GW8IZR

I remember putting very stiff springs on a two door RRC and it cracked the bulkhead near the body mounts so I think there is a bit of flex transmitted to the bulkhead.

I dont think EV using batteries is there yet but its coming along at a pace. remember in the eighties we were all encouraged into diesel cars as they were cleaner, now we are potentially being driven back by a change of opinion - bread is good for us, bread is bad for us etc. I suppose having the electricity centrally generated by a power station that we have good control of the emissions is better than thousands of potentially badly setup vehicles doing short journeys and moving those emissions away from population centres has some merit. Driving a hybrid with a 70Kw hydrogen fuel generator would be interesting as it would allow you to power your home overnight charging your heating store while you sleep. We are currently developing a methanol generating set to power an off grid site with a refill period of 12 months so the technology is moving. Right now, a Leaf doesn't seem like a good move to me. Of course whether we all need to plan alternate power for our LR's is all speculation 'cos 'we' have no idea what the economic pressures will be. I suspect we will carry on with our clattery TDIs and hopelessly inefficient Petrols till the end and we all end up in EV's and/or a horse and cart with the odd LR driving round a show field.

I always work on the principle that the engine isn't always going to be available to keep me comfortable ( and alive ) , in Norway I always carry my snow suit in case, even in the UK I keep insulated overalls in the truck in case - although normally rescue isnt that far away. I'm sure you know but a bit of food and drinking fluid can make a big difference. Anti freeze and good screen wash are important, make sure your engine thermostat works. I think most oils are ok down to the temperature you mention. I dont like to idle an engine too long, I just give it a few mins for the oil to slosh about then drive it steady till warm I would say that restricting airflow into the engine compartment with a baffle - I use an old fertilizer bag in front of the rad helps to stop that icy blast finding its way to the bulkhead and slows down the freeze

On Tuesday last there was a sudden increase in temp with rain, falling on road surfaces sat at about -15c The commuters running their EV down the E6 into Oslo got held behind an overturned HGV. Batteries went flat as the vehicles sat in stationary traffic as the drivers tried to keep warm and the whole thing turned into a huge mess, they pretty much all ended on flat beds to move them. I suspect it was an eye opener for some of the normally smug occupants.

I've read a lot of the threads and just re read the one quoted above , I can see reference to the resistance change but no actual , I cut it up and this is what's inside , just very curious to see what it was. There are advantages to a switched resistance change if you need to automatically prove the switch.

Has anyone autopsied one of these sensors? It would be nice to know how they were made. What I know for sure is if you purchase at least one make of sensor today it's a reed switch. There isn't a published specification for the current rating of the reed switch but there are plenty relays out there that only need a very small current to operate, the one I used only needs 25mA for the coil and the contacts are plenty big enough for a flashing LED and buzzer ( 3 quid from China ) The only downside to this simple setup is no damping, mine will alert if I stand on the brakes hard as the water moves in the reservoir At first I thought I would add damping but it's not annoying and I suppose it reminds me it's still working.

The one I bought recently looks exactly like the one pictured, it's a reed switch.

Exciting music on the YouTube clip considering he was driving round a flat field :-)

it doesn't do it stationary and it doesn't do it when on axle stands. It does it on the road and its worse when bouncing around off road. So its worse when brake fluid is sloshing about in the reservoir? is there a clue in that? When you replaced the master cyl was there anything odd about the resevoir ports?

A friend of mine ran a 109 with a pair of Indispension units for the third pair of wheels. Not withstanding all the many times the damned thing needed dragging round the mid Wales lanes we had a lot of fun watching it get cross axled on mini roundabouts :-) Anyway, the reason for mentioning it is the indispension units were a lot lighter than a drag axle setup and to be honest a lot easier to mount. He didn't build it. it was made by some motoring Journo from International Off Roader who lived in Rochdale or somewhere up there and if your interested I think I've got some pics somewhere.

section 7,3 Vehicles fitted with a different engine must be tested to the requirements of whichever is older, the engine or the vehicle. e.g. A 1995 car fitted with a 1991 engine (of whatever make), test to 1991 standards for emission purposes

FAQ: Will I be able to use this as carry on luggage? ANS: you may wish to allow a bit longer at security and ask them to use lube. :-)

Land Rover, the best parochial 4x4 by far :-)

DRL - the beam pattern is wrong, the wide scatter of light will reflect back from the fog and make it harder to see where you are going.

