nicks90

you can fit 33" rubber on with next to no mods, 255/85/16 its a good popular size and really does look good and is about as big as you can go without upsetting everything else and making the vehicle a pig.

thanks guys will be going with some normal bb pellets and see how it goes.

Recorded it and just finished watching it. Highly enjoyable and. I now want to have a go in my 90 in standard class!!! My wife now wants to hunt you down and hurt you.... :-)

Just reviving an old thread - sorry. But has anyone got any long term reviews about using bb pellets as balance beads? Do thr ceramic / plastic pellets crumble after time, does it wear out or damage the inside of the tyre etc? I can't get my fedimas to balance and the local fishing shop has big bags of copper bb pellets going extremely cheaply, so was considering getting a kilo of them. Would copper be a bad choice? Thanks for any advice, Nick

You hit the nail on the head, diff should not have any lateral play - only rotational. Yep, replace the bearing should fix it. Do it sooner than later, as if the movement gets too great it can cause bad wear and it'll whine like hell no matter what you do.

Yep. Another vote for tthe avon rangemasters, cracking tyre! Or the grabber TR, both will cope with laning and very good on road.

I used 2 liters of coach enamel doing my 90. 3 coats with a gloss roller.

I,m currently on standard 90 csw springs and the ride is much better than it was with 'lift springs' - but still to stiff - when I change them next I shall be using standard disco 300tdi springs. Th disco is the heavier vehicle and yet has softer springs! Although I do have good shocks to help stability though. Also I may fit some spring spacers to retain the normal ride height if the disco springs cause it to drop more than an inch.

I agree with what others have said - but I was more referring to the fact the defender is essentially the same construction, chassis with seperate body...... and that body is ALL bolted together!

But but but... the body isn't structural, it has a separate chassis. So as ling as the rust isn't near body mints or seat belt mounts, I dont understand why they would need to be failed for rust anyway!

http://www.offroaders.com/tech/AT-MT-Tires/MT-Mud_Terrains.htm Although each page mostly consists of the company blurb, the reviews and stars awarded are all reader reviews' some can be very cutting too :-) And as m&s said, watch what others are using at the sites you go offroading to.

If you can be bothered to replace the clip, put a blob of blutack on the end of a 12" extension bar and put the clip on the end. Push it home and give the bar a twist to remove the blutack and withdraw...

I will lend pretty much any of my stuff to anyone on the basis of 'you bend it, you mend it'. If I had maassive doubts about someone I would maybe have a think...but probably still give them benefit of the doubt.

thats why i was asking - as i'm not sure if cryo affects the springiness of the metal or how it affects other shaft attributes. dont want them mega hard, but so brittle the slightest shock causes them to grenade like glass!

Guys, just after a bit of advice really, I only use my 300tdi 90 for the road and monthly trials - so it doesn't get really heavy use. So ashcrofts and lockers are too pricy and not really needed. But I do get a handfull of diffs and shafts that fail. Place near me does cryo treating aand it got me thinking.... would treating the diffs cv's and shafts give me a moderate strength improvement over stock 24 spline stuff? Cos the cost is tiny compared to the ashcroft route. I dont really understand the mechanics of what's hardened and why and what it does. Certainly don't know what impact cryo treating would have! Can anyone shed any light on this subject, would appreciate it, Cheers, nick

Guys, just after a bit of advice really, I only use my 300tdi 90 for the road and monthly trials - so it doesn't get really heavy use. So ashcrofts and lockers are too pricy and not really needed. But I do get a handfull of diffs and shafts that fail. Place near me does cryo treating aand it got me thinking.... would treating the diffs cv's and shafts give me a moderate strength improvement over stock 24 spline stuff? Cos the cost is tiny compared to the ashcroft route. I dont really understand the mechanics of what's hardened and why and what it does. Certainly don't know what impact cryo treating would have! Can anyone shed any light on this subject, would appreciate it, Cheers, nick

when i bend my steering arms again - i am upgrading to strengthened bars. I do have a steering guard fitted - but that is also bent and i have still managed to bend the steering arms behind it as well! My only concern with uprated arms V steering guard... big impacts onto the strengthened arms will transmit the force directly to the drop arm and hence to your steering box. that does worry me slightly.

give it a good scrub from the outside and make sure its really clean and dry (you may have to drop the oil) and then put a layer of epoxy on the thin bits. not a proper repair and its only delaying the innevitable - but as a way of temporarily sealing the weeping for a while for the cost of a tube of epoxy - it will do.

this would be the 'simplest' automatic solution - servo driven off a temperature operated switch. Plenty of small servos to be had cheap (think RC cars for front steering) and an X fan... bobajob.

sorry - meant 3dr and 5dr.....

but they are woefully short on interior space considering their external size! I was shocked and stunned at how pitiful the boot is! Our xtrail is about 6" longer than a 5 door freeby, yet it has more space inside than a disco 2 (all the disco2 rubber mats got transfered to the xtrail and they arent big enough, none of them are!) Compare the xtrail to a freeby and its like squeezing into an mx5!!!!!!!! awful ergonomics, no head room if its got a sunroof, almost no elbow room, boot is rubbish, rear seats cramped - list goes on. Dont get me wrong, i aint a freeby hater. When the disco2 got written off, our first job was to go test drive 3 different freebies, lwb v6 and td4 and a swb petrol. Seriously dissapointed with all 3, slow and gutless and cramped. there are so many more better softroaders out there, but the freeby still sells because of the badge. Now a FL2....... ooooooh yes! but thats basically the size of an old disco anyway!

yes you can repair the pipes - but standard hydraulic stuff wont cut the mustard as the pressures are very high! however, when mine went pop (same place you mention) i got an agricultural engineering place near me to fix it - they;re used to very high pressure hydraulics on farm machinery and had the right equipment and fittings to do a proper repair rated far in excess of the pressures ACE runs. cost about £50 - which at the time was vastly cheaper than a set of replacement hoses from LR.

ACE was standard on all discos that had rear air suspension and an option for all the others. If it has bags on the back it will definitely have it, unless it proved problematic and a previous owner ripped it off and put standard arb's on it. its a very good system, when it doesnt puke its green guts out.

I know the feeling on having those feelings of straying from the familly. we recently bought a nissan xtrail after our disco2 got written off, it is a better vehicle but i hate its blandness. Wor lass wants to sell the nissan and get another disco 2 - so i;ve been keeping my eyes open and looking at a few potentials....... but i went to see a merc ml500 on lpg the other day without telling her. OMG!!!!!! OMG!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! i am in lurrrrrrrrrrrrrrve :-) it has everything, and i mean everything that a gadget lover could possibly want. And it was seriously, massively, face splittingly fast. and it handled beautifully. With LPG it works out (according to the fuel figures that were on its computer) to be doing an average in terms of cost of 25mpg. Thats only a smidge less than we got out of our td5 disco2 overall.................. i am seriously tempted.

it would have to be a disco1 300tdi manual! same simplistic nuts and bolts type of vehicle as a defender - they aint that different underneath - but they are soooo much more comfortable and especially if it had aircon too! Bigger fuel tank, slightly better mpg, less likely to attract the wrong attention and you can use it as an everyday car when you get home. Plus its cheaper to buy so the carnet will be alot less. if there are only 2 of you, then remove the rear seats and the space for your gear is way more than you need. Nice roof rack and roof tent and you're sorted. Although I would be tempted to fit defender springs to it, gives a slight lift unloaded and will increase the carrying capability when you load it up.