Paul

Give that man a cigar!! Spot on Jim, when I moved the gauge I must have taken off the earth to the gauge bracket, and with all the other messing about on the centre console and dash pod, I never got back to it. Connected a jump to the next gauge in the panel and result. Thanks for the replies fellas, the thought of chasing down what appeared to be yet another Defender wiring fault was not appealing. This time the fault was the dodgy installer. Paul

Oooh, that's interesting Jim, I didn't see an earth lead on the back of the gauge. I'll give that a go tonight.

OK, seems like the consensus is that the wiring is picking up a leak to ground somewhere, so I'll try to check that out. Should I be able to measure some sort of resistance in the feed from the tank sender? In other words, if I connect my multimter to the sender wire at the gauge end, and the tank is less than full, what sort of resistance in ohms should I be looking for?

A quick check with a multimeter shows the voltage delivered to the gauge with the ign on, but engine not running, was 9.8V. Voltage at the main battery was 12.6V, so it seems the sender is doing something. Does this mean the gauge has messed it's pants? When they do, do they normally read full all the time?

After recently undertaking a minor re-arrangement of my dash, I took the opportunity to move the fuel gauge from the left most hole to the far right, mainly so that the EGT & Temp gauges were in the most direct line of sight. All simple enough really, I didn't even need to extend any of the wiring for the fuel gauge. However, now that it's all back in place hte gauge reads "FULL" as soon as the ign is switched on. It doesn't matter how much fuel is in the tank, it never shows anything other than full. I couldn't have gotten the wiring wrong, because they are male/female spade teminals and will only go on one way. If I put a multimeter accross the wires on the gauge, what sort of reading should I get? Will it be a less than the battery resting voltage (assuming a ¾ full tank) in a manner that is detectable? Any other ideas? Paul

Thanks Kev, and thanks for the rapid delivery to Aus. The top pod got here in 5 working days - outstanding!! Take any of the pics you want.

Matt I don't see any reason why the VDO EGT gauge wont fit in the pod, it's the same depth as the Boost gauge, but without the air line coming off the back. Tony You don't miss a trick mate. I'll wipe the centre line off next time I clean inside the car. The low coolant alarm is something I put together myself, using a float switch I picked up from http://www.4x4gadgets.com.au/discovery.html A mate put together a simple little circuit baord to give me a variable delay (currently set at around 4 seconds), before it triggers the light and a buzzer. I'll get Pete to do me a diagram of the circuit he created and post it up on here. Paul

Finally finished my MUD console and POD: The top pod houses volt meter for main batt, tacho & boost gauges. Centre console houses volt meter for Aux batt., vac. gauge for maxidrive lockers & pressure for onboard air tank. Cut away required for Aus spec A/C. EGT gauge now moved to the main dash, with new mechanical temp gauge. Fuel gauge moved to far right. Paul

Absolutely, unfortunately. I know Mal Storey had provided some info about the CVs (saw it on Outerlimits), but the bit about the changeover from AEU2522s was wrong. Late Aus spec 110s (or Countys to us) also had 32spl inners on the CVs (RTC6862) and 10spl axles at the diff end. As Trev said above, worst of both worlds really.

CV joints wont be any weaker, 200tdi still had 32spl inners (RTC3511 finished back in the 90/110 days, well before Defender). You will gain ventilated discs instead of solid, but lose out on the narrow bearing spacing. AS Red90 says, radius arms are a different width, but I don't think there's any reason you couldn't use the later arms.

Snake oil. As fridge says, they just mask a probelm. Apparently the damper inside is of poor quality as well.

Thanks Tony. That's rather interesting really. My old clutch was an AP and I replaced it with a Valeo 130. They were both near enough to exactly the same diameter (9½ inches), but like you, the valeo had more springs. It seems I must have had a 130 clutch in all the time.

Tony could you measure the diameter of the clutch plate for me before you put it in. I'd like to compare it to the one I fitted. Thanks

There's a seal and a gasket under the front cover. The seal for an LT77 is FTC5303 which I think is the same for an R380. Easy to replace - 6 bolts and 10 minutes once the box is out. Don't forget the pictures of the Intermediate Shaft O Ring replacement when you do it. It's one of those jobs I've yet to get to. Paul

Has there been any progress on these Carling switches yet?

I thought 200Tdi was Gemini and 300Tdi was Romulus. Or was that just Disco talk and not the engines?

OK Trev. That's what I was hoping. Do you think it's the length of the stub that's different or the splines?

Hmmmm...let me think...rev limiter, airborne, Colin driving....nope, I can't think how it could happen either. Way to go Col. If I could get a Tdi to do that I'd frame my propshaft and hang it on the wall as a trophy.

