Andrew Cleland

I was more concerned by the shiny white oil-free sump - most unnatural ;-)

Thanks for all the replies. Have taken out AA European cover - under £100, including returning vehicle home and emergency accommodation, so worth it for the peace of mind. Have ordered some replacement wheel bearings and lock washers, will try to check the play in the existing ones before we go (don't have the time to replace them all). Hylomar is packed, as it beer, sense of humour and adventure! Cheers, AndyC.

(Hope this is OK to post - I have no links with these people other than as a customer). Just a quick note that over the past few weeks I've been going full-throttle to get our 110 ready for the trip to Italy next week, needing all sorts of odd bits in a big hurry. I've had exceptionally good and helpful service from three suppliers in particular: Duncan at Britcar (www.brit-car.co.uk) - got hold of various bits (door brackets, window seals) that no-one else could Domenic at LR Series (www.lrseries.co.uk) - lots of bits, kept me posted on lead times and the website where you can choose pattern or genuine parts is useful Andy at Wright Off-road (www.wrightoffroad.com) - ensured family harmony by sorting out a soundproofing kit at short notice for the 110. Cheers, AndyC.

I'm no expert here, in that mine is V8 which I swapped from LT77 to LT85, but I have a feeling the new cross-member is more like a flat box-section than the big round tube of old (or at least it is on my Marsland replacement chassis, which is supposed to be 'Td5 style', albeit with V8 engine and gearbox mounts). Ashcroft does say that if your LT77 is knackered you might want to consider replacing it with a R380, so it must be do-able. Hopefully someone who has actually done it will be able to reply with authority! Cheers, AC.

Doesn't the R380 (300Tdi, Td5) gearbox mount differently to the LT77? I have a feeling the R380 rests on mounts on the removable cross-member rather than ones bolted to the chassis rails. AC.

Good one - one of the things which is niggling me is that I haven't looked at the wheel bearings in the 3 years I've owned the 110. I wonder if it would be worth a marathon wheel-bearing session next week? AC.

Cheers, I'll add those in (good thinking, as the dizzy clamp is 15mm). I used to borrow a very handy skinny prop-shaft socket from a mate, but he's gone to the West Country, so I'll need to make do with what I have there.

A week tomorrow we head off to northern Italy in the Defender 110 - K plate station wagon, 3.9i V8, LT85/LT230 transmission. This is her first long journey post-rebuild - Cambridge to Sexten (northern Italy), which is 1,000 miles each way, each journey split over 2 days, Cambridge - Strasbourg, Strasbourg - Sexten and the reverse. So, I'm packing a fairly comprehensive "road-side" tool-kit (and AA European cover!!), but I'm after suggestions of what I might have forgotten from this list: Sockets & ratchet (8mm - 27mm + couple of imperials for the engine) Long & short extension bars for the socket Breaker bar 8, 10, 13 & 17mm open ended spanners Adjustable (decent, Bahco) spanner Stilson Plug spanner #2 Posi screwdriver Small, medium and large flathead screwdrivers Pliers Hammer Multimeter Crimping tool Snips Gas soldering iron, solder 1/4" spades and blades connectors A few metres of wire Insulating tape Spare fuses Spare relays Spare bulbs Selection of M6, M8, M10 bolts and Nyloks Selection of self-tappers Hylomar Hose repair tape Exhaust repair kit Hose clamps Zip ties (plastic and stainless) Duct tape! Gloves & handwipes Couple of things I'm debating: A jack - I have either a bottle jack, which would do at a pinch for wheel changes (unlikely I know) or should I get a mounting kit for the Hi-Lift? Belts - I've just changed the PAS, alternator and water pump belts, with genuine parts - maybe I might just throw in the old belts in-case. Big items - I don't think it's worth taking (or buying) a spare alternator, water pump etc. - it's only Europe not Outer Mongolia and if one of those goes we'll resort to the AA. I've just replaced the oil and filter on the engine and re-filled the cooling system, I intend to check gearbox and diff oil levels this weekend and go around checking every bolt I can see (along with fitting a Wright Off-Road sound proofing kit), oh, and a new driver's door. Cheers, AndyC.

