oneandtwo

The best riding series I’ve had was a 2A lightweight modified for trialling with military spring hangers front and rear, with front dumb irons modified to military Spec with increased drop. It had custom elliptical leaf springs but with only three leaves - the 7.50 tyres would contact the tub on articulation, and it rode like a well sorted coiler. Was also running an SU carb on tweaked 2286 petrol with full cage, tank in rear load bed, ignition coil mounted in cab and a host of other well thought out mods. The rear springs are visible in the photo below I sometimes regret rebuilding it back to standard(ish) onto a new Richards chassis and Rocky Mountain 2 leaf parabolics now.

Close up of shaft

I’ve just rebuilt two 4 bolt boxes for spares. The shafts were worn and pitted at the bottom so I had the seal area ground and chrome plated (£45 per shaft locally) All new Koyo shaft needle bearings were £35 the set (B2012, B2016 and B2020 bearings). Corteco full seal / O ring kit was £17. I did strip a third box down which ironically I thought would be the best as was the newest off my Puma but that had suffered one of the shaft needle bearings breaking up and had scored the shaft on the bearing surfaces rendering the shaft scrap.

I have always thought it was as you said, because of the one piece stub / drive flange on the early disco has no way of correctly setting the cv joint to stub axle clearance with circlip and shims.

Must be engine related as my Puma 90CSW is exempt and checked my old 2006 TD5 CSW and that is still exempt.

Do it yourself but you will need a press.

Sounds like it ate a belt early in it’s life and bent the rods but were not replaced. I’d stick a new set in for what they cost - they are the same as the old NA / 19J rods anyway from memory.

It is actually on an 88” wheelbase, tub is a proper s3 one, just disguised with chequerplate rear corners. Still wouldn’t want it!

I tow using the standard Dixon bate ball / pin set up as above, mainly heavy trailers with tow rings. My Dixon bate pin is very scarred and noticeably worn from the tow rings - if using the combined jaw / ball as above I wander how damaged the ball part would get - any wear to a tow ball renders it useless.

I had one of Pioneer 4x4’s trial setups last year, all stainless braided hoses but still two pieces. Has been excellent with no issues. Worth it to ditch the hardline to the caliper.

Strange how they have gone a full circle. Ten years ago a MOT garage near me had just failed a one owner black 1996 N reg Vogue SE classic with a cracked windscreen, failed air suspension and other minor faults. They were overjoyed that I offered them £100 for the set of factory TWR alloys, they then scrapped the rest!

I was pointing out that if you don’t want to pay £37 extra for a second bend you have an alternative that looks to be the same or very similar stick to the above, or if you have the ability to bend one (it isn’t exactly hard) s3 stick is longer than both s1 and s2/2a. I have made many new sticks for 80” and s2 over the years by heating up and straightening new s3 sticks and rebending to correct bend and cutting thread on top. Old sticks are normally worn on the locating channel of the ball causing them to rotate and give a poor shift.

It will fare very well, the one on my Lightweight is excellent, although if you have the correct BSF die to cut the s1/s2 knob thread you could’ve made yourself one exactly the same for £10; https://www.shop4autoparts.net/Vehicle-Type/Series/gearbox-series/gear-lever-rhd-frc2046/ although it’s out of stock so it might cost you an extra £3.50 from here https://www.mm-4x4.com/series-3-gear-lever-arm---frc2046-245-p.asp

The repair in that video is absolutely dire. If I produced work to that standard I certainly wouldn’t be sticking it on YouTube! The actual fitting of the footwell is okay at a push however the work done on rebuilding the upper flange etc is a shocking. Also the inner panel repair should be seam welded not joddled and spot welded. Also as per Western’s above there is no replacement of the double skinned footwell reinforcement which is there for both structural reasons and also as protection against puncturing of the footwell from the outside in an impact.

I fitted a Britpart s3 gear lever to my lightweight, this has a plastic bush instead of the o ring. £10 three years ago and still perfect with no rattles.

If it is only the vertical and bottom section (usually go first) then drill out all the spot welder on the lower reinforcing panel. Cut along the vertical fold line and remove the outer sections keeping the inner reinforcing plate in situ. Drill out the spotwelds on the left and right retaining the outer flanges. Cut the yrm panel to suit and seam weld it along the upper fold of the vertical section, puddle weld back the reinforcing plate.

Look at the belt - in between the Vee’s are there shiny bits of rubber imbedded in the grooves? Now the 300tdi’s are getting long in the tooth the pulleys seem to be wearing and / or rusting, which causes the belts to wear and rubber debris to clog the belt which then causes the belt to oscillate and chirp. I went crazy chasing the chirping, new tensioner, new water pump, new alternator, new front cover bearing etc, would cure it for a short time but would keep returning. The only permanent cure on my engine was to change all the pulleys for brand new ones. It has been perfect now for four years.

Looks to be blowing at the rear as usual for 300tdi.

That will have bent the bulkhead outrigger which is new chassis time in the eyes of an insurer. I used to do work on a 2005 90 which had an identical hit, the outrigger was bent back slightly; to any enthusiast it was a couple of hours work, new wing and bulkhead outrigger but as it was a company owned Defender insurance was involved and it was written off and due to chassis damage. Ended up being broken at salvage yard in North West six months later.

The heads are actually the correct size - these Bearmach replacement clips are intended for the later Puma doorcards which use the much better EZM500050 fittings with larger head.

Same front hubs front and rear on a disco 300.

I am pretty sure I fitted my truck cab with the woolies channel without dismantling it. I definitely didn’t dismantle my Puma CSW rear windows to fit the channel as they are factory bonded to the side panels, I just used silicon spray to slide it all in.

You’ve got the wrong discs - your new brake discs are for Defender 90 rear not 110 rear. The 110 rear used the same discs as the unvented 90 front.

There are three variations of the 300tdi non edc pump. First one is for the early 94/95 non EGR engines, doesn’t have the throttle position sensor on the top. Second has the throttle position sensor. Last one is fitted to the late engines with AS10 immobiliser - just has a metal cover over the stop solenoid which can be removed. All of these work fine on any non edc engine.

When I had a 300tdi 110 the diff had a knocking and felt rough. I had a spare disc Salisbury which was no better, I ended upI replacing it with a good drum braked diff and axle casing, and converted it to disc, intending to use the best bits off the disc axles for the conversion, however everything was so worn I ended up fitting new stub axles, new half shafts, new drive members, new disc shields and new calipers. It was not all that expensive, and everything fitted. I think the only thing I had to do was drill a hole in damper mount bracket for the disco shield, All that was any good off my disc axles were the caliper mounting brackets and hubs which were standard disco 300tdi ones which are ten a penny.