TSD

I used the Waeco kit in the Ibex, in Range Rover leather seats where the original elements were faulty. They do work, though they take a while to warm up, and they don't really get hot enough to cause the seat materials any problems. Personally I think they are more suited to Range Rovers and the like than Defenders though. If you step straight out of the office into your rangie, they will keep your backside warm. If you're working outside in the cold, and get into your truck wearing full outdoor gear, you won't feel anything at all through your outdoor clothing. I rarely turn mine on, even at -20C, but then the Ibex is warmer than most Defenders I've tried. Dave

Not sure anyone should be encouraging you but my guess is you need to remove the bolt that secures the reverse gear idler shaft. Is it too late to suggest you RTF(RAVE)M ? I'm not telling you where the bolt is, in the hope you'll have to open the manual Dave

Not stuck, but I enjoyed this demonstration of the proper technique for crossing deep ruts

No probs, just wait until there's someone hanging around the workshop, then 'Can you just hold this while I...'

Smear the contact area with Vaseline (petroleum jelly) before you bolt it together. It keeps out air and water, so stopping corrosion, and doesn't wash out. I guess you can paint over it if you wipe off the excess with a solder rag.

I just replaced a squealing tensioner assembly. I put a new bearing in it a few times over the years, but this time it didn't cure the problem. The new Dayco one has more bearing play than the one I took out I suspect the spring part doesn't move smoothly enough to keep even tension anymore. I want to open the old one up at some point and examine it... maybe it's possible to add a grease nipple to improve the movement?

It helps to chamfer the leading edges of the clip a little with a sharp knife to make it easier to clip into place.

I lost one of those into my 200tdi Disco about 7 years ago. Either it's still there, or it dissolved. Either way, it never caused any issues.

A 65A alternator will typically provide 20-25A at tickover. Hard to say how much of that will find it's way to your second battery, as it depends on lots of factors. Assume that it's half the alternator output over long periods. There are alternators out there which provide high currents at tickover. On a Bosch alternator you can check the red label, it will usually say something like "K C (>) 14V 40-90A". K indicates the body size (o/d of the stator) C indicates the type (Compact) 14V is the output voltage setting > indicates direction of rotation 40 is the output at 1800rpm shaft speed 90 is the output at 6000rpm shaft speed On my hybrid I used a 60-90A from a Mondeo (most 90A units are lower output at tickover, usually 40 or 45A). That gave a solid 60A output at idle if the load required it. You could also look at using a smaller pulley on the alternator (depending on what you have already) to up the shaft speed. Available alternator output varies rapidly with shaft speed at the low end, so a small change can make a useful difference.(Maximum shaft speed is around 15000rpm so you're unlikely to hit the limits in a LR.)

The only 'offical' published figures I've seen are in the WSM for a 110 with Boge SLD, where the test for suspension height is for the gap between bump stop and axle pad on the rear axle to be in excess of 67mm in running trim. HTH Dave

More likely a dead/flat battery? If the battery on the winch side of the x-charge were flat, the x-charge relay could get one hell of a kicking while winching.

Umm, maybe I'm missing something but... The x-charge is simply a relay which joins the batteries together when energised. So if you switch the voltmeters via the ignition, the only time it tells you anything useful is when the ignition is on, but the engine isn't running (with x-charge hooked to alternator) or never (with x-charge hooked to ignition live). The rest of the time, it only tells you something vague about the charging current and quality of your wiring. Seems to me it's more useful to measure the battery voltage when not charging, might as well use two push buttons to connect a single meter to either battery. Of course, knowing the voltage when charging is handy, but it should be the same for both batteries.

The Maxion 2.5 diesel is a 300tdi. It's the 2.5 version of the International 2.8TGV. Used (I think) in some Ford Rangers in South America.

