Turbocharger

Unfortunately it blows it all straight through the turbo, with its close tolerances and balanced parts. Spend an hour, save five.

Be cautious with the tap. Mine was a tapered tap (1/8NPT), although not a tapered hole as I said earlier... If you have a parallel tap (BSP), then "two forward and one back" will be fine until it goes right through and spins easily. IF you're tapping with a tapered tap, at some point it'll go tight and then you'll give some welly, and then wonder how to get the snapped-off bit back out. Ask me how I know... Not a bad job though, you'll be done in four hours with tea breaks, Jaffa cakes and p*sstaking if working with a mate.

Already booked my accommodation - nothing to exhibit (as I promised last year) but still looking forward to a good weekend in the toon.

I hope you're not sending him flowers while he's in traction after your "visit"?

Not a lot of help, but did all the springs go back in? Sounds like one's missing and it's picking up the trailing shoe.

Welcome back Jon!

Definitely remove it. It'll take you much, much longer to clear up the mess otherwise, and it's not that bad a job, just spannerwork. Don't forget it's a tapered hole - don't snap the tap!

Oh no! i guess it's easier for them to take your excess off you, than argue the toss with the other insurer. Sounds like time for a no-win, no-fee firm. Normally I abhor them but I suspect that just threatening your insurer with them will make them reconsider their position.

I bought an MGF. I had a Landy, which I knew well and understood the faults and "features". I had plans for it but not that wouldn't compromise its daily duties. Another car could fill the daily driver role and add some fun into the bargain, and free up the Ninety for some sillier / less practical modifications. Otherwise, I'd go for an £800 Disco because it can only ever depreciate £800 and they're not too bad to drive to playdays etc. Or a SnoCat - you know you want to

James - it's a big relay. 12v onto the spade with the body earthed should make a big 'clunk' as the solenoid moves. It connects the two studs electrically, which makes the starter turn. Check that it goes clunk, and that there's good continuity across the studs, less than an ohm if the contacts are clean inside.

As FF says, some people carry welding gear and an engine crane, some just take a credit card and their AA membership. I've got a little 8" plastic toolbox with as many cheap, useful size spanners, screwdrivers and a hammer as will fit in it, plus a hub nut spanner and wheel bearings. I'm not in the AA, but so long as I can rectify whatever's broken so it'll roll, I can call a mate to tow me home.

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. I was suggesting that it is scrap - mine looked like that and was having issues with coolant so I changed it. It might be fine, but it's a lot of labour to find out that it's not...

Good job I checked - trial's cancelled due to snow. Must be sixteen feet deep to stop a bunch of competition LandRovers reaching a site!

Yep, I'd buy that, at £400 a tonne or less. Classic thermal stress cracks. They may not go back to the coolant jacket (yet) but it's a ball of a job to do, and then find you need to do again.

Top plan! I'll take a rugby shirt and fleece, black or navy, both in M please, perfect for laning in. The world doesn't need my artistry, but tube frames excite people and everyone loves a good looking bead of weld. Otherwise, a Simex or BFG Mud pattern are easily recognisable?

Mild: 100" Defender Tdi auto Wild: 101 on a RR chassis Wacky: Portalled 100" coiler with an estate car body on top - no need for all that height! (Hang on, if all of theses are 100"s, why have I got a Ninety? )

This is a slippery slope. Just spectating, now taking a few photos, then it'll just be a little bit of winching when one of the specials has a topply moment. Last time I went down this road I ended up on the committee! No probs, I'll charge my camera batteries.

I've got a "weightened" flywheel because of the way my autobox conversion is done - the flex plate and torque converter are bolted to the flywheel. No noticeable difference in pickup when the engine's revved in neutral. Take your toolbox out instead and leave your spare wheel at home. The brakes will work better then too!

Thanks guys - I need to get off my ar*e and enter something, anything, then! I'll be spectating at the AWDC event in Keynsham this weekend, and I'll have another think about winch events.

Now that looks like great fun!

