SOA 93

A visual inspection says the bell housings are the same, as Les brock says the rear crank oil seal is different on the 200 back plate so that is no good to you. Ashcroft are still selling there defender 300tdi auto conversion so they undoubtedly have all the parts you require. You also need to check which size torque convertor you have as the TDI bell housing uses the small torque convertor, the V8's the small or medium and the large was fitted to some of the 4.6 V8. MD Engineering also do the conversion kit that will connect the 300Tdi to the V8 auto for around £700 The bell housing length on 200 and 300 was 160mm by my measuring and the back plate was 25mm thick on both, I measured a 4.6V8 bell housing I have and I got that to 190mm so the back plate and bell housing of the Tdi add up to the same approximate depth of the V8, I'm pretty sure the V8 bell housing bolts directly to the V8 block. Ashcroft ship stuff all over the world so I think they are probably your best bet, if you can get a ZF tdi bell housing in Columbia that may save you some dollar. Try emailing Ashcroft, telling them what you've got and what you want to do, they built be me a HP22 with a tdi valve block and 4.6 internals with a shorter rear end, they know there stuff. Hope that helps.

The 300 is in my Discovery so I can't sell you that, the 200 is still assembled in rolling chassis, 300's are easier to come by over here as they had a much longer production run, the 200 auto was only introduced at the end of 200 production so are rarer items and of course they are 20 years old. Still waiting for the rain to stop.

I thought the bell housings were the same and it was the engine back plate that was different, I have both types here so I can check for you regarding the bellhousings, but am pretty certain that the back plates are different. Raining here, so it will be later I'm afraid.

Usual story, life is what happens while your making plans. Work, offspring, credit crunch, recession etc. Currently have a 300tdi Disco sitting on 37" PBR's (Pirate speak!) , it's been off the road for a couple of weeks while I do lots of welding to it. I plan on getting a build log up soon, I promise. Enjoyed reading your build log.

I've had problems with my back for 25+ years, ended up in hospital this summer, and currently having regular physio and awaiting results for EMG treatment, etc.. My problem is around L3/L4, and after my episode in the summer I made up my mind I was going to get another Discovery, I'd been driving my wife's old mk1 Focus for a couple of years, in the hope that it would pack up, unfortunately it refuses to die and has been passed on to friends of ours. After a 20 minute drive in the Focus I'd get out and look like the picture of how man evolved from apes to homo sapiens, gradually straightening up over about twenty paces. It was such a relief when I drove the Disco home after collecting it, about 90 mins, to just get out and feel nothing. When I was looking around at Disco's I did try a 110, but it just reaffirmed what I already new, Defenders are not for me. I just couldn't put up with one for everyday use. As has already been said its far more likely that your seating position is aggravating your back, especially if it is a lower back issue, three things to remember with seating position for lower back issues:- Lordosis, Lordosis and Lordosis, basically, maintaining the natural curve of the spine, when most of us sit, we slouch and the spine gets curved the opposite way, as someone has already said 'adjustable lumbar support, or try it with a rolled up towel stuck behind your lower back, a chiropractor told me that one. Before the Focus I had a Peugeot Bipper from new, better than the focus but not great, the wifes current Cmax is ok for medium journeys, but my Disco is just perfect. The height of your knees in relation to your hips when seated is also important when seated in a car. I had a Disco before, and before I broke it for my 'vapour build' I cut a piece of plywood and cut it to the profile of the seat,steering wheel and pedals so it gave me a sort of silhouette of my seating position, as whatever I built I was adamant that I was going to retain that seating position. My recommendation for you is to find a car, truck or whatever that agrees with your back and then try to replicate that seating position in your defender. Are you overweight? Do you have HD springs on your Defender, they will compound your problem. I wish you a speedy recovery because a bad back drains the life out of you.

These engines were in the Bedford Midi vans of the late 80's and early 90's. We had a couple at work for a few years, from new they never gave any problems. Were a bit gutless, and you spent a fair bit of time with your foot to the floor. I imagine they would be better than a LR N/A diesel but a fair way behind a TDI. Gearbox's were good though and 5 speed, I remember that much. Had ours off the clock on a dual carriage downhill coming home from Grantham, had to back off because of the noise .

