Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Argh! Thought I'd do a bit of work on my on board air setup for the MQ. Had previously sourced an air-con pump and bracket from a wreckers (that was an absolute nightmare itself) and thought I'd bolt the sucker on.

At first, I thought the bracket wasn't going to fit at all - the adjustable pulley was fouling on the crankshaft pulley. Then I realised the pulley was wound all the way down, and with the pulley at the top of the adjustment instead the bracket would fit. Snug, but a fit. So I'll just bolt 'im on right? Well I cleaned the bolt holes out (they've never had bolts in them as far as I know) with WD40 and screwdrivers and screw the bolts in.

They get about 4 full turns in (10mm of thread or so) and get stupidly tight. There's lots of thread to go and I don't think I'll get them in with my socket driver. What do you think the chances are that I have the wrong thread pitch?

The size seems fine (since they go in 10mm) and the thread must be close, but is does look a tiny bit flattened in that 10mm section. I thought the bracket came off an L28 (I actually removed it from the wrecked car!) but it could have been an L26 - was some sort of old sedan.

Any thoughts on what bolts I need for this application? So bloody frustrating to be stopped by something so simple.

ptobably the original bolts on that area are really really short, or you've still got too much crud in the threads.

From my old L series there were some bolts that were like 10mm thread....

iv had two L series motors, a l24 and a l28, both had diffrent air con brackets. cant rember which we used, but i will have a look around 2morrow and see if i can find the other and get pics for you.

I've bodged up a bracket for an a/c pump on my old patrol and had to run a tap down the holes as were all coroded, from bad memory was metric coarse(standard). My current patrol has a/c so i was thinking about piggybacking another a/c pump to the working one, should be quite easy as a/c pump has two vbelt grooves.

its funny you say that heath...

i actually had about 5 sets of L28 brackets here not that long ago for the air con with all the bolts......

i chucked them all away last time i cleaned out the shed

Grumble, grumble. I took the time to blast the crap out of the holes with the pressure washer, and then blasted them again with compressed air. Lubed them up and slipped the bolts in again. This time one went in fairly well, and the others were a little bit better. After matching up the bolts and deciding I had the right ones, I put the bracket on and added some elbow grease.

Took quite a few grunts, rattle gun was beat, a longer ratchet handle, but eventually got it all snug air-con is on, tank in, air lines run. Just need to tap the air-con fittings, do the electronics, and fit a belt.

Screwy! How do you get 5 sets of something that everyone told me are rare as rocking horse poo, and took me ages to find? I swear you've got an MQ tree growing in your back yard...