Troll Hunter

Very nice looking engine bay, Signbox. I'm in the tear down stages of a complete ground up rebuild and I dream of an engine bay that good looking. Mike

Admittedly, this is almost off topic, although I can claim that I'm working on my Kubota outdoors because my Landy is in the shop. Seriously, I want to draw on the wealth of engineering expertise on the forum to ask if there is any "cheap" remedy for worn pin journals on hydraulic cylinders. The pin journals have worn in the PUSH/PULL direction, allowing too much play. I know that I could buy new cylinders (SPENDY! SPENDY!), but is there any other remedy. My Kubota is not used in a commercial application, only adding about 20hours use per year, mainly snow clearance, so longevity under hard use is not a criteria. Many thanks, in advance, for any and all suggestions and experience, Mike

A little bit off topic, but how did you manage to upload 10 photos without exceeding the upload limit? What size, mega pixel, pics are they, because they seem to have v. good resolution? Mike

"The only way I can think of to machine that would be with a setup almost identical to the crank and key and use a reciprocating drive Its fascinating to see wear like that and probably gives an insight into the load when in use. Do you reckon the material was softer or blemished on one side of the key slot?" OK, all you techno forbes, what are they saying? Mike

Sorry if I was misunderstood. My electric installations were only in UK and then in Canada, not in Kuwait. It was the steering defect evident in UK, turning left at every filling station, that prompted retro-fitting the 300Tdi, and subsequent electrification. Mike

Hi, As I've said in an earlier thread on this topic I've tried both. My vehicle was originally fitted with a 3.5 V8 in ME spec with a viscous fan and had A/C. Relatively hard use in Kuwait, both at high speed on the highways and off road in desert sand following pipelines for hours at a time never gave any indication of overheating. The A/C condenser had its own electric cooling fans (2) mounted in front of the radiator and worked well. LR engineers got it right for that environment. After I had a 300 Tdi dropped in I re-fitted those two small fans, with one ducted - home made - to push air through the intercooler, and the other to push air through the radiator with the standard rad shroud fitted. I removed the viscous fan and fitted an electric fan, same diameter, resurrected from a local scrappie, but I can't remember details of the donor vehicle. I wired the small fan for the intercooler to be always on with the ignition, that way ensuring an air flow even when stationary. The other two fans were wired through an X-Eng dual thermostatic switch, the smaller one coming on at 82 degC and the larger one coming on, I think, at 88 degC. Yes, I did suffer overheating on rare occasions but only when going up some of the really long and steep passes we have here. I traced the deficiency to the cabling I had installed supplying the fans. I noticed that at night if the main fan switched on my spotlights dimmed - powered through the same sub-panel. I had under sized the cabling, and rather than get into a biggish re-wiring project I removed the larger electric fan and refitted my viscous fan. I disconnected the small fan for the radiator but still have the small fan dedicated to the intercooler running at all times.. I am in the process of a complete tear down and rebuild of my Landy and I will be re-installing the three electric fans but with adequate sized cables. Mike

Thanks for another fascinating episode. As a one time Lotus Elite Type 14 owner, registration 4 CBD, in case it's still around, I found the interview really intersting, and I'm looking forward to more clips in future episodes. Mike

Sorry, I meant to address that as well. I managed by inserting a suitable flat bar, about 2ft long, into one of the UJs, I forget which, and this locked the engine when it came against the concrete floor of my garage and I think I put it in reverse gear. Hope this helps. Mike

Western has done a very good thread here: I am basically following it myself for a chassis-up rebuild. His thread also includes many links to useful sites, these being two of the most useful: http://www.a2stainless.co.uk/ This site is currently under reconstruction, but they can supply a complete kit of 200+ stainless steel bolts, nuts, spring and flat washers for re-mounting the body to the chassis. http://defenderchassis.co.uk/ One of the dreaded aspects of such a project is "creep", as you find additional things that must be done, should be done, or would be nice to do. Best of luck with your project, and I'll be looking for updates. Mike Best of luck with your project

It's relatively easy to calibrate your torque wrench if you have a spring balance. It is probably easiest to do it on a wheel nut using the spring balance with a lever of known length. Since most torque wrenches operate against a spring, provided it is in good condition, and since springs have a constant length change per unit of force (Hooke's Law, I believe), accuracy at one load should indicate accuracy at other loads. If your 11Nm for the belt tension is repeated on a wheel nut you can be confident that you've done it correctly. Mike

