Rustyrangie

Found this when I did mine a couple of years ago. While you're checking fuel lines, brake lines etc. have a good prod around the supports at the end of the round chassis crossmember where the fuel & brake lines are clipped. The same spot on the opposite end too.. Lovely rust traps there. If you need to weld them it's much easier if you cut a flap in the floor slope and bend it out of the way. Bob

I got 3 of the screwfix ones when they were around a tenner a couple of years ago. 1 for grinding disc, 1 for cutting disc, 1 for wire brush. When you're lying on your back under your LR (or in my case RRC) it saves loads of time not having to stop and swap discs/ wire brush etc. And as they're only used a third of the time they should last 3 times as long.....I think. (sounds like fatfighters on little britain, "if it's only half the calories you can eat twice as much") Bob

I had to make up similar items for my RRC. I did it in short lengths (500mm ish) as the flat part had to fit round wheelarches etc. The small clark bender will do the job but, as others have said, the second bend tends to undo the first. I made the first bend correct then did as much of the second bend as the bender could manage and finished it off using 2 lengths of angle iron in the vice and a bit of 15mm plate to hammer down the bend. That way at least you get 2 well formed bends with nice edges. A long straight edge (1.5m spirit level) ensured the sections remained in line as they were butt welded together. One important point. As soon as you've finished welding clean up the metal and apply a good anti-rust primer straight away. Newly welded steel tends to rust while you're looking at it! Alternatively, your local motor factor should have 1.2m lengths of various bent "L" sections in all the usual gauges. These vary from 20mm X 20mm (i.e 20mm angle strip) up to 20mm X 200mm (200mm flat with a 20mm lip) plus loads of other permutations. If you avoid the early morning and lunchtime rush the guys are usually very helpful and will show you what's available. Hope this helps, Bob

Probably won't help but here goes. 3.9 hotwire with similar symptoms. I had lumpy running, intermittent low power etc. as you describe. on petrol and LPG everything checked out fine, CTS, TPS, compressions etc. all ignition components are newish LR OE. The fault turned out to be an intermittent (slightly corroded) plug on the throttle pot lead. Checked out resistance and voltage-wise ok when not running but showed up on my laptop connected to the lpg ecu. (LPG is a single point Leonardo closed loop with lambda) it would suddenly lose the tps signal and almost stall then start to hunt. I reckon the vibration from the engine was shaking the plug/socket just enough to break the contact and upset the ECU. cleaned up the plug/socket and slightly squashed the female receptacles on the plug to give a tighter connection. Seems to have done the trick up to now. Bob

Hi Andy, you have a PM.

Roof lining.... Depends on how original/plush you want it. You're unlikely to find a good s/h roof lining unless you're very lucky, especially up North. Replacement glass fibre linings are available round the £150 mark. If you're not bothered about originality etc. it's a simple matter to remove the liining, pull off the cloth and foam backing then paint the fibre liner. I used Plastikote light grey stone effect on mine ( 2 quid a tin off ebay), others have used simple household emulsion in whatever shade turns you on. You could even buy the appropriate cloth and stick that on but use proper coach trimming adhesive as household stuff will let go when it gets warm. Bob

Doesn't sound too bad for that money, if he's welded ALL the problem areas properly. It's always a problem buying sight unseen off ebay. I once won a "best on ebay by far" (his words) RRC with LPG. turned out to be a real shed with more rust than there were places to rust and then more rust. Did I mention it was rusty? He'd patched the rear arches after a fashion but when I was able to pull one of the patches off with my fingers he did a wobbly. It had an ABS fault too and the LPG installation was amateurish and probably dangerous. How much did I bid?....£1600!!! When I saw it I just laughed and walked away. Cost me £50 in petrol to just see it. Still, Fish and chips at Harry Ramsden's on the way home almost made up for it. Bob

This looks very interesting! Thank you! Never come across it before even though I worked in electronics for 40 years. So basically you use a 3 phase motor with some capacitors to make it start up on single phase supply, then when it's running the 3rd phase is generated by the motor. Transformer & contactors to get the switching right plus a few capacitors/resistors to get the phase balance correct and away you go. Cheap 3phase industrial kit instead of cheapo chinese single phase, brilliant! Farm machinery sale up here next weekend so I'll be on the lookout for 3 phase motors and stuff! Bob

I'll go along with this. I had a similar problem with my wife's Merc 230, started to run rough and sometimes stall at idle. The fault was eventually traced to a split O ring on the dipstick! The crankcase needs to be sealed or excess air will be drawn in to the induction system upsetting the mixture. Bob

Sadly I believe it is an MoT issue. My missus had the same problem on her Astra. The Mot guy said the light should come on with the ignition switch, then extinguish after about 30 seconds. Not on at all or always on are MoT fails apparently. On the Astra the fault was a poor connection to a sensor under the seat which caused the self-test function to show a fault. Bob

Another good place to look are your local house-clearance auction rooms. Most have Saturday or evening viewing before the sale and you can leave commission bids (they bid for you, up to your maximum) if you can't get to the actual auction. I've seen huge vices go for less than their scrap value. The more up to date auction rooms even have lists of their sales items on the net. Try a google for auction houses and your town/county. Bob

A useful tip found on a forum recently. I've tried it and it saves a lot of time. fix a couple of wires to a bulb bright enough to see out of the corner of your eye, 21W or so should do. Connect this in place of the fuse. While the fault is present the bulb will light. Then start wobbling wires etc. When the bulb goes out or flickers you're in the right area. Then start looking for chafed wiries etc as previously mentioned. Good luck, Bob

AS Integerspin says, "Jigsaw with a eclipse hacksaw blade, pretty good on sheet. I have cut 1" ali with mine" I'll go along with this one. I used the light blue flexible HSS blades cut into 3" or so lengths and then trimmed to fit my 50p car boot jigsaw. I was cutting 20g sheet, clamped to my B&D workmate with a bit of 2" angle as a guide. Very fast, accurate and CHEAP! Bob

I got a regulator for my missus' Merc's Bosch alternator on eb@y put Bosch regulator into the search box and loads come up. Hope this helps, Bob

oops! Thanks to last photo I see I've put my mudflaps on wrong way round! Bob