mrfish

Given that the front prop shaft should have the front UJ about 45 degrees out of phase with the rear, why are new prop shafts sold with them in phase?

Ok, temporary second hand head fitted (on loan from someone who is going to rebuild an engine) and all seems well, not overheating. Hoorah! So all i need to do now is get the new replacement head. Not sure which to buy though. I am looking at the performance head from Turner Engineering. Anyone fitted one of these? Is it worth the extra cash?

It's a 300 engine. As an update. The head was removed and there was no sign of any damage to the gasket, the mechanic reported that the bolts did not appear to be as tight as they should. However things then took a turn for the worse. The heater plugs were due replacement and I had a set of new lying around, unfortunatley when removing one of the plug it snapped and the remaining part just wouldn't budge. On the period of several hours lots of things were tried without success. Ended up with trying to drill and in the process the drill was not as straight as it should have been and resulted in damaging the head. So I am now trying to get a new head! One day I will get this car back on the road

She does appear to be pressurising the expansion tank, so having to bite the bullet again and take of the head tommorow.

Sadly I am about 1000km from the nearest decent garage! I live in an area where the average bush mechanic only has three tools, a larger hammer, a small hammer and a spare hammer in case he breaks the other 2.

Disconnected the heater pipes and topped up as much as i could until it overflowed from the expansion tank then refitted. Used lots of rapid massaging of the top and bottom to get out any air and then closed the expansion tank. Ran her up to normal temp at idle. Water came out of the expansion tank in a few splurts (presumabley the overfilling). Took her on a drive and soon showed 120 again. So i put heater on to full but the air coming out did not feel very hot to me. I will redo the cables to the gauge once again incase the connector is no good. Does anyone know what resistance i should be reading on the VDO sender when running at 85c? I am reading 47ohms at the gauge end between the sender connector and the earth connector.

Good thinking. I never use the heater normally it is too hot here (Zambia). As soo as the small group of elephants outside the fron of my house has decided to move elsewhere i will go and see.

Redid the earthing point today with no effect. Checked the wiring and it seems ok. When i pull the connector off the sender and touch it to the engine block the guage goes full scale. Checked resistance between engine block and bulkhead and chassis which all seemed fine. Added a 16mm cable between the engine at the starter and the chassis. When the vehicle is just sitting there it will idle at about 85 all day, it is only out on a run that it starts to show a temp rise. The rise to 88 is slow and steady and the rise to 120 is pretty quick. it returns fast to 88 when i come to a stop. I have tried to make sure there are no airlocks, however my friendly local mechanic managed to snap off the plug on top of the thermostat housing and then araldited it back on! I have another housing on order but it will take about 10 days to get shipped to me. What i have done is take the plug out the top of the rad and confirmed it to be full. Then small hose on top of the stat housing that goes to the expansion tank and squeezed both top and bottom hoses and water comes out. What else can i do in the meantime to check for airlocks? What i am concerned about is the possibility of have a problem with the head gasket that causes gases to enter the cooling system.

Well i fitted the new VDO gauge and sender and the damn thing is still showing as overheating. It slowly rises to 90 then just carries on climbing to 120. No horrible smells or kettling from the engine. The history of the problem goes back to when i had to have the engine removed and re-sleeved. This was the first time the radiator system had been disturbed since I had it. Found that the stat was missing and the bypass pipe blocked. When refitting the engine I fitted a new stat and removed the block in the bypass. The engine was tested and sat at mid temp for over an hour. Since then it has shown overheating on a run. The top hose split so i replaced it. Then changed the stat for another new one. No change. Since then I have replaced the radiator, pump and fitted the new gauge and sender. I also tried fitting a new cable direct from the sender to the gauge as well as a new ground cable from gauge to bulkhead. There are no signs of contaimnation of either oil or water. Next job is to redo the earth at the battery (I have a dual battery setup from National Luna) and redo the battery to chassis and gearbox. At this point in time I am tempted to keep the new gauge and fit a new car to it!

What an idiot! just figured it out

I have been having over heating issues. So after replacing the rad, pump and stat I am now replacing the gauge and sender. I decided to plump for a VDO gauge and sender. They have now arrived but I am not sure how to connect the sender. It is a 1/8" npt thread, but i had been expecting a blade connector. Instead it has this and not a clue how to connect it:

Looking on the John Craddock site they list the STC4457 as applicable up to WA. Mine is a YA. In fact it is a bit of an unusual vehicle. It is the export model that was actually made in 2003 and shipped straight out to Africa. It is basically a TD5 with a 300tdi engine fitted. I have seen on a couple of sites the STC4403 listed as being applicable from XA159807 on 1998 to 2006 (i.e. TD5) on a 90/110. Just seen the same on the Bearmach catelogue so I guess I will give that one a try.

I recently had my read diff fail. The outer pinion bearing failed. Replaced the bearing fine, but need to fit a new flange kit. Had a quick look on Microcat which suggested STC3722. Went to the local LR dealer who provided STC4858 but it doesn't fit. Too many splines. The existing pinion has about 10 splines (sorry but i didn't actually count). The vehicle is a 2000 model Defender 110 with a salisbury diff. When i pulled a drive shaft they had 24 splines. Looking online it would appear that the STC4457 or STC4403 should be used, but i am unable to tell which i shoud use. Any suggestions?

With the hand brake engaged (X-Eng if that makes a difference) when i grab the shaft I can rotate it about 30 degrees. The shaft is new so i know that the UJs are good. I quickly had a look at the wifes 90 and there is negligable free rotation oh her fron prop.

I am experiencing a lot of play in the front prop shaft. I have just fitted a new shaft so I know that it is not the UJ. The question is where should i start looking for the fault. Half Shafts, Front Diff or centre diff?

Where I live in Zambia, we are really out in the sticks. Most months we have a shortage of fuel for a week or so, it just seems normal! I was still living in the Uk during the 2000 fuel tanker driver strike and look back at that with a small smile on m y face now.

Have you tried these? Brit-Car Craddocks blanchard

Photo of mine for what it is worth. I'm afraid it's in Zambia at the moment so I can't take photos of how it is mounted. It uses brackets and bolts as opposed to tubes.