Builds My LC 80 thread. (2 Viewers)

[Dave 2000]

Another update as this burst of energy just keeps coming!

This afternoon I put the wing/fender back on, credit where it's due the fit is close and hardly takes a minute to line up. Readers will recall you need to remove the wing to replace the ariel? As mentioned earlier just a three or four bolt broke and of those on was between the wing and the sill/rocker panel. I got a set of speedy clips with stainless Allen head bolts, no particular reason for the Allen heads, they came in the pack, they are stainless but painted black. I had rubbed down the very minor rust from around the holes and used anti rust paint to make them good. One hole in the inner wing had rusted out about half an inch so rather than break out the MIG and make it worse, yeh I am that good with a welder LOL! With the rust dead (or as dead as I was going to get it), I used a repair or penny washer as known the UK to bridge the small piece that was missing and then one of the stainless black Allen bolts to hold in all in place. A point here, the small Allen bolts are 6mm, it is very easy to over tighten them, this is not a problem for the thread, but is for the head of the bolt, I nearly rounded one out getting it tight. I still had the wheel on and the Allen key was not into the head of the bolt enough, my bad as it was at an angle, I replaced the bolt and job done. Getting ahead of myself here, between the inner and outer wing was a dried out line mastic, so if anyone plans on doing this keep it mind you will need a tube. I used a selastic product well know here in Europe and to say it sticks like the proverbial is an understatement! It is black and stays malleable and I gave the top of the inner wing where the outer joins and meets the arch a good dosing, I left either end of the inner wing dry as per Toyota to let water run out, I made sure plenty was around the speedy clips and bolts as well. fortunately it does not stain your hands too much, yep run out of nitrile's. With a quick line up with the bonnet and door and all was done........except you guess it I had forgotten to grind and drill out the the broken bolt where the wing meets the sill! This is also where the plastic spacer goes, I mentioned in an earlier post, this spacer clips on the the wing where it meets the sill, I had not even noticed it when I took the wing off, I found it on the floor after jet washing everything off, so keep that in mind as well. without it the wing will buckle, the two bolts that come of of this area are much longer than all the other bolts, that should trigger your memory....I did say should, not for me though! There is plenty of room for a self drilling screw and washer as there is no way I am taking the wing off! I see that pointing out all this on this thread, if I ever sell her (apparently you cannot be buried in your car in Spain), then I can point out this thread and the new owner will have quite a few years to go over and can see if I cut any not too important corners.


With the wing lined up and tightened I called it a day, lighting and grill can go back later, thinking about giving the grill a rattle can tidy up before I do, as an aside replace the bulb for the repeater whilst here, getting the housing off to change the bulb can lead to a nice scratch down your paintwork, I have a set of plastic panel chisels but still there is a risk, of course with the wing off it was easy, so nothing remarkable here but I have an OE electric ariel now that works, I run the outside temperature sensor along the inner wing as well as mentioned earlier, and of course rust proofed all in the inner wing, and gave the small patches on the inside or the outer wing a tidy up as well. Tomorrow will see a brushing over with black 'Hammerite' paint to make sure all is sealed up. During fitting all bolts and bolt holes were given a real good coating of motorbike chain grease on the threads, the new owner finding things easier to take apart.

Thanks for reading and keeping up.

Stay safe

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Another update as things that have been put off for so long get sorted.

With the wing/fender put on the other day and before securing the arch at the bottom near the sill/rocker panel, I gave the lower fixing bolts a good 'toshing' with black Hammerite paint, although I had used stainless speedy clips and bolts, I had used ordinary steel washers so a good flooding with the well known Hammerite should see them easy to undo the next time around.

So thinking about putting back the headlight, indicator and sidle light I hit on an idea. When I matriculated my RHD car into Spain I simply purchased two headlights for a LHD 80 and with a simple alignment job (underground car park and a piece of chalk), the car whizzed through the ITV however, when my car came from the factory it came with headlight level adjustment but the LHD version did not, back then I thought I would keep them but like the broken ariel it was another redundant button on the dashboard, and I did plan back then to see if I could swap the housings but never got around to it. So today I found the old headlights and blew off around 11 years of dust and started a comparison. The outer glass was definitely different with LHD markings and the actual glass pattern was different as well, I thought well perhaps I can simply change the glasses.......yeh right!

