TSD

aka "Screw to Win" for those who've read his other books

For easy examples to borrow code from, and a gentle learning curve, a PIC is still hard to beat. MSP430 is a real contender, but the amount of work needed before you get past 'hello world' is much higher than the PIC, because there's less beginner level support. My current favourite is the STMicro ARM dev board 'STM32-VLDISCOVERY'. You get a 32bit ARM processor with 128K flash and 8k RAM, and a built in programmer, for about £10. Ignore all the recommended dev systems, and google the free 'CooCox' IDE. You still won't find much entry level help online, but the dev environment is really easy to set up and fairly bug free, leaving you free to swear at the code instead of the IDE :-)

The Rocky Mountain extended sump fits the LT230, but that's not much use for the GKN overdrive as they don't (or shouldn't!) share oil (unlike the RM unit). The GKN overdrive appears to be a J type internally, certainly I didn't find any particular differences from the articles here. Machining a deeper sump from a suitably sized solid lump of ally should be trivial. You'll want 'something' standing proud in the middle to prevent the screen filter falling down, might as well make that the magnet swarf catcher at the same time.

There wasn't much of a lip on the last one I did (but more than I can see in your photo). Hit it with the wire brush to make the most of what there is - it can be hard to tell the difference between crud and steel there. I think if the base flange on the boot is too thick, it just causes the spring to roll up and over. I used a wire 'tourniquet' instead of the supplied spring which stayed in place better until the rubber had deformed a bit, then the spring held it fine.

I think the only white Ibex I've seen is the #1 F8 prototype. And that certainly counts as 'stunning' in my book.

Thanks Western. I guess the next stage is to make up a pressure gauge adapter so I can see whats happening when it's not dropping back to normal drive.

Refitted my GKN on Saturday, and again on Sunday. All cleaned out and new seals throughout, but still sticking when dropping out of OD when hot. It seems either the oil pressure isn't released, or the actuator pistons are sticking in the bores. When I stripped the solenoid, I noticed there was no return spring in the end of the valve, compared to pics of the J type unit (which seems identical apart from the adapter housing) I fitted a random spring (from a busted indicator stalk) and got more convincing operation, but still acts up after a 20 mile run at speed. I've owned the OD from new, so either it isn't supposed to be there, or mine was built wrong. Anyone ever stripped the solenoid and know if there is supposed to be a spring there? I'm getting bored now, I feel there may be a Roverdrive and an ebay sale in my future

Fitted mine new behind a new TGV. Regular 6k oil changes, removed it 14 months and 36k miles later, threw it to the back of the shed in disgust. There it sat until last weekend. As I said, high pressure filter housing full of aluminium dust. Not just blocked, but properly full.

Coincidentally I stripped my old gkn overdrive last weekend. It's been sat in the back of the shed for 5 years or so since it packed in with no drive - sort of stuck between drive and overdrive. There was no obvious damage to the gear sets or brake, and not much debris in the low pressure filter (the square one behind the sump plate). However, the high pressure filter was completely blocked with metallic dust. I found some wear in the actuator piston bores, but not enough to explain it. There some wear to the main shaft in the pilot bush behind the oil pump in the rear cover, possibly due to oil starvation. I've cleaned the whole thing out, and replaced most of the o-ring seals with viton. Maybe this weekend I'll try fitting it and see if it's working again. The remaining oil inside was dirty, but not burnt. It seems that everything from 30W to 80W/90 and ATF has been specced for that OD design in various vehicles at various times. The shift speed depends on the rate of change of oil pressure, so diff oils will have some effect on that. Mine was always a very hard shift from new, so I might be tempted to try running it on 80W/90 instead of ATF - if it works at all

Lift pump sticking/struggling maybe? Maybe vacuum pump, but not sure why that would be load related?

Yep, still sounds like the lift pump!

If you've changed the fuel filter, then the next most likely IMHO would be the lift pump. Check the boost control line from the turbo to the FIP is intact. Maybe check the diaphragm in the top of the FIP and make sure its not rusted solid after sitting for so long. Never seen a rusty one, but have been told of one or two.

