Steve 90

Mmmmm, old man looking for me! That must av been Pikey!

just drive in to some deep water Tim and see what happens be sure to video it tho so we can all see

Yep, Fluffy one's and a big heavy spring on the throttle to stop me pressing it too much!

Doh, Forgot I have a broken windscreen that will need changing for M.O.T too!

Blimey, Wish that was all I have to do. Still aint washed it since last use yet and I need to:- Get gearbox out, Rebuild it and stop it jumping out of reverse. Fit new clutch while its out. pull transfer box apart and fit uprated diff pin Remove and Strip P.A.S pump and see if I can see why the pressure relief valve stuck the other week. strip both axles, Service diff's, Fit new air feed "o" rings. service C.V's and swivel housings. Finish off mods to Hydro assist steering once the last few bits for the final build get ere. finish off new exhaust that exits over rear axle. fit new suspension bush's, front lights and anything else needed for an M.O.T. (yep, that time of year again!) Re-wire the mess in the Cab that was bodged in a hurry to get out laning at christmas. service the rear winch. give the truck the usual good service, oil changes and greasing. Re-paint front wings (tho if time gets tight they'll do as they are) plus the biggest jobs of all are code 9's . Still weve got.......errr.....not long now

Wooo hooo, quick, stop taking entries while I still have a chance of the podium!!!!!

Oooooo, im excited, Who's entered the first event so far James?

2465 but I think I need to remove a dog hair from the mouse ball and it may go better!

Ive seen your driving, It wouldn't surprise me if you spend most ya time on the pavement. Did you check under the wheel arch's in case you had a little old lady wedged under there or somit .

And a coat of paint, That will be posh. Good work and a handy bit of kit to have round! Usual thing tho, A couple of hour job seems to always be a week to get it finished!!

Yep they are defo different but I thought it was only because of the dowel position, a stud and lack of thread in one hole. Nothing that couldn't be easily sorted. Basically what im trying to find out is 1 is there a difference between the 4 cyl petrol and Tdi (or TD, N/A) bell housings. and 2 If there is a difference If I get the Tdi bell housing will it bolt up to the Disco Flywheel housing just with the moving of a stud and some dowels or do I need to get the defender fly wheel housing aswell B****y hell, Ive confused myself now !!!

Yes please if you could. Do you have 3 (or 4) bolts at the bottom that go right through into the sump rather than just the fly wheel housing.

When I originally did mine I was told the the bell housing of the defender would fit the disco fly wheel housing it just needed a dowel moving and taping a thread in one hole (which was already there but just a plain hole) but then I found that the 3 or 4 holes around the bottom part of the bell housing (the long bolt that go through the bell housing, fly wheel housing then into the sump were no where near lining up which is why I think my bell housing is different. All the other holes line up fine except these which go right through into the sump which im sure is the same on a defender. I could be wrong. Someone out there must know!

Stop it Jason!!! Im really trying not to break stuff anymore . Ive been very restrained lately (specially compared to you)

Ah, right you are! Maybe thats the problem then. I didn't think the disco and defender fly wheel housings were different. No one mentioned changing them when they have spoken about the conversion. I just thought it was my bell housing that was wrong.

Right about to drag the gear box out of the truck for various reasons. The truck was originally 4 cyl petrol but when I fitted the 200TDI the bell housing to engine bolts would not line up. Being in a hurry I just re drilled the holes where they needed to be. Its far from ideal but its kept things going for 12 months. As the box is coming out I think its the ideal time to sort it. (as long as I dont bite the bullet and stick in a short bell housing R380!!!) So can anyone tell me what Bell housings will fit a (discovery) 200Tdi to a 1989 defender LT77? Will a N/A Diesel fit? Turbo Diesel? Or will it have to be a 200TDi? Cheers. Steve.

I think i'm responsible for most of the broken one's (sorry Dave ) But it has to be said Ashcroft are an excellent firm to deal with. They stand by what they say, their products and services are first class and things arrive when they say they will. As for the STD 24 spline shafts i'm surprised you have not broken any running 35's, They usually go off where they are smaller diameter going into the CV. Do you have a front locker? When I was using STD shaft I would refuse to use the front locker to reverse out of places for fear of breakage!

Yes it did break and it was new before the event but I looked at it afterwards and where it broke it had melted from being doubled back over a painted part of the roll cage trying to get bushy off a tree stump earlier in the weekend. So I think it was due to abuse of the rope. To date ive not had a breakage of the plasma that hasn't been due to damage to the rope from user error weather it be rubbing on a sharp rock or running through the ground. I did run Bow rope and had a few un explained breakages with a rope that was only a few months old which put me off. The plasma 12 does not look old as quickly as the bow rope if thats anything to go by. I have just bought another bow rope to give it a second chance but on experience up till now plasma 12 is still the rope I prefer.

Your nothing but a big girl! Throw them door tops away and turn the heater off is the only real way to enjoy a landrover :D :D

I originally made my own but after 12 months of battering and the headlight supports being loose I decided to get some North offroad ones and gota say very happy with them. They have had some serious abuse and are still as straight as a a straight thing. Also its very easy to get the outer and inner wings off to give a bit more access for work down the sides of the engine etc and way more simple to remove the grill/radiator than std. I could have made them but I just did not have time. It depends how much spare time you have and how much its worth to you but once id priced steel, ally etc and take your time into consideration they arn't expensive. The bars are also lighter than my previous ones.

I love snow, Need to start ripping the truck to bits to get ready for james's first event this weekend so lets hope we get chance to play before its off the road! Last years was brilliant!

The main thing I have found when using a ground anchor is to get as much rope out as possible and get it as far away from the truck as you can. Seems to lessen the angle that the truck pulls the nose of the anchor up and they dig far better. If you use it only a few yards in front of you they usually pull out! I use a D44, Its heavy and usually works but not always first time. The plate and pins are the best but take so long to set up and pull out its painful. Think that before long I'll probably be on the phone to Si for one of the X anchors and see how that goes.

Good work. Glad it works well for you. I run 8274's, Twin XP motor front and single rear. On the final stage of the 3 peaks we winch'd 4 landrovers all using 8274's up a 60 degree slope of about 60 feet then through bumper deep bog that was 4 full drums of rope (125 feet on drum) so probably about 5-600 feet in all after two full days comping. Not one of them had an issue with this. Think its like everything else, a bad, poorly maintained setup will let you down, If its done right it will do you fine. The main trouble with the 8274 is that 95% of challenge trucks run them but only about half of those are built right and maintained well so you see lots of failures that are not really due to the winch! I must say that I have seen some extremely impressive Hydro setups in the right situation they are great, also seen a good number of very bad ones! The main reason I dont use them is a lot of situations I have been in electric is the only way I'd get out.

I agree that the Rose joint probably is not idea but wear does not concern me. The truck is used for comps only these days and It doesn't bother me if I have to put a new one on every couple of events. It only takes 10 mins to change them and they aint pricey! The fact the bolt through the joint is in single sheer has concerned me a little as I have mentioned in the other thread. But its a 3/4 bolt and as soon as I have them it will be fitted with the best quality bolt I can find. If I cant find anything in good enough material I'll get a few specials made. Other than trying it and seeing how the setup performs/lasts I cant really comment any more. As long as the bolt stays tight and straight I can deal with the rest. I know that the track rod end is made of material probably far superior to your average bolt but they too are only in single sheer and the diameter of the taper where it leaves the pitman arm is about 3-4mm less than the bolt ive used. Time will tell, I cant really see any way of using a TRE without having a new pitman arm made up to take them! If anyone does have any ideas I'd love to hear them.