Queensland isn't part of Australia

Hi Stevo Well, 90s have never been popular in Australia, principally because of the limited space that is a pain when travelling our sort of distances. Rember that we have a lot of areas off road available, but it is nothing to spend 400km or more on the bitumen before you get to the start of your off road track. The 110 is far more popular, but really a Disco is probably the better choice for all but the most extreme tracks. At least the A/C works and they're better at maintaining a decent level of highway speed. I wouldn't bother bringing a Disco out with you, they don't hold their value at all well, so they're cheap as chips to buy here. All sorts of off road travelling is available here, from miles and miles of ocean front sand, desert treks and some very steep rocky areas only a few hours North. Probably the only thing you wont find is mud. Have a look here: http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=4859 There is an official Landrover club in Adelaide. They are quite active, but are largely trek oriented. http://www.lrregsa.org.au/ Adelaide of course is the finest city in Australia (but I think everybody already knows that). Paul

OK guys, what's the difference between RTC6811 CV joints fitted to early Discos, compared to RTC6862 CV joints fitted to Tdi Defenders. AFAIK they are both small 32 spline inners, but what about the outer splines, stub length, diameters etc? In other words, can the Defender CVs be made to fit a Disco, and what needs to happen to achieve this? Change to Defender drive members perhaps? Or is there more to it than that? Paul

Probably a good idea. In the UHF world the antenna is the most important part, bar none. I use different antennae depending on what I'm doing. A short 4.5db gain jobbie for convoy and heavy cover/undulating ground use, and a tall 9db gain for long distance, flat ground use with the repeater stations. There's a simple little graphic showing the difference between UHF antenna selections here: http://www.olbis.com.au/ap_template/subcat_antennas.asp

You needed a good HF radio or satellite phone. They both work fine in the outback. For everything else UHF is king in Oz. 27Mhz sets became doorstops here 20 years ago.

Well, I might be biased Ian, but I reckon you should be going via Adelaide one way or another next time. Of course, you know who to call before you get here. BTW, that clock still sits on my desk. I think of Exmoor and a certain V8 truck cab every time I look at it.

Well, if you hadn't noticed, I've been away for the biennial holidays. The Aus/NZ forum has been capably looked after by Cols110, who has obviously only just managed to keep you lot under control. (It's OK Col, help is at hand now). Anyway, our little trip took me to a few places on the way to the UK (Austria, Germany, Poland & Czech Republic), but first and foremost was a stopover in Dubai. The current home of our very own Cols110. It was great to finally put a face to the name and meet up with Col. I have to say a very big thankyou to Col as well for looking after a fellow Aussie and his missus too, because we spent a day is the sand being hugely entertained by a certain green 110 and listening to a TD5 bouncing off the rev limiter. What joy! Our day began not far out of Dubai for the marshalling of the troops: Cols110 was the only Landrover in our group, but being Australian we're pretty much used to being surrounded by Nissans and such. After the roundup, we headed out here: That's what you call wide open spaces. Not much to get in your way, except a few of the natives: For a lunch stop, well there weren't really any trees to park under, so here'll do: Now, that big green 110 made easy meat of most of the dunes, but I couldn't resist a photo of the one the had Col temporarily beaten. My esteemed co-moderator grinning at his handiwork. He knew this shot would appear for all to see. The indignity of being pulled out backwards by a Nissan. Of course, much like Australia, this is really an environment where the Nissans and Toyotas reign supreme (there's no substitute for horsepower, outside the UK), but I have to say Cols chipped TD5 certainly makes my ol' Tdi feel like a lawnmower engine pushing a freight train. Eventually we made it to the UK and were warmly welcomed into Castle Cordell, somewhere in Exmoor (although without the SatNav in the rent-a-jag we'd never have found it) . It was great once again to put faces to names and meet some of our fellow forumers on the 'After Christmas Treasure hunt'. Sincere thanks to Neil (V8Freak) for making room in his 110 to ferry boofhead & I around for the day. Hopefully we contributed to you getting some of the clues on the way, but I doubt it. As they say, it's not whether you win or loose... A good shot of the preparations, with Val (Mrs White90) smart enough to stay out of the cold and try to look interested in the pending proceedings. And of course the 'you show me yours, and I'll show you mine' stop somewhere on Salisbury Plain. Neil's V8 certainly makes nicer noises than my Tdi. Isn't this Landrover community amazing? You can travel almost anywhere in the world and be greeted by great friends with a common interest/affliction. Once again, a big thankyou to Colin, Tony & Val & Neil. I hope I can return the favour sometime in the furture. Just get yerselves down here to South Australia!