Daan

John Sales made these for me: They are based on modular rims, 2 rings are welded in the rim, then cut the rim in half, and you have a split rim. The inserts are PVC tube, sealing is by a large squishy O-ring, which is meant for a manhole cover. You could make the ID of one of the rings smaller and incorporate a mounting bolt hole pattern to fit them to the hub. I had them down to 2PSI in the swamps, no problems. O-ring between the wheel halves:

The design is ready:

Portals and more:

Let's not forget the Koreans though:

It's just a quote... With the transfer box, the O-ring is only 1 place where it leaks, and when it does, it can and potentially does leak everywhere else as well. There is also the bottom cover and drain plug (both leaked in my case). Be care full when tightening up the drain plug to FT, because someone at Land rover (who I hope has now been sacked or retired) decided a fine thread in an aluminium casing is a good idea. Also, the seal inside brake drum (could well be yours by the looks of it), between the casing and the speedo drive, and best of them all, between the gearbox and the transfer box. The last one is important, it can leak as mud gets in there and makes a nice groove in the wear bush, as it does with the prop shaft flanges. Replacing this wear bush is rather involved, but possible. I bought a puller to do this job, but the bush put up a big fight. I won the fight, but it was not easy: All the best, Daan

We require pictures.

Hi Reggie, nice landy and welcome to the forum. Going back to the original question, and looking at these prices I'd get a Turners re manufactured defender 200 TDI engine send over. Any local garage can fit it, you only need a matching TDI radiator pack and exhaust to make it fit, a pure nut and bolt conversion. A newer gearbox (LT77S, rather than the LT77 you have now) with a 1.4 transfer box would make it more use able, but it is not strictly necessary. I don't know about your local workshops, but by making the job easy to begin with, any back street garage can do the work. Regards, Daan

I had them under mine since 2002, and they lasted a very long time with a lot of abuse. It seems at some stage in the production of these, the been counters took over and the quality nose dived as a result.

About 2" of lift, generally. GB springs tend to get the nod (coloured blue): Land Rover Parabolic Springs - GB Springs Or rocky mountain (coloured black): Rocky Mountain, Parabolic Springs Britpart (coloured grey) tend to get a bad write up due to having a harsh ride, but no experience myself. I have seen a lot of these offered second hand on ebay, there must be a reason for this. The rear springs tend to be too high, so I would definitely go for 2 leafs, depending on the weight of your car. Please let us know what you decide to go for and your findings. Regards, Daan

I have used the KAM 4.75 since 2002 and they are still going strong. There is a problem with the bolt size of the crown wheel, which is BSP I think, of which there is very little available- there is Hex head bolts of a very low grade, or cap heads, which clash with the bearing cap. I resorted to using the low grade hex head bolts and loctited the crownwheel to the diff flange, which has held out all this time. One thing to check if you go with KAM.

Polaris disguised as a Suzuki: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=7395601253858497&set=pcb.7395619827189973

Indeed. I reckon there is a manual somewhere deep down in my 'archive' but it is a simple nut and bolt job, and assembly is the reverse of disassembly as the haynes manual says. You won't get parts for it of Superwinch (I think they are no more), but all the bearings, seals, chains and sprockets are Generic standard parts that can be obtained through the usual suppliers.

I think we are now spoilt with much better cars; we used to do engine conversions, disc brake conversions, coil spring conversions, because the old stuff was just not very good. Now, we don't have bad cars anymore (although there are a few un reliable ones!). Also, the SVA is mandatory on a lot of stuff, and people don't bother, even because of the above. What I also see, is that potential donor vehicles are getting rare and sought after, which does not invite to modify them. What we see more of, especially in offroading is brand new builds, like in Ultra 4. I much more liked the old days were people modified production cars. I was more accesible back then, now you mostly need tons of money to compete. Do I sound old now?

Yes, but a TD5 does eat heads for breakfast, and they are not cheap either. Ok, not a regular thing, but cracking around the injector is a well known problem and shows up with fuel in the oil and eventual death of your engine. A clutch problem, like you have now means a new dual mass flywheel, which is probably double the price to replace. Rebuild it, and it is 5 pistons instead of 4. So know what you wish for. i personally choose a TDI over a TD5 any day, but it depends on your uses. If you do many road miles, maybe a TD5 is better suited, but for off roading, the low down grunt of a TDI is hard to beat IMO. The 2.8 TGV version would be my ideal engine, combining the low down grunt and simplicity of the TDI with the power of a TD5.