Snagger

I don't think the Safari snorkel is particularly susceptible to rain - any water ingested at high speed will enter the intake and hit the back of the head unit, running down and collecting above the neck of the upright section. The head has four drains to let this water out, all well below the neck. At low road speed, the rain will either drop clear of the overhang of the intake grille or fall on the lower face of the intake tract, again collecting in the base of the head and draining through the four exits to the outside of the neck. Any water that does make it past that will collect in the bottom of the original wing intake. As long as you didn't glue it closed (deemed optional in the instructions), then any water will drop out the bottom of its drain valve whenever as the engine is at low rpm (the valve is sucked shut as intake flow increases, but at low rpm it can hang open). You only need to rotate the head to face aft in particularly bad conditions, though there is probably only a small performance penalty at high speed by doing so and noe at all at medium or low speeds, so it could be set like that permanently with no ill-effect.

That's exactly my suspicion. If you have 200Tdi or earlier type axles witht he wider hubs, thicker drive flanges and longer plastic cones, then you'll need those spacers to fit the alloys over the hubs. Without the spacers, the webs between the wheels' stud holes hit the bevel between the drive flange bolts and hold the wheel about 1/8" off the hub mating flange. I used 1/4" spacers when I did this to mine, but I also used Wolf studs which are 1/2" longer than the standard studs to make sure I had plenty of thread engagement (I had to tap the threads deeper into the alloy nuts, but there was plenty of blind depth available for the longer studs). Those spacers do seem to have a small external diameter. I used turned-down scrap brad drums to make sure the whole hub flange was covered.

I was wondering about how these things are set up when I saw a couple of 4-wheel steer vehicles on Youtube. I figures for self centring the rear axle would need to be orientated to have a strong positive castor angle so that if the rear steering unlocked at moderate speed, it'd naturally tend to the straight position. I thought that if I did it myself, I'd want the system to be mechanically locked and depressurised when the transfer box was in high range and active when in low range. Having a cable operated bypass valve in the rear hydraulic system and a solenoid operated folding lock on the axle to steering mechanism (fail safe so that the axle is locked when the solenoid is unpowered and unlocked only when the solenoid is energised). I had only considered having the steering act in the opposite direction to the front axle to tighten turns, rather than having the option of crabbing, by using a chain drive taken from the existing steering system to operate an input valve like that from a fork-lift. You could have a valve set (operated mechanically or by solenoids) to cross-connect the column operated command valve to the ram, selecting between conventional coupling to steer tightly and reversed coupling to crab. Weta workshops (Peter Jackson's special effects company in NZ) made a 4 wheel steer replica of Halo's Warthog that drove at high speed and had both types of rear steer (despite the game vehicle having opposite direction steer for tight turns only, and no crabbing). They put it through its paces on a dirt race track and it looked pretty sturdy. It might be worth sending them an email enquiry. 1minute into this:

The washer is stretched over the nut, so it shouldn't come off. I think it's to allow the nut to be tightened without damaging the soft alloy material.

I'm with you, too. My problem is cost - trying to keep the 109 and the 90 in good order at the same time as a ground-up restoration of the RRC. I have the bulk of the engine done, with just the injection pump to go. The RRC is still one of the classiest looking vehicles in the world. That it is also one of the best to drive both on and off road is remarkable.

If they were tightened correctly, then for so many to come off is likely an act of sabotage, which would tally with a cut tyre if the cut occurred while parked. It's not common, but there are people out there who do that sort of thing, thinking that it's just an act of mild vandalism and will just inconvenience you and cost you money, not able to comprehend that it could cost lives.

I got a call from the garage to say the RRC has been sold to Kingsley Cars. Sorry if I raised anyone's hopes.

Likewise, and the 3.54 diffs give a lower top speed with overdrive because of the torque drop-off. Slightly less engine noise at 60 mph, but more gear noise, gives slightly more relaxed cruising, but if you have a roof rack or other accessories, the engine is working too hard to have significant fuel savings. The diffs are better than the overdrive for saving fuel as they don't increase the number of gears or bearings in the system and don't sap power like an overdrive. But they do screw up low range and the speedo calibration. A high ratio transfer case is better.

