sean f

To answer the first question. Yes I was working nights!!, otherwise I would have been out cold or still in the pub or possible both, which is the plan for next weekend. You mentioned it came of a vehicle with air suspension so it may be worth checking the spring mounts are the same. Never looked closely at a air suspension axle but the basic set up is the same so even if the mount is slightly different it shouldn't take much work to modify it. Worth doing before you get the axle shot blasted and primered though.

I can't answer all the questions but hers a few, I am sure some one will answer the rest. All coil axles should be the same ratio, the diffs are 3.54 unless the previous owner has changed things about, in which case I expect the diff would be worth more to someone on here and you would be able to get a swap with no problems. Generally disco and range rover axles are the same, the only differences you may see is things like ABS and anti roll bar brackets being more common on generally higher spec range rovers, but this depends on the spec of the origional vehicle. The hubs should take the alloys, the alloy wheel hubs have slightly longer studs to allow for the thicker wheels, you can tell the difference as they have a slot in the end of the studs. Many people have run alloys on standard studs and never noticed the difference but if the vehicle get scrutineered at any time they should do. The two lines on the calipers is to allow for duel line brakes so it should be fine to just connect them together as they suggest. When the axle is fitted you may find the back is a bit over braked and will tend to lock up under heavy braking, I believe later 90 which had discs as standard have a pressure reducing valve in the brake pipe to stop this, I am sure some one will be able to confirm or deny this.

I have always used Richards and have now done 4 vehicles a Series 1 and 3 90's and never had any problems. I believe they changed hands a while a go and the newest 90 chassis I got last year is built slightly differently but you can only notice when they are sat side by side. I have never had a problem with the quality on any of them although I have had to clean up the galvanising a bit in places, just taking of sharp edges and cleaning up some of the holes, nothing serious. The last one I did is for sale if any one is interested, rebuilt with new brakes pipes, bushes etc and fitted witha 200tdi engine. It's only being sold as the person I rebuilt it for is now unable to drive a manual any more, especially a heavy Land Rove clutch for medical reasons so I ended up buying the vehicle from him.

In the situation they were in I am not sure it would have been much use but certainly a good idea. I do under water escape training every few years as part of working offshore and it scarest the **** out of me every time. Strapped into a seat upside down trying to get a window out and then a 4 point harness before swimming out is not my idea of fun, last time the safety dive had to release me after the harness jammed in place. Even in a controlled enviroment the panic sets in (well it does for me anyway!) and you can't hold your breath for nearly as long as you could sitting by the pool and thats with out debris flying around or muddy water to contend with.

The axle is almost certainly ex MOD at some time in it history, from what I have seen these were normally fitted to LWB models but knowing Land Rover and the MOD I expect there was some cross over and I expect some also went out on civilian model vehicles. The insides of the axle should be identical so no problems with parts. It should be vertually impossible to bend the axle...... If you hit them hard enough normally the swival housings shear off first but that requires quite a knock, last time I saw it done was a head on (well passenger corner) with a Cat D6 dozer at about 60mph. The D6 won. The land rover was repaired but the chassis was bent so it ended up being scrapped later after yet another knock.

If you do lean the bonnet all the way back remeber to tie it back. I didn't once and it resulted in a trip to the dentist to have my front teeth rebuilt when the wind blew it done on the back of my head, suffice it ti say it hurt !!.

You will find the gearstick is in the wrong place as the lay out is different from a disco to a 90. It is possible to rebuild the box and swap the parts over to convert it but it is not easy so probably better to go for a defender box and a V8 conversion ring. Not sure if you will need to do any thing with the first motion shaft but sure some one else will know.

