[Seeking suitable routes in French/Italian alps south of Annecy]

Due to our logistics towards the back end of the trip (we have access to a friends chalet in Chatel for a couple of days that would be rude not to use!) We're going to be starting out by staying on the outskirts of Epernay, we'll just have consume any bubbles we buy pretty sharpish! 

Looking on the maps, we should be steering clear of any clean air zones if all goes to plan 🤞 

Now to get to the bottom of my coolant leak 😬

 

[Seeking suitable routes in French/Italian alps south of Annecy]

That's great info, thankyou! Our trip will also be focused moreso on walking than driving (Currently building up an extensive list on AllTrails!), though stopping off for a few nights in the Champange region on the way down appears to be taking up a significant amount of our trip planning time 😂🍾

[Seeking suitable routes in French/Italian alps south of Annecy]

Hi @Peaklander, I've been scrounging about on google looking for reccomendations on routes loosely around the Anncey area and stumbled across this excellent thread! 

My wife and I are planning a trip in June and your photos have reassured me that it will be worth the discomfort and expense of taking the Land Rover 😂  The tracks/roads you have posted are exactly the level of 'offroad' I was hoping there would be, having seen a lot of conflicting & outdated information online it's reassuring to see such a recent trip. 

Do you have any tips/advice for us planning a similar trip? Any issues from disgruntled locals/officials at all? 

I also have a possibly somewhat romanticised idea of staying the night in the rooftent at the top of some of these mountain pass style tracks, is this feasible?

Many thanks, Chris.

[So why don’t it work?]

My interior light was working very intermittently (/poorly), I stripped the light unit itself down and found a lot of corrosion on the switch contacts. Cleaned all that off and now working as it should. (...though perhaps not the case if it was working with the previous loom) 

[Can anyone recommend a garage in the Banbury area"?]

I use RMVR: https://g.co/kgs/hM2apR , just on the outskirts of Somerton (near Banbury). Fairly old school setup, but a really nice chap running it, suspect there's not a lot he doesn't know about Defenders! 

[300tdi timing case close to steering box]

On 6/26/2022 at 12:22 PM, L19MUD said:

@Crashbanggg did they give you any measurements to check?

No measurements, they owned up to the chassis being wrong pretty quickly. Sounds like pi$$ poor quality control is pretty rife there. 

Anyhow, sounds like your chassis must have been similar to mine, glad you've managed to get a new cross member sorted. 

Funnily enough, the garage I took mine for its MOT to yesterday told me that timing belt was just kissing the steering box on start up (I just assumed it was LR factory fit rattle) so he has spaced up the engine mounts to get it further away (not picked it up yet so haven't actually seen by how much yet). I was also never convinced by the fan/radiator fitment on mine so interested to see if the spacing has improved this. 

[300tdi timing case close to steering box]

I spent a lot of time on my recent 110 300tdi chassis rebuild from Richards scratching my head as to why nothing seemed to be sitting quite right. Turns out they had drilled the holes in the chassis for the gearbox cross member in the wrong place. They sent me modified crossmember to counteract the incorrectly drilled holes in the end. 

Richards were very helpful in resolving the matter (despite me initally assuming it was something I'd messed up), but certainly pretty frustrating and a lot of wasted time. 

[Clutch slave cylinders 200tdi/300tdi compatability]

Seems it may not be the disaster I thought it might be. In my head I was going to need to drop the gearbox again which would have been very upsetting. New 300tdi slave cylinder bought and hopefully fitted without spoiling the push rod in the process. 

[Clutch slave cylinders 200tdi/300tdi compatability]

Seems I have once again fallen foul of my eagerness to get parts bought on Paddocks website by seeing 'suitable for defender' on the overview page, but failing to open the page and seeing its only suitable for 200tdi defenders. Argh. 

I have bought and fitted a clutch slave cylinder for a 200tdi defender... to my 300tdi defender. This came apparent when trying to fit the new clutch flexi pipe today, with the 200tdi slave having a different pipe fitting. 

Before I swear a lot, maybe with a few tears, is there any difference between the two other than the hydraulic fitting? 

Suspect I know the answer already but I can cross my fingers... 

[Rear axle 300tdi/td5 brake compatibility]

I have c*cked up when ordering parts to refresh my rear axle, so hopefully looking for an easy way out...although I suspect deep down I already know what I need to do. 

I have a 1996 110 CSW which had solid discs, with no ABS. I then bought a LOF disc and pad kit for a 1998-2016 110, which I have fitted... and now realised my error when trying to refit the calliper (disc looks to be a different offset). Would I be able to get away with buying callipers for a TD5(?) 110 to avoid stripping everything down again? I assume not, but worth asking the question...