off and ended up getting ruined instead of coming off, so now I have to cut it off.  Decided not to attempt that today.

I saw something very weird though, my passenger side rear spring is not sitting in it’s upper seat, but is bent towards the wheel.  Here is a view from above.

I think I can fix this simply by jacking up the chasis and forcing the spring back into place….

- Andrew

Since I had finally received the new propshafts, I decided that I shouldn’t delay in installing the one on the front… you know, the one that’s missing?  So off I go, figuring since I’d also change the oil in the rear diff as well.

Changing the diff oil went OK, except I’m still not happy with the ways I’ve found to get oil into the holes.  The problem is that you need to squirt oil in a hole that’s not very accessible sometimes.  Right now I have a small sqeeze tube kind of thing (old ketchup bottle), I pour some oil in there, crawl under the car, then squirt that in the hole.  The problem with this is the fact that the bottle is only about 300ml, and you can really only squirt about half of that out sideways.  That makes for a lot of refills.  Also, since the nipple on the bottle isn’t very long, it doesn’t fit too far in the hole, and so a decent amount doesn’t go IN the hole… which kind of defeats the purpose.  I’ve been thinking about this problem and will post more on this later with an idea I have.

Replacing the diff was… frustrating.  The first problem is that a couple of the nuts and bolts on the transfer case got damaged with the old propshaft came off.  Since the old bolts can’t easily be removed, I was trying to put new nuts on the damaged bolts but that didn’t work.  I did manage to get the old nuts to go back on though.

The next issue was that when I was trying to get it attached to the front diff, it came apart.  Now,  I knew in theory that it could seperate, but hadn’t really thought too much about it as the one I took off would have taken a lot of effort to come apart.  I guess that was only because it was old.  The alignment of the two halves is pretty important, so that was my main concern.  From what I had read, and by using the old propshaft as a model, I managed to get it back together in what I hope is the right way.  It took some effort to get it back to the right length and get the rubber cover back over the join, but after an hour or so I managed it.  Then I had to start it all over with installing it!  Luckily, I’m finding all these things much simpler after I’ve done them once or twice, so the this time things went pretty well and it went on.

I also managed to get the bloody fuel filter to come off.  It might have had something to do with hitting it with a hammer, not sure.  So finally that’s done as well!

What’s left?  Transfer box oil change, gearbox oil change, new load of grease in the swivel bearings, and eventually an engine oil change.

- Andrew

My new propshafts finally arrived!  You might remember a couple weeks back I lost a propshaft?  Well I’ve been using the landy in difflock since then, running only on the rear axle until I can replace the front propshaft.  I ordered one almost two weeks ago… but it took a while for the company to ship it, then ParcelForce got a hold of it:

• 11.08.2010 14:05 MIHEL Parcel delivered
• 11.08.2010 07:08 BELGIUM Out for delivery
• 11.08.2010 06:36 BELGIUM Arrived at destination country
• 10.08.2010 21:14 BELGIUM Arrived at destination country
• 09.08.2010 05:02 BELGIUM Parcel cannot be located
• 09.08.2010 05:01 BELGIUM SORTING ERROR
• 09.08.2010 04:50 BELGIUM Arrived at destination country
• 07.08.2010 01:48 BELGIUM Arrived at destination country
• 06.08.2010 14:07 NETHERLANDS Arrived at destination country
• 06.08.2010 14:07 NETHERLANDS Left origin country
• 05.08.2010 22:28 INTERNATIONAL HUB Left origin country
• 05.08.2010 18:27 Rotherham Depot On route to hub
• 05.08.2010 16:41 Rotherham Depot Arrived at delivery depot
• 05.08.2010 16:41 Rotherham Depot Collected from customer

It looks like my parcel definitely made the rounds!

So this weekend I can finally replace the propshaft… should be interesting.

- Andrew

Just came back from another session with the landy, a little more productive this time.  Didn’t look at the fuel filter or change the engine oil, but did decide to do as much lubrication change as I could.

In the end I shoved grease into all the nipples I could find (that sounds dirty, but trust me, it makes sense) and found I need to change a track rod end because it won’t accept any grease, bad sign.  That’s a job for later, though.

I also changed the oil in the front diff, I meant to do both diffs but realized that I didn’t have enough oil.  The old stuff that came out was almost like mud, nasty.  I was also thinking it looked like there was too much of it, but in the end it was around 2L, which is in the right area.  I was quite worried for a while that the seal between the axel and the swivel bearings were gone.  Since this was the first time I changed any oils like this, I made a bit of a mess… but learned more for next time.

I also removed the side steps to make room for rock sliders in the future.  I’d tried to do that before, but the bolts just wouldn’t move.  Thankfully I had picked up a breaker bar since then, so it went a lot easier this time.  Also added a jate ring in the back for the eventual rescues I know I’ll need. 

When I went to change the oil in the gearbox I found out that I had a problem, I needed a torx 55 bit, and I didn’t have one… so that will need to wait.

So I didn’t get everything done that I had wanted/planned, but made progress.

- Andrew

I have to wonder why every damn little thing I try to do always ends up being a lot tougher than I expected?

Take today, I decide that there’s a little break in the rain (this is Belgium after all) so I’ll go change the fuel filter… never done it since I got the car and well past due, but I’ve been busy with other things.  Read up on it, seems no problem.

Except.

The bloody thing won’t come off.  Nothing I’ve read suggests there’s a trick to it, but it won’t budge.  I even broke the strap wrench tool I bought for removing the oil filter by tightening it too much… it was just spinning around the damn filter and not budging it.

