justustwo

Hi again thanks for the replies and MAJOR UPDATE today is that i found the problem was a massive cracked wheel rim as you can see from the pic.God only knows what would happen if that had completly broken whilst doing 90kmh!! .Is it a common problem? havnt really seen any similar threads about it. I have been fully coded welder(boat builder) in the past but would like some confirmation about welding up the cracked rim? As for the brake shoe return springs I feel the same as Les that both the top and bottom return springs should go behind the shoes so will try and swap them around.It does make sense what Les says as I have always felt that after trying to adjust the shoes on the back I often use to think that the drums could be slightly ovalled as they seem to drag unevenly ,maybe the shoes arent sitting square.

Hi all a bit of an urgent request as my wife is 8 mnths pregnant with our first child and our only transport is our beloved S3 r6(South African series from 1984).Had the vehicle just over a year and its been great fun and a real life experience along with the good hard work and frustrations it brings.Just had all the brake cylinders replaced and have noticed that the top return spring on the rear drum has been fitted in front of the brake shoes and the long single wire bit actually touches the rubbers and metal casting on the brake cylinders?? Surly this is not right ?have they been put on wrong by previous owner (been driving with it for a year+ !!) should they in fact be put on behind the shoes?. The bottom spring goes behind the shoe as you may be able to see from the pics. Please remeber its a S3 r6 so has a different spring than most s3 and I cant find any pics in any manuals and i only have a partial r6 manual(yes the brakes is one of the parts in the manual i am missing and cant find any working link to download!!) Now the other very pressing problem developed last week which resulted in the current spell of work.There was no previous noise from diff or axle and was running well and then there suddenly started a noise from rear left wheel area and was a noise like a metal spoon in a pot hitting(clicking) every turn.Came on very suddenly (1 day) and was always there(only drove @ 3miles home) .Happened only going forward and not reverse.Took both rear hubs apart regreased wheel bearings checked shafts and all seemed ok.Replaced wheels last night and I may have swapped left and right rear wheels (not sure what was on what side) Now there is a horrible noise only in reverse on the RIGHT REAR SIDE (opposite to before!!!) and is only when I go up the driveway in reverse !!!!????The noise now seems more serious and as if it could break/snap something so have only driven up driveway and it was late by the time i tested last night so could not fully investigate. the noise is now more like a large click of a metal part spinging past another piece of metal (very hard to say in words ) the origional noise from the left seems not to be there so it must be related. just thought this morning about bushes in the leaf springs broken but then why would it swap sides Please can anyone give me any clues and please hopefully dont tell me its a diff problem or axel needs rebuilding i have only a few weeks left and trying to find spares here is hard,otherwise any midwifes want a quick holiday in Cape Town?

Sorry if this is hijacking this thread but is very related topic.....does anyone know what type of vehicles would use a standard VDO pressure sender like the one in the pic.I need one around 5 bar but could also be useful at 10 bar(plan to use one as back up to mechanical one on my Toyota engine series 3 and one for the on board compressor measuring-Ive already got the gauges). The new ones are crazy prices and I am sure must be able to get them in a scrappy but not found anything yet...if I knew what cars would have suitable VDO senders that would be a help...ps I am inSouth Africa so must be something common

once again thanks for advice one more thing on top odf what has been said ,I have the chance of some second hand parabolics made by BritishSprings been told there about 2 years old and in good condition...Is there any test i can do to test them for quality and life left in them...or is it better to steer clear of them.Must keep in mind that I am in South Africa so not as popular to get hold of over here.What sort of life span for paras or standard leafs? Cheers for all the help

thanks for great advice G sounds fairly straight forward so looks like my next major job after sourcing the parts...out of interest as a rough guide how long a life do paras have compared to standard?

Hi there I have a 1984 landrover series 3(R6) lLWB station wagon which has now got a (small !) 2ct Toyota diesel instead of the 2.6 litre LR petrol engine. I have 11 leaf (standard)rear leaf springs which are in good condition. On the front I have 6 leaf (standard) leaf springs which were re tensioned about 6 months ago here in Cape Town.Well unfortunatly I think it was a mistake to have had the fronts retensioned(or may be was done poorly?)as The top leaf on the passenger side has snapped. I am now considering going for parabolics on the front only and keeping the standard leaf springs on the rear( untill they eventually will need replacing -with paras) Would this be possible or advisable and would there be any problems with the installation.would I have to replace the shocks? I drive the vehicle everyday and it is generally lightly loaded with occasional heavy loads but no towing. I drive all road surfaces including the dreaded dirt roads with there corragations. I drive off road may be 2 or 3 times a month for general fun but nothing too serious . I realise the vehicle is never going to be that comfortable and knew that when I aquired the vehicle and accept this BUT if I can make it ride better while still be durable(how long should paras last compared to standard springs?)and (within a reasonable percentage of my budget compared to standard leafs then I will go down that route. How involved is it too fit leaf spring of either variety ,I have good mechanical skills generally on marine enviroment but not so much on auto so any good advice would be appreciated.

