Snagger

Glad you're still on track and feeling stronger.

It's a travesty, that's what! To take a launch fleet vehicle and then extensively modify it is vandalism.

Some photos of welds I did with the 6013s, a five-pass lateral on a vertical surface (about the same as I get with vertical lines on the vertical surface), and a 2mm plate welded to a section of 2mm thickness 2" box with three passes to build up weld depth. The welds I tried last were along the bottom face of the box, which was getting better. It's all about angle, arc length and stick speed. I'm getting the hang of it gradually, though getting into the Vee of a corner is still tricky - I have stocked up on scrap today so I can do some more corners. I bought some new 7018s this evening, so I'll see how they go tomorrow.

Paul Hogarth, owner of Patriot, has kindly lent me a couple of very old books, formerly his father's, on arc welding (he's also going to give me a load of scrap steel to continue practicing when I collect the bracket parts tomorrow). Some good stuff in there. It gets awfully complex dealing with different grades of steel, iron and other metals, but the stuff for what I need was very informative. I'll try to get some 7018 rods tomorrow to see if they make life easier. The books said to use a straight run on the verticals and a swirling pattern on inverted welding, though I think the latter was for butt rather than lap or corner welds. One of the books went on to say for inverted corner or lap welds use a thinner rod and maximum amps, keeping arc length short, to get maximum penetration with minimum metal deposition and thus minimum sag.

Heating up the rod for a few seconds on another scrap area first helps a lit, like Barry and the video links suggested - burn off the first 1/4" and it arcs much more consistently.

I have just checked the rods. They're 6013, and at least 20 years old, though they look like new. I'll look at getting the 7018s. I'm getting better, but still have the problem in internal corners on vertical joints. Hopefully the 7018s will cure that. The internal corners on horizontal joints are getting better, though. I tried to add a photo, but it was too big. I can get a nice even weld with the regular ripples on flat sheet, horizontal or vertical, and now in the horizontal corners. Thanks for all the advice. I'll ask my friend if he has a mobile kit - he has been doing some faultless aluminium TIG welding, so this should be a doddle for him if he can bring his kit over. This is all a bit to critical for my level, I think.

I'm practicing welding in advance of attaching a bracket for a power steering box and seem to be getting reasonably good at butt joint and the outside corner welds, but I'm still finding internal corners difficult. The weld seems to form a bead one side or the other, rather than sit down into the bottom of the gulley. Increasing the voltage seemed to help a little, but I'm not getting consistent results. It's further compounded when I try to weld a vertical run, and is going to be worse still when I try to weld underneath a horizontal surface (attaching brackets to the underside of the chassis will be the job I'm most worried about). Any suggestions, please? Do you chase the vertical joint up or down, and is the side bead issue due to stick angle or inappropriate voltage?

The ride will be terrible because of the lack of articulation, and axle wrap will be a problem with the tall saddles and U bolts. Clearance between the front prop and the rhs engine mount might be tight under heavy braking with the wrap. Then there is the gearing issue as mentioned, and the speedo would need recalibrating. The forward visibility and seating position must be a nightmare with the cab being chopped. All in all, why? At least it could be reversed, but it'd be useless and horrible.

Really? I thought it was written by a BM manager, it was so heavy with the photos and references. To be honest, I thought they lost all credibility because of it. Shame, because it might be an interesting read, though it certainly wasn't the "rebuild" or "build" that it claimed, just preparation. I wish them every success in their travels, though - I wish I could do the same. One day...

I think you may have a short from the high beam wires (blue with white trace) to the speedo case. The short would produce positive voltage on both sides of the speedo bulb, causing it to dim, and would earth through the glow plug light (assuming it's not just the high beam warning light in the wrong hole). It would exlain why this only happens on high beam and not dipped, as the stalk switch is "downstream" of the dash switch and parallel to the instrument light switch (if you haven't already removed or bypassed that pointless one). The alternator light could be related, as shorting the headlights will draw a lot of current and there is no fuse in the circuit. Alternatively, it could just be a bad connection or a loose mounting causing the belt to slip. If the charge light, which does not earth inside the dash but has one feed from the fuse box (switched side) and the other from the W terminal on the alternator (earthing through the alternator when the ignition is on but the alternator is not charging, but double positives which cancel each other out when the alternator is working), only comes on when the high beam is on, then that would tend to corroborate the short circuit theory.

Check your turbo charger for worn bearings - if they have excess movement, they will allow too much oil flow and divert oil away from the other parts of the engine. I also removed the washer from around the oil cooler thermostat (inside the filter housing neck) as it causes too much of a restriction when warm. The oil temperature went up fractionally when running hard on the motorway, but the pressure went up considerably. The rest of the thermostat is still there. What oil are you using?