Surely, #1 benefit of an Ibex is that they don't rust Not much, no

la la la la I can't hear you

In the normal case, the plugs don't see a higher voltage, though they do see a higher energy per spark. This is either a higher spark current (with associated higher terminal voltage, but this is still lower than the ignition voltage) or as a longer duration of spark. I there's not enough energy available to destroy the resistor normally. A quick back of fag packet sum suggests a dissipation of less than 2.5W in the resistor even if it were firing 50% of the time. I doubt that's enough to damage something thats being heated to 1000C at one end, pressure cycled to many atmospheres, stresed to 10kV, and which remains pressure tight the whole time. On the other hand, once a misfire is prompted, due to poor mixture, poor timing, failing plug or whatever, then the voltage seen at the resistor could be very much higher (easily 30kV or more with EDIS), and then I would think that arcing might occur around the resistor. I'm purely speculating here, as I've only ever owned one RV8 (and that was carp), but given the combustion chamber design is fairly inefficient (evidenced by high timing advance requirement under acceleration), and the big overlap cam will be throwing lots of unburnt fuel out of the exhaust port at low rpm, is it possible that Nige's tuning is actually too lean and/or over advanced due to lambda being confused. That could give rise to high CHT and pressures, neither of which is nice to spark plugs. ...dunno, just thinking out loud.

I think you need to break (sorry, subject to the same careful handling) some of the other plugs to get a useful comparison. With very short reach plugs you sometimes see the effects of spark erosion of the insulator, as very fine slots cut through the ceramic nose. Never seen any oxidation though, but thats always exposed to the combustion cycle. Since the resistor is typically made of a composite of carbon, ceramic, copper oxide and aluminium oxide, I wonder what it turns into when you burn it?

Nige, Don't describe the old modded ECU as 'state of the art'... I've got coffee all over the monitor now

It depends how the coil is wound. The coils could be wound in the same direction or in opposite direction on the former. I imagine they are wound in the same direction, and the system is operating almost the same as an isolated transformer. The current through the ground terminal is due only to the imbalance between the 'used' and 'wasted' spark voltages. If you insulate one side, the other plug still fires, using the centre tap as ground return. It is a little less efficient than an isolated coil, because you cannot use the fact that the 'wasted' spark is established at a lower voltage to gain voltage on the 'used' spark side. (If they were wound in opposite directions, then it would effectively be two small coils firing together in the same polarity. Also radiated and conducted electrical noise woul be increased, which is bad for type approval testing and for all the complex electronics they keep filling cars with.) That's because a misfiring plug is still sparking, just not near any combustible mixture, so the other plug can still fire. An o/c lead breaks the circuit , and no plug can fire, unless the insulation breaks down. The insulation on gen. parts EDIS leads is very good IME. Dave

From a mail shot received this week... For a limited period, Alibre is offering the standard version of their 3D cad software for $99 / £99. Alibre The UK distributor is Mintronics I've used their limited free version in the past, and I thought the paid version looked decent value at £800, so it looks a proper bargain for £99. It's not SolidWorks, but if it was, it would be priced accordingly. (No connection, or commercial interest.) Dave

The voltage rating (which I've never seen specc'ed, but never looked either) is irrelevant unless you already have a misfire. The voltage at the plug rises until the spark ignites, then no further, in fact it drops to a sustaining voltage, that required to maintain the arc through the now ionised gas path.

I recall two brothers (who may hang around this forum now and again) who had a very convincing looking chequer plate floor in the dunny

You're not helping...

I can see the time coming where I ask myself each morning "Which Ibex shall I take to work today?"

I *think* that I disagree with BBC on the theory, but in practice he's correct. You need to complete the circuit for current to flow, so if you disconnect one end of the coil, you drop two cylinders. But in practice it's very hard to disconnect the coil, all that happens is that it arcs out from the end of the coil to vehicle earth, which can happen externally from the end of the coil body, or internally through the insulation. EDIS has a large margin of spare energy (as evident in the photo Fridge posted), and it's much easier to strike an arc in air at atmospheric pressure than it is in a fuel rich mixture under pressure, so a long spark is quite easy to acheive. When the coil is fired, the terminal voltage continues to rise, until the arc is established (or internal losses use up the available coil energy) Once the arc is ignited, it takes much less voltage to sustain the current path through the ionised air track, so overall spark duration may not change by much, especially as EDIS will ensure the coil is fully charged by extending the coil charge time before the next spark. The coil may arc over internally without apparent damage, either because the manufacturer incorporates a 'failsafe' spark gap into the coil design, which ignites at a voltage much higher than needed to light off the plugs, or by simply punching through the insulation. This isn't usually too much of a problem as the oxide residue created by burning the insulation is also an insulator, but I suspect it makes the coil more likely to break down at reduced voltage - and so become a 'weak' coil. (I don't know if there is a failsafe gap included, but I would if I were designing it, and it's easy to imagine it could be done at zero cost). Dave