FITZ

We're not even allowed to drive on half the green lanes in the UK and that's with a driver, road tax and insurance. Can you see this nanny state letting you unlesh a few tons of car without a driver for a hundred odd mile trip? You would be enjoying yourself and that's clearly against the law.

OK thanks, will be having a look at it Friday, as long as it's stopped raining

I can let you have a steering column with the U/J's for £25 collect Basingstoke or Bordon.

OK I guess that rules out the drop arm theory. For the record I've not changed any steering components other than the track rod. Fitted a heavy duty job but made the same lenght as the one that came off and alignment checked out OK. That was some time ago. I've only just noticed the lack of lock in one direction. Could be the steering damper, espscially if I've damged it. Could be the drag link. Would a 2" lift have much effect on the lenght of the drag link? (Once again lift was some time ago) Re. other suggestions... willing to learn but Steering U/Js I can't see how they can be wrong as the have a locator bolt? Steering wheel can that have any affect? I guess another one could be someting in the steering box stoping full movement.

will the drop arm only go back in one position or are the splines such that it can be slightly out. I can get full lock in one direction and half inch short of the stop bolt in the other direction (both bolts wound right in). I appreciate the other alternative is a drag link adjusted to the wrong length but the drop arm in the wrong position seems more likely if it's possible. I t's a four bolt box on a 1989 range rover but it's the same as a 4 bolt on Defender / Disco

Best winch mount ever? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/9000lb-electric-winc...1QQcmdZViewItem

There's no need to remove the a-frame, front spoiler, track rod or panhard rod despite what may be said in the manual! Start by giving it all bolts/threads a good spray of WD40 or plus gas a day before. Do one spring at a time start on rears as they are the easy ones. Rears 1. jack up axle 2. put axle stand under axle 3. remove wheel 4. undo shocker (top or bottom if your not replacing. Top and bottom if your replacing) 5. undo lower spring retaing plate (2 bolts) 6. put on spring compressors (use a cople of luggage strap if you don't have spring compressor). The old springs usually come out without compressing them. 7. Jack up body (don't over stetch the brake pipe) 8. Remove spring. 9. Fit spring compressors to new spring 10 refit is reverse order of removal. That should take you under an hour now do the other side. Fronts Note where the shock washer and rubber sit before you remove them. 1. jack up axle 2. put axle stand under axle 3. remove wheel 4. undo shocker (top and bottom) 5. put on spring compressors (use a cople of luggage strap if you don't have spring compressor) 6. Jack up body (don't over stetch the brake pipe) 7. Try and remove spring / shock. If you can't get it out remove turret, remove shocker from the top then remove spring. You will have to remove the airflow meter (2 min job) on the nearside to access the turret bolts and remove the turret 9. Fit spring compressors to new spring 10. refit is reverse order of removal. That should take you under two hours even if you have to remove the turret now do the other side. It is a easy job if the bots nuts are not to rusted. It's only a pain when bolts start breaking and youe can't get the nuts off the front shockers. If the shocker nuts are rusted soiled I usually cut them off with the grinder.

Nige, thanks for that I'll pop into Holybourne and check it out.

Thanks for the replies so far. 300tdi good point, Bardens looks intresting and a tenner at the scrappy sounds very tempting:)

I need a new battery for my 3.9 classic Rangie. I would like to buy a Heavy Duty battery at a reasonable price. Someone said that rather than pay over the odds because it's a Range Rover I could buy a diesel car/van battery with better performance for less money. Any tips on what battery will fit i.e. correct phsical size and batter cold cranking amps and and ampere hour rating? Yes I know optima are good but I don't want to spend that much:)

When it snapped it only left the threaded part of the plug in the head. the hole in the middle allowed me to use the grease gun to fill the cylinder. Update I invested in a Sealey 'spark plug thread chasing tool' only £8 at a local car spares shop (about £6 on ebay plus P&P if you want one). This was excellent at cleaning up the damaged thread in the head ( damaged by me getting the remnants of the spark plug thread out with a small scew driver). I did a final vacuum of the cylinder and a search for the last of any swarf with a magnetic screwdriver. Put the new plug in (with copper slip) a bob your uncle she's a good un.

Update. After 2 hours I manage to drill out the plug and remove the remains of the plug thread from the head. Before I started I moved the piston to the top of it's stroke and filled the bore with grease, that allowed me to retrive the swarf with a magnetic screwdriver. I drilled very slowly and removed the swarf before it got to hot and melted the grease. I managed to get most of the grease out though the plug hole with a scew driver some small ceramic pices came out with the grease. Next step is to clean the thread up and get a 10mm tube on the end of the aquavac to remove any ceramic debries. Fingers crossed and may get away with it. Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.

Thanks for the replies, I'll have a look tonight and see if anything spings to mind other than taking the head off which as you pont out maybe the only option.