First removing the lenses looked like it was going to be easy, but don't let the half a dozen metal clips holding the glass to the lamp body fool you, there is a sealant that is tough......really tough. So here your friend is a hot air gun or the wife's hairdryer if your brave enough? So with the clips off I did try by using a sharp craft knife to cut the sealant made of a mixture of silicone and concrete, after cutting a slit though my little finger (still weak on my right side) I went with the hot air gun, with gentle prising and heating (or the other way around) the glass came free, I tidied up the edges of the housing by heating and using pliers held the slight buckled edges where I had been prying and once cooled off they stayed straight.....ish. So a good look at the chrome reflector and they appear to be identical, so a quick swap of glass I and have electric leveling headlights....wrong! The part of the reflector that sends the beam out is identical however the bulb mount on the inside is different, not by much but if you picture the tripod base of the headlamp bulb on the RHD headlights the larger tab of the bulb is at 12 o'clock, on the left hand reflector it is somewhere between 1 and 2 o'clock. So you need to unscrew the adjusters until the come free from the reflectors, a not here the adjusters are different in a couple of ways, the first is you would think to release them by unscrewing anticlockwise but one does and one does not, so check before you spend twenty minutes winding it the wrong way. The other difference is the adjust for the non electric adjusted is different from the electric version, I only found this out because the adjuster on my original lamps was looking a little nasty and rusty, but they cannot be swapped, there is a collar on the manual versions that does not allow it to fit on the electric version, it might be possible to remove this but it felt like it might break so I went with surrendering, I did swap the manual adjuster though as they are the same. Once the reflectors were swapped I just had to glue the glass back in. unless you have a spare few hours don't bother trying to get the old silicone out, instead run a new bead of silicone on top of the old stuff that is in the recess, then with the glass aligned correctly just press down while playing the hot air gun and the glass simply sinks down into place, with the clips replaced I left it to cool, and then fitted, not forgetting to screw the lower chrome filler in place before fitting the lamp back in otherwise it will have to come back out again, I am not owning up to forgetting it....nope not me....cough!! A quick test of the beam against the garage wall showed the motor is working and the beam does go up and down, the beam pattern is not as clear cut as the unmodified version, I think this is because whilst in there I fitted one of the higher brightness 'Philips' bulbs, they are a whiter white if you like but as mentioned the beam cut off is not as sharp. I will see what it is like when the beams are adjusted properly.

I only did the one lamp as it was the only one out, tomorrow is a bank holiday here in Spain and most other places as well I guess? I doubt I will be going anywhere so you can guess what I will be doing instead of sitting around?

Thanks for keeping up, I will update and also give more info if this 'not so sharp' beam cut of is a character of the Philips bulbs or not.

Stay safe,

regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Right! I 'think' the poor beam cut off is down to me? One of the problems I have since surgery is poor concentration, I need to sharpen this up before my next 'brain test' if not I am not going to get my licence back! For example if I am talking to someone about 'subject A' and I get distracted just for a moment I cannot recall what I was talking about, and I 'think' I put the RHD headlight reflector back in the motorised RHD housing but with the LHD front lens when I was distracted by a phone call. or simply a neighbour saying hello as they passed?? This would explain the not so sharp cut off beam, so today I took out the R/H head lamp and put it side by side with the old motorised housing and I could see the inner reflectors were different as mentioned in my previous post, I then took the modified L/H headlight out and it does appear that I have assembled as above, that is a conflict between a R/H reflector and a L/H front lens or glass.

So I did the change on the R/H headlamp but was careful but still got disturbed a number of times, two visitors, and a few phone calls all accumulated to throw me off and I had to sit down and reassess as such before continuing. I am pretty sure it is right, I also stripped out the L/H headlamp and changed the reflectors in that as well. I say reflectors as in my previous post I said I did not change the inner main beam lamp reflectors, because on first glance they are identical with regards shape and bulb orientation, I did notice though that the reflectors had a slightly narrower 'arc' in part of the reflector, I really do not think this is going to make much difference as they are simply an additional main beam for straight ahead, so when main beam is on you have four main beams, but what the hell I changed those as well. I became too tired to refit the lamps and test them today so will tomorrow if I feel up to it.

As an asides the 80 as far as I know is the only vehicle that uses this headlamp configuration/style, but on the lamp housings there is a marking that they can be used with 24 volts sooooo?

I will let you know if the beam patterns are correct tomorrow, if they are not they will have to wait as working these two days has wiped me out!

Thanks for keeping up and stay safe,

regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Tada! OK hands up the beam screw up was my fault, basically I took out the reflector from the headlight and for whatever reason put it back in! Yeh I know.....

So being extra careful yesterday as per my last post, before dismantling I compared the two lamps and it was sort of obvious they were different, but you have to remember I am looking at four assemblies, two are correct as in old and new and the others didn't quite match up. So I stripped the one from the right hand side of the car and then keeping the components separate, I then stripped the old unit with the motor in and again this time not only keeping the components separate I marked them 'OLD', it is no good marking left and right for me because it would trigger some kind of confusion.....keep taking the pills Dave! With the right hand light components and as per above the left hand light done the same I called it a night.

This afternoon I fitted the lights and faced the car against the back wall of the garage and lo and behold two perfect cut off beams to the right! It is interesting that the Philips bulbs that I have had lying around for years whilst not having a higher wattage, they do have a blue tint on the bulbs, making the dip beam a whiter white (sounds like a washing powder advert), anyway the difference is not so obvious on main beam as the high wattage/brightness washes out (no pun intended) the blue tint. I have mentioned years back that the main beam on theses cars is really good but the dip beam around unlit country roads and on motorways is not great, I am wondering what difference the whiter dipped beam will make. Whilst in there I changed the sidelight and indicator bulbs, the indicators bulbs have been in there years, but the sidelight bulbs about five years although working, they had started going black, so I changed all of them, job done!

