Snagger

Thanks guys. I'll look at the brake and I'll pull the prop shaft to check the UJs by hand (not just check for play, but also binding or roughness, which can't be done fitted). The rear brakes squeal a little as the brakes are released gently, despite thorough cleaning, so I'll replace the pads too. I'll post the results of what I find once I do the work - it'll have to be done next week at the earliest.

Also visit the workshops to see their working conditions and look around their stock. One well known rebuild specialist not far from Solihul has panels and other parts piled high outdoors and the mankiest, messiest workshops you can imagine. That is highly indicative of disorganisation and an utter lack of care or interest in quality. A few of their resale vehicles that were being sold on again by owners a few years after they had been rebuilt by this specialist did not seem to be faring as well as I'd have expected for their prices, and when I pushed them on how they do their hard top conversions for windows, seating and trim, the answers I got regarding structural elements of the seats, restraints and side panel reinforcing suggested to me that they had absolutely no idea of what they were doing, and I felt their conversions to be dangerous. My friend said the look on my face while their workshop manager talked through their mods was hilarious - I don't have much of a poker face, and my friend had to disappear behind a few cars as he couldn't hold his laughter at my reaction any longer! Know what you want, find out how it should be done properly and the TEST the companies by pretending to be completely void of all technical understanding and ask them to go through what they do and how. The rogues will show their colours pretty quickly as they'll talk you into unwanted work and will not give suitable detail on the highly technical issues.

I had worn CVs that clicked years ago. I replaced them with Britpart ones and was surprised that the did 90,000 miles bfore one of them let go and clicked badly. The bell cracked through in two places all the way through - you could see daylight through the cracks. The cause remains unknown, but the other side was perfect with no apparent wear. CVs are one component that Britpart do well, and at just over £30, at a very good price. Even shcroft Transmissions rate them highly, with BP CVs coming second best in destructive testing, outperformed only by a Gucci aftermarket, very expensive uprated alternative. While avoiding high throttle positions may nurse the CVs a little, it's tight cornering and off roading that will kill them - cornering will reuire the viscous coupling to slip, and you've seen how much torque needs to be applied to it through the diffs and cv joints for that to happen, and off roading will shock load them as the wheels slip or spin and then find grip.

Hi folks. I'm not really familiar with the Puma transmissions, so could do with a hand identifying a noise in the rear transmission. When the engine is producing minimal torque, like coasting, or under engine braking, the rear end makes a repetitive noise like a damped rattle. I had initially thought it could be the rear door lock rattling until I spotted the pattern relating to engine output. It seems particularly noticeable after a medium to long drive where everything has warmed up, and then crawling at low speed gives a regular knock. The car makes an odd "chucka-chucka" noise on start up and shut down, which I believe to be the dual mass flywheel (first one I've had use of). It could be related, but then again might not, but it's a similar noise to what we hear as this driving noise, and with the added background noise of wind, suspension movement and tyre roll, could possibly be the same noise. My list of candidates are: rear brakes; rear prop shaft UJs binding; transmission bounce of the dual mass flywheel (I gather the clutch and flywheel aren't that reliable on the model). All suggestions welcome!

Try the convoluted rubber gaiters - they stop the stones from chipping the chrome in the first place, so water never gets to contact the steel.

I'd hazard a guess, but it's only that: the original development engines may have had the coolant holes in the head aswell, but with relatively unrestricted flow through the front of the block into the front of the head and back to the rad, the flow through the back of the engine may have been poor, so the head apertures were closed up but there was no need to do so on the block or gasket. Just a hunch...

The sliding low range gear on the transfer box output shaft is very loose on its splines and tends to wobble unless under load, so that could be a cause of the vibration. Other causes could be lumps of debris on the hand brake drum or binding of the hand brake shoes on the drum. You will certainly get much more noise from the transfer box when testing - with the transfer box in neutral, my main box is relatively quiet in all gears, but with the transfer box engages (props off), the chattering at idle is unpleasant in third and horrifying in fourth. I thinks it's a characteristic of the design, and not necessarily a fault - my transfer box has been rebuilt and runs flawlessly, despite the racket.

I think Discovery arches will fit - as far as I know, the arches have identical profiles. The only issue might be the body panel creases, which differ between the two models.

I think it's mostly body work corrosion - late 300Tdis and TD5s seem to have the worst corrosion rates of the body panels, except for the newer doors.

You have bet several push rods. Hopefully, the cam followers, valves and rockers are undamaged, but there are no guarantees. Remove the rocker cover and the rocker shaft to replace the push rods. It's probably best to replace them all as some might have a very slight bend which could be missed but will worsen in use. Once the rods have been replaced, slacken all the tappets and refit the rocker shaft. Reset the tappets and the cover, and it should run fine.

I think I read a post recently saying that the TD5 fork is identical to the SIII. If true, then it's bullet proof - the SIII fork is a perfect example of engineering a product for life-time service, not cost engineering.

Wow - I'm surprised at a V8 having single circuit brakes.

You will need the 2.6/V8 master cylinder that goes with those slave units. A single circuit master would be dire. You will need servo assistance, so if you previously had single circuit brakes, you also need the pedal box assembly, servo and vacuum system from a donor vehicle (any 109 or servo assisted 88, not specific to 2.6/V8). The dual line systems have a Pressure Differential Warning Actuator (PWDA), which is a chassis mounted shuttle valve with hydraulic pressure from one circuit on each side of the shuttle. The idea is that any leaks in a circuit will lead to a pressure loss in that side under braking, allowing the shuttle to slide over towards that circuit and trigger a dash warning light. They're expensive and failure prone, and cause trouble when bleeding the system. A better and simple alternative is to use the reservoir cap from a Discover, RRC or Defender that has a float sensor, and wire that up to the dash warning light. That way, even a very slow leak that is too small to trigger even a perfect PWDA valve will still show up before you lose the brakes, and you won;t have so much cost or trouble with bleeding.

