Carling Contura Switches into Defender

TECHNOFILE

LRM workshop

by Lindsay Porter

in association with IRB Developments, Raptor Engineering and The Mobile Centre

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A prize dash

When you start adding bits to your Defender, you quickly realise the inadequacies of its standard dashboard layout. Here’s how Lindsay’s much-modified Land Rover got the dashboard it deserves

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It all started when I realised there

wasn’t enough space on DiXie’s dashboard for the switches to operate all the accessories I’ve fitted, and will be fitting in the future. At the time, no one was making a replacement dash panel for the Td5-style Defender dash but then, at LANDROVERmax! I came across the Raptor range of dashboard modifications. This put in train a surprisingly large amount of further development work carried out by Ian Baughan of IRB Developments and

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Tim Consolante of Mobile Centre based on the Raptor dash components and a range of Carling switches, some of them specially sourced by Tim. Including various delays and late starts, the work was spread over parts of three days – but then it was always going to take time to get it right. All three of us share a commitment to equipment and work of the highest standards and, in the electrical equipment supplied by Mobile Centre and the work carried out by IRB, the highest standards are what we’ve all come to expect.

Picture 1 These are the dash parts supplied by Raptor. Top-right is the Raptor binnacle mount – an excellent, powdercoated steel replacement for the plastic, oftbroken original. This component supports the binnacle which holds the speedometer, gauges and the heater controls. Front-left are the stainless steel screws available from Raptor. Other components will be selfexplanatory later.

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Picture 2 Phil, of Raptor Engineering at LANDROVERmax!, displayed many of the Raptor panels available.

Day One Picture 3 The work on my dash took a lot longer than it would normally because much of the work was exploratory. Ian Baughan started by removing the screws…

Picture 4 …holding the binnacle in place.

Picture 5 On the other side of the binnacle you have to remove more screws, after which the instrument panel can be lifted up…

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Picture 6 …and wiring connectors disconnected.

Picture 7 Ian continued by disconnecting the right-hand end plate but without disconnecting the heater control knobs – they were left intact.

Picture 8 He removed the vents…

Picture 9 …unbolted the dash top panel…

Picture 10 …and lifted it away.

Picture 11 All of this was so that the centre console panel could be unscrewed

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and detached. It’s annoying but there’s no getting away from the fact that the top three screws are concealed by the dash top panel, hence its earlier removal.

Picture 12 Tim poked his head into the vehicle and gave Ian a hand to remove the radio and disconnect the switches.

Fortunately, it’s almost impossible to confuse Land Rover switch connections because each one is different from its neighbours.

Picture 13 With the centre console panel removed, Ian placed the Raptor panel on top of it and marked out where the plastic panel would need to be cut away. 

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LAND ROVER monthly April 2011 81

TECHNOFILE

LRM workshop

by Lindsay Porter

in association with IRB Developments, Raptor Engineering and The Mobile Centre

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Picture 14 Ian could have used a hand saw but instead chose to use an airoperated cut-off tool. This doesn’t run quite as fast as most electrically operated angle grinders and cut through the plastic quite successfully without melting it too much, which was what I feared.

Picture 17 Rather than use the stainless steel screws supplied as extras with the kit, we decided to use some black-head self-tapping screws. It’s all down to personal preference, as usual.

Picture 15 The next step was to place the Raptor panel in position and drill one pilot hole…

Picture 18 Carling switches are among the best quality available and Tim also sourced the correct legends for the fronts and connector blocks for going onto the backs of them. Here’s how they are used.

Picture 16 …followed by a single screw.

Then, a second screw was applied on the opposite side of the panel before all the remaining pilot holes were drilled with the certainty that all the holes would line up.

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Wiring Tricks

Picture 19 Obviously, you have to identify which wire is which using the Land Rover wiring diagram and the switch wiring

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diagrams available on the Carling website.

Wire strippers…

Picture 20 …make the work both faster to carry out and do a much more accurate job with far less risk of cutting through cable strands along with the insulation.

Picture 21 Tim crimped each spade terminal onto its wire…

Picture 22 …then fed each connector in turn into the relevant socket in the connector block. Each spade terminal clicks positively into position.

Picture 23 Now all you have to do is

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push the connector block onto the relevant switch (at the back of the panel, obviously) But you’ll also need to label each one because, unlike factory switch connectors, they all look the same.

Picture 24 After fitting the radio and switches to the panel for the first time, it was offered up to the dashboard and at that point it was obvious that a little more cutting away was required. There would be more to follow, as you will see…

Picture 25 Some time earlier, I had fitted a plastic instrument pod but I wanted to add an instrument and, in any case, the plastic pod was nowhere near as robust as the steel and aluminium offering from Raptor.

