Snagger

Good result on the front callipers! Before you disconnect the rears, just unbolt them and move them to one side - I have heard of Britpart callipers having misaligned bolt holes.

Is yours an 88", Jon? It seems to affect 109s more than 88s. It went through several sets of UJs, each lasting 500 miles before they developped enough play that they sounded like the motorway rumble strip when I feathered the throttle at 60mph. Refitting the original shackles, even with worn UJs, cured the vibration immediately. I tried swapping back and forth several times to confirm it, and they were definitely the source of the problem. Once you move those prop flanges out of parallel, you start getting problems.

Don't fool yourself - the specialist like FLux and Sureterm will add a premium for it, but the run of the mill insurers won't permit it. Look at the faff I faced with fitting a snorkel to my wife's 90 - LR describe it as an accessory, but the insurers insist it's a mod and unacceptable.

Something is wrong there - the engine is governed to 4000 rpm like the Tdi, so you should achieve a similar speed on the flat given a longer run up. Witha 12J, I used to get 70mph out of my 109, eventually, with a roof rack! You could rebuild the engine, but it's less powerful, less robust and less economical than the Tdi. I'd say get a Tdi, overhaul that and retrofit it.

So it was. Bugger!

Good choice. Oversize tyres reduce performance on dry roads and reduce grip off road or on wet tarmac and make steering heavier and less precise. They are only of benefit on deep snow or sand. If by playing you mean laning, then BFG ATs would be ideal. If you mean pay and play sites in old quarries, MTs would be better off road, but your on-road driving will be compromised more than with ATs. Check with the vendors what offset any modulars or 8-spokes have - I had 6 8spokes, and two of them transpired to have 15mm different offset to the others, though they were otherwise identical. The more widely spaced versions would stick out beyond the wheel arches, but the narrower spaced versions fill the arches very neatly with only a little of the sidewall protruding.

'Fraid not. While I suffer no problems running extended hangers and shackles together, with just long shackles on the rear springs with a standard chassis, my UJs would only last 500 miles. The vibration would also have been harming the diff, half shafts and transfer box.

Using longer shackles without longer hangers on the chassis for the front of each spring screws up the UJ angles and creates vibration which hammers the transmission. Been there - don't make the same mistake!

I'd expect the glue to become oil covered and useless, or to stick to something else on the way down. If the clip is non-feritic, I'd suggest a narrow tube adapted to fit a vacuum cleaner. A length of silicone windscreen hose, copper brake pipe or plastic fuel pipe through a tin can lid taped across the hose from a vacuum cleaner should work very well.

My recommendation, unless you have damaged callipers, is to rebuild the existing ones with a Zeus stainless piston kit. I've done 10 callipers now, and the Zeus pistons are superb. It cost me about £100, maybe £110, IIRC, for the full set for four callipers, and I don't have to worry about them seizing again in a few years time. You can wire brush the callipers or have them blasted before stripping, whichever suits you best. Blasting is easier, though!

I got a 90 done by Rustmaster in Hatfield for half that price, including a very thorough steam clean, the whole underside being covered by the much, much tougher professional waxoil and all the cavities in the doors, bulkhead and chassis done. £900 seems steep, but forget DIY - you'll never get a thorough job and will be wasting time and money; DIY is only any use for touch-ups.

Always check insurance before making any mod, especially seating. If the vehicle is pre 2007, as any MoD green fleet vehicle will be, then it is no problem, though lap belts may be needed. Post 2007 is a bit trickier - side facing seats were outlawed, so only vehicles built for the MoD might be exempt, but a retro fit once in civilian hands might not qualify. Since no green fleet Defenders were supplied to the MoD since well before that date, it's a bit hypothetical anyway. White fleet (civvy spec) vehicles supplied since that date would have all forward facing seats where installed, but a white fleet utility with no rear seats would have to have forward facing seats if the vehicle was registered after the regs changed in 2007 (September, I think). The change was coincident with the introduction of the Puma engines, so it will be easy to tell if you have a lumped bonnet, but the MoD may have had some "rest of the world" white fleet vehicles with Tdis registered after 2007, so you still need to check. If concerned, check with the DVLA.

I think your only chance is to buy a donor vehicle and trnsfer the lot across, but you'll still have to find the soft-dash controls and wiring if you use an older donor. I know of one potential hard dash donor in Luton, static for a few years now, but they might have plans for the vehicle.

It could be the joint between the frame and side panel to which it is bonded, in which case a bead of black silicone sealant around its edge should cure it. Otherwise, it is likely to be clogged drain channels/slits on the lower track causing the track to fill with water and overflow internally.

