sean f

Depending on the accident / incident, the police may well want to check things out especially if they think a modification may have contriputed to the accident in any way. Also the insurance companies will make the same checks and may reduce payments or refuse to pay out at all if they find any "unautherised" modifications, even if you have declaired them to the insurance company if they haven't been checked and declaired legal if neccesary it gives them an excuse to not pay. It is ultimately the drivers responsibility to ensure there vehicle is fully legal, if it requires an SVA (exactly what does and doesn't is open to some debate) and doesn't have one you could well end up deep in the brown stuff. There have been cases of insurance companies refusing to pay on theft case because vehicles had alloys fitted which in there view increased the theft risk so big modification just gives them more ammo. The same thing can apply to advisory notes given by MOT testers, these are now comuterised so can be easily accessed. If you get an advisor for brakes then have a accident and you haven't carried out the work in what thy consider a reasonable time the charges could get ramped up because in there view you are knowingly driving a vehicle which needs work. Excatly what a "reasonable time" is depend on what was picked up and how important is is seen to be, obviously it isn't required immediately other wise you wouldn't have got the MOT pass.

Finally got round to sorting out some of the photos

This is a big issue involving SVA tests etc. There is a system of point for components to retain the identity. One definate is the id stays with the chassis, if you change the chassis for a second hand one in the eyes of the law you have rebuilt the vehicle the chassis came from. If you replace the chassis with a NEW one of the same specs this is allowed. With other parts it gets a bit grey, change them all at once and in theory you would end up with a Q plate, BUT as you point out how would they know for most components. Running repairs are allowed so components changed for recon / replacements parts is allowed. Lets face it not many series vehicles have all the origional parts in by now. Changing parts for uprated components is event more grey and in many cases depends on who looks at it.

It is possible to fit 24 spline diff into early axles but... It not a simple as it seems. The diff just bolts straight in. To get the halfshafts to fit you will need to change the stub axles to the later (shorter type) finding the correct profiles for your axles is a bit hit and miss. I ended up sat in Brookwells with the old ones going through there parts list and looking at all of them to work out what would fit. This then means you will need to change the hubs to the later (narrower) type as well. The discs and calipers will be fine as they all fit in the same place. I found all this out after doing it myself. It was worth it on mine as the axle was in place and modified for air springs. If you are getting second hand axles then get the 24 spline ones the first time, by the time you have got all the bits to convert older ones it will probable be cheaper anyway and certainly simpler.

Got to ask why? but. I see no reason why the bearings wouldn't hold out provided the axle was full of oil, so diff and shafts could be removed provided all the holes were blocked up. A lot of trailer over run brake systems are hydraulic so it should be possible to mate up a standard trailer brake sytem to RRC axle calipers, may take some fiddling to get the specs right but I am sut]re it should be possible. Good luck

One thing to consider is now strong the rest of the garage is, not a lot of point in having a solid door it the garage is so thin they can just kick a hole through the side or pull and old wooden window out. Saw a boat a few years ago which had had the outboard stolen off of it, the owner had bolted it on then welder the bolts in place, locked the boat to the trailer and fitted locked brackets in place of wheels on the trailer (saves the tyres as well). How had they got round that lot? They used a chainsaw and cut the entire back end of the boat off!. Not much you can do if they are prepared to go that far!.

As has been said any thing is better than nothing BUT, If it isn't attached to any thing solid frankly its not doing anything, to be effective a cage must be fixed down to the chassis. There is some info in the tools section of the forum with the ARC and MSA roll cage specs, if you follow these you won't go far wrong. Take the specs to any decent fabricator and they should be able to sort something out, bear in mind if your welding is not 100% get some one else who's is to weld it for you, a roll cage is not a good place for dodgy welding. The designs all show full competition cages whether you fit a front hoop (in front of the windscreen) or not depends on the type of driving you do and now big an accident you think you may have. If you get a rear hoop and stays made up and fitted to the specs shown then it would be quite easy to get a front hoop and roof bars fitted later if you got more into it and started to want more protection. There are plenty of companies about that will supply and fit all the bits you need, of the shelf or made to order as required, what you end up with will depend on how you want the vehicle to look (external cages can look quite agressive and attract attention, depends on whether this is what you want), how much protection you want and how much you want to pay. The old addage of you get what you pay for generally hold true!.

In theory you can sue for expences, damage trauma etc. In practice as has been said the person responsible is unlikley to have any (thats traceable) money so even if you win you get a worthless court order against them but nothing else. The same holds true for burgglery etc. After the Tony Martin case the burggler he hit but survived tried to sue him for damages, one (of several) reasons this was dropped was that Tony Martind legal people contacted some of the toe rags previous victims and arranged for them to start damages cases against him. So even if he had won anything it would have been held whilst the other cases ran and since he had a LOT of other convictions he was unlikely to see any of it.

