Gazzar

Do you have the standard wiring diagram? It's in the manual. Are these aftermarket gauges? Because, I think, the senders and gauges have to be matched in type, otherwise the signal will be meaningless.

If you can turn with a socket on the pulley, but not with the starter. It's the starter system.

Did you disconnect an earth strap? My TDI has a strap from the battery to the timing case.

I've always thought that was a brilliant concept, a builders pickup for sites, a farm pickup with a full pallet width. Competing with the Isuzu truck cabs. I never understood why JLR didn't go for it.

Interesting!

That reminds me of my childhood, I had the Lego technic chassis, I think it's still around somewhere.

Glad it helped.

Make one from a drinks can. Cut a sheet and make a funnel.

I agree, the engine swap is, well, straightforward, the gearbox, isn't.

Some trucks have belt driven oil pumps now. MAN, I think, are one. Apparently they are reliable. Not convinced, but I suspect that these new ideas do work well. On version 2.

Just another engineering failure on the puma. I heard a horror story about a low miles defender, only 20k miles, where the main box spud shaft splines failed completely. 20k miles! So, this doesn't surprise me at all.

Well, I've one in. Doing a little bit of cleaning as I go, so it's taking time. One of the issues is that the bush curl on one of the parabolics off true. No surprise that the bush failed, really.

If the tube pivots freely in the plastic, would it have any impact?

I'm going whole hog on the 109. I'll be rebuilding the chassis at some stage, so changing the bush holder, if it gets worn, is no problem. So, remove all the old bush, insert the two plastic bits, sandwiching a few shots of grease, inner tube, tighten up shackles, done? Do they have to be tightened loaded like the genuine?

Thanks nick. I'll try standard, see how they stick the abuse!