Thon

If you're desperate for authentic MoD look, then XZLs will really be your only option as far as I know - haven't seen anything else on military Defenders in either 7.50 x 16 (Wolf HD rims) or the 235/85 x 16 (Blindo / Evo Corse rims). There are still some new ones floating around but not sure of the manufacturing dates of them. I've been using them for more than 2 years and they're a reasonable tyre but quite noisy (not that G90s were any better, just cheaper). There's a nearly new set of the 235s on a certain other Defender forum.

Hats off to you sir - you've done an excellent job - truck looks a million dollars !

Yep - me too - no issues. I think 7.50s are the maximum width you're "supposed" to fit on 5.5" rims. One the other hand, Wolf (HD) rims are a pretty cheap alternative.

The TDCI engine uses a conventional clutch and flywheel (for good and bad) and clutches are a known weak spot (springs go soft, fail and fall out apparently). I find the 6 speed box perfectly acceptable in both gearing and action. 1st is low but 6th will pull strongly from 45, which I find OK. The rest are spread nicely. Tax is high for some model years (mine is £555 at the mo) but there are late 2.4s at the lower rate - you can check before you buy. Added benefits on the TDCIs are decent A/C and a very efficient heater, galvanised steel doors (pre-plated I think) and decent seats with 5 x 3 point seat belts. I had the same choice of TDCI and TD5 when I bought mine but wanted the more modern engine, and even if it sounds a bit "Transity" it has plenty of poke.

I know it's something akin to heresy to type it on a Defender forum, but a D4 might be a better choice.

I tried to fit our 1 year old Recaro seat in the centre position of my 2007 Puma and it was too wide to fit in the seat base recess and also the angle at which the seat belt anchor presents itself does not allow it to be buckled properly. I don't know if it is a particularly wide seat but I certainly couldn't fit 3. Even with it in one of the outer positions, the side bolsters touch the door trims. This is the one I tried: https://en.recaro-cs.com/child-seats/9-36-kg/young-sport-hero.html

I think it was a Nissan straight 6 diesel that had 3.3 litre capacity - it was one of the many options, and one of the most cost attractive.

I have one fitted - it's pretty low-tech as you can see, but I think it would stop the barrel being removed with a slide hammer. It's another element of protection, simple to fit and relatively cheap.

I don't believe any of the 2.4 Pumas were fitted with a DPF - I think it was only fitted on the 2.2s. VNT certainly an option, and probably a myriad of other things too ...

I had exactly this problem with my '84 N/A 90 when I owned it - I didn't approach it in quite the same way as you though. I knew the engine was healthy having changed the head gasket successfully some months previously, and had none of the usual symptoms of head gasket failure (difficult to start, mixed oil in the coolant, overheating, etc) so looked at the fuelling system. It appears that having repeatedly used water-contaminated diesel, it had damaged the distributor pump significantly and when warm would not manage to produce enough pressure. I was lucky that a Lucas CAV trained diesel specialist was a near acquaintance (I was living in rural Ontario, Canada at the time) who rebuilt the pump and checked injectors. I would be inclined to have the pump and injectors tested, particularly as you don't seem to have found anything in your strip down to indicate why you lose power, assuming from the information you posted that it wasn't actually overheating... I would also heed the advice to check the bottom end at the same time for the sake of a couple of hours. Also just a word of caution on testing the spray pattern of your injectors yourself, presuming even that you would know a good pattern from a bad one (and I certainly wouldn't). Don't. Leave it to the specialist. A car tyre runs at 2 bar, injectors supplied by a rotary pump are around 150 bar.

Firstly, if you changed master cylinder and fixed a leak, are you 100% positive that there is no air left in the system? I think this is pointing towards a hydraulic leakage problem, whether internally within the master cylinder or in the pipework / hoses / calipers themselves. The servo (as I understand it) is a method of assisting you in applying pressure to the master cylinder to make it easier to modulate the pressure on the brake pedal but ultimately is not part of the hydraulic circuit. If you can get the pedal to the floor applying steady pressure then the hydraulic system is not holding pressure, either by an internal or external leak. My suggestion is to follow Marten's post above, starting with leak testing. All you need is 2 people, one with a strong leg, to keep pressure on the pedal whilst you carefully inspect the hydraulic system in its entirety. If no leaks / bulging hoses are present, it would make me lean towards a master cylinder internal leak. Are you confident that the replacement master cylinder is good quality?

Brown oil doesn't sound good. ATF is usually a very crisp red. I'd be inclined to change that and its filter first, although i've heard that once the 'box starts playing up it's too late and the damage is already done. However yours doesn't sound terminal so maybe its redeemable. Good luck with it either way!

I presume you checked the diff drive flange and the locknut for movement? On mine, the split pin was "eaten" and the nut proper loose, so spotting the issue was easy. You need to check for up and down & in and out movement on this drive flange and there should be no play at all, and the nut and split pin should be tight. I would also lift one wheel and slowly turn it whilst feeling for roughness and excessive play on the drive flange/pinion shaft - on mine it was fine whilst under load but as soon as you lifted off the power the noise appeared.

Hmmmmmmmm - my experience tells me otherwise - every seized piston I have ever worked on would still apply just as much pressure as the other pistons (if on a multi-piston caliper) but the main problem is that due to the stiction (usually due to corrosion) they do not retract correctly, which has the effect of holding the pads on to the disc and wearing them and the discs out rapidly.

In my situation, I could have kept the old diff in place as it appeared undamaged but chose to put in a known good one instead as it was all apart. I think if you find the same problem on yours then removing the diff and inspecting is the way to go. In my case it was very obvious that the pinion shaft nut was properly loose so didn't take much diagnosing. I would not remove wheels if you are just doing these checks - put on axle stands high enough to lift wheels off the ground but no need to remove wheels at this stage. I always leave wheels on if at all possible. I would do one axle at a time and make sure to chock whichever wheels are still on the ground, as you'll need to have the transmission in neutral and handbrake off. I would start by just undoing diff end of the props.