Tanuki
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Posts posted by Tanuki
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I've got the opportunity to acquire a set of early-1980s Range Rover 'Rostyle' steel wheels for the cost of a few beers.
Question: Will they fit a 2001 Defender-90 ?? I've seen various 200/300-type Defenders wearing these wheels but something at the back of my mind says the centre-part of the drive flanges on later axles were larger and earlier wheels don't fit.
--Tanuki
"One winter's day the Buddha was walking trough the forest when he came upon a weasel, half dead from cold, lying in the snow. Picking up the weasel the Buddha tucked it into the lining of his warm coat and carried it home to his wife, who baked it into a tasty pie. At that moment the Weasel was enlightened."
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Looks like some Monroe stockists will be getting a call tomorrow then.
Would be interested to know, if I took the 90 in to an independent specialist and asked them to change the front shock bushes, where they would get them from.
They'd probably say "we can fit OEM Land-Rover ones, but since you're paying an hour's labour per corner just to change the bushes, while we're doing the job it would really make sense to replace the shocks as well".
Parts are cheap.
Labour's expensive.
--Tanuki.
Keep it alive,
Make it go,
And make it go fast!
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This could be a high resistance in the ignition-switch, or the wrong-rating of ignition-warning-light bulb.
The 15/16/17/18-series alternators depend on current fed through the ignition-warning-light bulb to provide the initial excitation magnetic-field.
If the ignition-switch has a high resistance, or if a 1.2-watt bulb is fitted rather than the correct 2.2-watt, the alternator doesn't get fed with adequate current to activate it at idle-RPM.
Truth is, the Lucas "ACR" alternators are not that good. Far better to source a Bosch K1-55A from something like a 1980s-era Ford Transit/Mondeo/Escort.
--Tanuki.
So, Starfleet-commander Domestos. What news of the Federation's sworn enemies the Toilet-Ducks?
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The bushes do indeed depend on the shock-absorbers: when I fitted Bilsteins to my 90TD5 they came with a full set of appropriate rubber bushes, dished cups/washers and centre-tubes.
--Tanuki
"Sir Henry was best known for inventing the "Doppler Shift" school of music; getting the orchestra to play rapidly rising or descending scales. This causes the orchestra to move. Initial scepticism on the merits of this new art-form were dispelled when the London Symphony Orchestra were timed at 75MPH through a police speed-trap"
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Feed +12V from battery to + terminal of the coil; connect coil - terminal to distributor.
Take off the fanbelt: you can run for a minute or so with no water-pump, but if you spin the alternator without a proper load being connected, it can destroy the rectifier/regulator.
Oh yes - hook up an oil-pressure-gauge! A friend wrecked the bearings/crank in a newly built Ford 351CID V8 at first startup because the (new) oil-pump decided it didn't want to pump oil after all.
--Tanuki.
"The last Tormentor General was one Thomas Bainbridge, appointed to the post by Oliver Cromwell in 1642. With his creative punishments he played a major part in the Massacre of Drogheda in 1649 but on the restoration of the Monarchy in 1661 Bainbridge was arrested, found guilty of high treason, and executed by being lowered head-first into a barrel of toads".
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I'm perplexed at the idea of "needlessly hot" - I always seek to get my engines running as-hot-as-possible because that's the most-efficient.
Something like 99 degrees coolant temp (assuming you have 50% glycol as the coolant) and 110-130 degrees bulk-oil temperature seems good. That's what we aim for on the big Caterpillar turbodiesel generators I play with for my day-job. Cool-running loses you both engine-life and fuel-consumption.
--Tanuki
"Consider a perfectly-spherical cow, of point-mass"
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Symptoms:
1) Whining/screaming/gurgling from fuel-pump
2) Misfiring/loss of power
3) Non-starting, or engine starts & cuts out.
Cause: failure of copper injector-seals allowing combustion gases into fuel-rail/fuel-pipework. Cheap to fix, but don't leave it too long or it will destroy the fuel-pump (£500 to fix).
Symptoms:
1) Engine responds very lethargically under all conditions.
Cause: Wastegate stuck open. Easily fixed by putting a graphite/moly-based lubricant on the wastegate spindle and 'exercising' it manually.
Symptoms:
1) Engine runs well, but switches into 'limp-home' lethargic mode during full-throttle acceleration. Switching the engine off and restarting restores normal power until the next period of full-throttle use.
Cause: Wastegate stuck shut. Fix as for 'wastegate stuck open'.
--Tanuki.
The person who coined the phrase "as different as chalk and cheese" - obviously hadn't tasted Tesco "Value" cheddar.
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Standard practice is to put the thermoswitch in the bottom of the radiator/bottom-hose. Look at any current-production car with an electric fan and you'll find thats where the thermoswitch is.
