Kim Horsevad

When using a bridle please remember that the angle between the "legs" of the bridle should be 60 degrees in order to halve the load on each of the attachment points. When the angle gets greater than 60 degrees the load on each of the attachment points will grow. At 120 degrees the load on each of the attachment points will equal the load on the connecting point on the birdle. At greater angles the load on each of the attachment points will be greater than the load on the connecting point on the birdle. Direction of the load will also be changed at the greater angles. All of this can be calculated in details using vector math. As said before, do not underestimate the forces involved in serious recovery. Personally I would never trust a JATE ring for serious work, nor do I trust ANYTHING which is bolted or welded to the rear crossmember - I have seen to many of such crossmembers come flying after serious recovery work. If helping another truck, where there may be doubt about the quality of the recovery points on this truck, then wrap a piece of chain around the axle tube (taking care not to damage brake pipes) and use this as recovery point. Yes this can involve some digging....

The arc welder is fine for making the weld current, not for the actual welding. Welding thin sheet with arc is best avoided. Connect a spool gun (example: Spool Gun) to the arc welder and enjoy the best of both worlds. The spool gun can also be used when welding directly from batteries...

For all the landrovers I have worked on the size has been 3/16 for brake pipes The diametre of the brake pipe has to be correlated to the amount of fluid moved by the master cylinder pump action. Using a larger diametre pipe will therefore mean you have to work the pedal harder (longer travel) to maintain the same brake action.

Sounds interesting. PM sent.

Please do post a picture! Such a setup sounds really interresting!

Can't help to identify the cable, but standard control (throttle) cable can be bought per metre at most tractor repair shops (at least over here). You buy a length of cable - somewhat longer than specifically required - and then cut the cable to the actual lenght once installed in vehicle.

Make a visit to your local tractor place. Oversize "D" type connectors are commonly used to connect the wirering loom from the engine to the tractor body. (When you change clutch on a tractor, you separate the engine and tractor body - therefore the wirering loom is often made with some kind of quick release electrical connector.) The type used on old Fiat tractors (70-90 or similar) would suit your application fine. All the individual connectors are rated at 30 amp, and - if I remember correctly - there are 20 individual connectors in each. The wires are secured to the pins with a small screw, so no need for special crimping tools- If cost is an issue, then find a scrapyard who breaks old tractors. Such connectors are rather common and cheap such places - at least around here... Edited to add: I could take a photo of such a connector as used on my tractor and post here, if this could help you. Just let me know.

I really appreciate the many answers! The engine in question has done 380 000 km, so sometime near in the future a decision has to be made - either rebuild or change for a 200tdi... However, the engine is running just fine for the moment, so just checking future options. Again, thanks for the answers.

Hello! I am currently in the proces of rebuilding a Range Rover for my brother. ... The frame and bodyshell gets galvanised, and all the mechanical parts will be overhauled. The Range Rover in question was bought with a good-running VM diesel. Is the rather bad reputation for the VM 2.4 and 2.5 litre engines really deserved? The italian VM diesel engines has been used in the boating industry, and has always had a good reputation for reliability among boat-owners... Why does they have such a bad reputation among range rover owners? When looking at the engine compartment in the Range Rover the cooling fluid reservoir sits rather low in relation to the engine. With just a small leakage the fluid level can easily drop lower than the cooling channels in the engine heads. Could this be the explanation for the bad reputation for the VM engines in Range Rovers? It it just a matter of relocating the cooling fluid reservoir (and fitting a fluid level warning light) or is the engine in itself prone to failures?

What diametre is the bolt? For larger bolts it is normally possible to fit a piece of small tubing down the bolthole, and then use a stick welder to weld the tube (inside) to the remains of the bolt. Take care not to melt the whole thing. If done correctly the thread in the hole will not be affected.

Find a small length of tubing with an outside diametre equal to the inside diametre of bolt hole. Push tubing down the bolt hole until it has contact with the snapped bolt. Then use a stick welder on high power and fill up the tube. (This requires some training, in order not to melt the whole thing!) The heat will break any rust and loctite. Use a pipe wrench or similar on the filled up tube to undo the bolt. Actually rather simple. Just make sure the weld has really good contact with the remains of the snapped bolt.

Work your way slowly round the tire with levers or crowbar. Push bead down and out. Usually takes three full circles before the bead lets go... Same procedure as used when breaking the bead on tubeless tractor tires... There is a specialized tool for this, cant rememer the name. Totally agree though, it is much, much easier using the tyre machine!

