dra890

DIdn’t the last 2.25s (the ones in coilsprung landrovers) have hardened valve seats already fitted? I’m sure I remember hearing that the last of the 2.25s were suited for unleaded?

I had this same issue with the radiator cap last year. To fix it I took the radiator cap off and used a penknife to clean all the gunk out from behind the poppet valve. I also sloshed it out in some water to finish the job. It’s been fine ever since ( hurriedly knocks on wood). Btw there’s no spring on the poppet valve - it doesn’t need it. Dan

How about axle check straps that can be adjusted to pull the chassis closer to the axles? Maybe something a bit like ratchet straps?

It is possible to adjust the gauges. There are two slots in the back. usually behind little cork discs - one for the high reading end and one for the low reading end. There's meant to be a special tool, but they can be adjusted with a screwdriver. Think carefully before adjusting though, this should be the last option, and only if you're certain that everything else is correct. And if you do go this way be careful - adjusting them they're only thin pieces of tin(?) so they bend very easily. Dan

I had similar a couple of years ago, although I could hold third too. Turned out that the mainshaft was in two pieces. It's going to have to be opened up to be sure. I'd prepare myself for a large bill. Dan

I'm with FridgeFreezer on this - I tried using high-temp exhaust paint on an ACR silencer to make it last longer, but it still rusted through in about the same time as an unpainted one. Dan

If you're commited to an oilbath filter it might be worth seeing if you can find one from a six cylinder. They're a bit bigger and supposed to flow more - it looks like this project might benefit from that. Dan

I don't think the roughness will help you with atomisation too much, what with fuel injection and the manifold hotspot. What I would do is to put a smooth radius on the bottom of that hole, blending it into the rest of the manifold to help the mixture turn that corner. It reportedly makes a big difference to flow. Dan

Since you guys are usually so helpful I thought I'd ask this here. I have a design for an inlet manifold. The runners can be made from commercially available tube bends butt welded together, the plenum is basically a truncated pyramid, and I need the flange plate cutting. In early December I sent the details off to a company who agreed to do this for me, but they still haven't looked at it. Does anybody know where I could find someone to fabricate this for me? Thanks Dan

Just to round this up, since the wire connecting the bulkhead post to the battery didn’t have any effect I disconnected it from the battery, fed it through the bulkhead and jury-rigged it into the auxiliary lamp earth to test out my idea. Ran it for a couple of days like this without the fault occurring. I also noticed that the dash was a little brighter like this. Then I unplugged it and the problem returned. So a length of 5 amp cable and a couple of ring connectors to replace the earth lead from the left hand bezel to the bulkhead earth post and my problem’s solved. Dan

Actually over reading is too many volts. That’s the thing that’s been puzzling me most about this. It suggests the voltage stabiliser either has a bad earth, or voltage reaching its earth (when the lights are on) and this is stopping it switching to reduce the voltage to the gauges. But the stabiliser shares its earth with the gauges, so this effect should cancel out. I’m wondering if I just have an earth problem on the left hand bezel where the stabiliser is, but the right bezel which houses the gauges is okay. But then would this cause the dash light problems I’m seeing which effects both bezels and the indicator repeaters equally? Confusing!

I have an annoying intermittent problem with my series 3’s dashboard. When I have my lights on (sidelight, headlight, main beam, it doesn’t matter) the dash lights frequently dim and flicker and the indicator repeater lights on the dash do the same. In addition both the temperature gauge and the fuel gauge will read too high while this is happening. If I happen to be indicating while this is happening then the dashboard indicator repeater that should be flashing will remain dimly lit and not flash, but will sometimes pulse, and the opposite repeater can pulse with it. None of the external lights are affected at all by any of this. I’ve checked all the front and rear sidelight bulb contacts, connected the front sidelight earth wires directly (via a connection block) to the battery earth, taped the wires behind the dash from the dash light switch to the bulbs with insulating tape, cleaned both dashboard bezel earth connections, cleaned the bulkhead earth terminal, and run a lead directly from this terminal to the battery earth. None of this seems to have made a difference. Any suggestions? Dan