A SIII transmission and 3.54 diffs is just slightly lower in 4th than a Defender in 5th. Having the additional 28% gearing from the overdrive is too much, even with the turbo. I broke the third gear in my gear box by using overdrive in conjunction with 3.54 diffs - there's too much strain from the high gearing and the gear box is the weak link. Go for the high diffs or the overdrive only, or limit use of the overdrive to 4th gear.

The crushable tube that spaces the pinion bearings needs hundreds of foot-pounds to be squeezed. While a newly fitted tube will have an amount of hysteresis, so refitting the flange and nut will get tight before the bearing preload is reached, an old tube has most likely lost that due to the heat, vibration and plain time that it has been under compression. I have previously replaced the seal, losing markings during the job, and had no problem simply tightening the nut to 120'lbs - it's enough to nip the nut up so it doesn't come loose, but not enough to increase any bearing preload. In my diff swap, I used a new crushable tube. To set it right needed a hell of a force which I couldn't apply on the vehicle. It had to be preset on a bench, but ended up with the hysteresis problem in the paragraph above. I just tightened the nut further until all the play was gone but no further, and it's working perfectly.

Reminds me of The Simpsons (Marge to Hibberd): "What do you prescribe, doctor?" "Fire, and lots of it!"

Building in India isn't necessarily a death knell - India might not have prowess yet in building high quality cars, but they are a very tech-savvy nation; they build their own aircraft, have their own space programme and their own nuclear programmes, which is more than we do in the UK. They also have a huge, cheap workforce. So, they have the highly skilled and educated staff to manage the continuing design and production of Defender, and the assembly line staff too. They may end up making a mess, but they could just as well make it better than it was ever made in the UK.

I don't think heat dissipation will be an issue unless you're doing something like comp safari or towing a maximum load up a mountain. Like I said, mine is good after 200,000 miles with nothing more than oil changes. The vehicle has a small amount of backlash, but nit much, and that may be the BW shaft splines, but it's probably due to a combination of small, acceptable wear throughout the entire transmission. The chain and VC units still seem fine. I have been told that the chains suffer much more behind the V8s, and I'd imagine that the VC units suffer more driven hard off road or doing a lot of town driving (tight cornering), the latter being what mine tended to do with the twice-daily school run.

Similar, but with more noise and backlash, I'd imagine - that's the benefit of chain drive. But the 230 may be able to be set up with all the usual ratios, while the BW is 1.22 only (on the RRC, anyway, I'm not sure what the P38 ratio is).

I think the drawn diagrams are of the pinion teeth, not the crown wheel.

I have been a member of the same Lightweight club as Vinny for a while. He has promised me some photos of his PAS fit, so with his permssion I'll either post them up here or will post a link if our mods are happy with that.

The P38 does have a BW unit. It's not quite the same as the RRC's, but it's very similar and operates identically.

Christ that's a bad day! If it's any consolation, I had to repair the heat shield on the Tdci's turbo, and while the bonnet was propped up, the wind got under it and flipped it against the wind screen. The back of the bulge now has a row of dents from the wiper arms. At least the heat shield was a quick fix - it just needed a penny washer under a bolt head to overlap the hole that had ripped out under the bolt head. But it's a shame that fitting that one washer is going to cost a couple of hundred pounds in body repairs...

That's an interesting point about the effects of the ac. I am retrofitting ac from a Vogue Se to my lower spec RRC as I rebuild it (got all the parts from a few scrapped vehicles). The two electric booster fans on the condenser are fairly substantial, but the whole assembly has the effect of partially blocking the rad. I know ac activation raises the engine temperature (and fuel consumption) on most vehicles, but had never thought about it beyond the energy required by the ac pump. The airflow from the booster fans could be cooling the viscous fan hub a little and causing it to engage later. I'll keep and eye on that, and if needed I'll fit a plastic cap over the hub to deflect the booster airflow so the viscous fan behaves normally. There are two extra sensors in the thermostat housing elbow of a 300Td, and I presume other engines, when ac is fitted (200Tdi thermostat housing have two blank holes in their tops for these). The lower threshold switch will activate the booster fans as engine temperature rises and the higher threshold switch will deactivate the ac to protect the engine. Some aftermarket kits don't have these switches or logic. I don't think the booster fans should switch on with the ac, though - I think they're only meant to be triggered by raised engine temperature.

