Riverside

Thanks for the replies. Phoned him to see if he had checked the obvious, re. halfshafts and hi-lo lever. Clutch appears to be working, all gears select, spinning noises from gearbox match engine speed and gear selected, so nothing is making it to the transfer gears. He's going to have a peek inside via the pto cover just to confirm it. BTW milage is approx 100k and it supposedly has led a reasonably easy life. It has been clunking quite badly on taking up drive in 1st and reverse has also just come out!!! Another mate of his has an auto box lying around, but have persuaded him that this conversion is a non-starter, unless anyone knows otherwise? Cheers, Bill

Hi all. My mate just rang, his late 200Tdi has died. He started it, reversed a short way, stopped, selected 1st, BANG, no drive. He can select all gears, when engaging the clutch there is gear type whirring noises in all gears, which goes when clutch pedal pressed down. I suspect output shaft problems. Any other ideas? DIY rebuild with new parts (I'm good with gearboxes) or good s/h unit from a dead mot failure? Cheers all, Riverside ps My 300TDi has another years worth of mot!!

Hi, I'm sure the only rubber pipe going to/from the brake servo pump goes to the servo. If you have an oilly o/s engine mount and o/s anti roll chassis mount then my money is on the pump, clean the pump, run the engine and you will soon get a film of oil on the flange join. Does it leave a small pool of oil on the ground immeadiately below the anti roll bar mount? Is the harmonic damper donut thing well oily? My block was not at all oily, but these other bits were! If you decide to take the pump off put the engine at TDC no1 cyl, to release pressure on the pump return spring. You may find the heel on the pump plunger that runs on the cam a bit pitted, this isnt a problem. If you get a new tapping noise when you refit the pump, dont worry. Mine soon settled down once the plunger had settled back in after 148000 miles of being left undisturbed! Cheers, Bill

Hi Three sheds. I know the SP3, fully faired touring beastie, you dont see many of them. I have a LM850, very modified from stock, and a V50 Monza. The 850 is going to Wester Ross for it's holidays shortly! Pop in when you are in the area by all means, but give me a bit of warning so that I can hide the Disco! Only joking! Sadly, the Disco is getting to the stage of being uneconomic to restore, a shame as mechanically it is sound. At least it will last at least a couple more years. I have neither the space, skill, or money to sort it properly, so eventually someone is going to get a bargain 300tdi engine, gearboxes etc etc. But you never know. When I had an old Spitfire mk111, you could get bits easily from scrap yards, then I sold it for £200 complete with 2 hardtops and a spare set of wire wheels as the body was past saving. Someone saved it though as I check every year on dvla and it gets taxed for the summer! Cheers, Bill

The old thing is home with a nice new MOT. Only the sill needed welding and my back street mechanic (in the Fred Dibnah sense) fitted it in between other mundane cars, a bit here and a bit there! I've sorted the wheelarches myself, not structural so the VOSA man said, as well away from the seat belt and door catch areas. Likewise the rear crossmember was solid in the mount point areas and far enough outboard of them including most of where it joins the boot floor to pass. So I am going to cut out the remaining rusty metal and rustproof what is left to make it last a bit longer and glass over the few holes to make it look tidy. My mechanic suggests waxoyling the problem areas myself to put off the inevitable for a couple of years more, its not worth doing the whole thing professionally. I wish I had done it 5 years ago. Cheers all, Bill

Hi, Check the brake vacuum pump. I had oil all over the roll bar bush, chassis, bell housing etc. The pump to block gasket may be leaking but it is more likely to be the pump. It is a sealed unit. Well, I mended mine, nothing to lose, worth trying before buying a new one. The leak was from the join between the main pump body and its cover, which is fixed in place by rivets. Simply remove the pump, clean it and drill out the rivets to remove the cover. Check the internals for wear or damage. If ok, then try to find a new o ring at a seal/bearing factor. Locate some suitable bolts, lockwashers and nuts, I had to make the holes in the body/ cover a bit larger. I used blue hylomar to ensure a good seal between the pump and body.Make absolutely sure the internals are clean before reassemby. Did mine about 9 months ago, no leaks, brakes fine. Just waiting for the old girl to come back from the welder! Holy(?) os sill! Cheers, Bill

Hi Rolly, You should be able to turn the engine on the front nut fairly easily, with a decent ratchet, there should be a lot of resistance every quarter turn, of course, but you shuld be able to ease it past this. Whenever I check my valve gaps I've never had a problem turning the engine by hand, without removing the glo plugs. No I'm not a contender for Britains strongest man, lol Cheers, Bill

Try a good motor factor or commercial vehicle spares place. The DAF dealership where I used to work sold it by the metre a lot cheaper than buying JLR originals! Cheers, Bill

Hi All I fitted a Ford Scorpio 100A one about 2 years ago. It was £60! A lot cheaper than any other I could find. Had to swap the pulley, fitted the old heatshield by wireties round various hoses etc. had no problems at all. Still waiting for the welding verdict............ Cheers, Bill

Hi All, Thanks for all the replies. I've been underneath today, with a big hammer and various pointy steel tools and done some serious probing. Apart from the crusty areas mentioned, everything is very sound. Thought it best to seek out as much rot as possible so that the welder guy who is looking it over tomorrow can see the worst. I'm feeling quite confident he can save it! Had some very encouraging reports of his work and prices in the village pub tonight. Three sheds. You might like to know I live 100 yds from the site of Wesleys shed. His cottage is opposite me. The shed was taken down about 5 years ago. The series landrovers used in the filming were a very common site to me years back. My old 109 is in at least one episode too. I guess the old bus is a bit special to me, we've done 50k miles, France, remote places in NW Scotland etc etc. It may be past its best, but it has been totally reliable, I love driving it, its up there with my two 27 year old Moto Guzzi motorbikes as pretty damn good fun to use, easy and generally cheap to fix and so bloody useful! Cheers, Bill

Hi all, I've been using this forum for ages, have always found the help I've needed, so here is my first posting. I've had my early 300TDi,auto, reg March 94, 5 years. It's my second Landy, the 2.6l 109 1 ton, 76 vintage went some 10 years ago. MOT time, there is a 12" hole in the bottom of the OS sill, both rear wheel arch outers resemble cheesegraters, the rear body crossmember is very poor on the NS, also rust in the rear body post and boot floor edge in this area, the OS , just the crossmember end and body mount area is a bit crusty. At the front,OS, the inner wing to battery box is missing about 2" of panel! On the brighter side, boot floor, NSF inner wing, NS sill, chassis etc is sound. The bubbling bottoms of the doorskins, and minor cosmetic probs I can sort/live with. The steering box has always been leaky, droparm damp, it never gets worse, used about 1l of oil in 5 years. Now the aircon wont come on, low pressure refrigerant pressure I reckon, as all the electrics test out ok. So, guess the old thing is pretty well worthless to anyone but me. I'd like to get another couple of years use from her before the scrapman gets it. Plenty of life in the mechanicals yet! I'm no welder, but I do have a mate of a mate who is. What would be a fair price for the welding job? Would a new replacement rear body crossmember be easier/cheaper? I guess it's hard price without actually seeing the damage. Just a ballpark figure would help, it's years since I last had to have any welding done. Scrap or Save! Cheers, Bill