Sharp

Thanks for the replies. The axle definitely isn't coming off, already too much to do and I would struggle getting it down the passage into the workshop. I managed ok removing everything, it would have been easier to have reconnected the A-Frame but juggling things with 5 axle stands and 3 jacks I managed to get everything off it without anything hitting the deck. Sadly the spring mounts are badly corroded so that's another job added to the list. I've ordered some replacements from YRM so once they're on I'll be able to get things back together.

I have had the rear tub removed from my 1998 110 to work on the chassis and I'm planning to strip most of the parts from the axle (Salisbury) to clean and paint it (mission creep!). Just looking for a bit of advice that I'm not going to run into any trouble with reassembly as I've read that it's not a great idea to take both trailing arms off at once (although I guess that any issues that might arise are not insurmountable, as you would need to if swapping the axle.) The A-frame has been removed and the chassis and axle are both on axle stands. I'm planning to remove the shocks and trailing arms then lower the axle on jacks so I can remove the springs. That would leave only the prop shaft attached. The chassis is supported at the lowest dipped section at the rear and I plan to add the stands the axle is on at the moment further forwards on the chassis when I lower it so the chassis is on 4 stands and the axle is on a couple of bottle jacks Am I going to run into any problems doing this? I'm working on it in the street so it would be a lot easier for me to take everything into the workshop and clean, paint and fit new bushes rather than take things off one at a time. Any tips greatly appreciated

Cheers, l will definitely need some as they were a mare to get out. Might just bite the bullet and get the correct bolts but here are the dimensions if they're of use to anyone else

Does anyone know if it's possible to substitute different bolts for the A frame ball joint to axle bracket? It's a 1998 110 CSW. The correct bolts are 12 point hex head bolts (AEU2508) with a threadless section of shank but they're about £10 each. I wondered if there was an alternative or if anyone knew the size, can I substitute a 8.8 or 10.9 grade bolt of the same thread. I doubt I'll get the ones out cleanly that are in there but don't really want to spend £40 on 4 bolts. One site listed them as M10x120 which are about £2 off the shelf but I'm not sure if that's a rough size and they're not metric and I'm not sure how long the bare section of the shank is and how much this would matter. It's item 11 here - https://www.lrworkshop.com/diagrams/land-rover-defender-axles-suspension/rear-axle/rear-axle-case-assembly_52620 Or am I just being tight? Thanks in advance

I ended up just running the pipe into a 10ltr diesel can in the back. Can't believe that was three years ago 😞

Congratulations on your new toy! When you say a base across the entire floor do you mean spanning both wheel arches with a drawer in the space below? My 110 is a station wagon so only went as far back as the rear seats with drawers and cupboards. I put sound deadening pads on the floor and arches followed by carpet tiles up to and under the second row seats on the floor then built drawers and a seat on the right (looking in) and cupboards on top of the wheel arch on the left. I had considered plywood floor but my main concern in the back was to keep space to a maximum and the flooring I put in ended up slightly under the height of the metal threshold so didn't reduce the height and there is enough headroom to sit on top of the drawers and brew up. Probably quite rough and ready compared to what you're looking at and it's certainly not a shoot ready polished shotgun cabinet but does the job. Drawers are quite easy if you can cut a straight line in some ply wood and you will get the maximum amount of space building them yourself.

Thanks for the help. Sigi_H I haven't removed those, I'd thought they were just holding the top of the windscreen frame to the roof but I'll take them out and see if that helps. It's raining today so plenty time to crawl around inside and take all the bolts out and then hopefully I'll get it up without damaging or bending anything.

Looking for a bit of advice on lifting my roof a little to gain access to the top of the bulkhead (1998 110 county). I have taken out 8 bolts along the inside gutter (on each side) and only really getting about half an inch of space between the windscreen and bulkhead. I have been quite tentative lifting it though and not put much force into it. Do I need to remove the rest of the roof bolts or does it need quite a shove to get it up further? I have trim along the back which is not impossible to remove but it means removing a cabinet from the back which I'd rather not do. Would it be easier to undo the windscreen to roof fixings at the top? This would certainly give me more room to work but I'm working outside and it was snowing yesterday so would need to cover it back up or refit over night.

Well that diagram is making a little more sense to me than it used to so thanks again! I'm not sure when I'm going to have a chance to look at it again and I've had issues putting the dash back* so this might end up sitting on the back burner for a while depending on work. When you say buzz the cables do you mean checking the resistance of each wire? So clip one lead to the wire coming out of the solenoid and touch each wire on the immobilser until I get a reading greater than infinity? *steering wheel seems to be binding slightly on the plastic box behind it which resulted in the permanent live wire on the ignition coming loose at a pretty inconvenient junction yesterday. Managed to tidy things up a bit more and tightened the spade connectors on the ignition so I don't think it will happen again but I am still getting a squeak when I turn the wheel.

