This weekends work was......

Would of loved to of been out and about in the sunshine yesterday, but instead I took the chance to fit my Freelander steering column stalks and steering wheel audio controls.
The audio controls are a great addition although tricky to obtain a decent looking fit to the rear of the steering wheel, but I'm very pleased with them.
As for the stalks, well they are fitted but I've not done any wiring mods yet to get the variable intermittent or wash/wipe working yet, that's for another day
As I didn't get the chance to take any photos while doing the work, here's a couple I took as I arrived at work this morning (with the roof down obviously)
Hope you like it

:clap: Nice

A very nice mod to make to your car. Here is a link to the How To

Let us know how you get on with the variable intermittent mod. I never got around to doing it but if I remember correctly many people discussed it and put forward options.

Thanks for that. I'm hoping to have a go at the variable intermittent AND the wash/wipe next weekend. I see absolutely no reason as to why it won't work, especially with the aid of the MG RV8 wiring diagram (which I've modified to include wash/wipe) and Rob Bell's write up (http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/DIY/steering/)
I've managed to obtain a Land Rover Discovery front wiper relay and connection block (for a more professional look/finish) and have all the heat shrink and wire I need, so just need the weather and time now :dry:
I'll update this as soon as I have something to report.

Has anyone done a how to on the volume control, that is a very neat mod.

They have, I'll post a link later as I'm on my phone at the moment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

idrawcad wrote: Has anyone done a how to on the volume control, that is a very neat mod.

Hi Chris
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner on this. Here's the link to the How-To...
http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=401571

My advice would be to obtain the components yourself from a scrapyard. This way you can cut off the loom side plugs for the rotary coupler and the radio. In doing so you then have the correct pins to refit into your current plugs, if you see what I mean? Simply and very carefully cut the new plugs apart until you can free the pins from them. You can also cut out the pins for the audio switches inside the wheel as well. If you take note of their position in relation to the plug then you can save time when it comes to setting it up, let me explain better....
The plug that fits into your current wheel has five spaces, of which two are currently used, pins 1 & 3, these are for the horn, one = black -ive and 3 = red +ive. On the Rover 45 wheel that I got three pins were in use, pin 1, pin 2 and pin 3, one = horn +ive, two was for the audio and three was for the audio. The -ive for the horn was via a metal contact set into the wheel body.
So to convert the controls to work you need to remove the pins from 2 & 3 and I used the pin holes of 4 & 5. I also did the same on the loom side connector plug. (It would of made more sense with a photo, sorry!)
If you manage to cut a minimum of 2" of wire off with the plugs then you have enough to play with. I then soldered a length of 2 core table lamp flex (in black) to the wires and ran this neatly over to the back of the radio. Leaving enough to pull the radio out i then soldered on the two pins from the spare radio plug I'd obtained and inserted these into positions 2 & 3 of the standard ISO power plug. This plug is then inserted into the Autoleads PC99-X04 and the appropriate patch lead for the stereo, in my case an Alpine one - Various radio manufacturers patch leads are available.
If you have the original MG CD Radio (Blaupunkt, MG/Rover/BMW), then you wouldn't need the Autoleads adaptor, but you would have to do a little messing around as the BMW to ISO lead out of the back of the CD player doesn't contain the pins and wire to allow the connection. You would need to 'cobble' a couple of wires from pins 2 & 3 on the ISO plugs to pins 17 & 10 on the BMW plug.

I hope that is of help to you.
Dave

Well I had a go at the variable intermittent yesterday, and failed!
Had a couple of problems with getting the wiper mod working!
Although I did get the wash/wipe to work the variable intermittent isn't! It's STILL only one interval.
I also ended up with another problem, the wipers now park about and inch high. Then when you turn them on they go down the remainder of the travel first before going up! Which is a bit odd!
Arr well, something to work on

On the whole though I'm happy with both mods, actually I love the audio controls and having wash/wipe is a great little improvement.
Next it's onto the boot release

PS- I hope to take it apart again soon so will take some photos of it all.