Retroanaconda

Pretty sure the master cylinders did not change in terms of size for most of the Defender run. The 1991 master cylinder will work a 300Tdi slave no bother. The pipework is 1/4” and there is a funny adaptor thing in the master cylinder to take the small thread in it up to the larger size for the pipe. There should be a flexible hose in the system, usually from a bracket on the bulkhead over to the gearbox/slave.

Fantastic - thank you both!

@Peaklander can you share details of the required crimp settings for the different pins? That looks like quite a good crimp tool. I have a ratcheting one which works well but is a bit brutal on these small terminals. Looks like I need one of these for when I sort my 10AS wiring.

1/8” rings a bell. Make sure it’s proper fuel grade hose, it’ll last longer - but still fail eventually as Mike notes.

I would agree with the above suggestions, manifolds, head, thermostat housing etc. are all a good shout and are worth having spares of. Defender engines are much rarer and so the specific parts for those are even more worthwhile hoarding. I bought a whole spare engine which has yielded spares, plus a second spare cylinder head. A 300Tdi head can be fitted but you’d need matching injectors and the injector pump also needs changing, as the timing is very slightly different. It will run with the 200Tdi pump but not optimally.

It’ll look good without all the ‘expedition’ equipment stuck on it. Very tempted!

I think it’s STC4629

The breather and filler pipes are common leak points, through perishing rubber. There is a factory rubber mat that covers the rear tub floor and wheel boxes. No foam deadening to my knowledge, it’s just a liner really.

Impressive work. Particularly without removing the tub.

It’s all the extra markings, which denote lamp type, dip etc. - the E circle thing alone is not enough. The TruckLites have it all present and correct too. The DOT is also a giveaway - that’s a US standard and is not generally compatible with ours or European ones.

I’m afraid it looks like the “E marking” on those is almost certainly fake and therefore not road legal. This is what a proper E mark looks like, at the top of this JW Speaker unit:

I’m heading down to the Pyrenees in September and a detour similar to the above is the current plan. It seems to be manually enforced and it’s unlikely to be a problem unless you draw attention to yourself, but an old British Land Rover does stand out somewhat amongst the sea of Peugeots and Renaults. Worth it just to avoid the traffic as above. When I went through in 2021 the clutch master cylinder was failing so there was a lot of starting in gear and rev-matching going on

Number 16 on this diagram. NRC7164 left hand side NRC7175 right hand side

You are missing the stepped bracket from the RHS one, which is the one on the left in your photo. The brake valve, again on the RHS one, attaches to the bracket that is present. Hopefully these photos will help.

Quite a few working ones round the highlands, usually towing a digger or similar. Pleasingly the blinged out ones do seem to be the minority. When I was in London last week I did see lots of black blingy ones, but I also saw a similar number of old ones in a similar style as well as G wagons etc. which is no surprise. They’re a capable and comfortable vehicle, particularly for towing when compared to most pickups, so it makes sense. Good residuals will help the business case for a commercial user, which is about whole life cost rather than outright purchase price.

The legal technicalities aside, it’s dangerous and antisocial, looks awful, and your car gets covered in mud/rubbish - so why would anyone want to do it?

And what’s the failure rate of later LT230 centre diffs compared to earlier ones?

In the UK yes potentially, but the OP is in the Falklands and so probably has a different set of vehicle regulations. M57s get a good write up - forum member Mo Murphy is fitting one into his 90 right now.

They’re very different.

Just to be clear I’ve no issue with anyone receiving a vehicle as a benefit from work, be it a van or a pickup. The point I’m making is that if it is to be used as a car - as many double cabs are - then it should be taxed as a car, as the benefit is the same as having a car. If your company vehicle is a two-seater transit van then this is much less flexible for private use and so the taxable benefit is lower - that makes sense.

£700 a year for a personal car with all your mileage paid is not really a fair consideration in my opinion. Double cab pickups in this situation should be the same taxable benefit as a car given they are used as such.

Nothing at all, but it’s a tax loophole that needs to be closed and made fairer.

There has been a lot of chat on the Facebook groups about it, a few folks are facing a big BIK bill as they had assumed it would be classed as a commercial. While it would appear to be a bit of an own goal for Ineos, it’s only really relevant for the UK market though, and I doubt that will make up a significant proportion of sales. It’s no bad thing in my view, almost every second vehicle round here is a double cab pickup - lots of which are supplied as company cars and are technically ‘commercials’ so attract minimal tax burden yet get used as family cars with occasionally a few bits chucked in the back. A clampdown on this is probably overdue. The speed limits thing will be interesting though. In practice it’s pretty rare to find a van doing 50mph on a national speed limit road and the police don’t care, but as speed cameras get more advanced and can check against databases I am sure there will be fines through the post one day.

I turned the automatic wipers off on the 110 almost straight away, much prefer to control them manually. The lights work fine though, they come on when needed and go off when not - can’t ask for much more than that. On a related note - it’s good to see carp wipers that done clear the whole screen are a feature lovingly reproduced from the Defender

Yes it feels wrong. However in practice some small holes in the top surface will never cause an issue, particularly if treated. I drilled holes and then used the factory brake/fuel pipe clips.