As an asides today (03/05/2022) @280, 450 miles (yep still not gone anywhere yet) I changed the fuel filter. Whilst the engine was running fine it has been standing now for eight months with the occasional start up and run for a few minutes, so when out shopping with friends (in their cars) I would get them to pull into a garage and I would grab a couple of gallons and pour it into the tank, basically warding off the growth that can occur in diesel when left standing, with fresh fuel and a new fuel filter I am preventing issues before they begin. I do need to get another new air filter but from Toyota as they are washable, copies are not as far as I know? I tend to go out on long dusty trails and keeping in mind the air intake is under the wing/fender it gets it's fair share of dust, so if out for a few days I change the filter and put the dirty one in a bag, when I get home the dirty one gets washed out and dried and swapped with the second one, this way the engine is always pulling in clean filtered air. I know the filter can be washed out but think it can only be washed out ten times before being disposed of, but cannot remember at the moment, either way it is on the list.

Thanks for following and stay safe,

regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Hi all and welcome to today's update about the 80, please be forewarned that there are some politics involved in this post.

To finish off the sound deadening process of the the under hood or bonnet, and seeing the cost of the under bonnet felt from Mr T, and of course how ugly my repairs were to under the hood which were more about the expanding foam and not the self adhesive sound deadening material I have already fitted, I really needed something to tidy it up under there. So looking through Amazon I find the under bonnet or hood sound deadening cover for a Mercedes. Yeh I know but my engine is cooled by the PWM Mercedes fan I installed all those years ago so why not? Looking at the cost of around 40 euros for the Mercedes offering and the measurement meant it would not only fit the under bonnet but my budget as well. When it arrived I found the measurements given were a little shall we say exaggerated in size but it worked out it would fit.........just. I already had a new packet of buttons used for the OE felt and proceeded to fit the panel of sponge. I was not so sure the panel clips would keep this soft material in place so used some sticky black silicone as extra security. All in all it was a success, however it would have been easier with two people. I found the metal clip where the OE rigid panel fitted allowed this new more flexible sponge to pull out so more adhesive was used, I had already run a bead along the strengthening bars underneath and knew this would help, but getting the back at the screen end to stick was going to be hard. I opted for putting pieces or timber under the sponge to hold it up, these held with little 'struts' of more timber keeping it all in place until the adhesive dried. With the hood left open for the day (blistering heat now) the adhesive had gone off and the sponge stayed in place. Now to the front end where the batteries are, as we know the batteries are protected or shielded from engine heat by being in the plastic or fibreglass carriers. And of course the new sponge is bridging this area, so with more adhesive between the bonnet and the sponge I folded a couple of old blankets and put them on top of the batteries, with the bonnet pushed down onto the safety catch they were left all night, this allowed the sponge to conform to the shaped recceses (not sure that's spelt right) in the bonnet. This makes sure the air space above the batteries is maintained from a safety point of view. Now to the 'I am not so sure'thing', the sponge comes with a smooth side and a patterned side, the patterned side has a smooth round circle area, I assume this it to clear something on the Mercedes engine but it looked horrible, so the patterned side now faces inwards i.e. upside down. Whilst the result looks smoother and neater you can bet the damn thing will have lost some of it's sound deadening properties, or was the pattern just for looks? Either way it covers the 'other' sound deadening sticky pads I cut and fitted in place.

Now to the speedometer.......remember that? The answer is no, I do not have it yet! Despite filling in online forms to the customs in Madrid, and making phone calls answered by a machine message that basically insults you, and even printing off the documents and sending them via urgent post, the customs people sent the speedometer back to f*cking Ireland.........no honest! The secondhand speedometer to all intents and purposes was a gift, it was so cheap from again another Land Cruiser club member in the UK. Again I reiterate the EU is trying to prove what punishment happens if another EU member state tries to leave 'The Club'! The EU Parliament spends millions of rate payers money on ridiculous debates coming up with just as ridiculous rules for example 'A banana must conform to a certain length and not have a curve or radius greater than 'X' amount' WTF! That is a fact by the way and does make me wonder if this where the latest 'Monkey' virus came from? The UK citizens voted out because the amount of money the EU wasted, and then they give Tony Blair a job as 'an advisor', the same man that took the UK into a war that killed many of our soldiers...for nothing FFS! The weapons of mass destruction were not there and he was found by various tribunals that took years to get sorted found him 'in error'! I would have hung the man not given him another job! OK Dave calm down, the doctors told you it is not good for you to get stressed, I know jack about politics and would be the first to admit it and as sure as eggs are eggs he gave up our solders lives, to all intents and purposes it was treason!

Sorry about that, so what is happening to my speedometer that has gone from the UK to Spain and is now in Ireland and then going back to the UK, until it gets sent back to Spain........jeez it has done more miles since February than the one in my car has done in the last three years! Well the original guy who sent it to me is going to (when he gets it back from Ireland) to send it to me again....in his sisters luggage when she come to Spain to visit, and there will not be a single penny/cent of import duty, this is becoming the norm for things coming form the UK to Spain, does the Spanish government not realise this is costing them a lot of money with such outrages import duty costs......oh wait of course they do however, they are governed by the EU parliament......says it all really!

