Dave W

Although you can use Megasquirt for both scenarios and have no "upgrade" path if you choose Megajolt and later find a cheap EFi manifold to get better performance out of your engine. Personally I'd go Megasquirt even for ignition only setups.

The standard Land Rover lambda sensors are titania, not zirconia. You would normally supply these with a reference voltage and measure their effective resistance. A zirconia lambda generates a voltage based on lambda rather than altering a supplied voltage. I have tried using titania in the past but, in the end, gave up and went to zirconia as, as well as the difference in operation, titania have different lambda characteristics that make it more difficult to set the engine up. Titania lambdas switch even quicker than zirconia so are, effectively very narrow band. It's a pain as the titania bosses are smaller than standard zirconia or wideband bosses but welding on an extra boss isn't that big a deal and, in the long run, it'll save you tuning time. EDIT: Sorry for the duplication, Fridge types faster than I do

Cheap knockoff replicas at the highest possible price, I can see how that is good for the consumer... want to buy a Rolex ? Only 50 quid, just as good as the original, honest guv. Don't tell me, the new Scorpion delivery van is a yellow Robin Reliant and they're just a bunch of lovable rogues? I've seen a lot of arguments around Scorpion but, seriously, good for the consumer ? You're having a laugh if you think cheap rubbish copies selling for the same price as the originals is good for the consumer !

The only time I've snapped 11mm Plasma 12 like that was 100% down to a worn aluminium fairlead, it allowed the line to make contact with the edge of the hole in the winch mount, a slight uphill angle and it cut through it as soon as it was under tension. I thought I was saving myself some cash by turning the worn fairlead upside down and it cost me a rope instead... Of course there are synthetic ropes and then there are synthetic ropes... if it's not Plasma 12 then, IMV, you're using an inferior product so should expect a few breakages I've also changed to stainless fairleads and have checked and double checked that, regardless of spool position or angle of pull, the rope can't make contact with anything it shouldn't.

With overfuelling like that I'd check the return pipe on the fuel injection, it's not uncommon for the return pipe to get blocked in the rubber sections as the inner wall collapses. A blocked or restricted return pipe will increase the fuel rail pressure resulting in over fuelling. You say you've changed the fuel temperature sender, have you changed the coolant temp sender ? The fuel temp sender is much less important than the coolant as far as cold start/warmup is concerned. It's the ECU coolant sender that needs checking/changing, not the sender unit that is used for the water temp gauge. If the above are OK then check the TPS, if that's OK then the airflow sensor would be next on the list.

I prefer "proper" mechanical bead locks over staun, there's a lengthy debate about the pros and cons of each on the Devon 4x4 forum at the moment. One option for valves is to use "hidden" valves, these offer a few advantages over a normal valve in that they can't be damaged off road and they have a double seal so even if the schrader valve leaks the second seal stops the air escaping. Not having to weld lumps of metal onto the wheel to protect a valve (or 2 valves if you go staun) makes them a lot easier to balance too. The only real drawback to the hidden valves is that you have to carry and use an adaptor when you adjust the pressures which also means that you can only air down one tyre at a time unless you have more than one adaptor. I carry two adaptors so we can do a side each. Not really an option if you want to use staun tyre deflators though. This is the kind of thing... http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/products/Pro...code=R/B3000.11

My solution to the problem... Originally I had the spare laid flat in the load bed, a 35 inch Simex just fits between the wheel arches. This was good from a CoG point of view but made carrying anything else in the back quite difficult and limited the size of the fuel tank I could use as this is also in the back. By moving the spare up it freed up a lot of space in the back and the fuel tank could be made bigger. It does raise the CoG in theory but, in practice, a lot of the heavy spares that used to have to be stored in a box above the spare wheel are now much lower so it's probably about the same as it was. The spare is supported by and bolted to, underneath the load cover, a frame that is welded to the chassis on both sides - the last thing I want is a spare wheel getting loose in a big roll or high speed crash.

If the pedal goes solid after a pump of the pedal or two then it's not a problem with air. The usual cause of this is one or more of the brake cylinders being pushed back by the pads/shoes over time. On a drum brake this is normally caused by bad adjustment/worn adjuster cam. Disk brakes can also cause this when driving if you have a lot of play in a wheel bearing (the "wobbling" disk pushes the pads/pistons back into the caliper). I'd check the front wheel bearings anyway as when they get bad enough to push pads back the bearings will be in a very poor state. If the wheel bearings are OK then re-check the rear adjustment.