Take one of the loudspeakers out of the dash and use a steel rod or wire with the speaker core against its top end - speakers have strong magnetic fields and the field will be conducted down the rod or wire when kept in contact with the speaker.

If you go for the LR Genuine Parts, yes, but most people know to find OEM parts in their OEM, not LR boxes as the Land Rover mark-up up is horrific. OEM parts in the right branded box is what you want, and Lockheed callipers aren't terribly expensive.

My opinion is based on my own experience, thanks, but feel free to accuse everyone of jumping on a bandwagon without asking if they have had personal experience too.

Really? With all that is posted about the quality of their parts, especially with the notoriety of their brake parts in particular? Do you really think it's worth so much risk to save just a few pounds to buy second hand low grade pattern parts of very poor repute rather than buying new Lockheed OEM parts for just a little more? It's your life, and that of other passengers and road users you are gambling for a few pounds. Rule of thumb: if you feel the need to ask about the wiseness of fitting a part like this, then you already know the answer.

Series vehicles already have one of the best security features: obsolescence. I wouldn't bust a gut with security features - a steering wheel bar would be the best deterrent and an extra switch in the ignition system should prevent the opportunist. A professional who really wants the vehicle will get past anything you can fit on a Series vehicle, but what professional thief would be after a Series vehicle anyway? Unless it is a very special vehicle, they'll just be looking for D90s.

I have Defender lights on mine. The early ones are a straight swap. The current units have fixed lense and base sections with a central fitting that comes out the back, a bit like a Eurobox - they'd fit, but you'd have to enlarge the central hole in the bodywork. The new type also use just two screws for mounting, which pass through the lenses and main body, while the older type use three screws to mount he main body and another two to secure the lens, just like SIII lamps.

The calliper pistons are very prone to rusting and seizing. If this has occurred, and I would be suspicious of the left calliper if it is braking weakly on that side, then I'd recommend rebuilding the callipers with Zeus Engineering stainless pistons rather than buying new callipers - it'll be cheaper and last much longer. I have a calliper rebuild post on my blog which may be of help. The fact that the three amigos are behaving doesn't rule out an accumulator fault. It shows that you are getting valid wheel sensor inputs, that the pump is producing adequate pressure within 45 seconds of start up, and that there is enough fluid in the reservoir. There are probably other inputs, but I don't know what they are. I can tell you that there is not sensor within the accumulator, though - the system assumes it is at pump output pressure, so with no compressed gas charge, the accumulator pressure will drop off the moment the pedal is pressed. This would reactivate the pump, but because it has no gas head to compress, the pressure would be re-established extremely quickly, so the ECU check won't time-out and the warning lights will stay extinguished. It's just a possibility, though one you can test by repeatedly braking with the engine off and ignition on, listening for the pump activating momentarily after each application. But as I said before, look at the callipers first and replace the accumulator if a calliper rebuild doesn't cure the fault.

In that case, check the failed lamp unit over thoroughly, looking for shorts. Remember that while they have a coloured positive and black earth wire, they also earth through their mounting screws/bolts directly to the body panel, so if the coloured wire has been connected to the main body of the lamp instead of the floating contact on the plastic disc inside, then it'll be shorting the whole system. It could even be a faulty bulb that is shorting internally.

Yes, there is a vacuum pump on the 300Tdi connected to the ABS valve block, and thank you Bowie for correcting me that it is nitrogen, not air, but affirming that the accumulator should have a gas precharge and that if lost, it will fail in the manner I described. If the power braking or vacuum servo are lost, the pedal will be very hard but should still move the calliper pistons. If the pistons are seized, then the pedal will be hard even with power and vacuum assistance. I suspect the accumulator - it explains the delayed application of the brakes as the pump catches up with demand placed on a failed accumulator. Check the calliper pistons first, though - accumulators aren't cheap and the system is a pain to bleed.

Try disconnecting the switch from the loom and bridging the rh circuit to the switch's lh output to see if it's a switch fault - I suspect you have bad contacts in the switch, but if the fault is duplicated, then it's the loom. You don't have a lamp unit connected the wrong way around, do you, with the positive wire from the loom connected to the negative wire in the lamp? It could be that a lamp unit has been built with the wires reversed, so the colour coding is misleading, causing the whole rhs indicator system to short. Try disconnecting one lamp from the loom and the the other. With only one lap in the system, the other should flash at a high rate but should still work.