A good TD5 is better than an average Tdi, and a good Tdi better than an average TD5! Other than choosing a specific wheel base and body type, you're better off not worrying about engine and gear box combinations - buy on condition of the vehicle. A TD5 is probably the most pokey Defender without mods, but few people buy a Defender for street racing and the difference in performance, economy and driving comfort is not big enough to be a big consideration. If you were a DIY mechanic, then the Tdis could be better for you as they are simpler engines, but since you are not, then it makes little difference.

Yep - I didn't know the measurements, but I did realise the sectional area of the 109 cylinder had to be bigger, creating more pedal resistance for a given brake pressure. It was only a temporary fix that was done shortly before the vehicle was sold anyway - typically it failed at Billing while on display! The new owner was informed of the change, and the original cylinder and connecting pipes were included in the sale, so that he could finish the repair. It really wasn't nice with the 109 cylinder.

Unless things have changed, Britpart alternators are Denso. Mine was, when bought a few years ago.

Spring steel and stainless steel are not very magnetic, at least not compared to mild steel. I don't think a magnet would hold the spring parts with the oil churning as fast as it does. That may be why the drain plug is hollow, forming an undisturbed spot free of oil flow, rather than a magnet filling the void and displacing all fragments into the oil flow.

It was very good, at least until the master cylinder leaked into the servo and I had to use the servo an master I'd just removed from the 109 (Discovery brake upgrade) as a temporary fix, which resulted in much less efficiency than with the original master cylinder (the 109 components were in mint condition, being new Gen Parts fitted during its rebuild and still unblemished when transferred).

Curious. Our 1980 Lightweight had 11" SLS front brakes and 10" SLS rear with dual circuits and servo. I was under the impression that the early brakes were single circuit 10", and the late brakes on 88s dual line and assisted. I must have understood tat wrongly. Then again, there were a lot of things that seemed to be changing over in 1980 that didn't all happen on the same vehicle, with all sorts of mixes of specs. This one was pre-rationalised as far as the flat flat hubs and stub axles. Presumably the later 88s had exactly the same brakes as the 109, then?

Just a thought about the mileage - see if you can get them to include a clutch and clutch fork replacement in the deal; if they have their own workshops, it'll be much cheaper for them to do it at cost than for you to pay a garage, and at that mileage, I suspect the clutch plates will be coming up for renewal and the clutch fork, if the same as on Tdi models, will be near the end of its life.

My studs are all splined at their bases, and their holes had corresponding splines. If the hole was plain, the stud would spin when you tried to do up the nuts. I'd be a bit wary of re-using a hub where a stud had pulled out - there may be more stress damage than just the stripped thread that can't be seen by eye. A replacement hub should be easy and cheap enough to source.

Yep - I put Defender seats in years ago, using the inboard hole pairs vacated by the bolts that secured the "tracks" for the old seat squabs - no drilling, the seat is more in line with the pedals and steering wheel than using the standard bolt holes, and plenty of elbow room. Being a 109 with the bulkhead removed, the leg room is reasonable, though not great. The only way of increasing leg comfort would be the seat rail spacers like Mudstuff's rails, but they'd raise the seat too high for the Series windscreen top edge - I'd never see traffic lights once stopped for a red! The only other thing you could do is fit an auto box to get rid of the clutch pedal, but that'd be a huge amount of work. With this seat position, my 109's seats are way more comfortable than the front seats in my wife's 2009 Defender, which lack elbow room on the door side, leg room against the hand brake lever and knee room against the dash. I may eventually succumb to a P38 steering system, though - I'm not getting younger or fitter!

The insurer not asking for an engineer's report would not be a defence against a police prosecution or the insurers voiding the policy after an accident if there was any suspicion the brakes were in any way involved in the accident, be they too weak, too strong, unbalance or fail outright. My insurers didn't want a report for anything other than the engine swap, but I gave them reports for that, the axle swap (since the mounts had to be fabricated to attach coiler axles to leaf springs) and disc brake conversion. These are the legal and financial industries we're talking about - the most dishonest, weaselling nit-pickers you can find - don't give them any ammunition to hit you with further down the line!

Building extra cabling into the loom is a smart idea for future accessories. I used a new chassis on my 109, and ordered it with mounting outriggers for front tanks in addition to the rear tank I already had so that the chassis wouldn't need its galvanising to be damaged by welding parts on later. I subsequently used those to have three tanks, so it paid off. So, think about the spec you want on completion, but also consider things you may want to fit in the future and wherever possible, make provision for their installation during the build to make their fit easier, neater and less damaging later. Another thing is only use decent parts - as a mechanic, you'll already know this, but many pattern parts are a waste of money and some are dangerous. Gen Parts are usually steeply marked up, so use OEM where possible, Gen Parts where necessary, and higher quality after-market where desired, and if in any doubt over an existing part's condition, bin it; you'll only regret using borderline parts later.

I've had pumps and injectors rebuilt by "DieselBob" and have been pleased with the results. I can recommend him to rebuild yours. He does have heavy duty alternative parts for some of the higher wear prone Bosch parts, and I don;t recall them costing much extra. I think I paid about £50 for a full pump rebuild, and I think that may have included injector overhaul too, but it's hard to remember as it was back in 2008!