Thanks for reading my update, and of course 'listening' to my rant about politics but hey, it's Sunday morning and I have nothing to do today.

Stay safe all.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

So today's update. The weather here is 40* after midday so anything that involves effort, getting up out of the armchair opening the front gate is a waste of time, the mornings however are quite nice. A cool breeze coming off the med making it just right to do something...anything before it heats up. The inside got a good vacuum and door panels wiped down and inside of the windows cleaned. The car spends a lot of time in the garage plugged into the solar panel on the roof keeping the batteries charged. Despite this the dust which is more like brown talcum powder finds itself into the car, (I live out of town near the coast, the track that runs past my house is just that 'a track'. I hate the inside getting 'musty' so park the car outside and crack each of the windows down a touch, of course all it takes is for the neighbour to drive past in his car or a couple of his horses going past pulling a cart and of course dust is in the air. Funny about thread running elsewhere here on MUD about the door locks I went out to check what mine did to hopefully help the OP. Using the fob not OE but self installed 'proper' alarm from 11 years back my car would normally 'beep' once for unlock and twice for lock, today it beeped multiple times when unlocking, no idea why as it worked OK this morning. I started to put back the various electronic boxes under the passenger and I am wondering if I have disturbed something, it is difficult for me be upside down under the dashboard since brain surgery last September for any length of time. I gave the alloys a little polish as well, no it is used off road and the cars paint is falling off as it is baked by the Spanish sun and heat, but to have the alloys refurbished cost me quite a few quid, and with foxes pissing up them and the dust, well you get the picture i try to keep them looking reasonable.

Wednesday will see me driving her up and down the tracks to one of the farm factories, I have no brief if I go on the tarmac, but this should keep the mechanicals happy for a bit. And I just know you are going to ask....yes the speedometer., and .no it still has not arrived, so much of the dashboard is still out!

That's it for now, thanks for reading.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

So today 05/07/2022 another update, with a little embarrassment.

I mentioned in my last post that the alarm had for some reason started 'beeping' during disarm five times, normally it is just the once, twice indicates the alarm is armed. The problem with an alarm that was fitted around eleven years ago even by myself that has not given one iota of a problem is that you forget the codes. I have no knowledge of anyone that has a high end system that can remember all the beeps and flashes from the LED and so forth, so I dug out the book.

Before going further I will give you some information. The alarm came with two fobs, and up until about four months ago I had used the same one, without issue, that included having never changed the batteries, that alone is testament to the quality of this kit, if there is anything wrong with the one fob I have been using is the finish is starting to wear off. So back to four months ago, I went to the garage and pressed the fob button and the alarm did not disarm and of course the doors did not unlock. So I went to the safe and retrieved the spare fob, sure enough despite being unused for all those years it worked the alarm perfectly, and I got on with whatever I was doing. Next time I was in town I grabbed four of the batteries from the Chinese shop, yeh I know but hey they had them, and I am unable to use the car at present anyway due to a health issue. Once home I put the two batteries needed to make the old fob work and sure enough the fob use returned to normal working, and it lasted a month! Of course I binned the batteries in the bus stop, and went to where I would normally purchase batteries for things like this watches and so forth, my favourite jewelers, with two new 'Maxell' batteries again all was well until the other day! This is when disarming brought about the five 'beeps', because I had all the various ECU's and including the alarm control unit out I thought it was something I did. So I had a look around and could see nothing amiss, so getting the book out of the '80 files' I read that the five beeps are because the fob batteries were getting low! I just fitted the two spare Maxell batteries and all has returned to normal.

The point is that it is very important to keep the documentation that came with the unit when you bought it, I used to fit car alarms as an extension of my garage work, of course newer cars came with alarms and immobiliser's so this was only a fruitful adventure for a short period of time, if I had not kept the paperwork I would have been tearing my hair out trying to find the fault! By adding this to the thread I have now recorded the day the new fob batteries have been installed, was I unlucky with two new sets of batteries? Agreed the first two were Chinese but the second set were Maxell, this is a respected brand here. So with the two new Maxell batteries fitted today I will need to keep and eye on how things go, it is very possible the fob electronics are going West?

I used to fit these things for a living but fortunately kept to the mantra that I used to send the customers out the door with: KEEP THE PAPERWORK!

As an asides I mentioned the radiator leak after me leaning all over it, today I started the engine and set the throttle to run fast and left the engine running for about an hour, of course there was no load but it got hot enough to bring the PWM electric engine cooling fan on and off, no leaks at the moment so as I said it is a pressure vessel so I may have got away with it? The problem with my OCD thinking is it will drive me nuts thinking about the possibility of it failing when I eventually get to drive it, or even worse if I don't get my licence back and need to sell her and it let's go on the new owner! Listed here as a reminder just in case I have a blonde moment!

