Snagger

It only appeals to those with no comprehension of mechanics, overlanding, camping or off reading. And I agree with the “tacticool” comments - you’d basically be admitting to be ping an Alex Jones type...

A Tdi shouldn’t need glow plugs to start even in mild freezing conditions, only Arctic conditions, so the battery or charger seem a good priority. But if you’re having to crank the engine for a while to start it, it’s like the fuel system at fault, probably air getting in through a tiny leak in the upper part of the system and letting the fuel drain back to the tank.

I would imagine mounting the pump on rubber mounts like those used on the RRC ABS pump (like miniature engine mount rubbers) and having soft hose connections at each end of the pump to act as sound dampers would also knock the noise down.

In this case, it’s someone wanting to buy parts on the continent. They face similar problems because of the ineptitude of the politicians.

I agree to a point - too many potential outcomes for the small businesses, but large corporations and medium to large import/export specialists would have enough managers to read through the options, which were not that numerous - carry on as they were, WTO arrangements or a hybrid. As it is, they have WTO documentation but without the tariffs for most circumstances, so knowing how to do the documentation would already be detailed. They should have examined the few potential outcomes and had policies in place. I wouldn’t expect that of a small business who only did limited overseas business. But the government failed in its responsibility to implement a decision in enough time to allow all businesses to prepare. The summer deadline should never have been extended, and extending beyond the next October deadline was inexcusable. Extending further just suggested further to the EU that the govt was bluffing. Sheer ineptitude and stupidity.

It’s prudent to work out what you have and run it as is for a while to work out what you need. Diving straight in and replacing stuff before settling in with the vehicle will lead to some wrong decisions and money wasted. With anything other than a 2.25 petrol or the normally aspirated diesels, 1.6 will be too low on normal tyres, unless you only drive in town or almost all off road. But try it first and see if it’s a bit too low or much too low before trying another ratio. The beauty of changing transfer ratios is that they’ll be robust and don’t introduce more maintenance or failure points and they’re cheap - the 1.22 and 1.4 ratio units are very common and cheap, so they should cost less than the sale of a 1.6 or other rare ratio unit. An overdrive on a 1.4 is far more flexible, but is also far costlier than a 1.22 or the extra fuel used with a plain 1.4; if you look at Ralph’s (Western) troubles with his GKN, a fairly typical experience, and the prices of Roamerdrive (you’d be very lucky to find a second hand unit), then the overdrive seems less attractive. So yes, you need to know your starting point and your intended destination before plotting a path!

Yep, the nature of the documentation hasn’t changed, just EU imports and exports are now subject to it. You’d think the big exporters, like the Scottish fish industry, would have read up on the various options that may occur, including non-EU export requirements, to be prepared. But it’s easier to blame Westminster. For all that, Westminster should have stopped negotiating on the original deadline to give smaller businesses with less admin staff and less export experience time to study...

Great work and brilliant ideas. I have watched a lot of videos on a van life channel, and it seems they get a lot of abuse in some areas because they are conflated with the type of travellers who are mobile crime waves and leave mountains of rubbish and damage. It’s unfortunate, as most of them appear to be quite mindful of where they camp, but having seen many of the bad sort, I can also understand the reaction of local residents and businesses. Your solution is smart, and it makes the vehicle more efficient and secure while reducing build costs. Like you said, how many places are you going to stay where you need the view from indoors. It might be worth having some discrete external cameras, though, so you can see what is going on outside - those van dwellers have some worrying stories.

The problem at the moment is exporters working out the new rules and paperwork, with some new costs. There shouldn’t be any tariffs, but some exporters are having problems with the transition. So, if you can wait a month or two, things should settle down. A lot of fuss is being made in the UK media about a Dutch online bicycle parts supplier refusing to ship to the UK because they haven’t looked at the new export regulations and are claiming it’ll be too expensive to process the export, and I can sort of see their point in that reading all the legislation would be time consuming and could detract from dealing with other customers if they only ship to the EU, are a small outfit and are very busy, but since the regs for UK companies to export to the EU are identical to those to export around the rest of the world, it shouldn’t be an issue for UK companies who already ship globally. The question is, are Ashcroft a company who ships directly, or do they rely on other companies to handle their exporting process? There can be tariffs for goods exported that have components or ingredients from overseas. This is causing problems in Ireland for the food industry as they import so much flour from the UK, of which much is made from Canadian wheat. Similar tariffs are being added to other UK products that have components from the EU, which is pretty self-defeating as it’ll hamper the EU businesses supplying the UK manufacturers. I presume the same is true of EU manufacturers using UK components. So, if the Ashcroft items have non-UK manufactured parts, there may be some additional costs to EU customers.

