Dakar Rebuild - part 7

First start: It's alive! ALIVE!

06/05/06

While I was underneath I reattached the auto shifter and routed the handbrake cable and wiring loom that runs to the auto box, transfer box temperature sensor and speed sensor.

With some excellent ideas from Dad, we then spent the afternoon fabricating a suitably beefy strapping system for the Range Rover's fuel tank. There are two longitudinal straps and one lateral, all made from an ex-ratchet strap.

The longitudinal straps have one end looped around the lower piece of box section that supports the spare wheel carrier and the other around an adjustable tensioner bar that bolts through the floor to brackets attached to the large tubular chassis crossmember. The lateral strap is attached to a load-spreader underneath the floor with a loop on one end and an adjuster at the other:

The tank itself is sat on a bed of high density foam robbed from the Range Rover's load area.

I also nipped round to our neighbour's place to help Dad load some wood into the trailer, and found that he had a large LPG tank sat next to his wood pile. £5 later and it too was in the trailer :-) It's full of LPG, too! The tank itself is in good shape, but the control gear for the top has seen better days. If it's no good then so be it, but for £5 I couldn't exactly complain!

07/05/06

I then went through the first start checklist, then attached the ECU. On switching on the ignition, the fuel pump relay clicked, but the fuel pump wouldn't run. It had been working fine as I'd bridged the relay to prime the fuel lines, but now it had gone suspiciously quiet. I tried a direct connection again, but the pump wouldn't run. Powering it direct from the battery worked fine, but there was simply no continuity from the relay's load pin to the pump.

After a half-hour of head-scratching and pratting around with a multimeter, I spotted that I must've nudged the wiring loom when the ECU was plugged in as the inertia switch had been tripped! A push of the reset prong on the top of the switch and the pump came straight back to life, making me feel like a prat :-)

The key was turned again and this time the pump ran as expected. A few turns of the engine and it ran! First time! Rushing around checking levels and looking for leaks revealed that there was a bit of a drip from under the transmission, but other than that all was well. Each gear was cycled through and drive was engaged correctly - and it moved for the first time in ages under its own power! Bloody marvelous :-)

I decided to call it a day there - everything from this point on is going to feel much easier as there's the knowledge that the engine, drivetrain and electrics have successfully survived the transplant from the Range Rover. Next comes the task of knocking up the rear load area floor that will cover the fuel tank, painting the floorpan and then properly fitting and trimming the interior.

08/05/06

Turning my mind to electrics again and the gadgetry that I want to have fitted when all's complete, I've decided to re-task the electric window circuits as I no longer have electric windows (or doors for them to go in, for that matter!). They're suitably beefy and will easily handle things like the computer, 70cm/2m HAM rig etc. I think it's better to re-use circuits than simply abandon them and add new wiring as it keeps complexity down.

In the engine bay, I've created a couple of earth binding posts, both of which are connected directly to the chassis. Initially to service the headlight ground points, they'll no doubt be useful for all the other bits and pieces that get added.

Spent most of the evening clearing out the barn as there's a huge amount of stuff that's either from the Dakar's previous incarnation or bits from the Range Rover that I'm never going to use, like a complete ABS system :-) That's going to go on eBay tomorrow, I think...

I've also started planning the additional wiring to run along side the existing loom in both the engine bay and to the rear. As I'm probably going to end up running an LPG system, I figure control and power cables for this, plus stereo, amp, speakers etc. would also be sensible. Can't hurt to run a few spare spans either way.

09/05/06

10/05/06