Fatboy

I'm not on here much at the moment but we'll done you guys, donation made.

On my first pass I used the old turret but wasn’t happy with the gear change. I then replaced the turret and spent a bit more time setting the springs. Subsequent gear shift was superb. Move recently ordered another Slick Shift for my TD5 and ordered a turret regardless. For the price, considering the objective of gaining a shorter, more defined shift, it’s a good investment. i found the x-Lock still works but is chewing the gaiter on the gearstick because it is a bit higher up.

I’ve had a couple of stainless systems made for my 200TDi’s by The Longlife agent in Glenrothes. They bend and build the system to suit and I’ve been very impressed. I’m sure they only use mild steel clamps and I’ve replaced them at least one but the system hadn’t moved, I just heard the jangling sound of the rusty clamp on the pipe. An alternative would be to get them to fully weld the system so no clamps are used.

The hinges were chopped from a pair of padlock hasps, bought from B&Q. They were wide enough and slightly sturdier than the alternatives.

I’ve got RX8 seats in my 110. The passenger one is hinged with the Mazda runners hinged onto 1” box section which is bolted to the OEM holes. The front of the seat bolts via rivnuts to the box section. Not only does it lift the seat by an inch, by removing the two front bolts and tilting the back of the seat forwards, the base hinges back to give excellent access to the batteries.

The road up the West Coast has stunning scenery, just take your time to enjoy it. The run along Loch Ness is also very pleasant. The A9 has average speed cameras from Inverness so you’ll find traffic can be quite slow and frustrating. I’d suggest peeling of the A9 north of Carrbridge and follow the old A9 (B9152) south through Carrbridge, Aviemore and at Kincraig, take a left to Loch Insch for a stop at the Boathouse for tea / lunch. On leaving the Boathouse, take a right, then another and join “the back road” to Kingussie.. then rejoin the B9152 through Newtonmore. From there, join the A9 and head south, turn off to go through Pitlochry / Blair Atholl if you fancy a meander. If it’s sunny, you won’t beat it!!

If you are parking it on stands in a car park which has a tarmac surface, I’d consider using something under the stands to spread the load too or else you may return to find the stands have slowly sunk into the tar. Especially relevant if it is going to be parked up during the hottest time of the year, wherever you are.

I fitted one to my L322 a few months ago because I’d had a battery draining issue on a previous one. It’s a brilliant piece of kit but checking it becomes addictive.. 😃 i’ll explain - I’d assumed that a healthy battery would sit at 100% charge. After the first couple of days, mine seemed to keep returning to 87%.. even if I trickle charged it to 100%, after some use and another couple of days, it would return to 87% In addition to a percentage, the monitor also provides a graph that you can zoom into for investigating. I drove 150 miles on the 1st Nov, then didn’t move the car on 2nd but drove it again on the 3rd. The graph attached shows a slow drain and a couple of blips which were me unlocking the car to fetch stuff etc. I’ve also seen other drops in battery condition occurring at night which may be temp related. ive not really had a chance to try and correlate drain with events but I will. I want to try it “locked”, “super-locked”, beside the house (close to a Wi-fi repeater) and remote. Needless to say, now, if the Range Rover is going to be parked up for more than a few days I stick the CTEK charger on it to maintain the battery and I’ve bought another couple of monitors for my 90 😃 Hope this helps.

Doug, ive got a 15t that looks similar to Bowie’s. I’ve had it about 10 years and got it from Northern Tool Supplies. its done countless suspension arms and bearings although it has gone to its max a couple of times. I’m on my second bottle jack but the scariest failure was the cast base plates, they both exploded under load, with rather a loud bang. I bought replacements from Zim who was advertising them in the sales section, excellent pieces that are far better. its also worth getting a set of seal drivers and a set of bearing drivers and you’ll probably find yourself building up an arsenal of useful pieces of steel to use as spacers etc, mine are in an old tin on the base and include bearing tracks etc

IIRC, one of the "three up the middle" is a dowel. On mine (which I pulled last week), I initially thought it was jammed until I realised I'd forgotten the 17mm nut on the stud at the top which the earth wire for the reversing switch was attached. if you haven't already, remove the right hand gearbox mount altogether - unbolt it from the chassis and the mounting rubber. That gives a bit more freedom to wiggle the box free.

Okay guys, your thoughts and suggestions seem to back up the opinions of the reputable tuning names who haven't even responded. Thank you. I'll suggest he pops it into our local specialist and gets it checked with diagnostics to confirm all is well.

I must confess I expected somewhat more of a debate. As I'm currently out of the country I sent emails to most of the usual suspects (Inc BAS, IB, JE Eng and Tunit) and have had nothing back there either. ?

Ha ha ! Bit late for that unfortunately! We heard a rumour that following the emissions issue that caught VW, Land Rover issued an instruction to dealers to flash the ECU's without any explanations and possibly that may have been a detune thus an aftermarket tune may be even more worthwhile.

Evening all, A mate has bought a TDV8 Range Rover and is considering getting it tuned. Has anybody got experience (good or bad) of any after market tuners? or maybe have thoughts or experience on whether it should be done or not? Many thanks for any help!

