g'day I'm Brett Defender owners will know that rattles can drive you crazy one
source of a lot of rattles is the dash pinnacle the plastic becomes old and
brittle and the mounting tabs snap off and the screw holes crack away allowing
the dash to bounce around on corrugations so to fix this permanently I'm
upgrading to a raptor engineering - binnacle this is an exact replica but
made from metal so it's built to last a lifetime
it's finished in black powder coating now this is the standard version but
deluxe versions are available with anodized silver or black bezels for the
front these can be purchased later if desired if you wish more bling on your
vehicle so it comes with a mounting kit which includes button head hex screws
and the key so let's have a go at installing this and banishing these
rattles permanently for easier access you may want to remove the steering
wheel to do that pry off the Landrover badge with a screwdriver
and mark the steering wheel position then undo the big nut. I'm going to try
and leave it on first just so I have less work to do for the dash you have two
screws on the side and two underneath I only have two screws on the side
remaining you can see how this has cracked away quite a lot so there's not
much holding the dash on anymore lift up the dash and squeeze the
speedometer clip firmly this may take some work and it can be quite stiff
begin unplugging the cables deep down behind the dash you'll find a multi plug
adapter for the gauges undo this to make removal easier
the dash is off so my removal was a little more complicated as over the
years i've added additional circuits as well as aftermarket gauges which has
changed the connection points but all the wires I've labeled some and the rest
have taken photographs with my camera so I can check back and see which wire goes
where that's probably a 15 minute job for me let's take this into the workshop
and get these gauges swapped over undo two screws for the warning light module
I'm giving everything a clean as I go undo two hex screws from the Raptor
binnacle then reinstall
to remove the speedometer remove two nuts and the holding arms then push the
gauge forward out the front
begin swapping over the other gauges and do the wiring as you go
everything's all swapped over now you can see the state of the cracks on the
old one both sides cracked out plus the tab missing on the bottom even a
crack in the front face where the instrument panel goes so it's highly
recommended if you're going to install the upgraded binnacle that you upgrade
the binnacle mount as well to the steel unit a plastic one will probably break
under the extra weight because there is a bit more weight here now so to do that
you need to remove four bolts a side bit for your dash and the blower
motor wiring and that should just slip straight in then and then you can fit
one of these ready to go fit two captive nuts from the kit to the binnacle mount
and loosen off the tabs for later adjustment also fit two captive nuts to
the bottom tabs of the binnacle rewire the gauges double-checking all
connections are correct then maneuver the binnacle into place now I use the
additional four screws that come with the kit to bolt it up and the
installation is complete all the dash is rewired connected the dash is rock-solid
it's basically mounted through the binnacle mounts to the firewall so it's
pretty strong the black powder coating is quite bright looking from what I'm
used to so it's quite a nice updated look otherwise I'm quite happy it's a
simple modification takes about a day to do cool thanks for watching.
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