Chicken Drumstick

Depending what you consider to be the "body" and if it's a county, pick up, 90 or 110. Then a few mates can lift it on and off. Or see if you can find someone with one of these:

Think I'll have a go at patching mine up. Wondering if I can simply sand and maybe rivet some plates over the corroded bits, then treat and paint. I'm not a welder, but suspect it'd be a pita to do much with tbh. Thanks FridgeFreezer, I'd been looking at the wrong dashes. That one looks ok, but for a 90/110. Think it would be out of place in a Series.

Don't suppose you have a link, pic or price on these? Did a Google search and seeing some dashes, but not really the same sort of thing. The upper dash is fine on my Series, it's the lower dash that's the issue, mostly because it's a big airbox. But due to rust has lots of holes in it. Or does the Tomcat one double as an air box for the heater too.

I suspect like most Series III's out there, my dash is need of some TLC where it has rotted and rusted through. As it forms the airbox for the heater, it's rather key to an efficient heater setup. I've had a look around and not seen much available. Actually I've seen nothing. And 2nd hand dashes seem to go for crazy money and the only ones I've seen, which are few and far between, have all been in worse shape than mine is. I'm amazed no one is making a replacement lower dash for the Series motors. Anyone got any ideas or know of any options?

36mpg from a Defender. Think I'd have to see that to believe it.

Sadly the Like button doesn't seem to work, but I'm sure you get the idea

Déjà vu

Got a reply back just before Easter from Rocky Mountain. £1420 inc VAT. I suspect buying and importing would not likely be any cheaper. Or only marginally. That said, it's a HUGE chunk of money in relative terms... I only paid £600 for the entire vehicle in 2012.

Personally I'm completely fine using a Defender type vehicle for distance. But the reality is, even if people don't want to hear it. If they are not so fine, chances are you'll never solve the issue and keep it a Defender. A Discovery 1 addresses all of the issues most people have with a Defender and to a better degree than fiddling with a Defender. Please don't get me wrong, I love Landies and love driving them. But sometimes people just don't want to hear the truth. To give a real world example, my Uncle owns seven 90's (yes 7...) from a CCV prepped 2.5TD 90, to a factory V8 and also a new in February this year 2.2 Puma. The Puma is way more refined and quiet than any Tdi Defender could ever hope to be, even if you spanked tens of thousands of pounds on it. Yet the other weekend when we had a long distance trip to do, he turned up in an old W reg Td5 Disco2 that he also has. When I asked why not the new Defender, the reply was. I wanted something a bit more comfy and quiet today.

The curious part of me would ask why? It's also well worth remembering not all 35" tyres are created equally, some will measure no more than 33" tall, while others could be close to 36" tall. And on a measurement such as this (lets ignore the large potential for general inaccuracy due to the ground not really being 100% level), tyre pressures will have a big affect. The same tyre with 12psi in it, vs 38psi will probably make a fair bit of difference.

I still think it's most likely an Earthing issue. Even when they look good they can be no good. The wire inside corrodes and gets a green dull look too it and doesn't make good contact. You might want to run some new earths directly to the battery while tracking where the issue is. And it might not even be a headlight issue, that might just be the symptom. If something else isn't earthing correctly, it may well be earthing itself through the headlight, causing the problem. Car electrics are a bit like this. On a Rover 600 of my Grandfathers, it once developed the interesting trait of flashing the headlights when you braked. On face value this would seem impossible. But all it was doing was earthing the brake lights through the lighting wiring and lighting the headlights up in the process.

Ta. But there is still something wrong with that first chart. 54whp and allowing a large 20% loss would still mean 67.5bhp flywheel estimate for a stock Tdi. And I've had vehicles on dyno's myself and seen lots of charts. Wheel torque figures will not be higher like that. The only thing I can think to explain this, is they dyno'd it in a non 1:1 gear ratio. But even then that really shouldn't have produced such odd results unless it's operator error.

Ta. I did see that on Google, but I can't make sense of the numbers tbh. Seems to suggest sub 54hp as standard. Even at the wheels that seems somewhat low. Yet the torque seems to be quoted in Lb, which I have no idea what it is. But it's 470Lb for standard. Afraid these numbers mean nothing to me. The curve profiles might be correct though.

Have done a bit of searching on Google, but not really found much. Has anyone got a dyno graph from a Tdi engine? Don't mind if it's stock or tuned, just as long as it states which. Ta.

I think you need to look at your rear brakes. TBH if you are going to the effort of stripping them down, treat them to some new shoes, adjusters and cylinder and maybe even the drum itself. The pedal creep does suggest an issue and possibly a vacuum leak, so you may need to investigate this too.

If it isn't present, then I'm sure it's fine. It's the half measures of disabling that will likely cause you grief. For instance, I'm sure this doesn't have any SRS, but it's also legal.

It's probably hugely unlikely that you have a 1.6 transfer box. Personally fitting a 1.2 isn't the way to go, it'll blunt performance. If you really are doing lots of motorway miles, the reality is, you are using the wrong vehicle. You'd probably be much better off buying yourself a Discovery of some kind. They have far superior NVH to "any" Defender.

Ta, but I'm in the UK, so a UK vendor would make sense. As sadly shipping costs, import duty and VAT are likely to be it unappealing to import. But I'll take a look and do the sums.

Sorry but most if not all of this is inaccurate and not the whole truth.

Thanks.

Want to keep it Series, it's all part of the charm. I also much prefer the "snick" action of the Series 4 speed box when you select a gear.

I think it'll run hot and most of time. Not saying you can't get it usable, but suspect it'll want an electric fan running almost all the time. If you do long distance green laning in low range expect it to boil up. There will always be people who tell you theirs is ok, and maybe it is. But maybe they just don't realise how hot it's running, or their use is limited enough for it not to be a real concern. Factory V8 90's have a MASSIVE rad on them. But they still run hot and when the rad gets old and clogged they'll overheat for certain use. I have a large rad on my TR7 V8, probably twice the size of a series rad. I had the rad rebuilt and added an extra core too it. Now it's much better. But still likes a lot of airflow over it. As for the header tank, I'd go with a V8 style header tank/expansion bottle and pressure gap personally. I suspect the old Series setup is going to be a compromise.

Interesting idea. Will investigate, thanks.

The Roamerdrive seems to review ok in the above link. Rocky Mountain haven't got any and aren't showing a price. I've contacted them for a price, although I think I know it's horrific.

Yes considered both. Not really interested in 3.54:1 diffs as it'll ruin the low speed crawl at tickerover low 1st. And it's already faster than a Tdi 90 in this respect. Ashcroft is ideally what I wanted, but he didn't have any when I had the vehicle apart. And it's not a 5 min job to install. Having had the vehicle off the road since May last year and only just back and running, I'm loathed to take it off again to remove and rebuild the transfer box.