Thank you, Peaklander, for your input, it gives me more ideas and options for repair. I may just grind/sand blast the area clean and puddle weld the area and then grind the required profile. Or, I may just say to hell with it, and fill it with JB-Weld! Mike

Looks like you have to take the door off the hinges to allow you to totally remove the door card and get access to all parts of the mechanism. Mike

Thanks for the details, Western. Since nobody else has responded I assume that this is the standard procedure. I'm considering welding a mild steel 10mm rod onto the new box section instead of using YRM P- sections. This would be a lot cheaper for me, freight being the major cost. I'll update on how I get on. Mike

Good morning, All, As in the title. I'm stripping down my 110 CSW for full rebuild and I'm sure there are forum members who have faced this tin worm challenge already. What are the options and recommendations for repair, please? Can the outer, curled over top, be separated from the major channel section? Can the B/C post be separated from the horizontal sections? Many thanks in advance for the bigger brain thoughts. Mike

I've got a pair mounted immediately below the headlining on the rear panel each side. We camp/sleep in the vehicle, and are often fairly fully loaded, and they are out of the way here. Can't remember the make, but they work OK. We only use the ICE (!) when traveling so don't need it when camping or for out-of-vehicle listening. Mike

Great productions, thank you. Liked and subscribed. Mike

Or, drill, tap and plug the latest swivels, using a "proper one" as a guide for placement of holes. Then you can check and top up your oil as often as you need to. Mike

Thank you, both. I hadn't thought of googling it. Mike

I'm going to need to replace my lokuts and my parts manual shows Part No. RTC3744. A search on Paddock's returns no such part number, but a search for lokuts gives a number of results, a couple of which look as if they could be the correct one. Could somebody tell me if RTC3744 has been superseded, please, or tell me which of the Paddock's options is correct. Many thanks. Mike

Yeh, thanks, I have found a few suppliers over here, and not costing too much more, so I think I'll be OK. If not, I'll get my daughter, who lives south of London, UK, to buy some and send them out to me. I'm obviously not in a rush for them. Mike

Wow! What a lot of input. Thank you, everybody, for your suggestions and experiences. I'm now Googling and Ebaying fibre glass brushes this side of the water, but almost all of the search results show "From United Kingdom". Amazing! I note that there were no comments about separating these multi-plugs, specially when they've been installed for a considerable time - 26 years for mine. I meant to upload this photo of my method for separating them. I'm only using the pliers as the fulcrum between the two mole wrenches. This also shows the corrosion I'll be battling with. Mike

1991 110 CSW LHS, originally with a 3.5V8 but retro-fitted with a 300 Tdi and R380 g'box. I started today by wrestling with separating the multi-plugs on the engine side of the bulkhead. I eventually solved the problem by using two small mole grips, one clamped on each side of the multi-plug, putting a block between the mole wrenches, and closing the pairs of handles to each other. Easy, peasy, even for the plugs that have been fitted for 26 years. Now for the question! How should I address all the contacts on these multi-plugs, some of which are fairly heavily corroded? The male connects I can clean with a wire brush and with emery cloth, but what about the female sections? Should I buy new multi-plugs and cut the wires to fit? Should I cut off the existing multi-plugs and fit individual 1/4" male/female connections to each wire? Or ???????? Suggestion and recommendations, please.

As Red90 says. The conditions in the engine should not be significantly different in Africa than in the arctic, assuming that the thermostat is working correctly. Having a good, efficient air filter will be far more important in Africa, since fine dust ingestion is rarely a problem in the arctic, but this is not affected by the choice of engine oil. Minimising dust ingestion itself is a good justification for fitting a high level air intake/snorkel, even if wading is not contemplated. Apart from soot contamination the other possible contaminant is unburnt diesel fuel which will degrade the oil performance, but this should not be a problem with good condition FIP and injectors. Mike

Yes!!! Much more appropriate, and the developers. Mike

Flood Plains are just that, the areas that get flooded in extreme weather conditions. Development on flood plains has too often been allowed because of councilors' vested interests, and to the eventual grief of the poor people who buy houses there. Perhaps the council should provide flood insurance for properties built on flood plains. Mike