I've reposted the whole story with photos here - the originals were deleted when the duplicate of this thread was removed. If anybody would prefer I'll remove them. After Christmas I led a group of three vehicles out around the Peaks to enjoy some good scenery and see if we could find anything to tax the newcomer to our group, a bog-standard Suzuki Jimny on road tyres. After a few muddy rutted lanes south of Bakewell we headed towards Sheffield and crossed Houndkirk Moor: Both the Ninetys were taking it well despite some snow still lying where the sun hadn't caught it, and the Jimny was surprisingly composed over some very rough ground. Encouraged, but mindful of the conditions we headed to Stanage, down hill and with the Jimny leading so we had the two winches behind it in case of trouble. The Jimny struggled a little with ground clearance to the radius arm mounts (some big clonks!) and was a little short of wheel travel, but very impressive for the toy offroader we all thought it was. Some lovely scenery up there. The ramblers lined up silhouetted like the Mafia from the Italian Job to watch our red, white and blue convoy, but none had a bad word to say (to our faces) and most were very impressed with the Jimny in fact. Buoyed by the good, dry conditions and the ability shown by the Jimny, we decided to have a look at Roych Clough. This Discovery was at the top (after Mountain Rescue had retrieved the owners) - a bad omen perhaps? I have more photos from about 3pm on 28th December if they'd be of use to the owner, please PM me. We headed on down the track, as slowly as possible with the Jimny in the middle of the convoy to give best chance of recovery if it got beached or stuck. Bearing in mind that it was growing dark and the temperature was slipping towards zero, we tackled the steps individually - some were rather large which was a little concerning for the Jimny! In fact, the Jimny bounced down fine, with just a couple of scrapes to the radius arm mounts. However, the second Ninety didn't fare so well, slipping on the wet/icy rocks and one wheel climbed the bank just as another dropped down a step, and the whole car tipped slowly onto the driver's side. Everyone was ok, no injuries and the situation was safe with everyone out of the car within 5 mins. With two support cars and six people, we felt able to tackle the recovery although we needed to winch the Ninety from behind - the best car was mine, but it was at the front of the group. We looked at the ground to the side of the lane but didn't want to cause any more damage than was entirely necessary, so with no time-critical issues I drove the rest of the lane (which I am familiar with, albeit twelve months ago) down to Chapel and then back up to come along behind the stricken Ninety. The rest of the party planned the recovery and waited in the warm Jimny. With a group of four in the right clothing and state of mind, I had no qualms about leaving them. Once back with the group, we put a winch cable on the bulkhead outrigger to pull sideways and from behind, got everyone uphill of the recovery and pulled it back onto the bank. Carefully re-entering the rolled car through the uphill door, it was driven on RH lock back onto the lane with a combination of the starter motor and winch cable, until squarely back on all four wheels. We checked the oils and fluids, topped up a little lost engine oil and assessed the damage: one bent sill, one bent mirror arm (but no smashed mirrors or glass!) but a rather distraught Brownchurch roofrack. In truth, I think the rack took the impact of the three-foot fall and saved the rest of the car and its occupants from further damage. With everything and everyone checked over, we drove the rest of the lane with similar caution and then headed for home. I don't mean this writeup to sound overly cautious but I don't want to be tarred with the "gung-ho" attitude that I assume other groups have had when I've seen six or seven vehicles out laning, tackling banks and ditches which aren't on the ROW and treating vehicle rollovers as entertainment. This was a serious incident for our group and we were very aware that we could have seen damage, injuries or worse, during the roll or during the subsequent recovery. We did consider calling mountain rescue when the vehicle rolled, but thought they'd see us as stupid for ringing when we still had two working vehicles. We also considered leaving the recovery until the next day, for better light and warmer temperatures, and indeed this was our backup plan if the simple winch righting had failed. Overall, an enjoyable day but with a two-hour pause for thought at the end. Impressed with the showroom-spec Jimny though.

From seeing the lane over ten years, the steps are bedrock and aren't changing except from the prevailing weather. Recently it's been cold, snowy and icy and it has caught two people out - that's all.

Thanks Jerry. I looked at all of the above clubs but none except AWDC have any events within an hour of here (I've updated my profile, howdy neighbour). I know what you mean about AWDC, and I'm buggered if I'm taking the trick diff back out just for one weekend a month!

New Year's Resolution - use the LR more. I used to compete in RTVs with BADLRC in the 1990s, but I moved away and used the truck for different things which now gives me a hotchpotch of specification. Now based in Gloucestershire, I'd like to have a crack at RTVs or winch challenges again. I don't want to damage it, I'm not too fussed about winning and not too bothered about bodywork scrapes etc but I can't trailer it to/from the events. Last time I tried my hand at one of JST's challenges, a lack of driver skill and some circumspect bitching (thanks Will Warne ) meant my Milemarker and Trutrac were hopelessly outclassed against the ARB'd tube-traybacks and I came away with a head-sized dent in the hardtop. The truck's spec is: 300Tdi auto Ninety hardtop a little lift 33" BFG MTs TruTrac (not a locker) in the rear axle Milemarker winch on the front internal/external rollcage Looking around, there aren't any ALRC clubs running RTVs nearby, though the AWDC are running an RTV next weekend between Bristol and Bath. It seems the diff is enough to force me out of standard class without actually being a locker, and the winch is enough to qualify me for events but slow enough to mean there's a queue behind me for each punch. I intend to go and spectate at the AWDC event next week to see if the world's moved on while I stood still, but does anyone have any other suggestions? (And before anyone suggests it, I know I could take the rope off the winch, say nothing about the Trutrac and compete in standard class with a cage, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth so no )

Can you tease us by confirming a couple of the details - like where in the country this is, and how much it costs? I don't know who "the men in Orange" are... I'd be very interested in a site near Cheltenham, but it's all a bit unclear.