I recently had identical symptoms with a TGV lump. Crack test showed a leak from the coolant jacket into #2 inlet port. If the engine stops with that valve open, when you restart from cold all is well, as the coolant drains away to the sump, or evaporates. If the valve is closed, it pools on the back of the valve, and drops in all at once on cranking. My engine wasn't ever frozen or overheated (owned it from new) so you may just have been unlucky like me

Gearchange yoke free on the selector shaft? Isn't it only locked in place with one grubscrew? I remember something similar happening on an LT77 but it was a long time back. Edit : Wabbit beat me to it!

Have you joined the hs2800TDI group on yahoo groups? There's a few members in Oz who might be able to suggest sources more local to you.

M&D (as above) seem to carry most things. Had a new cylinder head on the shelf when I needed one. Stephen Cahill at Old British Wheels in Canada claimed to be able to source most things. Website seems down at the moment www.obwcanada.com Johan Ipenburg at Prins Maasdijk in Holland (www.prinsmaasdijk.nl) also has lots of spares, but doesn't sell the engine anymore. Don't forget to check for LR part numbers in the International parts catalogue! Obviously if it has a LR part number, the equivalent 300tdi part will fit.

I guess you're talking about the black plastic end piece on some spouts? I lost one into my Disco years ago, never caused any problems. Just make sure the wire mesh is still secure in the spout or you'll lose that next time.

Water trap sensor in the fuel filter?

For the last few weeks I've had a 12V 40W ptc cabinet heater on the dashboard, which I acquired intending to fit in the duct to the drivers side of the defender dash. It's sufficient to demist about a 4-6" area in the middle of the screen in about 30 seconds - so nearly as useless as the standard setup, but not quite. If I had no better options I would fit it as (a bit) better than nothing. Because of the way PTC heaters work, it would operate at more than 40W with a Defender fan forcing air though it instead of the tiny thing it's made with. I've got a high power PTC from a Peugeot that I think will just about fit in the Defender heater box, in place of the outlet 'on/off' flap. Draws around 100A at startup but at full temperature and zero airflow around 25-30A. Even with only one of the three elements switched on, it puts out a substantial amount of warm air. No use for heating the truck up, but I'm not aiming for instant heating, just instant demist.

TGV uses a 7PK1629, used on E39 BMW535 and E38 BMW 735 to 9/98 I get mine from German & Swedish. I suggested they add "(& Brazilian)" but they didn't understand.

It's common to put a resistor in there, but that's not the reason. A resistor can be fitted in parallel with the warning lamp to ensure enough current is fed to the alternator to start the regulator (pre-excitation current). Some regualtor/alternator designs require a higher current feed, the alternative would be to fit a higher wattage bulb, but that wouldn't match the rest of the lamps for brightness. (Less often, a resistor is fitted from the alternator side of the warning lamp to earth, to allow the warning lamp to indicate an open circuit exitation circuit.) If you don't have the resistor and the bulb fails, the alternator will normally reach self-excitation around 2000rpm (engine speed) and start itself up anyway.

Can't help on the QH origin, but the Bearmach supplied greaseable TREs I got came in that packaging. (When I complained they weren't the Lemforder parts I ordered, I was told to keep them FoC and Lemforder versions followed a few days later.)

Yes, that would be something like 20 deg hotter as I said.

I have a tell tale label on the casing of my R380, thats been there since I fitted the gearbox. Despite a lot of high speed motorway work behind a TGV, it's never gone over 85 degrees in 3 years or so. In places like SA, where the ambient temperatures might be 20 degrees hotter, that would push the oil temps more than 20C higher, and I'd consider a cooler might be a good idea. In the UK, the only benefit I could see would be that possibly the oil gets warmed to a better operating temperature. The downside is the small additional risk of failure due to accidental oil loss.

The pasty microwave is one of those daft ideas we came up with while greenlaning one winters day. The idea was to have something like an oversized 8-track player you can load your pie into like a cartridge. When hot, it pops out like a horizontal toaster (straight into your lap, saving you the effort of dropping it there later). I had the parts to make a solid state microwave oscillator of at least a few hundred watts, and aside from parts cost its quite an elegant scheme - the waste heat from the amplifiers can be used to heat the pie thermally, making it very efficent. Sadly there are far too many (slightly) more sensible things I want to build first!