| When I bought my first right hand drive110 I had always heard that the conversion from RHD to LHD was easy and just required the necessary parts. Shortly after buying the truck I began to accumulate these parts for the conversion. The bulkhead on 1983 Defenders is setup to be either left or right hand drive, later model bulkheads are "sided" and require cutting that is not required on early models.. My truck had been powered by a 4 liter Toyota Landcruiser 2h diesel engine. I wanted to swap back to a Land Rover Tdi setup so while the engine was out I decided timing was ideal to do the conversion. I started the project by removing the rhd heater box and found two plates riveted over the cutouts in the bulkhead for the clutch and brake assemblys. I drilled out these rivets and cleaned up the area. The mounting holes for the brake and clutch assemblys were already predrilled under the cover plates. The top two holes for each bracket needed to be drilled but the bulkhead is predimpled for each-taking the guesswork out of drilling. I then removed the complete pedal assembly's (after removing the attached brake/clutch lines) and moved them over to the left side and after running a bead of sealer, bolted them in. I then moved inside the truck and removed the steering wheel and upper and lower column shrouds. The column switches are are bolted together and after loosening the clamp that secures them to the column and unplugging the plugs for each switch I removed them as a unit. Next remove the gauge binnacle as a unit by disconnecting the speedo cable, and two large multiplug's as well as the gauge harness. The steering column can now be removed. There is a brace on the inside from the bulkhead to the column and two brackets where it attaches to the bulkhead. With these loosened there is enough play to allow the removal of the steering shaft that connects the column to the steering box. The holes for where the lower steering shaft bracket will need to attach on the left side of the bulkhead are predrilled and are filled with easily knocked out plastic plugs. The steering column can now be removed and re-installed on the left side. The clutch line from the master cylinder runs under the steering column and should be installed before the column is bolted in. The two cover plates removed from under the old heaterbox will now be re-used to cover the cutouts where the clutch and brake assembly's were on the right side. The bulkhead is pre-dimpled where each of these rivets need to go so where to drill is easy. I used aluminum rivets. I first ran a bead of silicone around to seal out moisture and then put a dab in each of the holes before inserting the rivets, this also helps prevent galvanic corrosion. The accelerator pedal assembly was next. The bulkhead is predimpled where the cable comes through but the six holes to mount the pedal assembly are not pre marked so the assembly needs to be held in position in the footwell and marked for drilling. There will be six holes left on the rightside where the assembly was removed these I filled with nylon plugs with a dab of silicone on the back. These were purchased @ the local hardware store. The next step in the process was to mount the new heater assembly on the right side of the truck. First the remaining dash inside the truck needs to be removed. With the lower dash tray/heater duct removed the new heater can now be installed. When the heater is held in position it is obvious inside the truck that the hole that the steering shaft had occupied is much smaller than the output flange of the heater box. This was done so that the bulkhead could be used for either lhd or rhd trucks. I cut the opening with a sheetmetal nibler to match the heater opening. This should dramatically increase the air circulation inside the truck as the opening was enlarged by about 40%. The lhd lower dash tray/heater duct opening was also opened up and can now be re-installed after the wiring loom has been moved to the left side of the truck- I just layed the harness over the steering column to keep it up out of the way. With the heater installed and the lower dash tray in place it's time to switch the wiper rack. The wiper motor does need to be removed. Undo the flare nut on the guide tube, pull the drive cable "rack" out of the tube with the motor. The wiper gearbox is then opened so that this first section of guide tube can be removed.The wipers are driven by a cable that has a cork screw type of outer sleeve that drives the gears. Inside the wiper gearbox there is a large gear with a bell crank attached. For RHD trucks the bellcrank needs to be @ the bottom 6PM position. To convert to LHD this orienttion needs to be moved to 12 Noon. This will be self explanatory when looking @ the gear. There is an external circlip that needs to be removed to allow the gear and the shaft it mounts on in about a 1/4 inch so the gear can be turned up to the 12 o'clock position and then push it back into position locking it back into the "park" gear.The wiper gearboxes and washer nozzles now need to be switched in their respective