Anyone that walks away from a serious collision considers themselves lucky no matter what they are driving. Had I been in a series 1 80' I might have been much safer as it probably wouldn’t have been doing 50mph, lets face it ten feet sooner or later and the collision wouldn't have happened so you can only really look at the end result. What actually happened v what might have happened isn’t always helpful. CD you want us to focus purely on the off road capabilities and thats fair enough but its nothing to do with the real world and real traffic - I'm sorry but I dont think you can *entirely* divorce the discussion. Would it be easier if I just said that in my experience an old stock LR is better off road than a stock Japanese pickup or LC style car - if thats all you need to hear lots of people have already said it before me and thats the end of the discussion really. :-)

I cut and shut the original disco pipes with some steel tube, I would just use hydraulic pipe from an agri supplier next time, https://www.steveparkers.com does extension pipes as well.

I remember sitting in a meeting with the lease provider and a guy from Nissan and running then current Navara advert on my laptop .. the one where the car kept morphing into odd animals and leaping over boulders and swimming rivers. So what do you sell this road car as then? To be fair, mine saved my skin at the end. A woman in a BMW 5 pulled out of a side road into my path as I was doing about 50mph, I hit her right at the A post. I thought I'd killed her and both vehicles were destroyed. Engine of the Nav ended up under the passenger seat, but due to the safety stuff in modern vehicles we both walked away unscathed ( I had a burn from my arm rubbing down the door trim, she was deaf after the bang of the 53 air bags that went off) . Both passenger cells were deformed but still big enough that nothing really injured either of us. In a 90/110 I think it might have been different for both of us.

same with the Navara which I had twenty odd on the fleet, they all did the same thing.. select low range or 4wd , get onto a firm surface and go back to 2wd.. nope just a flashing led , drive forward and backward, turn it a bit either way, up and down curbs kick and swear and twenty minutes later with a resounding thump it would eventually let go and select 2wd. It was refreshing to get a nice lever in the Hilux. Also the Navara back springs would go flat after a few months and at least one of my drivers ended up on a weigh bridge because a roadside check claimed the flat springs meant it was overloaded. It was way under and always had been. I always found the navara to be nice to drive as a car but it wasnt a work tool and I think Nissan felt the same, every single failure was 'driver abuse' to the point that I was on 1st name terms with the customer service team.

I have a question please, whilst I've had dozens of v belt versions but never a serp v8, the idler *looks* very similar to a 300TDi idler. Do they ever squeak like a TDi version?

Excellent, I should have made copies of the rotary vent controls for my 90, I had lots of fun in that LR and only sold it cos I had a RR and a V8 S1 at the time - didn't have enough time to keep on top of all of them

my '58 series 2 had one of those tucked in the seat box with the dealers name and 1958 written on the back in pencil. I've no idea where it is now ..

Old as in .. well its setup is not much different to the RRC which was being developed a very long time ago in terms of car development. A few new engines and deeper chassis rails but not much to choose otherwise. Its difficult to say something is old without there being an implied suggestion it is bad.. Nthing wrong with being old (I'm proof of that) however cars designed for todays traffic conditions, driver expectations and other softer considerations.. are all the things that make a Defender unsuitable for most uses. With a healthy dose of cognitive dissonance we can focus on its ability to sail round a trials field and say its a good vehicle but in truth its design means so many other aspects of its operation are .. well, 'old' My 1954 tractor is pretty good round a trials field and that has only got suspension in the seat and my spine. Skoda Octavia 4x4 .. I took one of those to places in Norway that the locals said were impossible, the only thing that would have stopped it was x-axle stuff, but by knowing that and putting my boots on when needed it never once got stuck, and a thoroughly nice car to live in for a while. Our LC's are very impressive but as someone earlier in this thread said they are a bit big for off road use in the UK - I reckon they would eat the terrain in your two videos at the start of the thread but minor body damage would be inevitable. If you needed to repair that to new condition it would be an expensive day out.

No I can read pretty well.. I can jump in one of my LC's and its pretty good out of the box, what it misses in articulation it makes up in traction aids. I would put one of our LC's up against a RR and it would fare well. However new a Defender is .. its still old technology really.

I did have just one driver who wanted to use a Defender in place of the Navara and then the Hilux but he was the only one. He did have a Puma 110 for a few months and hated it even though he wouldn't really admit it. He just used his own TD5 90 at his own expense most of the time which I thought was bizarre but there is nothing as odd as folk... and as a long term LR addict I think I'm qualified to say LR folk are about the oddest :-) We used to build mobile base stations onto Defender chassis cabs but of course not now. I went to see Arctic Trucks who are doing something similar on a stretched LC chassis and it drove so well I was slightly disappointed, I really wanted to say the Defender was better ....

I've just driven my very nice 90 from Bolton to Anglesey at fairly steady speeds and my ears need another hour to recover :-)