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Another update:

Today 09/07/2022, yeh the same mileage as the ol girl remains stuck in the garage...well not quite today. I took 'Tanque' around to my neighbours next door who have plenty of space, outside of mine I can get around four cars, the neighbours well........lots! I wanted to get the roof top tent up and give both the tent and fly sheet a good spray of conditioner and waterproofing agent, and you just know that the usual one car that passes by mine once a day would end up with a family gathering, so one car becoming twenty plus, and the 40*C we are seeing at the moment means the track is simply a layer of fine dust, my neighbours being away from the road means I could air out the tent as it had been closed for at a guess three years since the Covid?

With the tent erected I checked out the mattress and the simple blanket I keep in there to stop any 'sweating' of the tent being sealed between uses, as per usual the tent was bone dry and no sign or scent of mould, considering it is getting on a bit now I was a happy bunny this morning, having said that I do try to look after it and it was when no one could travel it got a good airing and spraying late in 2019. So, the the blanket went straight into the washing machine, and the fly sheet removed and laid flat on the garage floor, I closed all the openings of the tent and gave it a good spraying around the outside paying particular attention to giving the seams a real good coating with the waterproof treatment. One thing that did happen was one of the loops that the fly sheet attaches too when the tent is being folded up has come adrift, a few minutes with a needle and thread will have that sorted. The fly sheet having been given a good coating with sealer as well is still lying out on the garage floor, the plan being to open the two tent doors in the morning now the water proofing has dried and let the air have a good blow through, just the mozy nets being kept closed to keep the cats out....no really! And whilst that is happening I will be sewing on the loop. Tomorrow afternoon when it is still hot I will put the now washed and dried blanket back in and close the tent up, I am still positive that my driving licence will be reinstated within the next couple of months and I will be straight up the mountains!

Oh the speedometer I hear you ask? Well don't!

Thanks for reading,

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Quickest of updates today, I DID the repair to the fly screen loop, and not left as one of those jobs 'I will get around to doing', of course not being the seamstress many of you may think I am I could only find blue cotton, but I had plenty of needles in the garage, the calcium in the water here has to be seen to be believed, and screen washer jets are always getting blocked, even using mineral water even then you get the same amount of 'cal' as it is known in Spain. So with needle and blue thread I repaied the fly screen loop, a black permanent mark soon sorted out the blue cotton.....jeez I'm good!

Nothing else happening until I get the car back outside mine and put back all the little boxes under the dashboard that had to be removed to fit the ariel after removing the wing or fender in 'across the pond' speak.

Short and sweet.

EDIT: I have just folded the tent (presently hard work for me) and as I tucked in one of the 'windows' another of the 'toggles' came adrift!

So despite me trying to do everything that might need doing again a knock back! Having expended enough energy today and assuming I am up for it tomorrow I will open the tent up and sew this other toggle back on, it's ironic I never use the side windows or vents, but again if I am forced to sell the car and off road kit I want it to be right. Get back to you on this.

Thanks for keeping up.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Update: So the answer is no, I have not unpacked the tent and sewn the other loop back on! By the time my 'head' has woke up as the brain repair pills taken the night before slow me down too much to start early, but by 10.00 am it is running up 30+*C so too hot for me. As my small repairs carry on I notice one morning that the VSR between the batteries has separated them? This is unusual as despite the 80 being in the garage there is a solar panel on the roof that plugs in the back bumper to keep the batteries topped up. So a load test shows one of the batteries is not holding a charge. Of course since the surgery I still have no licence and the car has been sitting around since August last year! I guess they are around 4 yours old? It is pointless purchasing two new batteries just to sit in the 80 and not be used, but I need to keep it mobile. I decided on 'pushing' the batteries past their usual charge point using the two main solar panels (one on the roof rack and another plugged in the back bumper as per when camping out) and with the solar charge setting pushed to 15 volts I left the car out in the sun all day, every hour or so I check the temperature of the batteries and made the decision the keep pushing them. I did this for three days and it seems to have worked, after around a week now using the correct charge voltage for dual purpose marine batteries I may have recovered them? Of course when I do get my licence back (positive thinking here) I will purchase two new ones before venturing out anywhere. As I put the car back in the garage I see the left hand headlamp glass has a crack right through it! I can only guess that when I refitted the glass after fitting the left hand drive lenses into the right hand motorised buckets I must have either chipped it or put too much sealant in? Either way trying to find just the glass I like trying to find hens teeth, so a new headlight is on it's way from Germany, priced at 40.00 euros less than a second hand one here in Spain!

Again two steps forward and one back, and of course the speedometer is still sitting in Ireland customs, read back a few posts if you want to know more about that!

