red90 driver

OK, sounds like a better plan than mine. Will go looking for a wagon air tank or something similar.

Unfortunately, on this particular disco, all that remains of the disco is the chassis! I'm trying to get everything sorted to go into what is now a Whitbread buggy....

Evening all, The ARB compressor is just not up to the job of airing up 35" tyres, so I want to use a much bigger compressor with a 10 litre-ish storage tank. I have been looking at the Viair compressor packages, and they are not actually a bad price, but you can buy just the compressor on its own. What I want to know is: On a disco chassis, there is a 5" X 24" round steel tube that the rear 'A' frame arms mount from. Has anyone here used that as a compressed air reservoir? Whats involved in making it air tight and clean inside? Is it capable of storing air at 100 ish PSI?

well, we went! I have now almost sorted out which retailers to buy all the bits I need to complete our truck. The only people I wish were there was Ashcroft. Plenty of stuff to see, some of it tat, lots of it useful. No one selling waffles though (not decent ones anyway!) Poor old Malcolm Whitbread looked totally bewildered by 2:00pm! Might have been us hassling him to death over our truck build. Nicest things I saw were: Equipe beadlock wheels, but not at £300 a corner. Saley's new truck Bailey Morris props Hydraulic winches galore Great pity it was really only in 1 hall, but we were there from 8:30 till 3:00. Not often I go to shows these days, but it was nice to be treated seriously by all the retailers, not like in the Autosport show....

Barney - age has definately got the better of me! Now in the over 40's club. Welcome to senility and sanatogen. You can ride some good trails without a DH rig, lots of fun to had on a hardtail. I take it that when a site '20 mins up the road' is mentioned, you mean Wern Ddu.....

Oy! Keep off my DH bike tracks, ya buggers!! Matt - have you been for a proper look at Nant-y-ffrith? I'll be more than willing to help setup and clear trees, along with Dafydd and Ian of course.... This will be a good round to do. The last time it was used was in the Optima challenge days setup by Steve Slakewood and Nige Diamond back when a cage was optional. (and a winch). there is some good mountain biking in the woods, and a good set of caves to explore, the 'wedding caves'. Watch out for wild pigs as well, there may be a few that escaped from Rob....

Three questions to the learned gentlemen (& ladies) of the forum: I have a serpentine '94 3.9 V8, that is sat in a bare chassis, attached to the ZF gearbox, but with no props; Is the viscous fan unit a left or right hand thread? How do you lock the water pump up in order to remove the viscous fan? How to lock up the crank pulley in order to undo the crank bolt?

Maplin were selling heated seat thingy's for £10 each. Can't find them on the web site now, but they were in the little brochure that I had through the post early January. They just plug into a cigarette lighter socker...

Now that makes life a little easier! saves getting shouted at by Fridge Freezer! The boot was on the other foot then as we always tell our dealers engineers to 'Read The F******g Manual' before asking stupid questions! . I did spend about 4 hours on the proper megasquirt forum, and answered most of my questions, but ended up getting sidetracked onto other interesting bits!!!

39 pages of info, some of which is relevant, some of which is'nt. Like looking for a needle in an SU graveyard! The donor vehicle is not here, so I can't have a look very easily. did'nt see see a base map, will have another look!

I'm just started collecting parts to MS and EDIS a 1994 3.9 Lucas Discovery (hotwire?) setup. This is going to be controlled by a MS 1 running MS extra code, therefore I can't use the 4 wire stepper IAC for idle control that is standard fitment. After looking through a lot of info on various forums, we need a 2 or 3 wire auxilliary air valve. The one that I've found mentioned is a Bosch 0280140505 valve, this was recommended on the ExtraEFI site. This valve is quite expensive to aquire, and other similar valves are a lot cheaper i.e. Bosch 0280140516. Whats the difference? Will any of these alternatives work OK? Does the fast idle control only switch on when the engine coolant temp is below the threshold set in MS? I've been told that on standard EFI systems the fast idle valve also operates on the overrun and under certain other conditions.... Should we go with TPS or MAP sensing? If we go MAP, then where and how do I attach the vacuum pipe on the plenum? Does the standard exhaust 'Y' piece have 2 lambda sensors as standard? If so, do I need to move one Lambda sensor so that it is getting a readout from both banks rather than 1 and connect that to the MS? Would a wideband lambda sensor be robust enough to leave in place all the time? I have been told that they do not like getting dunked in cold horrible muddy water...., and seeing as thay are about 3-4 times the price, should I just rely on the narrow band for fuelling? Could anyone send me a base map for ignition and fuelling for a standard 3.9 running EDIS?

My label that is attached to the winch states to lubricate the shafts for the high/low/freespool levers with oil. So from that I would guess that a few drops of 3 in 1 oil on the plunger shafts would be sufficient.

