New Year Fireworks

As usual, when I get involved with electricity, there are plenty of them. Fireworks, that is, both from me and the things I touch! I don't like electrical stuff, and it certainly doesn't like me.

Four weeks of fun and games have resulted from my "successful" attempt to install a rear wash 'n wipe system. I say "successful" because the outcome of the work was As Intended in one sense, that is we can now see out of the back window without resorting to a sponge and bucket. In another way, I just caused myself a lot more problems.


You see, as I'd had to take the centre "MUD Stuff" console off to fit the W/Wipe switch, I thought I might as well sort out the already-installed-but-non-functioning switches so that they actually controlled something, tidy up the wiring so that the radio would actually fit into the space designed for it and add some more gauges. As I said in the previous post the latter "upgrade" is to provide a bit more information on what's going on in the engine department - coolant and oil temperatures and pressures - and an EGT gauge.

I need one of these before I can try out the boost pin I bought quite a while ago but haven't dared to fit until I could monitor the temperature of the gases going into the turbo. The extra power would be good, but not at the expense of a wrecked engine.

I also needed to fix the headlamp flasher switch, which would require dismantling some dashboard trim anyway.



That was the plan. While assembling all the necessary parts and waiting for the postman to arrive, I set about the headlamp flasher. Given the state of the switches and stalks on the steering column I planned to replace both the horn/flasher/indicator stalk and the wiper stalk on the other side since I'd had trouble with both systems recently. 

Having got the necessary bits I got the plastic trim off and set about removing the steering wheel. Or not, as it happened. Despite a lot of pulling and thumping with both fists and a mallet, the bloody thing wouldn't budge. Some types of Defender have a steering wheel that can be removed using a puller, but not me....after several hours over 3 days, lots of penetrating fluid and very little movement, I gave up before frustration led me to break something. Another reason to give up was that I worked out how the flasher switch worked and fixed it....perhaps I should've done that in the first place.

The focus isn't great, but the two bits of brass that make the connection had been stressed to a point that they didn't touch when the stalk was pulled. It took 2 seconds to sort it. It doesn't address the fact that both stalks and the switches on them are going to fail soon and that wheel is going to have to come off eventually.



With that job out of the way I set about butchering parts of our previous designs for dashboard upgrades. I dug out the DIN facia that'd originally come from the sale bin at Halfords and has already been through two iterations of interior redesign, the last as the mount for the CB radio prior to the Alu-Cab roof fit.

The old CB carrier with the bottom cut off. The gauge mount clips in, and offsets the dials towards the driver.

This will be the carrier for the new gauges and will sit over the hole otherwise used by the ashtray.

The wiring can be fed into the ashtray hole via the plastic grill underneath.

The shape was built up using card to make sure it would fit and to plan how the bends need to be made.
A bit of cutting and forming of some scrap aluminium sheet produced a pretty neat 3-gauge pod ....

....with a flat front face for the coolant warning light and test button and a nice flat top for use later on, perhaps. It might be a better place for the tripmeter, for instance.

 Bending ally can result in the metal cracking if it's too brittle. Annealing it can be a bit hit-and-miss but if you rub the bend point with soap and then heat it, when the soap turns brown, it's cooked...and nice and soft to bend.

Turning to the wiring, I wish now that I'd left well alone! The intention was to simplify the spaghetti and get things to work a little better. One example of this is the power to the reversing camera. Quite often the screen reverts to a "blue screen of nothing" when I deselect reverse gear. This stays on until the next time I reverse, when it might work normally, or stay an annoying bright blue postcard-sized distraction. I've been resolving this by disconnecting the jack plug power feed, but I thought that using one of the otherwise redundant dash panel switches would be better. I also needed to wire in the front work light, coolant alarm and lighting power for the new gauges.

