Land Rover interior light

So I had put in these LED lights I picked up at West Marine.

But,....they were adequate, just not bright enough to like read by.

So I decided that I would put in some of the KC Hilites 2" Cyclone round LED's like I used for my fog lamps. http://www.kchilites.com/light-type/led/cyclone.html  These lights are factory rated at 5W and 1100 lumens.

I've started at the rear door cause when you want to get in at night the first thing I need is light. Going with a diffused white and a clear red, controlled by a single switch.

Why red you are asking yourself? It is because it saves the night vision and I hope to be able to take my telescope with me to do some stargazing. Being able to get in and out in the dark with out being blinded for a bit will really help!

As usual I mulled over how I was going to do this, originally wanting some sort of pivoting setup, but I couldn't come up with an easy functional one. I went with KISS instead. What is KISS? Keep It Simple Stupid, of course!

Removing the existing fixture I re-used the mounting holes and drilled and tapped them for 10-24 bolts as I have plenty. I found some 1-1/2 x 1/8" flat stock I have laying around and took some rough measurements and drilled the mounting hole for the 10-24 bolt. I did these 1 at a time as I worked things out.
    Still wanting to have some sort of aiming I bent the flat stock in my vise, probably only 20° or so, this way the light will at least somewhat shine down into the rear tub area.
    My flat stock worked out to be around 3-1/2" in length. It does not go all the way to the roof and is plenty stiff enough to hold the lite/switch combo.

The switch------I looked around in my vast stores :^) and couldn't find the switch I wanted but I did find one that worked and would allow me to fit the bracket and light and test it all out. Since it was only an off-on for 1 accessory(SPST) it would only run 1 light. I had to do some research and figure out what switch I needed and finally went down to my FLAPS (Friendly Local Auto Parts Store) and ordered a Cole-Hersee #55016-BX a SPDT (single pole double throw) which you see in the pics. In the center position the lights are off, click left and the white comes on, click right and the red comes on. I wired it up to the existing hot and ground wires for the old fixture.

The lites-------they have like a 1/2" hole recessed in the center. What I do is drill and tap my flat stock for 1/4 -28 bolts and using a washer under the bolt head it will tighten up nicely.


Once the brackets and wiring were fitted and made and all worked I cleaned the brackets of my grubby fingerprints and primered them, The next day I painted them and on the third day god rested...not really I installed them.

Below are some pics of the lights on from the front of the vehicle in both day and night variations and pics from just inside the rear door. My impressions when taking the pics are that the white light is really bright and the diffusion lens directs out a softer bean than the clear lens. With the red lens it gives great visibility thru out the tub and is not harsh on the eye. Two thumbs up!

First the white, from the door and looking back into the tub;

And now for the red, same thing ;

I am still thinking about making some kind of swivel thingy and replacing the other lights in the interior. However flat mounting may just work.

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle is your friend when finding these lites on sale some where.

Tappet tool for Land Rover

Let's see I've been a Land Rover owner for a zillion years now and done dozens of tappet adjustments over those years. All with a screwdriver and a half inch combo wrench. Those screwdrivers have always been a sloppy fit in the slot on the tappet and made the job worse than it could be.

Well I finally made a tool to help with all that fiddley stuff. And here's how;

Starting off I measured the screw thread diameter on the tappet adjuster, I came up with 5/16" or 8mm will give a good fit. The nut is 1/2" or 13mm. 

Next I dug up a short piece of 5/16" ID tubing and test fit it.

I had an old screwdriver that had seen better days(the tip had been bent) and sought to utilize it for this tool. The blade was wider than the 5/16 hole so it needed some grinding down to slid through.

The blade also needed some grinding down on the previously bent tip to make it a tight fit in the slot on the tappet screw.

Once I had the fit I wanted I needed to center the blade in the tube. This was accomplished by cutting small strips of foam and shoving it in each end in equal amounts to center things.

At this point I want to mention that the blade needs to be recessed a tad from the open end. You don't want to be undoing the nut and have the blade lifted off messing up your gap.

OK, OK,   I cleaned it up and tested the fit. I will be the first to say my welds look like cr*p, but I just want them to stick.

Here is how it should look with the 1/2" combo on the nut.

And to show the tube is not in the way of turning the wrench;

Did you know the Land Rover 2.25 engines are .010 gap hot or cold and the 200TDI is .008? With this tool it should make it quicker to set the gap as there should not be any play in the slot and the blade will always be centered over the tappet.

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