Snagger

Limestone will look odd against dark green, especially metallic. It works better with solid pastel colours, ie. the old Leyland and earlier colours of the Series era. The only modern Defender colour it'd go well with is the modern Pastel green on the Heritage special edition and the specials last year, similar to the Atlantic green of the first SIs. I think Chawton or Arctic, if that was the Defender roof white name, would be best, but it doesn't really matter as long as it is a fairly clean white and you make a note of the code for future touch ups.

If you're burning out that many switches, then it suggests a short between the switch and the relay. I see the permanent live to the switch has also burnt, which suggests loom damage too.

Fair enough, but if serious overlanding, wouldn't a starter motor be one of the spares you carry, given that any vehicle in the bush or on rutted roads will not be able to be push started and you might be waiting a long time for a tow, auto and manual alike? As for their overheating, surely an appropriate oil cooler deals with that very easily? I accept that autos are hard to rebuild in the field, but so would an LT77 or RT380 be. A Series box is simple to repair in the field, but is more likely to fail in the first place...

Like the others said and you found, disconnect the diff ends first to allow you to rotate the prop and flange to get the special long socket onto the nuts, especially the rear prop. Use a single bolt through the diff end and flange to support the prop while you work on the gear box ends. I find the bolts on the 3/9 o'colck positions easiest to work on, so rotate the prop 90 degrees to do each bolt.

No. You have to assemble the front of the box vertically to align the shafts and bearings (still fiddly even then), and you wouldn't have enough separation of the units to get the tools in the bell housing in situ anyway.

The HRTC is overgeared regardless of engine - even if you have the low torque of a big engine to avoid stalling in the raised 1st gear, then it'll be juddering, which is no good for the Series gear box - Tdis and V8s produce far more torque than the box was designed for, and while the box copes admirably if driven sympathetically, juddering and thumping will eventually kill it. Furthermore, you lose engine braking for descents, which is not so much of an issue on road using HRTC, but generally just an issue off road in low range, which is why HRTC is a much better option than 3.54 diffs in a Series. The best option by a long way os overdrive, as you can just select it when needed and go back to standard low gears for low speed or hills. But with a Tdi or V8, that still leaves a Series under geared, and 3.54 diffs will still handicap the vehicle. That leaves a choice of changing the transmission for something better suited to the engine, or using an overdrive with something like 4.1 diffs, which will avoid fabrication and chassis/cab alterations but will still be expensive and have some small compromise for low ratio unless you also fit the SII Suffix B low range gears (simple enough swap for the experienced, and not staggeringly expensive). I don't know of a calculator for ideal ratios, but I'd use the LR ratios and engine figures as a rough template. The Defender transmissions are very flexible, though, with much taller top ratios than Series, and significantly lower low first, so you get the best of both worlds.

I'm not arguing the point as I have no experience of it, but I'm curious as to how you came to that conclusion.

Drill the heads off the bolts and replace outright. The old cage nuts will come out once the bolt heads are gone. To fit new nuts, either remove the sills from the car or use a length of threaded rod to pass the cage nuts into position from behind and manoeuver them to get them to clip into place. It's fiddly but it works.

Can't be that new - it has vent flaps, so must be pre 2007. It is beautifully crafted and finished, though.

It's a shame that the dent in that rear right door happened after the respray or wasn't dealt with, but the spray looks good. It has had its door hinges replaces with the TD5 type, which tend to scrape and rust less than the earlier type. Pity they were fitted before the paint was applied (bolt heads are painted) - it'd be interesting to see the condition of the door pillars behind the hinges. AT least they went tot he level of attention of replacing the rivets behind the rear doors after painting to keep the correct appearance. Far more important is the condition of the chassis and the mechanical parts. You need proof of when the timing belt was last changes, need to inspect the oil levels and condition, and check the air filter to get an idea if it has been serviced recently. And you need to drive it to check for issues.

The front stub axles also have bearings to support the shaft near the UJ. It's not a simple job to machine rear stubs for use at the front. You would also need the later hubs as the bearing sizes are different from your current hubs. The old stub axles have replaceable seal lands, so you just need to replace those collars, but the later stubs do not, and require complete replacement when worn or pitted. £££! I did this conversion on a rear axle (I already had the parts). In all honesty, it's probably not worth the cost. You can add the oil catcher rings and machine the drain slots and holes in the existing stubs and back plates if you wish (not a bad idea), but the hub and stub upgrade is not really worth the cost just to change to the later spec bearings.