Glad to help. For black, just use the standard Raptor and a Schultz gun (under seal). plain black is much easier as you can mix a canister at a time.. with the tinted, I didn't want to risk different shades so mixed the whole lot in a bucket then decanted it back into the canisters. Also... bear in mind, once its mixed, it starts to set. I had a litre left and thought it might keep till morning. No, it set like jelly. unlike Linex, Raptor doesn't get sprayed on hot, it takes a few weeks to really develop the hard finish.

On the latest attempt (the one in my post from earlier, I used an adhesion promoter from Buzzweld under the Raptor to try and help. I suspect those bubbles on the back door are no worse than they would have been with regular paint, as the water is coming through pin holes from the back.

I've done two 90's with tinted Raptor, one of them over a year ago. with the tinted stuff, I tipped four bottles into a bucket and mixed them, the tint and the activator together at one time. I used the activator to clean out one of the plastic raptor bottles before adding it because the neat raptor is quite thick. its very easy to apply, I needed about four litres per vehicle and didn't use it on the bonnet or roof. It doesn't run but you can create some thick spots. On the first 90, it's surviving really well but there are a couple of areas (back door) where pinholes seem to allowed corrosion to continue from behind and the blisters are getting quite big. i wouldn't fancy trying to rub it down! I'm on my phone at the moment, I'll add some photos later.

I've had similar experiences with the same level of prep, in a heated garage. Similar stats too, 1 in 3.

Doug, I've done a couple and they are much easier than a main gearbox. Just take your time, and take plenty of photos as you take it apart. I start on a clean bench lined with brown paper so that I can write observations and draw diagrams as I go.. The linkages for the diff lock I'd recommend getting the kit from Shabs Piercy at www.onlinegearboxparts.com and if you are feeling flush, consider a slick shift for the main box too. He sells known bearings and decent gaskets etc. Shabs also sells upgraded parts - cross-drilled input gear etc. Its all on the website. If you do buy a slick shift, buy a new turret (£15-ish) because the slots in the side wear, and take the time to set it up so that the stick wants to sit in neutral in between 3 & 4. I didn't initially and was frustrated with the feel, sent Shabs an email and got some very helpful texts back - top bloke.

A couple of years ago, there were six big trees blown across the public road near our house. I made a start at clearing them and had got through three when a council van turned up. I kind of expected to get told off for working with a chainsaw on a public road, but they were really cool about it and pointed out that as long as I own the saw, and am working on fallen tree's, I do not need a certificate of competency. The Supervisor then advised that they only had one certified chainsaw person, and he was really busy... Had the known I was "at it", they would have sent me a couple of labourers. I clear trees and branches off the roads, and keep the wood. My argument is that I am performing a service, and the wood is a reasonable reward. (Obviously, I would not keep a 200 year old oak!).

Irwin bolt removers are excellent. They have a left hand flute in them and the set has various sizes. If there is anything proud of the fastener you want to remove, they are worth a try. Otherwise, weld a nut on and proceed as per normal?

I suspect 5.5kw may be too big for a garage that size.. You are better to run a smaller unit "flat out" than have to throttle a big one back. We have a Morso Squirrel in the front room of the house which is about 5m x 5m and it is more than enough. My parents used to have a big Jotul stove in their house and it was a tricky brute to keep in check... Other considerations will be the insulation in the garage, the size of the flue, the amount of drafts or open doors etc... and the type of wood you intend to burn... for example, well seasoned hard wood chucks out a lot more heat than barely seasoned soft wood...

I found an abandoned fairly heavy duty shopping trolley, chopped the basket and handles off it, welded on an upright, a couple of braces on the base and a swivelling cross piece that bolts to the bell housing holes. I used it for holding Rover V8 engines and it worked really well. The upright tended to develop a bit of a sag by the time the engine is approaching fully assembled so I'd add some stiffer material in the next version. Shopping trolley wheels are really good quality and the basic frame is usually very strong.. Obviously, this was my attempt at Billy-Bodge-It Solutions, no design calcs were completed and the end product is not certified or NDT inspected. It works for me.

There is a dedicated Facebook page "M57 Land Rover Group" for transplanting the M57 into various Land Rovers. They seek P38 manual gearboxes for the bell housing so if yours is a manual, you are half way there. I think you also need a custom loom, but they are available too.

Honestly, they walk all over Nylocks, Loctite, Split Washers etc. The funny thing is, when you try and back off a fastener with Nordlocks on it, the initial effort to overcome the "step" is very significant and gives you that awful sinking feeling that you are about to shear the stud / bolt.... Then you remember that the effort is required to break the hold between the face of the nut and the workpiece, it is not being exerted on the threads at all - happy days. Enough of my ramblings on the pro's for Nordlock, I am beginning to sound like I'm related... In reality, I've seen their demo's a few times, I've asked them for advice and they are quick and thorough, and I've done their free online training and learnt quite a bit, thus I am nothing more than a very happy customer.