The temperature of the water coming out of the engine doesn't really matter - you could be storming up a glacier at full-throttle and if the ambient-air temp is -20 then the radiator will be quite capable of holding the engine-temperature at a sensible value without running the fan. And, let's face it, Land-Rovers are fitted with radiators that are massively-oversized for any kind of 'summer' we'll get in the UK. A hot-running engine is an efficient engine - ideally you want bulk-coolant temperatures around 90-95 degrees and the oil a bit hotter (110-140 degrees with modern synthetics) to ensure any condensation is boiled-off.
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Does the fuel-pump make unusual noises (whining/gurgling) when you're waiting for the glowplug-light to go out before trying to start?
If so your misfire could be caused by failed copper injector-seals allowing combustion gases back into the fuel-rail.
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Here in the UK there is no legal requirement for a reversing-light.
As such, you can fit it anywhere you want.
[My Defender has the original reversing-light disconnected, and the feed connected to a pair of 55-watt worklamps mounted one either side of the rear door - which makes night-time reversing with a trailer much easier!]
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Just a little recommendation: Footman James do a classic car policy (any car over 15 years old). You do not accrue any NCB (which could be seen as a downside).
However, at the time I was 25, I have a 1996 Defender 90, which has a winch, w/bumper, rock sliders, 2" lift etc..etc. Basically quite modified. All mods have been reported to Footman James.
I rang them up, said I have heard about them on a Land Rover forum, and within minutes they quoted £136 fully comp for the year.
At which point I bit their hand off.
Editted to say: I also have an agreed value of £9000 which was confirmed after sending them pictures of the Truck and a load of reciepts.
Quite a lot of "classic car" policies require that as well as the cheaply-insured classic you also have another 'primary' vehicle. And/or they impose an annual-mileage restriction.
--Tanuki
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Do a compression-test.
If your problem-cylinder is down on compression, this could explain its reluctance-to-fire.
Also, check the valve-clearances: a 'tight' valve will lose you compression, and without full compression the diesel's not going to light-off properly.
--Tanuki
"Today's forecast is: moderate to heavy patches of Frogs and a sunny outlook, but with a belt of
inflatable pink Lizards moving in from the west as the weekend comes to an end, followed by a
visit to the psychiatrist for better drugs sometime Tuesday"
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Having replaced the OEM made-in-Spain dampers on my D90, I can wholeheartedly recommend the gas-pressurised Bilsteins.
They're not cheap, but the handling transformation is truly worth the money.
Trust me on this. No longer do I fear getting caught in slipstream-turbulence when passing truck convoys on the motorway; and the wrestle-with-the-steering-when-you-drop-the-inside-wheel-into-a-pothole-part-way-through-a-curve is gone too.
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I deeply distrust the orange-blinking-light on my 90TD5.
My approach is to brim the tank, drive 250 miles and then seek the earliest opportunity to refuel.
--Tanuki.
"Badgers are not part of the solution. They're part of the problem. And they don't taste good!"
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I'm glad you say that, I currently experience this feeling occasionally.
I'm getting bilsteins on the front dampers, and a mate has offered me his barely used OMEs for the back.
When I got my Bilsteins, I fitted the rear ones first - this cured the rear-end bunny-hop-and-thump when driving over sunken full-road-width utility-trenches; the twitch-and-wrestle-with-the-steering-for-a-couple-of-seconds after dropping a front wheel into a pothole was cured by fitting the front pair.
Experimenting with pushing-and-pulling the original dampers compared to the Bilsteins, there was much more resistance noticeable on the Bilsteins - I guess the old ones must have suffered some internal wear of the valves (there was no sign of any oil leakage on them).
--Tanuki.
"Babies may look cute: just remember though that they grow up into evil-tempered half-ton
blubber-behemoths with fishy halitosis that can descale a kettle at 100 paces. Or is that
elephant seals I'm thinking of?"
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Rather than carrying spare parts, fit them in place of your existing in-service parts!
[From a reliability-engineering perspective, there is a lot to be said for 'lifeing' components and replacing them after so many years/so many thousand miles. I do this as a matter of course with things like drivebelts/batteries/water-pumps/alternators. Of course, it's advisable to do this replacement a month or so before starting out on your expedition, so the new parts get a shakedown and you weed-out the 'infant mortality' failures].
--Tanuki
"The Seven Deadly Sins: Collect the full set!"
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That's the old 'Pulsair' system - dating from a time-before-catalytic-convertors. Basically, it allows negative-pressure pulses in the exhaust-manifold to suck in air via the pipework and box: this additional air then reacts with any unburned fuel in the exhaust-downpipes to reduce Hydrocarbon- and Carbon-Monoxide emissions.