Held up with work and the weather for a couple of days. Much simpler solution, thanks. What fuse would be appropriate? The white cable dissapears into the rest of the wiring loom and I can't really see where it goes without separating it. I've got it partially reassembled just now so I can get to work next week but will hopefully have a chance to finish the rest of the welding and tidy it up in a week or so. I take it that if original then should the white wire end up at the black box under the cubby?

Thanks for such a comprehensive reply, I think it's making sense to me now. I have the black immobiliser box, although it is under the central cubby. I think long term I'll get rid of both and fit something aftermarket. I already have my own security on the vehicle and I imagine anyone trying to steal it wouldn't be held up less by the stock system than by something unfamiliar. Would terminating the red wire at a new relay on the bulkhead and running a beefier wire from that to the starter be an acceptable solution to the fire risk? It looks like they have only run the red wire to the connector on the back of the block which looks like the original wiring after that. Once I've finished the welding repairs it'll be a good time to try and neaten up the wiring and get the bulkhead sealed and insulated properly. I've just got some basecoat and laquer from buzzweld and I'm looking forward to getting it properly sorted

Thanks for your help, the label in the fuse box cover has the left relay labelled as start but looking at the wires on the back it looks like the right hand one: It has the white and red tracer, a thick brown and a thick brown and red cable. The thinner black one has an orange tracer and I can see that coloured wire coming out of the green imobiliser box so I think that looks to be the wire you're talking about. To test it do i reinstate the ignition wiring and then check the resistance by poking one end of the probe in the back of the relay and the other against a ground point? Or do I turn the key and check for voltage between the two? Either way it sounds like if I just wire it to the fuse panel screw and it starts working then that confirms it was the issue. Rained off just now so will have another play tomorrow. Really pleased to get it started up and thanks again for everyone's help.

Thanks for that Eightpot, I think I will have to reread that a few times but it's starting to make a little more sense. So the red wire is probably someone's fix when there were issues with the red/white circuit of some sort.

Peaklander, I saw what you originally wrote and it seems to have worked! I removed the red/white wire from the ignition and replaced it with the thick red one and boom, it started up! So I guess someone has bipassed the imobiliser and when I was taking it apart I have just messed up with labelling the wires. Thank you so much for everyone's help, I will have to try and tidy things up at some point but I'm just glad to hear it fire up for now and I can get on with finishing the repairs.

Ok I've had a wee go with the test lamp and tested each connection in the different positions of the key. I had the test lamp connected to the negative terminal (with the battery connected up) and then touched each terminal on the back of the ignition. Off but with key in brown - live white - no reading white/orange - no reading white/red - no reading Position 1 brown - live white - no reading white/orange - live white/red - no reading Position 2 (click from engine bay when turned into this position) brown - live white - live white/orange - live white/red - no reading Position 3 - when I turn the key to this position nothing happens at all, fan switches off and there are no noises. brown - live white - live white/orange - no reading white/red - live I did the above without either of the red wires connected as well and that didn't make any difference to the results. I checked the unidentified thick red wire in each position also and the test lamp didn't come on. I can't find out what it is online, it looks quite new and there is only about 8 inches or wire coming out of the bulkhead, i.e. it doesn' stretch any further than the back of the dash panel. In the engine bay it dissapears into a thick bundle of wires in tubing at the back of the block, one tube goes back along the transmission tunnel, one goes around the nearside of the engine and the other wraps around the offside of the engine with wires coming out to the fuel pump and then continuing around to the alternator. I'm guessing it goes to the starter motor and the liver brown wire is what was sending power to the starter via that wire.

Missingsid, I think you might be onto something. There are two red wires: It's difficult to tell but I think you might be right and that it was the thinner of the two that was originally connected (and I had put the thick one back on). The thin wire runs to the radio connections, the thick wire goes through the firewall and into the engine bay and connects behind the block: I have a photo of it loose from when I was taking things apart and I have a feeling it might not have been connected to anything, or that I had somehow unfastened it when removing the dash and then taken a photo of it to note that I wasn't sure what it was. The cable tied wires are the wires from the ignition (the repair section visible in the background is from the previous owner!) With the thick wire attached I disconnected the red and white wire and it still tried to turn over when I connected the battery. When I swap over to the thin red wire and connect the battery up it doesn't try to start and the ignition switch starts working as expected, i.e. one turn and the heater blower and dash lights come on. When I turn it all the way nothing happens, no clicks or anything. So I think it looks like it was the thin wire connected originally, which leaves the question was the thick red wire just loose before from someones previous work or has it become unplugged from something and is that the cause for the non starting?

