What have you done to your DEFENDER today?

[Napalm00]

Made some charging cables.

The way I run this is that I make this 4 gauge cable with two 90 degree ends. Little bit of marine heat shrink and then they get a corrugated jacket with some Tessa tape. I run this in conjunction with the existing tiny little 12 gauge wires that run the rest of the truck and work through the multi plug to run the main loom. Since all my high power stuff is all on separate circuits outside of the main loom this allows me to keep the existing wiring in the truck and have an upgraded charging circuit to take advantage of the 100 amp alternator.

 

[WreckITFrank]

Nice work. What is the eye to eye length on that charge cable? Oh, and stud size would be a bonus.

 

[Napalm00]

Studs are 5/16 maybe a little smaller. I use 5/16 lugs and a hammer crimper. Cable is 14.5in. it's a little long to make it easy to install and so I cna still fully adjust the alternator.

It's 4g epdm pure copper stranded wire for solar installs.

 

[broncoduecer]

I got a transmission cooler (that came from Synchro Gearboxes in the UK, makers of the Slick Shift) installed today in between working on Adam’s truck and encouraging him as he packed his truck’s oil pump with Vaseline to re-prime it.

I’m satisfied that this installation will work, but im actually not happy with the way the kit forces you to plumb the system. The valve block and the heat exchanger have hose barbs on them, so they need hose clamps which I hate. Once I added the tubing bends that I needed and double-clamped the barbs for added piece of mind, I had a damned plethora of hose clamps all over the place. Routing the lines also kind of sucked though I fire-sleeved them to protect them from the exhaust heat. If they don’t really work out then I’ll get rid of some of this stuff and install something like the 97 NAS trans cooler lines and heat exchange.

bonus pic of Adam getting oil in the face.

On my 300Tdi auto I had issues with the 97 trans cooler after I installed a winch/bumper. Before I ran the stock bumper and made a cut out in the front grill to allow airflow. It worked ok then, I typically didn’t see temps above 220F on long climbs. But when I switched to the Rockware bumper and added a winch it didn’t get much airflow at all. I was hitting 245F real easy And often needed to back off. I then changed to a B&M cooler and I haven’t seen above 200F even in city stop and go. I used the stock lines up to the front crossmember, flared the metal line and switched to AN and push lock To get to the new cooler which is mounted up higher on the radiator. Granted this is a totally different application but I struggled with airflow to the cooler behind the winch. Just in case anyone is thinking about Tdi auto coolers.

 

[JimC]

Now that ive been driving this around town a bit I’m very annoyed with the Synchro Gearboxes trans cooler. It leaks like crazy. I‘M not even sure it’s worth trying to get right, since it’s leaking from literally every place it could leak. The only joints that aren’t lepacking are the hose connections.

 

[rocky]

So the U haul rented to move my son couldn’t get out of the driveway.
but I had a solution.

 

[JimC]

Today Adam stayed home so I was able to do some work on my own projects .

I had assembled the dash a couple weeks ago, but I needed to take it back apart to install the Redarc brake controller and fix a couple minor issues. The Redarc was very simple, but I had run the wires earlier when assembling the truck. I took a feed from the cold side of the brake switch for the activation and added an additional wire to the chassis harness before I pulled it - this will run to the 6-way trailer plug. For power I added a (non-switched) circuit to the fuse box because I really don’t like power coming directly from a battery.

And in attempt to win the award for least essential Land Rover accessory, I installed my Land Rover Classic infotainment system. This thing has bluetooth, multiple aux inputs, navigation on a 3” screen and in short, has half the capabilities of systems costing less than half as much. But it has the Land Rover logo on the screen when it turns on, so I’m all in. Fortunately the Td5-style dash has an ungainly, oddly-placed DIN slot making installation a breeze.

All this power is rocking through a set of 4” stock speakers.

 

[Napalm00]

This picture makes me want to put rubber on my pedals. They've been bare for years

 

[jymmiejamz]

This picture makes me want to put rubber on my pedals. They've been bare for years

Same for the brake pedal on my D90. Before i sell it I will find all of the little stuff like that and then wonder why I didn’t do it before.

 

[JimC]

Same for the brake pedal on my D90. Before i sell it I will find all of the little stuff like that and then wonder why I didn’t do it before.

Yeah, I hate the feeling of dialing a car in right before it’s sold. I was having trouble with my rear power door locks on my Puma 110, and the buyer asked me to help see if I could fI gute out the problem. Sure enough, the wires were broken in the convoluted tube between the pillar and the door. If I had spent the same few minutes a year earlier I wouldn’t have had 12 months of hassle with them. Etc etc...

 

[Napalm00]

Hulked these into place without a trans jack. Wish I had a video , felt like a badass

 

[JimC]

Just make sure you wear your weight belt and drink muscle milk.

 

[JimC]

This picture makes me want to put rubber on my pedals. They've been bare for years

Lets see if these pictures makes you want to put carpet on your seat box...

My Puma truck had carpet and I was happy with it even given the occasional water intrusion (only when it rained). The carpets from that truck had a soft spun synthetic backing, not the old jute that got crusty and deteriorated. This didn’t hold water that well, seemed to offer very little for mold to be interested in, and dried out quickly. The current Exmoor offerings are basically the same, if maybe a bit thicker on parts. I do appreciate the sound-attenuating qualities and I don’t mind having one defender that is kind of “county spec” with a little more in terms of refinement.

The kit includes double-sided tape, and it’s really necessary to get the material to lay down and conform. In 2-3 hours I was able to get the seat box area and the rear kick panel covered. I had some extra tasks to do like mounting the gearbox cover panel etc and that took a little extra time. While I was in there I dynamatted the gearbox cover panel.

 

[Adam]

Ain't no shame in that game.

Looks great!

 

[rocky]

Time to get ready for the weekend. A bunch of us are going to try out https://508intl.com/ on Saturday

 

[rocky]

Met up with a good group from Mass Rover Society “MARS” a newly formed club for the first wheeling day at a local park. Several people there had never wheeled before.
Very pleased with viair 88p performance airing up my 255’s

 

[JimC]

Dang, today sucked. I tightened some things up on the driveline and suspension and wanted to take a test drive. No start. Perfect 12.6+ volts at the battery, glow plugs, accessories, no crank. Spent the afternoon checking the ignition switch, starter relay, battery connections, alternator connections, ground straps, wire continuity, etc. Turned out to be corrosion on the spade connection on the starter solenoid. Started right up. I just drive the dang thing yesterday, jeez.

 

[Napalm00]

Ugh that's annoying. At least you now know the rest of your system is an excellent shape

 

[Angus]

I got tired of the sooty tailpipe and filling the garage with a very rich exhaust smell on start up, so installed a rebuilt set of fuel injectors. The originals were in for about 160k miles (did not replace when I rebuilt the engine). Picked up the rebuilds from CS Performance for $98 for the set. They were an updated Bosch design. Install went pretty smooth, and it raised the base idle about 200 rpm. Throttle response seems better and the engine pulls better at low rpm. I guess it was time...

 

[EBS]

Pulled out the brass bushings from the spare tire carrier to get the carrier ready for powdercoating. I read some people had difficulty with this, but I found an internal bearing puller that had an expandable collet that was thin enough to fit between the two halves of the bushing. Using it as a puller was useless, but once I started hitting it with a hammer they popped right out.