I had a 4WS Prelude for many years, the 4WS was totally automatic and most of te time you forgot it was there. The only time it caused problems was if you pulled up next to a wall with very little lock then some one parked next to you and you had to use full lock to pull out, if you weren't carefull the back end went into the wall, in those cases it would have been nice to be able to turn it off. Not sure if this would be a problem at times off road or not but a simple switch to turn it off would solve that. The Honda system was totally manuel in operation (no electrics) and ran with a second steering rack on the rear axle and a steering rod slaved from the front axle. It was quite complicated though as in operation if you turned the steering slightly the rears turned the same way and let you crab steer a bit then as you applied more lock they straightened and started turning in the opposite direction to give a better turning circle, if that makes sense. The improved turning was usefull at time as the Prelude was a long car (longer than most 4WD's !), it wasn't as low as it looked just longer to give the same look, I drove mine across several off road sites (often just to access road was bad enough) and generally made it, just.

Never seen a problem with the drive gear for the speedo on the output of the transfer box (part 2 in the diagram), if there is a problem at all it is normally the smaller nylon gear (part 16) although it is very rare for this to be at fault unless it has fell out at some time. Most problems with speedo readings are the cbale from there up to the dash speedo, if you have any problems check this first. If you disconnect it from the transfer box it should turn easily if it is sticky either try oiling it (not often successfull in the long term) or change it. If you do end up changing the speedo drive gear (part 16) make sure you get the correct one for you tyre size, this is the part you need to change to get the correct speedo reading for different tyres, they are colour coded, but just to make sure count the teeth and compare it to the new one.

If anyone is still looking for a Tube notcher JLindustrial.co.uk are selling them off with a discount. The ones they are selling are made by Chester UK and are £52.95 plus VAT. Enter product code AGHTO-00068D to get the discount other wise they are about £70 plus VAT. Haven't actually seen one yet but it looks good in the pictures, these people are also very good for other metal working bits and pieces, mostly industrial supply but happy to sell to individuals.

Just to added to other comments. The prop lenghts ARE different from a 200 tdi to a 300 tdi. As several people have said the bell housing is a different lenght, if you look at the seatboxes you will see the later 300 tdi one has a bulge below the handbrake to accept the front of the transfer box. Also the crossmember and gearbox mountings are different to accept this move. I found all this out the hard way when I changed the rusted out chassis on my 90 which had a 300tdi fitted earlier for a new galvanised chassis and though I may as well get the right chassis mount etc for the engine and got the 300 tdi chassis then spent a while wondering why nothing seemed to fit right. Not sure what a td5 is like, never looked to close yet.

I asked a question in the LRO mag about 10 years ago about this which I have never had a reply to. Who says bullbars result in more serious injuries and where are the statistics to prove it?. Several MP's have quoted numbers of road deaths caused by bullbars with numbers from 10's to 1000's. Most of the data sugests that you are more likely to be killed in an accident with a vehicle fitted with a bullbar than one with out a bullbar. In its self this is meaningless as being hit by a 2 tonne 4x4 is going to cause more damage than being hit by a 1/2 tonne Smart car. Most bullbars are fitted to big high vehicles not standard street cars. What is needed is a study of the statistics of accidents involving vehicles of the same class with and with out bullbars. This is like comparing being hit by a moped and being hit by a 40 tonne truck, then complaing there must be something wrong and dangerous about the front of the truck with out considering the 40 tonnes behind it. On most 4x4's the bullbar doesn't change the shape of the front of the vehicle much all it does is bring it forward a bit. As to now any one is going to define what is and what is not a bullbar......

Just a quick safety point. Eyeballs arn't easy to replace!!. If you are doing anything like this remember to wear decent googles or a face mask. Hitting hardened steel is likely to cause it to shatter and bits go every where. I expect most people on here have had metal splinters in there eye at some time or know some one who has and it is not nice. Normally it is the quick job were you only have a little bit to do and can't find the safety googles when it happens.