He did my last set and the pump and I have been very happy with both. It was him who mentioned that pumps running vegoil need a slight advance on the timing.

I think she’s looking a little more distinguished, like a fine wine.

Running the engine at very lazy revs with tall gears is softer on the ears, but it’s tough on the engine - you’re getting a lot of force on the crank shaft journals without much oil pressure. It also means the water pump isn’t turning fast for the engine load. They’re problems that standard or lower gearing won’t give you.

I know a Bosch specialist in east Bedford who might do the same. But if the parts are rare, this purchase would at least allow you to send the nozzles with the old injectors to a refurbishment specialist, rather than them dismiss the job for lack of parts.

You can still use the RR master, blanking the unused port with one of those plugs that looks a lot like a solid bleed screw without a head.

Can you fit a remote servo?

I’m interested.

It should have a 1.6 already, but who knows what has been done to it since it was demobbed? Even the serial number on the casing is not reliable, as it may have been rebuilt with a different ratio. The only way to know would be to open the rear and bottom covers and count teeth. If you’re changing the 12J engine for something with a bit more poke, and I think you said you’d be sticking with normal sized tyres (7.50 or 235/85), then I think 1.6 is going to be a bit of a nuisance, even in town. It’d not only give a low top speed, but would also put the gears closer together on the speed range, so you’d be changing gears a bit more often. I think you need to decide on which engine you want first and then select a transfer box to suit, but a 1.4 is probably going to be the best bet - that’s why they’re standard on most 90s, 110s and Defenders.

It’s a good test of bulkhead integrity, for certain!

Since you can’t move the lever any further, if you want to use the Ashcroft gaiter, you need to move the aperture. With a little molding of the PU adhesive, I think you’d get a subtle joint and a spray of the paint would hide it almost completely. I think you need to post up more photos of the lever, mount and link to get ideas for moving that and keeping the tunnel, mat and gaiter standards if possible.

Agreed, Steve. They should have made this vehicle the Discovery 5, and be done with it, instead of having it compete with the Discovery and cause brand confusion as well as increased logistics and production costs.

It’s not the ideal solution, especially with expensive cosmetic parts, but you could move that lip aft a little and cut the matting aperture a bit bigger. If you’re planning to use a rubber top cover over the aperture, genuine or the single lever aftermarket special, then you’d have to move the whole aperture, which could be done by adding the material removed from the back edge to the front of the aperture. It’d need careful cutting with a sharp blade, but bonding back in with grey or black Tiger Seal would give a strong bond and would be close to the right colour, and Drew was very practical in choosing standard colours for the polyurethane, the dark grey being RAL02 for a paint match. He reckons that plain acrylic aerosol will stick, but if in doubt, some PIO from Buzzweld in that colour would, work. If that join is not neat enough for you to leave after the above, then you could cover it with some kind of storage tray. Like I said, not ideal, but I think you’d get good results with a little of the patience you’ve shown so far.

This is what upsets so many Defender fans - it’s the positioning of this vehicle in the lineage of the Series and Defender line, rather than as a separate model like the Discovery, Freelander or whatever else. This vehicle fits well in the Discovery camp, but is the antithesis of what Defenders are all about. So, the upset is that they killed the Defender, promised a replacement and gave us something totally inappropriate and gave it the same name. They doubled down on destroying the name and the heritage. The new model is very clever, too clever to be trusted many argue, but an excellent option for those who want a family SUV. It is hopeless for anyone wanting a working vehicle. The name is as much the problem as its predictable electronics reliability.

I remember watching a TV programme talking about car crashes and it showed that almost all resultant fires are caused by the hydraulics rupturing and spraying the brake/clutch fluid onto the exhaust system. They ran en engine up to moderate temperatures and sprayed diesel, oil and petrol onto the exhaust manifold, and not much happened other than boiling off. Then they sprayed some brake fluid and it was quite spectacular.

I have the Protection and Performance type in my 109. It does the job well and is very stiff, but it only a.lows a bit of extra seat movement, impinging on the outboard edge of the seat where it curves down from the B post upright. I’d recommend the type Bigj66 has from Mudstuff.

I followed his rebuilt and he seemed very happy once it was running. I haven’t seen him on here in a while, though - the last comments I remember on his 90 thread were him pondering removing the tubular front wing system and fitting standard wings, which was a few years ago now.