holes in the bulkhead. Once this has been done the new shorter first section of guide tube needs to be installed and the cable fed through the rest of the rack. There will be about 8.5 inches of cable sticking out of the end of the guide tube now since the rack has been moved that much closer to the wiper motor. The cable is easily cut to length with a dremel tool. Under the hood the washer reservoir is moved to the opposite side of the truck using the same bracket. When un-plugging the washer motor there is a 14 inch harness that goes back under the fender to where the lighting harness goes up towards the front of the truck. There is a plug here and you can unplug the harnes there. There is an identical plug on the opposite side of the truck . There are three symetric holes on the top of the bulkhead on each side where the heater cables, washer hose and speedo cable pass through. These are self explanatory and easily switched and the cables rerouted. There are no changes that need to made to the wiring harness as sufficient length is built in to work on either side of the truck. The only wire I had to splice was the purple dome light power feed. I spliced this wire instead of lowering the headliner and re-routing the wire to the left side "A" pillar. The two brake lines from the master can be ordered pre-bent and fit nicely right up to the master and across and down to the brake proportioning valve.The same is true of the clutch master hose. These lines are readily available and were cheap enough that trying to make my own made no sense. Moving back inside the metal framework for the dash is re-installed along with the vent controls. This allows the lhd dash parts to be installed, along with the defrost hoses, vents and upper dash pad. The grab handle on the right side is easy. this leaves the gauges and heater controls inside the truck. This is pretty much the reverse of the disassembly. Start with the steering column switches, making sure you route them so that they reach easily on each side of the column. The heater controls and fan switch are on opposite sides on rhd/lhd models and new controls and switch need to be purchased. Installation of these is again self explanatory. The original cables are more than long enough. Now install the gauge binnacle and the facia pieces and you are done inside the truck. The steering box is held in by the panhard rod bracket and four bolts through the frame. The holes are predrilled in the frame so there is no guesswork about getting the steering geometry right. The install of the lhd steering box and panhard bracket are straight forward and self explanatory.The panhard rod itself is the same and can be reused if the bushings are in good shape. While the steering box is loosly mounted, be sure and slip in the steering shaft that goes between the column and the steering box (I don't think there is enough play in the shaft to install it without the column or the steering box loose. This leaves the front axle. I opted to replace the entire axle assembly with a newer 24 spline unit from a 95 model. This also necessitated the radius arms be switched to the later wider type. Alternatively a lhd steering knuckle can be installed on your existing axle ( no need to remove the old one on the left end of the axle unless you want to remove any evidence that the truck was previously rhd). The drag link requires one new upper/steering drop arm end as the orientation is reversed. The lhd end NRC8232 was in stock @ Land Rover of West Chester and I had it the next day. Connect the drag link from the steering drop arm to the steering knuckle on the new axle and you are done. I have not covered power steering lines in this write up as those will vary with engine type. This is a shot of my brother's 110 pickup which we have also converted to LHD and Tdi power (notice the bulkhead was painted Keswick Green before the engine was installed-the truck will eventually be that color). Parts List: LHD Heater assembly BTR2205 $2-ebay Uk Dash trim LDef. MWC9339PMA $16 RDS Dash Handle lhd MTC6142 $70 RDS Heater fan Decal MTC6007 $4 RDS Heater Label Def. MTC6006 $5 RDS Clutch Pipe Upr NRC8329 $10 RDS Drag link end lhd NRC8232 $130 LRWC Wiper rack tube LHD PRC3762 $19 LRWC Brake Pipe LHD NRC7902 $26 RN Brake Pipe LHD NRC7904 $26 RN Instrument Bezel LHD MTC5459 $32 RDS Steering Box LHD MTC1583 $20 CR Lower dash lhd MTC2827 $396 RCH Wiper Cover MTC6080 " " Parcel tray LHD MRC7283 " " Finisher LHD MTC6167 " " Grey Trim Panel LHD MTC4618 " " Heater Control Assy UTP1125 $65 RDS Heater Defrost Control 347586 $60 RDS 95 RRC frt axle assembly lhd $80 CR Misc fastners,plugs etc $100 LHD wiper arms $10 FI4x4 Total $1071 Parts Suppliers: RDS- RoversDownSouth.com http://roversdownsouth.com/ RN-RoversNorth Westford, Vt. http://www.roversnorth.com/store/ RCH-Rover Club House Durham, N.C. http://www.roverclubhouse.com/ CR- CrazyRays-U pick it/U pull it http://www.crazyraysautoparts.com/ FI4x4- Frog Island 4x4 www.frogisland4x4.com |
Defender Left Hand Drive Conversion-How To
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