Finishing the Installation

For several months I’ve been avoiding completing the installation of the bullbar.  The kit was missing two small rubber strips that fit between the bar and the body of the vehicle.  This meant I had fitted the bar without them.  They arrived several months later and I’ve subsequently been working up the enthusiasm to complete the task.  If I was to follow the manufacturers instructions I’d need to removed the bar (again!) as the rubber strips are held onto the bar with small clips that need to be inserted through both the bar and the strip.  Rather than remove the bar I decided to just loosen the bar dropping it slightly and then Sikaflex the rubber strips in place. 

However this still necessitated removing the grill to access the bullbar retaining bolts <grumble>.  Fitting one strip was quite easy but the bar wasn’t prepared to drop on the opposite side.  I placed all my weight on top and the bar then moved allowing me to fit the second strip.

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Strip in place

Pulling up is significantly harder that applying my body weight down.  The darned bar wasn’t moving.  That’s when I decided to use brain rather than brawn. 

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Using the trolley jack and a suitable length of 4x4 did the trick.

I’m old enough to remember there was enough room in a car engine compartment to hold a 21st birthday party Smile  Not these days! 

I’ve been looking for a location for the new voltage sensitive relay (VSR).  I bought it cheap as a replacement for the original VSR.  This new one has adjustable voltage settings; which I wanted!  But it’s larger and I haven’t been able to find a spot for it.  Today I made the decision the vehicle will not be fitted with a 12V electric winch, this would allow me to fit the replacement VSR in the winch cradle position.

I could have fitted the VSR directly to the base of the winch cradle, but that would have meant the VSR cable terminals would be point upwards and between the terminals are small status LEDs.  This would mean I wouldn’t be able to sight the LEDs and I therefore decided to make two angle brackets from scrap steel.  This would allow the VSR to be mounted with the terminals horizontal rather than vertical.  I would mount the VSR behind the front right vent in the bullbar thereby allowing me to peer through the vent and see the LEDs.

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My VSR bolted to my two home made brackets which have been primed and painted.  In an effort to ensure the nuts don’t loosen with vibration I coated them in Sikaflex.

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The VSR terminals will be facing forwards and exposed to the weather.  Water is not a great conductor of electricity.  However I decided to make the terminals waterproof using a combination of Sikaflex and the terminal shipping caps.

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One cap on and the other about to be fitted

I’ve set the VSR so it connects at 12.9V and cuts out at 12.6V.  A rested fully charged 12V lead acid battery voltage is 12.8V which theoretically means the VSR won’t connect until the engine is running (the alternator produces 14.2V).  At 12.6V the battery is just under 90% charged which should be sufficient to restart the engine. 

I used duct tape and a marker pen to mark the location of the bracket holes on the winch cradle base before drilling and bolting the bracket to the cradle.

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Then the nuts received the same Sikaflex treatment.

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The wiring was run up behind the left headlight assembly terminating adjacent to the battery.

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I needed to check I could see the LEDs through the grill

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The LED’s aren’t illuminated because I haven’t made the connections to the battery

All OK!  By now I’d had enough and decided to leave the wiring connections in the engine compartment until tomorrow.  But not before I’d reassembled the front of the vehicle!

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