sean f

Part of the problem would be controlling the gearbox and transfer box as they are electronically controlled. The gearbox can be sorted with a Compushift unit from Ashcroft or something similar but as far as I am aware at the moment there is no off the shelf way of controlling the transfer box, I expect it could be modified some how but I am not sure how. Its not as simple as just fitting another transfer box either as the pitch is to the other side. On the plus side there are plenty about and they are cheap!.

For a budget a discovery is probably a better bet, pretty cheap once they are a bit battered and generally they haven't been used as hard as a defender would have been. If he needs the space in the back th rear seats can be removed and a bulkhead put in quite easily if you aren't to worried what it look like. Depends on just what it is expected to do, road use as well or just off road, carrying loads, how many people etc. Otherwise local ads can still be pretty good source of cheaper vehicles, also sometimes speak to the local dealer and see what he has as trade ins, if the vehicle is too old for them to want to sell they will often want to just get rid of a trade in so will let it go for what they gave for it, a cash buyer is easy and uicker for them than put it in an auction. Likely to be sold as seen but thats what you get at the low end of the market.

As with all this sort of stuff, it is impossible to make a vehicle theft proof, you just have to make it difficult enough that a potential thief will not bother and go find a less well defended vehicle to steal. If they are going to use a crane truck or similar it is pretty difficult to do much about unless you use motion sensor (as in accelerometers) in which case they might well go off every time the vehicle is rocked by the wind or a passing car / truck, difficult to get the sensitivity correct. Some of the better monitoring GPS sensors allow people to set an operating time or area and get an alert if the vehicle moves out side of either, this would assume the vehicle is moved before the GPS is disabled, as others have said its not to difficult to guess potential locations and check them. If you are at home and parked on a drive then things like security posts or ground anchors (common for bikes) are good all can be defeated but it takes time, time is there enemy, they don't want to be around where some one who knows better might spot them longer than they have to be. Another side is that almost no one will react to a car alarm going off, sad but true, even if people view what appears to be a theft in progress very few people will do anything, I say this with the jaded view of having been assulted a while ago and spending several hours semi conscious lying in the road with car having to drive onto the pavement to avoid me, NO ONE stopped or even rung the police, I was there till a police patrol drove past and this was in a "nice" South West England town, car theft forget it. It is possible to get household or commercial alarms that trigger smoke to hopefully delay a thief from finding what he wants, these also act to make it more like people will report something, possible to the fire brigade instead initially but thats better than nothing, even trying to trailer a car with smoke pouring out is going to cause people to look, with a bit of thought they could be adapted to fit a car I expect, not sure on the legality though. Many years ago when I was working overseas I saw a system with a double layed alarm, the second internal alarm was wired to a military flash bang grenade under the rear seat!. I have never seen one of these go off but I doubt it would have done the car much good and I expect the thiefs ears would have met in the middle, this was in a country where concealed carry was common, military service a legal requirement for a section of the community and carrying heavier weapons in the car not uncommon (in the area I was in), very much doubt it was legal even there though!. After he showed it to me I never sat in the back seat of his car again.

Now I have the lathe up and running I have been having a play. One of the first things was a press tool to remove the trailing arm bushes, generally these are very tight after they have been there for a time and previously I have always used a socket which never seems to be quite the right size. Also getting everything to line up and balance in place on the press was a pain and really involved two people or a few attempts. So the plan was a tool of the right diameter, then I though add a recess so it sits over the steel inner to locate it, after that I though why not drill it so it can be held in place with a bolt. What I ended up with was this. The idea is that it is assembled like this with the short section at the top to get the bush moving giving as short an item as possible in the press keeping it as stable as possible whilst the highest load is applied. When in the press the lower section acts as a guide to help postion the base plates on the press as close as possible to hold the arm and prevent the situation where you find what you though was a really tight bush is actually that you have been trying to push the bush through the plate. This is it in the first press I used, unfortunately the press had a bit of a leak and wasn't up to pushing the bush out. So I moved onto a bigger press got the bush moving then switched over to the longer side and pushed the bush out. All worked quite well and as an extra we realised that it would also work well to guide a new bush in straight. The plan is to make some more on a similar style for other bushes, working on one for the front radius arm bushes next. I have now made a couple of these for a few other people and have the design pretty much sorted, if any one would like one let me know, can't garantee when I will be able to make one as this is strictly a hobby and gets done around work.

