Snagger

As Les said, removing and refitting the selector shafts and forks can be done without removing the box. It can be a bit of a fiddle, but it's not that bad. 3rd/4th comes out first, followed by 1t/2nd, then reverse. Refit in the opposite order. Make sure the reverse fork engages in the reverse gear slot, not behind its lip. It's simple enough. The position of the 1st/2nd fork on its shaft is critical, at least on later boxes. I think I included the measurement in my blog articles, but it is included in the LR manual and, if I remember correctly, the Haynes manual supplemental section at the back.

Obviously, the suspension set up for spirited driving is still going to vary depending on the rest of the vehicle - weight and centre of gravity will be hugely affected by accessories, body type and loads carried. Certainly the best results will be from stock height or lower vehicles on relatively flat parabolics. Gas dampers will deal better with the constant motion of the suspension as standard dampers may boil over. Spring rate and damper stiffness will depend on the vehicle. Anti roll bars from a 109 Ambulance will do wonders if the vehicle has a high CoG from having a roof rack or tent. A pickup bodied vehicle with no load would probably not benefit from ARBs much. Radial tyres with a lower than usual profile would help a lot. Going wide tread is good for dry roads, but increases aquaplaning in the wet, so 235/80R16 on 7" rims would probably be the way to go, but don't think spacers will help - they will adversely affect steering feel.

I have done two of my vehicles with Zeus Engineering's stainless pistons. They are truly excellent, and any disc braked LRs I have in the future will get more of the same. They provided genuine seals and retainers in the first kit, but Britpart on the second. The seals are fine, but as said, the retainers don't fit. Try to save the originals as you remove them, or buy new genuine retainers. Make sure the seal seats are scrupulously clean, with not a hint of dirt or rust, and lightly file the outer edge of the seal retainer before fitting so that they don't pick up on the lip.

They aren't structural, they just protect the floor from damage when sliding in pallets and boxes.

With the best will on my part, it's a terrible idea. One wheel drive will give appalling handling, especially in the wet, potentially dangerously bad, and will overstress the single half shaft carrying the load. Welding up diffs is an atrocious bodge and those who do it on anything other than a dedicated trialler should have their heads examined. Far better to save up and do the job properly with a locking or LSD, even second hand.

The idea behind the drillings is to allow the gasses created by the pad heating to escape into pockets rather than "lubricate" the friction interface. The grooves are for self cleaning. If you are doing sustained braking that causes a lot of heat build up, then the drillings should help. But for normal use, they will reduce contact area, and so reduce braking slightly. For off road use, they will collect mud and accelerate wear like said above. The best discs for off road applications is plain solid discs - not vented, grooved or drilled.

Whatever you do, you have to be sure it'll be safe if it malfunctions while you're driving at speed or on a dangerous piece of road or trail. So, while the hydraulic locks are legal in clutch lines, they are illegal and unsafe in brake lines, and ideas like blinding dash strobe lights or tasers are positively lethal if they go off accidentally.

It is also why some people fit the front tyres reversed (directional pattern treads), so that if you get into something too sticky, you have grip to reverse out. I have seen a fair few MoD LRs like that.

I use VWP for most of my bits. I kept it simple on my rebuild - I repaired the original loom, which wasn't bad, removing all previous mods and returning it to standard except for the engine wiring, which had a few variations in lengths for the connections to the Tdi. I only added a reverse light system to the loom and cut short the head light feeds to control relays mounted on the inner wing, one for dipped and one for high beam and spots. I spliced indicator side repeaters into the front indicator wiring, as these use low wattage bulbs and are within the standard looms capacity, and added an LED red strip to the rear door glass as a high level brake light. The Tdi glow plug relay was wired up independently of the loom, the only connections to the original wiring being the output of the relay to the cold start warning lamp holder, a trigger and kill wire off the ignition switch terminals and a connection to the battery. The accessories, including stereo, rear screen wash wipe and all screen, mirror and seat heaters (and even the heater blower fan) and engine cooling electric fan all run from a bus bar from a second battery (split charge relay), all using 20A Carling Tech switches to avoid the need for relays, simplifying the circuits and saving space. The original loom retains the fuse box under the steering column (even post PAS installation), though all the fuses are now used and the order was changed a little to be more appropriate. The accessory loom uses a Defender fuse box below the dash.

I also had EBC drilled and grooved discs, all replaced at the same time. never a judder or squeal, but markedly better braking than the original OEM pads and discs which were in worn but fair condition. What discs do you use with the EBC pads?

Have a good look through this seller's buyer's reviews - one with a complaint about a radio controlled car being broken, one that had bought phone top up cards which were invalid, one who bought an iPhone which never showed up, and several more undisclosed issues which were apparently resolved, all on the first ten pages of over 30 (mostly their purchases, so sales will be quick to read through).

If it failed an MoT, then it hasn't been looked after. The mods are costly, suggesting an owner more interested in appearance than safety or reliability, and that screams to me "keep away", especially that some of the alterations are bad, like the reverse light.

