reb78

Before you do anything - what oil is in it at the moment? If it is EP90, then changing to MTF94 may well make a world of difference! Although i would expect all of the gearchanges to be difficult especially when cold if that were the case. EP90 is way too thick for the main box. Worth checking/changing the oil anyway. Otherwise Ashcrofts are the ones to talk to as suggested.

Do you think they are comfy enough or is there a better alternative? I wondered about fitting some Captains chairs from a Ford Galaxy or the like and ditching the middle seat (effectivley meaning i can really only seat four). Or perhaps the rear row from a RRC if thats possible. I've replaced my 110s front seats with RRC ones (underseat access is possible, but not convinient) so have thought about fitting the old front seats in the rear, but cant decide if its worth it. I did change them because i personally found them a little uncomfy on long journeys. The series seatbox idea aounds like considering though if i do fit them.

Then perhaps you stand out from many other garages as one of the good ones and maybe i've just been unlucky with some of my experiences and thats tainted things. I'm sure you would be able to meet my standards should i ever need my car fixing when i'm working in the west - and i do frequently so dont think i am so far away........! I know you dont need to use a torque wrench for everything, but if someone has a habit of overtightening things then it helps.

I have a garage i do use and i am perfectly happy with them thanks so i shant be requiring your services. The garage i use is a family run business and they work to high standards without excuses. If something goes wrong and it is their fault they are honest about it and fix it. If it is just wear and tear and something breaks in the course of fixing another problem i pay for it. If they are unable to get something finished on time because they take the time to do it properly they ring me and tell me and i happily leave my car there another day in the knowledge the job will be done properly. As a result they are always very busy and their business is thriving because people go back there time and time again. The same wont be said for somewhere that turns out shoddy work and results in people needing to have a rant and moan on the forum to releive their stress. My point was do a job properly and if you cant or dont have time to then dont bother taking peoples money to attempt it in the first place (i'm not saying you do this, just that plenty of garages that seem happy to these days).

You're missing my point. You pay good money to have a job done, you dont expect to come to find things overtightened, threads sheared, bolts rounded, bits dropping off because they were incorrectly fitted, the wrong parts fitted/wrongly adjusted, trim missing whatever, all for the sake of using the correct tool or reading the right paragraph in the manual before doing the job. Then you get given the excuse you paid me to do the bare minimum so thats what i did. If as the manager of a garage you feel the hourly rates are too low, put them up rather than compromise quality of service or safety, dont tell me you dont charge enough to do a proper job - customers will keep coming back. There is no excuse for the shoddy workmanship i come across so frequently these days which often simply comes down to laziness.

Thats rubbish. Pay a 'proffessional' and you expect the job done properly not some half arsed job that screws up your motor. You put your life in the hands of whoever services your vehicles so 'I didnt have time' to check the torque on the wheel nuts and oops a wheels fallen off but never mind you didnt pay me to check i'd done it properly just doesnt wash. Sure the techs arent going to get the diagnosos right all of the time, but thats different to not doing a proper job when the work is undertaken.

I used a folded peice of 5mm steel (folded into a C shape). Carefully cut away the old member leaving all of the chassis rails in place. Reparired them where needed and cut slots into them that the botom of the folded steel slid into. I then added 3mm extensions as required that i could weld to the chassis rails. All seems to have worked quite well really. The C section is open at the back so there are no mud traps but it is strengthened into an open (ish) box where the tow bar joins on for added strength there. There are lots of very good threads in here and the tech archive on this. Do a search and trawl through the irrelevant results to find the good ones - it is worth it for this.

I think the confusion is that there is one big nut on the front of the FIP that holds that gear on isnt there? Or do you remove the plate with the three bolts and the gear slips off over the nut?

I dont know about the cracks. My feeling would be that if it is cracked i would worry about it, but someone who knows more will need to confirm that. I do have a spare TD engine and could see what the condition of the head looked like on that if it would be any help and if you were local to Hertfordshire... Post up some pictures of our head - a picture speaks a thousand words.........

Make sure you use a genuine seal and follow the instructions in the manual for fitting. Taken from the manual: Fitting rear main oil seal to flywheel housing The oil seal is manufactured from P.T.F.E. and is supplied with a former to maintain the correct shape which must not be removed until the seal is to be fitted. 1. Make sure the seal housing is clean and dry and free from burrs. Do not touch the seal lip and ensure that the outside diameter is clean and dry. 2. Using special seal replacer 18C134-I 1 and with the lip side leading drive-in the seal as far as the tool allows. If the tool is not available fit the seal to the bottom of the housing to ensure squareness. Fitting flywheel housing 3. Clean the rear face of the cylinder block and flywheel housing, then apply a bead of Hylosil 102 sealant to the dimensions and configuration, illustrated. The illustration has been produced full size so that a template may be made to facilitate the application of the sealant. The bead should be 2,O mm diameter and must extend around the periphery of the bearing cap so that the joint between cap and block is sealed. 4. Examine the seal guide, number 18G1344 ensuring that it is perfectly smooth and not damage or scratched. Also check that the crankshaft oil seal journal is smooth and clea. 5. Locate the seal guide on to the crankshaft and lubricate the seal, guide and journal with concentrated 'Oildag' in a 25% solution with clean engine oil. 6. Carefully locate the flywheel housing over the seal and on t o the dowels. 7. Remove the seal guide and secure the flywheel housing, evenly tightening the retaining bolts to the correct torque.