I have done pretty much the same job as described and for the same reason, if I am not mistaken they are Stazworks rims so a lot thicker than any standard wheel at the nave plate including wolf wheels. I left the studs full lengh and they do stick out quite a bit this causes the nut to lock on a bit as the sticking out bit rusts a bit, I thought about trimming them back and might do so next time I have the hub off for any reason. Having had the fun of a wheel coming off whilst driving (one missing stud to start with, two more pulled out and I have no idea where the other wheel nuts went) I prefer a few threads sticking out and the nuts being corroded on a bit for the extra security, lets face it how often do you actually check your wheel nuts are torqued correctly. As an extra slightly off topic add on, we had an alert come out at work about loose wheel nuts on cars in car parks, apparently persons of questionable parentage will go round loosening the wheel nuts on vehicles in preparation for going back later and stealing the wheels, if you come back inbetween you can end up driving off in a vehicle with all the wheel nuts loose or missing, worth a quick look getting into a car if it has been in a car park for a while, this was particularly about cars left for several weeks in Aberdeen whilst people went to work.

Trailing arm bushes tend to be particularly difficult to remove and replace, the others less so. Most of the cost of getting a garage to do a job like this is the time getting bolts out etc, if you take the arms off yourself and take them and the new bushes down to a garage or machine shop you can often get someone to change them out for reasonable money, the right tools make it much easier and quicker.

This by far the best way of mounting it if possible as all the forces are now pulling the winch into the mounting plate and the bolts are only acting to hold it in place rather than take a shear load. Whether it is possible or not will depend on the mounting, up against the back of the rear cross member suitable reinforced would be good, and also where the winch controls are so you can still operate them. Bogmonster description of the loads if coming off the top rather than the bottom of the drum are spot on, it is a matter of rotational torque, same princible to using long breaker bar to undo a tight bolt rather than a short ratchet.

Got a MTA 210 welder, I used to run it on a singel 13amp plug and it blew fuses frequently also tripped the main breaker quite often with surges which turned the whole house off. At the same time as the rest of the wiring was done he wired in a dedicated 16amp plug with its own breaker of the different type that tolerates surges, been fine now also keeps the house running no matter what I do, so much better.

I now have a Harrison M300 long bed set up in the garage. Looked at various options for a power supply and ended up fitting a 10HP digital invertor from drivesdirect. This can then be run direct to the lathe normal supply cable and all the normal lathe switches work, I can start the lathe at full speed with no problems. When I looked into it a smaller invertor could have been used if it was wired direct to the motor but then all the other lathe controls / emergency shut offs would have had to be rewired to operate through the invertor, this might be easy and have advantages for someone with lots of electrical know how but for me would have involved someone else being employed to do it. The large invertor also allows me to run a 3 phase ring main so I can easily fit any other 3 phase kit so long as the over all draw at any one time doesn't exceed 10HP it is fine and since I would be unlikely to operate to much all at the same time that is unlikely to happen. A lot of 3 phase kit is quite cheap as it has limited desirability. I had the garage reconnected with its own consumer unit rather than coming off the house one and the invertor hard wired up to that through a 50amp breaker close to the consumer unit, it draws close to the 50amp as it first fires up but then settles down to a lot less once running, the 50amp is realy only for the surge. The electrician did all of this and connected the garage sockets in the to same consumer unit as well so the garage now stands alone. So far it has operated great with no problems and only makes a low whirr in the corner from the cooling fan which is drowned out by the lathe in use or just about any other equipment in use, now I just have to learn to use the lathe better!.

Its fairly common to lose one direction, i.e. easy to get into high range difficult to get in and out of low range or the other way round. The grub screw tightens on a flat so as it get looser it has more "slack" in the middle before bitting on either side, generally you can adjust the changer to operate one direction or the other but can't get it work both ranges. Eventually of course it will loosen enough not to work at all, hopefully whist in high range if you need to drive the vehicle. Any problems with the high low range change as people are descriping and this is a quick, easy and cheap thing to check before going onto more expensive options.