Thanks for reading and keeping up.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Well a little step forward albeit a difficult one to get over. As per my last post I ordered the headlamp from eBay Germany, and as per normal I paid for it via PayPal. The headlamp was being sold with two new bulbs which I did not need, I made contact with the seller and he agreed to not supply the bulbs, all in price with shipping and taxes was now 67.00 euros but still cheap, note this was a manual headlamp that is without electric height adjustment. After the delivery date was passed with no sign of the lamp I checked out my purchase on eBay........nothing! No sign of the purchase having even been made, but the money had been taken out of my account via PayPal? eBay could not help as I had no item number so I turned to PayPal, and after speaking to a multilingual representative here in Spain he assured me that the money was safe and the lamp cost would be returned. After some investigation it seems the link I had been sent was for a 'sister' company, and this is where the problem was. If I understand it correctly they were on eBay as a seller, but the finance side of the account account was to the original seller? The result was they did not send the lamp as it appeared (to them) that they had not been paid. It seems that European companies are doing what the Chinese do, they set up multiple companies so if one gets less than favourable feedback they could close it and yet continue trading under one of the other alias's. I am not saying the original seller of the headlamp had bad feedback, it simply meant he was getting better exposure and of course it was a backstop if he ever did get poor feedback. Despite eBay not being able to help with no apparent item number PayPal had them track the actual payment, and it was after just a couple of days the error was found and my money was refunded.

Further discussions with the original seller had him sort out the issue and I made a second purchase from him at a cost a little lower, the headlamp arrived yesterday in town but I have yet to check it out as I live some distance outside of town in the country, still relying on my neighbour for transport until my driving licence is reinstated, only two sets of tests to go, one this coming Friday.

In closing I would say asking PayPal to sort this mess out was easy and without drama, whilst I have no affiliation with PayPal I can say they were super professional in the way they handled my case. Today I go into town for a few days and will check out the headlamp, I will probably get to fit it Sunday, remember this has no electric height adjustment so I will need to fit the motors before ticking this job off the list, and no the speedometer still has not arrived!

Thanks for keeping up.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Update. Well DHL tried to deliver a second headlamp and it was sent away, it seems the 'sister' company found the payment but did not realised they had refunded it....go figure? So it seems they have the message now and DHL will be sending it back to them, well that's the plan, DHL have never been great here in Spain, but apparently they are improving?

So to the headlamp, it was the correct one and I stripped it down and remove the dip/main beam reflector and with the motor removed from the old unit I fitted it to the new one. The casting for the rear section is not as good as the previous ones sent to me, having said that it was a few years back, but with companies continually looking for cheaper sources I guess this is why, this particular unit made in Taiwan. The main problem was the extended areas where the height level motor is normally secured with four screws, there are only two, when there should be four, this was no big deal, with the extended areas opposed diagonally it was easy enough to drill a small hole in the other corners and screw the motor in place. So with that done the rest was easy....well sort of. I found the motor drive was not set at the highest point, so when fitted and tested the motor reached the internal limiter and did not bring the lamp beam low enough! The manual adjustment meant the height adjustment screw came out of the reflector fitting, this was a RPITA to get it back in....unless I wanted to take the head lamp glass off again, remember it needs a heat gun to release the glue, the clips are simply there to hold the glass in place while the glue dries during manufacture, given the tenacity of the adhesive I see no other reason for them. To get the reflector back on to the motor adjusting screw I had to take the bulb out, this was still bloody hot, so easy peasy I grabbed the connector and released the retaining clip on the bulb and pulled the bulb and connector out in one. With my finger in the now vacant hole left by the bulb removal it was now easier to guide the motor adjuster thread into place and job done. So I refitted the bulb and turned the headlights on, I used the adjuster and they both went up and down perfectly, and then I see smoke coming from the headlight, with the headlights off I again removed the bulb, and along with the bulb came out some melted plastic! When I had laid the hot bulb in the recess below the headlight it had touched the AC connector and melted some of the plastic. Switching on the headlights had heated it up and hence the smoke, now I use the Philips 'blue' bulbs and trying to get the melted plastic off meant not only the blue film coming off but also the black 'cap' that H7 bulbs comes moulded with, so the bulb along with the beam pattern was destroyed, two new ones have been delivered so they will get fitted when I get a few minutes. So with the stock bulb fitted I could see there was some 'fogging' of the glass and reflector, I am guessing the smoke has cooled and settled on the inside parts, so yes the glass had to be heated up and removed for cleaning along with the reflector, and of course put back together. Of note once I fitted a standard bulb for test purposes the difference in brightness is quite poor when compared with the Philips in the opposite lamp, getting all this 'stuff' sorted is my positive way of maintaining hope I get my licence back after the brain surgery now a year ago.

This brings me neatly to my appointment last Friday, with just some minor cerebral fluid bleeds from the membrane surrounding my brain which caused occasional swelling on the side of my face, some minor headaches and of course some rehabilitation on my right side particularly on my hand to remind my brain it is there all should be good, this now leaves me with just one more hurdle to clear when I see the Neurologist in the coming weeks, if I get through the tests I get my licence back, and as the 'fits' I was having have now been brought under control, I hope to recover my licence, it's been a year without driving and I think I have done pretty good, and once I had got on my feet have used the spare time to good use.

I cannot praise the health system here enough, so keep that in mind if you fancy immigrating.

Thanks for reading and keeping up.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Quick update, the headlamp bulbs arrived, Bosch 'up to "200% brighter" er OK out comes the large pinch of salt. But after fitting I can confirm they are brighter than the other Philips version in the good headlamp, but not by a lot, having said that looking at the 80 straight on I can see the older lamp is a little dull in comparison, so I might just purchase another new lamp for the right hand side, yeh I know OTT again! Quick EDIT, new headlamp on the way, I am so bloody fussy!

