JeffR

Got a 200Tdi that has done over 200k on a set of Zeus gears, can't fault them.

Try taking the door cards off , bloody fiddly but doable, you will then have access to the actuating rods. Had a similar prob a few years back and with some "gentle persuasion" - water pump pliers - managed to pull the rods to open the doors.

So you got it really dried out then..... Sadly the method quoted don't work with ashes.

With a bit of care you can make the old headlining un saggy. Take off the cloth (carefully) then put the headlining on a flat surface (garage floor worked for me), leave to completely dry out.. Buy a gallon can of glassfibre resin and hardener. Paint the dry headlining with the resin till it stops absorbing resin, cover with polythene sheet and weighy it down to keep it flat ( I used bags of compost...). Leave for a day or two till completely dry to the touch. Then give it another very thin coat of resin and wait until this coat is just tacky, put the cloth back on using a small, clean paint roller. Leave for a day or two and job done! FORGOT TO MENTION - when finished and looking good, don't drive over it like I did

Yes! It's a bit of a fiddle to do right, but it gives you a chance to properly rust proof the door frame whilst your at it. The Haynes (!!!) Landrover restoration book has very clesr instructions on how to do it.

Only 200?, Lazy tongs? you lucky lucky bugger! I've put over 500 rivets in my 110 to date using a little hand held jobby, got forearms like bloody popeye, when funds permit, a compressor and air riveter are fairly top of my must buy list. But as my Mig has just crapped out big time 9wire feed gone tits up), a Frost supplied Eastwood Mig is currently sitting top of the list, now where can I get £350 from without SWHMO finding out.......

i've got the high back recliners fitted (well actually lying on the garage floor at the mo...) to the family 110. It's the complete Trakkers kit including their subframes, very comfortable, but the powder coating is just bloody awful, same as the inward facing fold ups in the load area (also currently residing on the garage floor). the coating CANNOT cope with damp landrovers, it peels off and just looks scabby after a year or two. Beginning to have serious doubts about buying anything that is powder coated, most of what I have bought over the years (from various suppliers, this is not just a critique of Trakkers/Exmoor trim) has been awful. Trying to remove nasty powder coating is an absolute pig.

Sorry but Sticklebricks (supposedly plastic rectangular hedgehoggy things, but in reality made of tungsten carbide) beat Lego hands down.

If you read the Brown Trouser thread on International forum you will see that the Disco was somewhat peeved that I had the temerity to repair some of it , despite it's protestations - barsteward tried to kill me earlier this week. But I had the last laugh, lets see the bugger get rid of the stains on the drivers seat.....

Guess what I did yesterday..... At the princely age of 19 years old some fatigue is outside warranty.

If you had seen the bead of rust inside the factory weld it was obvious to a layman that a dodgy weld was at fault. Once the area was cleaned up with awire brush it was also obvious that the tie rod bracket had never been replaced nor tampered with. I cannot and will not, in all honesty fault the coppers judgement. Chatting to him whilst awaiting trecovery, his knowledge of all things automotive was amazing and informative. Had the accident been due to MY dodgey welding on such a safety critical item, then I would have deserved whatever the law threw at me. Period. All in all most of of my experiences of British plod have left me with a long lasting respect for the poor buggers.

Plod was somewhat unimpressed with the welding! As the vehicle was being recovered, he suggested that should the failure be down to poor maintenance, then prosecution would ensue (which I would be in full agreement with him), however when he inspected the welds at the garage it was obvious that poor maintenance was not an issue. He also suggested I buy a lotto ticket that day...

Makes you wonder about QC in the landrover factory though.......

Being in a 2ton vehicle over which you have absolutely no control whatsoever.... I am so glad the wife wasn't driving, or if it had sheared 10 mins earlier I would have been doing 60 on the A69. Only took Nigel Prices in Newborough an hour or so to repair, most of that was spent grinding off the old weld! Bloody vehicle is making me very old very fast.

Richards chassis every time. I was told that Marslands were merely standard LR chassis that are galvanised.