I figure the problem is 50% me not knowing what I’m doing or not every having done it before, and 50% the fact that most of this stuff hasn’t been touched in ages and so everything has gotten welded into position.

On the up side, I did a few things for the first time… drained the fuel pump… and then primed the fuel pump (after finding the lever on the fuel lift pump).  So some progress.

Now I need to wait until Monday so I can go buy a chain wrench, hopefully that will be strong enough.  I’m also tempted to just drive a screwdriver through the damn thing except if I still can’t remove it then I’m screwed!

- Andrew

For a little while I’ve noticed that the landy doesn’t get very warm very quickly.  In fact, even after driving for an hour or so it might only start edging over the “C” mark.  This made me think maybe it was over-cooled.  I did some reading, and the problem was likely something called a “viscous coupling” that connects the fan to the engine block.

Normally the fan is supposed to be fairly mobile, so when the engine turns the fan mights spin a bit, but not push a lot of air around.  As the engine gets hotter, the coupling adds more resistance, which causes the fan to spin, which cools the engine.  I checked, and mine wasn’t really spinning too easily so I figured it needed to be replaced.  Thus started the adventure.

To begin with, the coupling is attached to the fan, which of course spins.  The nut you need to undo to remove this nasty thing is situated very conveniently (damn, no sarcasm tag) between a pulley on the engine block and the fan, in a space narrow enough that a normal wrench won’t fit.  Luckily there is a special wrench just for this job (really).  Even more luckily I already HAD said wrench, being warned of this fact a couple months back.  At around €10, definitely worth it.

The next problem (of course there was a next problem…) was that I was reading that the fan had a left hand thread, which means that it tightens the way you’d loosen a regular nut.  I read a lot, and saw different people saying different things about whic way to unscrew this thing.  In the end I figured it out, so I thought.

Down I go, to take off the fan.  I get going with the wrench and quickly see that the pulley that the fan is attached to is moving when I turn the nut.  I’d been warned of this, so hold the pulley in place via the drive belt (using some handy vice grips) and go at the nut again.

Not moving.

I’d been warned that this might be hard to move, but I was going at it with a hammer and was getting concerned I’d been reading something wrong on the forums with the whole thread issue and was actually tightening it.  So up I go and read more.  For a while I think I was indeed tightening it, but then I see a video and realize I was doing the right thing.  Down I go again.

It ain’t moving.  I try harder and now the pulley is spinning against the belt, which I gather isn’t supposed to happen.  I keep at it, trying different ways to stabalize the pulley.  Now I encounter yet another problem… all these tries have started to strip the nut!  Now I have an issue that the wrench doesn’t want to stay on the nut, so when I put a lot of effort in, it just twists off.

Now I’m getting worried, and officially give up… if I strip the nut I’m screwed, right?

At this point I’ve been working at this for about four days, and I’m feeling pretty defeated.  I had given up, but decided to give it another shot.  I think for a while and realize there isn’t much room for the wrench to twist off and get inspired.

Take a hammer, vice grips, the special wrench, and two chisels.  Use a rag and the vice grips to stabilzie the belt.  Put the wrench of the nut where I can get access to the other end of it with the hammer.  Lightly pound the two chisels in between each edge of the wrench around the nut, removing the space for it to twist off into.  Click the hood stand out as it’s in the way of the hammer (balancing the hood on my head) (yes, really).  1.. 2… 3…

WHACK!  WHACK!

Two solid whacks with the hammer and the nut starts to spin.  Choirs sing, there is much rejoicing!

I prop the hood up again, remove the chisels, and spin the coupling off.  Victory!

Feeling flush with my success, I attach the fan to the new coupling and head to the car to put it on.  Won’t go.  No matter what I do, the thing seems to want to thread on wrong.  It’s a small cramped area and I have big hands, so it’s somewhat awkward, but I didn’t expect this.  I try again a couple days later, same thing… can’t get it to spin on.  Luckily, the landy is massively over-cooled, so I don’t need the fan at the moment and drive for a while without.

I try again a this evening, this time seeing if I can put the old one back on first, and without the fan to make it simpler.  It goes on.  I try the new one, again without the fan, it eventually goes on but I realize it’s not just going to “spin on” and I’ll need the wrench.  OK, no problem.  Put the fan back on, here we go…  nope, goes on crooked again.

Figuring that I somehow mucked up the thread on the inside of the nut of the coupling, I take out a chisel and make sure the threads are clear(er) and clean.  I give it another shot without the fan, again it works.  Put the fan on the coupling again… and presto, it goes on.  Not quite as smooth as I’d expected, but it’s definitely threaded right and goes on all the way.

A little tighten up with the special wrench, and my adventure is complete.  Finally.

- Andrew

So in the end my little adventure with my propshaft falling off will cost me more than I thought.

This is the old propshaft after I removed it, you can see there’s no bracket on the left side… it’s still attached to the truck.  Looks like the propshaft itself needs to be replaced as one of the brackets is cracked and it’s most likely bent a bit as well.  That makes it more expensive.  I figured I should pre-emtively replace the rear propshaft at the same time, that way I know it’s all good.

This is a closeup of the universal joint that failed, it shouldn’t be an oval like that…

I’m having problems removing the propshaft bracket from the transfer case though, when it came off it was flying around, still attached to the axle at one end.  Two of the nuts of the brackets are pretty mangled and I couldn’t remove them at first, but I’ll have a go at them again and see if I can hammer the removal tool in place, I hope that works.

- Andrew