So, Friday another blow from the health tribunal, as a further scan has showed I am still losing cerebral fluid inside the skull form the membrane, this means another six months on the sick list! On the possibly good side I need to see the Neurologist with an appointment coming soon. Returning to work and lifting or moving heavy stuff could bring on a stroke from the operated site, driving should not be an issue, so I MAY still get my licence back, so fingers crossed there.

Either way, the 80 will be good for the inspection when I can use her......well apart from the paintwork where the lacquer has crumbled away.

Thanks to all that follow and keep up.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

A little update.

I had originally ordered the new left lamp after the glass cracked, although it cracked a day or two later, certainly my fault perhaps getting too carried away with refitting?

Now there was a debacle during ordering the last headlight, the glass outer seemingly not easily found not with my limited patience anyway. It is a long story but the first one ordered got lost in 'the system' and I was refunded, the second order went correctly and then first one ordered arrived a month later (same company), so in my attempt to be honest I refused delivery citing that the second one ordered had arrived safe and sound. DHL rarely works very well with deliveries in Spain but has improved considerably over the last few years, to prove this they have attempted to deliver the first headlamp multiple times!

A conversation with the seller resulted in me accepting the headlamp at no cost, it seems the multiple delivery attempts was costing them money, and returning the lamp was going to cost them even more money, so was advised to keep the lamp if a further attempt was made to deliver again.......yes you know what happened, so I have a brand new L/H headlamp........but no...I actually have been sent a brand new headlamp for the R/H side! I obviously cancelled my order for the R/H lamp, and in case you are wondering this was not the new R/H lamp I ordered, my order had not been processed, I have no idea what is going on?

So I have gone through the process of transferring the motor drive from one headlamp to the other...again, I must be scoring points for digging in my heels? I will not repeat the process which was posted earlier in the thread but.....always a but, two really helpful tips.

The first is when removing the headlamp the sidelight has to be removed first, this means the single screw on top of the headlamp housing has to be removed and the sidelight can be pulled out, once done stop for a moment and clear your head and get the thinking cap on, no answering that text and no pausing for a swig from that can of beer.......oh alright we can skip that one. Now at this point remove the plastic piece that the screw went into from the lamp housing, now put in a safe place (read very safe), that is paint with bright orange luminous paint and lock in a safe! This piece will fall out of the headlamp at the first oppurtunity it gets.......as will the one in the new lamp, and at around 1/4 inch square not easy to find.

The second tip is when reassembling, do NOT use RTV sealant!! When I last did the motor mod and In the absence of some gray silicone (Toyota preferred colour), and living where I do with no driving licence, I opted for black RTV sealant, it was there in the workshop, a simple tube of RTV but black, it mattered not, the headlamp was not coming back out again, famous last words, it might as well been Toyota FIPG.....in bright pink!

It was a pain in the arse trying to part the glass from the plastic housing the RTV sticking like the proverbial s*** to a blanket! Please allow for my lack of patience as I went and got a Dremel with a cutting disc and cut the back out of the housing........yeh I know. With a rested head this morning I did spend a lot of time heating and cutting the RTV from the old headlamp, my patience rewarded with a couple of minor chips around the mounting edge of the glass, so now cleaned up and stored in bubble wrap in the 'almacen'.

The new freebie lamp like the last one had a few things 'iffy' about the moulding, the motor mounting holes were a little 'off' so a small drill was needed, and there was no markings where the large hole for the wiring and grommet goes, educated guess needed here, other than that all works fine.

As usual many thanks for reading and following my thread.........now just where is that plastic piece that holds the screw to keep the sidelght in place?

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Another update. I noticed a couple of months ago the auxiliary battery was losing volts in comparison with the starter battery.

In general they are connected together most of the time, but the 80 has not been used for over a year, those that follow this thread know I had a brain tumour removed and have been waiting to get my licence back. Putting that aside, the batteries were kept well charged with solar panels outside or in the garage (solar panel on roof), l started the engine once every couple of months and drove along the track that runs past my house but that's it, the batteries are probably three ish years old? So with positive thinking (no pun intended) I ordered two new batteries.

I normally use dual purpose marine batteries with multiple (4) terminals and opposing terminals, it keeps everything nice and tidy cable/terminal wise. But research shows that dual purpose batteries with multiple terminals and opposing terminals (left/right and right left) for the diesel 80 have become very thin on the ground, this means having the positive terminal of one battery right next to the inner (negative) wing, hardly ideal in an accident.

Now keeping in mind I presently have cube fused battery terminals al la Mercedes to protect the inter battery positive cable connection, and with little availability of batteries with multiple terminals and opposing terminals it means using batteries with 'normal' terminals. So a change of cable terminals is in order, so I will be going over to military style terminals which will cover the issue of battery connections although not so tidy however, without the cube terminal protection to protect the battery cable that runs between the auxiliary and starter battery protection I will need to have a rethink on this, a hard frontal impact could cause a fire. I am looking to perhaps use a 'megafuse' and holder in the cable between the batteries? I hope that all makes sense?