I was having a peruse on the bay of E last night and came across these. £1100 for a pair of doors. Is that normal? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261019997324?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Regarding you chassis swap, assuming your existing chassis is good and you are keeping all your running gear, then I think your original idea converting your chassis is less work! The RR chassis would need to be sacrificed in the process mind. I'm basing this on having recently cut all the brackets, mounts etc off a Disco chassis, the more I think about it, I would say it would alot less work to convert your 109 chassis.

Hi Gareth, try googling " Dana tube swap" lots of information on the web about what you are proposing. Anything you want to know about Salibury axles my advice is to google the information but use 'Dana 60' instead of 'Salisbury'. The pumpkin position wants to be determined by your transfer box output flanges as you say, ideally you want to keep your diff and transfer flanges in line, but perhaps if your running selectable 4WD having your propshaft a bit offset won't hurt assuming you have freewheeling hubs. Regarding your front axle, late series 3 axles were 24 spline as well so may well have different length driveshaft's which may help you fine tune your ,width/centering. Another option on the front is to have spacers made to fit between the swivel ball and axle flange, you could have them threaded so they are bolted from both sides, have a spigot on them for centering and you could even have the bolts offset to dial in your castor. You are going to have to make new body mounts so you can mount them as High as you want.

For a start your prop is going to need to be about 2" shorter to accomodate a Salisbury, you may be very lucky and find a 90 prop that will fit, you could try to source a 200Tdi disco prop and shorten that or as you say have a custom prop made.

I have a 200Tdi auto and Ashroft have built me a HP24 ZF with HD internals, Tdi valve block, a short tail housing and a 4.6 bell housing and torque convertor. I can buy an adapter plate to take the Tdi to V8 bell housing, It's 32mm thick, the adaptor plate is designed for the classic RR and Disco 1, is the P38 bell housing going to bolt up to this adaptor? The company who make the adaptor usually machine down the flywheel to turn it into a starter ring, I'm hoping to use the Tdi auto starter ring, is this possible? There are 3 different sizes of Torque convertor, Tdi=small, V8=medium, 4.6 V8=large, do they share the same bolt pattern? I could buy a kit from M&D but I'd be gutted if I spent over £700 quid on one to find I didn't need half the parts etc. If anyone has done this or simlar I'd be very grateful for any wisdom. Cheers Andy

I think that thats the best so far, maybe X-Block Gear/Pedal/Ignition etc. Blox being the prefered version, most will remember that name easily.

I did reply to this post this morning, obviously didn't load up, although I did wait for the green blocks to finish. Anyway, Zeus still do make the 101 conversion it's about £900 for each end, they are only made to order and they wait for about 10 orders before doing a run. You get custom bells, custom disc's, Caliper mounts, custom nodular cast iron 4 piston calipers with Stainless pistons, longer wheel studs, brake pipes, pads and fittings etc. Caliper piston size is the same as the old Jag XJ (IIRC) , whether that's the same as 110 calipers i don't know, discs are a bit bigger than LR's and alot thicker although not vented. As said above I don't think normal LR stuff will fit, the 101 axles are much heavier duty than defender salisbury's, bigger shafts, CV's, Hubs and bearings and of course they are six stud. If you manage to make something fit then please post up, I'd be very interested.

Robotman I'm going to Thailand next week, not coming back till New Year, wifes already there along with her camera, mines stuck/died, I also have way to much work to get done before I go, so it will have to wait till I get back, sorry. I just googled this http://www.difflock.com/buyersguide/newproducts/gone2far/index.shtml Google> Revolver Shackles

Have a look here http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/shocks.htm very good info, the whole site is a very good read!

I've got front and back revolvers, bought from Gon2ofar many years ago they were the last set he had (fronts anyway), never used still in the shed, along with grease nipple bolts+ bushes. PM me if your interested. Very impressive, reminds me off Timm coopers 109, that ran rear springs on the front and longer chevy springs on the back. Paul Heystee used Jeep springs on the front of his 109 for similar effect, about 4" shorter than LR rears( IIRC) but the design of the spring eyes and size of the bushes meant they flexed just as well. I've got some of them aswell . Yes revolvers on the front springs aswell, Gon2far had a few sets made specially, as said previously I had the last set, bare in mind though with extra articulation coming from the rear shackle, its very unkind on the propshaft.

On a series chassis 109 and 88, yes, alot, on the Disco I have the main rails in the centre are parallel, only change where they rise up over the axles.

As per title, what's the depth of the main chassis rails on a 90 and 110. Is the cross section of the centre part of the rails parallel as per the RR/Disco chassis. Thanks.

