Dave W

Technically speaking you shouldn't use JATE rings on the back without reinforcing the chassis first. The material thickness used for the chassis doesn't have a high enough bearing rating when used with that size of bolt and has the potential of ripping the chassis. That's why the front is double thickness at that point. I've not looked on a TD5 chassis but you should check that the chassis is reinforced on both sides on the front, if they are genuine JATE rings then there shouldn't be a significant gap at the front unless the reinforcement plates are missing. If you do use rings that are too wide I'd add some washers to give an even gap on each side, better to have a small gap at each side than a large gap at one side.

I ran one on mine for a few years. The only downside I ever found was the gearing, with a comparatively easily available choice of four ratios the LT230 gives you a lot more flexibility in matching your gearing to suit your engine and tyre size. On the plus side though the BW is generally a lot quieter than an LT230 and the viscous diff works just as well as a manual one. When I was trialling a few people suggested that it may have had a negative effect on my turning circle but I seemed to win a lot of trials so I was never convinced !

Maddison4x4 are worth a try too,

I'm pretty certain that's a genuine one. It looks fine. The cheaper ones I've had/seen have a different arrangement for the return pipe, the genuine ones are the only ones that seem to use a rigid return pipe.

Transfer box (LT230) is fine as long as you don't give it any stick off road without the difflock in... I only forgot to put it in once and blew the centre diff apart approx 10 secs after getting stuck There are people running ZFs behind them and it's certainly an easier option when retrofitting them to a P38a for example. I assume you just have to be a little circumspect on when and how you use the power. If I were building something from scratch and/or could use a centred rear diff in I'd go for a 4L80E with a 4 speed atlas transfer box, if I ever find a pair of GQ axles at the right price that may happen yet on mine one day.

I use Megasquirt for mine, never had a problem with it and gives me the flexibility to "adapt" it to suit me. I've thrown everything at it from complete engine submersion in ice cold river water to racing through the sand dunes in the outback and it's never missed a beat.

The LS engines will fit, Marks 4WD Adaptors do a kit with an adaptor to mate them to the ZF and some engine mounts to match up to the originals.

Any pics would be a great help. Pics of the pipework and the receiver/drier (cylindrical thing with two pipes going into the top) would be a real help. I need to try and figure out/see how they routed the pipes at the factory and, hopefully, identify which if the pipes I have and where they are supposed to go

Nobody ?

I'm a bit bemused by all this, as far as i can see it's a very good product at a very good price. The only confusing bit to me is the way it's being sold as it seems to be an x-eng product being sold by a, to me, unknown third party. All this talk of seal design seems a bit (well, a lot actually) picky to me and I don't understand where it's come from. The 8274 uses a few O rings in it's design already too and they've never seemed to be a problem. I really don't care about the intricacies of how it's built, my only question is "Will it work ?" and "Can I afford it ?" The X-Eng reputation, my previous experience of their products and the backing of a 5 year warranty gives me confidence in the first and the second will have to wait until I get paid at the end of the month As someone who has just forked out nearly 100 quid for a small replacement Gigglepin winch part that failed because it was supplied before they upgraded that part I can tell you that the sort of warranty Simon is offering is very attractive ! That's over 25% of the cost of this new drum blown on one small gear from GP, I daren't take my rear winch apart to check that to see if it's done the same !

As part of the rebuild of Pam's 90 I acquired most of a standard TD5 90 aircon kit that I;d like to fit sometime soon. I can't figure out from the manuals where/how everything sits and is routed. I have a collection of aluminium and aluminium/rubber pipes that came with it. The condenser and it's fan are mounted in front of the rad (that's the easy bit that I've already done) but I can't see where the Receiver/Drier is supposed to mount ? Given the collection of pipes I have, I don't seem to be able to see any obvious route that they might take to get from the passenger footwell connector to the front of the condensor. If anyone has a TD5 Defender with factory aircon, some pics of the pipes and the components in situ would be extremely useful, if only to confirm that the pipes that came with it are actually from a Defender ! Assuming I get the basic hardware sorted out, my next problem is the compressor. The "kit" came with a TD5 serpentine compressor and I have a 3.9V8 with V belts. I also have the brackets, compressor and compressor pipes from a 3.9 V belt Disco or RRC. So when i've got most of the pipework sorted I then need to graft the compressor into the rest of the system. Can you get custom aircon pipes made up somewhere ? Will the local hydraulics place be able to join up the (aluminium) pipes for me with a length of hydraulic pipe or does aircon need special materials ?

Why not just drill the bolt "head" off or drill and use a stud extractor ?

Excellent, I'll keep an eye on the site on Monday

Where/when can I buy one ?

I suspect it depends on what he replaced with them. If he was running a pair of 20 year old fiesta coil packs then pretty much anything is going to be an improvement I'd have thought Land Rover coil packs were a real improvement over the Ford ones on my 3.9 but then the Land Rover ones were brand new and the old Ford ones were of unknown vintage and history so it's difficult to know if the Land Rover ones are better than the Ford ones or not. I wouldn't have expected any increased voltage to cause problems with wet running, the Magnecore leads will insulate that kind of voltage OK, the main cause of arcing is the boots at the coil pack so as long as they are a good seal it should be fine.

