Snagger

Yes, GKN only fits the 1.4 and I think the same is true of the commercially available underdrives too - they were all generally intended for Defenders, not Discovery’s or RRC. Having been in a vaguely similar position with my 109, using a standard SIII transmission with overdrive and finding it under geared on the 4.71 diffs and trying the 3.54s, I strongly agree with the couple of comments above that it is far better to to be under geared than over geared - within reasonable bounds, both will have similar fuel consumption, but the under geared vehicle will be far easier to drive and will be far more reliable, wearing or breaking transmission parts far less than the over geared one, and not needing to slip the clutch as much. Driving around town or in hilly areas is horrible with an over geared vehicle, and can even be a bit dangerous at junctions. I can see the argument for fitting higher than standard transfer cases like putting a 1.2 into a Defender or the Ashcroft HRTC into a Series vehicle, but having the standard unit and an overdrive is far superior, even though it introduces more moving parts and potentially more energy losses and reliability issues (the GKN seems the most problematic). The flexibility of having standard gearing for most circumstances and being able to step up on the move is enormous, rather than living with a compromised transmission that struggles with accelerating, hills or towing and makes town driving a chore.

The kit comes with three or five parts - seat base, bulkhead centre and the foot well/tunnel cover. The Defender kits come with the outboard click panels, I think. Maybe they’re just optional. The seat base section used to be identical for all models, with guide lines printed on the underside for each different version, showing where to cut. I don’t know if that is still the case, but it was an efficient and flexible way to make them, so there is no reason to have changed that.

Overdrives only fit the 1.4 LT230s.

I think colour coding for flow directions might be hardly, like hot and cold side for heater hoses, oil cooler lines and such. I think there is probably not much need for colour coding fluid types, though - if you can’t tell a rad hose from an oil hose, then you probably should put the spanner’s down! 😉

Ah, I forgot you had a V8. I’d love that, but couldn’t afford the fuel bills, so went diesel. 😏. Autos don’t have a stellar reputation behind Tdis, and I wasn’t that impressed with a Tdi RRC VogueSE with auto when I was trying to find a good Classic (narrowing the search to a manual), but with a Defender or Series, they’re driven slower, so I figure it might not matter like it does in the RRC.

Use the inboard mounting holes if you can! I have a 109 which had the basic flat seats, but I installed Defender seats with single bolt feet and used the inboard sets of holes for each original seat rail, since the cubby box is much narrower than a centre seat, and it gives an enormous amount of extra elbow room and prevents my shoulder hitting the B pillar as it did before. If you strip the top of the seat base clean, then lay the WOR seat base cover in place, you can mark through the bolt holes to cut the holes for the bolts and washers exactly where needed. Just make sure to put the seats in position first to check which holes you need. And yes, you do need to stack the washers to have the seat rails just clear the matting.

How are you finding the ZF generally? What mpg are you getting? I still like the idea, having gotten lazy with an auto out here (manual transmission cars are very rare in the Middle East)

Hand brake adjustment, and make sure the hand brake cable is operating smoothly - if the engine earth strap is corroded or dirty and not earthing the starter motor easily, the hand brake cable becomes an alternate earth and gets hot on start up, melting the Teflon coating inside the sheathing, restricting cable movement. This could hold the brake partly on when you think it has been released.

You’re right David - I only looked quickly and thought it was the nut for the back of the main shaft, not the front of the lay shaft. My SIII boxes all had a bolt, not a nut, for the front of the lay shaft. That would break any plastic tool, but the lay shaft fixings are much lower torque, 25ish ftlbs I think, and may well be fine with plastic tools.

I have seen people trim a cheap socket (not sure what size) with a grinder to cut away the material between the teeth. That seems to work well. That nut has to be done up very tight according to the specs, around 100ftlbs if I remember correctly, but you can’t set it that accurately as the nut has to be aligned with one of the three tabs on the locking washer. All the same, I can’t see a plastic tool doing the job.

Thanks for the warning!

It’s interesting to see the similarities and the differences in the various philosophies. What does seem to be evident is that it’s better to have just one or two project vehicles, whether they be full build projects or long-term rolling work projects, and not overwhelm yourself with tasks and costs, to use said vehicle(s) frequently in order to reap the rewards of all the work put in, and to have another vehicle (even just a tin box) to take the time pressure off when doing a major job on a vehicle you normally drive. As for the working environment, it’s obvious that the more comfortable and convenient the workplace is, the more you’ll use it. Decent lighting, ventilation, warmth and a clear, clean floor do wonders, and it must be a bind for those who have to drive a significant time to a remote facility as opposed to having a decent garage at home. Having enough work bench area, electrical outlets and a sink with running water are not to be underestimated - the ability to make a quick brew in the garage while you’re giving something a thick coat of looking at without having to traipse into the house, take the overalls and boots off and clean up before brewing up is a surprisingly large benefit!

If you make a plastic replacement, expect it to scratch, go milky and craze with micro fractures as it ages. I’d get a new glass replacement, myself, but you may need a temporary solution while it’s on the way - between Covid, Brexit and new year, there are plenty of excuses for slow delivery.