I'm clearing out the Loft, I have hundreds of Land Rover magazines which will be going to the tip, anybody want any specific copies? Land Rover Enthusiast from No 1 upto around 2006. Land Rover World various upto around 2006 Land Rover Owners ...ditto Land Rover Monthly ...ditto Also got alot of TOR aswell Likely they will be going Sunday No Charge, but the early copies of LRE used to be sought after, if they still are then perhaps a forum donation. Don't all rush at once

Have a read here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.N.V._Motor_Syndicate No help with the roadless though.

OK, thank you for that, from the picture of FF's 109 it looks like there is loads of clearance from the wheel box's, seeing your red lines then yes the bends would be far too high, I'd imagined them being about 5" lower than that. I can relate to customers wants conflicting with how you would do it if you had your way, but remember they are always right..... I had appreciated how close you had got it to the body work and how long it probably took, unfortunately for you we are all aware of your standards, so while anyone else would get praise, its just what we expect from you Tubes are nice and shiny what are they? Oh! and diesel in FF's truck, who'd of believed that!

T'was me, have a look here. Regarding where from, my local welding/BOC place had a few saws in stock and was able to order a blade for me, I think Machine mart list a few blade as well. The blade I used was not the correct blade for the my saw but hole diameter was right and RPM was there or there abouts.

Dan, questions for you? Regarding your main hoop, why does everyone put an extra bend in the hoop, the ones nearest the floor are the one's I mean, I understand the need to clear the wheel box's, does the main hoop haveto join the mounting plates At 90 degrees? Could the tube not just connect to the plates at an angle? I realise the waist height bends may need to be a little higher, but surely that would be preferable to having two bends in a 'Z' shape in a vertical tube designed to take compression forces, it just looks so wrong to me. I realise that this is the accepted design of a traditional LR cage and the only reason I bring this up in your thread is that your picture above display's perfectly what I mean, no reflection on you or your very high standard of work, more because of your experience I ask these questions. Secondly I'm just a builder, but to put that into context, say on a job I had to take a wall out and put a steel in to support the structure above would I put a temporary support in the shape of a Z or S while the demolition and fitment of the steel took place, no of course not, but if I did would a 45 degree strut help, well yes a little bit, but only in transfering the downward force into sideways force. I understand the need for the main hoop to come down to the main chassis rail so there needs to be a bend in the vertical but wouldn't a single bend be preferable? To me, coming down to the base plate at an angle and then having the X brace intersect the hoop at the base plase and have the 'X' welded to the Base plate as well, you could even put another tube from the centre of the 'X' to the waist bend of the hoop, a sort of smaller diameter tube or box 'tension' strut. The main hoop would the become mini triangle then. This isn't by any means the first hoop that has made me think this, just as as said above the picture just demonstrate's so well. So what do you think?

I had some thoughts about this a few years ago, my thinking was to use the coiler shafts as well as the swivels, never got round to measuring it up due to a change in plan. However I always assumed that with the increased track of the coiler axles there would be more than enough space to have a machined adaptor made to bolt the two items together as has been suggested, the same as has been drawn but I always assumed it would need to be 50mm or so thick, threads for leaf in one side coiler threads in the other. Of course this means the measurements need to be based on the drive shaft length rather than the casing length, I'd do this by measuring how far the driveshaft protrudes out the coiler axle case at both ends then putting the correct diff into the leafer axle and inserting the coiler shafts and measure how far the shafts protude from that case then the difference is the thickness of the adaptor, no idea what the track width would end up at, but could the same adaptor then be used on the rear axle? None of this gets over the steering issues and would obviously mean a change in track width. Advantages (if it would work) are off the shelf driveshafts and upgrades and assuming an increase in track width, increased steering lock and stability.

I think the ready made route is going to be the cheapest by far even by those prices. Sticking a van body on top of a 110 chasssis is a huge undertaking. Regarding the LDV route, well there is the 200/pilot size and then there is the 300/400/convoy size the latter are pretty wide I don't think LR axles would be wide enough. The narrower 200/pilot size would be just about right for LR axles I reckon. They've got leaf springs front and rear so would be relatively easy to attach a set of axles, you could do Spring over axle to give yourself some clearance, as already said they use to use the original LR diesel so Tdi should fit in nicely, they used the LT77 box as well so that should be relatively easy to swap to a LR version, the drivetrain in the LDV is not offset either. The later Peugeot/R380 powered Pilot models had a more upto date dash/interior, the Post office are still using them.