Mechanical – 48 States of Gray

The fuel pump returns and wire woes!

Well the fuel pump has returned and is looking good!

Old and newly re-built above, it is almost a shame to put it back on the vehicle.

The service from Darwen Diesels who did the work was fabulous. I posted it off with an old fashioned letter. They called me to confirm receipt the next day and to say that it was going straight into the workshop. Day 2, I get a call saying that the job was done and asking for the grand sum of £65.18 in return, that included postage and a pack of washers. Day 3, I have it back.

Anyway to work and back on the vehicle it goes, easy job, bleed the system again, jump in the drivers seat to fire it up and – Yep, churning and no firing Grrrrrr.

By chance my friend and Land Rover guru Darren was due to call in that morning as he was passing; he arrived at the end of the Grrrrrrrr. After a quick resume of the situation we tried to start her again, Darren reached under the bonnet and bingo we had a Perentie with a running engine. So, what was the problem.

Well, Darren had manually opened the throttle which was not opened fully, thus restricting fuel; so why was this?

In Europe and some states in Australia Diesels are required to have an automatic fuel shut off, rather than a simple manual cable – the shut off is controlled by an EDIC Actuator which is controlled via a relay by the ignition. S0, the actuator was not opening the throttle wide enough.

I started to follow the cables back from the actuator to see if a problem was obvious. Most of the wires were covered in insulation tape which was now beginning to unwrap itself, including a relay which I assumed controlled the actuator.

Give it a squeeze and the actuator works, so the badly made and oxidised connections were the crux of the problem as a quick re-wire of the connections proved correct.

Darren at this stage points out that the Glow Plugs are not wired up – the Ozzies don’t bother – don’t need em Mate!

If you have read previous posts you will remember from “Can you smell Burning” that this is not the first wiring issue that has turned up! So I spend an afternoon tracing and and unwrapping cables finding lots of loose ends, some of which are live, and dodgy connections as I go (most just wires twisted together). I trace the ignition wires to behind the dash and find a similar story. Digging deeper, I now realise that it is only the EDIC and the ignition that is running through relays and that only about 8 circuits are fused, despite fuses being present visually in the fuse box. Six of those were the lights Full Beam, Dip Beam and Side lights………Left and Right – Thats safe then!

The discovery of a few cables that were starting to melt made me realise that this was not going to be a quick fix.

Melting Wires and a loose ignition feed (white)

I could not risk even using the Perentie given my discoveries, let alone add the additional circuits that would be needed to take her to the States and re-wiring the rear lights was already on the job list.

With no off of the shelf loom available because of the mixture of Land Rover and Isuzu wiring it would be re-wiring without a safety net.

Not starting on the button anymore……..

I had noticed that Perentie was not starting as well now, a few extra churns in the morning to get going then all OK for the rest of the day. I put it down to the colder mornings and maybe a battery that was reaching end of life and made a note to check this out.

We had to drop Benita’s Audi TT down to Neil Read Performance in New Milton to have the suspension looked at one morning. Perentie took a bit longer to start but soon got going – I mentally promoted “check the battery” to do later that day. The trip to New Milton was fine but Perentie refused to start after we had dropped the Audi – just turning over and not firing – Hmmmmm – fuel problem maybe?

Neil heard us struggling and came out to help, after a couple of minutes of head scratching he disappeared and came back with a spray can and asked me to crank the engine whilst he disappeared under the bonnet – after some protesting the engine fired up – albeit not exactly purring. Amazing what a dose of brake cleaner can do…………..The engine than cut out again and we repeated the procedure. I went around the block and the engine was well down on power and I could only just prevent stalling when the revs dropped.

We either called the breakdown service (I knew we would need to be towed) or try to make the 5 mile journey home. Executive decision made and off we went, with much revving to prevent stalling and good timing to ensure I did not have to stop or slow down too much as junctions we made it home – very stressful!

After a little more diagnosis and lack of starting, without the brake cleaner, I was sure that this was a fuel issue. I checked all of the pipes, cleaned the sediment filter (for the first time in a while looking at the muck that emerged), peered into the tank to ensure it was clean (it was) and bled the fuel system to a point just after the pump – still nothing – new pump anyone?

The fuel pump is easy to access, but the tag with the part number is unreadable, but I could figure out that it was a Zexel Bosch and some of the part number.

On the trail for part numbers, I started with the Australian Rover Owners Club which is a rich source of information. I soon discovered that this particular fuel pump has a small filter hidden away inside the banjo bolt on the inlet side of the Fuel pump – this must be the problem I thought…………..

I was delighted to see a blocked filter which was sure to be the source of my problem…….this was soon cleaned out and the system, re-bled. Did it start – no chance!