Snapped Spark Plug - Any Tips?? I was 'helping' my son service his first car, an old fiesta that we had recently bought. It was obvious that it had not been serviced in a long while and the spark plugs were surrounded by rust. We blew out the loose rust and soaked the plugs in WD40. Three came out, they were all very tight but with half a turn out and a quater back they came out but the forth plug would not move. I suggest we took it for a run and the plug may move with the engine hot. When I tried again but the plug snapped off clean with the block I'm reluctant to try a thread removal tool as the plugs were so tight I think it would just snap. So the question is any tips for removing the remaing part of the plug?

Nige great stuff but not by Bill Gates. It's from the book "Dumbing Down our Kids" by Charles Sykes. http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_b...ates_speech.htm http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/billgatesspeech.htm

Cr&p design alternator on the 3.9. I bu66ered mine up at the weekened playing in a mud run at Slab Common. I had a spare alternator so not a major issue. A bit awkward to get to the lower bolts but do'able. The problem is that to get the belt on you have to take the alternator off, I only found this out after I had refitted the new alternator The adjustment with the sliding top bolt is insufficent to get a new belt on, so you have to take out all three bolts. Very awkward, even at home in daylight with all the right tools. Must be a nightmare to replace at night on the road. While I was doing it I changed all three belts. To my suprise, the inner belt (PAS) was split with about 1mm remaining and the fan belt was not much better. Getting the new inner belt on is also a pain in the arse as the PAS pump only slides untill it touches the block and it could do with more slack to get the belt on. I had to turn the pump while levering the new belt on the pully with a thin blade screw driver, a three handed job:) I thought the whole job would take about 30 minutes in the end it took me about two hours to replace the three belts. My guess is that most inner belts (PAS) don't get checked or changed that often, so best check yours now before it fails.

Just a liitle word of warning, don't under estimate what a bugger some of the body mount bolts are to undo. I taken half a dozen RR bodies of the chassis and there's always a couple that are a real git. On one car it had had new foot wells welded in place, lovely job but there were no holes to get to the top of the bolts (yes you will need to stop the head turning) So that one had the added aggro of having to cut the floor out to get to the bolt heads.

Sorry about the oversize piccy now resized. IMHO, standard wheels with 235/85 will hit the front arch on lock and FULL articulation, if youve not done it yet V8bertha you've not been trying. For the record wheels are 6.5J rather than the normal 7J in an attempt to get better lock while not addiding to the overal track diameter, not much benefit unless your into trailing.

I have got the glass out but not without damaging the frame. Have you tried closing the top with the bottom open? You may find it's the bottom out of adjustment that is stoping the top from closing correctly. The frames bend as the catches are on the edges and the handle is in the middle. Most will shut if you close with a hand each side rather than on the centre handle. In reply to 'Any tips?' here's a couple........... - Don't eat yellow snow - If your asthmatic avoid breath taking views

I've only just read this thread and I'm sorry to hear you have now found other problems. Your original problem could be one faulty injector. If one injector is faulty and goes down to earth the other three injectors on the same bank will open full bore and dump fuel into the bores. Best of luck let us now how you get on.

re 235/85 x16 with 2" lift. I've done four Rangies now to run re 235/85 x16 with a 2" lift. I agree with Bishbosh on the rears. You will need to trim the outer arch about 20mm where the door shuts. Extend the bump stops 1" to stop the tyres fouling the inner arch on full articulation. The fronts will muller the wing on FULL articulation. If Bishbosh's have not I can only assume his not been at full articulaion with the whhels turned. Granted it does also depend on the tyre type but all the MT's I've tried will foul unless you trim 20mm off the front wing. Just bite the bullet and trim the wings, it still looks fine and you'll have good diff clearance. Here's a couple of pics showing my trimmed wings....

I've not seen the repair panels. I cut a good arch off a scrap body and welded it on. It was a bit off a pain cuting it off the old body and trimming my rusty arch / C post to accept the replacement arch. I guess it took about half a day all told. The bottom of the C post was also rusted so I had to take a small section of that with the arch which made cutting it more off a pain. If it's just the arch it should be slightly easier.

I got a good ZF box witkout the transfer box cheap as chips £100 collect Basingstoke. Just for the record, I prefer the ZF with LT230 transfer box. I'm not happy that the wheel has to spin before the BW does it's stuff. Either way I prefer the ZF auto over the manuals or the 3 speed auto. If your intrested in the ZF box give me a call next week Mon-Fri 8am -5pm 07774277601

Anything earlier than 1989 will be 10 spline, from the factory but it's still worth checking the axle serial number in case it's had a replacement axle in the past. The axle serial number is stamped either on the top or the front of the axle casing, on the left hand side, in line with the axle breather. It will be a three digit number followed by a letter suffix. 10 spline up to axle suffix 'G'. Axle suffix 'H' onwards 24 spline. If you want a 10 spline I can do you a known good diff for £40 collect Basingstoke or + £20 P&P 07774277601 (mon-fri 8am-5pm)

I had 38mm and was not happy with the amount they bent on long spans. I sold them to a mate with a Freelander to which I think they are better suited and bought a set of 50mm.