A few weeks back I asked about options for replacing the drafty, leaky, insecure (and in my case, no longer see-through) two-piece sliding side windows on a 110 Stationwagon with something simpler and cheaper. There weren't any obvious solutions and replacement glasses for the windows are horribly expensive and still leave the problems of drafts, water and thieves. So after some head-scratching I pulled one of the existing windows out, took it apart and came-up with a solution to fit a single sheet of glass into the existing frame. I thought it might help someone else if I documented the procedure, so here it is... You'll need: Existing stationwagon side window assembly A sheet of 4mm (or 5mm for VIN pre-EA344187) toughened glass (see below) 2 of MWC7617 glazing strip (or MUC1484 for 5mm glass) 1 of MUC1005 filler strip 4 of No. 6 * 1/4" countersunk machine screws (see www.modelfixings.co.uk) 2 of 4mm * 9mm pop rivets 24 of 4mm * 12mm pop rivets Also handy: Silicon spray lube No. 4 tap Firstly remove the existing window from the bodywork - it's held-in by 24 rivets, hidden under the filler strip, which just pulls out. Drill out the rivets... and then lever out the window from the body, leaving you with this... The frame is a two-piece unit, held together by plates riveted and screwed into each half... ...although someone has already fiddled with this one (probably when they fitted the horrible perspex windows) and replaced some of the screws with rivets There are also two self-tapping screws holding the central divider in Have out all the screws (and rivets in my case) and you can split the frame apart There's a whole load of gunk and hardware for holding the old windows in - strip it all out, you just want the empty frames, which will leave you with a pile like this for the bin You'll see the frame has two channels, on one side the joining bar is in the rear channel, which is fine, but on the other side the bar is in the front channel, which means it will have to move to make way for the glass Drill out the two rivets holding the "front channel" bar in place and the bar should come free leaving you with this Usefully there are already holes drilled in the other channel, so the two 4mm * 9mm pop rivets can be used to refit the bar, but now in the back channel At this point it's a good moment to run a tap through the screw holes as they tend to get a bit gunky over the years and check that the machine screws fit Next comes the window glass. The first local glass merchants I went to weren't interested in anything to do with vehicle windows, but the second (W. H. Constable, Cambridge) were very helpful. What they needed was a template of the window which they then cut from 4mm glass which was sent off to be toughened. As it happened. cutting the four radiused corners cost more than the glass itself - £8 for the glass, £10 for four corners, £18 (ex. VAT) all in. I used the two halves of the old windows and a ruler to mark the template out on 3mm hardboard which I then cut with a Stanley knife and rounded the corners to shape with sandpaper. A cardboard template would have been fine, but using hardboard meant I could test assemble the frame with the template to make sure my measurements were good. As we plan to spend some time in southern Europe during the summer I got 3m of tinting film (http://www.abodewindowfilms.co.uk) for £9, which was enough to do both side windows and both of the little rear windows. It's a lot easier to apply tinting film to the glass when it's on a table then when it's in the car. Next you need to get one of the MWC7617 glazing strips and ease it around half of the glass. They're longer than needed so you can cut them down to size once they're on the glass - you don't need to be too precise though as the second strip will take up the slack. Now you need to get the larger piece of the frame and liberally spray the outer channel (the one without the joining bars) with silicon spray lube - this helps, a lot, when you slide the glass into the channel, although it's actually a lot easier than it looks! Glazing strip sliding down frame (sorry for fuzzy photos, I was lubricating myself with Freeminer Organic Ale at the time...) Once the glass is almost fully slid home you need to start working the glazing strip into the long side of the channel, again this is easier than you'd think. Start by running your fingers along the glazing strip on the outside of the window, pushing the strip into the frame - you'll only get it half-in, but that's fine. Then do the same on the inside of the glass, then again on the outside, which should push it fully home and finally on the inside again. Each end of the glazing strip should look like this and the corners like this Then get the second pack of glazing strip and feed it down the channel on one side of the frame, butting it tightly against the first bit of glazing strip and round the glass to the other end. Run the strip on the outside of the channel and using a sharp Stanley knife cut it to length, then feed it into the channel, leaving you with this Now lube the other section of the frame, slide it over the glazing strip and repeat the pushing-in process to get the glazing strip fully seated One window I did just went together perfectly, the other needed a little persuasion for the last few millimetres Then just screw in the machine screws to hold the frame together (please ignore the cr*p countersinking, I couldn't find my countersink, so used a 10mm bit - ugly but it works and it's hidden) Temporary 'window' in place and new one ready to go in Twenty-four 4mm * 12mm pop rivets later Then it's just the most frustrating part of the whole job to fit the new MUC1005 filler strip (softening it in hot water and swearing a lot helps) and job's a good 'un Hope this is of use, AndyC.

