Pastycrimper

Indeed an unwinable argument but fun to read nonetheless. Thought I'd add the subsea world to the discussion. I work on deep water ROVs and depending on the job we frequently have to splice whips to whips (Pigtails if you like) as invariably various high tec subsea equipment uses one type of connector going to another type. These ROVs are under permanent vibration and stresses as well as lateral currents and the wires are essentially just cable tied to parts of the chassis but of course the MAIN problem is the pressure at 4000m deep - 400 bar!! (imagine that in your turbo!!!!) We solder and heat shrink each individual wire, then heatshrink the individuals in a bundle. This is then potted with a small amount of hard resin and then the whole joint is potted in a much larger mould using some "rubbery" type compound that can take the pressure - this also allows any flexing and vibrations to occur away from the solder joint due to the size of the outer moulded protection. Sometimes wires are even run in oil filled flexible conduit. To wet your apetites I attach a couple of pictures....if you look hard you'll spot where potted cable splices exist. A well soldered joint has never failed me. Our problem is water ingress (the scourge of the subsea world) and mainly subsea connectors which under such pressure invaiably get water ingress.

Just looking at the Howling Moon website and their picture of an awning looks very very similar to my ARB one....just looking for Howling Moon Suppliers in the UK now....

I know! Its ridiculous! There are lots of UK plastic manufacturers who make all kinds of inserts etc for furniture and many other things. I'm still looking though and not finidnig much luck. As Jason mentioned above hopefully there will be a UK awning maker that uses round poles and similar bits (my next trouble is they'll be imperialand the OZ may be metric)

Well there's certianly a lot of Fiamma spares available in the UK! Out of interest most of the Fiamma parts I have seen are for square or rectagular poles/strength members. Do you know of any Fiamma product that uses round poles as ARB does?

Good thinking.....I'll give it a whirl. It's quite standard that re-seller to supplier use Fedex expensive air frieght and yes it normally does arrive within a week. I just cant help feeling that I should be able to repair this for nit too much the stubborn git that I am. I'm happy to pay well for OEM parts but for two simple plastic bits is a little frustrating. Thanks for your advice.

I have an ARB awning which I'm more than happy with. Unfortunately I have broken two plastic parts. Namely the twist lock that sits in the aluminium telescopic poles such that when you extend them out you just twist the poles to lock. Now I have broken one of the pastic "swivel" joint which inserts into the end of the side pole and fixes to the main mounting bar which allows the pole to swing in and out between storage and setting up. They are both very simple plastic insert type things and I'm certain there must be UK maufacturers of similar things. I have spoken with D4x4 who supply ARB awnings and they can get them for me but they have to order them form Australia. Not only are the parts £8each unless I want to wait a 12 week lead time I have to pay £50 air freight to get them sooner! I figured there must be a UK solution but a various internet searches has got me nowhere. Wondering if anyone nows about such things or has non-ARB awnings that may use similarish parts.

......if not enough length then you could just cut back and insert an extra section of cable. More time consuming but if you solder and seal it well then you'll hav a long term robust fix

Is there not enough length to just cut back to the insulation and re-strip and then solder. Certainly re-soldering and properly heatshrinking is the way forward for this kind of reconnection but I'd advise as you've already noted doing this to fresh wire.

Thanks! That sounds like extremely sound advice that I had never considered before! Also made me laugh a lot!!! Never thought there'd be a relationship between drinks for the vehicle and drinks for the human in petrol stations.

I'm sure I must have made a mistake as in Moscow its about 50 - 60p too.......but yes still cheap compared with Cornwall!!!

Yeah some nice pics......there's also a link to some route maps which I was trying to correlate to Google maps - it would be an epic region to cruise! Not sure if I have done the maths right but I make 1 ruble to equal £0.02 i.e 2 pence. I've looked at various diesel price sites (e.g http://www.bakutoday.net/price-of-petroleum-products-in-the-murmansk-region.html) and the price per litre is normally less than 1 ruble!!! Lets say it is 1 ruble per litre on the safe side......by my reckoning that means its 2p/litre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Surely not tell me I've got this wrong. Crikey if I do go I'll by a 400 litre tank and strap it to my roofrack before my return!!!!