I understand that Ralph, but aren’t the thick ones generally pattern, not genuine? Thick gaskets are generally only useful for uneven mating surfaces.

By thick and thin gaskets, I think they are referring to specifications for gaskets for thick or thing hubs/drive flanges, not the thickness of the gaskets themselves. I haven’t noticed any significant variation in OeM gaskets since the SIII, the thick gaskets seeming to be the poorer quality pattern parts ( and leakier as they compress with age and allow slack in the joint). RTV sealant works fine, anyway.

It could be that the yellow knob is not popping up enough - it’s the last bit of travel that is most important, so try pulling it up by hand and see if it moved further - it won’t need much force, but the spring may be failing. Simple fix if it’s just that.

I used 13mm plastic water pipe from a DIY store to use as sheathing for my battery cables where they pass the narrow gap between chassis and bulkhead foot wells - it’s s a snug fit for the cable, but it fits and is pretty tough and insulating. Other vulnerable cables, fused or not, get convolute or slotted plastic sleeving, and are all clipped or tied in routes that protect them from disconnection or damage. Like is said, prevention is better than dealing with the results of shorts, and spending a little time and money on fuse boxes, decent terminals, solder, heat shrink and conduit is much cheaper than losing the car or risking your well being! I was lucky with that burned wire happening at low speed in a yard, where I could stop immediately, but it scared the carp out of me!

An ardent acolyte of Steve Jobs, or a sucker for Apple products.

Is the yellow knob popping all the way up to disengage 4wd correctly when you move the red lever aft and forward again? Transmission wind up can make all sorts of noises. So can a badly adjusted hand brake - that tends to make bangs and thumps that sound like mechanical failure but is nothing more than shoes binding a bit on the drum. Prop shaft faults would also make ugly noises if the UJs are seized or have severe damage.

I just had dinner at a friend who is a Jobbophile, and he has Alexa. He also has three and four year old daughters who know how to use it... lights, lights off, lights on, lights off....

No, but it’ll probably tell Russian hackers your bank account numbers...

This contradicts your other thread. The front prop shout be able to be rotated a bit with 2wd selected, and usually even with 4wd selected unless parked with a little transmission wind up. With a wheel jacked off the ground and 2wd selected, you should be able to turn the prop (with some effort) continuously, with the raised wheel turning. With the transfer box in neutral, you can expect some chatter from the gears with the engine idling and selecting the various main box gears. The higher the gear, the worse the chatter to be expected. If you can’t turn the front prop with one wheel lifted and 2wd, then something is wrong in the front housing of the transmission (4wd housing) or the front axle.

That sounds relatively normal - the front output shaft of the transfer box connects to the main shaft with a fairly loose fitting dog clutch to make selection and deselection of 4wd easy, especially selecting 4wd while moving. The diffs also allow a surprising amount of rotational play, and this is compounded by wear on the half shaft splines at the drive flange and worn drive flanges themselves. Wear in the diff or the diff ends of the shafts is not usually severe on vehicles that haven’t been run without oil or water ingress, especially front axles. It may be worth putting it up on stands and checking for play on the wheels with someone locking the front prop still (a bar through the yolks does the job). Expect about three inches of rotation at the tyre tread.

Those extinguisher systems are aimed at fuel and hydraulic fires, not electrical - as Arjan said, an isolator switch to cut the battery off is more effective - an electrical fire stops as soon as you kill the power and cools relatively quickly as the wires conduct heat nearly as well as electricity, as do the metal structures the wiring may have shorted on. It would take an enormous electrical fire to trigger one of those extinguishers. By the time it did, the car would already be a writeoff. The biggest threat from dash fires is not the fire itself (small and easily extinguished), but the extraordinary amount of smoke the insulation produces. It’s toxic, but worse, it’s so thick that it’s blinding in seconds. I had such a burn out in the dash (an un-fused wire contacted the exhaust and then burned back to the live side of the fuse box). It was the fact that I was reversing when it happened, so at low speed, that made the difference. I was quick to shut off the ignition and the battery isolator (less than five seconds for both to be off from first seeing the smoke), but it still filled the entire 109 with dense smoke. But I was lucky to be able to stop instantly and open the door. That taught me that battery isolators are essential, so you can quickly disable the entire system, and that ventilation is critical to being able to maintain visibility and thus control. That’s one of the reasons I fitted Defender doors with wind down windows and a pop up sun roof. More importantly, make sure the wiring is in good order, well insulated and supported so it can’t chafe, have terminals drop off or contact hot surfaces. Prevention is the key, not extinguishers!

Well, it’s a pity to hear that, but it’s meant to be a hobby, not a chore, and forcing yourself to do it will be harmful to your health, pocket and the car itself, while it could make a good project for someone else. We all get the same problem - I took up the old hobby of making plastic models because it’s so impractical for me to buy a Land Rover out here (cost and condition) and even less practical for me to work on it in the (employer owned) compound due to the noise, neighbours and cost of parts and tools. But I can’t get the motivation to go out to the spare room and get started. It was the same working on the Rovers back home - fine once I got started; I’d be out on the driveway well after dark, but getting started was a pig. I think some of it is just age!