Thanks for your replies. I'm totally out of my depth with anything electrical so I'm pulling my hair out a little bit (what's left of it anyway). Under the bonnet I think the only wires I disconnected were the brake fluid sensor, the bonnet alarm switch and the A pillar door switch (both of the switches were broken and I'm waiting on new ones coming) I've had a pretty good look at the wires to check their integrity and worked my way back over the wires from the ignition but I'll have another look over again in the morning. I don't really know which wires could be the culprit, my head spins a little when I read on here about alarm spiders and solenoids and imobilisors and what not but it looks like I'm going to have to try and educate myself on how it works. The welding was on the panel the pedal boxes are mounted to so single skin and there were no hidden wires to have melted. I could quite easily have damaged or pulled something getting the steering column back in but I can't see any damage. Thanks for the suggestion with the red and white wire. I'll try that tomorrow morning and see if it still tries to turn over. Thanks again for your help

I've had my dash and steering wheel/column etc. off to do my master cylinder and some welding and I'm having some electrical issues. I have no idea what's gone wrong but I've reconnected the wiring and when I connect the battery negative now the starter begins cranking. This was without the key in at first, then put the key in and turned whilst it was cranking. It didn't start but the battery is weak and it sounded like it was starting to struggle. Does anyone have any ideas what I might have done? I have checked photos of the ignition switch before I started and after and the wires are in the same place. I haven't put the dash back in yet as I have some welding to do on the passenger side and wanted to bleed the clutch and check all was well there first. That means I don't have things like the radio in or the switches to the bottom right of the steering wheel with the hazard warning lights etc. connected. I also don't have the steering wheel on. I had assumed none of that would make a difference? It's a fairly standard unmodified 1998 300tdi. Here's a list of what I disconnected (apologies for the non-technical descriptions!) Ignition switch before: Ignition Switch after: It was connected to the steering wheel when I connected the battery up. Little black plug that comes off coiled wire around ignition: Black cable connected to steering column hanger bolt: Three plugs from controls on steering column: Plugs for hazard lights, rear heated screen and fog lights (have not connected these up yet) The only other wires are to the radio. I took the green box (imobilisor?) and two relays off the bulkhead but didn't disconnect them: That was all I removed. I've been around and checked for any spare cables I might have missed and pressed all the connector blocks together in case anything had a loose connection. Can't see any damaged wires. Any help greatly appreciated as I'm pretty stumped.

I've just been doing my pedal boxes today, before I realised I'd run out of paint anyway. I think it's meant to be 140mm from the bottom of the pedal pad to the floor so you're pretty close. I think you adjust the screw on the front of the pedal box (towards the engine bay) first and then adjust the nuts on the master cylinder. If you still have the old box you could slacken the bolts on the master cylinder and set the adjustment screw to the same length as your old one then adjust the pushrod. Mine also has the pin holding the pedal into the box but it was crooked so I didn't bother trying to take it out. Mike from Britannica Restorations has a video on setting up the nuts on the pushrods so there's the right amount of play.

Thanks for the info Simon, that blog entry looks incredibly useful. Especially the list of fittings, thanks for taking the time to write that all out. Ironically I've done both footwells already but I've put off investigating behind the dash. I think I might have used your post, Western, for guidance when I did mine and it was really useful. Mine weren't anywhere near as bad. Looks like you did a really top job on the footwell. The section that needs work is above the footwell and to the left of the steering column bracket (looking from the engine bay side). It looks like yours has been repaired there as well, although a lot better than whoever tacked a plate over that section on mine! I had hoped to quickly get the master cylinder changed and paint the pedal boxes so I'm not looking forward to pulling everything apart but I've been meaning to get a proper look behind the dash for a while and it'll give me peace of mind to know there's nothing else lurking (as much as you can know that on a land rover!)

I'm replacing my clutch master cylinder on a 1998 300tdi 110 and in the time honoured fashion of making sure every job takes a lot longer than expected I have uncovered some poor welding on the bulkhead which needs redoing. I have removed the brake pedal box ok and I need to remove the upper steering column and lower dash for access. Am I right in thinking I need to take all the top sections of the dash away before I can remove the lower section or is it possible to remove it on it's own? I've taken out all the fixings I can see but it's not looking like it wants to go anywhere. For the upper steering column, I take it I need to remove the steering wheel first. After that is it just a case of removing the lower UJ section and undoing the rest of the bolts or do I need to remove anything else from the inside? Many thanks for any help

Thanks for that, just wanted to check because when I click onto that part says it's for 2007 onwards

Could anyone tell me the correct clutch master cylinder I need for a 300tdi 1998 110 WA147xxx? When I look at the diagrams in lrworkshop all the options are greyed out: When I click the part it says it's been superceded by (STC500100), it says it's for 2007 vehicles onwards. Any help much appreciated

Thanks for everyone's replies, I will replace the master cylinder and hopefully that solves the issue. Is it damaging to the clutch to drive it as it is? I have just been popping it back into position with my foot after changing gear.

Fluid level is ok, I haven't been able to find any evidence of leakage