I have a lwb series 3 from 1984 and I know I need new uj`s on my rear propshaft as you can feel the play in them.I removed the front propshaft and have been driving around for a few weeks with (the same)vibration only at certain low-medium revs which I feel sure is the rear propshaft uj`s,but before I go ahead and replace only them I want to be fairly sure that the propshaft is ok and not needing replacement ..what should I look for to see if the propshaft is too far worn? If need be could I reuse any new uj`s from the old propshaft onto any future new propshaft? Any info anyone?

What or who is responsible for getting you into L/Rs......my husband puts his right shoulder under my bum and heaves as I am 4 months pregnant and only 5'2" tall...thats not the worst bit he`s talking about not having a car seat just a bungy cord around our little one in the spare wheel carrier!!!!!..... LAND ROVERS!!!!!!!!!

Ah this brings back funny memories to me of a few years back just after the fuel shortages @2005 I think ,was doing some contract work for a company and delivered an item to Dorset from Kent .After I got rid of the item I decided to take some time off and go back into Eastleigh in Hampshire where I have family .Well needed to purchase some items so went into the Swan Centre shoping centre in Eastleigh town centre.I was in an everyday white van and so carefully went under the swinging height barrier (the one hanging on chains ) at the entrance and therefore thought I was fine .Now this car park has quite a steep slope after the entrance so had to give it a bit of wellie to get up there ok...........Yes top marks! you guessed right half way up the slope the van was well and trully wedged under one of the steel beams destroying the fire insulation boarding covering it and also damaging the hired van roof.Now this car park is fully camera monitored and within a few seconds some jobsworth security gaurd came out giving his all and stating that it happens regulaly and I would be charged some drastic figure (very expensive this stuff he kept saying)for the repairs to the carpark infastructure.I then explained if I could get in no problem under the first barrier and no other warning sign before I hit the beam why was I wedged solid under the beam. He then had the classic answer that they tie the first hanging barrier up a bit higher so that the local youths do not start playing and swinging from it!!!!!!! Ther worst bit of the exercise was that it just so happened that it was the afternoon of a false alarm about no fuel available cause they thought the fuel strikes were back on . Now because to exit from the car park beam I had to let all the tires down and travel a mile to the nearest petrol staion, in vast queues of traffic waiting to get in the petrol station for fuel and then explain to several coppers turning people away from the stations that I only wanted a bit of air no fuel (they did not believe me!!) This experience was a real eye opening experience in itself seeing the VIP taxi cars from southampton airport being given absolute preferential treatment and being given police escorts through the queues to get their fuel fill up.These cars are picking up standard buisness people and celebrites and I cant for the life of me see why they got to avoid the crisis when my mums a nurse and could not get the fuel she needed Well anyway to cut a long story short the car park owners did try to threaten me and the company I was working for later with a letter saying they were taking court action but we went back later to the car park took a set of photos showing the wrongly set height barrier and sent it back to them them threatening them with action and they backed down straight away. Lucily the hire van was not badly damaged (but would have been a lot worse had I not taken the air out of the tire to get back out)and as it was a company we used a lot they let us off the damage costs.If I had not been sort of taking a quikkie off from the job I may have been more resolute in taking action against the car park company. I know that the last time I went in that car park after this event they were still tying the hanging barrier up (slightly so you cant see)so I would say that if any Land Rover drivers are in need of a new roof and are good with words you know what to do

Thanks for all the replies finally up and running today sounding good with no smoke and no just as important no leaks.ended up taking 6.5 litreswhich was as before but now certain of level and new dipstick fitting well Thanks