As others have said a loose grub screw in the selector is the most likely cause. For step by step instruction:. First clean the area up as best you can, you don't want muck dropping into the box if you can help it. Disconnect the connector shaft ( left of your picture), there is a sprung clip and then the pin pulls out, there should be a couple of plastic shims there, these can fall out and get lost so if they are loose take them out and store them safely, sometimes they have gone missing in the past, its not the end of the world but will allow more movement and rattle in the selector. Remove the six bolts and lift the housing up. Inside there will be a shaft attached to the lever on the outside, this will have a selector on it, if this can move on the shaft then it is loose, there is normally a flat on the shaft so line up the selector there and tighten the grub screw, a blob of thread lock will help it stay firm if you have any. I have never seen a welded selector that others have mentioned but if you have that and it is broken then you will either need to get it re welded or get a replacement, I expect if you ask in the wanted section you would get one for not much more than the postage. When you replace the selector, I think there is suposed to be a gasket but I normally just use a bead of gasket sealant or silicon. Reconnect the selector shaft and check the operation, you may find it a lot more possitive than before as often the grub screws work loose over time allowing progressively more movement until you finally run out of range. Hope that is helpfull and good luck.

Output shaft replacement requires opening the gearbox up, so DIY repair depends on how good you are with gearboxes, definately not straightforward and will require special pullers etc. Easiest would be a correct replacement box either second hand or re con, re con would be best and I would advice Ashcrofts but it does depend on your budget. A discovery box is easier to get hold of and cheaper but the bell housing will be the wrong lenght and the gear stick will be in the wrong place so definately not an easy fit.

The squidgy ones in the ear will generally give the best sound reduction IF they are fitted correctly. This is the way to fit them, just trying to shove them in doesn't work, the majority of people who don't think they work don't fit them properly, they don't push them in far enough, you need to follow the advice above, you can soon tell when they are in correctly. Most of the time I use peltor ear defenders, a general rule is the bigger the cups the more they will reduce sound, this obviously has variations with build quality, thinner fitting ones don't generaly work as well but are more comfortable to wear and won't get in the way so much it is all a compromise. If the job is going to be loud or you are prone to tinnitus then it is quite possible to wear both sorts at the same time. The soft material in the ear defenders breaks up in time as well as does the part that moulds to the head so don't try and make them last to long, also as said long hair or glasses tends to effect now well they work and I know some people who just can't get them to fit correctly so they just don't work, peoples heads and ears are different shapes. Personnally I don't really like the squidgy sort as I find them uncomfortable but they do work, if you have problems with them there are several different brands and grades, some softer and harder than others and some slightly different shapes, everyones ears are different so it is a case of find what works with you.

Helping them out at times helps to keep things civil and get away with making a bit of noise and mess at times. I have rebuilt several vehicles in the drive and frankly it looks a mess at time and some noise is inevitable, I have had no problems with the neighbour. If I have any particularly noisy job to do I try and do it in bits also if I see they have gone out I take that as a chance to get as much of the noisy stuff done as possible. I have also help patch up his car on several occasions and if I have the jet washer out on bin day I jet wash my bin out and do his at the same time, takes minutes but keeps thing on good terms. It sounds like your case has got a bit past the stage of being nice so keeping a diary of when you are making noise and for how long will help fend off any formal complaints if the council get involved to prove you aren't making a deafening noise for hours every day as is sometimes claimed. As other have said trying to keep thing limited and moderate the noise as much as possible will help and if the council get involved the fact you have tried counts for a lot.

If it is limited time in the workshop you can make things easier by removing anything not needed like winches etc first and even the passenger seat. Also check and crack as many suspension bolts as possible, a couple of seized bolts can cause a lot of delays, also I would budget and prepare to replace all the brake pipes, just cutting them away and replacing them with new is a lot quicker. I did a series one chassis in 2 days in a friends workshop basically on my own with help for the heavier items, admittedly a series one is that much simpler than a 90 but with more help and the correct parts on hand it could be done over a weekend.

On a 300 you can lock the pulley using the 4 bolts hold ing on. You might be able to get away with wedging a screwdriver between two and pulling against that but it would be likely to slip off if not carefull, otherwise a C spanner type of thing might work. I designed and made a special spanner which picked up the heads of 3 of the bolts and could then be used to hold the pulley part still, they were cut from 5mm steel and sold at a couple of shows last year via a friend. I still have a couple left if you are interested, not to difficult to make something yourself just time consuming and a bit fiddly.

