Defender TD5 Rebuild

Started by grizzlychicken, April 18, 2020, 06:14 PM

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grizzlychicken



So I didn't plan to buy a defender to rebuild but here I am. I live in Canmore,Alberta and was interested in defenders for a long time. I have a young family and was justifying to my wife that a defender would be great! It can seat 9 people so what a great family car :)

I go to Europe once a year on business so was determined to source my own defender as they seemed pricy here in Canada. I found a candidate in Italy and went over to check it out, bought it and shipped it back. She doesn't have a name, my kids just call her rover.




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grizzlychicken

So rover runs great and I put quite a few miles on her over the next year. As the miles accumulated I started to notice a few things that went quite right. The back right corner had been repaired at some time in her past and the repair Kobe wasn't that great. I also notice the doors not lining up and not in the usual" all rovers doors don't line up" way.





I also realized that there was they typical rust in the door frames and particularly bad in one door.

Hidden by foam.

So I thought to myself that someday I want to fix all these issues. I know defenders are supposed to be rough and utilitarian but my dream was to make her a comfortable daily driver  that would still be formidable off road and ok to drive in our Canadian Winters.

But not right away........


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grizzlychicken

#2
I purchased her in 2016 and being a 2001 that made her exactly old enough to import under Canada's 15 years old or older clause. She arrived in August and over the next little while I started to get to know her and how she ran. I was impressed that she could start at -30 over the winter, although she blew a lot of smoke (her ERG has been blanked before I got her).
I was exited too that she had a Webasto coolant heater! There was no remote or way to start it up so researched and sourced one on eBay. Unfortunately even with the remote the webasto has issues. It would start up then shut itself down. I found a way to talk to it and it told me that It wasn't getting enough voltage. (9v) So would auto shut down after a short cycle......bummer. The webasto technician in Calgary advised either a new brain or a new heater. I decided on brain surgery and ordered one from Europe. Same issue so I put that on hold as spring had sprung and I didn't need I at that moment





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binch

Is your power for the webasto coming directly from the battery?

I have one in my 110 and love the thing!!!!   I have a toggle on/off switch so it a simple manual set up and only installed to make it easier to start in the winter.    I bought a remote control (Red90's suggestion) some 10 years ago but have yet to install it LOL.    I liked them so much I bought a second one for my 200tdi RRC.....I still have the webasto but not that RRC.  I've going to put it into the 91 RRC I'm rebuilding now.     

"hi, my name's Bill....and I'm an addict" :-\

Gotta love 'em
Cheers, Bill

grizzlychicken

Quote from: binch on April 18, 2020, 07:34 PM
Is your power for the webasto coming directly from the battery?

I have one in my 110 and love the thing!!!!   I have a toggle on/off switch so it a simple manual set up and only installed to make it easier to start in the winter.    I bought a remote control (Red90's suggestion) some 10 years ago but have yet to install it LOL.    I liked them so much I bought a second one for my 200tdi RRC.....I still have the webasto but not that RRC.  I've going to put it into the 91 RRC I'm rebuilding now.     

"hi, my name's Bill....and I'm an addict" :-\

Gotta love 'em
Hey Bill,
Power was routed through the remote. I'm pretty sure it was a poor earthing issue. Good idea to wire it direct from the battery. I do lie the idea of starting the coolant heater from the house though via the remote . I have it out now so will bench test it and work backwards that way


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grizzlychicken

#5
So I quickly realized that there is not much local support in my area for rover so decided I'd better get upto speed on maintenance.
I decided to get a nanocom so I could read and clear codes along with tuning my td5 and adding cruise control etc at a later date. I know most don't want these features but it is nice as a daily driver.


I am sure most of you are way more advanced on looking at the ecu but I found out that the the ECU on models upto 2001 is analogue. They begin with MSB xxxxxxx. That means that you can't remap it via the nanocom. So time fo an ECU upgrade. The ecu with the start code of NNN xxxxx etc is digital and you can flash it to accept custom maps. I found a used nnn ecu and installed it. I then flashed the ecu with the factory map to start and it worked like a charm.


I researched some more and found this website:
https://www.discotd5.com
He does an awesome job of breaking down the ecu function and shared a general tune file for the td5 ecu which runs way better than the stock rover ecu tune. So I flashed the new ecu map and that helped with power quite a bit.


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binch

okay now.... open your mouth slightly, push out your lower jaw and lower your eyebrows and say in a low slow voice say:

"What is dis ting yu call....   T   d   5 ?"


LOL ;D
Cheers, Bill

grizzlychicken

Ha!
So over the next summer I decided I needed to upgrade the 2nd row passenger seats. I felt that I didn't feel the original seats were safe enough for the kids on the 4000km trip that summer. I looked into factory or aftermarket options but they were a few $$ so I found some seats from an auto wrecker from a Nissan Pathfinder and went about adapting them to fit her.
First thing I had a plate made up that I bolted to the main reinforcement points in the floor and to the attachment points in the chassis.


The recess I cut out of the wheel wells to accommodate the clip in mechanism of the seats I got. The seats still folded fully forward. It was a bi fiddly to get them to work and the seats ended up pretty verticals as the floor in the defender is pretty level compared to a pathfinder that has a recessed floor for the seats but they fit pretty well.

Unfortunately I don't have a good pic of the seats installed but they were a big improvement on the old seats!

Playing with the seats made me realize however that things weren't lining up quite right......

This was reinforced when I decided to get a rear antiroll bar. Yes I know most hard core off-roaders will remove these but I was after better road handling as a priority and found a set of rear antiroll bars that you could disconnect when needed. So I got this system:

https://foundry4x4.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=76

Now these were supposed to be plug and play but they didn't line up and would take serious modification to fit them. So I then went about checking my chassis alignment and realized that there was a serious twist and lateral shear.


