dag019

Well i have the brass nuts for the down pipe, I was just worried about the studs in the head as have heard they are quite easy to snap when trying to remove the manifold.

I am sending a second hand one off to be repaired and dipped. I could not find anywhere selling new ones for a sensible amount of money. Unfortunately I do not have the luxury of being able to have it disassembled for any length of time. It is in an open barn at a friends farm so not the best place to store a vehicle in pieces. I am hoping that once I get the galvanised unit I will be bale to remove the old one, swap everything onto the new one, and refit it to the vehicle over a long weekend. This is why I want to order everything I am likely to need in advance so it can be completed in one go rather than needing to stop and order new parts.

All of the dressing off should be done, but I will definitely be checking it over thoroughly before I begin any work. I am tempted not to paint it and leave it as the bare glav. I have roller painted the other body panels, but the amount of time effort required to paint the bulkhead which is not one large flat area is putting me off. There is also the prep time and cost of paint onto galv, as I would need to t-wash it first and then find a suitable primer. Other than the added security of not advertising a galv bulkhead is there any practical reason it needs to be painted?

Thank you, I was going to replace all the wiring loom grommets and the seals. I did not know about the seal the steering column goes though however so will have to look into that. What do you mean the vent flaps will be glued in place?

Are you referring to the joint between the manifold and the downpipe which uses brass nuts? or did you replace the studs in the head with stainless ones?

I am going to be fitting a galvanised bulkhead to my '88 series III. I know in theory how to go about this and have read up on other threads and write ups of people who have done this previously. However I do not know what i will need other than the new bulkhead. I would like to have everything I am likely to need ready before I start the job. So what else is likely to need replacing, or break in the process of swapping them over?

My engine was reconditioned by the previous owner a couple of years ago and I am running it on 235/85 tyres with the overdrive so my 65 is with everything s good as i can get. I did notice a big difference when i fitted the larger tyres I gained about 7mph

I can cruise down the motorway at an indicated 65 out of my diesel 88 with an overdrive and free wheeling hubs. I do not know how accurate the speedo is but that is not flat out. A little quicker than I would say it truly comfortable but not totally flat out.

I had looked at stainless steel but I had read that the heat of the manifold meant these were not ideal. If the deeper nut means you can torque it down to the correct setting then that sounds like the way to go in enable easy removal in the future.

As you say you are not particularly knowledgeable about cars, I would say it would be the most important thing to do when looking at vehicles. Once you have decided you can live with one and know what model you are looking for go and look at lots of defferant ones with some one who is mechanically knowledgeable and preferable has experience with defenders. Unfortunately there are many unscrupulous sellers and they are very easy vehicles to superficially smarten up to make it look good, but once you look a little deeper the vehicle is actually in very poor condition. When my friend was looking for a defender I went to see one with him where the chassis had been recently under sealed so looked in very good condition, however on tapping along it with a small hammer to make sure it was structurally sound we found it had been "patched" by gluing a piece of coke can over a rust hole with under-seal. Needless to say at that point we didn't look any further and just walked away.

With the shuddering it does sound like the center diff is engaged but you can test that as already stated. It could also be that the steering mechanism is catching on something either the tyres on the radius arms or part of the mechanism itself. When I refitted by steering guard after replacing the TRE's the drop arm of the steering box was catching one of the sides at full lock. Only slightly, but enough to give a stiff patch and a clunk as it slipped over the edge. A little modification with a file and there is now no problem. If you put the front axle on stands and get someone to turn the wheels lock to lock you can test for this. If it is only when moving then it will be something internal in the drive train.

I would second the earth fault hypothesis. I had a similar problem and it turned out to to be the earth strap between the engine and the chassis. It all looked fine externally but once removed the contacts had corroded and there was not a lot left of the cable inside the insulation.

I need to replace the exhaust manifold on the 2.25 diesel in my '82 series III. I have the replacement and am currently soaking all of the nuts in penetrating fluid before attempting it. Currently there look to be just standard nuts attaching the manifold to the head. Looking in the parts manual the correct part is a standard steel nut. On researching how to do this job a few people have said they use brass nuts to attach the manifold to the head in the same way brass nuts are used to attach the manifold to the down-pipe. Is this something anyone here has done or can recommend? Do the brass nuts make any difference to the working of the engine as they cannot done up as tightly without stripping their threads?