Snagger

Don't spend money on a flywheel locking tool, just get a broken R380 reverse light switch. A Series or LT77 switch may also fit, but would have a longer casing. Shouldn't matter, though. But a broken switch from a bin would be much cheaper, and being spring loaded means they engage in the slot automatically as you rotate the flywheel, unlike the proper pins I have tried which need manual insertion. Using grease as a temporary "glue" is very useful. Heavy grease works best. It is also good for holding gaskets in place and helping them seal whilst also preventing them from permanently sticking like they do if used dry or with gasket sealants, which makes future maintenance much easier. Remember to put generous amounts of copper grease on the bolts which secure the water pump and thermostat housing - it stops them corroding and seizing in place.

I use neoprene tape like that used for sticking number plates on. It is flexible enough to allow for thermal expansion and makes no mess. The excess is easily trimmed off with a knife after fitting. Like PU adhesive, it is hard to remove. Dumdum would allow easier removal.

Have a look at this: http://www.yrm-metal-solutions.co.uk/epages/BT4822.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT4822/Products/216 if you cant drill the spot welds from your old tub's filler recess to transfer it to the newer tub. You can bond that to the old position with PU adhesive (eg Tiger Seal). Take the measurements from your old tub to mark out where to cut the hole. Folding the edges of the hole to get the neat factory finish would be tricky but possible, or you could cut the aperture complete with recess from the old tub, bond it inside the new tub after cutting, and use a little filler to hide the joint.

With those tyres, I'd recommend you keep the transmission as it is. If you get bigger tyres than that, I'd be recommending a diff swap to a lower ratio. A V8 in good condition ought to cope with what you have, though.

I meant about the two loops being too hot and damaging the seats. I used this kit in my 109 and it has wrecked the fabric of the seat bases, and I can't use the two loops for more than two minutes, though it does speed up the time for the seat to be comfy before selecting one loop. I used their old kit on my RRC (which didn't have heated seats but did have the wiring in place) - that has a single loop which gets quite hot until a thermostatic cutout switch in the back pad kills the power, which takes ages to reset (well over 10 minutes), which has also wrecked the bottom cushion fabric by destroying the glue. Once I've had the fabric re-glued to repair them, I'll get the later kit and wire up a single loop on the RR to stop both the over heating and the cut-outs. So, just avoid long use of the dual loop function.

That all sounds good. The sprockets can only fit in one position on their shafts, and once the belt is on and tensioned, as long as all the sprockets were aligned with their marks, then they should stay that way - only a belt failure, the belt jumping the sprocket teeth because of foreign objects getting between them, or massive bearing failure allowing a shaft to move and release the belt tension can allow the shaft timing to drift out. With the shaft timing set, the pump timing is the only thing that can still be adjusted regarding timing. This is done by turning the pump case as you have done. So, it sounds like you have finished static timing. Dynamic timing adjustment will refine it. For that, you'll need to see how the engine runs on the road. Make a scribe or indelible pen mark across the pump-timing case interface to mark the current alignment. Once you can drive the engine and have it settled in, then you can start moving the pump a little at a time to find where it runs best. Turn it no more than 1mm at a time initially, then finer as you find the right zone to find the exact spot. The lines you made will help you see how much you're moving the pump, but also give you the "safe" position to reset back to if the adjustments start going wrong without having to get the timing tools out again. Easy starting, white smoke and smooth running are signs of over advancement. Difficult starting, harsh running with more noise and vibration and black smock indicate retarded fuel timing. You should get thin grey smoke on full throttle with a slight bark from the exhaust at full throttle, but no smoke and smooth running the rest of the time with little starting difficulty, but perhaps not as easy with advanced timing. Remember, it is the case and not the spindle that you are adjusting, so to advance the timing, you need to turn the pump case the opposite way to engine rotation, and to retard timing, you need to turn the case the same way as the engine runs. That engine direction is indicated easily by the fan blades (as long as you use the engine fan rather than electric, which I always strongly recommend). Well done for getting this far.

It could be that someone was going to fit the engine to another vehicle and thought that would make a good mounting point.

Grooves parallel to the spin axis are machined. Circumferential grooves are from wear. Welcome back to the world. I think. I suspect it was nice being in the "old world" and away from the hubbub of the net and mobile phones!

Tibout, read my post above.