(Some US-spec vehicles also had an engine-driven air-pump to aid the process).
Feel free to remove the pipework and fit appropriate blanking-plugs to the resulting holes.
--Tanuki.
Today's forecast is: moderate to heavy patches of Frogs and a sunny outlook, but with a belt of inflatable pink Lizards moving in from the west as the weekend comes to an end, followed by a visit to the psychiatrist for some better drugs sometime Tuesday"
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I can wholeheartedly recommend the gas-filled Bilsteins.
Fitting a set to my D90 in place of the seven-year-old, 75,000-mile-old original-fitment dampers gave a spectacular improvement in overall stability: I don't have to grip the steering-wheel like a crazed maniac when caught in the air-turbulence while passing trucks, and the bowel-loosening steering-shudder that used to happen when the inside front wheel caught a pothole part-way round a bend has also totally gone.
Bilsteins aren't cheap - but they're worth it. Trust me on this.
--Tanuki
"The last Tormentor General was one Thomas Bainbridge, appointed to the post by Oliver
Cromwell in 1642. With his creative punishments he played a major part in the Massacre
of Drogheda in 1649 but on the restoration of the Monarchy in 1661 Bainbridge was
arrested, found guilty of high treason, and executed by being lowered head-first into
a barrel of toads. Let this serve as a warning to you all"
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I'm thinking 'injector copper-washers' - which hit my TD5 Defender at 80,000 miles.
If the fuel-pump is noisy, this is a classic sign of failed injector-seals: get it fixed quick or it can shove enough carbon-combustion-products back into the fuel-tank to earn you a £700 new-fuel-pump-and-complete-system-flushout bill.
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Result!
Reminds me of the problem I had a couple of years back on my Defender: the nearside sidelights kept going out with a blown fuse.
Eventually tracked down to one of the number-plate-light bulbs - which worked just fine 99.99% of the time but would occasionally turn into a dead-short and take out the fuse.
Disconnecting the number-plate-light [OK. It's illegal. But nobody caught me!] revealed the problem. I threw away the two 5-watt bulbs and fitted one 10-watt one. Job Done!
--Tanuki.
"One of my lifelong passions has been converting vegetarians back to the
way-of-meat, usually through the judicious application of the fragrance
from slowly frying bacon"
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If you've already disassembled things to the point of having the ball/swivel assembly off, you might as well reassemble with new parts.
Think about it: how long did it take to strip it down? How long will it take to reassemble it all? How pig-sick will you feel if you have to do it all again at next MOT-time?
(I always find MOT-time is January, when it's freezing-cold and dark and wrestling with the sub-zero oily entrails of a Land-Rover is a rather unattractive prospect).
--Tanuki
"I have prior-art claim on "I can't believe it's not Jesus" low-calorie salt-reduced communion wafers and 'Christ-Lite' alcohol-free communion wine. My next release is the 40 days and 40 nights Christian detox-plan [as used by Jesus himself!]
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Just be careful with hand-throttles: I have evil memories of winter night-driving a military FFR SIIA when the Land-Rover-naiive passenger reached down and shoved what he assumed was the heater-blower lever to 'full'.
--Tanuki.
"The tag on a T-shirt I bought today carries the assertion CARELESSNESS CAUSES
FIRE. In my experience wielding a flame-gun full of AVGAS is a more effective
way of causing fire than just 'being careless'."
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Yeah, a lot of aftermarket speedos use a hall effect sensor or magnetic pickup mounted on a shaft or a hub or somethat that rotates in a fixed ratio with the road wheels. The speedo can then be programmed to give the correct reading.
Most of the speedos you get for kit-cars etc. these days are entirely electronic: a transducer fits to the gearbox in the hole where the cable would usually go [the Ford type of transducers are popular retro-fits] then there is just a 3-core cable to the instrument itself.
A quick fly-by from the rolling-radius-and-diff-ratio-calculation fairy will get you the magic setting of the switches on the back of the instrument, then as if by magic everything just works!
Well, it did on a friend's Ford GT40-replica: we were able to set it up to better-than-1% accuracy (using both GPS and the kilometre-markers on motorways as reference)
--Tanuki.
"Consider a spherical Jesus, of point-mass" -Theological Physics 101.
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As far as i am aware, you don't have to have the speedo showing the correct mileage when you change the instrument over...just that the correct mileage needs to be recorded somewhere in the vehicle dosumentation. You also need to make any future buyers aware that the instrument has been changed.
HTH
There's actually no requirement whatsoever for a vehicle to have a working odometer. One of my cars has shown the same recorded mileage for the last ten years.
RR Rostyles on TD5 Defender
in Defender Forum (1983 - 2016)
Posted
Thanks! This is reassuring!
--Tanuki.