BogMonster

I'd invest about £80 million and live off the interest for the rest of my days for starters. Give a few quid to family and friends. Go and see all the bits of the world I'd never otherwise get to see. Arrange for a nuclear weapon to be delivered to the Casa Rosada. Go on a spaceflight. And gratuitously waste the other £45 million odd on a mixture of good causes, myself and a few things designed purely to P*** people off like buying a new Discovery 3, hacking out the wheelarches with a Stihl saw and fitting tractor tyres to it Dunno really, a few cars, probably a supercharged RR Sport, definitely a Bowler, certainly build the mutha of all Defenders (in fact probably two or three of them because I doubt I would fit all the ideas into one vehicle), a couple of boats probably a fast RIB and something a bit bigger, I might buy a ferry so I can go out to the farm whenever I want to, a couple of smallish aircraft and probably a Gazelle helicopter. Or I could just buy a Chinook (big enough to fit a LR in or under) and forget the ferry Also on the shopping list (to quote Blackadder), as many girls as my tongue could handle I should think with £125 million you'd probably get a lot of new friends anyway Some people just go to bits when they get that sort of money. I don't think I would have any problem at all dealing with it Oh I might even donate a few quid to the forum fund and finally I'd buy Greenhouse Publishing and sack Dickie

Haven't seen that one Paul (the ones I have seen have been UK made) but it sounds worth having - what sort of price over there? I have just never had any bother with the standard genuine ball joints - my last Discovery was sold at 61,000 miles with the original joint still there and showing no wear, I don't think I changed it on my original 90 in the time I had that, nor the second 90 in the time I had that, and I certainly haven't on the current one. And the new Disco doesn't have one so I won't be changing that As they say if it ain't broke....

What use is a can of Peaceful Sleep for doing up a bolt

I think the OEM brand that is "genuine" is Lemforder I wouldn't bother with the adjustable one personally

Ralph, the centre section of the military bumpers with a pin in the middle is quite a bit stronger IIRC. Your Husky winch bumper will probably be twice as thick as a std LR front bumper if it is anything like the Husky bumpers I have seen. However for what is proposed it should be OK doing what you suggest but it should not be used for vehicle recovery in off road situations like that or the bumper will very likely bend if a hitch is in the middle - it is only 2mm steel! IIRC somebody told me the reason the Brintel ones had the hitch aligned with the driver's side chassis member not in the middle, was so that the "centre of push" was right in front of the driver's eye line which makes it easier to push something in a straight line because the driver is looking straight up the towing bar at what he is pushing so can easily see if it starts to go one way or the other, rather than trying to gauge whether it is straight by leaning over the middle seat somewhere or peering at it at an angle. When you are pushing a couple of million quids worth of Sikorsky into a hangar you don't really want to stuff it through the wall by accident

Depends what you want exactly - are you talking about shifting a 2.8 ton machine on wheels on a flat paved surface, or an actual "2.8 ton pull"? I'd guess at the former, which is much less of a requirement. The British International guys here used to (maybe still do) shunt their Sikorsky S-61s round with front mounted tow balls and I'm pretty sure these are just made up drop plates (basically a lump of 10mm thick plate measuring about 150x300mm) bolted through the front bumper,more or less in front of the driver's side chassis member, with a spreader plate on the back of the bumper and the hook on the bottom. Don't know how much an S-61 weighs but I'd guess quite a lot more than 2 tons! For safety, if you are just moving things at low speed then it should be OK - and I assume you aren't going to be racing if you are in reverse Your other option if that isn't strong enough would be to get a full replacement bumper made up out of say 5mm steel and a custom made bracket welded up on to that. This would be stronger but obviously a lot more expensive. But I think the first option will probably do the job you are after.

A feather duster will remove Hammerite

Land Rover do 16" ones but maybe they are not Tyron then, I think the set I am thinking of was on a vehicle that had originally been owned by Land Rover so I assume SV fitted them.

I think you need more bolts holding the fairlead on

Not many pictures and not spectacularly deep (just deep enough to overcome Defender waterproofing) but the Christmas collection can be found here

I know the blokes at work who repair punctures absolutely bluddy hate them!! If you get a puncture you get a puncture, I can't see how the Tyron bands were stopping that? all they do is prevent the bead dropping into the wheel well which is what stops the bead coming off the rim, it still won't last very long if you drive on it...

I have seen some 23L and I am pretty sure they were in Discoverys

Dunno but I guess if it took them 397 goes to get it right there are probably a few around that are a bit rubbish

Would you wake up under the middle of the LR though?