Thats exactly the impression I got from the Swedish guy. He said they just took it easy and did each day as a stage at their own leisure which seriously appealed to me. It sounded fun in all counts......he said the evening campfires were just as adventurous as the daytime driving. I would imagine the Russian entrants probably have some quite mad vehicles.

Just been speaking to a crazy Swedish bloke who's on the ship I'm working on. He is a Merc G enthusiast and has just showed me pictures of his time in the Arctic 4x4 trophy which is in the Murmansk area. http://www.at4x4.ru/eng.shtml It sounded pretty crazy, but I was planning a little tour through Norway Seden and FInland and this chap said I may as well do the 10 dya Arctic challenge!! Just wondering if anyine knows anything about this?

So much random variety......my comments were all relating to my (and our farms) hsitory with NFU which has always been great but MANY peopole on here have been having huge issues with NFU regarding prices. I wonder of NFU actually do there own stats then and base it more on location from there claims history. As a test I got my friend to get a quote from the NFU with effectively my details and vehicle but for Stionty Stratford in Milton Keynes and the NFU there wanted £860. I pay £330. Either way I find these insurers ridiculously infuriating and just hope my current NFU cover stays affordable because my local NFU agent I find really helpful and informative.

Out of interest - any opinions here as to what's better? QH greasable TREs or Lemforder OEM (non-greasable) TREs? Apologies for thread hijack but seems sufficiently on-topic. Also (in my opinion) it always seems to be the the rubber boot that goes on these, whoever makes them. Presumably a geasable version is of no use if the rubber boot/cover has gone?

The Haynes earth top mount just refers to earlier wiper motors which were earthed to the bulkhead right there whereas the somewhere in the 1990s the defender loom has a dedicated earh wire running back to the main bulkhead earthing junction - either way it doesn't relate to you. Prior to mentioning the loom swap from 300tdi to td5 I would have immediately said the motor brush assembly (RTC198 - between £10 & 20 depending on Britpart or OEM) but that wouldn't explain why your column swith is back to front (you say: off in the fast position?). Prior to the td5 loom conversion you replaced the park switch - did you lose fast speed immediately after this? If so I still reckon one of your brushes has gone but it sound like the connector plugging into the wiper on your new loom is muddled up...........I went through a similar thing and I ended up replacing the entire motor unit as my park switch was also bad and the price of an OEM (not Britpart!!!) motor unit was £33 (I think). I can say that a faulty brush pack can do *weird* things but I'm confused about the "only off in the fast position" conundrum. So when you say they're "off" in the "fast switch position", what are they doing precisely in either of the other remaining positions? If you've got a multimeter, on a 300tdi theres a 5pin connector to the motor unit. First check that black wire does indeed go to earth with your continuity check. If not then there's something wrong with your td5 loom setup (surely if doing this engine conversion you just do the engine specific wiring only...i.e leave the remaining loom in the 300tdi configuration????). Anyway if the black is to earth check to see if you have ~12V across any of the other four wires. Of these there's a red/green, blue/green, solid green and a brown/green. With the engine off there should be no voltage across any. With the engine (or ignition) on then there should be ~12V between the solid green and earth regardless of switch setting. Move the wiper switch up one notch to "normal" speed - you should not have ~12V across either the red/green or the blue/green, and move up another notch to "fast" setting it should read across the other (I think blue/green is normal and red green is fast). If none of this matches up then theres something wrong with your loom wiring. I'd say that the only other possibility failing my gibberish above is the wiper-timer-unit-relay. I'd check for volatges across switch and motor etc to try and get a gist of where there's actually power.

I've got double coil springs on my 110. As Western linked, it is a standard Landrover option on 130's but also for most ex-utility 110s (as in not just "utility" windowless body but genuinely bought by electricity/water utility companies etc). Have a look under the bonnet and see if there's a Land Rover Special Vehicles plate (separate from the normal Chassis number plate). If so then you can bet it was an ex-utility. It's the same chassis as the 110 but has an extra plate welded in for strength (well at least mine does) as MMGemini mentioned. You'll probably also find that if it came from the factory like this it will have higher load ratings for the rear axle particularly which makes it 3500kg GLW (not 3000kg) which under recent rules means it will be a class VII MOT test NOT a class IV (although fret not the price is about £1 more for a class VII!). Regarding ride I really like it even unladen (although I have a wooden interior camper conversion so I have permanent extra "ballast" so not truly unladen) - I find it really firm but not depreciating of ride either. When off road it feels like the rear is much less "bouncy/wobbly" compared with a 110 I drove without double coils. Combined with my Procomp shocks I am really impressed with this set up......but I am probably biased too . I too didn't realise it had this when I first purchased it and I'm very glad it does.