Sorted, thanks to Badger on alt.fan.landrover. Blocked oil-way in a valve rocker meant the push-rod wasn't getting any oil and the rocker was looking pretty rough. http://battlingwindmills.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/things-that-go-chirp/ AC

The Landy (Defender 110, Range Rover 3.9 V8, LT85) has been chirping occasionally for a few months, recently it's become continuous and louder - it's driving me round the bend and as we're 3 weeks away from driving to Italy, it's a bit of a worry that something's going to fail. I was pretty sure it was either a belt or the water pump/alternator/PAS pump bearing, but I ran the engine with all 3 belts removed yesterday and it still did it :-( The chirps keep time with engine speed, not road speed & still happens when we're stationary so I don't think it's from the gearbox or transmission. When it was more occasional it seemed to happen once the engine was warm, but now it's all the time. Digging around the web, I found two possibilities - a tappet on it's way out (they are Britpart from before I knew better and I've always though one was a bit noisy) or a mounting rubber (this from a Harley Davidson forum!). I'm also wondering about the clutch release bearing, although depressing the clutch makes no difference, which I'd expect it to do so if it was the clutch release bearing. Any other ideas? TIA, AndyC.

Bit odd - the fuel gauge on my 1993 110 V8i always reads full, even when the tank is empty. I've replaced the sender unit, but still the same problem. Whilst I had the new sender out of the tank I hooked it and the gauge up to a 12V supply (positive supply -> gauge -> sender -> negative supply) on the bench and got the same reading - always full. It's the later type of sender - two wires only with an Econoseal connector, sender has an all plastic body (AMR1496). Faulty gauge? Edited to add - just read that this can happen if the case of the gauge isn't earthed - checked this, no change - possibly broken earth connection inside gauge? AC

I can't offer much in the way of a valid comparison as the shocks fitted to my 110 Stationwagon (3.9 V8) when I bought it were knackered, but I now have Koni Heavy Tracks, set to the middle damping position, with standard LR springs and I'm pretty impressed with the road holding of the beast - it'll take a roundabout more adroitly than our Panda, which might not be saying much but compared to my parabolically sprung/Pro-Comp damped Lightweight it's pretty impressive. I've not had a chance to test them much off-road, but I see no reason why they wouldn't be fine. Not really silly money either - £200 all round from Paddocks. AC.

As the subject really - does anyone know if the td5 electronic speedo can be driven by the speed transducer fitted to a Range Rover Classic with a 3.9i V8 - it's the unit which tells the Lucas injection computer (14CUX) that the vehicle is moving (AMR3386)? Alternatively would the td5 Defender speedo transducer hook-up to the 14CUX to do the same? Thanks, Andrew.

Tah - I think that's the guy by the look of google maps - sure I'll find him in anycase. Thanks for the lead! AC.

Replying to my own post, sorry. Looking at a map of Bury it looks like 'A14 Performance Exhaust' is near Tesco's - is this the guy?

Cheers - that sounds like the sort of place I need. You wouldn't have a name by any chance? AC

Not on my Defender 110 with a 3.9 V8 :-( When I got it the off-side manifold fouled the chassis rail - fair enough I thought, it was originally a 2.5 petrol Defender. However I've since rebuilt the thing on a genuine V8 chassis, LT85 gearbox, V8 engine and gearbox mounts etc. and it still touches the chassis on the cylinder 5 header. It also doesn't have enough mounts to my mind - one before the (single) silencer box and one at the tail pipe and is prone to clunking over bumps. No Lambda sensor bosses either. Sounds nice though! I've I can find a stainless steel exhaust maker around Cambridgeshire, I'll go and get it made right some day. AC.

I had to do this years ago for Adrian Flux when I put a Lumenition on the 2.25 lump in my lightweight. Went to the local garage in Stoke Newington, he looked at it for 30 seconds and wrote three lines on a piece of letterhead paper and I gave him £10. Seemed to do the trick then...

Relays - the work of the devil, I wonder if Mr Lucas invented them!?! AC.

Sorry, it's a Defender, 1993, KA VIN, with the 4mm glass.

The rear side windows in our 110 Stationwagon are, for some reason, perspex and not very see-through anymore, they also don't slide, but that doesn't bother me. Looking at the price of replacement glass and also thinking of keeping water and tea-leaves out, I'd like to replace them with single fixed windows. Has anyone done this - is it just a case of taking out the old windows and frames in fitting in something like MWC4733? If so, any leads to cheaper that £140 a side? Thanks in advance, Andy

Thanks everyone - that's all useful information. On one hand I'm tempted to swap the pulley on the PAS pump for the old-style V-belt one and go back to the 3.5 layout with a short PAS pump - alternator belt and do away with the nasty alternator belt/PAS pulley tango. On the other hand I like the fact that at the moment the water pump, PAS pump and alternator all have their own belts, and I suppose there's merit in keeping things standard. I shall probably renew the belts either way as I rebuilt the engine last year and didn't bother changing them then, so probably overdue. Cheers, Andy

Hmm, so it's actually correct. Seems like a bit of a crazy idea to have belts running touching other pulleys, but hey, it's Land Rover...

It's a multi-V belt (flat, with grooves along it's length). So it sounds like I'm after a short multi-V belt to run between the alternator and the PAS pump? Andy. P.S. Profile updated! ;-)