I think it can but it has to be really bad. Usually if you disconnect the ECU and wash out both sides of the harness thoroughly with electrical contact cleaner spray, blow out with compressed air and reconnect, then it will be OK.

Si The ones fitted to new vehicles are Wipac Quadoptic ones I am sure, part number is STC1209 for the light unit plus you need the bulb of course, I think they are 589783 or something, not sure about the second p/no though The sealed beams are more rounded whereas "genuine" Wipac ones are flatter lenses Edited to say I just went and had a look at mine (original factory lights) and they are Wipac as I thought

Nothing is impossible but I'd hate to think how much you'd have to spend on the electronics to get it all to run properly! Yes they still use ZF's, I think both the 6 speed manual and 6 speed auto are ZF's, the auto certainly is. Neither of which you would recognise as a Land Rover gearbox from the driver's seat i.e. they are smooth quiet and slick in operation

You'd have to take the timing cover, timing belt and inner pulley off to get at the seal, not sure how long perhaps 4-5 hours? never actually done it myself It might also be the camshaft oil seal though, but probably worth changing both while you are in there

PMSL! Now there's an idea!!

Td5 phooey it also comes in vehicles with a proper engine in My 90 has one too, I used to dislike them because of the look but actually it is a nice wheel to use, a good grip on the thick rim and the back is ribbed for extra pleasure grip

No, didn't have a camera with me! But if you can visualise the plastic bumper just about touching mine and the NATO having disappeared: It wasn't that impressive to look at but probably still into three figures £££ - it's a big bit of plastic and Japanese prices are a bit steep Dad ordered a new front grille for his L200 after he put a goose through it and I think it was a couple of hundred!

No I think it was just the accountants Either that or they forgot to tell the electrical engineers they were building a 5 cyl engine not a 4...

Coming back from lunch today, stopped at a junction, went to move off then had to stop suddenly again, an instant later the Discovery jumped a little followed by a horrible plasticky splintering noise.... A Shogun Sport had run into the back of me, so we pulled over to investigate damage. Absolutely NO damage to the Discovery at all - not a scratch but a NATO-plus-bracket-sized hole in the plastic front bumper of the Shogun Knew there was a reason I made the hook stick out as far as it does ... all I need now is a label to go on the back bumper with an arrow pointing to the hook saying "Crumple zone: please queue here"

You just need 2 x STC1209 headlights from any LR parts supplier, and two halogen bulbs to go in them, cheap and makes sooo much difference The genuine ones are Wipac IIRC and will be available as OEM from lots of places, we get ours from Bearmach but I guess any of those sorts of places, Britpart etc, will all do the OEM Wipac ones, or similar alternatives.

I converted my old V8 Discovery from manual to auto - it took me 2 whole days plus a couple of hours on the third day tidying up some of the interior etc, but bear in mind I had never done it before and so was proceeding with caution! I did have a 4 post ramp though, it would have been a pig of a job without it. As far as I remember the main bits on the Discovery (would be similar on a Defender Tdi I guess) were Removal of old manual box Removal of flywheel and starter ring, fitting of the auto drive plate and starter ring in place of the flywheel Fitting torque converter to auto box Fitting stub shaft to rear of auto box Removal of transfer box from old manual and fitting to auto Fit auto box and transfer box to vehicle as complete assembly, bolt up TC to drive plate and sort out dipstick tube (which was a PITA as it didn't fit) Sort out gearbox mountings which were different (supplied from Ashcrofts) Sort out oil cooler plumbing (my vehicle had an oil cooler on the manual so it was a bit easier, just replumbed this into the auto) Dismantle throttle cable brackets and replace with new one which has kickdown cable fitted Sort out wiring for reverse light switch and park/neutral switch Fit shifter cable to gearbox and route into cab Fit shifter inside cab and modify interior trim to suit (fiddly job, worse on a Defender!) Test drive and set up kickdown cable I got all the bits from Ashcrofts and the whole lot was about £2000 landed here, though a fair bit of that was freight etc, can't recall the exact ex-UK cost. The shifter etc was a horrendous cost to buy new (£280 springs to mind) and I spent a LONG time before I even ordered it going through workshop and parts manuals in minute detail to make sure I had everything I needed - at that stage there wasn't an off the shelf kit available to do the job. It was a few years ago now but I don't think I had forgotten anything when it came to do the job, so it was time well spent The bit I was dreading - removing the (tight and loctited) flywheel bolts from the rear of the crank proved to be easy as whichever numpty fitted the flywheel when the vehicle was built, forgot to put any loctite on the bolts so they came out quite easily