My BW has don 200,000 miles and is still going strong on its original parts, with the VC unit in perfect working order. Behind a V8 they can eventually have worn and stretched chains, but behind a Tdi they seem to last forever. I'll be stripping it and the R380 its mated to at some point later this year (I hope) as the R380 has the usual gnashing on second and there is a little backlash, but everything works as is should except that synchro ring (and even that works if you don't rush the change up), which is pretty good for a unit with that mileage and no previous repairs. Like I said, it drives much better on the slippery winter roads than either my 109 or my wife's Tdci Defender, but at the cost of faster tyre wear (40,000 miles for a set of BFG ATs, half what the same tyres do on the 109 which spends most of its time in 2wd)

Thanks, Ian - clears things up pretty sharply! Roverdrive, I suspect that the fuel consumption may be worse than for a similarly geared LT230 - the chain effectively has a lot of bearing surfaces, but the main cause is probably the transmission wind up that happens when cornering, which is what wears the tyres faster; that energy has to come form somewhere - the VC allows enough slip to prevent damage, but the forces are still pretty high...

I haven't had mine apart yet, but doesn't the BW behave more like a Series unit, but with a viscous unit instead of a selectable dog clutch? I thought the BW had a fixed connection to the rear axle and the front drive went through the VC allowing the slip needed but trying to match the rear, unlike the LT230 being a selectable open or closed diff with no direct drive to either prop.

I have read that welding of steering components is not allowed, so though your plan is certainly strong enough, it could put you in a difficult legal position in an accident if that information was true. That much said, the inner column on Series vehicles is welded - the shaft and worm gear are spearately made and elded together. I can't see anyone other than your insurers being interested in the steering lock being removed, and I doubt they'll charge much of a premium change because it's a pretty insignificant security device by modern standards. Have a look at SIII steering columns - they and their plastic shrouds are much shorter than the Defender type, and it should be plausible to fit the steering lock mechanism and the two main stalk switches, relocating the stumpy light switch elsewhere. You's need to have the Defender bottom end of each shaft and the SIII upper of each. The bulkhead bracket would be a suitable datum point over where to "cut and shut" as it's similar on both models and is in the same place relative to the bulkhead.

Headlights and hazards should be permanently live, not ignition switched, so that you can flash them to signal for attention with the ignition off, just like the horn. Brake lights, indicators and reverse light should be run from the ignition switched bus sot hat they're dead with the ign off. The radios are a matter of preference; car manufacturers have a permanent live for the memory circuits but ign fed live for the main power to use the stereo, which is what I now have, but I used to run the stereo of the permanent live aux bus so that I could listen to the stereo with the ign off (keys out opening other doors or working on dash/engine electrics). I'd make sure any comms radios are permanent live fed. Any external power sockets for running camping equipment, or external camping lights with integrates switches, would be best run from a bus that is wired to a permanent live but with an interior master switch to prevent tampering when parked up, wasting battery power or worse (I have heard of coins being placed into external sockets by vandals trying to start electrical fires).

The Yanks seem to prefer the LT230, swapping it into late RRCs, perhaps because it's perceived as stronger or maybe because it's cheaper to repair. I have a Borg Warner equipped RRC, and it does wear the tyres out faster, but it's quieter and smoother and copes brilliantly on icy and snowy roads, better than the LT230 in my wife's 90. I like the BW more, and if I was to retrofit a newer transmission into my 109, I'd use one. In fact, what I'd like even more is tohave the selectable 2/4wd of the Series transmission with a viscous coupling to the front end, so I can have the ridiculously long tyre life the 2wd gives me buy have the same carefree locked 4wd as my RRC for mixed slippery/tractive conditions. I'd be interesting to see if there's a way of fitting a Freelander VC to the 109 transmission...