These are the plate and screws that hold the Raptor pod in position on the dash top.

Picture 26 After fitting the instruments to the aluminium panel, the panel itself is screwed to the threads in the pod housing.

Here, we were test-fitting it; you don’t actually install the instrument panel until after the pod has been fitted to the dash top.

Picture 27 The threaded bar shown in Pic 25 is inserted beneath the ashtray

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aperture. Looking inside the pod housing with the front panel removed, you can see the two bolts that are used for screwing down into the threaded bar.

Picture 28 And here, with the pod housing in position, Ian tightened down those two bolts.

Picture 29 With the instruments fitted and the Raptor panel test-fitted, Ian checked that the radio cleared the Carling hazard switch mounted on the top of the panel. This was a layout that I designed and Phil at Raptor was concerned that the two would touch. In the event, all was absolutely fine. But it does point out how

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you need to consider whether components will cash or not when you design your own dashboard layout.

Day Two Picture 30 This is the Raptor Binnacle Mount on display at LANDROVERmax!

Picture 31 There wasn’t time to fit it during our first session so, back at the Porter Ranch, mechanic Dave dismantled the relevant parts of the dash and removed the plastic binnacle support panel.

Picture 32 Sadly, the good looking Raptor panel is almost invisible when fitted but it is much more robust than the plastic original, though there were a couple of sharp corners to file off.

Picture 33 When refitting one of the spire nuts onto this steel projection, you can see just how flimsy the original fixing is when all it offers is a tab of plastic.

Picture 34 The steel Raptor panel is much more reassuring when you come to screw the dash panels back together.

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LAND ROVER monthly April 2011 83

TECHNOFILE

by Lindsay Porter

in association with IRB Developments, Raptor Engineering and The Mobile Centre

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Picture 35 You can also get this fascia plate for the instrument binnacle behind the steering wheel. This was the wrong one for my vehicle, having holes for the two fixing screws on earlier models but, in any case, I chose not to fit it. Again, it’s all a matter of preference.

Picture 36 Dave’s next job was to temporarily fit the Carling fan switch to replace the clunky, clumsy slider switch on the Defender which can be difficult to operate for those whose hands or arms aren’t in perfect working order and tricky to position in any case. Later, we would be using more of those Carling connector blocks but, for now, Dave used regular spade terminals, which you can do, of course, Picture 37 Dave also took out the Carling hazard warning switch simply because I didn’t like the way it had to sit horizontally on my dash panel and also because, when in the OFF position it didn’t rest horizontally. We went back to the standard Land Rover switch which meant opening out the hole a little and also meant that the switch had to be bonded in place

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because the fixing clips are not suitable for the thinner aluminium.

Picture 38 Furthermore, another chunk had to be taken out of the backing panel…

Picture 39 …so that the Raptor panel could be pushed into position with the hazard wiring plug in place.

Day Three Picture 40 Our final session took Tim and Ian another full day’s work though there were few photographs to show for it. They were meticulous in making sure everything was done properly and took time to make sure whatever they did can be repeated later on customers’ cars.

(I’m quite used to being a guinea pig!)

Tim used a rather splendid piece of test equipment called the ECT 2000 which has a huge range of test abilities and which proved invaluable in confirming the whatdoes-what in the dashboard wiring.

Picture 41 Before connecting up my new, not-yet-connected voltmeter, Tim checked his power supply to make

sure that the voltage drop on the cable he chose was minimal before using it to power the voltmeter. Just one of the many ways in which the ECT2000 – one of several different Power Probes available through Mobile Centre – earned its corn.

Note: The ECT2000 is actually a Master Technicians kit made by Power probe in the USA. It consists of three separate kits in one – Power Probe 3, Short Circuit Finder and Gold lead set.

Picture 42 During our second session, Dave and I had cut holes in the automatic transmission centre console for Raptor panels designed to take switches for the seat heater, lumbar support and electric windows, all of which are still to be fitted. The switches are a touch too close together so we might have a pair of new panels made later. LRM

CONTACT IRB Developments Ian Baughan, Unit C, Middleton House Fm, Middleton, B78 2BD Tel: 0121 342 6460, Mob: 0773 092 0431 www.irbdevelopments.com Mobile Centre Limited, Tim Consolante, PO Box 222, Evesham, WR11 4WT Tel: 0844 578 1000 www.mobilecentre.co.uk Raptor Engineering Phil Proctor, Mob: 07503 12 22 23 (Call Mon-Fri after 5.30pm, Sat/Sun anytime) www.raptor-engineering.co.uk