Hi David thanks very much for the reply and reading through you reply several times I feel you have got it right and is the way forward .I would like to have used the origional 2ct dipstick I got last week but unfortunatly it did not fit the tube on my engine(had to slightly shave down the seal)!! For some reason the tube has been changed and has got a non standard bend on it. Luckily I know with @25mm what path the tube should take so going to measure tommorow .Dont really want to mess about with installing an origional 2ct tube(from where i dont know!) as it would involve taking inj pump off as well as manifold and related gaskets etc(good parts are hard to source here)so will try to find a longer compatable dipstick which i can permanetly mark. As for the overfilling and turbo? I have been told oil level is much more critical for turbo cars and if you overfill the oil a turbo can get to spin into oblivion.true or false? thanks Andrew

Help with basic but tricky question,how much oil ? Hi all any help whatsoever with my continuing oil problem very much appreciated. Got a 19884 Landrover Series 3 Lwb 6 months ago and have really been enjoying it other than the continual oil leaks !!!!. Now before you all step in and shout out with the usual stories of :"a landrover always leaks" or "its just marking its territory"and "its so you know that you have got some oil in there"......I willjust cut you all off and say from the Landrover part there are virtually no leaks... ok well no bad ones. But the thing has got a TOYOTA 2ct diesel in and ever since I have had it ,there have been very annoying (and messy) oil leaks as far as I could tell mainly from the main sump/ engine block gasket/seal.It does not use a lot of oil but the drips make a real mess of the driveway . I put off doing this as I wanted to do it in with the major service and my first job was electrics (terrible state !)and then the cooling system of the Toyota engine which is alway critical with these engines. This has now been done with the Toyota engine now having the correct cooling with a thermostat and a matrix blower heater permanently plumbed in as a bypass circuit.Before doing this the engine ran well with good power(for a 2ltr!!!)and no smoke at all ,started on the button without fail,although possibly a bit noisy ,and the crude Landrover temperature gauge very rarely getting above COLD. After having done the above cooling mods the engine runs much quieter with still good power ,excellent mpg and no smoke at all.The temperature is totally reliable and is now properly measured at 91 degrees and never going above 95 degress which is ideal according to engine specs . However I was getting oil vapour up the dipstick which after taking some advice decided it could be because the dipstick is not the correct one for the engine and had no rubber seal at the top . I was told by the previous owner at time of purchase that the correct oil level was full when the oil mark was between the H/L marks (NOT the F mark!).But seeing some of the bodges this guy has made(a wood screw holding the sump on! even the transfer box bottom cover put on wrong way round so you could not drain the oil thru the drain) I dont want to trust his answer. So I know the original Toyota 2ct took 4.3 litres of oil with the filter changed BUT I have a different sump(bigger) to allow clearance for the front propshaft . So I took the sump of and cleaned it up and was appaled at the welding job they had made to keep the original flange of the old sump and to mate it to the new bigger sump,the flange was distorted all over the place and they had just elongated the bolt holes with an oversized drill and used no washer thus pulling the flange up noticeably at every bolt hole!! Anyway I had a spare (original unaltered)2ct sump which came with the vehicle so I have filled this with water and it took 6.625 litres to fill it right up level to the flange(had the return oil pipe spigot blanked off). The sump which was on the vehicle (after cleaning up the flange and straightening it up) took 9.5 litres to fill up to the flange in the same way as the original. I worked out that this is a 43% increase in the volume of the altered sump compared to an original ( my maths was: increase of sump capacity 2.875 divided by the original capacity sump 6.625 X by 100 to get the % increase ?) and thus think that my oil capacity should also be increased by 43% ??. I feel this was supported by the fact that I measured all the old engine oil I took out today and it came to 6.5 litres ( I had previous to draining the oil been on the halfway point of the dipstick- which if you remember I was told was the FULL level mark). Now according to my maths 43% increase on 4.3 litres (original unaltered 2ct oil capacity) is 6.15 litres and I took out and 6.5 litres ,could be +- 0.5 litres over filled but not drastically ,anyone agree /disagree?. When I refill I am planning on putting back in 6 litres on the dot as I would rather be a smidge under as I am more worriied of overfilling and then buggering the turbo- Is this a good plan? I have also got an original 2ct dipstick which although too short for reading is a good tight fit in the dipstick tube and will use that for sealing and have the old one hanging near the engine purely for measuring -good /bad idea ? Please any help /info/advice (even advice on how much is in your/mates 2ct landrover) much needed just found out partner is pregnant so have lost my apprentice to bounce ideas off

