Mike Jenkins

I bought mine from Autosportlabs. It cost £65 in kit form (February 2010), and £17 to ship it from the USA. It does seem to have disappeared from their website though. The surface mount stuff was fiddly, but not complicated. Try emailing them and asking them: sales@autosportlabs.com Mike

@Aragorn, Thanks for that advice... Dave Ashcroft to the rescue, who says: "this is a range rover / early disco axle, you will need : http://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=61 I think the old shafts will be OK"

Sorry for replying to my own comments... I spilled a bit of oil and took out the halfshaft from the v8 axle.... Outer-ends: Inner-ends: Flange Bolts: The shafts seem to be the same length. The 24 spline is about 1.5mm thicker but goes through the 10 spline hub just fine. The 24 spline flange fits on the 10 spline hub too. So the only differences I can see are the bolt sizes. Just re-use the 10 spine flange bolts and fit the 4 pin diff? Cheers Mike

Had a look at the original drive shafts. Wasn't looking to get oil everywhere, so didn't remove the halfshaft all the way, but the outer end (under the rubber cap) has 24 splines and says HD on the end. it's also different to the disc axle since the bolts holding in the shaft are much bigger, and the half shaft isn't one piece with the hub centre. So stick with drums, and the 24 spline - I'm not a big off roader - or swap for the discs and the 10 spline setup? Cheers Mike

Don't know if the Britpart label had OEM in it - but I know what to look for now, thanks. The old diff is a standard factory v8, so I thought was 24 spline - I'll take a half shaft out and have a look... I'll be leaving the mudshields off then, thanks.. Mike

Some updated info... I bought a prop from LR series. It was advertised as Hardy Spicer, but came in a Britpart bag. Of course it could still have been made by Hardy Spicer. Anyway, it fits, and hasn't broken yet! The new (to me) axle is fitted with 10 spline half shafts. Are all the shafts the same length/diameter? I was wondering whether I could put the 24 spline diff and shafts from my old drum-braked axle into the disc braked one. Finally, the mud shields around the discs were mangled at the scrap yard. Funnily enough, they can't take the weight of a car with the wheels removed! However, when I took them off, they were more like mud traps and so I'm thinking of not replacing them. Are the back brakes susceptible to mud? - there are no shields on the front discs. Cheers for your comments Mike

Great advice. Thanks I've cleaned up the old one and it's 8393! (it is a factory v8 - chassis AA299xxx) Seems readily available, so that's the answer! Will dismantle the axle and see if I'm just as lucky! Thanks again. Cheers Mike

Thanks for that... Could I swap the innards of the old diff into the new casing as part of the rebuild? As for the prop, if I've understood the part catalogue, mine should be PRC 8385, but that's not as readily available as the newer FRC8393 Cheers Mike

My 1987 90 V8 needs a new rear prop because the sliding joint has play in it. A friend had an accident damaged 90 that looked ideal as a donor, so I acquired the rear prop, and decided to take the rear axle as well, so I could have disc brakes on the rear for a bit more confidence when towing. The body had already gone, so I have no idea of it's age, but it's newer than mine! When I got the assembly home, it turns out that the rear prop on the donor was actually a front prop (FRC8390 stamped on it and out of phase UJ's). I assume that it's not a good idea to fit that to my LR. So if I was to get a replacement that is suitable, can I use any rear prop? I see that for 90 V8s parts FRC8385 and FRC8393 are both listed - is there any difference? It's also made me wonder whether the newer rear axle is ok for my car. I've read about the number of splines/diff pins etc, but my requirements are quite modest, so will either be strong enough for mostly road use and occasional 2 tonne trailer? I'll take a half shaft out to count the splines, but the flanges are thinner and look one piece on the new one. My current one has the rubber cap on the top and looks like the flange is separate to the shaft. Cheers for any advice Mike

My 1987 V8 SW has flick wipe and no intermittent. You push the stalk down for flick, and up once for slow continuous wipe, and up again for slightly faster. I recently replaced my stalk with a PRC3900 because the spring had gone, that was the right part for the flick wipe. Presume you have a relay/delay unit that you'll have to remove. Mike

The diode method worked for my rev counter. I used two - one to coil A and one to coil C, then flicked the switch on the back of the rev counter from 8 cylinders to 4 to double up the count. Saved wiring diodes to all the coil packs. I thought about the W connector on the alternator - how does that work? Cheers Mike

Some months later..... I finally finished the MJ installation. The only problem I encountered was that the coil pack connectors are labelled 1,2,3 but that doesn't correspond to the numbering EDIS output diagrams. Mine had 1 & 3 swapped over. Once I'd sorted that, it started 1st time. I'll take some pictures, but I put the edis controller on the inner wing where the coil used to be and mounted the coilpacks on top of the water pump. The only thing not working is the rev counter. I connected that to the tach output on the MJ, but it doesn't move. I'll try the edis output next, and failing that the coilpack. (Rev counter is a Tim). Mike

That's great. Thanks

Thanks. The 'bolt' looks like it's been deliberately placed there - there's a punch mark on the wheel to hold it in place. I just wondered whether they used to balance them for some reason. If I've understood correctly, that whole wheel is coming out to be replaced by the trigger wheel anyway. Thanks again, Mike

