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Posts posted by FridgeFreezer

  1. Just back from a little* jaunt around Europe in the ambulance and having (I thought) sorted the problem before leaving, it happened again on the trip and we ended up losing the rubber end cap on the front axle somewhere up an Alp :(

    The symptom is pretty much as described here:


    • End-cap was a new genuine rubber item, supposedly the most immune to falling off
    • Hub flange seal is OK
    • Rear hub seal is OK
    • Axle breather is NOT blocked (I can blow down it no probs)
    • Problem seemed only to happen after "serious" driving - snaking up & down alpine passes in the sunshine with very hot brakes (hence heat into hub)
    • It's only this hub, the opposite one is fine and has been doing the same amount of work

    Now, it's possible there's a little play or wear in the wheel bearing, I haven't had time to jack it up & investigate but I gave it a cursory wobble and it's not hanging off.

    My current plan is to do the wheel bearings & seals as a precaution and see what happens, unless someone has a better idea?



    *= 2200 miles ish, as you do.

  2. 3 minutes ago, Gazzar said:

    Mine's in the spreadsheet, but not on the Merlin archive. Does that mean anything, or is it just too old to be in the archive?

    Oddly, ours is in the archive but the scan of the record card doesn't quite tally and the colour (NATO Green IRR) is in the spreadsheet but not listed / secret in the website.

  3. 13 hours ago, BogMonster said:

    It does show how much wheelspin is needed to trigger it

    Yeah I was surprised how much wheel spin is allowed before it gets a grip, although I wonder if it would be different if it wasn't the "all-or-nothing" tarmac/roller setup?

    Given the TR system knows absolutely loads about what's going on, it knows it's basically flat & level on tarmac so is probably outside its normal behaviour - they surely anticipated the "driver left TR in sand mode and then drove home on tarmac" scenario...

  4. 1 hour ago, Red90 said:

    If you do not understand where low pressure is required, then you have no experience on hard off road terrain.

    This just in, actual footage of Red90 in action:




    Only time I've lowered pressures was when I had a nail in my tyre, but then I've never driven anywhere hard :moglite:

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  5. 2 hours ago, mickeyw said:

    I think I'd be inclined to shim the boxes as you suggest, and live with it. It won't affect function, and will save a whole load of time, and probably money. Attempts to straighten it will almost certainly mess up the powder coat.

    ^ this this and this!

  6. On 6/30/2019 at 8:35 AM, paime said:

    The only additional cost is the welding machine

    Which will likely have paid for itself after the 1st job or two... and if not you can sell it again without losing much unless you've blown it up somehow :ph34r:

  7. Dinitrol is good stuff, easy enough to apply (just spray it) but it WILL go everywhere, all over you and anything in range of the breeze so be careful where you do it & what you do it near.

    A stout wire brush to remove any loose rust is a good idea, the SPID type ones on eBay are cheap and effective. That and a damn good pressure-washing underneath to remove any dirt etc., might be worth paying a local outfit to do it - places that prepare HGV's for MOT are often set up to steam-clean the hell out of things in preparation as taking a dumper truck for MOT with a year's mud crusted underneath is a surefire failure.

    Eye protection is essential (rust or paint in the eye isn't fun, ask me how I know) and some sort of coverall is a really good idea, the stuff can drift into your hair etc. and really doesn't come off easily.

    For touching up chassis black, Corroless chassis paint with glass reinforcement is damn good, Arc-Rite on eBay sell it.

    Edit: Dinitrol UK have an eBay shop too, worth a look.

  8. 1 hour ago, reb78 said:

    I think you are confusing people with your training with people who know the basics. Its hardly in the realms of your home mechanic to say, 'oh, the ECU is knackered, I will just cobble a new one together with a Raspberry PI base'. I wouldn't know where to start - open up an ECU case then I am lost. Look at how long it seems to have taken companies like BBS to unravel bits to include in their diagnostic boxes...

    No-one was born knowing how an engine works any more than anyone was born being able to program... my point is it's easier than ever to learn.

    Also, people are solving problems faster and cheaper than ever - you don't need to invent your own ECU every time any more than you need to reinvent an engine if your dies, open-source projects like Megasquirt or Speeduino pop up when a few people want to solve the same problem. The same is happening for things like shift controllers, the OBD / CANbus is getting more and more attention.

    @Cynic-al is right that manufacturers don't always provide much info, often because they don't own the contents of the ECU either (it'll belong to Bosch or Denso etc.) but at the end of the day all the ECU's connect to some physical thing - an actuator, a sensor, etc. - that does a job, and if you know what it's supposed to do you can make it do it.

  9. 3 hours ago, neil110 said:

    It is the lack of replacement electronics which will kill them.  A former colleague had a Jaguar of some description, which had some form of ECU to control the gearbox, this lived inside the gearbox. It died and there wasn't a replacement available, for any price, anywhere on earth. 

    More a lack of understanding of electronics - what was made can be re-made, devices like the Raspberry Pi are opening the field up, making a custom PCB is cheaper than ever, the tools are more accessible than they've ever been but it's outside the knowledge of most old-school workshops.

    It's like saying "oh you can't get a new cylinder head for that anywhere at any price" - yes you can, someone somewhere will happily whittle one from billet with a CNC machine if you're willing to pay for it, but your local garage will just shrug and say you can't get them and the car is scrap.

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