Dave W

While you've got it all apart, replace the rack cable too, they cost next to nothing even genuine from a stealer and they seem to be more prone to wear than the wheelboxes. Wish I'd done that when I did mine as the damn thing failed a week after it was on the road again !

The TD5 ones, at least on the ones I have, no longer use a splined shaft to hold the wiper arms, they are now held on with a nut. The end of the wheelbox shaft has a taper and a threaded portion, the wiper arms have a hole in them, they're not compatible with the older splined style with or without adaptors.

Yes, they will... BUT be aware that you'll need different wiper arms too.

No, you just have to tell your insurers.

Generally speaking 110s are better off road than 90s. The rear overhang can be a problem sometimes and if you want to feed it through tight, twisty, tree sections on a challenge it can prove more difficult. On the plus side you can drive up slopes that a 90 won't make and you're far less likely to end up on your side because they are inherently more stable. That's one of the reasons that the 100 inch wheelbase is popular, it gives you some of the stability of the 110 but with better turning circle. My challenge team mate ran a full length 110 for years, it would regularly drive stuff that a 90 couldn't get close to. With UK events changing towards tight tree lined sections he eventually bit the bullet and changed to a 90 - he rolled the 90 on it's side thinking that it would stay upright just like his 110 The main concern I would have is that the 5 door versions seem to be more vulnerable to rot than the 3 doors, no idea why, and spare body panels are more difficult/expensive to get hold of.

Just measured my mirrors, they stick out 250mm when in their normal position and 110mm when folded in so you'll lose 140mm each side by folding them in, giving you a width of 1948mm if your figure above is correct. Of course you still have to get out of the door once you've driven into the garage, can't help thinking of this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTbOXL9F0uo

The Thor manifold is probably easier to install LPG injection onto without the plenum in the way. It also has the advantage of using an IAC that is compatible with MS1 so you don't have to use MS2 or modify it to take a different unit. If you have the option, I'd go for the Thor manifold. As above, the Thor manifold doesn't have a regulator on the fuel rail so you need to use a pump with a built in regulator or fit an aftermarket regulator inline somewhere. If you're using a plastic fuel tank you can just install a matching pump.

Best place to look is on the ms forum list of approved suppliers I buy my kits from Bill Shurvinton, he's probably the main uk distributor.

It's not electric windows, it's the headlight levelling connector. There isn't a permanent live feed to it, the Red and Orange Wires are live when the lights are switched on. the blue/yellow goes to the front wings and the black is earth. It's C0093 if you have RAVE.

That sounds worth a try, I'll give Jim a ring tomorrow. Flex would make sense given that it only seems to happen when off road and, I think, it's worse in cross axle situations.

If it helps, this is a pic of it after it was rebuilt last year...

It's the spring clip type.

This is a long standing problem I've had with my rear ARB diff (RD56) for a couple of years. Over that time I've tried everything I can think of to cure it with no real success. The problem is that the diff leaks air when it's engaged BUT it only does it when it's off road, it never does it on the drive, for example. The air leaks into the axle and exits via the axle breather above the cab. Sometimes it'll work fine for a while but it seems that once it starts leaking it'll leak all the time until you get back onto, say, a gravel track between sections, at which point it'll work fine again for a while. Initially I tried replacing the O rings, first with standard rings and then with the square section X type rings. Neither set made any difference off road. I tried replacing the bearings following a discussion with someone who had had a similar problem. No different. I had the diff rebuilt by Crown who replaced the top cap and changed the copper pipe routing slightly and, again, fitted another new set of O rings and bearings. No different. I came up with a theory that maybe the pressures were wrong so I changed the pressure switch after testing it showed it was maybe 10 PSi out. No different. Soooo... I'm open to suggestions/ideas as to where the problem may lie !

The flashing amber light is linked to the RPM signal (I'm assuming Tartarini system from the description). It essentially means that the LPG system is preparing to change over and is waiting for the RPM signal before it does so. If it's (as per your sig) fitted to a 3.9 then it will take it's RPM signal from the coil so the starting point wuuld be to check the wiring in the vicinity of the coil for any obvious loose connections. If it's a Tec '97 you can (or used to be able to) get an app and cable from Autogas 2000 that allows you to plug into the ECU and see what's happening/configure it.

It's the same basic board as the MS1 with a daughter card that replaces the CPU with a better CPU and a bipolar stepper motor driver. There are advantages to the MS2 with code improvements in the Extra code for things like closed loop idle control. I've used MS2 for both LS1 and RV8 engines and it works quite well, especially the stepper IAC with the new closed loop idle algorithms. Having said that if you stick with MS1 until MS3 comes of age and use a PWM IAC it does have the advantage that you can get pretty much all your connections through the DB37 without having to squeeze another connector in. Even driving the coil packs yourself (as opposed to EDIS) you can still run 4 spark outputs, fan control, switchable map, RPM output, crank and cam sensors through the DB37. As HFH says, you need to bear in mind what support you're likely to need, it's always easier to go with the flow, if you go your own way it's more rewarding (IMV) but you have to be prepared for a steep learning curve and some pain if it all goes tits up.

Thanks for that Neil, a lot clearer now and apologies to all for assuming it was AWDC originated, the technical regs were simply emailed around to everyone with the AWDC heading. It's a bit worrying that Ian seems to be looking around for technical regs now, hopefully, as you say, they'll decide to leave things as they are.

