Dakar Rebuild - part 10

We're getting there...

12/06/06

As it was such a nice evening, I decided to have a proper drive round the fields. There is a video of the first proper run as a .wmv and a couple of piccies:

Generally things went very well - I clocked up ten miles (!) and, blissfully, the temperature guage stayed nailed just below half-way - which was nice :-) Gearbox felt smooth and shifted nicely and (in low range at least) shifted through all four gears and into overdrive as expected. This engine and drivetrain feels far more willing to pull than the setup that came out. If that is because the previous engine was rather ill or the drinking straws that were acting as gearbox oil cooler pipes were preventing the 'box from performing as expected I don't know. What I DO know is the ones that are presently installed are great!

There are a couple of things that need addressing though. There's a really bad clonk (that I'd forgotten about) from the front when the body moves laterally - I'm guessing a knackered bush on the tie rod. Also, and more worryingly, the steering is really stiff in the 6- and 12-o'clock positions. If this is due to being stood for ages, an airlock in the power steering or due to the abuse the previous steering wheel was given when I was removing it I'm not sure - either way it's not right and needs to be sorted.

17-18/06/06

The supporting frame for the fuel tank cover and storage compartments has been rather over-engineered - if it can take my weight, it should be able to put up with anything!

Looking down from here, I noticed I'd totally omitted to refit the gear lever knobs!

'A nice, easy, five-minute job' I thought. And I'd have been right if I could remember where I'd carefully stored the damn things! An hour of taking the garage apart looking for them and five minutes of fitting later and the transmission is now operable without leaving marks on your fingers:

I'd pulled the rear brake pipe off on Thursday night as Dad had mentioned he was passing our local car parts bloke (the pipe came apart in my hands - not good!) and so that was the next thing to fit. As a large quantity of fluid had already been drained anyway AND the vehicle had been stood for ages, I decided to drain and flush the whole system.

A couple of litres of fresh DOT4 brake fluid were purchased along with an easi-bleed kit (those things are worth their weight in gold!). Literally fifteen minutes later and all six bleed points had been done. The fluid that came out wasn't particularly manky, but I felt better knowing that it was all fresh. A quick check for leaks from all the unions and a test for a spongy break pedal (not present) and the job was declaired good.

Now on to the niggles that I found on Monday night. The clonk was, as predicted, a crapped-out bush on the tie rod: Swinging the steering from left to right produced a suitably alarming amount of play where there should be none. Rather than faff around pressing bushes in/out, I just swapped the known-good tie rod from the ever-useful rolling spares pile that is the Range Rover. No play, no clonk:

On to the shitty steering. This concerned me slightly as I didn't fancy swapping out a steering box - or a steering column for that matter. I decided to narrow the problem down by disconnecting the steering linkage between the bottom of the column and the box itself. Once done, the steering wheel spun as free as anything, so the column was ruled good.

I then jacked up the front wheels (another side-benefit of the front axel skid plate - it makes a very convenient both-wheels jack point!) and shoved them from lock to lock - no tight spots there at all.

That only left the linkage itself. On examining it more closely, I found the column-end UJ had siezed up in one axis. The usual dump-in-paraffin-and-waggle-lots technique did little to ease it off, so again the Range Rover was pillaged and its steering linkage dropped on to the Dakar:

Result - nice, smooth steering. :-) Interestingly, the power steering pump on the previous engine must've been on the way out as the new pump runs without whine, even when under full load. Another nice outcome!