Hmm so I decided to just keep driving her for now as she drove great but her alignment wasn't good.


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grizzlychicken

The winter of 2017 was pretty cold in sections. Unfortunately over the winter rover developed intermittent heater fan issues where it would just stop completely. On a 1 hour drive I remember being in full down with all the windows icing up as the heater wasn't working. Stopping every 10-15 min or so to scrape the windshield in a snowstorm. I fitted an auxiliary electric heater which helped but I really needed to get her fan fixed. Took it to a shop in Calgary but it was working fine when I took it in and cramped out again on the way home. The list of things to fix was steadily growing.
I know heat is always an issue with cold weather for defenders but with no fan it became a bit ridiculous.


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grizzlychicken

#9
Everything came to a head in the fall of 2018 where I was committing to work in lake louse, about a 50 min drive from Canmore and I heard some clunking in the drivetrain and then lost all drive power and smelled a burning smell. I thought to myself "that's not good..."
Towed rover back to canmore where she was parked in my driveway. Time for some open heart surgery!
It would go into gear but lacked any drive.

So I decided to pull the transmission and transfer case.
I pulled Both and then determined that the lack of drive was coming from the transfer case. The transmission seemed to be functioning normally.

I pulled the transfer case apart and the first thing I found was shrapnel in the base of the case. Something had been shredded:

These pieces are gear shaped pieces of metal.
On further inspection I found that the input gear to the transfer case had been totally stripped and where there was supposed to be gear there was a smooth cylinder surface:


It should have looked like this:


On further inspection I found that the support bearing for the gear was totally collapsed:


So there had been some oil leaking from the intermediate shaft common with the lt77 where the case gets ovalised from the steel shaft and no longer seals. Very common source of transfer case oil leaks.  I had checked the oil recently but must have had a catastrophic oil loss and lubrications failure of the bearing which in turn caused the gear to be mobile and when the gears lost mesh the teeth must have been torn off the gear.

So time to rebuild the transfer case!


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binch

This is a great write up Shane!   Very informative.

If you are looking for a  good heater upgrade that will take any cold weather we can get...go have a look at what John Barge did in his 90!!!    When your kids asks you "Can you turn the heat down???" in a defender you know you're on the right track  ;)
Cheers, Bill

grizzlychicken

Quote from: binch on April 19, 2020, 10:30 PM
This is a great write up Shane!   Very informative.

If you are looking for a  good heater upgrade that will take any cold weather we can get...go have a look at what John Barge did in his 90!!!    When your kids asks you "Can you turn the heat down???" in a defender you know you're on the right track  ;)
Thanks bill,
I'm surprised someone is listening to my ramblings!
The write up is as much for me to remember and keep track as it is for others too although I hope it is useful to someone


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grizzlychicken

Just for everyone's reference I am not a mechanic. I work as a Physio. I suppose that is a mechanic of sorts but for your body rather than for machinery.
I am however a tinkerer. My mechanical tinkering started 25 years ago when a dirt bike I had needed its crankshaft replace. So I pulled it appart and figured out how I all went back together. Those were the days of no internet ant just intuition!  A few years before that in about grade 9 I pulled appart a lawnmower engine for a science project and explained how it worked on vhs video for the classes viewing pleasure. Fun projects at the time!
In my early 20's I was cheap (or broke!) but wanted a Toyota hilux truck. I found a nice cheap one. I learnt the important lesson of never buy a truck in the rain at night! Subsequently I found the chassis of that hilux had rotted through and was being held together by 2 pieces of angle welded to the chassis. I have a friend a ride in my "new truck" and as he was getting into it he place his hand in the window pillar and fouls it to be crunching under his fingers. That too was rotted out.

So I had a bit of a Delma. I couldn't in good conscience sell it to another person knowing the structural issues with it so decided to try my hand at fixing it.

I sourced a use chassis from a wrecker and they cut out a hinge pillar for me too. So I spent about the next year and a half doing a cab off chassis change and cut the hinge Pilar out. I did get someone else to weld It in as my welding skills are beginner at best! I was very happy with how it turned out but it was a bit rough with the finishing but structurally sound!

My passion since then has been motorbikes and I have a number of projects on the go from a 1929 triumph WS:

To an ex German ww2 1944 BMW R75 with sidecar:


These will be both mechanical and paint restorations.

I also tinker with robotics and have mostly built a full size r2d2 replica:


I am a bit of a Star Wars fan. I built a full scale accurate Chewbacca costume and I volunteer with it to raise money for make a wish, which helps sick kids get their wishes granted. It is a geeky but fun and rewarding pastime. After building the Chewbacca costume I had to build a C3po backpack or him a la empire strikes back to make him feel complete:


Yes that is me!

Anyway so I'm a tinkerer. I like to figure out how things work and put them back together or build them from scratch. My biggest issue is having too many projects and following them through to completion! That will be the challenge with the defender rebuild!

Ramble over............


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Red90

Quote from: grizzlychicken on April 20, 2020, 09:40 AMJust for everyone's reference I am not a mechanic.

Land Rover has been turning owners into mechanics since 1948.

binch

Quote from: Red90 on April 20, 2020, 10:07 AM
Quote from: grizzlychicken on April 20, 2020, 09:40 AMJust for everyone's reference I am not a mechanic.

Land Rover has been turning owners into mechanics since 1948.

Or at least trying   ROFL (thinking of some of my own efforts)
Cheers, Bill