allinger

Of course! No problems with the material in the cutting boards themselves? When trying to source boards, I came to the conclusion that the material used has very agressive non-stick properties. Then again, when bolting the two halves together, I assume that some kind of gasket (Loctite or similar) is to be used, right? Anyways - thanks for pointing me towards the MS forums. I finally had a chance at having a good look at all the stuff that goes on - and some of it is truly marvelous! Unfortunately most of the fabbing involves equipment, skill and time. Or a good dose of money. And as I have little of either, I'll stick with my original plan for now. If all goes to plan I'll pick up a Golf 1.8i TBI along with a coil pack and sensor out of a couple of Fords during the w/e. Now, the coil pack is from (if I recall correctly) a 2004 Mondeo and unlike the older, say mid-nineties, coil packs, this seems to have spark wire connectors that look like the ones on my dizzy cap. Would this mean that regular spark wires can be used? When looking at the breaker's websites, it seems like the older coil packs have snap connectors and a shorter "towers" on the coil pack. And finally I've also managed to source a wideband lambda probe out of a Volvo (of which there are a few around these parts, for some reason...), to be picked up later next week. At least the sourcing bit is moving along nicely - next up is assembly...

A first baby step on the way to an EFId two-and-a-quarter has been taken - an inlet manifold has been sourced. Cheap as chips. With shiping that came to 2.5 times the cost of the manifold. And a source for nylon/delrin has been found, as plastic chopping boards was found wanting. Seems the Swedish industrial standard for plastic chopping boards states "under no circumstances thicker than 10mm"... Hey ho - let's go!

More on this Mr FF, if you please. I've been looking through scrappers for a bit and the idea of confabulating up a fuel rail and injectors seems a bit - flammable... Do correct if wrong.

Machining spacers I guess I could sort, but wouldn't that mean that a contraption for throttle control needs to be fabbed up as well? Oh, and at the risk of coming across as really dense - what does PWM stand for?

FWIW - all this snow is really gettin on my nerves... Now to our regular programming - what to do with the stock fuel pump and dizzy? The fuel pump connection could just be blanked off I assume, but what of the dizzy? It does need a bit of modifying (a la Nige) doesn't it?

And now I'm properly confluxed...

Beamer inlet I will search for. And then ask for more advice.. There was a fount o wisdom here, I just knew it:)

Sure I am not, sensei - in search of knowledge I am...

Keeps getting longer, doesn't it, that list of mine! As soon as the boss decides that he's needed at the pub, I'll send off a massive print job. It's really a pain on the eyes trying to digest all the MS info on here on screen. And I promise - there'll be no peeking ahead to the advanced threads Oooo this is going to be so much fun!

