Ed Poore

Chamfer the front and rear edges ...

And you think the scrotes care?

For all intents and purposes GPS is receive only so there must be another comms mechanism.

Forum group buy?

Keep an eye on Defender2.net as well - they're always changing springs over there (usually lowering them) so quite often springs come up for sale.

Out of curiosity what sort of ratio is high speed vs. the slower muddy stuff? I'm by no means an expert and not done anything like this but a lot look like the tyre pressures could do with being dropped since they seem to be digging their way through a lot of the muddy sections. I know with the King of the Hammers etc that they run stuff quite high because of the speeds they hit in the desert and it's no worth airing down for the rock stuff because they loose too much time but from the footage I've seen of this so far dropping the tyre pressure looks like it would help quite a bit. Or would that risk punctures too much and therefore not worth the time in the long run?

Sort of - it's probably going to be sold from the estate once the probate is sorted out but the mutual friend we had is quite tempted (quite as in like I am with the 6x6) by it so I suspect he'll buy it off the family.

I was aware of that issue - the previous owner had diabetes so was limited on what he could drive so there were plans for down-plating it anyway. As it stands I don't have C+E but considering doing it anyway because it'd be handy to have then I might bump it back up so the payload can be increased.

Well I went to see it yesterday and it did nothing to reduce the want... It was a veritable treasure trove down there. Original 3 door classic very rust free, another 3 door classic rust free shell and chassis, 109 straight six with safari roof, Disco pick up, a P38 and my old L322. Damn it, so many good finds. Thankfully it'll take a while to sort paperwork and just need to negotiate a price.

Rebuild?! It's going to be put to work! But firstly I've got to sell my house in Surrey to free up the funds. Through a twist of fate I'm moving back to West Wales into a slightly excessive house mansion. So I've got a barn, stables and blacksmiths forge area to gut to turn into some usable workshops and labs for a business. Having the flatbed would be handy for shifting materials around. At least that's my justification . Plan is probably to have a log burner heating the workshops and labs so transporting firewood from my parents place down the road is another justification. I was thinking £6k was a decent starting point, however the condition of the chassis makes me think they're going to ask more. It's a bit of an awkward one because it's a friend whose helping out selling the many cars that were acquired over his lifetime and naturally trying to get a good price on all of them whilst I'm trying to politely push the price down!

So an acquaintance (ironically who I sold my TDV8 to) passed away recently and a mutual friend has asked if I'm interested in buying his 6x6. I thought it was a diy build but turns out it's one of the elusive Sandringham 6x6s albeit not completely original. Currently it's got a 2.8 Nissan straight 6 diesel in it and an exhaust stack behind the cab which apparently sounds incredible (will hopefully be seeing it tomorrow). The chassis is very solid and had an mot last year but oil pressure issues and surplus of vehicles meant it wasn't back on the road. Now it has a strange appeal to me and being a flatbed with pickup and 2 tonne payload makes it quite tempting for my new place in the country. I also have sat at the new place an externally rough P38 with a good 4.6 in it and after the crank escapades a spare (albeit missing cranks) 1.5x 300Tdis and a friend with whom I may experiment with converting one to a 2.8TGV spec. Question is what do people think it's worth? I have my ideas but curious what others think. There is also a crane, pto compressor and generator on the cars so could turn it into quite a handy little tool. And because pics are obligatory

I had the same thing - happened once then nothing for ages and then started doing it more often. It was the master on the way out - given they are both inexpensive I'd replace both if they're of a similar age (I did). I don't remember it being that much of a pain on my 300Tdi. I removed the whole pedal box complete though. On mine if I remember correctly it's bolts from inside the footwell that go into welded nuts, either 4 or 6 of them. Once that was done a bit of jiggling around and twisting through 90 degrees saw the whole assembly come out in-tact. While it was out I took the opportunity to repaint the bulkhead under the box and painted the housing as well.

@Mutley that was the first Milwaukee tool I got after getting to experience it in the Lakes with a garage. It wasn't cheap, think at the time (almost 4 years ago now) it was £440 for the kit with 2 5Ah batteries but it's still going strong. The only downside with it is it's a monster of a motor on it which means it doesn't fit into most places! I'm seriously considering a smaller one as I don't always need the 1000ftlbs that one delivers. You do need good fitting sockets though, if you get a perfect fit the motor often has enough torque to not even bother with the hammer action. The little 1/4" driver is also very handy for most stuff, even that "light" one is still capable of 150ftlbs.

This is easier. No air line , and I should know done 5 sodding crank bolts in the last few months!

Piece of flat bar, big bolt and some M8 (I think bolts). Make your own. I would have but I've got a mate who's already made them all!

The horns on my L322 weren't bad and just 12V so might be worth having a look.

Twin horns you say?

I'll give you a hint, if you didn't have a bulkhead then seats out of an L322 with some minor modifications fit into a Defender. And the electrics are easy to get working. Waaay more comfortable and proper armrests built in. Ironically give you more space too for some reason, although steering wheel is a little close if original size.

I keep snapping cranks Not sure the runaround P38 would survive some lanes. Still hopefully sorting out a new crank in the coming weeks and if things go smoothly will have it in over Easter. Then I can take the P38 off the road and start experimenting with a Speeduino / Megasquirt. Then it'll be the tough decision of whether the 4.6 goes into the Defender . Given my commute will have gone from 10 miles to 10 yards guess it's a no brainer.

From my reading part of their service is liaising with police so more likely to recover vehicle. Here (assuming I cam find it) if you want it.

Mike I've got a skytag lying around here somewhere that you're welcome to. Got it off someone else but never re-registered it or installed it. With my upcoming move back to Wales it won't be as necessary .

Nige is near Haslemere in Surrey.

Missed that bit...

What that it's forged? I'd have said that the witness line through the centre of the lobe infers that it's more likely to be cast (albeit good quality since it's such a fine line). The grain structure doesn't look particularly coherent either (look top left of the break) which again to me would imply casting. The picture below is a failed cast crank and to me the grain structure looks similar (poor photo above) but then again I'm no expert.

Well here's a picture of the first crank. Ignore the rust - it was outside when I went skiing. And as of today I might have a plausible explanation. The exterior crank pulley got transferred between engines because (ironically) the "new" one was very rusted up. I wonder whether I damaged the pulley getting it off after the cambelt change because both engines did a couple of thousand miles after cambelt changes and both then failed. So perhaps the damping bit of the crank pulley was damaged and subsequently cause the harmonics to destroy the crank.