Repositioned Hand Brake Lever

The hand brake lever in the defender is mounted vertically on the front of the seat box. This results in the hand brake being awkward to use since it requires a long reach down and forward.

In order to improve the usability of the hand brake, I acquired a lever mechanism from a Range Rover Classic. A picture of the lever is shown below:

 

Setting the new hand brake in place gives an idea of the planned improvement.

 

Using a cardboard template traced from the bottom of the hand brake assembly, I drilled the cable and mounting holes:



 

 The hand brake assembly was bolted in place using stainless steel M8 bolts, locking nuts and penny washers.

The distance from the cable entry point on the base plate to the connecting point on the lever is further on the Range Rover hand brake, so the cable had to be adjusted to gain the extra length.

 

 

The cable was then attached to the lever using the pin and split pin from the original Defender hand brake. (Also shown here is the sound deadening I added whilst I had the cubby box removed.) 





 

A small slice was made in the carpet in order to allow the hand brake and cable to pass through:

At this point, I noticed the hand brake handle was just touching the carpet beside the transfer box stick. With plenty of play between the resting position and the first click of the hand brake, I decided to add some adjustment to set the handle height. This was gone by drilling and tapping the resting plate at the back of the hand brake lever to accomodate a small M4 screw.

 

 

The hand brake lever position before and after adjustment can be seen below:

 

The existing grommet and hand brake switch wire were reused with the hole for the switch wire being drilled behind the hand brake.

 

The holes for the original hand brake were covered up with some adhesive sound proofing and covered with a small steel plate using the original mounting holes. The bolts were upgraded to stainless steel and treated with some Comma Wax'n'seal before fitting.

 

 

The pictures below show the final result:







 





PIAA Wipers

PIAA silicone wiper blades replaced the standard Bosch units. After a thorough clean, a silicon wipe was applied to the front screen. After 10 minutes the screen was buffed and the new wipers fitted.

 



Clutch Pedal Lubrication

The clutch pedal on the Defender is quite heavy and it emits an annoying squeak on each press or release. To investigate the problem the spring on the pedal was removed to see if this was contributing to the problem.

 

This had no effect on the stiffness or the squeak, so the investigation moved to under the bonnet. To access the top of  the clutch pedal there is a small plate on the pedal box is located with 6 screws. 

 

 

Removing these screws reveals the master cylinder push-rod:

 

The full clutch pedal assembly diagram from the workshop manual is shown here: 

The application of some 3-in-One oil to the push rod attachement point (labelled 2 in the above picture) completely removed the squeak and greatly reduced the stiffness of the clutch pedal.







Sound Deadening Phase 3 (Rear Tub)

Today the rear tub of the Defender was treated to liberal amounts of Silent Coat Damping Mat.

To begin, the rear seats and carpet were all removed and the metal surfaces were cleaned down with methylated spirits.

The damping mat was then applied to as much of the floor and seat boxes as possible. Cut outs had to be made for the various seat brackets, cargo hooks and seat belt anchors. The side panels, up to the window surrounds were also covered. The areas behind the trim will get treated another day. 

The Defender came with some after market sound deadening from "Noise Killer". This was 8mm foam matting and was re-installed over the damping mat. Additionally the area between the seat boxes and window trims (which was previously bare metal) was covered in 6mm adhesive foam.  

Finally the seats and carpets were re-fitted.

Sound Deadening Phase 2 (Rear Door)

There wasn't much  access to the outer skin of the rear door, but damping mat was applied where possible.

6mm foam was then applied over the same areas.

When banging the door the lock actuator rattled, so it was packed out using a few layers of the 6mm foam.

Due to the complex shapes of and the rear door combined with the wiper and locking mechanisms, it wasn't practical to cover the door in the isolating foam. Instead the door card was lined with the 6mm Silent Coat foam.

Sound deadening - stage 1 (Front Doors)

The Defender is noisy inside and at motorway speeds the levels can reach up to 80 decibels.

In order to improve the noise levels Silent Coat sound deadening and acoustic foam will be applied to many of the body panels.

Since the car already has a "Noise Killer" kit fitted, the areas that have not been covered will be treated first.

There is a noticeable area behind each front seat that is exposed and dampened. When stones thrown up by the tyres hit this part of the car, the bang is very loud.

Each section had 2 layers of sound dampening material applied followed by 2 layers of 6mm foam:

Next up, the front doors got some Silent Coat treatment.

The door cards and existing foam liner were removed and the door metal cleaned to remove any grease or dirt. Then the window regulator was unbolted to expose the outer skin of the door.

 The entire outer skin was covered in a layer of sound dampening material and then the flat areas had 6mm foam applied.

 The door was then re-assembled and dampening material was applied to the inner section.

At this point the door bottoms were treated to some Comma Wax n Seal to help prevent corrosion.

Finally, the full inner skin of each door was covered in 6 mm foam as a final noise barrier.