I think I tend to disagree. Very very many things can be made as simple DIY projects, provided that one has some knowledge of the materials and engineering procedures.. Tuning a piece of rund bar on a lathe is fairly simple work. Even aquiring a lathe does not nessasarily mean spending a lot of money.... If one is truly determined even making a lathe from scratch is not impossible...! Drilling the shafts as described is done with professional and expensive equipment, but that does not mean these processes are impossible to duplicate in an ordinary DIY context. For drilling the extreme hard shaft one could use masonry drills in an ordinary drill press. (The principle of using masonry drills in steel is that the friction heat produced slowly weakens the hardening, but in a more localizised way than heating the whole shaft with a torch. I Cross-drilled a transfer input gear for my gearbox this way, before I aquired a full set of titanium-nitride drill bits (which will cut Rockwell 60 all day long...) Folding the aluminium sheet can be done over a piece of tube in an ordinary vice. No problems there. Welding aluminium is best done with a TIG, but there is nothing preventing you from welding alu with a ordinary MIG-MAG setup. Use argon shield gas, buy a new siliconizised inner liner and a oversize tip, then you're ready to rock. (Though this technique requires training, and LOTS of it) The good and informative writeup Lewis has made contains many interresting ideas. Whether or not the individual reading this writeup has access to the same kind of tools is not that really important - the good thing about such a writeup is the sharing of ideas. How a person who reads the information is going to convert these ideas to physical implementations is dependent on that particular persons knowledge, expirience and will to overcome problems. Willpower and sheer determination are the really important things. With a little out-of-the-box thinking and a good working knowledge of materials and engineering not many problems will stop you for long.

The bolts are 12.9 - not that it should matter much... Even though the bolts are in shear, which (if my memory is correct) is only 60% of the tensile bolt strength, 8.8 bolts should be adequate. The reason for making the piece of flat bar so short and using a chain for fastening is basicly that it easily fits in the toolbox in the vehicle. Although I have a rather well-equipped workshop I always have a complete toolkit in the landrover - I hate the thought of beeing stranded somewhere without the tools to effect some emergency repair! I dont know if you can see it in the pictures, but there is a number of other holes drilled in the piece of flat bar - so that it (together with some long 12.9 bolts) can be used as a makeshift puller. The piece of chain is the same chain I use when I rig the Hi-Lift for use as winch.

Undoing the crankshaft damper retaining bolt on a 200 tdi engine can be really difficult. The bolt is loctited and done to 341nm, which is rather tight... I was changing the timing belt on a 200 tdi engine in the weekend, and grabbed some pictures with my phone. I have a system for undoing that bolt which might be a little elaborate in setup, but works with 100% succes rate... (Btw... This bolt was probably tigthed even more than it should. My air "rattle gun" is good for 700nm and refused to undo it!) To fabricate a "special tool" for undoing such stubborn bolt is rather simple: The idea is to bolt a piece of flat bar to the damper assembly and then secure this piece of flat bar to the chassis rail with a piece of heavy chain. First find a suitable piece of flat bar from the scrap pile. The pulley assembly can be used to mark the positions of the bolt holes.The piece shown in the picture is about 10mm thick and 60mm wide. Had to use a 1 metre "extension pipe" on the 3/4 inch wrench to undo the bolt! Overkill...? - Maybe, but works every time. This system can be used for field repairs too, where one do not have access to air tools. When doing the bolt up, same system can be used, just secure to the other chassis rail.

Really good and informative writeup! Maybe one warning should be made - when dealing with wheels (rims) which can be divided (dont know what they are called in english) one should (obviously) always deflate the tyre completely before undoing the retaining bolts! It is quite surprising the number of people who manages to get themselves killed or injured by forgetting such an obvious thing. One other comment regaring tubes - I always inflate and sequently defalte the tube when it is installed in the wheel to make sure it is free of any twists. I take it has been a while since you have worked with 12 layer XZY-tires.... I will take a lot more persuasion than just a walk...

You would DEFINATELY see a huge difference if adjusting from shade 13 to shade 9 while welding. If nothing happens, then the helmet is faulty and should be replaced under warranty. ... The sensitivity adjustment toggles how much light is needed to darken the helmet. With the sensiivity turned full down the helmet can also be used when grinding. (Make sure, though, that a layer of protective impact resistant glass is fitted before the filter!)

Sorry if I bought some confusion into it. The technique for doing MIG or MAG with your welder is the same, it is just a matter of terms - and as I said above, probably a little pedantic.... (If anything, then using a argon/CO2 mixture (as yours) is easier than using pure CO2) Your filter IS autodarkening according to the description above.. Do you have some kind of adjustment knob on the helmet? Normally there is an adjustment knob for choosing the correct shade. You should probably use shade 10 or 11 depending on the amperage setting on the welder. I have tried many different qualities of autodarkening helmets, but I have never come across one beeing as useless as the one you describe. My suggestion would therefore be that there is some kind of adjustment which is wrong. BTW. The ANSI and CE standard marking on your helmet does not imply that the helmet is of any quality, this is merely a sign that the production and product conforms to certain safety standards.