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi all and hope everyones having a good weekend. Any help or info on an engine problem in my 1984 Series 3 Land Rover LWB sw will be much appreciated but forgive me for the long post but want to give as much info as possible. Had this vehicle @ 6 months and is my first LR and I love it to bits even though it keeps me VERY BUSY! It has a Toyota 2ct diesel motor in which although this would`nt be my first choice of engine, I feel it goes well and just as important very ecomnomical and so I would like to keep this engine in the vehicle. I have done a bit of investigations on various forums( there was a brilliant Toyota Townace forum-which uses the Toyota 2ct which was a fantastic forum but since the start of the year it has gone AWOL!) There was a known flaw with this engine which was the cooling system. Along with the main recommendations that I researched I have flushed the system several time and installed for the first time a Land Rover blower/matrix heater permanently fed from the points where there was a heater installed in the Toyota Townace .This heater was the rear heater in the Townace and was permanently on and used as the bypass for the engine coolant. I still have the option of switching the blower on or not. I have now reinstalled a genuine Toyota 2ct thermostat(82 C) as before it just had the remains of a butchered thermostat with a @30 mm permanently open hole in it!!!! The motor use to run ok on this original setup but was running almost constantly cold (original LR gauge hardly ever got above the C part of the gauge -only moved when standing still for long time and in 4X4 work-Question 5 below?)and it seemed to be noisier.The motor never smoked and still had what i would call "normal" performance for such a small motor in the type of vehicle it was in. What it always had was several annoying but fairly small oil leaks(Parents driveway looks an Iraqi mess).Having said this I hardly ever had to top up much oil(I was told a Land Rover always leaks but this was the Toyota part!!!). I was told by previous owner that the oil level mark on the dipstick was correctly full when in between the original F/L mark on the dipstick because of the replacement sump to match my original series gearbox(Question 4?). Now having got the new thermostat in ,the heater bypass up and running, and the system filled with nice 50/50 coolant the motor is definitly quieter and runs nicely with no smoke from the exhaust . Have also installed a Madman engine monitoring system which shows the water temperature (installed in the original LR gauge sender position -running after @ 1hr -with speeds of around 70kph)its never getting above 94 C and normally around the 90 C . The original LR temp gauge (now installed where the coolant leaves the engine for the rad and showing when the stat opens)reads just above N (never gets in to the RED H portion) . Ok nearly there ,heres my questions!! 1) So the problem I have now is that I am getting oil vapour and small spits of oil up the dipstick mainly I think at tickover. The engine is running clean no smoke and pulling well,could this be a worn engine/cracked piston,blowing head gasket etc.... if I am having no exhaust smoke and good performance? For me at present it is just messy every time I open the bonnet (and dads drive looking like a place George Bush would want to go to war over!! ) 2)I was wondering how tight the head gasket is but theres no milky substance in the oil and also no bubbles in the water? Couple of weeks ago I removed the rocker cover breather and associated pipes and cleaned them (not too oily).Could it be the head gasket? 3)I am planning (my first ) oil change with good quality semi synthetic oil(Castrol Magneatec 10W40) as I wonder if it could be slightly sticking rings but would it be worth while putting in an additive into the original oil to see if that helps as I dont want to be leaking a load of new expensive oil or do i just put the new in and also an additive in the new? 4)Could it be that it is over filled with oil ,how can I determine how much oil to put in if the original sump has been altered to match the series 3 gearbox,would that effect the original oil quantity (originally 4.3ltr with filter/3.8ltr without) 5)Last thing is I am not 100% sure how well my Viscous fan is working as I never seem to hear it kick in and it seems to spin constantly even after long runs it will still spin easily by hand when I pull over and stop the engine(never felt it locked up at all -yet?).This could be due to the fact that my original LR radiator cowling has a @150mm gap from its end to the fan (the landy was originaly an R6 with the 2.6 ltr 6cyl petrol motor and so came further forward). I am planning to refabricate a radiator cowl extension but if its the viscous fan may wait and change to an electric. Does the Viscous fan get its heat sensing temp from the air coming through the rad or from residual heat thru the engine? As I can easily get to the front of my fan with a hairdryer /heat gun could I heat the bi metalic strip up which should in theory engage the fan (obviously with engine off!!!! ) 6) My dipstick does not have any type of seal on the top as it enters the tube (looks like someone may have tried some type of liquid metal solution but is still not what i would call a "seal" ...is there suppose to be? ..if i make up a seal will that create more problems by blowing oil out of somewhere else? ok all thats about it you have my lifestory and just about every thing else above so any one got any clues ,many thanks and continue having a good weekend