nickwilliams

What are you using to measure the voltages? I assume it must be some sort of multimeter? You need to check the voltage methodically along the wiring, if need be all the way back to the battery. Something in the circuit is creating a high resistance. Don't assume the switch is good just because it's new (especially if it came in a blue box).

Unless the studs are stainless (which they won't be - that's a really bad idea) then you risk making the corrosion worse by putting stainless nuts on carbon steel studs. If you want to minimise any corrosion, use standard steel nuts on standard steel studs and spray everything with anti-sieze grease as you assemble it.

Plenty of stainless fasteners on my truck (my son teases me about it) but not wheel nuts.

Wheel nuts are safety critical. They need to be done up very tight, repeatedly. This is not a good application for stainless steel.

One of things that nobody tells you about having lockers in both axles is that it means all the wheels are rotating at the same speed so basically the vehicle only wants to go in a straight line. Locker in the back, limited slip diff in the front gives nearly the same effect traction-wise but makes for much easier and precise steering.

So this is what was delivered from Turner's today:

Does the advice in this thread remain valid? Took the rocker shaft off the cylinder head today (see separate 300 TDi head gasket thread) and to say that the valve caps were knackered is a bit of an understatement: These came from Paddocks when I rebuilt the engine and replaced the head 18 months or so ago - the head came from Turners with valves, valve springs, spring caps, cotters, stem seals and spring seals but not the valve caps. Has anyone got a part number and UK source for the VW ones mentioned?

Indeed. That will be this afternoon's project.

The 300TDi overhaul manual actually says "If, however, cylinder head, pistons or crankshaft have been replaced, it will be necessary to check piston stand proud in order to determine the correct thickness of gasket." but thinking about it, there is no reason why the stand proud figures would change if only the head is replaced. The book also says that heads should not be skimmed so I guess it's a case of 'guidance for the wise, obedience of fools'.

And after a few hours work today, I think we have found the culprit, between No. 4 cylinder and the water gallery between pots 3 & 4:

Watching this with interest since I have almost exactly the same issue, albeit that the leak in mine is pressurising the coolant system and the engine still runs fine. What did you do about checking and selecting the right thickness gasket after you had the head skimmed?

Likewise, my engine (which is a fairly early 16L 300TDi) ate two fuel lift pumps in fairly short succession so I cut the flange off one of the broken ones and machined it flat to make a spacer about 5mm thick. It's been fitted and working fine for about 18 months.

I can't claim to have vast experience of different tyres (on the LandRover at least) and I've never run a set of BFG's which seem to be the benchmark most people would use. In terms of on road grip, both type of Kumho were/are way better than the dodgy Kingpin re-moulds the vehicle had on it when I first got it, and they were better than the 750-16 Michelin X's I had after that. However, I don't think they were as good as the set of Michelin XPC's I run mainly on the Lightweight and in terms of snow performance they all work but are way, way behind the Pirelli Cinturato's I run on my Panda 4x4. The wear rate would tend to indicate that the Kumhos are softer than BFGs which is likely to make a considerable difference to their performance on snow and ice. Sorry, not sure that helps a lot!

It's a shame the KL71 are NLA, I really liked them. One of their advantages is they will run at really low pressures (I've had mine down to 12PSi) which definitely improves grip in mud. I also found them to be reasonably well behaved on the road. I can't say much about how noisy they were because I have no soundproofing of any sort in my 90. All I can say is they were not loud enough to drown out the 300TDi!. I replaced them when they were about 75% worn, which took around 20k miles. Not much by BFG standards but perfectly acceptable on vehicle which only does about 4k miles per year. I had to replace them because I had one written off in an accident. The KL71's were not available so I bought a set of MT51's. They seem to be slightly better behaved on wet roads, I've not had occasion to need to use them in deep mud but I suspect they won't be quite as good as the KL71's, although they are also apparently good for running at low pressure.

I'm in need of a set of lock wire pliers. The choice seems to be between cheap and cheerful off e-bay for £15 - 20 or branded from the likes of Facom, Starwhille or Bahco for somewhere north of £100. Does anyone know why the branded ones are so spendy, and if they are worth it?

Unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money kitting your pit out with hazardous area electrical fittings you will only be able to work safely on diesel vehicles.

In theory yes. In practice I'd up-rate the converter a bit: I'd be looking for a 1kW inverter to run a 1Hp motor, for example.

