UdderlyOffroad

Because I was going to have a rant (this is an internet forum after all) – and didn’t want you to think that my rant was directed at thee, rather at the edjiots who devised this unnecessary piece of bureaucracy for retailers. But well done on passing the audit with flying colours!

No disrepect intended, you're just operating within the law, but frankly to avoid this freakin' farce, just in order to buy a number plate for a trailer (or indeed to replace a damaged one on a car), I go onto the Bay of Flea and order them online. No documentation required, and they're about £8 each. Sold as show-plates, naturally. But, as Landies are built for towing, I keep (or kept, before the rebuild) a trailer-board, HD-cableties, number plate, rope and an electrics extension cable permanently on board the truck. And I plan to make dedicated storage brackets in the rear load space for the above once the truck is back on the road. A bit OTT? Maybe. But whilst it would appear that even the constabulary themselves aren't averse to a hand-written numberplate, running without working lights on a trailer will get you booked. And at this time of year quite rightly, IMHO.

You can always add a manual 'kill switch' for the split charge to isolate the two batteries before winching.

Thanks guys. Will be dropping the box from the 300 tomorrow then! Just the cable? I ask because I was going to use the lever in my Defender as I don't like the standard fit item....

Hi chap(ette)s My first foray into this area of the forum. Whilst I’m relatively au fait with the various Defender gearbox options – the Disco ones are new to me. I’ve tried the “site:lr4x4.com google search” trick but I get lost in a quagmire of Defender-related threads… So, as per the title really. Will a cogbox from a (dead) 300 Tdi fit into a 200 Tdi-powered truck. Bearing in mind that if necessary I can remove the bell-housing off the 300 Tdi too? Ta, Matt

Or just keep the flywheel housing from your 2.5 petrol. I have! Matt

Also, anyone fancy doing this on a Disco? Should give a more box-like inside than a rangey!

Would like to add my voice to the 'nice one!' Camp. Let us know how you get on actually using it too! There's no way we can 'save' every Land Rover & if we did folk would soon grumble about the scrapper-parts-supply situation. My 110, as well as costing me several limbs, will essentially be made of 3 land rovers by the time its finished (whilst retaining the required bits not to need a Q plate, officer)! Matt

Front seat options include (in descending order of cost/availibilty, imho): Exmoor Trim RRC fronts or rear bench Disco front MX5 seats (speaker in headrest!) Ford Ka fronts Renault Scenic fronts (don't quote me on this, have yet to try!) But I guess it depends what you can get at your local scrapper that's in good nick - for this you'll need a scrapper that's happy to let you wonder - not all are. Speaking personally, my seat trimming skills are nil, whereas I'm reasonably handy at fabricating brackets and the like; so I consider it a better investment of my time making a reasonably mint seat fit than try to rescue my tatty OE ones!

Rear Seats out of a Renault Scenic. They are in effect 3 independently adjustable thrones, allowing your backseat passengers a bit more legroom. I picked up a complete set of half leather jobs for 50notes from my local scrapper. This includes the fronts, though I'm not sure these will fit - they should do though, as they're designed to be bolted onto a flat surface. I can't show you any pictures yet as I have yet fit them, but my inspiration came from this thread

Ditto, I tried twice to speak to them and both times they were completely disinterested. I wasn’t talking about an insignificant amount of bits either. I understand they are just a posh scrappie, but when you get to the stage that you have glossy ads in the comics you have to step the level of customer service up a gear. I was actually after a 110 CSW tub and B-posts (so quite spendy) but difficult to get at if you still have a more-or-less complete truck…in the end I found a complete rolling chassis for £300 from, of all places, Berkshire Land Rover (definitely not in the breaking for spares business!) If they can’t even be bothered to answer a query from a potential punter they don’t deserve your business.

There are these (ebay linky) which allow a quick detach, but quite spendy...

It of course has little if nothing to do with reducing emissions, if you take into account the carbon emissions associated with producing new vehicles. And the arbitrary delineations for vehicles like Land Rovers (so a 110 station wagon is ok but a diesel hardtop isn’t, but a petrol hardtop would be, even though they are all the ‘same’ vehicle platform) prove that at no point has anyone with the slightest grasp of physics, or for that matter environmental science been involved in this. Conversely, were Boris to start banning Rooney-Rovers, he’d be out of a job quicker than Liam Fox should be. I’ve said it before, but the fact that the graphics on the TfL website show a Defender-shaped vehicle leads me to the conclusion that someone within the organisation wants to ban pollutin’ 4x4s especially old Land Rovers. And as for the ‘Guardianistas’ – I had an interesting discussion recently with such a person (an ex-BBC employee to boot!) – they couldn’t understand why my mate, who was also present and is a sheep farmer, would need a Land Rover/ ’polluting 4x4’ to tow his two tonne trailer. As in literally wouldn’t accept why a Ford Focus would be unsuitable. Obviously said person cannot be said to represent their group as a whole, but I was just surprised at the closed-mindedness. Actually at this point the discussion moved onto shooting, so let’s not go there! FWIW, I think the congestion zone (as distinct from the LEZ) is fairly clearly signposted and it would be hard to drive into it not knowing you had! My plan: Get a Showman’s licence, so that I can drive into London and cause chaos with my 110 pulling a train of Sankeys!

Ahh....was my reaction when I got on site. "Oh yea, after the belt went, I kept cranking the engine, because I thought it was the fuel lift pump again" were my brother's words to me. Result? 6 out of 8 push rods bent, one so badly I can't actually get it out! I can't see any damage anywhere else, but I have yet to take the head off. So, is there likely to be anymore damage, bearing in mind the post-belt-failure cranking? Or should I just plough on, replace the belt, pushrods and tensioner and see if she fires up?

