Turbocharger

There are some bizarre rules out there - service buses on stage carriage work do not need working windscreen washers to pass a roadside inspection, for example. What brought you to a CPC? It's something I've got to achieve in the next 12 months, although nobody in work has actually mentioned how much work it is yet...

BBC report that Billing has been sold to the Pure Leisure group - my Mum's been told that the plans are for a Centreparcs, so no more sales or motor events there. Anybody heard anything?

.. lifted from the Tornado Motorsport website, I believe. The same lad who fitted my cage, in fact. http://www.tornadomotorsport.co.uk/ See the Oops page for similar silly action, including his antics on oval track racing.

A mate and I fitted new diff centres to our rear axles (only) for laning, trialling etc, but not racing. He fitted a Detroit, I put a TrueTrac in. We both do a fair bit of road mileage too, so might not be so relevant to you. The Detroit locks until there's enough differential force across the two wheels to 'break' that lock, while the TruTrac biases the torque at eg 3:1 ratio, away from the wheel with least grip. The Detroit definately tends to push the car straight on more than the TruTrac on- or off-road, and the TruTrac acts almost as a locker, up until I actually lift a wheel - the biasing effect is very pronounced in the unit I have. (Even then, using my left foot to drag the brakes lightly can bring enough traction to extract me from a sticky situation...) On the road, a TruTrac in the rear really really helps high-speed cornering under heavy power, since the car heels over like a galleon and starts to lift the inside wheel. Then the outside wheel receives all the power and it literally flicks the car round, it pushes it really aggressively from exactly the corner of the car that you're looking for. At the extreme of this, it makes the car more oversteery under heavy power. Other than that, ie when you're not slipping a wheel, it's completely transparent and I've had no ill-effects from using it day to day. With the Detroit, however, I've had some more exciting experiences as it locks and unlocks in roundabouts etc, and I personally wouldn't fit one to my daily drive. However, my mate (TroddenMasses on here) loves it. For racing on loose surfaces or when the wheels are regularly losing contact with the ground, a TruTrac (or similar) might give some interesting effects as power comes from one side of the car or the other, but it ought to be an improvement if power is being transmitted, so long as the car remains controllable?

I think Merlin Motorsport do them, but it was just as easy to import a kit from Thermoman in Australia (although there's considerable damping in the one I have, I still have concerns that I don't see the biggest 'peaks' in temperature because of the slow response time). The unit is awkward to mount in a Defender dash but very easy to read at a glance with large, clear numbers. Tony Cordell has the same gauge unit as me but fitted a smaller thermocouple to it - he said this improved the response but I think the crux of the problem is with the internal damping in the gauge unit itself. Will Warne has a very "fast" unit which ought to show all transients, and neat in a 52mm round 'clock' although the gauge itself is digital and quite hard to read with small digits.

Team me up with anyone you like, just make sure they don't expect me to do anything other than get stuck and perhaps suffer panel damage. I may have a bitching seat too - offers?

A couple of weeks ago I bought one from here on Ebay and I'm very pleased. It's done about four wheels on/off on a single charge, but comes with a 1hr charger and a second battery. I plumped for the 18pce socket set too, they were out of stock of the one mentioned so sent me an 18pce Rolson set instead. Not the best quality perhaps but seems plenty adequate for what I'm doing with it. Last week my car failed the MOT for cuts to the sidewall of one tyre, so Mr MOT advised me to fit the spare. Didn't I look like the coolest guy in school when I jacked it up on his forecourt, blitzed the wheel off and fitted the spare? I re-presented it for test 5 mins after receiving the failure sheet, and it passed It wouldn't take very long to re-fit the allegedly dangerous tyre that evening either, but I wouldn't know about that. You're welcome to borrow it for a week to trial it if you like?

Handling wise, if you fit a front bar, you'll get more understeer and fitting a rear bar gives more oversteer. Fitting funky shocks will give better response to entering corners and leaving corners etc but you'll still get the same 'angle of dangle' in a long bend / big roundabout etc. It makes a huge difference to your confidence in the bend though.

The valve stem seals go hard over time with exposure to the oil - I shattered the old ones off my 2.5NAD! They may have dried up and shrunk back slightly if the engine's been laid up for a time.

Didn't you buy your Freelander at auction?

So if a milk float is travelling at 5mph, it's illegal but if it's a Transit van with 'motorway maintenance' in the back window, that's fine?

Following Mr Masses approach, you should also fit a microswitch to disable the cruise control when the handbrake is applied... eh Keir?

[blatant trolling]Of course, you were signalling right to show that you intended to move out, preventing the guy behind from passing?[/bt]

It's rare that outstanding service gets merit, but where it's due... I need a drop-arm ball joint kit but can't get to the shop before Pete shuts. "No problem," says Pete, "I know you're good for the money so I'll leave it in the paper shop three doors down, you can collect from them any time until 6pm". Continued custom justifies this level of service. This level of service means he gets my continued custom; I don't even check prices elsewhere any more.

I spent the weekend in Amsterdam on a (well, the lamest) stag weekend (in history) for a drug-free teetotaller from Uni. Nice city though. Bish - hankering after your boot space back again? Or considering a replacement for your Seat?

Yeah, pencil me in for the late part of Spring or early Summer. Sounds like a fantastic week out, but can we have it all tarmacked first for the likes of Bish and I? Si - re Pennines - our mountains are small. Theirs are far away... Camping / outside of school hols please.

Just to wade in, quote out of context and try to shoot you down on the only part I know anything about : The conical surfaces on the steel wheel and normal nut are simply to locate and centralise the wheel. Since the friction is independent of contact area, concentrating the force into a small area doesn't make any difference to the holding torque or clamping force, although the stress concentration would excessively deform an alloy wheel so LR alloys use a spigot mounting and plain washers under the wheel nuts (coincidentally, just like a bus wheel). The LR nuts also have a cone machined on so you can use the same nuts with your steel spare though. The rest of your post looks spot on though, as far as I understand it! :ninja:

Put me down for the C in TBC, competing, marshalling or spectating. I even don't mind teaming up with Mr 'I Can Break Anything' Rafferty.

I have a Disco drop arm on my Defender - you use the Disco drag link and a standard ball joint, and I've got Sumo bars with a clamp arrangement to carry the steering damper. You could fit the 110's drop arm instead, but I converted across to get rid of the horrible mud-trap drop-arm ball joint.

WOOHOO my car's not stolen! I'm done now. Meanwhile, Les, if you need some punches I can get hold of some - let me know before the weekend and I'll drop them off on Sunday night.

Not that horrific Corsa with all the pink 'Love me hug me' cushions?

I was speaking to the guy from VOSA who does our external bus inspections (and slaps prohibitions on our 'dangerous' vehicles which have bulbs out) and his definition of a sharp edge is to drag the back of his sleeve across it and see if it snags.

His last slave died... of disobedience.

It'll be reet, if it's really close to the fuel tank just splatter the hole with weld* until you've covered most of it up, then filler over the rest. Perfick. *especially good if you've got a minor fuel leak

Hmm... that's not where the number is on my Ninety. Maybe I should shut up at this point because LRs are different / I'm mistaken / mine's a ringer, but it's further down the leg, on the extended bit where the "dumb iron" pokes forward under the bumper to take the LR 4ft screw jack thing. On the bit that RRs probably don't have. Ignore me.