I have had 4 chassis from Richards now and all have been fully welded and I have never had any problems with them. The 1st was a series 1 chassis and at that time they were the only people who did a series 1 chassis, the quality was good so when I needed a 90 chassis I went back to them. I still have the series 1 chassis 7 years later and the chassis is still fine with no sign of any corrosion.

Few pictures from the drive round today.

Never tried uploading pics so hopefully this will work.... The top of the air spring is attaced to a cup shaped attachment with a tube fixed in the middle, the tube can then slide down through a plate attached to the top of the spring seat, the cup shape (machined to match the spring seat) ensures it sits securely when working normally. The air line runs down the centre of the tube to keep it secure and protected. I was going to fit a retaining ring to the top of the tube to stop it ever detaching completely but frankly the axle can,t drop far enough on the a frame for it to disconnect.

I have had air suspension on my 90 for about 5 years now with no problems. Origionally it was the system supplied from Ogden with a control system from Air-Ride (US company). It has no auto self leveling but you can check the pressures and once you knew what to expect there was no problem. I have since removed the Air-Ride control system and added bigger / easier to use switched instead as the air-ride controller was fiddly to use and started getting unreliable. It was designed for the custom car market and isn't realy up to off road battering. I haven't had any problems with the actual airbags although they are now starting to show a bit of ageing, no leaks though. As for generally air leaks, it does leak slightly but this is only noticable if I leave it sat for 3 to 4 weeks. It did take some time to chase all the leaks down though at the start. The suspension travel is limited by the shocks, I can max out 15" travel shock on the rear and bear in mind normally I drive with standard ride height so no real problems with castor angles, etc. Ihave modified to top retainers for the airbags to allow them to slide, the top of the bag can now drop out with a guide to re seat it similar to a dislocation cone type system but with guides for the air supply pipe. In standard height the ride is not bad, as you lift the vehicle by increasing the pressure the ride becomes progressively harder. One other usefully thing I have found with the system is the ability to lower the car to connect or disconnect a trailer if the jockey wheel is broken.

Apart from the SVA issues covered above... If it has a range rover chassis it is definately NOT a tax exempt S2. If you are caught by a policeman in a bad mood who knows what he is looking at you can get prosecuted for: Unregestered Vehicle No Tax No MOT As all the documents you have refer to a S2 which doesn't exist and you are sat in a range rover (or custom/ Q plate) car . This could involve a lot of fines and points if they decide to throw the book at you. Also the vehicle could be impounded until it identity and ownership can be established. Remember you could be involved with the police because some other idiot rams into you not through any thing you have done. This actually did happen to a friend of mine a few years back who admitedly was driving a ringer . His car blew its engine but had 11 months MOT so he aquired an identical car, same age colour and model but no MOT and changed the plates thinking no one would notice. He was pulled and they checked his chassis number, the result was a 12 month ban and a fine. He had a few words with his neighboor about who informed the police and told them to check the chassis number afterwards!! .

I would suport the other comments. I fitted mine about 6 months ago and it fits fine, good clear instructions which made life simple after I read them. The only problem I have had is it has made me realise how grotty the rest of my dash is

Got a complete ZF74 pump, solinoid valve, wander lead and hoses if you are interested. BUT they came of a 300tdi so the pump has a wide pulley for a multigroove belt, it only bolts to the front of the pump so should be easy enough to change. As to where you could fit it on a 2.5TD engine, I have no idea. They all came off my vehicle as I have just swapped over to a pto pump and a spool valve, basically a copy of Bullbar Cowboys setup, thanks for the help Ian. If you are interested send me a PM, I am only over near Newton Abbot so not far for you.

As Phil says the thread is 11/16" by 16tpi. Unless you want a non standard lenght steering bar for some reason you are better off buy a set of heavy duty bars, lots of different ones on the market now. You are not likely to find many machine shops with a RH tap and LH ones are a custom made item and very rare and expensive so you would be lucky to find one in even a big machine shop.

Had a locker in the back of my Series 1 (2 1/4 engine) for 8 years now with no problems. Broken lots of standard halfshaft and on one occasion both rear shafts at once and still had no problems with the diff. Maybe mine dates back to before the cost cutting?.

There as link higher up to RedPath tyres give them a call, they should be able to advise on best wheel size and offset.