Thanks for the replies chaps I've actually got a home-made one suitable for a 200 Tdi, so hopefully I can bodge that to fit, thanks for the offer though. Will start looking at that list. I don't have many spares sitting around, and if I do they're for a 200 Tdi, so will take a look at Ruskie-MicroCat and maybe order some bits. Like I said, I'm happy to do it in two trips as I can visit various family members whilst I'm up there but still it would be good to get it done. Sounds like Si could do it in 40mins! Actually, the idea is I can have use of it as he's already replaced the truck with another one!!

Hi all, My brother rang me to report his Disco 300 Tdi had snapped its cam belt and had been recovered to his yard. Trouble is, I live in Bristol and he lives in Cambridgeshire. My plan was therefore to go up over the course of 2 weekends to attempt a repair. Obviously the first time up would be more of a recce mission, take the rocker cover off, survey the damage. Hopefully it could just be a case of bent pushrods. Obviously I've had a browse of the tech archive and the Haynes, but I thought I'd ask on here what tools/supplies/spares would you take if attempting this job aweay from home, without access to your locals well-stocked spares place! Matt

Do an Ebay search - there are plenty of Vendors. I got a set for my 306 for £7 - and my local car parts place wanted £3/length for blades rubbers alone!! Looks won't be to everyone's taste but at that price you can't argue. M

Some multimeters have a logging function to output to a PC...and not necessirly £300 Flukes either. Try this one from fleabay - just be aware you'll need a PC with an old-skool serial port. Or this one has a USB interface and software included.

Don't forget to advertise your spare truck cab bits on here, should make you back some money after you've bought the unobtanium bolts from LR!

The man has a point; Krakow or somewhere like Budapest are awesome. Lots of gorgeous ladies and cheap beer, as well as great culture (I should know my beloved is Hungarian, and a previous g/f was Polish...). Should make for an awesome 21st. If you want to do something driving-based, do it on a separate weekend, that avoids any possibility of alcohol causing you not to be at your best. That said, for my 21st I was in an empty student house for the summer which I was decorating in lieu of rent - had a few parties!! Don't remember too much but it was a good summer nonetheless.

Spot on Nige. However, I for one am hopeful. LR have publicly stated that they are going after the military market (can't find the quote at the mo), which to my mind means it must be capable of being armour plated, which equals a proper ladder chassis (and yes I know armoured jags and the like manage without). Independent suspension is a given too, IMHO. We will never get a vehicle where you can, say, take a hard top variant and convert it into a station wagon by acquiring a scrapper SW (as I'm doing) and bolting on the relevant panels. But hopefully this will mean that they can fix the obvious Defender shortcomings, such as the seating position, the lack of rear passenger legroom, etc. I saw a -10plate Defender in the pub car park yesterday, and I'm sorry but the fit and finish of the vehicle bodywork was woefull. The days of hammer and spanners only are over, out of necesssity, because without electronics you will never achieve the required fuel economy and reliability, demanded by the market and required by EU and US legislation. My hope is that LR come up with a platform (in the engineering sense) that makes a capable basic vehicle, which meets modern standards, and can be adapted for specialist use easily by smaller firms. This includes things like, for instance an open source interface to the in-dash display so that specialist hardware can be integrated (Hydraulic PTO pressure/temp for instance, on a cherry picker truck), plenty of spare fuse positions for additional circuits, etc. Build a reliable, adaptable platform and the military/specialist vehicle buyers will come...and who knows the farming set will follow. The huntin/shooting/fishing/riding set have their Discos, the Chelsea-rahs have the Evoque/RR/RooneyMobile. Matt

In my case: Half of a persian rug acting as an anti-slip mat in the load area. Works too, and helps protect furniture! Re firearms legislation: The law is an ass /Rant

Why is this worrying? I may be wrong (and I'm sure an adult will be along to correct me), but disabling the immobilizer is a feature available when you use one of the more expensive diagnostic machines, such as Nanocom. Overlanders and the like make use of this feature, for maximum field availability. Presumably the seller is doing this so the ECU will be a 'drop-in' replacement for the buyer. Seems like a high price though...surely £500 notes would get you a decent remap from a specialist? And said specialist could revert to a 'known good' map should it all go belly up?

As has been suggested the Autosparks ones are muchos ££££ - but the chassis one (which is liable to be quite umolested anyway) could conceivably be replaced by some 13/12 core trailer cable in a bit of conduit, with a decent multiway connector at the front end (depending on whether you have rear wash/wipe and HRW) – just be careful not to get your wiring colours in a mucking fuddle… The lighting/engine looms could probably all be reproduced and upgraded with about £20 worth of bits from VWP and some time (see tech archive for the lighting upgrade) It’s the bulkhead loom that forms the backbone of the system – I have managed to get mine to a state whereby I’m happy to reuse it, having repaired all the evidence of amateur bodging. Some brave souls on here, such as PieEater, have even rebuilt their own from scratch (adding additional functions). Much time but probably 1/3rd of the cost… At the end of the day, you’ll need to factor in how much your time is worth to you, and how long you can live with your truck being off the road for.

I can only echo Q-rover and Si’s sentiments. As a Mechanical Engineer, we spend many hours at work producing calculation sheets for bolt loadings, pre-load, torque, etc to show suitability for the application. I can have a dig around in the standards at lunchtime today for e.g. the tensile strength of 8.8 bolts compared to 10.9, A4-70 and A4-80…but as Si said that’s not the only factor. It’s worth noting though that you won’t get A4-80 bolts from a stainless supplier unless you ask, and even then they will be f-expensive. In fact they’re usually A2-70! Best to stick to 8.8 from your local friendly engineering fastener place (GR Fasteners in Avonmouth in case anyone from Bristol is reading this). 10.9 if it makes you feel better…