sharpy

Hiya, A fuel cut off switch saved my mates truck, thieves came one night, broke in and discovered he had a battery isolator. They came back a couple of nights later and brought their own key only to be foiled by a hidden switch that kills the fuel pump. There are lots of places to hide a switch just use your imagination, obviously not many will tell you where to put one as it leaves them open to theft from anyone dodgy reading the forums. Paul

I already have 3 inch springs on the old truck and they are now only at 2 inches, so 4 would eventually I assume settle around 3 inch. Apart from that a four inch lift would give it an awesome look on and off road, I have also now fitted side steps which has reduced my underside clearance so it would regain a little back. Thanks for the other replies, so from what I have read I can do what I want to do and still have in effect my old 90 and not be bothered by the DVLA. My worry was inspired by a chap I know who built his missus a Defender on a new chassis and she got stopped by the police, had the truck taken off her for over a year. He spent so much money getting it back and re-registering it as a Q plate, lost his Old Tax exempt number and the DVLA have now registered it as a Discovery

Hiya, Wonder woulld someone have some ideas about my plan? Last week I was talking to a mate telling him I was going to save up £4-7k and buy a later model defender next year. I have an 87 plate 90 that does still need a fair bit of TLC, but with both me and the other half working I can't take it off the road for more than a day or so. The idea was born! Re-chassis mine and take a a week off work to do it, I'll do that, while I'm at it may as well increase tyre/wheel size to 35 or 37, oh yeah while it's just a chassis might as well increase the lift to 4 inch and put new radius arms, etc to cope with the lift? Then it more or less is a straight swap old to new??????? Well while it's in that condition and all that work, what about a new engine, gearbox and transfer box???????? Then it's just a swap? So questions, I know the legalities of having the original parts on the new truck to keep it's ID, but this question I'm unsure, for example if I bought a new axle from a disco and put it on the old 90, when I swap it would the axle then be a 90? To put onto the new truck? Likewise I'm thinking of buying re-con units from Ashcroft and similar, if I bought defender variants for my old one and transferred them would the ID remain my old plate? I'm thinking that if I do thie swap gradually and inform DVLA at each swap would I be right in thinking that I could build a brand new truck and keep my old ID? Final one, of I went down the q plate route are these allowed to have a private registration plate on them or do they always have to display the Q?

Not my forte but i think it depends on what you want to run off it? as far as I am aware the cable should be rated at 20amp, so if you tag off the lighter it will need to be the same amp rated. In mine I have two cigarette lighters run off one 20amp cable and (touch wood) havent had a problem with blown fuses and stuff. It would be worth checking the fuse connected to the lighter socket and the cable if possible, electrical fires in cars is the easiest thing to create as is a run down battery. hope this helps?, im sure a responsible adult will be along shortly to tell you the correct way ;-) Paul

Thanks for the replies, as Arthur has stated above, I did try and do it all in one movement and really didn't have any room to roll, no light came on the dash, although the electrics leave something to be desired. I will try this Arthur, hopefully operator fault???? Paul

its sort of while trying to engage difflock in low box, to be honest there was so much fear and panic that I had broke it when I heard and felt it I cant honestly remember if it went in or not, but definately whilst trying to get it in and I certainly didnt try to drive with it in, as soon as I heard the noise I selected just normal drive in low box. Nothing else seems to be wrong, it drove home fine and continued to perform in low box to get me back on the road and then high box to drive normall on the road?

Hi all, Just been greenlaning and wanted to ask if im doing something wrong? Not been off road much, well not to the extent where I had to use low box and diff lock, tried to put it in low/diff locked and there was a very noisey bang and it sounded like it had come from the drivers side rear spring ( I thought it had snapped off the chassis) slowly drove out of the hole I was in and inspected the spring and mount, all ok????? Anyway after checking around couldnt see any damage, so I tried the low box with diff lock again, same noise? I was moving slightly at a mile or two when trying to engage the diff lock, well im sure I was but someone said I looked stationary? Have I got problems or do I need to be moving more?, is it that it just diff lock hasnt been used for over two years? I do periodically put it into all possible high/low diff positions bit not normally moving, just stationary on the drive without the engine on to see if it is working ok? Paul

Hiya Maybe a longshot? There is an exhaust company in Mansfield, Nottingham who have loads of stuff like your after, they may post some to you? If you can't find their number let me know and I'll have a look. There called B and M, if all else fails I could maybe pick some up and post them to you. Snarly

What console did you go for? I went for the mud option and now seriously thinking of selling the whole set up, radio, cb the works. I'm now looking at the raptor stuff as there seems to be more room for all the spaghetti there is behind it, and I quite fancy having enough room to have the cb and radio next to each other, with the small benefit of not removing skin from my knuckles as I hit the cb mic plug Paul

Not hijacking the thread, but thought I would ask? I have a narrow track and the pintle eye rotates and I have a NATO hitch that also rotates, would my best option be to have them both free rotating or have the hitch fixed? Cheers Paul

No problems, hope it helped?

