geoffbeaumont

That was the garages initially diagnosis when my mother's discovery (300Tdi) refused to go into 3rd or 4th - when they got it apart they decided it was something inside the gearbox. I think the current thinking is worn synchromesh. No idea if that's actually likely on a well looked after 120k truck - seems a bit poor to me.

It might be done by Christmas - more likely into January.

In that case, over to Mr. Fridgefreezer. Can you solve this one with the right maps in your Megasquirt? A thought - for us auto drivers that would probably be good for fuel economy too, as the engine wouldn't be pushing as hard against the brakes when we're stopped?

Do you actually need to remove the whole assembly? You can remove the pulleys from the front of the balance weight by undoing the much smaller bolts (six, I think) around the inside of the pulleys. Much easier, if it'll do the job.

It's been said by plenty of people on this forum that 'stay of the brakes on descents' is poor advice given to newbies, but it's the first time I've seen anyone advocate declutching on a descent (see, what you poor people really need is an automatic ). I have fond memories of a tiny drop on the Billing off road course back in the summer - I was instructing a friend who hadn't driven off road before (bit of the blind leading the blind...). "Right, low range first, stay off the brakes"...nose over the top...sudden drop...BANG!!......"Okay...next time use the brakes"

Except that scans from a magazine would be in breach of copyright, so unless it's okayed with LRM first we'd have to remove it to protect the forum legally

Nah, you want rear wheel drive. Much more fun Try an old volvo 240 for some real slidy fun in the snow (you won't stuck, either).

I feel there's a story to be told here...

Yep - looks like they need to clear out their sessions table... Maybe their forum software isn't cleaning up after itself?

I'm tempted to buy it and start saving for a P38 to put round it Just as well I'm skint...

I think insurance can be pricey if it irish registered - not sure if thats north or eire though. Guess I quick phone call will sort that out.

My dad managed quite a good one in Glasgow some years ago. Dad ran the local scout troup and the police had been in to do a talk and had left some recruiting brochures, so he chucked one on the parcels shelf to put off car theives while he was down there on business. He had Volvo 440 with towbar on the back, and while he was stopped waiting to turn right an old Fiesta came cruising down the road and straight into the back of him. There was no damage to the Volvo but the towbar punched straight through the Fiestas radiator. Anyway, this huge gorilla unfolded himself from the Fiesta and headed for Dad, very obviously planning to give him a good thumping - then spotted the police brochures and suddenly turned very nice...

You don't need a Land Rover or a tow hitch to take on some cars. My one and only mishap at the wheel was a few years ago when I back my little Skoda Felicia into a brand new BMW series 3 in the company car park. £1150 worth of damage to the beemer (new wing, wheel arch and front bumper). The Skoda had a score in the bumper where the beemers wing had folded into it. And the collosal speed behind this demolition derby? I'd guess about 1mph! I just slid the end of the bumpers past each other... Mind, that skoda was a tough little car - previous to that incident someone smashed their corsa van up quite well on the back of it. That was another nick in the bumper

Never realised you were a styling guru, Les

Haven't done any fixing in weeks. It's the one and only thing I'm enjoying about driving the escort...okay, that and I've been up to the Dales for the weekend on a single tank of fuel (still cost just as much - just less hassle).

Unless you value your time - you'll spend about a third as many weekends fixing it in the rain...

Neil, can we get him under trade descriptions if he fails to deliver on that?

Or it could have been built that way...