Update. Okay, so after ruling out ignition (no really it is definitely NOT the ignition - different coils, points, plugs and distributors have had no effect and I've checked the ignition system out several times) I decided to look more closely at fuelling. Incidentally, I checked compression shortly before leaving it for a year and the readings were, from cylinders 1-4, 147, 144, 144, 151, and that was dry with the spark plugs still in the non-tested cylinders, so with less than a 5% spread and decent figures I don't think there'll be anything wrong there. I also thought of a sticky valve, but unless it's only sticking at higher revs it would've shown up on the vacuum guage. So I'll not persue this just yet. I'd already checked out the glass bowl on the fuel pump and there was no water or sediment. Fuel pressure and volume at idle seemed fine, but admittedly this doesn't tell me if it can keep up when demand is high. I decided that since blasting carb cleaner through the carb had helped maybe I just hadn't gotten all of the dirt, so I removed the carb and opened up the bottom half (HIF44). It looked clean inside but since I was already in there I gave it a good spray around with carb cleaner, and sprayed up the jet from that end for good measure. I then re-fit the carb and gave it a run (mostly to make sure I hadn't stuffed anything up). The landrover pulled up to 47-48mph in third - just over 4000rpm in my landrover, before showing the same symptoms, so it is an improvement but it's not quite there yet. This was last night. My next port of call is my inline filter. While it seems clean it isn't impossible that it might swell or partially collapse under high flow conditions, and it's an easy, free test to run with a spare, or without for a day or so. I also intend to check the filter gauze in the fuel pump itself just above the glass bowl. A small issue in each area could combine to make a bigger problem. Wish me luck. Dan

Yes, I've checked the advance works correctly, both vacuum and centrifugal. Plus, as I say I tried changing the whole distributor for a known good one, with no change for better or worse. Dan

I wonder if anyone can help me. I have a series 3 2.25 petrol with an SU hif44 carburettor that was left undriven for a year. Upon starting to drive it again I found that the revs seem to be limited. At first I couldn't get above about 30mph in third gear and low forties in fourth - about 2500rpm on my landrover (32 inch tyres). After seeing fuel coming out of the overflow I thought 'Aha, sticking float' so I emptied the carburettor's float bowl and sprayed carb cleaner in through the fuel inlet pipe until it came out of the overflow, then again with my finger blocking the over flow so it came out of the jet. I then ran the engine and found it much better. The engine will now run to around 40mph in third , but this is still only around 3500rpm. There should be around another thousand rpm available. It pulls strongly up to 40mph but then refuses to pull any higher, almost like it has a rev limiter. What could this be? It is not the ignition. I've tried individually changing the coil and distributor for correctly set known good ones, and different spark plugs have been tried. Pulling the king lead/individual plug leads I can get strong sparks to the block. I've since stripped and cleaned the top of the carburettor. I removed the dash pot and cleaned inside with a soft cloth and petrol, the same for the piston, and carefully wiped and inspected the needle without damaging it. None of these were dirty or in bad condition. I also sprayed carb cleaner down the jet with a straw attachment, and spraying into the float bowl through the fuel inlet with the overflow blocked it came out of the jet strong enough to miss the engine and wing and nearly hit the next car over. I then correctly reassembled the carburettor and refilled the damper, but this has made no difference. The piston opens fully when revved. I've also tried looking for vaccuum leaks but found none. All the hoses are attached correctly and the engine has good vaccuum - over 22 inches at idle. It never used to do this. Does anyone have any ideas?