Its an interesting debate.Surely if the tracking is set such that the wheels are perfectly aligned then they are both in unison. Therfore the drag link should have no effect - it rotates the wheels as a unison pair. However if you imagine two perfectly aligned wheels set by the tracking rod (stationary) and way overadjusted the drag link then the front left wheel is going to try to start steering whereas in this situationj the drag link should be free of any external forcing- the only external forcing on the drag link should occur during turning i.e. steering). Ralph thanks for the measurements - I wonder if they are "from the factory spec". Either way they're a good starting point - we adjust all from there. Given that wheel alignment (tracking) is so precisely done using laser tracking equipment I would start there and then adjust the drag lin such that there is the same play either side of "centre". I'm not quite sure even what centralisation is!?? A steering wheel is a wheel surely.....the only diffenrence would be the angle of the Landrover logo stuck on the wheel relative to the horizontal)....ie if the steering wheel was a simple circle attached by 3 equidistant (60 degree) spokes there is no top or bottom (or centre)......

Thanks....I'll settle for my current rims and stick with 235s. Regarding front left tyre wear - I had never considered the roundabout issue which makes sense. It really is only my front left which is so worn. However I also ponder what mmgemini said: As the drag link arm only goes to the front left this also sounds sensible - if the trcaking was spot on but the drag link was out would this cause wear on the one tyre???

Hmm most 265s I see are on 16x7 rims.....whats the ideal rim for a 265?

Crikey another thought - I've got Steel Black Wolf rims which I think are 16 x 6.5 - will 265/75s fit on these or will I need to order wider rims?

Interesting! Regarding particular wear on the front left outer tread - from above incorrect drag link adjustment just affect the one wheel? I also figured tracking would affect both sides but it is definitely my front left that has noticeably worn more. Could this just be balancing on an old tyre/wheel. Obviously I dont want my new tyres to wear unevenly. Regarding ATs vs MTs, I hadn't considered that the MTs are more slippy on wet roads and as I said most of my driving is on roads so thinking I'll stick with ATs as these have been great to date. Regarding size/profile - By my calcs I figured they're pretty much the same overall diameter (235/85s being very very slightly taller by less than 0.1inch) which is why I was tempted to go for the wider profile thus giving more overall grip. That said, the 265/75s don't seem that much wider - presumably my turn stops/overall turning circle wont be affected by the 265/75s.... or are they significantly wider enough to alter these? Cheers again

Continuing from one of my older posts, I've finally saved the cash for a set of four tyres. I assumed the old ones would fail the MOT as the front left outer edge is way more worn than any of the others though it just passed with that tyre being just legal. Anyway the intention is to do the tracking immediately after balanced new tryes have been fitted. Is there anything else likely to cause such significant wear to just this tyre? I was going to replace like for like - BFG AT 235/85/R16 but was tempted with the 265/75/R16 equivalents.....any opinions between them? Also I've read elsewhere that the BFG Mud Terains of the same size aren't really that noticeable on road/motorway driving either with massively increased wear and noise. The vast majority of my driving is on roads but on the farm throughout winter the fields get really muddy and our SIII with mud tyres on is epic at tackling the wet field. How long would Mut Terraiins last even if driven mainly on the road or is this just stupid and stick with the ATs given that I'm 95% on roads?

I'm actually OK with the Defender drive and wheelbox system.....its just the drive to splined drum ferrule to arm bit that really tickles my goat

Typical - presably to upgrade I would have to replace the wheel boxes in the bulkhead to the later (2002) fitting. Knowing LR you'd need to replace the whole cable assembly to fit with the new wheelboxes!?? I wonder if anyone has found an easy mod to rid myself of these splined ferrules without replacing the entire drive mechanism?