I put heated mirror pads on my 109 and my wife's 90. They're extremely effective and I think they should be mandatory on all new vehicles. On my 109, the wire runs along the joint between wing top and bulkhead and is cable tied to the mirror arm, entering the head through a small hole drilled in the bottom. I did a neater job on the 90 by stripping the mirror and drilling a hole through the ball and neck for a single wire to pass through and another as high up between the webs into the spring barrel (remove the plastic caps for better access) and through the bottom cap. The single wire tuns down through the spring barrel and goes up inside the hinge to pass through the gap in the door seal lip between windscreen and bulkhead (pull the seal off there to thread the wire through) and then runs from each mirror to the heated rear screen relay output. I didn't need to uprate the standard 20A fuse, either. The earthing of the pads is handles by running a wire from the pad to the retaining bolt for the mirror head's clamp, and removing the powder coat of the ball and the clamp (and adding copper grease) to give a good earth path through the arm itself.

The more Classics that get messed about, the more mine will be worth when I restore it - factory spec plus the heated screen and seats and the aircon from an SE, so it all looks original. It'll be perfect, unlike these monstrosities.

That's great work, Red. I don't know if that system would fit a RHD vehicle with the mainfolds being so close to the foot well.

If you fit a sleeve or bush to the studs, then the alloy wheel nuts will not wind in enough to hold the wheel securely. Just lift the wheel onto the studs and then roll the wheel to one side while you put the first nut on, then to the other side for the second nut. It only gets difficult on the third nut if any of the studs are misaligned.

I find the new Defender seats very bad for my back - I much prefer the old type as they have much more lumbar support. It sounds like legroom is the only issue (other than worn out seats). I find the same in the 109 and the RRC (though the latter is better, I still need the seat all the way back, and I'm only 6'). So, extending the foot wells and moving the pedals seems the best way. I think you need them to forwards and down. I'd leave the top at the same angle as tipping the pedal boxes is likely to cause clearance issues under the bonnet. I think by sliding the brake pedal down as well as forward, the servo may still clear the wing and bonnet edge. The floor can only be lowered about 1" as things currently stand, but if you fabricate an outrigger with a lower top face and a vertical extension to pick up the bulkhead, you should be able to get much more. If you can lower the floor by about 3" and extend the foot well about 4" forwards, you'll get 5" more leg room. Adding shims under the front of the seat will also help support the thigh, which will take a lot of strain off your back.

It's hard to tell, but I think they may have rounded the corners of the bonnet to make it more similar to the L322's. That'd be hard to rectify without replacement. They must have spent a lot of money on this, and all to ill-effect. As for the wheel arches, later RRCs had body coloured arches (and the inner wings, rad panel and bonnet slam too), and I prefer that - it looks less piece-meal.

It's not to my taste. Less is more on a Range Rover, especially the RRC.

I don't think you'll have a problem. As memory serves, the screens take 14A a pair at 12V, the mirror pads about 2A and a heated rear screen (Defender type) less than 10A. A battery will only take about 8A maximum if it is heavily discharged, regardless of your alternator capacity, so allow about 15A for the lighting, under 30A for all the heating (including fan) and transient loads for indicators, brake lights and a couple of amps for a radio, and a 60A alternator will cope fine - that's all I have on my 109, and I have all those accessories plus extra lights and seat heating, and it copes just fine. Of course, if you have a difficult starter, then short journeys are going to take their toll, but charging the battery at the weekends should suffice, especially with an 82AHr battery (light truck size).

As the others said, it will most certainly be a shattered leaf spring in the 3d/4th synchro unit. I have had this twice now. On the second occasion, a 20 mile drive in second (with overdrive) freed it up, the shrapnel being flung out of the hub centre centrifugally. However, once one has gone, the other two won't be far behind - their centre humps (which catch on the baulk ring connecting rod grooves to cause the rings to be pressed against the synchro cones on the gears during gear changes) will be equally worn, and the remaining springs will be carrying the entire load with the forces applied unevenly. You will notice that with once spring out, the gear change is a little lighter on the stick but grinding is a little easier. Replacement involves a gearbox strip down, so you'll need a gasket and seal kit as well as the three new springs. Take a close look at all the bearings while you're in there. There are photos of the parts and a rebuild in the transmission section of my blog ( www.nickslandrover.co.uk )

It does help - it shows the intake duct is secured by one nut outboard. RHD vehicles have the duct to the left and a blanking plate on the right; the diagram shows the opposite, but I'm sure it's all just simple mirror image design.

Let it sit in hot water for a few minutes to soften - it'll shrink back and firm up as it cools.

Thanks. Those are LHD diagrams, but it looks like a simple matter of the intake being switched from one side to the other, nothing more. It's the intake trunk elbow that is in the corner of the foot well. I'm pretty sure I heard the nut fall into the main housing while we were driving, and then drop again when the diverter flap control was adjusted. Hopefully, removing that intake duct will allow me to get a magnetic probe in there to fish it out.

Hi all. One of the nuts that secures the aftermarket glove box lid has dropped in through a demister vent into the heater housing. I can see the trunking from the housing in the top of the foot well is detachable. Any ideas how to remove it so that I can recover said nut?

That mount fits a 12J/19J/200 chassis, which has a different mount than a SIII. Cut and weld, use ZInc182 with a dabbed silver hammerite topcoat and spray wax inside to cover heat damaged galv and it'll be fine.