cackshifter

Can I suggest too, if replacing pipes with copper or Kunifer, you get some nice brass ends from Frosts or Automec if you ever want to be able to undo them again. Its the difference between an anxious half hour and a relaxed ten second pull on the spanner. Regards Nigel

No aircon, so that's one less thing to worry about. I can't produce it to order, but maybe I can 'provoke' it, by playing with the brakes. It has never kept going long enough to see if stops with the engine. You are confirming thougts re vacuum, though, and the servo air intake could be it. Maybe it's time for a new servo. Nigel

Hi, Could I just pick the collective brains on this; my Defender 300tdi has recently started making a strange buzz from time to time. The buzz is quite quiet and whiny, and constant in pitch, sounding rather like a mosquito, kettle just starting to boil or a distant low air pressure warning bleeper, if you get the drift , and not very loud, but enough to be very noticeable. It's happened a few times, and seems to be from somewhere in the region of the brake master cylinder/accelerator/dash. It keeps on for quite a while then may stop and not reappear for several days. It happens both going up and down hills, under throttle and braking. It's never happened when stopped. My daughter thought it was a warning buzzer for something; I'm not aware of any buzzers fitted. Everything seems fine. Any ideas? My best theory is maybe some minute intermittent vacuum leak making the noise as it sucks air. Nigel

The engine change might come as a surprise to your transmission; see Ashcrofts site re torque converter sizes, uprating etc. Also diffs might eventually hang out the white flag - depends how sympathetic you are with it I suppose, and what sort of cam you have. Nigel

I think mailorder4x4 are basically Bearmach Nigel

Well they reckon they've sold 4, so good luck to them. Personally I'm with the 'one born every minute' faction - I would agree the performance gain over a new one is probably miniscule. If you are starting with something well coked by the EGR valve you might just conceivably see something tangible. But orange.. (or yellow)... I have to say I think it would clash rather with the rest of my underbonnet ambience. Nigel

I just wondered if anyone on here had tried these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Land-Rover-200-300-tdi-performance-inlet-manifold_W0QQitemZ160309776333QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item2553350fcd&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 For anyone who can't follow the link they are internally shotblasted, and externally painted orange. I have to say I'm a little sceptical, although anthing orange is bound to increase power (actually, shouldn't speak ill of the departed). Nigel

There is an Oz firm selling them on ebay believe it or not. See http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190222773322&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT £49.32 plus postage. Or if you're in Tasmania you could pop in and get them to fit it. Nigel

Ok just Pm me if you need it doing. Nigel

Hi, If you have to hand in an old one, I have one with a punctured core I can send them for you. FWIW I am using a full width Allisport and that seems fine. Regards Nigel

If you can drop one side & raise the other so that it's not completely upside down that helps too - maybe leave the bottom seams to the end & do it with one side lifted? Nigel

I am using this and it seemed to improve the 1st-2nd shift slightly. But I don't know what was in before; I do know it wasn't atf. Morris is easy to deal with. Nigel

What you have in effect is the pos of the battery connected to the starter, the starter connected to the engine (bolted to it) the engine connected to the body, the body connected to battery negative. If you have a meter or even a light bulb that has had wires soldered to it, connect one end to battery negative. Convince yourself it lights or works by trying the other end on the battery positive.Then work back. Connect it to the body and if it lights when you try the starter the battery eartl lead isn't connected properly. If you connect it to the engine and the bulb lights when you try the starter that means there's 12v across the bulb, so the engine isn't earthing to the body properly properly. If that's Ok, connect it to he starter connection & try again. If the bulb lights brightly you have voltage at the starter, so that's pointing to a faulty starter etc. Regards Nigel

I too have exactly the same problem coming up; amazing how they positioned that exhaust. Do the jetex ones have to be tig welded up? I was toying with the idea of directing the exhaust downwards like trucks do, so it doesn't have to pass behind the rear wheel. Nigel

If you're going to chip it etc anyway, would you not be better going for pre Mar 2001 and paying less VED? Nigel

Allard also do a VNT. Incidentally can I ask re the big bore exhaust and head mods, what makes are they, and did they make much difference? Nigel

It's also not entirely dissimilar to the symptoms you might expect of coil failure - quite often they're ok for a bit, then cut out. If you wait it all recovers & comes back for a bit longer and the cycle repeats. You may have a cold start coil, ie with a ballast resistor - in that case worth checking that the cold start feed (to the coil side of the ballast resistor) is cutting out when the starter is off, and that the ballast resistor isn't short circuited, as that might upset a healthy coil. Nigel

