Puddles

Discos are probably as rust prone as Rangies, just in different places. Boot floors are prone, crossmember under bootfloor and perhaps sills. With 3k though you'll get something of a decent age that probably wont have the same probs - have a good look round, get your bearings and you'll get something really good for that kind of money. Autos are fine, wouldn't say they are any slower than manuals though I'm sure someone will be along to say they raced one at SantaPod in a manual and kicked it's ass. Perhaps a little worse on mpg though depending on driving style. Don't worry about diesel, it's a mans fuel. They put it in tanks trucks and battleships. And they will batter an escort turbo. The only thing I would say is to keep away from ones that have been 'upgraded' or modified in anyway if you're not sure what to look for. Lots have been used for towing big trailers, caravans or off roading - maybe look for signs and avoid them if they have obvious signs of being used for this. (like a Trailer on the back or covered in mud )

It might simply be a leaking rocker cover gasket if there's oil on the engine as well - easiset solution with leaks is to clean the area up as much as posible (spray some degreaser on and jet wash it off at the forecourt when no-ones looking ) Once it's clean you'll be able to see where the leaks coming from. It also means the thin film of oil that was holding everything together has now gone and it will fall apart, like a clowns car.

Blue tin?? Clear liquid? better get to specsavers before you run out of WD40

just a pointer - be aware that there are different fittings used on the steering box ends of the hoses, and not all land rover hoses will fit your box. Fom memory there are metric and imperial fittings, but defender hoses should be ok.

ahuh huh huh - he said flange huh huh huh huhh uh huhhh shaft length huhh huh huhh

you knows it. I'm a sprocket master B)

Thanks all - yes it's all up and running now with no excess smoke or popping and banging like a clowns car. I undid the bolts on the fuel pump sprocket retaining clamp without understanding what they did and lost the timing, then did a fairly shoddy job of setting everything up, It was quite easy to get the timing back though, I just had to do everything almost in reverse: Get no 1 piston to TDC (I just looked up through bellhousing drain plug with a torch till I could see the flywheel slot in the centre) Loosen fuel pump sprocket retaining bolts, remove timing belt rotate fuel pump sprocket till I can get a pin located Tighten fuel pump locking bolt, then tighten the 3 sprocket retaining clamp bolts Make sure cam sprocket allignment dot is lined up with mark (or web) make sure crank is at TDC Put belt on as Les says above with no slack between crank/cam/fuel sprockets put in tensioner. ...remove pin from pump sprocket... rotate crank twice and check allignment is still cool. only bit I've got a niggling doubt over is the tension on the tensioner pulley - could I find anywhere that still sells needle type torque wrenches?? Had to use a click type and hold it just on the click without putting further pressure on while I quickly nipped up the bolt. Forgot to take a piccy of the timing case before I refitted it I'm afraid, but I'll take one in a couple of weeks when the belt snaps.

everythings ok - I've gaffer taped the roof tent to the Saab and put chequer plate along the sills. No one will ever know. I did aaaactually have to do some solo figuring out as nothing on my mongrel wagon matches anything else ever submitted in print. It especially does not match anything in the Haynes book of ****e. Haven't had time to change the oil though, so I'll drop it out on the church car park while I'm changing the hub oil seal.

Calming down now after a couple of beers ...... I'm not very good at getting pictures up - my work laptop doesn't let me get to image sites etc. I'm happy that the web must be a timing mark though as there's nothing else at all to use as a reference, and it doesn't just taper off into the casting like the other webs, it's a bit more purposeful looking. Ok, so I think I know what I did - I used a bar I had in an old socket set which located very firmly into the fuel pump timing hole. Put the belt on - though I didn't take any care in how much slack was in the belt. I couldn't get the tensioner on, and remembered reading about slackening the bolts holding the fuel pump pulley, so undid them, and I think the bar was out by this time. long story short, I made a total pigs ear of it and didn't realise quite how sensitive the whole setup was. So - I've now located TDC using the slot on the flywheel, taken the belt off, alligned the camshaft pulley to the timing mark, rotated the fuel pulley and inserted the bar to hold it in place. In the morning I'll finish off and attach the belt. White90's post was usefull - so if I make sure there is no slack between crank/cam and fuel pulleys, then insert tensioner, tension, rotate twice, then set the belt tension properly, I should be in business?? or have I missed anything critical? Thanks again for the help.