I have a set of the straight forward rims in the garage at the moment, they only arrived just before I had to go away to work so I haven't actually put tyres on them yet. The finish is a bit crude but looks OK, I had to go round and clean the weld splatter off and file a few rough edges down (supplied unpainted), the welding all looked good to me though. Bearing in mind they are cheaper than others they seem good value for money. Once I have put tyres on and run them I will find out now air tight they are, they sealing gasket supplied looks good though and should be up to the job so I'm hopefull. Should be home in a couple of weeks then they will be tested!. As for service... took over 7 month for the rims to actually arrive and the communications leave a lot to be desired , shame as other wise I would recommend them if that is what you are after. With the dollar rate at the moment there must be some good deals from the US to be had although the shipping could cost a bit. Probable an opening for some one to import in bulk and sell on, provided every one wanted the same offset / size / stud pattern.....

from your write up it sounds like the rear uj's have gone. take the rear prop off put it in diff lock drive it, if that stop the problem put new uj's on and put the prop back on. if it dosen't sort it i'd look at the rear axle again Definately worth a try but that much play in a UJ would almost certainly mean the yoke had serious damaged and a new prop would be needed. Always the problem trying to diganose a problem from some one elses description. You really need to have another look underneath and see if the movement is in the universal joint or the nose of the diff / imput flange ie which side of the four prop bolts is the movement on. Often this is easier to see with no weight on the prop, chock the wheel and take the handbrake off then see what moves around. Good luck

I would have to agree with the above, time to do some serious work. If the rear axle is the rover type then a second hand diff is the best solution (or new if the budget goes that far). If it is a Salsbury axle (bolt on cover when looking at the axle from the back of the vehicle) then a second hand axle is the answer. Either type of diff could be rebuilt but this is a fairly specialist job and if you are not sure best left to others. All the brakes etc could be swapped from your old axle (assuming they are OK!). Its actually not a difficult job just a bit heavy so make sure every thing is supported securely. Axles and diffs come up for sale fairly often and there is usually a few on E-Bay although due to the size and weight you would want to find one as local as possible as paying some one to deliver is likely to be expensive. In it current state it could sieze up or fly apart at any time so it realy would be best not to drive the vehicle until it is sorted out.

I pretty much agree with most of the above but... I have built up 3 90,s now pretty much as you descipe, the first I still own the othere just kind of happened and have been sold on. One advantage of building it up your self is you will quite literally know the vehicle inside out and know it was done properly. On the comments about using a disco or a RR as a donar bear in mind the gearbox is not interchangable as the gearstick will be in the wrong place, the modifications to use a disco engine have been well covered in the past and isn't that hard. You will also need an awful lot of fittings etc and they easiest way to get them is all in one go on a donar 90. The BIGGEST problem with this approach and not having a rusty 90 to start with is that the final vehicle will have no identity so will need a full SVA and you do not want to go there if you can avoid it. Provided you have a 90 to start with a NEW for old swap for the chassis is allowed legally all you will be doing is swapping the engine and provided the V5 is updated all is legal. Secondhand chassis cause a real problem as which vehicle have you got at the end?, frankly with the cost of a new chassis and the work involved best to go that way as you have suggested

Had a garage forget to put the bonnet pins back in after an MOT once. Found out about a mile down the road when the bonnet flew open and smashed throught the windscreen. What really p****d me off is that after wards although the garage admitted they still had the pins next to there ramp, when I told them about the smashed windscreen I was told it was my responsability to check the vehicle is safe AFTER passing an MOT and they refused to even consider paying for the windscreen. Never did get any were with compensation just never went near that garage again.

Wasn't sure exactly when the cut off date was but if you tow with out the correct driving license endorsment (extra test to tow a trailer now) you will be in trouble if caught. The biggest risk is an accident when you may fine the insurance won't pay out and you could face court, remember it doesn't have to be your fault you face the same problem if some other idiot rams into you . If you are happy enough with a trailer and can tow (I never have been able to reverse a trailer!) it may be best to do the test then all legal.

Other option is to fit a 300tdi turbo. It bolts straight on you just have to change some of the manifold studs out for longer ones. The problems are: The manifold will foul the oil dipstick, just bend it and it will fit The exhaust is now directly over the engine mount. I cut and welded the 200tdi disco exhaust outlet and made it fit. I did this about a year ago and it goes fine, the only problems I have had is with the exhaust and thats due to my dodgy fitting the first time round and has now been fixed. I left the boost standard for a 300tdi so slightly high for a 200tdi. Mostly this was done as I had a spare 300 manifold sitting around and was trying to make it easy, didn't work out easy but once I started fitting it though I may as well finish. The origional 200tdi turbo is now in Honiton Hobbits shed, which come to think of it he still owes me for!