I agree, and in the same area is the side of the gearbox.... I have seen a hole smashed through a gearbox when a prop went under power, if that had happened he would know by the large puddle of oil but definately worth checking for damage before driving if at all possible, should be quite easy to see what is broken!. I assume it was the back end of the prop where the UJ failed to take the crossmember out, generally better than the front end going which has more room to swing about and cause damage possible even digging into the road, I have never seen it but there are reports of front props failing and digging in resulting in vehicles rolling over, either way it would be good. If one UJ has gone it is also worth having a general look over the vehicle for condition they don't normally go with no notice (although it can happen), what are the rear UJ's like?.

Always be wary of any one who claims problems paying because they are "offshore". I spent over half the year offshore and although there are sometimes coms problems with phones and internet, internet can also often be slow depending on where you are generally dial up speeds. This can cause a few delays but won't stop access to making a bank transfer.

The spiral bit works a ring of piston effectively it is a 6 (?) piston pump working in rotation. It might be possible to drill the top and have a plug in it that you can periodically spray some oil in. In practice with nothing what so every I found they generally last several years, and when they fail stripping them shows that the thin sheet that acts as the valves corrodes due to moisture in the intake air so the pump has to progressively work harder to generate the same air pressure / volume leading to eventual failure.

Total ringer and no way on earth it is road legal for paper work in it current state. Take that on the road and you would be done for no MOT, Tax, Insurance etc unless it was on trade plates. Having said all that it looks like a good build and the parts look quite good, with no reason to question there origin bejond that they definately didn't start life on a 1972 series 3!. No way I would touch it though unless very cheap as you would be buying a pile of bit with no valid paperwork.

If the primary tracking system won't allow a grid reference to be input I am surprised they don't have access to a system that does even if it is operated by a different person in the call centre (possible on an isolated PC if they have IT concerns). The software for this is pretty cheap and can be run on even the most basic laptop. Getting a description of the route is all very good in a break down but in an emergency people don't always think straight and even in normal situtation some people are just hopeless at giving direction often forgetting that various turns are there as they never use them. This could cause a critical delay in some cases. There was a lot of publicity down here in the South West a few years back about holiday home putting the grid reference next to the phone to allow faster tracking in an emergency, I expect this is pretty redundant how with caller id, I assume the emergency services if not the AA etc can pin point the location of any land line pretty much instantly.

Security has come up before. Nothing will stop a determined "profesional" thief, all you can do is make it so difficult they don't bother and find an easier target elsewhere, now much that involves depends on how much the could get for the vehicle or parts. Good start is to look at the bits Simon makes at x-eng, definately slow them down. A few obvious items to put of oppertunists and then some better concealed items to put of the more serious. Never underestimate the stupidity of some though, a friend had the passenger door lock on his escort screwdrivered out of the door (drivers door was in a more visable position which is probable why they went for the passenger side) , got the door unlocked before they discovered he had parked inches from a 1ft high wall so they couldn't open the door anyway, they never got the car but he still had to fix the damage to the door.

Would be nice to think if they are going to write it off so fast they will pay up fast as well but I doubt it. I suspect a licence check is as much a confirmation of identity as anything else, there are scams of people claiming vehicles are stolen for the pay out after they have sold them overseas, by using different identities they can get away with this several times (probable with different insurance companies) , linking it back to a driving licence makes it easier to link things together for a centralised database to spot these things. Once they pay out IF the vehicle is recovered later the insurance company own it, you might get a chance to buy it back or they will auction it or scrap it depending on condition when recovered. Best of luck, keep pushing and they are more likely to do something.

This is what I consider to be the single biggest argument about how effective these things are. If any of these things worked the manufacturers would fit them, for Ford to be able to claim there cars were a few percent more efficient than Vauxhal would win them a lot of business, particularly on the fleet car and van market where often big milages make economy a significant factor. Remaps and rechips can improve efficiency as the orgional tune is generally a one size fits all and different markets have different requirements (being able to run well at -40C isn't generally a requirement in the UK but might be in some places) and once on the road the emissions requirements aren't as strict as they are for a new vehicle so there is some room to adjust things

ABS light will stay on till the vehicle is moving, I think it has to reach 5mph. This is normal and so long as the light goes out once you are moving not a problem.