Why is it that things tend to get out of hand as soon as gizmos, doodads and general tinkering is the subject? I've been fiddling around with the dizzy, the carb and all their assorted gaps, screws and valves ever since the SafariTruck came under present management. And all to little or no avail. Dear old 2.25-petrol iron stove still idles rough, still stalls on slow-down (replacing various hoses seems to have improved hard-braking-stalling at least...) and still needs a whole lotta' choke to keep going. It get's warmer way faster than the Td5 though:-) So what's a guy to do? First idea was to replace the carb, but that's sort of an iffy solution, as a vintage Zenith is likely to be as worn as the one in place and Webers and SUs come with their own issues (or so I've read). Second was to electronify the dizzy, so as to get a strong and reliable spark. But again there's all sorts of variables to take into account. Then I stumbled on this MegaJolt thingy, which seemed like a fairly nifty solution... (Slippery slope - I guess you can see where this is heading?) So, now I'm neck deep in MegaSquirt facts, diagrams and ideas (not to mention head-spinny confusion) and sinking fast... Backing up a bit, what really set me off was this guy's web page (LR named Otly, I think - english electronic land rover seems to ring a bell) which started promising and then ended with a bit of a "pop". In short he set off to MegaSquirt a 2.25 petrol, using a TBI from a 1.6l VW Golf as a starting point. Unfortunately, his venture hasn't been updated since 2007 or so, so no help there I guess. Then I (obviously) trawled through the threads here - there seems to have been some 2.25 projects started during the past years, however none of them has ended with a Evreka! - rather they seem to have petered out after a few posts. Finally I had a look at the MSRuns board and realised that there are at present at least two 2.25 lumps running MS in the known universe. I intend to become #3... Unfortunately for me, much, if not all of the info concerning LR and MS is regarding V8 engines. And the MS site seems very much geared towards performance (and rather more modern engines than the museum piece that's bolted in front of my steering wheel :-) ). So, there's a LOT of stuff that I need to sort before starting up in earnest. TBI or individual injectors? EDIS or straight to coil? And if the later, how to wire it up to a coil pack. Or do I need a coil pack if i opt-out of the EDIS? Sensors? Where do they go? And are there any already available in the engine? Brackets? Adaptor plates? See? How am I to sort all this out? Because now that the idea has taken hold, it's well unlikely that it'll go away:-) Anyways, at this semi-formed, tadpole stage, my plan looks like this: get hold of a 2.25 inlet manifold, a Golf 1.6i TBI (which, as I understand comes complete with a lot of neccessary goodies), an EDIS and a coil pack from a Fiesta XR2i. That way I'll have a manifold and some bits and bobs to experiment with, without wrecking the overall driveability of the SafariTruck. Then, once there's less of an echo in my pockets, I'll splurge on a MSII v3 (as I've understood that that's what I need if I want to run EDIS, ignition and the rest of the goodies) as well as a relay board and other associated bits and pieces. Beween now and then I'll try to understand the wiring and tuning and whatnot:-) So, on my shopping list I have the following: 1 Golf 1.6i TBI 1 Golf 1.6 fuel pump 1 Ford Fiesta XR2i EDIS and coil pack 1 MSII v3 ECU 1 MS relay board 1 LR 2.25 inlet manifold wires and connectors for ECU, PC et al 1 air filter box (off of a Disco or similar perhaps) chunks of nylon, ali or something to fabb an adaptor out of (obviously it's a free-for-all to point out the error of my ways, futility in what I'm up to or the forehead-slapping "how could you forget 'xxx'" piece of kit ;-) ) And finally, if there's something else missing/that I ought to think over/should avoid like the plague, please let me know - I'm really having a blast trying to digest all of this and all input is most welcome!

Thanks! That's the one I've got. Couldn't make heads or tails of it though... Did I mention that if you look up "inept" in the Oxford Dictionary, you're likely to find my name there? Anyways, thanks for prompt and constructive advise - as always. Given the temprature outside I've plenty of time to do some proper research, not to mention sourcing parts (vintage LR parts aren't exactly dime a dozen in my corner of the woods...) for the conversion. And that's about the only positive side to be said about living in the icebox of Europe - it gives one plenty of time to do research. And just to show who the sheriff is in these here parts I'll bin the tester thingamajig!

After a long and tedious search I managed to find out that the odd button labeled "test" was actually a brake fault indicator thingamajig. Now, as the button/switch seems to be out of function (and I'm fresh out of Märklin H0-trainset lightbulbs to replace the one in place to find out it that's whats broken) I made an effort to understand how this thing is connected and so far I've come up with a broken connector on the brake servo and a loose lucar plug in the passenger side wing (that'd be driver side for all of you of RHDers) that may or may not be involved. However, none of the manuals that I have has been of any use, so now my question is - could anyone explain to me how this thing was wired in the first place, is it a must-have or am I disrupting the natural order of cosmos should I bin this? Or should I just not bother? And one more thing - I understand that the SafariTruck, being a -74 vintage SWB, has but one brake circuit - is it possible (for a spanner-challenged person like myself) to "upgrade" this to a two-circuit system, i.e. bringing it out of the dark ages?

Thanks all! Then I'll get ready to send one of the Paddockses of the world some of the kid's college fund again (following the traditional post-christmas balance sheet rebuild, obviously...)

A p.o. had parabolics fitted to the truck, but out of cheapness, respect for originality or lack of knowledge mated these with standard height shocks. I'm of the understanding that, in order to get the most benefit of parabolics, one should mate these with longer shocks (having read, searched etc) - now my question is: how much longer? I'm running a SWB SIII hardtop (ragtop with some rudimentary hoop to-be) so we're not talking too much weight here. And is the front and rear to be of equal length? And (finally) - checkstraps - should these be extended as well? /F

