Snagger

I shut off any electrical device not needed when left unattended, as any of them can cause a fire if they short or draw too much current. Many other people do the same, after all, most vehicle and building fires start with an electrical fire, from my understanding. Battery chargers are higher risk than most appliances as they are dealing with quite high power a lot of the time, and of course are plugged into two electrical systems. They also use transformers for the voltage change but the output current becomes restricted, causing ab back EMF and heating of the primary coil as the battery charge rises, so a battery continually on charge not only gets hot itself, but also heats the charger. Smart chargers may deal much better with this than old dumb chargers, but I have also gained a distrust of electronics, especially those which spend their lives in damp and dusty conditions. There is also the risk of physical disturbance of the wiring or damage to the charger passing people, vehicles, even animals - it depends on where you are doing the charging, but in the case of the storage unit I'm using, the mains cable is run along either side of the drive-in lane with the chargers plugged in at the back of each car - that makes them very visible and accessible when someone is present, but also more exposed to being disturbed. The fuse should blow if a cable is tugged hard enough to dislodge the battery clamp and short the circuit, but I don't like using fuses as the only line of defence. I'd rather the vehicle was totally electrically inert, so there is no possibility of a short anywhere causing a fire, and deal with the inconvenience of a jump start every six months or so. It doesn't stop me being tempted to buy a smart charger, though, and at least it would allow an attempt to recondition the batteries when the car is recommissioned.

My spacers were on the 109 and were steel, with steel wheels. So no alloy anywhere near them. They still loosened every few days until threadlocked.

Looks a bit Britpart under there!

RRs suffer far worse rust than the Series vehicles, and it's harder to repair. Sills, rear body cross member, boot floor, wheel arches and the bottoms of all the pillars are the common spots, but not the limit of the problem. Have a look at George's (forum member Shackleton) restoration on the videos "Soup", or just google Range Rover rust to see how bad it usually is. Great cars, but made by BL. I bought a 95 Classic, and I love it to bits (literally - it's in bits now), and it's the body shell that scares me the most about restring it. Be wary of diesels - many of them have been retro fit, and that can be a minefield, though some are done well. Factory diesels like mine are good, though and you don't need to worry about fuel costs or fill up nearly as often. I think they're more reliable than the V8, but Fridge will probably be along to dispute that! I do like the idea of a V8 more, but they seem to generate a lot more questions on here than Tdis. Suspension can be an issue - the old ones have a Boge strut on the A-frame to self-level, and these are almost all worn out now. They're also irreplaceable, long out of production. Stiffer rear springs gets around the problem, and I'm happy with the ride on mine, but it is firmer than intended for the luxury vehicle. Electronic Air Suspension is reputed to be great, but it can be costly if much goes wrong with it. Having tried only one with that system, my perspective is perhaps not very well informed, but I prefer the ride on coils, which are cheap and simple to deal with. I though the EAS version a little hard and choppy, but it could have been faulty or had over-stiff dampers. They have parallels with Series vehicles, and you can see the lineage, but they are very much more complicated electrically and much harder to fix the corrosion on. If you can find a good one, though, yo'll love it, and it is a very practical car for a family.

Slackening of the wheel nuts holding the spacers happened to me too, repeatedly. I ended up using red thread lock. It had been told to me as a frequent occurrence by a mechanic friend at the time. It's something that really should be in the fitting instructions. I think it may be a problem with the threads of the nuts included with the spacers, so I'd also recommend using genuine LR steel wheel nuts on the spacers, not the ones provided. The genuine nuts may need slimming to fit flush or slightly recessed from the face of the spacer - I can't remember for certain, but I think the provided nuts were a little slimmer for that reason.

The owner of the storage facility where my 109 is kept suggested I get a smart charger as the battery is flat and I have to jump start it from the hire car each time I visit to fire it up, but I'm not happy to do that for the same reason. He recently had his insurance cover changed to allow all the cars to be on charge, and it makes me nervous. Thankfully, only a couple of owners have hooked their cars up, but I'd rather they just jump started them like me. Unattended battery chargers are just asking for a fire.