Could have a bash at welding my own up from a length of pipe i suppose. Prob more effort than it'll cost me in time to get a stainless one. I'm just not convinced stainless is worth the extra money myself - i know it lasts longer, but i can buy several whole systems for the price of one whole stainless one.

Dont know if this might be of interest since its all in bits.... http://www.lro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45536 He's done a few of these vids, but thought this might be relevant to you.

Does anyone know if and where you can buy mid section silencer replacement pipes for the 200tdi 110 that are not stainless steel? I've had a look around and they all seem to be stainless. I need to replace the whole exhaust on the 110 and i'm not bothered about it being stainless steel. I want to ditch the middle silencer and dont really want to put a stainless setion in with the rest of it as mild steel. To complicate things the existing system is from my TD (which i converted to a defender 200tdi), so i'd need the replacment middle section to have hangers for the TD rather than the tdi.

I'd heard that the 4.6 range rovers suffered but wasnt sure about the 4.0 litre discos.

Thanks. Thats an interesting site. Any problems with the kit at all - that would save a packet on getting it fitted by a garage.

Same story everywhere you turn these days. Good trustworthy mechanics seem hard to come by. When you find one, never let them move or retire! I had the timing belt changed on my old TD defender before i started to do all this stuff myself and when i got it back, the crank bolt was so loose i could undo it with such ease its a wnder it didnt drop off. I've had garages round off bolts, fit wrong brakes, mess up the tracking cos they dont know how to use the equipment, forget to shut the bonnet properly (so you only notice when on the main road). Perhaps the worst one was a 'repair' garage used by admiral insurance to repair my BMW after pothole damage to the wheels and tyres - they took 5 days to change two tyres and failed to notice that the rims were visibly bent!!!! I can rant about this forever, so i sympathise with you. The answer is to pick up the manual and never ever let anyone else ever touch your car again!!!!

Hi All, Generally over in the Defender forum, but i've been hankering after a nice disco for some time now to replace my BMW as the 'posh' car! I fancy a V8, i've used my mothers TD5 D2 a lot and thats great, but would still like to have a petrol vehicle as i personally feel they are still that little bit more refined. I've seen a few good V8 D2s recently at very reasonalble prices and low mileages and just wondered how much i would have to budget to out a decent LPG system on one of these. Underslung tanks preferably so i dont loose boot space and ideally dont loose the original petrol capacity either. Any ideas of a rough cost would be much appreciated. Cheers

I'm confused by this too. From one of the other posts by the OP it sounds like a Britpart rad may have had a leak between the oil and water tanks in the rad and thus water has passed back to the sump. The engine then ran badly for perhaps a minute at most. The question i have is if the above is correct, how do you know there is water in the sump? As Nick has said, you havent drained the oil to check. And why do you think this has done so much damage that you need to re-build the engine? Unless water has got into the chambers and attempts have been made to compress that water i cant see that the engine damage is so bad that it needs a complete new engine! If you feel this much damage is due to a faulty new rad - i would persue Britpart for some recompense!

If its more than 2mb in size you cant load it - it sounds like this is the case - if so you need to shrink or compress the picture.

They are sealed providing your breathers are high enough and the tubes are attached tightly so i cant imagine water ingress is the problem - if it is, then again the advice to drain and change the oil will tell you it has got in and may solve the problem. They are not difficult to take apart and are really very simple things once in pieces - i replaced all gaskets on mine when it was last off of the vehicle - the only thing that had me stumped was that there is a circlip behind the oil pump cam which is not obvious with the cam in place. This needs to be removed - the cam slides out with the encouragement of a magnet to reveal the circlip. Have a search on here for GKN OD problems and see what comes up - they are not without their problems, but are pretty simple to fix. I would drain and re-fill yours before you spend time dismantling it or another unit. Personally i wouldnt sell it on ebay unless it was fixed. If you sell it as broken it wont make that much and if you pay to have it fixed you may as well use it.

It is worth changing the oil - its only 700ml in there so changing it at the suggested intervals seems to low for me. The OD works through oil pressure so anything that blocks that flow may affect engagement/disengagement of the unit. Also, some of these units have problems with sucking oil from the transfer case. If it does this, the viscous ep90 can prevent the oil pump from working properly - best way to tell is emptying the oil and seeing if it is the right mount and if it smells like ep90.

What was the cause Mike?

I cant see how this is the overdrive. If you reverse with it engaged it will break as it has a one way gear system. If the OD is not functioning properly the gear setup is such that it should run as normal without the overdrive.

What else did you remove to change the rad? Are you sure the britpart one didnt have some kind of oiling covering to prevent any corrosion etc? Difficult to see how these are linked.

And also, would we get that little bit more out of our defenders by fitting disco pumps? Do they produce power and torque to complement their respective gearing setups perhaps?