Do you have drum brakes on the rear ? Sounds like a drum brake adjuster rather than air in the brake line.

Devon 4x4 list the nuts on their web site, I'd be surprised if they can't supply bolts too... they supply bolts with their stainless steel hawser.

Based on what evidence ?

It is solenoid controlled... still needs a shifter though to tell it what gear to go into, a Compushift unit will handle the rest

I'm not sure but I read somewhere that it was a 34mm socket you required...

I used to use RRC seats in mine but changed back to Defender seats a year or so ago. Mine look similar to the NAS spec seats above, I bought a set of new Britpart squabs, backs and head rests and bought a knackered set of seats of eblag as donors for the frame. I also bought a set of waterproof covers for them. Having used them on road and off road, including long distance, high speed runs over corrugated dirt roads in the outback I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them for comfort. Pam even managed to drop off to sleep in them on the dirt roads - no mean feat when the corrugations are trying to shake the motor to pieces !

If I did see any they didn't register TBH with the problems with the container we didn't have any of the usual hanging around looking at other motors. I spent the show and shine bolting stuff into my motor for scrutineering and wiring up the spot lights... It wasn't really until the Thursday of the competition that I got all the jobs done that I'd intended to get done on the run up to the event ! Next time we're shipping in January.... There did seem to be some interesting mods being used, including some really clever free spool devices but sadly I never got the chance to get a close look at them.

Looks interesting, I assume there's an adaptor shaft inside the housing that connects to the rear of the existing motor so the two motor shafts are locked together. Can't think how it connects to the rear of the shaft though... A nice piece of lateral thinking

I use a B & M Megashifter, they take a bit of getting used to but once you've figured out how to use it they're very good, very solid and precise. You get direct reverse to drive change (great for rocking out of holes), direct drive to neutral (handy for transfer box shifts), sequential shift for "manual" mode. They won't be cheap now nut probably still cheaper to buy them from US sellers on Ebay, they were about half the price of the UK sellers when I bought mine and that included postage... the dollar is a lot stronger now though !

Anyone know a source of 40 resilient GPS trackers that we can borrow for a weekend in March, suitable for attachment to an assortment of off road sheds ?

In an ideal world, as a consumer, everything I buy will be suitable for the purpose, will fit my vehicle like a glove and will be made to the highest possible tolerances. Sadly though, also as a consumer, my budget doesn't extend to that type of testing so I have to make my own decisions on who I trust to do the work for me. Yes, testing would be good but not if it makes the part I want unobtainable because it's either impossible or too expensive to produce. There are some companies that I wouldn't hesitate to buy "own brand" products from because I trust them and believe them to be ethical. There are other companies and individuals that I wouldn't trust to make a good ashtray. The other problem with mandatory testing is that it stifles the creativeness of individuals who are capable, on their own vehicles, of creating one off items that are more than capable of doing the job. Most of the innovations in our sport don't come from companies, they come from individuals who produce and refine a design which a company then comes along and bases a product on. The key to the companies design being that they turn it from a one off custom design into something that can then be fitted to a standard vehicle with a minimum of effort.

Lara, I think we kind of agree with each other... but coming at it from different angles On the speeding thing I was thinking more of the 15MPH on site speed limit than the "legal" speed limit. I agree 100% that if you're going to use road sections as part of an event it shouldn't be timed or give you any competitive advantage to get there quickly. In stage and hill rallies this is done with timing where you are given a fixed time between leaving one stage and getting to the next, arriving early at the next stage is heavily penalised and the timings are based on an average speed of 20MPH. I don't know if you've ever been involved in stage or hill rallies but this method usually leads to a group of vehicles parked up around 100 yards from the start of the next stage having a brew and generally relaxing until their due time when they can drive up to the start without penalty. Road sections are often an essential part of UK events because we simply don't normally have sites big enough to host 2 or more days of competition on a single site. Where road sections are used the event organisers need to be careful not to give competitors any reason or reward for pushing their vehicles beyond their on road capabilities. Although I'm competing in MT again this year I also have some involvement in sorting out the permit and regs and it sounds like there will be at least two points during the event where competitors will be driving on the road to get between sites. The MSA will not issue a permit if there is any chance of a competitor arriving early gaining any advantage. You'll be given plenty of time between the clock stopping as you leave one site and starting again at the next. If you leave the first site at, say 11am, you'll be given a start time for the next site which will reflect an average speed of 20MPH (maybe less) to that site, if you get their early you'll have to wait in a holding area until your start time, get there late and that's your choice. I might suggest that they also add, say, a 10 minute holding time/cool off period at the exit of a site where you can use the time to check the vehicle over before heading out onto the road and maybe even put some air back in the tyres Not sure if they'll run to a jetwash but you never know !