The filter shade should be determined by the amperage setting of the welder. The intensity of the UV rays produced is dependent on the amperage, therefore the filter shade and amperage should be coordinated. Up to 40 amps use filter shade 9 From 40 to 80 amps use filter shade 10 From 80 to 175 amps use filter shade 11 From 175 to 200 amps use filter shade 12 From 200 to 250 amps use filter shade 13 With a proper filter shade and a good helmet one should be able to see the wire melts into the metal, one should be easily able to follow the lines of a butt weld as above. For a good strong weld get the power setting as high a possible, without immidiately burning holes in the metal, and the wire feed setting as low a possible for continous welding. This way the heat transfer will be at its maximum, and you will get the best penetration. Btw, to be totally pedantic, you are not doing MIG welding, MIG is done with Inactive shield gas - you are probably using either pure CO2 or (more likely) a mixture of CO2 and Argon. CO2 is active, therefore MAG welding.

Yes they are designed for self-recovery, but self-recovery is only possible when the bucket is large enough (or the ground surface hard enoug) that you can gain some leverage by using the digger arm to push or pull.... The pictures may be misleading, but as I see it in the pictures the bucket on the bulldozer seems bigger than the bucket on the digger and then it can be used in the way described.

The problem is not the stress on the body sides. They will easily cope with a lot more weight. The problem is that the roof weight change the centre of gravity, and thereby changing the cars handeling characteristics. A car with a heavy roof rack will easyly roll over in a sharp turn or on a side slope. Doing 'expeditions' with large amounts of lot of fuel and water on the roof is just plain stupid. Water, fuel and spare parts should be stored as close to frame level as possible. There are LOTS of unused room under and around a defender body. Make some alu boxes to fit in these cavities. Alu can be welded with an ordinary MIG welder, just use aluminium wire, a good quality liner and argon shielding gas. It will not be as good looking weld as a TIG, but with a small amount of practice (and the proper use of a heat sink) it can be made watertight for fuel tanks. Water tanks for drinking water really should be stainless steel - this can also be welded with a MIG, but do it outdoors, the welding fumes form stainless are rather unhealty.... Make a tray and relocate the batteries to a position under the rear body, then you have another seat box room free for spareparts and the other for tools. On a standard defender body there is room for 2 jerry cans in each side - the same place where other install side lockers.

You need a heavy! chain and some kind of ground anchor. The little bulldozer can propably be used. Park it - preferably in a more dry spot - with the bucket low and burried in the soil and facing the 360. Attach a heavy chain to the bucket of the little bulldozer and attach the other end of the chain to the bucket on the 360. Then use the digger arm to pull out very slowly. Of course al soil deposits hindering forward motion for the 360 should be removed beforehand. DO NOT attach the chain to the tractor - the force form the 360 digger arm will easily tare it apart!

It will do fine! Generally, to judge the quality of a grease for mechanical purposes place a small amount of grease on a flat steel surface and strike it with a hammer. Inspect the face of the hammer, if there still is a small amount of grease on the striking surface of both the hammer and flat surface, then the grease will also have the right properties for sticking to gears and bearings in the mechanical assembly.

English is not my native language, so please excuse me if I have just misunderstood your excellent posting... Have a 200tdi engine myself, and done the operation a number of times, I would like to point out that: According to the Workshop Manual the bolt holding the timing belt tensioner shold be tigthned to 45nm, but the tensioner itself (timing belt tension) should only be 19nm for a new belt and 17nm for a used belt. (Workshop Manual 93/95MY, section 12, page 47) The torque wrench with the square end inserted in the square hole on the tensioner should therefore read 17 or 19 nm while tigthning the tensioner bolt to 45nm with another torque wrench. The Workshop Manual recommends use of a dial type torque wrench - although I must admit I just use a normal one.

With regard to the 'yellow' drill bit - there is a lot of "fake" titanium tools around. Just because a drill bit is yellow does not guarantee the quality of the material. Maybe a bit like those 'orange' products which have been mentioned in another thread.... And maybe I am being a bit pedantic, but actually you do not want the drill bit to be _titianium_ coated, as titatium is a rather soft metal (around 40-44 Rockwell C). The correct titanium coating is actually a titanium alloy, which is applied to a softer base metal by micro welding. The coating can be either titanium carbide (TiC), titanium nitride (TiN) or titanium-carbo-nitride (TiCN). The two first are yellow-ish coloured, where the third is black-coloured. TiC, TiN and other such coatings are extremely hard and brittle materials. TiN coatings has been tested to - in some instances - hardness above 2,000 kg per square millimeter, which roughly translates to about 85 on the forementioned Rockwell C scale. I have a full set of TiN coated drill bits, and the perform absolutely brilliant in both mild steel, hardened steel and stainless steel.