Thanks for this great write up. It's inspired me to Megajolt my 90 as I've had some ignition problems. I imagine that's no surprise to lots of people here! So far, I've built the circuit assembly, and had I looked more closely at the Autosport stuff, I'd probably have bought ready soldered. Still, it all went together just fine in the end. I'm at the stage of fitting the trigger wheel, and having got the pulley off, I thought I'd share some pictures and ask a question or two... There's a locating peg on the wheel that needs to be removed. Can I just get rid of it? Also the wheel looks like it's balanced by a cut off bolt shaft that is jammed into the edge of the wheel. Presumably not critical? Cheers Mike

Did any of the suggestions help? I have a similar problem, but I can help with some of yours. I replaced the in-tank fuel pump a few months ago and all was well until the other day when it spluttered to a halt. The engine immediately restarted, so I wondered if I'd run out of fuel... The gauge was somewhere between a quarter and a half which is where my problems sounded a bit like yours! I took the fuel pump out of the tank and peered inside to find that there was about 1-2 inches of fuel in the bottom of the tank, and the float from the sender was sitting high and dry on top of the tank baffle surrounding the pump! My fix was to remove the sender and just slightly bend the float bar so that it could not foul on the baffle. I put it back together and the gauge was then reading just under the top of the red on the gauge. Mind you it still goes up and down a lot when you go round corners - not the best design! This has left me with some questions though... How much is too little fuel in the tank? I reckon there was about a gallon left in it so I was surprised to have the engine splutter and die? I used a pattern part fuel pump - I'm guessing this was a mistake. Any recommendations for an upgrade? Perhaps the pump ran dry a bit and has died again? Can you use an external pump? The engine seems hesitant and down on power since it died - although it hasn't actually died again. Mike

Mine is a 1987 90, so not sure if the starter is different. The O/S pipe clears the starter by about 10mm - I thought that was close! The heat hasn't been a problem so far, but I'd be a bit worried by 1mm. I don't remember my manifold having a flat on the tube to go around the starter. I did turn the cable connector through about 90 degrees to keep the starter cable away from the exhaust. Cheers Mike

I went for the double s one. http://www.stainlesssteelexhausts.com/

I've just put an SS system on my 1987 V8 SW. Sounds just like the kit I got. The nearside tubular manifold was really tricky to slide into the space between the head and the wing. I didn't use anything to seal the manifolds to the head apart from the shaped gaskets and there were no leaks. It's easy to get the gaskets the wrong way around though. I did put some thread sealant on the bolts - seemed like a good precaution when putting steel bolts into aluminium, and the bolts had sealant on when they came out. Needed quite a bit of exhaust paste to get the other joints to seal though.. Mike

Thanks for the explanation. I took some pictures at the weekend: It clearly says Carb on one side and Dist on the other. Either way around - it's blocked both ways, and the timing doesnt advance as the vacuum increases. So should I replace it or no? Cheers Mike

Thanks Matt. Since the module was totally blocked, I took it out. No ill effects so far. I've since seen it referred to as a vacuum delay capsule. Not sure why you'd want to delay the vacuum advance though. The repair manuals all seem to say "check it's not blocked if fitted". None of them say when it should be fitted though. Mike

Hello All. After some sound advice here, I changed the leaking head gaskets and valley gasket on my standard 1987 v8 90 and it seems to have stopped the oil, water, exhaust leaks just nicely. Wish I'd had the time/budget to replace the cam/lifters/rockers while I was there but that will have to wait. I put it all back together and discovered just how tolerant the engine is.. The timing was about 30 BTDC and it started and ran just fine (although I guess that's helped a bit by the loss of compression from the composite gaskets). The engine is original, so I'm hoping the timing marks are somewhere near where they should be. I adjusted to 6 deg BTDC and all seems fine. The vacuum advance however, is not working, and the engine has a little plastic capsule between the distributor and the manifold that the parts catalogue shows under the Stromberg diagram but not the SU (mine has SU's). It's blocked. Do I need it? What's it for anyway? Cheers Mike

Thanks for the advice - I found the VIN web page on http://www.landroveroneten.com/ My VIN is AA, which seems to make it a 1987 MY. Still left a bit confused by the parts catalogue being a bit inconsistent, but I guess the data is 20 years old! Thanks again, Mike

Maybe a bit of a newbie question, but I could really use some more experienced help.. I'm struggling a bit with the Microcat cd in respect of identifying the right parts for my 90 v8. I put the vin number into the program, but some of the parts don't look quite right. My LR is a 1987, and it seems that quite a bit changed that year. How can I identify whether I have a 1987 or 1988 model year? It was registered 1st August 1987 (E plate). I used one of the online VIN decoders and apparently it's a 1984 model - so I guess the VIN is not gospel for determining this kind of stuff! As an example, Microcat says I need part NRC6432 (in green in parts list) for the exhaust down pipe, but the description says up to vin 267907 but mine is later than that. So where's the best place to get the right info? The part (which is displayed in red so shouldn't be right) listed for the vin range mine is in looks more like what's fitted. Thanks Mike

Thanks for all the advice. I ordered composite head and inlet-manifold gaskets from Real Steel. They suggested I stick with the factory head bolts unless I wanted to build a high performance engine. Are the torque settings the same for the composite gaskets? Mike