Thanks for the replies; I now know the range of size on which to start scrounging operations. Having been reading up on it, if you had to repair the bulkhead footwells (not that I'm saying I do have to, 'cause till I stop the door leaks it's a convenient drain, but I do have some repair sections) would that be the time to replace the outriggers? Can you truly get at the top easily with them missing? Incidentally why did LR leave that gap in the wheelarch liner in line with the tyre so that the salt and grit is splatted straight at the bulkhead (Ok,rhetorical question) Nigel

Well I'm not going to argue over .5mm (not in this context anyway) No wonder it develops colander-like tendencies. 3mm it is. It's a bit hard to find something that you might consider representative of original. Nigel

My Defender has failed it's MOT; no surprise really except it was only on corrosion of chassis. I have 5 areas to deal with including the rear X-member and a bulkhead outrigger (both of which I'd hoped to get away with for the MOT). . However I have to patch some holes along the bottom of the chassis section, so thought I'd canvass opinion of what thickness steel that should be (ie what it started out as all those years ago).. Any ideas? I though 3mm would be Ok then though maybe that's a bit thin. Are outriggers worh repairing? (Its only gone a bit lacy round the hole in the bottom) Nigel

I fear you've checked all the obvious, so now you're down to the obscure. Many years ago I had a problem with a BMW, like this it was classic fuel starvation but only when asked to so some real work and as with you everything sensible checked out. You could even blow back down the pipe from the engine and hear bubbling in the tank, and this caused a temporary improvement . Eventually ran a second temporary pipe which proved nevertheless the problem was in the original pipe,but could see no leak in it to let in air so started taking things apart with a vengeance, and eventually found a large moth stuck in a banjo bolt; it couldn't make the turn but must have let a certain amount past. Couldn't think how it had got there. I would guess you'd be unlucky to block all the injectors at once, so it's maybe something along these lines. Nigel

Les Henson's article says it's on mental tight. It's way beyond that. I couldn't really get a hammer to it. I had a 10 tonne hydraulic puller pulling so much the tommy bar bent, and I gave it a light warming with oxyacetylene ( trying to get a lot of heat into the arm quickly before the steering box noticed). It didn't move, and I finally hit it with a 4lb lump hammer as well, more in frustration than in hope, and it came loose. I like heat as it minimises mechanical damage, and I was changing the box seals so I took a chance with heat but it can't be recommended. But mine was quite rusted inside on the splines, so a few good soaks with plus gas in the days before battle commences might pay off. Nigel

I Should have added that before using tie wraps I dressed the top edge of the sleeve out a bit using a small ball pein hammer. I got given the metal ring in my kit but it wouldn't fit either inside or outside the sleeve. I tried cutting a bit out to slip it over the top, and secure with a minute weld but it was having none of it. So, a few light taps spread the top of the rim out a bit more, but I did have the arm in the vice. I'd second the Discovery arm advice. Re the steering damper, the bearmach catalogue shows their version of Dan bars, and alleges with the increased weight of the arms the damper is unnecessary. Anybody got any thoughts on whether you really need it(at least for 'normal' use)? Nigel

I had the same problem; I dispensed wih the service of the springy thing and used 2 thin tie wraps joined together, narrow enough to get under the lip of the rim. It seems to get a much better grip (could hardly be worse), and it's stayed put ever since. Nigel

Planning to use Jotun 2 pack Jotamastic 87 or Smartpack myself . While talking to the Jotun sales chap last Friday he said if there's one piece of advice he thought I should have it was to wash what I was painting with water, ideally jetwash, before painting, and after preparation, then dry it. He said that this would get rid of acid iron salts formed during rusting which can then cause further corrosion after the paint was applied, but under the paint. I asked about the 'flash' rusting you would get after that, and he said most paints worth putting on would handle that. I have to say I was a little sceptical, but this last weekend I took off & sandblasted my rear brake calipers. After that they were a nice matt grey, but within an hour black blotches had appeared, starting with the really pitted parts, and within a day they have gone black. As it happens they turned out to be scrap, so it doesn't matter. But it does show what can be in the pores of the metal. Waxoyl or preferably Dinitrol seem to protect painted surfaces reasonably but not bare metal Nigel