Another option is to have a set of four HD flanges, or just their outer hexagonal covers, chrome plated to match the alloy wheel nuts and make them a feature of the wheel. You could fit a black neoprene membrane to seal up the gap btween the circular hole of the wheel and the hexagonal edge of the end cap. hat was my backup plan.

There is the option of what I did on my rear axle, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it if your shafts are in good order. I had the centre knaves of some old brake drums separated from the bevelled section on a lathe to use as 1/4" spacers so that the inside of the wheel centres would clear the drive flanges. That also brought the inside of the wheel centre cap a little proud of level with the end of the drive flange nose (thick flange). It didn't leave enough space for the plastic cone or even the pend of the shaft and its circlip. But, my shafts and drive flanges were a bit worn out and had a lot of play. I had previously read about how they often get welded up in Africa with good results, so I had my local engineering shop (Hogarth, makers of Patriot roof racks) do it. They machined a Vee on the exterior spline interface to give good penetration and also cross drilled and pinned the shaft and flange at the groove where the plastic cap grips the flange. To seal the assembly after oil appeared through the paint (porous weld, not cracked), I refit the cones, cut them about 1mm longer than the flange nose, and filled the "crater" with PU adhesive. So far, it has been fine. It is obviously critical that the flange is perpendicular to the shaft - Hogarth spun them up in a cnc lathe to face the flange to be sure. Now, with the 1/4" of wheel stud lost to the spacers, I wasn't confident to use the standard studs, so I fit Wolf studs which are 1/2" longer. I bough Gen Parts because I didn't trust the Britpart alternative, and they cost something like 12GBP each. Spendy. I also had to buy a tap to deepen the threads inside the wheel nuts. Whether any of that was really necessary is debatable, but I wasn't going to chance it. I don't know if you could do the same on the front axle, as the CV joint needs to be correctly positioned inside the stub axle - the rear shafts can float more because you don't have to worry about the CV joint being centred in line with swivel pins. I have a 200Tdi Discovery front axle with the dome and integrated stub shaft to the CV joint. You could fit those, perhaps.

SIgn, you could retain your existing axle cases, but you'd have to swap loads - the rear axle (assuming Salisbury) would need the hubs, flanges, stub axles and the whole brake assembly from a disc braked Salisbury axle (they all had the thin flanges). The front axle would need everything except the swivel housings replaced, including the diff as you'd be going from 10 to 24 spline shafts. Far easier to swap the axles. I am no fan of spacers, but for what you want to do, good quality spacers would seem to be the easy answer. Like any other part, you can get good and bad quality. They do increase loads on wheel bearings, stub axles and swivels, and also on the steering components. There is no way to escape that. But, few people have dramatic failures, and those who do suffer them because of separate issues that would likely cause failure on a vehicle without spacers if they got a harsh thump to a wheel.

Can you spin the rear wheels (lifted) by hand and keep the front output still, the reverse of the above? It does initially sound like the noise is coming from the rear output system, but it could also just be because turning things by hand does not put shafts or bearings under load.

Unfortunately, some have earned good reputations and now rest on past laurels, doing lower quality work than the business image and reputation suggests.

Windrover, it may be a wear groove on the shaft, a seal damaged during installation, an incorrect seal, or a poor quality part. If it came in a blue bag, I'd be surprised if you still have any oil left at all. Panther,you need to provide far more detail about the location of the leak and the location, nature and trigger of the noise.

Jon, I guess it was you I answered on a Facebook group the other day. I put a P38 unit on my 109. Apart from being a much neater fit on a Series chassis than the Adwest type, it's far, far stronger. I have never read any posts about a failed or leaking one on any forum, ever. They also have the benefit of having a very similar ratio to the Series seering box, so if you lose hydraulics, the load at the steering wheel is comparable and easily manageable, and the handling and response is almost unchanges, just a little less wander than a well maintained Series system. It's feather light without being twitchy - my 2009 90 felt light but very twitchy, the 109 even lighter but far more stable. I think I suggested using a LHD unit on that FB group. Don't - I had misunderstood it as being an upgrade on a Defender. Use a RHD unit, the lower column from the donor P38, and a Defender steering column. It all matches up without modification; at most, you'll need to adjust the length of the lower column by simply slackening the nut on the slip joint clamp and retightening once set.