After a few parts searches and calls I concluded that a pump was not available in the UK, but could be ordered from Australia which was not a problem. However, I found a company that, as long as the pump was not completely past it – would re-build it for me. The pump was duly dispatched to Darwen Diesels in Blackburn. Fingers crossed the next post will tell all.

Neil Read Performance in New Milton, Hampshire provided services that you will not get in your average garage, tuning, fabrication – you name it. Great service and an all round great guy. I will be taking the Perentie there to have the addition fuel tank installed, but that is for later.

Finding parts, a taste of things to come……….

Well, if you have been with me since the first post, you will know that the Land Rover Perentie was a special project for the Australian Military built by Jaguar Land Rover Australia – a super tough Land Rover for the rough conditions in the outback.

S0 in a nutshell, power comes from an Isuzu 3.9 Diesel, but pretty much everything from the clutch back is Land Rover – all mounted in the special galvanised chassis.

Now most 4×4 Perenties have a normal aspirated Isuzu 4BD1 Diesel, however, ours has a 4BD1 Turbo, usually found in the 6×6 version – The reason for this will be covered in a later post.

So, the first job on a relatively new vehicle is change the oil and filters, as we all know. A quick call around to usual sources drew blanks as I did not know the part numbers. The existing filters were all so old and dirty that the numbers could not be read. A call to the “not so local” Isuzu truck dealer also drew a blank when I gave them the engine number…….

Isuzu suggested that I book it in for them to take a look and try and trace the engine on their computer. Given that they would also check the engine over and inform me of any impending doom, I bit the bullet and booked it in. At least they gave me a courtesy van; a very battered VW Caddy, full of empty crisp packets old fuel receipts and with nearly 200k on the clock!

However, to give them credit, they didn’t charge me for it and I got good use out of it over the next two weeks…………Yes, two weeks!

As an aside, it is amazing the assumptions that people make about you when you drive a sign written van…………..

So why so long………….well I very quickly got a reasonably long list of what was wrong with the Land Rover (Most of which I knew) and confirmation that the fuel and air filters had been obtained and changed. No really bad news, so I took that as a positive.

The problem was with the oil filters, yes there is a plural. There are two, the main filter and a bypass. A series of filters ordered in apparently did not fit, including some part numbers provided by the wonderful people in the Australian Perentie Facebook Group to whom I turned for help. No idea why this was as the Australians know their stuff.

Anyway, Isuzu got there eventually after seeking e-mail assistance from Japan! – and the Perentie returned home.

However, a lesson learned; I have already started to think about sourcing other parts that I need to replace prior to our trip, but more of that later

Power Steering Woes…..

The more observant amongst you would have noticed the “drive protection” under the Perentie in my last post.

As the oil leak, which was coming from the back of the engine (rear seal I suspect) was manageable, I decided to tackle the Power Steering leak as a priority. Fluid was not only leaking from under the pump on the left side of the engine but running along the steering damper and spreading all over the place.

I called into see Darren at our local garage in Milford on Sea – Milford Motors.

I got to know Darren a year or so ago when he had a Leyland Mini for sale – I didn’t buy it in the end. Since then Darren has worked on all of my cars and done the MOT’s for me. I am sure that he will not mind me referring to Milford Motors as an “Old School Garage”, great service, practical and knowledgable staff and reasonable rates; who could ask for more!

The Perentie was booked in later in the week, I was hoping that it was a simple case of a loose connection, rather than the pump itself.

Well the car was dropped off and after a couple of hours the dreaded phone call came……….The banjo bolt under the pump had required a long handed wrench to free it as it had been forced into the bracket under the pump in the past. Whoever did the previous job did not have the correct size Banjo and packed one that was too long with extra copper washers and used force to tighten it up. This was never going to be a long term solution.

Banjo Bolt — The cause of the Power Steering leak.

In an ideal world you would just order the right part and all would be sorted. But this is s Perentie, no part number, so no off of the shelf solution, at least for an unusual part such as this.

Fortunately, Darren knew someone locally who used to own an engineering company and who still made parts in his garage………So a day later all was sorted, a new re-machined Banjo and a new thread re-cut into the pump bracket, which also could not be sourced easily. Apparently the bracket was originally a gas fitting because of the thread used; anyway, it all works now.

Power Steering Pump — Pump showing location of the faulty Banjo

The guys also added some leak fix additive to the oil which has not fixed the leak, but stemmed the flow for now.

Darrens opinion mirrored mine, inasmuch as the rear oil seal is probably as fault and which we all involves splitting the engine from the gearbox to fix.

I had noticed that the transmission was a little noisy, with the noise clearing when the clutch was depressed, so maybe some wear on the layshaft. So I have decided to park this one for a while and will plan to get the gearbox re-built and the clutch replaced at the same time as we do the seal.

At least then I will be more comfortable on our trip knowing that these major components have been replaced/refurbished.

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