I did some work to the Land Rover and was mostly successful

"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori) 12/12/2019 at 22:19 • Filed to: Disco Inferno

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Mostly.

First up was replacing the rear door locks/latches. On these vehicles they’re all one piece and the little plastic worm screw that drives the lock/unlock mechanism wears out and dies.

It is super annoying.

When I bought the Disco only the driver’s door and rear hatch worked. I, stupidly, assumed this was because I was doing something wrong, not that they were ALL BROKEN, but alas. It wouldn’t have been a deal breaker anyway.

Anyway, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! I originally threw in a “used, tested” unit from eBay and stupidly didn’t test it before install. It, of course, didn’t work. I ordered a new one and installed a NOS one an d it worked great... but since you have to remove the window frame to do the install I managed to introduce a horrible wind leak/noise in the process. (I’ll get back to that...)

Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the past, I pulled the door card off and tested my used unit (I bought them all at the same time, before I knew better) and it, of course, didn’t work.

Because of course it didn’t.

These can, in theory, be refurbished, but they’re really hard to take apart (I tried) and... no.

Sidenote: I am always impressed with how well built the door cards and vapor seal is on these vehicles.

Failing in that task, I didn’t even bother to test the used unit from the other side... and not just because I forgot I owned one...

Moving on, I removed the front passenger door card YET AGAIN to try and adjust the window frame so that it didn’t make so much noise. And when I say “so much noise” I mean “sound like the window is open on the highway”.

That went... fine, but TBD if it actually fixed it.

This one has been opened so many times that the factory vapor seal is finally giving up. Normally I’d replace this with extra thick painters plastic, but I couldn’t find my roll of that. Instead I used a left over body bag from Halloween.

Seriously.

Next up was a power steering fluid flush. My last couple cold starts t he pump was groaning and carrying on enough to make me notice, so it seems like as good of time as any.

I started by vacuuming out the fluid in the reservoir, which resembled cheap maple syrup and then refilled it with fresh fluid. Next I opened the bleed nipple on the steering box (which it has for some reason...) and ran the vehicle until the pump started to sound angry. Rinse, repeat.

Then I ran out of fluid, but assume that once I get more I’ll run two quarts through the system and then refill with 50/50 power steering fluid and conditioner.

Lastly, I had a rear power panel I’d purchased a few months back that needed to get installed so... no time like the present! The panel replaces the rear ash tray in the center console with four USB ports and one 12V outlet. Better yet, all the outlets are standard bulkhead mount, so I can replace them at will. The kit is painfully simple, three cheap marine power ports and a piece of powder coated metal, but I was paying for the convenience of not having to fab one myself.

I ran a new supply from the battery, which was thankfully easy due to easily accessed terminals and plugged firewall penetrations. I also then ran a wire from the cigar lighter. I decided mid-install that I wanted the 12V port to be always on, hence the new battery supply, but didn’t want to USB ports to work unless the car was on, so I used the cigar lighter power, which is switched with the ignition, as a signal to a relay so turn the USB ports on. Overly complicated maybe, but I’d rather not introduce a parasitic drain.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

During this process I also learned that the front seats can get REALLY far up.

All wired up and... IT WORKED! WHAT? SOMETHING I DID WORKED ON THE FIRST TRY!? Epic.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

All that remains to do (for now) is to finish the power steering flush and clean up the all the tools and garbage and I’ll be back in business.

Next up will be to do some minor rust treatment, get a quote for having the roof wrapped, and think about buying new tires...

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 12/12/2019 at 22:31

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Making a vapor barrier out of a body bag for an old B ritish car seems strangely appropriate. I’m thinking there are good cases to be made for more than one answer to the  question of who, or what, the body bag is for