No, just whip the sump off but leave the ladder in place - the pump sits beneath it. 200 shares the same pump as the 12J and 19J, and as far as I know, the 10J 2.25nad and the 2.25 and 2.5 petrols. The fault is likely to be worn main shaft shells, not the pump, but you can give it a go. Replacing the shells isn't expensive and can be done with the crank and engine in place, though the top rear shell is a bit tricky because the gearbox shaft is holding the back end of the crank up tight. You should be able to drift it around, though, and get the new one in with a spray of light oil to help it in. Just be very gently with the drifts (soft) on the new upper shells.

Mintex are a decent and relatively frugal brand used by many car manufacturers. You won't have any problems with them. I like EBC Green Stuff pads, but others have reported some crumbling issues. It might be batches or use - I have them on my RRC and that doesn't go off road, so may be a factor, but they gave great braking improvement.

The panhard and damper bushes are absolutely wrecked. Replace all four. The second video suggests the drop arm is on nice and tightly and there doesn't appear to be any ball joint play. Check the steering damper while it's off for correct function, but hopefully it's all cheap stuff. Swivel bearing preload is more than checking for play - there should be a very specific amount of resistance in the bearings, tested with the wheel, steering rods and swivel seal removed. It's not especially complex, but it is time consuming and may be a bit much for a novice, so just start with the four bushes.

The blue 109 shown straddling a berm is Koos' (forum member). If I'm not mistaken, he got that articulation by his own mods, using long front springs, not by the Gon2Far system. I remember looking at the G2F and speaking to them about it. they said that on road handling was a little squirrely with revolver shackles on the front springs, hence the change to standard shackles and pivoting dumbirons replacing the original chassis dumbirons, locked with a bolt for road use. That is a lot more work to install than the revolvers, so was obviously done for good reason, suggesting the front revolvers must have made things fairly bad. I don't know if Si's sprung shackles would avoid those problems, but at least they'd still flex torsionally without extending in length and then binding like the revolvers (which get the torsion in the wrong axis once they open up). Drew Wright (Wright Off Road) has a G2F system on his SII 88" trialler. It looks very good - I suspect it was the price and the welding that stopped it selling in big numbers.

Yep, they sit on the tops of each wheel arch box in exactly the orientation in the photo, as viewed through the rear door.

I have to say Paddock are much better than Craddock, as long as you specify OEM/Gen Parts. I find Craddock overpriced, slow, unhelpful and they frequently tell you something is in stock when it isn't to gain your order, taking weeks to dispatch it only to send the wrong part. That happened every time I used them, so I don't bother anymore. Dunsfold LR are the best mail-order in my experience, and Rimmer Bros are good too.

It's mostly the same, except for the power to the coil coming from the wire currently used for the fuel injection pump solenoid. Just label all the wires now as you will need to alter a lot of lengths. I don't know about the ECU for the fuel injection. You'll need the electric fuel pump, which should run off a relay triggered by the run position on the ignition switch, ie the fuel solenoid wire.

I had a diff fault with low miles - a knock that sounded like the rear door rattling on the overrun. It was a failed split pin retaining the diff's cross pin, the cross pin sliding out until the inside of the crown gear and contacting the head of the pinion gear. Could happen to any Rover diff, though. I also had the turbo heat shield break around a mounting screw, but that was fixed cheaply with the use of a washer. Panel alignment was poor, so I spent a day adjusting them. The rear cross member pain is microns thin, so will benefit from red oxide and an aerosol of black paint.

The main bearing journals are a lot thicker than the bulk of the crank shaft, so it's not being weakened. Reboring the mai bearing seats in the block would weaken that, though. My concern would be the journals on the crank being prone to wear having their case hardening machined away. The bearing shells should still be much softer and sacrificial, but the shaft journals may still wear faster than normal.

Having visited Malta, I'd recommend the auto - town driving there is tricky, with lots of tight junctios and heavy traffic, so an awful lot of gear changing. That's why I bought an auto out here, despite not really liking them. As for the engine, I'd have said go for a VNT and big intercooler on the Tdi to bring up the low RPM torque, but you don't get a lot of deep mud and wading in Malta, so water resistnace is probably a moot point!

The new shaft would hit the diff cross-pin, not the other half shaft, so that is not the problem. It seems unlikely that the bush inside the stub axle would move, but it is possible. Use a dentists mirror (you can buy them in pharmacies, and are very useful in mechanical jobs) to look inside the stub for a gap. Have you checks the splines are clear on the diff end f the shaft? A bit of damage or a wear step could be responsible.

LT77 4th gear is straight through, like the Series 4th. 5th gives different step up depending on the suffic number, but as I recall, its in the low 20s%, while Series overdrive is 28%. LT230 is 1.4 (Def) or 1.22:1 (Disco and RRC) compared to 1.15:1 for Series transfer box. So, the Series transfer box and overdrive gve much higher gearing than the LT77 and 5th gear. The difference on coilers is made up for by the diffs. I tried the Series combination with 3.54 diffs, but found it well over geared. I think a 1.22 LT230 and 3.54 would go well in Tdi or V8 Series, finding the 1.22 ratio too low in my Tdi RRC but about right in the 90 Tdci.

The spindle that the fan sits on has bearings in a single steel pot pressed into the timing case front cover. They dry out wear. If you romve the belt, you might be able to feel lateral play or end float on the fan shaft. Spinning by hand won't produce a noice because th bearings ar not under significant load, but once the belt is on and turning fast, the side loads on those bearings are quite high.