I'm driving an escort at the moment, and I'd certainly agree with that... However, one bit of the escort which isn't at all ropey is the ignition (it has the EDIS4 version). EDIS has been around for over decade now (introduced in the early nineties, I think - do a search on the net if you want an accurate history), and it's very well proven. There is some experimental code for running dual EDIS (abandoned I think), but it's not really the way to do it. EDIS came in four versions - EDIS4, EDIS6 and EDIS8 - the number referring to the number of cylinders. The only bit that differs between EDIS4 and EDIS8 is the control module - the crank position sensor is the same as are the coil packs (but EDIS8 uses two and EDIS4 only one), so the only bit you can't get easily from a UK scrappy is the control module. Frankly, unless you're really tight, you might as well buy all the bits off Bill Shurvinton (bill NOSPAM shurvinton.fsworld.co.uk - replace nospam with an @). He can also supply a ready built Megasquirt for not much more than you can buy the parts for - I went for that option mainly so I could tell my insurance company it was professionally built B) ). Incidentally, the EDIS system is 'wasted spark', so with EDIS8 you are actually running four coils (two per pack), each igniting two cylinders. The EDIS4 system only has two coils in a single pack. Megasquirt does now have the ability to decode a crank position sensor and trigger coil packs itself if you install the right version of the software (there're a few hardware mods as well, so specify them if someone else is building it - ditto for EDIS). You could run coil on plug with this system which is as waterproof as a spark ignition system is going to get, even better than remote coil packs like EDIS. No ignition leads Last time I checked this was still a bit experimental, but I'm a bit out of date so it may well be a safe bet now. I opted for EDIS as my main priority is reliability. Lots more Megasquirt info here and here, and specifically Megasquirt'n'EDIS here. The only person I know of currently running Megasquirt'n'EDIS in a V8 landrover is Dave White of the Yorkshire Off Road Club. As you can see, he's done some fairly rigorous field testing and it hasn't come up wanting... As to how hard it is to fit...ask me in a few weeks! It shouldn't be that hard - a few people on here already have Megasquirt without EDIS (Fridgefreezer is pretty much 'resident Megasquirt expert') so they could give you more idea. You need to sort out mounting the coil packs and crank position sensor, and fit a trigger wheel to your crank pulleys. You might be able to sort out something using the coil pack brackets of a Ford car, but I went for a custom alloy bracket on the side of the plenum: The trigger wheel I've used is from a Ford Transit, about £15 new from a Ford dealer - you need to machine the inner diameter out so you can sandwich it in your pulley stack in front of the balance weight without displacing the pulleys (Bill Shurvinton now has some custom made ones suitable for the job but a bit different to this - no idea which is better): It's easier to see in this photo of someone else's engine: I'm just going to bolt the EDIS controller to the inner wing - then you just wire it all up, set up your fuel and ignition maps and flog the leftover bits of Lucas fuel system on eBay to recover the cost Oh, one small point...when you've done all this, don't actually remove the redundant distributor unless you make alternate arrangements to drive the oil pump...

Does it get a penguin mark if it passes?

My housemate's hoping we don't...she's organising a sleep out for a bunch of teenagers tomorrow night

Obviously old enough to be touchy about it

Close - it's not Megasquirt but it can be used with it. Briefly: EDIS is Fords Electronic Distributorless Ignition System, as used on most of their cars through the nineties. Later ones had the controller built into the engine management system but the earlier ones were almost self contained, with a controller and coil pack(s) and a crank position sensor triggered by a toothed wheel. The system has an output (called PIP) which sends a timing signal to the engine management system and an input (SAW) which takes a signal which alters the ignition timing. With no input on SAW the system runs in a default 'limp home' mode at 10deg advance. Where Megasquirt comes in to this is that some of the Megasquirt guys have written code to handle the PIP and SAW signals, so if you fit EDIS to a car which didn't originally have it you can use Megasquirt to manage the ignition timing (it can do fueling at the same time, but you don't have to do this if you don't want to). There are three big advantages to this system over the standard ignition: Stronger spark - you can get this with an upgraded dizzy ignition, of course Waterproof - EDIS is well proven in the wet. No more smirking diesel drivers... Map your ignition yourself - more accurate than a dizzy, and no 'black box' electronics Obviously, if you implement fuelling you get full control over that as well and can set it up just right for your engine, tune for power or economy and so on. Caveat - I haven't fitted mine yet, although I've got all the bits and it's the first thing I'm doing once I've got a working engine again, so as far as personal experience goes I'm still talking theory. However, Megasquirt is already in successful use in plenty of land rovers (a few people on here run it) and at least one person has fitted Megasquirt and EDIS and had good results, including running quite happily under water. Oh, it's relatively cheap as well - the whole lot costs less than a new dizzy

Hence "an otherwise perfectly satisfactory job"... The wheels are properly aligned, handles well, nice even tire wear - just a slightly squint steering wheel. It won't be getting done again by the same place (although, to be fair, it's my regular place and the only time I've had cause to complain), but my point was that not all non-LR specialists will turn you away.

Seriously, snorkel? Waterproof the ignition (maybe EDIS?). I'm not being very original, though, just reeling off my current projects