I have aluminium chequer plate (I did half the rack, the other half was then occupied by a Hannibal tent cover used as a collapsible container for bags of camping gear, but it split and let water into the ply base). No whistles, very tough, plenty of grip, not terribly heavy and no holes to let chair legs or stilettos through if you have a roof party... It also works like the old Safari roof skins, shading the proper roof from the sun and helping keep internal temperatures down.

Don't you just love cost engineers,heskencren? Make it cheap, and sod the reliability and longevity... Welcome to the forum.

Mesh creates more drag than board, and may whistle or howl. I considered it for the drainage and weight issues, but quickly decided against it.

Actually, there are fundamentally five types. The earliest had the freewheel overrun permanent 4wd system with the ring pull instead of the yellow knob. That was on the early SIs, and is comparatively rare, so it's unlikely you'd have that. Also uncommon is the 1-Ton type, and you'd have very low gearing if you had that, so you can rule that out. That leave the A, B and C standard types. A had a small diameter intermediate shaft, and so just measuring the diameter of the rear shaft protrusion for comparison should clear that up. Suffix B had the later, thicker intermediate shaft. Suffix C and later, from some point in the mid 60's, had revised low ratio gearing, changed up from 2.8:1 to 2.35:1, but is otherwise the same in almost all respects to the Suffix B (you can even swap the gear sets about to convert from one to another). All but the 1-Ton have the same high range ratio of 1.15:1. All fit the Series' four speed box and have similar external appearance. All but the 1-Ton accept overdrives. This ignores the modified Ashcroft High Ratio Transfer Cases, which use the stock items with altered high gears.

That bearing is almost certainly the culprit. When the rollers skew, they will cause a seizure between the input pinion and the main shaft, which is what selecting fourth gear does. Running the gear box like that has probably damaged the bearing surfaces of both the input pinion and the main shaft, rendering them scrap, but you won't know until you strip it. No machine should ever be run with a collapsed bearing, nor with low oil levels; the bearings and oil aren't there for the fun of it. I suggest that you get the brakes inspected, since you've had them apart. £20 or so at the local garage is small price for certainty that you rebuilt them correctly, given the consequences of getting that wrong and that, with the best of will, your mechanical diagnosis and evaluation skills need some honing.

Well, thanks for the information, incomplete as it was. I'm glad it was just a status post and that you didn't need to explain further or ask any questions.

But you're still putting more stress into the crank and more heat into the turbine, which reduces reliability. The only things you can mod to improve reliability or performance without reliability reduction are things like free flow intercoolers to reduce piston temperatures a little, silicone hoses and such. But I'd agree that a well sorted but standard TD5 gives markedly better performance (at slightly higher fuel consumption) than a Tdi, as long as the ECU is water proofed and the wiring to it kept clean of oil. Personally, I think if you need to significantly uprate the standard engine performance, you have the wrong vehicle in the first place. Defenders don't handle that well at high speed and shouldn't be treated like sports cars.

In that case, I'd go for the 300 missing the manifolds and use the existing parts, with a new chassis bracket on the right and a fabricated mount on the left for the unmodified exhaust to clear the 200 type mounting rubber and chassis bracket. You might need to do something about the rad shroud - I suspect the fan position will be slightly different.

The down pipe is very different, but since people here often use 300 manifolds and turbos to fit Discovery 200s in Series LRs, the Defender200 manifolds and turbo must also fit the 300. The trouble will be the left engine mount, which is where the vertical part of the down pipe runs. It might be possible to fit 200 mountings tot he block (so that you don't need to alter the chassis either), but that would probably take some fabrication. I have seen commercially sold conversion mounts that get around the same issue with the oil filter on the rhs. I think you're better off getting the existing engine reworked with a crank grind, rebore and oversize shells and pistons.

That's a shame. I liked QT.

As long as you don't get solvent or fuel on them, they should be much more dent resistant than aluminium. And you'll never worry about corrosion.

If you start increasing boost pressures or fuelling, then you are going to significantly reduce reliability. Discovery TD5s warp their manifolds and rip the studs out of the head far more than stock Defender engines, but once you start playing about with chipping or remapping, then there is always a price to be paid. Even VNTs running at the same maximum boost cause increased wear - by increasing low down torque while the oil pump rpm is low, the crank bearings take much more abuse. If you want reliability, then go for a standard engine and good quality fuel, coolant and oil.

I would be wary of scrapping those petrol engines these days. If you have the space, stick it in the back of your garage. I have a bad feeling that the EU have big and nasty plans for diesel engines in the next few years that could see a lot of us scrabbling to refit petrols.

They knacker your night vision, too, so it takes a short while to get it back after switching the lights off. Not a big deal, but the smaller, cheaper 6-LED units are better.