Off road motor sport has been running road going vehicles for at least 50 years in the UK and the vast majority of UK events are still suitable for road going vehicles. Keeping vehicles "road legal" is a great leveller and keeps the sport accessible and cheap. The vehicle in question would never have made it through scrutineering at most organised motor sport events. (technically all events but there are scrutineers and there are scrutineers). Our scrutineers regularly fail vehicles, especially first timers, because their road going transport that went through an MOT last week has serious safety problems. A frighteningly common one being loose drop arms where the nut that's supposed to hold the arm against the tapered splines is loose allowing the arm to move and eventually jump splines. Most failures can be fixed there and then so it's not uncommon for vehicles to leave an event at the end of the day in a safer condition that they arrived in ! Under an MSA permit it would not be allowable to structure the event in such a way that driving between locations on the public road was "against the clock". It is illegal to race on the highway in the UK and if your vehicle has been so badly designed/modiified that it's no longer capable of driving safely on the road between locations then you are in the wrong sport. As for being penalised for going too fast between sections/punches on an off road event, it doesn't happen often enough IMV. Speeding on an event is cheating and limits need to be enforced or removed otherwise you are penalising those who stick to the limit. I have to confess my team mate once got penalised for speeding on an event, it was either a Bulldog Trophy or a Muddy Truckers, can't remember now which one but it's at least 5 years ago.

In my experience the centre diff explodes in around 30 seconds... or at least that's what happened to mine when I forgot to put the diff lock in and tried driving out of a deep hole... I was putting a lot of power through it but still... A friend of mine once came up with a great idea for checking the balance of his front wheels on the vehicle - he jacked the front wheels up, applied the transmission brake and, with the centre diff out, brought the front wheels up to speed. He didn't say how long he ran it for but I got the impression it wasn't very long - it was long enough, however, to destroy the centre diff. The centre diff really doesn't seem to like running like that but then in normal use it would only be expected to cope with minor differences in speed between the two axles.

On my PC I use PC Navigator for on road navigation and Ozi for off road. If I know where the site I'm going to be competing on is, I grab sattelite images from Google and stitch them together for use with Ozi, that way I can choose between a satellite view and an OS view of the terrain. I've also developed a touch screen friendly front end for ozi that allows you to quickly enter/list/go to waypoints as well as some of the other basic functions as I found Ozi too fiddly to use on an 8 inch touch screen while moving. It also gives Ozi a "big numb pointer" window like the garmin one so that gives you distance, speed, eta and relative direction to the current waypoint you are navigating to. I'm using a fanless ITX factor motherboard as others are doing, mine is fitted into an IP67 enclosure so only the screen will die when I immerse it... The PC lives behind the seats and, as well as navigation, it's also used for the engine tuning/logging and is hooked up to the aux input of the CD player for some tunes to try and drown out the simex on the motorway The DVD player can be used for DVD playback if you're bored but the lower end fanless PCs are pretty much at their limit when it comes to playing back DVDs. http://linitx.com/ can supply everything you need apart from an IP67 enclosure.

If you want to go as wide as 10" then you can get 10x16 wheels off the shelf too, my team mate recently bought a set with something like a 2" back space ! That'd certainly bring the wheels outside the body on a Series - they bring his Simex about 3 inches outside the standard Defender arches...

That's what I use, one for each winch, activated by the same feed that activates the internal and external control switches. They only take just over 1 amp each once activated and, because the control switches are fed via the ignition switch, turning the ignition off, turning the winch master switch off or turning the vehicle electrics off via the kill switch all kill the winch power at the same time.