It was a long time ago, before the rebuild, Fridge. The tyres weren't a great type, but there was nothing else on the vehicle to cause it. I suppose it could have been the motorway surface, but it felt external and it was acting on the back end of the car, not the front. It didn't have any external mods at the time and no roof rack, just standard 109 shape.

Turning the engine over a few times by hand will show any timing sprocket errors. Using a scrap R380 reverse light switch as a flywheel locking tool will allow the fuel pump timing to be set with the aid of a drill bit. I can't remember the size needed on a Lucas pump, but it goes in through the side plate and you rotate the pump casing on its mountings to centre the drill bit in a notch in an internal wheel. The notch will only come round once for every two crank rotations, so if there is no groove inside the pump, remove the flywheel locking pin and rotate 360 degrees and relock the flywheel. If you can't get such a locking tool or old R380 switch, then you can check the slot in the flywheel is centred on the brass plug aperture by eye, but be careful the crank does turn while setting the pump position.

I'd look at the slim tanks that fit between inner and outer wing (look at Task's CSK rebuild) in addition to a long range rear tank. It should also be quite easy to have tapered tanks that fit between the chassis and sills attaching to the body mountings and chassis rail.

As per my first post and Les' post above, mark the flange nut and pinion so that you can tighten the nut to the same position on reassembly. But it's not that important - the torque needed to increase the preload over what has already been set is enormous, so you won't overtighten it without damned big breaker bar and a pinion flange locking tool. I have done this a couple of times on ratio swaps (4.71-3.54) where I moved the pinion and carrier assembly from one axle to another and tightened the nut to 150'lbs, enough that there is no play but nowhere near enough to change preloads, and it worked perfectly. You also don't need spreaders to get the diff centre out with pry bars; it just makes it considerably easier.

I did have one good experience with the AA on the way to work (uniform and no tools, so I couldn't do anything and had no time anyway) - I told them that the overdrive (Fairey) had failed and I needed a tow the last mile to work, and that I'd call them again at the end of work to get the patrolman stationed at the airport to remove the OD and fit the standard gear and carrier that was stored in the LR. They obliged. I talked the patrolman through the job, and even though he had to lay on a wet carpark spot to do it, he said he'd really enjoyed it, fixing a proper problem and learning something new, and not just jumping a holiday maker's flat battery or topping up an empty fuel tank!

Could the vehicle achieve that speed? Yes. Could it do it safely? No - the shape of the vehicle makes it start to wave from side to side above 90mph. It'd be dangerous without serious modifications to suspension and tyres. Gearing set up for that speed would also make normal use far worse, with poor towing or load carrying ability, poorer acceleration at lower speeds and higher fuel consumption. Defenders are not designed for speed. 80mph/130kph is a reasonable limit for a practical Defender.

Just a thought, but if you have the 2002+ dash, rather than the older type, you could use genuine switches in the centre dash for a neater job. They do have warning lights. I would expect the wiring to be in place with a common loom, but that may not be the case (it was on my RRC, which only needed the addition of the switches and seat pads). They are still much less obvious than the switches I used, and so a relay would be useful, but if the wiring is already fitted, then it'd already include a relay port, you'd just need to add the relay. The down side is that it'd be an on/off system, not a high/low/off system like with the kit's three position switches. Frankly, the kit is very powerful and using both loops gets too hot for comfort after a couple of minutes and also damages the seat covering by causing the glue between fabric layers and the also the glue between the cover and foam to fail, giving baggy, wrinkly seats. Just having the one loop would probably be best, and would avoid the possibility of overloading the original loom in the dash.

Yes, the kit loom is designed so that you can have the seats on with the engine off, but with the safeguard that when you remove the key from the ignition, the power is cut off automatically, just like the stereo. It is not voltage sensitive, though you could simply fit a voltage sensitive relay if you wanted to ensure they could only work with the engine running, but the current draw is pretty low, only a few amps, so you'd have to leave the seats on for quite some time to flatten the battery. I didn't bother with the relay on mine - I only used the heater pads and main wires and plugs and wired them into a pair of illuminated Carling Tech switches on the dash with the other accessories, the switches fed from a permanent live and the warning light in the switch coming on with the heaters. I did the same for the front screen, rear screen and wing mirror circuits, the roof lights and rear wiper - they're all feed from a permanent live, and while a heavy duty relay may be a useful safety net, I'm in the habit of checking all switches when leaving the car and checking switch selections every few minutes while driving, making sure I'm aware of every function of the vehicle at all times. I find that enough. The switches in the kit didn't have a warning light and are very small, so a visual scan of them is not as easy as a bank of identical large Carling Tech (Condura) switches, so a relay may be useful if you use those small switches.