Had a really bad moment this morning, whilst heading out to pick up a new exhaust for the Disco (why do the back boxes drop off when the rest of the system is perfect?), went round a tight left hand bend with adverse camber and the right hand rear axle tie rod bracket decided it did not wish to be attached to the axle anymore.... :o :o No amount of opposite lock controlled the resulting spin (rear axle steering), or the trip through the hedge, luckily stayed upright despite going sideways down a grassy field. Got recovered to a garage to find that the weld on the axle bracket had failed and the bracket was in perfect condition, just not attached to the axle anymore(surface rust yes, but no real corrosion). Now my question is how would one control such an event as opposite lock clearly didn't/couldn't/wouldn't help (max straightline speed was 22mph according to plod who was behind me), or do you do what I did and wait for the accident to unfold as a passenger? Gotta go clean the drivers seat now.....

Well children, this is how you do it.... Grind head off bolt and tap ( actually beat the living sh*t out of it with a lump mammer and drift) the remains thro, spray copious amounts of releasing fluid (when the axle looks like the Exxon Valdez, that's about the correct amount). Go away and have a cup of tea and half a packet of Jaffa cakes. Using a new slitting disk, attack bolt, turn bolt (did you use enough realeasing oil?) attack again and again until you have a groove all the way round. Using a big hammer and drift snap bolt. Tap through another length and repeat. After about an hour the the bolt is out. In three bits. Spend another two hours fabricating plates to repair bracket because the bolt hole has gone oval. Weld on plates. Remove old bushes using the time honoured method of setting fire to the buggers and drifting their metal sleeves out with a big hammer. Polish the inside of the Panhard rod hole where the new bush is going to go, doesn't have to be a mirror finish, do the same with the new bush. Put new bushes in freezer for half hour. Heat end of panhard rod until hot enough to blister finger tips( ) The recover bushes from freezer (they will feel good on the blisters, I promise) and coat outside with copper slip. Using an old 23mm 3/4 drive socket as a drift and a 30mm socket as a base drive new bush in. This needs to be done quickly before the panhard rod cools down and the hole shrinks, if this happens, use a bigger hammer. Realise it's gone midnight,test drive, go to bed, Job done.

Be very wary of cheap nuts and bolts. I bought some a while ago, all stamped 8.8 grade, from two different sources, if the cheap ones were 8.8 grade , then I belive in Santa. put it this way, I should not be able to shear the head off a 8.8 M10 Bolt using a 1/4 drive T-bar.... Those came in a multi-compartment plastic box (which was useful). Not too far from you is a nut n bolt specialist (I think they were in the Bridgewater area ) whom I bought from and their prices and quality were spot on. Will have a hunt around and see if I can find the name.

Wish I could, the protruding thread stops that, I also suspect that the bolt shank is rusted solidly into the centre of the bush... drivers side is easy, the power steering box leak has kept that completly rust free.... Another easy job gone tits up .

Nah, it's an unfinished work bench

Got a problem removing the passenger side panhard rod bolt from my 200TDi Disco. The bolt head has been rounded off by a rock ape, however there is enough room to grind the head off, but how on earth do I get the bolt stem knocked through? There aint enough room to push it all the way thro and there aint enough room to use a hacksaw blade inside the bracket. I'm completely stumped

No that refers to my wifes cooking...

well, that's me well and truly fubared, got both oil and petrol burners..... All with slightly (and not so slightly) leaky exhausts.

The main problem with drill bits, in general, is that the buggers are migratory. No matter where I put them (how they escape from platic tubes, I do not know) they never seem to stay put. Somewhere , within the dark, dingey corners of the garage is the secret drill bit cemetary, the place that twist drills go to die. One day I'll find that place and recover/resharpen the missing 5mm cobalt drills........... One day

If you can, find a long spanner, I have an old King Dick 9/16 which I inherited from my dad, just tried to find a stockist on the web. Word of warning, DO NOT type King Dick into a search engine, for the love of God.......