Not had any experience of anything other than purple Plasma12, but I have some samples of the new Marlow Winchline Max, with a view to replacement. http://www.marlowropes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=194:dynaline-max&catid=44:winch-lines&Itemid=172 The published breaking strains certainly look impressive: Dynaline Max takes the wire rope replacement concept of Dynaline a stage further by adding Marlow's "Max" super pre-stretching process. Dynaline Max offers higher strength and lower stretch than a standard Dynaline rope. The higher break load for a given diameter offers a higher factor of safety or the possibility to down size the rope thereby allowing a longer length to be fitted on the winch. Rope Diameter: 7mm 9mm 11mm 12mm 13mm Average Break Load (kg): 7510 10795 15105 17992 21146 Weight (g/m): 35.6 54.0 75.5 90.0 107.0 •"Max" super pre-stretched for improved strength and reduced stretch •Will not kink •No wire splinters •No strength loss when overlapped on winch drum •Floats •Virtually no recoil in the unlikely event of failure Construction: 12 Strand Dyneema® with Marlow ArmourCoat Colours: Green Termination: Tubular thimble splice one end with safety hook. Drum termination other end ~I know that John Sales has been using the standard Marlow winchline to good effect on his hydraulic winches. Unfortunately, the 'Max' stuff is freaking expensive compared to Andy-T's prices, so on a cost vs benefit thingy, the Plasma 12 is still very competitive....

As a new truck build is being spec'd, the question of whether we should go to a Disco 2 front axle was raised, and that led on to: What is the difference in degrees of lock between a 300 axle and a D2 axle? Would we need to change the steering box to a D2? How tough are the shafts and CV's on a D2? Any outstanding weak points on that axle setup? Would the diff be a straight swap over from the 300? Loads of questions I know, but I'm not going down the portal / Dana setup. There is a budget, and I don't want to explain to the co-drivers wife why she has to.. (best leave that there...)

Daf - you're right, wish I had never asked now... Well, it's been interesting seeing how much off topic it all got!! I thought it was a simple question, and would get simple answers, not run to 5 pages! My longest running post ever. I'm now going to open another can of worms....

I've used a fairly large syringe connected to the caliper nipple, and generated a vacuum to pull the brake fluid through. That works quite well, especially as someone 'borrowed' my easi-bleed and never returned it!!

Well ladies... After asking a simple question at the beginning of this topic, it amused\scared the hell out of me to see talk of 60k+ trucks! We're looking at spending more like 8k! And a good chunk of that is paying for the framework to be made and welded to the disco chassis.... Admittedly, we have the ARB's, shafts and winches to begin, but even so, for those of us living in the factory working class world, then 60K+ is like paying the mortgage off! The likes of Bathtub and others who can afford to splash that kind of money, it's good to see what can be done and gives the likes of us something to dream about. And if that kind of money gets you a truck that can compete at an international level, then thats fine. We can afford to build a truck for the grass roots UK winching sscene, and thats what we're happy doing. Each to their own. Back to the original question for one moment - we're going 100" spaceframe running a megasquirted 3.9 V8 auto, on Fox airshox, with 35" Pitbulls/Simex, maybe with Type R winches, maybe stay with the 8274's! Basic and functional, does exactly what it says on the tin! (Alright, not that basic but certainly not pushing the boundaries!)

well, after reading everyones replies, and reading a relevant thread on Devon, it seems that 100" will be the sensible way forward. Although, we're not aiming to be competitive (unless we're teamed up with Dafydd), and yes, 88" would be fun, the pro's definately outweigh the cons of going 100". Many thanks to those that replied and have sorted our heads out. cheers, nick

Colour? Candy apple red, with metal flake, and laquer. Or, blue as thats whats on the V5 of the donor vehicle. 94" means we stay with the 90. It's a lard bucket. Hopefully will be down to 1700-1800 kilos. Still think the 88" is the better option, no-one has convinced me fully to the dark side....yet.

What sort of difference in turning circle between the two?

Today we went to see a nice man about building us a new challenge truck / crash'n'bash. There are 2 flavours available, either 100" or 88" wheelbase. There does seem to be a move to 100" by a lot of people, but we are leaning more towards 88". We are now very confused about which one will be best for us, and wish to open a discussion of the pro's and cons of each type to the grownups.... We're not interested in doing speed event, and the majority of venues we seem to do involve lots of trees and ditches. The amount of storage capacity on each truck is very similar . 88" will be more manouverable. 100" will be more stable at speed. So, what's everyone's opinions please......

I think Dafydd and myself will be there. As I'm bitchin' for Daf again, I hope that the site is not too steep! I was absolutely knackered after Mow Cop. I will be seeing Daf this weekend, so will find out for certain. Nick.

I use the 18v DeWalt rattle gun. It can be defeated, but has proved reliable and just takes the p**s when taking props and gearbox cross members off. With wheels nuts, its not quite man enough, I just crack them before using the gun. Mine came with 2 x NiMh 2.6Ah batteries and a 30min charger, all in a case, for a smidge under £300.

we've had similar problems with our systems that use a serial to RS232/485 port. Other usb to serial converters would work for a while, then the port would stop communicating. We have found these work rather well, and are simple to wire: Moxa uport1110 http://www.moxa.com/product/UPort_1110.htm

I was in Yorkshire yesterday, at Wharncliffe. Global warming was evident. Snow, hail, rain, sun, freezing north wind..... 4 seasons in 1 day!!! My speedos are a new type, 5mm neoprene, full body wetsuit!