The AWDC seem to have submitted their current technical regulations to the MSA Cross Country committee for possible inclusion as mandatory MSA technical regs for all MSA challenge events. It's being discussed at the next meeting and hopefully kicked directly into touch. i was interested to know if this is mentioned in their magazine or is being done by someone off their own bat as it were. Side exit exhausts are that important they need banning ??? Do they really need to take it to the MSA Cross Country Committee to get them outlawed from all MSA challenge events ??? i really couldn't care less what the AWDC want to do for their own events but I object when they seem to want to impose their rules on other clubs. The last bit of my post was indeed supposed to be humerous, I guess you had to be there. I agree, ban all over fuelled diesels <<< warning that bit is also supposed to be humorous, although, now I come to think of it...

As FF says, I don't think it matters too much and, depending on what manifold you use, figuring out the exact placement of the LPG injectors is going to have more to do with practical implications than theoretical ones. I think that's why all the LPG injection systems I've seen don;'t mount the injectors directly to the manifold but, instead, use a "rubber" tube from the injector to the manifold. It's also easier to sort the feed out to the injectors by fitting them to a small block.

Is All Wheel Driver something to do with AWDC ? if so, does it mention anything about world domination in there re the AWDC desire to impose it's daft regs on all MSA challenges ? What is it with their obsession with side exit exhausts ? Do they have "problems" with them at night at their events in areas where there aren't enough sheep ?

The fuelling for each cylinder can be spread more evenly with multiple injectors, the fuel "charge" is injected into the manifold above the inlet valve, it then stays there (more or less) until the valve opens and the charge is sucked in. For that reason sequential injection isn't really that advantageous on a petrol engine. Depending on the plenum and manifold design, some cylinders can leach fuel charge from others but this is minimised both by plenum/trumpet/manifold design and by using multiple injections per cycle. Single point LPG doesn't use an injector as such, it's more like a gas hob injecting a constant stream of gas into the airstream, it has more in common with a carb than EFi. All the ECU does (if it has one) is control the flow of gas with a stepper motor as opposed to injecting the gas into the manifold.

BFG Krawler would be my choice, it's excellent in both sand and rocks. Only downside for a standard height vehicle may be the sizes available, the 35" version will fit but it'll be very tight without a lift.

I understand that, as from today, Ordnance Survey have been told they can no longer charge for the use of their data to avoid the tax payer having to pay for data they've already funded the collection of. The OS site appears to be having some problems today and i guess that's due to lots of people trying to see what the impact of the new laws are. Does anyone know for certain what parts of their data are to be made publicly available and royalty free ? In particular, does this mean that their 1:50000 digital maps are now freely available or is this new found freedom simply going to extend to things like council boundary maps and post code maps ?

I've wanted to go this route myself although I confess I've yet to come up with a way of fitting then to the front and that's why I've not fitted any despite them being on the "wishlist" since i saw them in use on RRCs in Oz in 2005. Having tried to follow a very similar vehicle with hydro bumpstops one particular hole put us in severe danger of leaving teeth marks in the dash where the bump stop equipped vehicle barely noticed it. The rears are easy as you can drill a hole through the chassis and weld the mounting tubes into the chassis but this isn't practical on the drivers side front due to the steering getting in the way. The Australian solution on the front was to move the shock absorber(s) outside the springs and mount the bump stop inside the spring in place of the shock absorber. They rely on a single shock absorber though while I prefer having two cheap and cheerful shock absorbers rather than one expensive one.

The delay between switching actually means on a "normal" dual fuel setup that the MS continues to fire the petrol injectors for a period of time after the switchover has occurred. So when switching from petrol to LPG it allows the LPG system to sort it's act out and get the fuel flowing before the petrol injectors finally switch off. Going the other way is less important as the petrol system should be ready to go, assuming you leave the petrol pump running. The current MS releases, MS1 and MS2 only have two injector outputs and don't support sequential injection. Instead it uses two injector outputs connected to 4 injectors each. You can choose if you want to fire both injector outputs at the same time or alternating where it fires each one at a different part of the cycle (every time it hits TDC, for example. I'm not yet familiar with MS3 but, if it is to support sequential injection on a V8 it will obviously need 8 injector driver circuits. Logic switching is pretty simple, you take the output from the CPU (for each injector) and route it to one input of an AND gate. You will not get an output from the AND gate unless the second input is also high thus allowing you to switch the output on and off. This is a possible schematic for an MS1 or MS2 configuration. When the fuel select input is high (+5v) the petrol injector drivers will operate in line with the CPU output and the LPG injectors will stay switched off. When the fuel select input is low (0v) the inverter provides a logic high output switching on the LPG injector drivers. If you wanted to implement a changeover delay you could add in a small timer circuit that artificially kept the petrol injector AND gates high for a short period after the input goes low. I'd probably use a simple monostable IC although you could also just use a resistor/capacitor setup.

I looked at this for mine a while ago but couldn't get any real sense out of the distributors regarding their suitability for bigger engines. They seem to insist on using HP as a measurement of airflow so it gets a bit confusing and, in the end, I came to the conclusion that a big V8 is going to need more volume of air than these can provide. I ended up sticking the air filter on top of the snorkel with a "safety wire" to catch it if it gets knocked off by branches. Over the top of the air filter I use a pre-filter/cover that keeps it fairly clean... http://outerwears.com/