Difflock off (with front wheels lifted off the ground), the front outpu should be free to rotate. If it's onl gtting 10 degrees, then the centre diff is jammed. Don't rely too much on vibration or noise to locate the fault - the ratio lever is very short, but the gear lever's length makes it amplify vibration. I suspect the transfer box, not the gear box based on your post.

Arjan, just out of curiosity, did the windscreen clamp upper bolt hole line up with the hinge bolt hole in the SIII frame?

It sounds like they sent you two passenger doors from LHD and RHD spec - only the driver's door and rear door have key barrels on Series vehicles. It's a long time since I had that type of door, but I think the older lock mechanisms had the key barrel in the handle aperture anyway, and that it was only the later anti-burst lock types that had the key hole through the skin, so perhaps that's what went awry with the order.

I'm working off the information that you only experience the problem when driving through the rear axles, but have smooth drive through the front axle with the rear prop removed. That would suggest there is no problem with the clutch or main transmission, and that the problem lies aft of the hand brake. My previous suggestion of rear brakes doesn't fit because they are present regardless of drive. It would appear to be something to do with the rear diff, rear prop, rear shafts or, possibly the rear wheel bearings reacting to the torque from the half shafts and skewing, resulting in partial seizure. You need to methodically check all of those components for any wear, distortion, play or binding.

I think you have a stuffed rear diff or rear half shafts, with worn or stripped splines slipping, or teeth missing from he ring or pinion.

It sounds like a seizing rear brake Iif it was hand brake related, it'd have occurred driving with only the front axles connected too). You need to strip and clean out the rear brakes, and most likely replace the shoes.

Fabricating the side panels is not going to be as easy as you imagine. They have numerous bends for the top and bottom flanges and reinforcing channels inside, and the folds for the B-pillar need to be part of the side panel, not attached, for strength for the seat belt mount, You can't cut the C-pillar from the existing sides to move them forwards without very careful consideration of how to strongly attach the new side panels.

I don't know if the Tornado rating is the same as the Freestyle, but as already mentioned above, the Freestyly is not rated for the 110. That makes their fitment illegal and the vehicle unroadworthy. It won't matter i court that they haven't broken in 15 years; it's the law. Have an accident and you'll be in a world or trouble, especially if anyone is hurt. As far as I know, the only alloys sold by LR rated for 110 are Boost and Sawtooth. Blindo are certainly up to the job, but I'm not sure if they are available through LR. The centre cap is not the only problem in fitting alloys to older (pre-300Tdi) axles; the depth of the hub and drive flange holds the back of the wheel off the mounting flange. The wheel contact with the hub is actually the webs between bolt holes fouling the bevelled sections of the drive flange between the points of the star. It may vary from wheel type to type, but I found that they were held off the hub nave by 3mm. That means that the wheel is insecure and that the hub is pressing the hub apart. That is a very dangerous situation, with enormous forces trying to destroy the wheel. It may be that your wheels sit correctly against the hub nave and clear the drive flange, but you need to confirm that they do so without any impingement on the drive flange as a matter of urgency - simply looking for a gap between the back of the wheel and hub nave isn't enough, as the wheel nuts may have distorted the wheel pulling it tight.

It's a good solution. I think I will do the same to mine, though I'll site the bleed nipple on the clutch pedal box so that I can open or close it while watching the Ezibleed reservoir level. That's assuming I don't fit the ZF, which is increasingly unlikely.

The top will fit, as you said, except for over the windscreen. But what about the sides? You'll only have the rear 60% of each side.

That wasn't how I the original post was presented, though - it was a situation where a vehicle had suffered battery flattening from a fitted system, possibly a bad stereo, a couple of times, and in the future will additionally be used to charge devices over extended periods without being run. Overnight with no suspect drains is not going to be an issue for for a 70AHr battery, let alone 110.

A leak from there would lose about 2l, I suspect, depending on where on that gasket the leak occurred. Not that easy to see externally, either, in a crowded and dark area, with a black painted block not helping show leaks either. A very plausible (and frequently guilty) suspect!