Disco-Ron

I would be surprised if the difflock being engaged has produced a main gearbox problem, it is more likely to produce centre diff or axle diff problems....

My old 200tdi disco used to only reach the right temp when driven, and ideally under load, just tickling along it would start getting cool, and (daft as it sounds) when left at idle as i sometimes do when trialing, the temp would actually fall right off, as the rad was loosing more heat than the engine was making............. As you've just fitted a new rad, i wouldn;t be at-all surprised if it was in effect over cooling the engine, try driving up a really long hill laden and see if the fan then kicks in....... i too had the x eng switch in my disco, but i cunningly put a light in the cab so i knew when the fan came on......... i also had a switch for it, auto/off/on, so i could manually take control if need be, of switch it off for wading.........

Your existing tyres are 16 inch, the ones your boss has are 15's, i would advise against fitting different size wheels on one end to the other on any vehicle, amd i doubt it would pass the terst with different size wheels anyway

Ben, if you're sensible, you can work out what the difflocl lever moves, and there is a nut on the little pivot on the top of the transfer box, you should be able t disengage it with the nut...... you might get a slightly better view of it by removing the plate under the drivers seat..... above the fuel tank....

I have a pair sat in the garage............... came off my '96 300tdi....!

Simple, the handbrake was stuck on!

Well, i too like my rtc damper, it assists in getting the wheels pointing forwards again.......... simple as that. However, i could use alittle more damping, as i get a wobble from the un balanced wheels at 46mph............

James, D44 recomend knocking the fixed cups off the axle, as they apparently restrict (it can only be very slightly) articulation.......... they are only fixed on with three spot welds....... so with a small cold chisel they come off easily!!

its also worth removing the steering damper and seeing how it feels, if it's slight bent it'll be harder to turn left.......

Exactly............ its like when there is a terrorist attck, and then the next day the radio and tv is telling eveyone one how it was done......... which in turn tells future terrorists how to do it........... things like this drive me nuts!!

Programme on NOW about how easy defenders are to steal and break........ when will the tv stop telling the thiefs how to do it...!!!!!!!

Odd isn;t it............. i would presonally rather have a flick wipe, than the intermittant that i have on my 300.......... i always find that the timing is wrong, and would rather use a flick to get it wiped when I want it....

Parts finally arrived today, turns out they were waiting on a genuine bypass hose, took me two phone calls a week apart to get it sorted, i accepted an allmakes bypass hose instead of genuine, and they even re-imbursed me the difference............ oddly though, i ordered a genuine LR 300 bottom hose for the 90, and even that has come in bits with plastic joiners....... when the original hose is moulded in one piece........ ho hum.

Is it my imagination, or do they have the diff for the 3rd axle up side down..??????

I took the easy but not cheapest option, and bought a new housing with joint fitted............. http://www.gwynlewis4x4.co.uk/page82.html

TD5 disco diffs are not the same.............. and definately won;t fit a 98 90 axle.....

goodwinch does a 'bikini' mount that bolts on top of a standard bumper, looks ok too! And also incorporates two recovery points!

Indeed, you'd struggle getting the axle on and arms bolted up with the springs in place...... much simpler to remove them, The strange thing is with regards to the axle angle, and spring alignment, you'd think that with the arm being further away from the chassis that the spring base would be further back, however its the angle that the spring plate sits at that causes the top of the spring to be so far forward....

Land-rover-parts-shop.com..... they appear to be flippin hopeless.... 2 weeks since i placed my order, not heard a word since the paypal email confirming payment was sent........... sent a couple of emails, nothing..... they claim to be an E company only,............ well, they're useless at it!! Rant over..... for now!

Thanks jeremy, having done a bit more digging i have now found out that you can't buy just the y piece, you have to buy it along with the three pipes its is attached to..... Ordered one, just gotta pray it comes before the weekend now..! MOT Sat, and laneing trip on sunday! Cheers.

Part number esr2348, which is on my 300tdi its the 'pump ejector' on the two little pipes that lead back to the header tank, its the kind of 'y' piece...... can't find anywhere online, and i'm miles from a main dealer...........

mine didn;t squeel.......... it had a very faint tick... which turned out to be a very small fray in the belt fabric...... still, all good now...

This thread is just for info really, until yesterday i was unaware that there are two different lengths of belt fitted to defender 300's. only 15mm different, but stil.... Some vehicles apparently have a small pulley on the alternator, and some have a slightly larger one, well, when i went for a new belt the specialist guessed which one i needed, as i wasn't in the truck for him to check.... got home, took old belt off, and checked them against each other only to find that the one i removed was longer, well, i looked at the alt pulley and thought, there can't possibly be one smaller than that, so it should be the short belt i need, which is the one the specialist gave me, so, i fitted it......... and lo and behold, the truck now runs so much quiter its almost unreal....... i guess there wasn't quite enough tension on the various pulleys with the longer belt fitted...... So, check what belt you have, and what pulley you've got.............

As siad, a tradgedy............. what we should learn from this, is that accidents happen, our club had an open driving day at the weekend, and when we stopped one guy going out on the course at the start of the day, we explained that we didn;t have marshalls on the site yet, (we were briefing them) and he actually said, so.... its not like i could die is it..... some people just dont understand that you don;t need to have a big accident to get hurt big time....

However, and i stand to be corected, if you don;t have the right licence, you can only tow up to 750kg anyway. but you still can't tow a trailer plated to tow 3.5tonees, even if it weighs less than 750 empty.