Update to come with my decision within a week or two.

Thanks for reading and following.

Regards

Dave.

 

[Dave 2000]

Small update: I found a battery specialist online in here in Spain, despite a huge inventory they never had the four terminal style of batteries I was looking for (I was not surprised), however, they do have a range of batteries designed for off road vehicles and in particular for the Asian markets. They were not expensive, and given I may not even recover my licence I am sure they will be fine, the fact that my car starts from one battery (12 volt starter), I am not too concerned about being stranded.

Apparently construction includes some kind of reinforcement to help with arduous use off road? They have a 105ah rating with 800A cranking ability, and do have the transposed terminals correct for safe installation in the diesel 80. Two were ordered and arrived the following day, military terminals on order, as per my last post I have gone with maxi fuse protection for the positive cable that runs across the front of the 80 behind the slam panel, the correct fuse holders have also been ordered.

As often happens this may change depending on how well it all looks during installation.

Thanks for reading and keeping up.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Sorry a bit brain dead and forgot to add this.

When the two batteries arrived I put both on immediate charge, as expected their voltage was a little low with both a little under 12.5 volts. As I have mentioned in the past never assume a new battery is fully charged, so with both on charge using two identical chargers the following morning the chargers had switched to float. With both batteries left for the day I checked their voltage, they were within three 100ths of each other. I then switched battery chargers and again left them overnight, this is a good way to check your chargers to see if there is any difference between the float and standing charge, there was none. Both batteries have been left unplugged and remain within three 100ths of each other.

Am I OTT with numbers and the way I work? I guess I am.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

OK two updates.

The first is the battery fusing between the two batteries, I did purchase the two maxi fuse holders and then found that I might get away with the cube fuses used with the military connectors, I did not expect this so may have wasted a few bob on the holders, I already have the fuses but I like my installations to not only function correctly, but at least look tidy. I will have to cut off the 'normal' battery terminals and fit the ring style to suit the military versions, the 'crimp on' style terminals have also arrived and I have a 16 ton crimper in the workshop to fit them when I feel up to it.

The second update is the replacement headlights.....yes them again, I tidied up the grill paint and with all lighting working went to fit the grill for the first time in about six months and....well it didn't! The 80 headlamps must be used on a different vehicle or there are grills floating about with different fixing points as well? Where the two lower/outer screws go, the fixing points are for want of an explanation extended towards each other, and in fact set forward of the normal mounting holes as well. Of course this is easy enough to rectify with a small hacksaw, once this extension was cut off the headlights the grill fitted perfectly. I post notes like this because it allows other members to keep an eye out for these somewhat annoying things so, check your grill fixing points before trimming these extensions off.

As an aside, I also took the moment to put back under the glove box the various relays and other odds and ends I removed to get the ariel cable routed correctly.

Thank you for taking the time to keep up.

Regards

Dave

 

[Dave 2000]

Little update with some good news. First the number plate lights, the one on the left needed a little help to stay on (a good thump needed), when going through the yearly inspection, trying to remove the rusted in screws soon had that put on the 'to do' list. I recently saw a set of LED's versions that are the correct size (including bolt holes) and purchased them, sure enough perfect, they even came with gaskets. I will pause for a moment here, when fitted there is a small gap between the lamp and the holder, at first I thought the lamps are not such a perfect fit after all, but when I tried one of the OE lamps there is in fact a gap, another check (you need a torch to save dismantling) and I could see this on another 80. I am assuming this was a very discreet vent to allow condensation out or what, I am not entirely sure?

But the great news for me that came yesterday is that after 14 months of being unable to drive I get a full med checkup and brain scan on the 10th of this month to see if I can recover my driving licence, for someone who has been driving all manners of cars (including competitions) since he was ten years old it is really is hard to get my head around and I really mean that with no pun intended, so my fingers are tightly crossed.

Thanks for reading and keeping up.

Regards

Dave

 

[peneumbra2]

Little update with some good news. First the number plate lights, the one on the left needed a little help to stay on (a good thump needed), when going through the yearly inspection, trying to remove the rusted in screws soon had that put on the 'to do' list. I recently saw a set of LED's versions that are the correct size (including bolt holes) and purchased them, sure enough perfect, they even came with gaskets. I will pause for a moment here, when fitted there is a small gap between the lamp and the holder, at first I thought the lamps are not such a perfect fit after all, but when I tried one of the OE lamps there is in fact a gap, another check (you need a torch to save dismantling) and I could see this on another 80. I am assuming this was a very discreet vent to allow condensation out or what, I am not entirely sure?

But the great news for me that came yesterday is that after 14 months of being unable to drive I get a full med checkup and brain scan on the 10th of this month to see if I can recover my driving licence, for someone who has been driving all manners of cars (including competitions) since he was ten years old it is really is hard to get my head around and I really mean that with no pun intended, so my fingers are tightly crossed.

Thanks for reading and keeping up.

Regards

Dave

So, do the planes in Spain fall mainly in the rain?