Retroanaconda

Haha, the weather forecast lied to me then! I realised too that I don't have any wading plugs either, so in reflection perhaps it's not the best idea. Another time maybe. Cheers for the heads-up

Evening all, I'm thinking of heading to Strata Florida tomorrow (want to do it before the river gets too nuts this winter), and I was wondering if anyone else is planning to do it/be in the area? Doing it on my own strikes me as kinda scary! Cheers

How is the slack measured then? If I were to mark a point on the steering wheel, I can rock it left and right around 3" each way, so totally 6" of travel around the circle, before any major resistance is felt. A cause for concern? And that's the other thing, the wheels twitch from side to side if I so much as move it half an inch, I don't know what counts as 'free play' :S It's worth noting that the vehicle doesn't behave weirdly, tracks straight and true....

Well otherwise all your drive will go to the output where your rear prop used to be, the centre diff will put it there as there's no resistance. Like one wheel of your axle being off the ground, same principle. Without it locked you'll just spin the free side of the diff.

Tdi has bulletproof reliability and simplicity. Td5 has better fuel economy, responsiveness and and is smoother due to the electronically-controlled-ness. I have a Tdi, but I wouldn't have said no to a Td5, well looked after I'm sure it can be as reliable as a Tdi, and it's worth noting that no engine is any good if not looked after!

<thread-hijack> mpb: Can't help but notice you're in Stafford...that wasn't you I saw passing Asda earlier today was it? </thread-hijack>

That's what I tried today, but I couldn't find any metal to bolt my mounts too...it was all rusted away One to try when I get a new rear door I think Only problem I found was getting the linear motion of the actuator to operate the curved path of the locking tab. Some clever trickery with linkage rod bends, or a rotary bracket may be required. Time will tell. On that note, does anyone with factory fitted central locking on the rear door have a photo of how LR did it themselves?

Didn't attempt that, couldn't see any way of using the actuator to operate the lock. I suppose I could attatch the linkage to the little lock tab, but I'll have to think about it.

Right, so today I installed Central Locking in my 90, and I thought I'd share with you guys the process I took. So this is how I did it: The kit I bought was off that well-known auction site, cost me £35 delivered from Germany, and consists of the following: - 2 x Keyfobs (with blank keys) - Remote control 'brain' unit - Mounting brackets - Actuator linkages - Wiring loom (!) - 4 x Actuators First job is to get the door cards off, and reel at the rusty mess that lies beneath (in my case ) Then one must (through trial and error) find the best position for the actuator. Luckily the position shown below happens to be perfect, the actuator clears the window by around 1/8", spot on Once happy with positioning, drill holes for and mount the actuator with the bracket. Notice the bend I put in, this becomes even more important later on... I put a bend in the linkage rod as well, to match with the orientation of the rod it's connecting to. The block screws down with the three screws shown. At this point I should note that I hooked up the brain unit and did a dummy run, to make sure the actuator would work in the orientation I had placed it in. It did, so on we go. The opposite door is (obviously) a mirror image of the other one in terms of general placement, but I made it bespoke just to be sure. Drivers door completed setup (notice awful rust again ) Cue expletives. It seems my bend was not in the right place (see above). The door card fouls it where it is recessed. A bit of re-bending on each side with the pliers and it fits okay again. After that it's just a case of figuring out the wiring loom. My kit had wiring for four actuators, so I had some extra wire to lose, which I did behind the dashboard trim. The wires in the doors are wrapped in leccy tape, then fed out below the check linkages. They then run under the dash (in a handy channel), and behind the fusebox cover. From there they go to the brain unit, which is stuck to the underside of the passenger footwell. The wiring is all biased to the passenger side, that is to say that the wires are shorter that side, so it had to be in that footwell for the passenger door wires to reach. Other kits may differ obviously. This placement meant I had to extend the live feed to the unit, which I did by splicing in some wire of the same gauge (leaving the fuse as close to the battery as possible), and running this from the battery box, under the transmission tunnel trim, and into the fusebox area. It's earthed on the fusebox plate. I'm going to take the key blanks to the local key place, and see if they can cut the truck's ignition key pattern into them, would let me lose another key off my keyring. Hope that is of use to anyone planning something similar

http://www.jojas.co.uk/lock_barrels.htm Lock barrels. Worked for me

To be honest, I don't think any Defender is going to have what I would call 'light' steering.... I know compared to other cars I've owned (Ford Focus and Vauxhal Corsa) it's still pretty heavy despite the PAS

Google threw this up: http://www.jojas.co.uk/lock_barrels.htm There may be a thread in the Tech. Archive on this forum too, I don't know off hand

A compression test possibly, to see if the pistons are worn...or the rings?

The term 'artificial price hiking' comes to mind

Excellent stuff!

There's a company on eBay repairing doors at £100 a pop, or you can buy repair sections from places like... http://www.yrm-metal-solutions.com/page2.htm Edit: Upon further inspection I can't find the eBay one anymore, maybe I was seeing things

Well I was thinking of putting a bar across underneath the tub across the full length of the seat bench, and bolting the belt mounts through into that. Would act as a pretty good spreader plate I think. In time I suppose

The hefty rubber mats that Land Rover do, with a thick heavy foam backing, I find work wonders in the front footwells. I plan to try and replicate the same sort of thing in the back of the vehicle. I'd agree that carpets are wrong, plus you can't wash them out with water, and they get dirtier easier. Edit: I *think* the part number for the front mats is 'RTC8098AB'

Excellent, so I don't *have* to have seat belts fitted to my rear bench seats then. Although I may still do so, however from my understanding this means they will be subject to scrutiny at MOT and such forth. A bit of a dilemna really

Failing that your local pond/aquatics place *may* do them. I know we do where I work

Well my 200Tdi does around 30 mpg, so I'd imagine a bit better than that....what with all the electronic control and what not

You don't happen to know the colour name/code of what your truck used to be do you? I swear it's the same as mine, and I've been looking to confirm what mine is. Cheers. Lovely looking vehicle by the way

I removed one of those tree trunks a few weekends ago, made the lane passable again anyway... It is very deeply gulleyed, and quite rutted in places. It would benefit from some restoration work in my opinion, and channelling the water away from the lane would be a very good idea I agree.

I saw a brand new (08) one in a gorgeous metallic black parked down the lane behind my house. It was fitted with BFG ATs and had an Ifor Williams trailer on the back, the guy who was with it was doing some hedge work. I didn't get a picture but it made me smile. Oh if I had 25k lying around...

Three windsurfers plus the assorted booms/masts etc were strapped to the top of the Freelander (on a proper rack, mind). Quite how we ended up like we did, with the car, windsurfers and caravan lined up next to each other after 100 yards of travel after being seperated rather violently...is beyond me.