It's perfectly possible to design a VFD which snubs voltage spikes on the output causes by disconnecting the motor but it involves adding some reasonably beefy components to the output stage, which costs money of course. Most VFDs are used in applications where they are permanently wired direct to the motor so adding the snubber components is needless expense. There's no such thing as a three phase 'ring main' - it's not electronically impossible, it's just nobody wires three phase up that way. However, I can see what the maker is trying to say and it's perfectly valid if the drive is designed correctly (which your one certainly appears to be). However, you can't do soft-start in that configuration (because soft start works by ramping up the output frequency and every motor on the circuit has to be supplied at the same frequency so any machine already running when you plug in the next one would slow down) so the loads you are plugging in directly need to be only fairly small in comparison to the rating of the drive. I think your assessment that Bad Things might happen if you plug your 7.5 hp lathe straight in is pretty much spot on! 50A max input current is pretty beefy. I hope it's wired back to your fuseboard with some fat string!

Single phase or three phase in to 3-phase out isn't a problem - all VFD's rectify the incoming mains (i.e. turn it into DC) before chopping it back up again to give the required output. However, most VFD's are only capable of giving an output voltage the same as the input voltage i.e. if you want to run it off a normal 230V single phase input then you can only get 230V three phase out of it. This is OK so long as the motor you want to use is rated 400V star and 230V delta but if (as appears to be the case with the OPs motor) you have only got access to one end of the windings (the other ends all being connected together inside the motor) then you can't power the motor off a single phase input unless your VFD also increases the output voltage. (I have to say I have never seen one which does, but from the above conversation they apparently exist, although I'm sure there is a substantial price premium.) A few other points worth noting (some already alluded to by others, I admit). Firstly, if you fit a VFD it should be connected directly to the motor, with no switchgear (not even a fuse or overload breaker) between the terminals on the VFD and the windings of the motor. This is because if you disconnect the output of the VFD from the motor while it is running the resulting voltage spike has a good chance of cooking the output electronics in the VFD. Any switchgear intended to turn the machine on and off must be between the VFD and the incoming power, not between the VFD and the motor. Most VFD's have a built in mechanism for starting and stopping the output which is usually operated with a control switch. However, unless this is specifically designated at a safety rated input (what is known in the business as a 'Safe Torque Off' input) then you should never rely on the VFD to stop the machine from moving while you are (for example) changing the tools. VFD's without STO MUST be isolated from the input power to be safe, The other thing to bear in mind when using the VFD to control the motor speed is that most AC induction motors have an integral fan attached to the rotor, and if you slow the motor right down the airflow drops exponentially, but the heating effect of the power in the motor does not. Thus, it's very easy to overheat the motor if you run it for extended periods at low speeds, and you'll need to fit an external fan if you want to do this.

Download the document linked in David Sparkes' post and you will find the information you want.

It took me a while to find this so I'm posting it here to (hopefully) make it easier for others in future. It's not actually the diagram for the BTR4717 but it's close enough, and in particular it shows the order in which the valve plates fit.

I’m looking for the tool required to move the primary pinion lock nut on a series gearbox. The nut is part no. number 213416 circled on this diagram. <parts book extract> I’ve found this on e-bay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rover-Series-Gearbox-Primary-Pinion-Nut-Socket-Fits-Pinion-Nut-213416/264734679197 but either the picture in the listing is very misleading or this isn’t deep enough to fit over the shaft and reach the nut: <picture> The nut is around 180mm from the end of the shaft so the tool will need to be around 200mm long overall to reach the nut. I’ve also found this: https://www.hnjengineering.co.uk/pages/products/213416/hnj213416.html which looks to be much more like the required proportions, but it’s quite spendy, and I’m not entirely convinced that Acetal is an ideal material for this kind of tool. Has anyone tried either of these tools and if so, would you care to comment?

This thread gives some insight into fitting central locking to the rear door on a Defender:

I'd second Tanuki's comment. I had similar problems when running with one tyre which was different to the other three. Cured completely with a new set of tyres.

Couple of previous threads you might find useful: https://forums.lr4x4.com/topic/64861-keys-and-barrels/ https://forums.lr4x4.com/topic/77724-barrels-and-keys/ IIRC I don't think it's possible to change the barrel in the steering lock - you have to change the entire lock assembly.