Hiya, Definately agree with nickliv, we thought we could do this on a mates truck and the brakes are fastened directly onto the axle on the 90, better off if you can do it swapping the axle out to a disco one Sharpy

On a mates truck we took off the wooly lining and spray glued it back on, the fibre board stuff behind it had also torn and warped so I put some strips of fibreglass behind it to repair the tears and bent it back a little more than should be to allow for it pulling back down and fibreglassed that to. Did that over a year ago and it still holding Paul

I haven't a truck cab but a 90, came without any roof lining or light. Managed to pick one up from the scrappers, easy fit just a live connection and screw into the steel work in the roof for an earth. Further to this on eBay if you can wait a week or so, you can pick up LED strips for pence from Japan, HK, etc, that require the same wiring, they use nothing from the battery and give a much cleaner light which you could run for hours on end and you can still start your truck the next morning! Last weekend at Billing I had fitted my front fogs with LEDs , not much cop as lights on the road but camping, they where on all weekend with no probs what so ever

Hiya, I have just done pretty much the same on my narrow track, I searched for over a year for new shoes with no success, finally after helping a mate with his rear drum braked 90 I decided to make my own from defender 90 shoes as all the suggestions about series landys fitting or ford sierra all seemed wrong when you have a look and compare the shoes. As with all the sankeys they where made by several different manufacturers who used there own interpretation of the original design. I have added a link to this so you can see how I did mine with instructions and pictures. If you need to sign up and wait then I'll post it on here for you. My trailers was made by Roots pressings in Scotland if that's any guide? Paul http://forum.militarylightweight.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=404&start=10 Mods if you think this would be useful for tech archive, help yourself ;-)

Hi all, Sorry if this has been asked I have googled it in several different ways with no luck. I have an 1987 90 with a disco 200tdi conversion, recently my partner has been using the truck to ferry me about as I have had laser eye surgery and still can't see well enough to drive, she has said that there is no power in the truck? Yesterday I did manage to drive it for a few miles and she is right:-( the truck struggles up even the slightest hills and at the field she keeps the horses I had to put her in low box to get up a fairly simple hill. My question then is, has my turbo died? There is no sound as there was before when you could sort of hear the turbo working and there is certainly no boost or oomph as there was before? I know these aren't sporty things but you could normally feel a slight increase in power at higher revs. As I said at the moment my vision is not great but I can't see anything obvious under the bonnet, holes in pipe, disconnected etc, is it new turbo time? Or could it be something else? Really need to sort it as we plan on using it for Billing next weekend. Cheers Paul Forgive any unusual words or spelling it's a bit hard to see the pc

Hiya I have built my own cubby box, instead of mounting my stereo in it I chose to mount 2 six inch speakers in the sloped front, I have to admit that I have made it slightly to large and do mean to either redo it or modifying what is there. I can give you dimensions and photos in the morning if you want to see it, if you can mount the stereo elsewhere and put speakers in the box you do get an incredible amount of base from the closed cubby box. Quick summary I used two sheets of I think 12mm ply £18.00 per sheet and I think the two metres of vinyl to cover it was £9.00 along with probably another tenner for the fixings and the £20.00 for two six inch Fli speakers, think I spent about £80.00 in total so cheaper than shop bought and you can tailor it to your needs Paul

Hiya, Just thought I would let you know that I have recently bought some material which I am going to use for the same purpose, I got from a local trailer/HGV place a sheet as used on HGV's, it has on the reverse side the bristles that kill the water splatter and is very tough, it looks as though it is tougher than the rally stuff that is on ebay and only cost £15 for a sheet large enough to do two mud flaps. Cheers Paul

Hiya Ledbury, I can probably say yes the swivel assembly and stub axle from a disco or early range rover WILL fit. We did this to a mates 91/92 J reg a couple of weeks ago, the only thing you have to take note of is the number of splines on the old half shafts, if they are different then take the diff from the donor vehicle as that will also bolt straight on. And also to confirm I replaced my rear half shafts the same weekend with the shafts from the same vehicle,my truck is 1987 90, although a previous owner has changed my rear axle as it is disc braked. Hope this helps? where in the country are you as we have a local guy who breaks 4x4's, he charged us £50 for both front swivel assemblys with shafts and disc brakes etc and £20 for the rear, we also had a diff from him at £35 but he is in nottingham and doesnt advertise, its all word of mouth. Paul

Hiya, I have just cured the same problem on my 1987 90, in my case if was the diffs, there was a little play in them, but I put up with the noise thinking it was from the 33x12.5 tyres. Finally I gave in and bought 2 new diffs as the front was leaking now quite badly and taking the wheels, halfshafts etc. out whilst on axle stands on my sloped drive wasn't my happiest of choices. But it did the trick and has made the drive superb, feels like a new truck. Paul

Ok, had a little play last night. Jacked up one front wheel, transfer box in high/unlocked and gearbox in neutral then span the wheel, prop doesn't turn, did the same to the other side, with the same result? Also tried same thing on a truck that works and the prop spins, would this be enough of an experiment to say the transfer box is ok as some have stated it's a problem forward of prop? Wanted to be a bit more informed before I undergo messing around with the tranny box or the diff. Cheers paul

Not to sure about this one, being methodical surely if the props dont spin in low/high gear in diff lock and the truck will drive in these gears also, does that not say the half shaft/diffs are ok? Paul

Hi again We have had the tunnel off and adjusted it for hours with the same result, no drive, horrible noise. Something else we have noticed is that whilst this is happening the rear prop doesn't spin but the front one does? Is there some horizontal adjustment that can be made to the levers that push forwards and backwards, it just doesn't seem to push back on high gear enough to actually locate? There is a fair amount of slop in the pin that is responsible for backwards/forwards motion (4-5mm)? Could that be the culprit? Paul

Hi, thanks for the reply, yeah it works forwards and reverse in high and low diff lock and also in low normal, just won't go into high normal. We did follow the above procedure. Is it worth adjusting the linkage? It did jump out of high normal box a few days ago, but managed to get it in. Cheers for any ideas Paul

Hi guy, Could someone advise please, on a mates 91 defender with original defender engine and box it has jumped out of normal high drive/no diff lock and we can't get it back in, there is lots of rumbly Grundy noises when we try but no success, It will go into the three other drives any suggestions very welcome. Paul