A Few Jobs Done

I have finally polished the rear door, leaving only the front edge of the left wing and a few blemishes on the bonnet and bulkhead to do. It’s a job that I’ve been putting off, partly due to the weather, but mainly due to the hatred I have now for working or even thinking about the 109’s paintwork – I’ve really had enough of sorting out the poor workmanship that the painter did.

I got around to attaching the wheel chock brackets to the front end of the roof rack. I used rivnuts and stainles dome-head machine screws. It’s as if they were designed for the position – the spacing of the bolt holes is exactly that of the spacing of the rack bars. It does mean that if they get muddy, some of that mud will drop down onto the roof, but at least they won’t be inside the vehicle and are easily and instantly accessible. They’re manufactured by ALKO, if anyone wants to fit some of the same. A good investement of £20, if ever there was one, from a fellow forum member (Kyser) at www.landrovernet.co.uk at the Billing show.
The Kenlowe Hotstart engine pre-heater had to come out to make way for the batteries, but I have managed to find room for it elsewhere. It is now fitted to the bulkhead, adjacent to the heater housing. The Hotstart has three small feet at the edge of its base with bolt holes. Unfortunately, the two side feet were just below the edge of the bulkhead section used, so I made a mounting plate. The top machine screw passes through the foot and mounting plate into a rivnut in the bulkhead. The lower end of the plate is secured to the bulkhead with identical fixings, and the side feet are secured to the plate again with screws and rivnuts. Stainless dome heads were used throughout. The heater matrix piping was adjusted to suit, including the removal of the steel return line from alongside the rocker cover, leaving only one of the original heater pipes in place.

My friend Alun has returned the modified gearstick, bent to give three inches more clearance between the dash and the top of the stick, in order to accomodate the new centre console. He’s also digging up a pair of bulb holders for the two auxiliary guages in that console, as every auto-electrical store I ask doesn’t carry them (inlcuding Land Rover). The photo shows the new second bend and also the reverse light switch at the base (identical to the brake light switch). The lever was bent at that second location, rather than just increasing the first bend, in order to retain enough clearance from the overdrive lever.

This last photo shows the relay setup I have for the front lighting. Using halogen headlights puts a lot of strain on the standard wiring harness, and tends to burn out the switches, both the main switch and column stalk, quite repidly. The metal pivot point of the main switch actually becomes uncomfortably hot to the touch. Furthermore, with the amount of electrical resistance in the standard loom, the bulbs don’t reach anywhere near their maximum output. By fitting relays, the switches handle only a tiny current, while the bulb circuits are now using heavy wiring with little resistance. The 30A relays take power driectly from the battery, via in-line 15A fuses, and are controlled by the original headlight feeds from the switches. I have one relay operating both lights for dipped beam, another for main beam, and a third for the bullbar spots controlled directly by the main beam relay.