Jon White

You will never get it to look like a tig weld. i found it much easier to simply make a string of tacks, rather than a seam - just like you would do if welding thin steel. just do the best you can, and grind it off flat. Jon

5356 which is general purpose aluminium wire.

Burn the old ones out then cut the sleeve with a hacksaw. Only takes a couple of minutes. Standard threaded rod is then fine for putting the the new ones back in. they are always too siezed to use a tool to pull out.

First question - what are you trying to do?

I just drilled a 0.8 tip out to 1mm rather than ordering new. i can’t reinforce what was said about th roller tension enough. This is vital. you will need you wire feed speed as well as your gas flow turned up significantly above where you would normally run them for welding steel.

I’ve had exactly this. I just welded the cracks up. jon

Only other thing you need is a Teflon liner.

Yes

I’ve done this recently. Tried the braking rods and found they were hopeless, not helped by the fact that the amount of heat had to apply to get the rod to flow meant that the panel buckled terribly. i ended up just butt welding repair sections in using the mig. It worked well and it is invisible after linishing.

2004 would be disco 2. Completely different and won’t fit a defender.

Roll of brake pipe and box of ends is they way I would do it. Wouldn’t tiddle about with pre made kits.

http://www.paddockspares.com/defender-heated-mirror-kit.html the very first hit when I typed it into google.....

Yes, although imho it’s pointless. I’ve run full time 4wd for the last ten years now.....

You can buy that crossmember as a repair section, it may be worth just changing it t a series 3 one.

You should slacken all the bolts, on the springs and the shackles, allow the suspension to settle, and only retorque them with the wheels in the ground. This is covered in the manual. You certainly shouldn’t be pulling the shackles in with a strap! if one side is free to move then the bushing is probably shagged. jon

Yeah just get the grinder out. There are a few differences, but the bellhousing crossmember is the main one.

I’ve got a mikuni MY30 in my series, it works very well, and frankly is actually a bit too powerful for a swb series. Mine is mounted up high like John Utteridge’s. the mikuni is surprisingly simple, and the full circuit diagrams etc are available online. it also needs no diagnostics so is fully diy able. i built my own control unit without a thermostat as I didn’t see the need for one. cheers jon

I had a factory 300tdi auto RRC. Performance was at best, sluggish, but the fuel economy was the biggest issue. It wasn’t a good marriage - I wouldn’t recommend it. My 200tdi series, with 5 speed box by comparison, drives very well, and delivers literally double the MPG. with hindsight the RRC was no more economical than a V8 Petrol one, but a Petrol one would have been a hell of a lot nicer to drive! the power band for the TDI is just too narrow.

Non air suspension had an ash tray both sides. Air suspension models the rh ash tray was replaced with the air suspension controls. as to part compatibility why don’t you look up the parts you are after in the parts book and see if the part numbers are the same?

They are not massively different, but there is a difference. the mounting brackets for the electric controls is different for starters, but it is possible to modify the hard dash ones to fit into a soft dash

When rebuilding if you replace the studs with stainless bolts, it makes life a lot easier the next time around......

I removed the return fitting from the tank and drilled another hole in it (there is plenty of room) then soldered a length of copper brake pipe into the hole with a plumbers blow torch. Cut the pipe so it feeds from half an inch or so above the bottom of the Tank and jobs a good ‘un. works perfectly, and brake pipe is the perfect size for the fuel hose.

I’ve got 285/75/16s on mine, but then it is slightly modified.....

Depends on the gearbox suffix, as this is what makes the biggest difference. I would just rebuild the 4 cyl one to be honest