Problem solved! This might be old hat to old hands and if so, sorry. Anyways, after ordering a new gear lever spring and some springs for the reverse stop gate and having some fun grinding down a nose plier (it took the mail service close to two weeks to get the package sorted and yes, I should have given the repair manual some better attention...) I got around to removing the lever - and it is such a joy to do wrench work in the pitch black at -5c... Following a hefty dose of cussing, headscratching and a skinned knuckle, the gearlever was as floppy as ever! Lots of running around looking at the manual and confirming that 1) some of the pieces listed in the manual just wasn't there and 2) everything motor, Land Rover and at one stage, the world, was the pits, I saw the light! In the gear lever assembly there is a spacer, going between the large onion-bulb-like part and the spring. In my case this spacer had taken shape after the bulb and together with wear on the aluminum housing part, generated a millimeter or so of slack, due to the spring not being able to properly engage the gearlever to the housing. Turning the spacer upside down promptly solved the problem... Again, steep learning curve. And to other new adepts with sloppy/wobbly gearsticks, if it has play vertically, your problem could possibly be solved by turning a spacer upside down:-) Next for carb functionality... Wish me luck!

Thanks! I'm starting off in the budget order - i.e. a new spring - and if this doesn't fly a new stick is in the cards. Along with new springs for the reverse stop gate... As this is a LHD, wobble plus gate equals "oops backwards" instead if 1st gear forward - a nasty surprise for the guy behind me at a red light. Would it be possible to machine new forks etc to get a more solid gear change "apparatus"? I'm obviously not looking for sports car gear slamming here, but not having to pray for not putting reverse instead of 1st would be a great comfort...

As previously mentioned I have some issues with my gearbox, namely a dodgy reverse gear. To this I have a just about non-existant reverse stop and a seriously wobbly gearstick. The reverse stop I have managed to get a hang on (adjust adjuster screw, get back to having two rather than one spring in the reverse stop gate...) however the slackness in the gearstick eludes me. From the repair manual I gather that there is a spring inside the gearstick - could this be the culprit? As it stands right now the stick has no resistance whatsoever which, coupled with the reverse gate issues gives a rather interesting ride from time to time... Does anyone know what this little spring inside the gear lever is called and if replacing this could be the end of my current woes?

Thanks, I'll give the wire mentioned (and all others that I can get to) a good yank. As I have the automotive skills of your average 16-year old girl I'm having one hell of a learning curve here...

I'll try to get a soundbite of the "Sound of Reverse". Other than that I'm having a blast of a time with rust solvent, ratchet spanners and a decent work light And compared to what I've seen on the net, I'm really well off. Only downside is that working outdoors after tucking the kiddies to bed is really, _really_ cold...

Safari Truck has at one time or another been subjected to rather harsh reverse action. Symptom - when selecting reverse and backing up the gearbox gives a sound as if there where teeth missing. Safari Truck reverses fine, only one doesn't want to reverse for to long... Question - 1) is this kind of problem DIY doable? 2) How hard/difficult/possible is it to DIY this?

Safari Truck has an issue with fuel feed. 2.25 petrol, zenith carb and all other pieces original dies when revving down. Symptom - starts OK, idles OK, runs OK. However, when slowing down (e.g. sequence going off highway, approaching intersectino) the engine dies if not throttled. If dead, will start within a few turns of the starter engine. Previous owner has cleaned and rebuilt carb, checked distro and sparks, checked pump, filters etc to no avail. Suggestions?

Thanks for all the ideas and input! My participation in this thread is now officially over, as I managed to source a nice little truck just yesterday. With that I bid good night and skip over to this thread, where the progress of Safari Truck will be on show. Again, thanks for all input! /F

Thanks! I'll give them a shot!

Heh... Just received a reply from L Jackson - ex works the LW are £6,250 + VAT They're nice, but that's sort of outlandish. Or? I'll pop off an email on the availability of "project state" SIIIs, but I'm not exactly holding my breath:-)

@ Seriebil.dk - thanks! I'm keeping and eye on DLRK.dk, but if you have input on any DK specific online sites that could be of interest, please let me know. And on the UK side I'm out of luck so far - PA Blanchard had no 88" at all for the moment. Am waiting for a quote from L. Jackson presently. Will keep informed. @ Jurriaan - I'll give Mr Bolleboom a shot. Potentially there ought to be a decent supply in Benelux/DK given history of military usage. Germany seems 100% depleted - have so far been unable to source anything... On the upside though; the longer time it takes, the fatter purse I'll have (given that said purse stays out of sight of the dear Mrs...) once the right object turns up:-)