No, the springs don't have a direction. But yes it can be a real pain to get everything to line up properly. I found that ratchet straps come in handy. Dan

This weekend I stripped and refurbished my front leaf springs and I thought I'd write a little guide to show how I did it. First of all you need to remove the springs from the vehicle. Actually, I removed one, refurbished it and refit it before doing the same at the other side. It is also a good idea to replace the bushes at the same time if they are anything less than impeccable. Here is one of the springs once removed. You can see how the leaves have been blown apart somewhat by rust and dirt. Before stripping the spring apart I wanted to make sure I could get it back on the vehicle okay, so I checked that my new locating dowels would fit in the axle okay. I got them from Craddocks, although they came without nuts, and cut the slots in them myself with a grinder to help with tightening them up. Here it is compared with the old one still in the spring. First, the spring clamps need opening up. I used a cold chisel as a wedge to open them. Once you can get a corner of the chisel over the side of the spring you can just use it as a lever to prise them open. Only open them as far as you need to. Next clamp the leaves together (I used a g-clamp, but a vice should also be fine) and cut the nut off the locating dowel, being careful not to cut into the bottom spring leaf itself. There's no point trying to undo it - it'll be rusted solid and you're going to replace it anyway. Then using a punch (or whatever's available) drive the dowel out of the spring pack. You can now take the spring apart. Give all the leaves a quick wire brush to remove the loose dirt and rust, then using a flap disc in a grinder go over both sides of all the leaves to remove as much rust and dirt as is reasonably possible. Try not to let the leaves get too hot or they could start to lose their temper. If you can touch it with your hand then you're fine.Wipe clean with a rag when you're done. Here is my spring pack after cleaning up. At this point you may just want to reassemble the spring and fit it, but now is a good time to do something about the friction between the leaves. There are a few options available. You could give each leaf a good coating of grease (the manual suggests carbon grease) to help the leaves slide past each other and this is said to work well, but eventually the grease will disappear, and this also tends to hold onto dirt and grit. Some people attach PTFE tape to the upper side of each leaf (except the top one) and this is also said to work well. I decided to paint my leaves with a dry lubricant to avoid attracting dirt. PTFE and teflon based paints are available but I chose one based on molybdenum disulphide. This bonds well with steel, is water repellant and is designed for high pressure steel on steel sliding components. One 400ml can of dry moly spray is enough to give a front spring a liberal coating. Paint both sides of each leaf and allow to dry. Use plenty - I went over each side a few times to make sure I hadn't missed anywhere. I also painted the parts that wouldn't see any friction to help keep water out and prevent more rusting. Once this is done you can reassemble the spring using the new dowel. I used a g-clamp to hold most of the leaves together while I put the last three on sideways, then once I had the nut on the dowel I strightened them up before tightening. You could choose not to use all the leaves. Leaving the bottom two off a standard spring is said to give a similar spring rate to a lightweight spring, or you could leave just one off to go somewhere in between. I assembled mine as standard. Here it is ready to go on. Dan

Just had this issue myself - had the garage replace the master cylinder and when I got it back the clutch bit as soon as I thought about lifting my foot. I re-bled it and managed to get a couple of bubbles out which improved things slightly, then I adjusted the clutch pedal. Open the bonnet and remove the cover plate over the master cylinder (6 screws to undo). You should now see where the clutch pedal pushes a rod into the master cylinder. This rod is threaded and passes through the clutch pedal, being held on either side by a pair of nuts. get someone to hold the clutch down from the driver's seat while you back off the nut nearest the front of the vehicle a couple of threads. Now your assistant releases the clutch and you screw the other nut up to clamp the pedal, then your assistant presses the clutch again while you tighten the front nut up tight to lock it. Test before you re-fit the cover plate as it takes less than you think - mine now doesn't bite until my foot's almost completely off the pedal, so I'm going to have to redo it. When you're happy put the cover plate back on and you're done. Dan

Would you be able to scan these cam profiles and send me a copy, I've been trying to get hold of something like that for ages. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks Dan

On the subject of water injection have a look at this site: http://autospeed.com/cms/A_110368/article.html They talk about using the water pump from an espresso machine with a cheap inverter to get the high pressure needed for good atomisation, whilst still being pretty cheap to buy and put together. Dan