To cut a long story short, I've gone through about 4 variations on the theme of "some things work but others now don't". I fix one problem and another appears. I would assume that this was as a result of what I'd just done so go back and reverse the action, only for it to have no result. Lots of head scratching, cursing and coffee later and I'd notice, for example, that a tag had become detached from a connector as I'd moved things around. The clock stopped working for this reason and had me mystified when the fuse was OK when I thought I'd heard a "crack" from Down There. It later turned out that I'd operated the wiper stalk while removing the dash binnacle (as well as disturbing the earth tag on the clock). Coincidentally the wipers were frozen to the screen and the almost inevitable movement of the stalk caused the fuse to blow but I made the wrong assumption... Further discussion and analysis isn't going to amuse anyone, certainly not me, so suffice to say that I've called a halt to any more fiddling with wiring before I set something alight. Some things now work better, others not at all, but the latter I can live with for the moment....

The revised dashboard now looks like this:

Once it arrives from China the EGT gauge will replace the altimeter, and that will move up one level. It's a very useful instrument for mountain navigation as well as giving us a weather forecast, so I want to keep it.

While I had the main dashboard binnacle out, I noticed the tracks in the dust where water had been getting in. A bit more dismantling of trim panels revealed a worrying sight....

After a bit of probing around I think there are three possible sources of the problem. One is the seal around the ventilation flap and the others are either the rubber seal under the windscreen and/or the new windscreen seal itself, which would be a bit annoying. The seal under the windscreen I reinforced with mastic sealant a while ago so other than putting a little more of this under the more difficult-to-reach spots, I think that's all I can do. The windscreen seal is certainly suspect but it's been so cold while I've been working it's difficult to know whether the moisture on the inside of the seal is coming from outside or is condensation from the inside. It needs to get a bit warmer to be sure, so while we're waiting for Spring, I had a look at the vent flap.
I got the new seals for these some time ago and had added yet another job to the "to do" list for warmer weather. To get this off and repair the seal requires the removal of 2 hinge pins and 2 screws from the operating mechanism on the back of the flap.

The first is easy, the second is a right b*stard of a job, particularly if you have to do it while kneeling on the bonnet in 2 inches of slushy ice and only remotely possible if you can get the flap to open completely.....

Now, you might think that the mechanism for doing this would be engineered in the usual Landrover fashion - solid and a bit overdone - so I was surprised to find that the reason I haven't been able to get the flap to open fully was down to the operating arm being made of tinfoil. Or something equally flimsy. Once the swivel pin on the mounting bracket had begun to corrode it made it more difficult to get this little arm to do its job and eventually it bent. With even less movement now available, things corroded even more, producing even less movement, then yet more corrosion on parts that weren't moving...yawn...I guess you get the picture. If not, here's one I took earlier:

The state of the seal is pretty clear, as is the siezed pivot point on the hinge. I've already straightened the actuator arm but it still has a bit of a kink in it.

Once I'd got it off, cleaning off the old and sodden seal wasn't difficult with a bit of elbow grease and thinners, and the new one is self-adhesive so went on equally easily. More difficult was straightening the bits of bent tin that make up the operating thing, but a good soak in penetrant helped. Unfortunately by straightening them up, the two parts of the arm's hinge now didn't line up with the screw holes in the back of the flap. An hour's fiddling frustration followed as I bent everything out of proper shape to get the screws in, then bent it back again to get it to work. Now, though, when I "open" the flap, something akin to ventilation might actually occur. It got a fresh coat of paint and some grease on the hinge pins too.

Then I had a poke around, literally, to see what damage this water leak has done. The metal behind the top of the bulkhead was weeping brown droplets through pinholes in a couple of places, and a probe opened up several larger holes. This is Bad News. Defender bulkheads are notorious for rotting at this point and the only real fix if not caught in time is a new one - the whole bulkhead, that is, not the cosmetic cover-up panel that many go for. I used a boroscope to look inside and it wasn't promising, so took a 20mm hole cutter and opened it up a bit....

