Greg S

That my lad, is an indication the earth is connected wrong. Go to the reversing light and to the rear turn signals and make sure everything back there has a good and individule earth connection.

I get air blowing in through the bulkhead, possibly a poorly fitting front vent (eyebrow). Also a torn gear sift rubber boot does it to me.

You have a wire melted to a collection of other wires. Did you see any Lucas smoke? Smell any burt plastic? Good luck!

The terminal on the starter motor that comes directly from the battery, then an in-line fuse or circuit breaker.

Per above--- Been there! Got the tee shirt.

Start at the battery and start looking for a poor earth connection.

I have to ask. How do you know it has a spark? Do you mean it has a spark to the end of the high tension lead going to the plug? Okay, that's possible. But you still might not be getting a spark in the combustion chamber. I've found it common to have a spark plug that is dead. Before you do any of this other expensive, dirty, frustrating work, buy one NEW spark plug, a regular, inexpensive, plain old ordinary copper core spark plug (not Champion) and then try running your motor again. If the piston is going up and down, and there isn't a rag stuffed in the intake manifold, that cylinder is going to fire no matter the shape of the rings as long as the spark is getting there at the right time. Distributor cap is in good shape and clean inside isn't it? No cross firing? Then worry about things like compression checks. Even knackered engines with half or less of the compression they are supposed to have, still run. So there's no excuse yours won't fire on that one cylinder just because the compression is low, unless you have a great bl**dy big hole in the piston.

A Question for wizards. Automotive wizards that is. Automotive HT electrical wizards at that. Here’s the situation. 4 cylinder, carburetor, points and coil engine. (Not Land Rover but probably doesn’t matter.) Has wire core HT leads that are old. It was driving down the road and quit. Filled it with gas thinking it had run out. It still wouldn’t start. Pulled plug wires off and stuck them back on, both coil and plug ends. DID NOT get wires mixed up; these were done one at a time. Still wouldn’t start (imagine that?). I said it was flooded and as there is one cylinder that is prone to poor running and plug fouling, I directed the work crew, my son David and his friend Derek, to pull that plug first and dry it. Plug wasn’t too bad but when dried, we stuck a lighter in front of the open hole to burn off excess gas (Children! Listen! Don’t do this at home! Only an idiot would do this.) The gas burned off uneventfully for those of you who are worried. It’s real neat when you turn it over when doing this as a flame comes shooting out a couple feet; any way, dried and de-flooded. On to the next cylinder and did the same. Left the two plugs out to turn it over and get clean dry fresh air inside. Darned if it didn’t fire and run on the remaining two cylinders. (Yes. It was a bit rough.) Shut it off, put the missing plugs back in, stuck the wires on, and it wouldn’t fire. Pulled the wire on the bad cylinder and for some reason cranked it while the wire was OFF, and it started. Put the wire on while it was running and it stopped. Wire OFF and started it. It ran fine considering. As the wire approached the plug, the spark was half an inch long or more and it started running on all four cylinders. When the wire was stuck back on the plug, it quit running. Wire off it ran, big spark jumping across, it ran great. Took the wire off the dizzy, put it back on the plug and got a great spark between the dizzy and wire end, motor ran great----till stuck back in the hole----- when it would shut off. Here’s an oddity. HT wire OFF the plug and hanging in mid air, close to nothing; wire off the Dizzy, approach the dizzy hole with HT wire and get good, long, regular shots of spark going to the wire---But it isn’t connected to anything at the other end. Replaced the wire with a different one and the engine still shut down when that plug was hooked up. Well? What? Why? How? Greg S Canada

A friend has rebuilt his gearbox twice now, after the first time a faulty ring fixing spring for 2 & 3rd gear sleeve fell out and things went south. When that was all sorted it still kept popping out of third. Because of this it is apart again and on disassembly it's found the peg for the main shaft distance sleeve has sheered (how do you get it out?) and the locator on the third gear thrust washer has shorn as well. There is discolouration on the distance piece so it has been turning and over 30 thou clearance on the fixing ring that should only have 7 thou. It had 7 thou on assembly last year. Any guess's on why it jumps out of third and why the distance piece isn't staying in place? Thanks from the colonies. Greg S Canada

Thanks for the replies. It looks like a Series 2 engine from the water pump and I'll post pictures eventually. Can't post of the whole vehicle as the motor is all I've got. A case of "Grab it quick or it's going to the dump."

I have a petrol engine that apparently came out of a Land Rover. It looks to be an early Series 2 engine but I can't be sure. We've never had Transit vans over here so I trust it is out of a Landy. The exhaust manifold outlet is forward of the carb heating chamber and points up. I've never seen one like this before and wonder what it is for. It isn't like the Series I units that go laterally out the fender.

LWB right? And nobody else has spotted the problem yet? The locating pin for the snail cam on the rear brake shoes is located ever so slightly different from one shoe to the next. Two of your shoes have the pin just a few mm closer to the shoe than the other two. You have to have one shoe of each on each side then you hold a shoe up to it's proper spot and see how far the pin is from the snail cam. One shoe will line up "just right" with the front snail cam and the other will line up for the rear cam. The pin is just a few millimeters different from one shoe to the next but it makes a heck of a difference as you are finding. Hard to see by eye till you catch it, then it stands right out for you but only as you are comparing two shoes side by side. Commonly know by people with LWB.

Nige. Carefull with your speed into a puddle, you might find you will lose control due to aquaplaning. Your tires might loose grip on the road due to the water. Does your wife laugh at you when you attack a puddle. You know, because of that little hole in the seat box that directs water all over your legs and crotch when you do that? Or is that just my wife and Land Rover that that happens with?

You don't need 6 blocks. Three will do, possibly a fourth to the side to better direct the line past the vehicle. The one in front is a 180 (roughly) redirect to an anchor somewhere behind the vehicle; this is where the second block goes, to redirect the cable to the back of the vehicle and through the third block. From the third block the cable goes to an anchor behind the vehicle. It could be the same anchor as the rear redirect but only if it is bomb proof. Better to be another anchor for security and direction of pull. The idea is that you are pulling towards the front by a factor of one and at the rear by a factor of two. For every foot of cable you wind in, you go backward 6 inches. The strain on the chassis is three times what you are pulling in on the winch; 1 strain on the winch, two on the rear attachment point.

Rocky Mountain are of their own design, not BCB. They use easily obtainable Domestic (North American) brake components machined to fit. The hard part is making the bracket to hold the caliper, they've done this nicely. I saw them when they were still in pre-production and met the guy Ray was working with to develope them. They look very easy to fit and seem to be of a good design. Rocky Mountain is at www.parabolicsprings.com Wise Owl is at www.wiseowlparts.com The brakes aren't shown on either site. I don't know why as they're supposed to be in production and seem great. Here are photos of an installation: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rover_r_us/album?.dir=/9259