If you are still looking. I have a pair of taps for this at home, as stated they are 11/16" 16tpi. Left and right handed ones, you can often get the right hand tap (it needs to be a supplier with a big parts list), the left hand one has to be specially ordered. I bought them last year to make up my own steering bars, I currently have a set made from solid marine grade stainless. They are available to borrow if you want to drop down to South Devon. If you want a specific bar made up send me the exact lenghts etc and I will have a word with a friend who made mine up to come up with a price. Cannot always be to precise over the O/D of the bar as mine where made up from cut down second hand boat prop shafts he had kicking around, the price of steel is a bit daft at the moment. Send me a PM if you are interested. Sean

May sound daft but check you wheels and tyres are actually round!!. Jack the vehicle up so the tyre is just of the ground and spin it round checking for any run out. I have a grizzly claw which I am using as spare that did the same thing, when I checked it the tyre was visable out of true, over 1/2" different in height in some places. Now have a second tyre going the same way, good tyre in the mud but not the best quality control.

It should fit but there will be a few potential problems. The first one is what you will end up with, it will almost certainly have to get a Q plate and might well have to do an SVA as you are not replacing with "new" of the same specs. If it is for off road use only not a problem and the cahnces are no one would notice any way. After that the engine mounts are different, if you can cut the 200 tdi ones of and weld them on this is easily sorted, it may be possible to adjuct the mounts on the engine and make them fit the TD5 chassis mounts, never looked that closely. On the 300tdi and the td5 the engine sits several inches futher forward (hence different seatbox and prop shafts) this means the gearbox mounts are in the wrong place, as these are just holes drilled throught the chassis this is easy to fix. The panhard rods are different or some later vehicles but I am not sure about the year, they use a bigger bush and bolt so you may have to mix and match and possible drill out the axle mount to accept the later panhard rod. Not sure about the fuel tank mounts but this should be easy enough to fix. As far as I am aware all the panels etc will just bolt straight on, subject to the usual Landrover tollerances!.

I did this on a 200tdi disco engine fitted into a 90 I own. If fitted the entire 300tdi inlet and exhaust manifold (it was sat around in my shed at the time). Obviously things like the air pipes are in different places and the exhaust will need to be changed but these are all off the shelf bits. The only other problems I came across were the oil dip stick had to be bent slightly to clear also the studs in the head were to short and had to be changed for longer ones as the casting was thicker. Once it was in it goes well and so far I have had no problems with it.

Just a thought but have you checked it is realy the drive chain?, some play is normal in any Land Rover. You can get a similar clonk from the ball joint on the top of the rear axle. To check it: with the hand brake off and front wheels chocked check for play with a big bar it should be almost completely solid. In case any one wonders why check with the hand brake off, I have found if the weight of the vehicle is held on the rear axle i.e vehicle on a slight slope, the joint tends to lock up and look good even when totally worn out. Worth checking the rest of the bushes at the same time as well. Good Luck

There are several different stub axles for the range of Land Rover vehicles. You will need to take off the old one and check the back of it (bit that ataches to the axle) as there are different profiles, ones from a front axle are generally flat and just bolt on, ones from back axles often have a profile that fits into the axle casing. Basically if it will fit on it will work with some exceptions. the same goes for the hubs although you may have to change the half shafts from imperial to metric if you change them (different drive flange bolt size) and hubs from a drum braked vehicle won't work on a disc braked vehicle as there is no where to bolt the disc to. The big change is from 10 spline axlea to 24 spline axles, the later stub axles for the 24 spline axles are shorter and the hub although it uses the same bearings has them closer together hence the thinner drive flanges on later vehicles. You cannot go to far wrong with this as if you mix them up they just won't fit.

I made a bulkhead for my 86" from 2" box and bits from a S2 bulkhead. I cut out the shelf / dashsection (identical to 86") and welded this into a box cestion frame. The gearbox section in the middle was cut from the origional S1 bulkhead but I expect a S2 one is the same. The foot wells I just made from scratch from sheet steel. Never did sort the ventilation flaps they are there but open and close as they feel like. You really would need an origional S1 to take some measurements from but after that the origional was pretty basic so not to bad to copy. Have fun.