Does it have to be ignition switched ? Ignition switched lighter sockets aren't very convenient for most of the things they are used for as you can't leave the vehicle unattended. If you're only running a few low power items then the simplest way is just to wire the new socket in parallel with the existing one although that will be ignition switched. There are a few spare permanent live pickuo points on the underseat fuse box depending on what equipment is fitted. If you don't have ABS there are two spare 30A fuses under there that can be used to supply power. If you don't have a heated front windscreen then there is a spare screw terminal that is fused through a 100A link, in that case you should add an inline fuse.

What's the part number on the packet ? If it ends in a G it's considered to be "genuine" or OEM.

It should be either 4 or 6 point. The rear straps need to go to different mounts (can't be connected to the same eye loop but can be connected to the same structure). The rear straps must be within 30 degrees of the horizontal. The harness needs to be from a recognised manufacturer and all parts must be from the same manufacturer. That's about it really

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned is the flexi hoses, have you replaced them ? Old flexi hoses can "balloon" under pressure and give a really soft feel to the pedal, one of the reasons to use the stainless brade type is they give a more solid pedal as they don't suffer from this. This can get really bad on a tandem system like the RRC where you have 5 of them but even with the 3 on a Defender it can make a big difference. What did you do before the problem started ? You haven't fitted a new set of EPC pads ? They can feel absolutely rubbish until the break in surface has worn off, you get a really long brake pedal and feel like you are using jelly for brakes.

As above, if this is happening on the road and on a second pump of the pedal it feels fine then wheel bearings or warped disks are a good candidate. The "wheel wobble" these can produce pushed the pistons back into the calliper so the first press of the pedal most of the fluid is used to move the pistons back out to where they should be, hence a second push normally feels OK.

You'll be pleased to hear that the V8 pumps are much cheaper than the TD5 one then I'm pretty sure the 110 tank is the same depth as a Discovery tank. If it is shallower (like the 90 tank) then it's not difficult to mod it to shorten it. Avoid the 4.0 Thor pump as that, as well as being more expensive, has a built in pressure regulator with no return pipe. The older 3.9/4.0 Disco pump (pre-Thor) but plastic tank should be a straight fit, if your tank doesn't come with them you'll also need a locking ring and the big rubber gasket. The fuel level sender matches the TD5 Defender gauge. There is also a Discovery fitting that uses an external pump (300TDi Disco with plastic tank I think). The "pump" is simply a level sender unit with two pipes running into it but it also has the swirl pot at the bottom that the pump versions have. I can dig out a part number for the pump I used later in the week if it helps.

No on the pump but the tank will be fine. However, you can always fit a suitable Discovery or P38 pump from a plastic tank vehicle instead. They are a straight replacement for the TD5 one unless you have a 90, in which case you'll need to shorten the support struts on the pump by an inch or so.

Just fitted vented to the front of mine, hopefully it'll help out a bit when I do some "spirited" driving. I've had issues a few times with cooking the front brakes to the point of losing brake performance. Not expecting any difference off road but will hopefully reduce the number of times I end up smoking the brakes on the road/gravel tracks. Regardless of your driving style and how hard you push the brakes if you have a choice between solid and vented I'd go for vented. It will never be any worse than solid brakes and will give you an extra safety margin if you do end up using the brakes hard.

Lots of things are connected to earth from the ignition live, the oil pressure warning light, any number of relays... basically anything that normally turns on when you turn the ignition on is capable of providing a route to earth. Here's a simplified version using the oil light... If the diode goes short circuit current can flow from the battery through the charge light to the ignition circuit. From there it can flow through the oil light (and it's switch) to earth. With just these two lights in circuit each bulb will have 6v across it. As you add more circuits in parallel with the oil warning light the overall resistance of that part of the circuit reduces increasing the voltage drop across the charge light. Add, for example, the handbrake warning light which is in parallel with the oil light and those two lights now only have 3v across them and the charge light has 9v. If you sit down and consider just how many items are connected between the ignition circuit and earth, all of them in parallel with each other, the combined resistance soon drops quite dramatically when compared to a low power charge light bulb.

The diode pack is a pack of four diodes that rectify the AC voltage from the generator to convert it to DC for the vehicle and battery. The battery is permanently connected to one side of the rectifier and the exciter and regulator are connected to the other. (For anyone that doesn't know, a Diode is like a one way valve, it will only let current flow through it in one direction.) The problem occurs when one of the diodes in the pack goes short circuit allowing current to flow back through the alternator from the battery lead. The charge/exciter light lights up because it's now effectively connected full time to the battery +ve at the alternator and will then find an earth through something else that is usually ignition switched. Depending on the vehicle wiring it's not uncommon to see other lights on too, oil warning light, for example, often makes a nice easy rout to earth. When you turn the ignition on you now have 12v at both sides of the lamp so it normally goes out or dims when the ignition is turned on.