After using a magnet and air gun to clean out the cavity, things aren't quite as bad as I'd thought. Small areas of the internal skin are weak but the external skin - the bit that really matters - is solid, if a bit flaky. I used the air gun to blow-dry everything, squirted a liberal dose of Kurust converter in and left it to dry again. The next step was to spray as much as I could get at with cold galvaniser and I followed this with a liberal dose of Waxoyl. I'll leave the hole open for ventilation , closed by a rubber blanking plug with a few holes in it. Can't think of anything more I can do now except to try to stop the water getting in and provide some ventilation in case it does. This might mean trying to add some sealant to the bottom of the windscreen, either under the rubber or over it, but I'd prefer it all to be dry before I do that, but the sub-zero temperature and lying snow isn't helping me achieve that happy situation....

A Better View (and drier feet?)

The trip to the AO Show revealed a few shortcomings in the "watertight department"...

Wet feet are OK if you've been paddling on the beach or otherwise looking for trouble, but not really acceptable in one's driving seat. Unless you drive a Landrover, that is. Then it's considered Par for the Course and all part of the Defender's natural charm and character.

Not in my Defender, it ain't. I'd prefer to keep the outside outside, thank you. If I want to let it in it'll be under my rules. Now, the Defender has its quirks, I'll admit. Lotsa people moan about how cramped the driving position is and how they don't like being hard up against the door, having to stick your right arm and elbow out of an open window to get comfortable. But, I wonder, how many of these folk actually go anywhere that requires them to see where their wheels are going to the last millimetre? To do that you have to stick your head out of the hole in the door provided for the purpose and the Defender seating position is ideal for that. It's a design feature and I'm happy with it. I'm not so happy with the build tolerances that allow water in at every panel join, so it's time to sort it out.

I trawled the 'net, as you do, for clues and found this site. An excellent source of useful tips and if you search about the long list of vids you'll find lots on the subject of keeping water where it belongs. I take no credit for the fixes I put in this weekend, then, other than the 2 hours of dedicated effort it took to find the site amongst the piles of useless stuff that Google throws up.

Let's start with the rain gutter at the back of the bonnet. A great idea, but it stops short of the wing top and so where will all that water go?

Not only that, but there's a gap at the back of the wing top skin that isn't sealed. When I saw the video I thought "that's probably not as bad as it looks". Well, I put a torch up inside the wing and peered down the gap, nearly blinding myself in the process...the gap is about 1.5mm on this side and about the same on the driver's side.

You can see that the dry area under the bonnet edge is dirty, but the bit at the back is shiny and clean...wonder why?
This might explain why, when it's raining heavily, water runs out from under the dash - it's being caught by all the little channels and pockets on the bulkhead and runs around all over the place until finding its way onto the floor. Via my feet, in some cases.

In the video, Mike uses some stuff called DumDum to seal these gaps neatly from the inside. This stuff isn't available any more so I tried some "No More Nails" adhesive that I let dry a bit so it was more of a putty. It wouldn't stick. As a temporary measure, then, I used the hot glue gun...

If it works, I'll tidy it up or use something neater next time. To sort out the gutter I used pieces of flashing tape left over from the soundproofing work:

The paint can is just for scale

Formed and trimmed it does the job and is invisible when the bonnet's closed. A simple fix, once you know what the problem might be. Thank you, Britannica!

I'd already used a tiny boroscope camera to look behind the instrument binnacle and seen some glistening wet bits but it's difficult pinpointing exactly what you're looking at. However, it was clear that water was on the lip behind the vent flaps (poor seals?) and immediately behind the seal that joins the windscreen frame (not the glass) to the top of the bulkhead. On inspection it seemed that the seal - the spongy foam strip - wasn't in the best condition and had gone a bit hard, at least on the surface. It would've been better to replace this when the roof was being done and I did consider it, but it would have added some more difficulty and time to the job so I decided not to have Larry do it. Instead, I've cut the sponge back to a level where it's more flexible and then filled it back up, flush to the bulkhead, with TigerSeal. The new seals for the vent flaps are in the post, together with some other bits to finish the ...