I'm actually a bit perplexed that the inside of my timing case doesn't look anything like any of the images of 200tdi's I've seen on tech archive. There is only one arrow marked, which is for the crank pulley. There are no arrows at the top at all. There is a thick web which appears to point to the cam sprocket, and happens to line up with the dot, but as said, looks nothing like any of the pictures I've seen. Funny thing is, when I tried to get a manifold gasket recently, it turns out I have a 300tdi head. Anyway, I digress....

okeydoke, so there's bits there I've obviously missed. what a monkey. Just got the cover off again to have a look and see whats what - all came apart a lot quicker this time.... When crank key is alligned with the arrow, I can insert a 9mm drill bit into the pump sprocket, but the cam sprocket is out slightly - pointer is pointing at the valley of the tooth slightly to the left rather than pointing to the top of the tooth where the dot is. I doubt this will have much of an impact? ref the three bolts on the pump timing sprocket - yes I did slacken them off, but only after I'd fitted the belt, which helped to get the belt over the adjuster wheel. Overal though, it all looks as it did befpore wih the old belt on, but I guess I've done something I dont understand to the timing and will need to get aquainted with it pretty quickly! Thanks for the input guys

I'm feeling a sick as a pig right now - spent all day changing the timing belt on my 200 tdi engine, put everything back together and now it wont run properly - will barely fire and chucking out loads of white smoke. I can only guess that I've cocked the timing up somehow, but how on earth do I rectify it?? I think I did everything right, but one thing was niggling me, I could only see a timing arrow on the bottom sprocket - couldn't see one for the cam, but there was a purposeful looking web (it's a disco 200tdi engine) so I lined the dot up with that. When the dot was lined up, the bottom sprocket woodruff was pointing towards the arrow, and the hole opened up so I could slide a drill bit in the fuel pump, so it should all be correct?? How the feck have I got this wrong?? How much do I want to strip it all back down again?? and I haven't got any more gaskets, the shops shut now, and I'm supposed to be going away in it on Monday I'm really, really , really feeling sick right now. Heeeeeeelllllllllllllllpppppppppppppppp.

These are made in Taiwan - they dont look bad quality to be fair, but quality will vary. Same can be said for the top brand names though (which are probably also made in Taiwan...)

Wilkinsons sell Castrol GTX diesel magnatex for £14 for 4 litres, again, cheaper than Halfords.

The earth wire on the wing repeater then feeds into a multi connector just behind the headlamp which will have about four feeds coming out for the side/indicator/hadlamp - which then feeds into the loom earth connection. These multi connectors get a little corroded and sometimes just a bit of a wobble about will sort it and make the earth good again - if both fronts have stopped I would suggest this is the cause.

I can recommend the Steve parker conversion - very good quality, good customer service and it just fits and your good to go - compared with the time it would take to make one I reckon they're worth the dough. You've already save money doing the conversion yourself etc, no point in scrimping on something as important as a manifold.

Toger - You don't need to turn the router off at night - broadband is an 'always on' service, and you can leave it on 24/7/365. I would suggest that you have a problem in your 'Network Settings' on your pc, which isn't looking for the router as the primary connection point. Are you connecting wirelessly or through a LAN cable??

the rubbers you need lok like black rubber cotton reels which bolt to the bonnet from underneath. I reckon Craddocks might be the best place to try??

Unfortunately, offcom in thier great wisdom have decided that it is best for all of us if BT is split into several disparate divisions, and the split runs between Openreach who deliver the line, and Openworld who deliver broadband - neither section are allowed to talk to each other directly, and only limited information can be passed between the two. So when the unfortunate in the call centre at Openworld says they don't know what's being planned on the line, they really don't, and aren't allowed to. The aim of this is so that Openreach can deliver the same level of service to all providers and nobody is favoured - which means everyone gets carp service, but the same carp service. progress eh?? It sounds as though there may not be a spare pair of cables available to your house, so the engineers may need to free some up or provide new - it does hold things up andobviously broadband can't go on till the lines ready. It's unfortunate that the new regulations make it so much more difficult to pass this information on to the customer, not impossible mind you and you perhaps spoke to someone who isn't quite so clued up on engineering processes.

Could it be worn oil seals in the turbo, letting gas into the crank case? If it's whistling loudly it might just be a leak in the air hoses somewhere - mine did it till I found all the gaps, much quieter now. Check out that problem with the pressurised oil first though - don't want to get into that situation where the engine starts running on it's sump oil

worn transfer box - mine did the same till I had it reconditioned - perfect now.

Ta - thanks for the info - I popped into my local landy spares place today who normally stock everything, but unsurprisingy they didn't have a loom section... Dug out some old bits of loom I've had stuffed in a drawer "just in case" for the last few years, fished out the thick brown leads and managed to repair the melted sections in my loom - so all done! thanks again

I had a very similar problem very recently - severe shaking from the chassis up at 45-50 mph. Spent a fortune on wheel balancing and replacing stuff - in the end it was the preload not set correctly on one swivel.

I used a 200tdi air filter unit on my conversion and managed to fit it in that corner ok - sits between the wing an the intercooler pipe. it sits quite high up, about as high as you can comfortably get it without it touching the bonnet. the hose to the turbo unit is facing the rad though - this allows it to connect to the turbo easier if its a disco engine as the flexi pipe (you'll have to buy a length of snorkel hose) can sweep down and under the alternator with no tight bends. I just made up a bracket (using the old n/a top rad mounting bracket) bolted to the inner wing so it sticks vertically upwards, then bolted that to the air filter casing with a nice thick bolt - works a treat.

Yep - that sounds about right - it all got a bit warm and wobbly when the main terminal on the ignition switch touched the steering column bracing bar and welded itself on.....