I had my 109 up to 85mph and it was just starting to fishtail from the vortex shedding at the back end. Faster than that with these aerodynamics is a bad idea unless you have very stiff and low suspension and road-only pattern tyres. In answer to the original question, I'd say that if the vehicle is on standard diffs and tyre size, used laden or for towing, or has accessories like a roof rack, then a 1.4. If it's free of accessories and is only driven fairly empty, or the V8 has been tuned, then it may pull a 1.2 well, but no higher than that. If you have the budget, 1.4 and an overdrive is the more useful and flexible solution.

Whenever I change a belt, I always turn the engine over a few times by hand and then recheck the alignment of the timing marks. It is important to do it by hand, ideally with heater plugs or injectors out, so that you can feel any excess resistance and stop turning it before damaging something if it is misset. If that passes muster, then firing the engine with the case open and water pump off will be OK as long as it is brief, less than 10 seconds as I said. I would strongly recommend filling the water system in the engine as much as possible first so that the water can help keep the cylinder temperatures down and reduce thermal shock.

The procedure for doing the Salisbury diffs is the same. The flange nut is peened rather than nylock or split pinned. There is a lot of concern over the bearing preload because of the fact that while the Rover diff's bearing preload is set by shims and won't be affected by overtightening the nut, the Slaisbury preload is set by the torque on the nut - the tighter it is turned, the tighter the preload. It actually works by crushing a special tube between the bearings, which takes about 250'lbs to start crushing and takes more and more torque to further crush as the bearings close on each other. So, while the ideal thing to do is mark the pinion end and the nut with alignment marks, if you forget, tightening to a maximum of 250'lbs will not apply excessive preload and will also not lead to a loose pinion. You need a very hefty torque wrench to get close to those levels and will struggle with a 3' breaker bar with the vehicle on a ramp. The worry about the correct preload is entirely academic. There is a lot of fear about working on Salisbury diffs, but in practice, it's unfounded.

But he said he couldn't open it as the screws were seized. I was just suggesting a way of cleaning it out to get it working for the short term. His problem is that he is on a trip with limited tools and no supply of a new motor. I am talking about "bush" or "get you home" repairs.

Very briefly, but I don't like it. Even without the rad and any flow, a level of water in the block will help as a heat soak. In all honesty, you can check for fuel delivery without firing the engine by disconnecting the injector pipes. But as long as you limit the engine run to under 10 seconds at idle, it'll be alright.

It could also be a broken fork. It's a common Tdi problem down to cheap pressed steel forks that burst through on the pivot point. It could just be in need of bleeding - the slave traps air inside unless you bleed it with the vehicle nose elevated; if you do it parked downslope, you'll never get the air out. Hopefully it's a hydraulic issue.

I used to get the same off AA patrolmen. I had a Chavalier while I rebuilt the 109, and it let me down a couple of times - broken clutch cable, massively blown head gasket. It'd always be on the same trip to East Mids airport, too. They'd never accept my diagnosis over the phone and would spend time at the road side buggering about and then eventually giving the diagnosis I'd given them twenty minutes prior, and of course they couldn't fix it. I had to play he stroppy card with their customer service lot and told them I'd leave the AA if they didn't put a note on file to tell the operators that I knew what I was talking about and to take my word and ensure the patrolman had the parts I said or send a recovery vehicle on my say so rather than having to waste the time of me and a patrolman before sending one. In fairness, they did that. They do have to deal with some clots, though, so you can understand why they develop their normal procedures. A friend once refilled his mini's oil through the dipstick tube, and filled it to the top. He is a pilot, so you'd like to think he had some basic technical ability, but no... And just look at some of the work that goes on within the LR fraternity - we have all seen utter wrecks that the owner thinks is in top form, claiming that woolly steering and bad brakes are normal. They have to deal with these people daily.

You see! You don't remember what you put in last time! It was red, but it wasn't ATF; it was the blood of the shop assistant who last put you through this rigmarall. That's what stroppiness causes...