..Heated Rear Window. The old one wasn't. This was because when we first got Elly she had some kind of plastic film on the glass that was coming off in bits. Really tatty, so Sue removed it. With a Scotchbrite pan scourer. This didn't do the heating element any good at all and last winter it was a real nuisance not being able to see through the rear view mirror until I'd been on the road for half an hour. It needed to be fixed, so I bought another glass from eBay. I'd have used the Usual Suspect as a supplier but they refused to accept responsibility for any damage in transit and I'd order at my own risk. Given that this placed no obligation on them to package it properly they didn't get my business. The eBay supplier had a bit more sense and the glass arrived intact and at a very good price, hence the link. He deserves a bit of praise for not being an idiot, like the competition.

The glass had been replaced at some time during the vehicle's past, but not very well sealed, which would explain what you see in the picture - half a kilo of Sahara sand - and a fair bit of rust inside the door behind the skin. As usual, then, most of the job involved tidying up the mess left by the previous owner(s) before replacing the defective bits.

Also as usual, it was blowing a hooligan and from a direction that had everything in the workshop getting blown over, about or down.  With the old glass out, I wanted to spray the inside of the door but the paint was gonna go everywhere except where I wanted it, so I had to build a temporary windbreak from a sheet of 8x4 ply.

Note the high quality masking material!

If there's one tool I've really got my money's worth out of, it's the air compressor I bought at Aldi about 10 years ago. Although I'm not going to say I have any great skill in the paint spraying department, it's allowed me to paint two Defender's now, both out on the driveway and with pretty good results with cheap guns but decent paint.

Cellulose is easy to apply and given the conditions on Saturday I didn't need a mask! Once the retaining strips were cleaned up it all went back together easily, with nice new self-tappers and some more TigerSeal to hold it all in place properly.

I need to work out a way to remove the security grille more easily so I can keep this shiny new glass clean (without the use of abrasives!!). I did a bit of experimenting on this subject and the solid, stiff and expensive grilles on the 4x4 market, like we have in the small rear windows, actually work against the objective, I think. If the grille is flexible and ductile then it "gives" when attacked, where the heavier expensive ones don't. This means that the stiffness in them acts as a lever against whatever is holding them in place making them easier to force. The flexible grille material absorbs the energy that would otherwise break through it. That's my theory, anyway.

The next job here is to re-install the rear wash/wipe system. The parts are on order to do this and I've found the wiring in place behind the panel in the rear corner. The only difficulties might be in finding the correct electrical connectors and positioning the washer jet - the AluCab roof seems a bit solid at the place I'd like to use and I may not be able to run the water pipe in there. We'll see.

The OEM wash/wipe switch is silly money, too, so we'll have to get a bit creative there as well.

The Wallas hob arrives soon, so that'll be the cue to start pulling the kitchen apart. With that in mind I've spent quite a lot of time sitting in the back with a mug of tea, going through the various scenarios to work out what will fit back in and where. It occurred to me that a weak point in the design is the water storage. We've sort-of accepted the position of the water tank as a "fait accompli" as it was there when we bought the truck, is very expensive and seemed to be a well thought out accessory. If you live somewhere warm. A lot of these "overlander toys" originate from South Africa where the climate is a little different to ours and they don't have to cope with the same conditions.

OK, I know I cheated here, but it really could be Scotland in July....

An example: drying out a roof tent. If these get wet - and, let's face it, they are going to with our weather - you can't just take it into the greenhouse/garage/bathroom and hang it up to dry like your average Vango, and if the temperature outside is at the usual Baltic level, drying ain't going to happen fast, is it? By the time it's got somewhere near, it's probably raining again anyway.

So, the water tank and pipework is exposed to the elements in a way that is almost guaranteed to give us a problem. Now that we'll have a heater we can "winterize" the rest of Elly and extend our travelling season a bit. The only thing that doesn't have an insulation plan is the water supply, and it's the reason it gets drained down in the colder months and doesn't get used if we do a weekend picnic trip. The answer is to move it all inside, of course, but this will mean dispensing with all that neat, expensive, Gucci kit under the wheel arch. We think it's the way to go, though, and we might get some of the money back through Gumtree when we try to sell the old bits on. Something like this would work,




although the filler pipe might not be in the right place. Lots to think about, and it all needs to be decided before we start the re-fit, or we'll be doing it twice.

Like before.