Snagger

If the solenoid stays open with the key off, but closes when you remove the wire from the solenoid, then the wire is obviously providing power when it shouldn't. It has to be either a fault in the switch, the way the switch has been connected up or a short circuit with the solenoid wire from a permanent live. If you have recently replaced the ignition switch, then I'd start by looking at your connections there, followed by testing the switch outputs with the key in different positions to see if it is behaving correctly.

Dinitrol is used by Boeing, the engineers at work tell me, and it's excellent stuff. Then again, not everything used by Boeing works so well, like Lithium Ion batteries. Galvanised door frames should prevent the skins going, but a squirt of wax inside the doors to try to get between frames and skins is still a good idea.

Galvanising is not a silver bullet, so a thorough clean of the underside and painting with Schutz, with the insides of the chassis, bulkhead and door frames being waxed, would be worthwhile. The Raptor pod is effective but ugly. I used the Mudstuff pod to very good effect, which is a little neater looking and leaves more of the vent areas uncovered. Your wiring plans are good. I can also recommend Mudstuff heated wing mirror and Exmoor Trim seat heating kits. The former is a great addition for safety, and the latter a great comfort in weather like this. A snow cowl for the heater intake is a good idea too - the wing top grille is a stupid idea, blocking up when you most need the heater for demisting. Tyres are a big deal. Unless you regularly take it into very muddy conditions, I'd strongly recommend BFG AT KOs or General Grabber AT2s which offer good road handling in all conditions, even those we currently suffer, and off road on tracks, stone, gravel, shale and light mud. They are better handling in all circumstances than MTs, except for deep or thick mud, and will also be quieter and more efficient. Don't go oversize, either - 7.50s or 235/85s are all you want - bigger is most certainly not better as larger tyres reduce grip, reduce performance and economy, make the steering vague and heavier, and put additional strain and wear on the wheel bearings and steering components. It's more of an image thing, but I always thought it was a bit like someone stuffing the front of their trousers with a pair of socks!

I was considering galvanising, but am a little concerned about warping. I knew Phil Hinsley (Muddy Trax in Aldershot) and saw him rebuildinga 2-door which he'd galvanised the chassis and shell and didn't have too many problems. E-coating is very costly, but gets into every nook and cranny and has 100% coverage with no concerns over distortions, puddling or poor finish (other than damage to the original steel. The trouble is that the companies who do it no longer have the big tanks, so while the dip cleaning and rust removal is still available, body shells as tall as ours won't fit the new tanks. I'll be getting the lower tail gate and bonnet e-coated, though. I might go with galv for the shell. The chassis is, as far as I'm aware, really good. I go underneath every time it's in a garage or on test, and it has been waxoiled from a young age. I don't know about the A-frame cross member and its adjoining rail areas, but I have no reason to doubt them. I'm considering just doing it in Schutz to save any possibility of distortion. I need to sort out the front seat base cushion fabric - the driver's is stretched. I need new outer rear corners for the body, too, as the originals have rusted badly in the spot welded seam either side of the tail gate. I prefer genuine for originality, by MM-4x4's GRP versions are tempting, given how common rot is on these panels. I was planning to use YRM for all the inner shell parts as they have a good reputation, seem fairly priced and do parts many others no longer produce, but your comments give me some concern. Was it their parts or poor alignment in the original shell that caused the problems?

Hi everyone. I am finally in a position to start my late RRC restoration. It's a 300Tdi soft dash Vogue, manual transmission, coil sprung with a solid roof. The rear floor is in the typical condition, and I can see the front flange of the body rear cross member is blown with rust behind the wheel arches, though I cant't see what it's like above the fuel tank. The front foot well outer corners have already been patched, but the front right inner wing needs a little work. The sills are not bad, so blasting or dipping them should clean the bottom face that has some surface rust from the road spray. The bonnet and lower tailgate aren't in bad shape, with just a little rust on the bonnet corners and around the rear number plate lights. I'll be getting them dipped and e-coated. One door skin is a bit corroded around the rear wheel arch, and new replacements aren't available; I might have to get a second hand door. The upper tailgate is aluminium, but has a little corrosion under the powder coat on the exterior face. The engine will be rebuilt. The transmission is very good, but I would like to stop the crunch on changing up to second if changed quickly, so typical of R380s. The axles need new stub axles and bearings. Apart from completing the installation of air conditioning and retaining the mods of heated seats and front screen (using Vogue SE parts), I intend to keep it as standard and original as possible. Does anyone have any advice, especially regarding refurbishing the body shell?

Here you go - http://smart-screen.co.uk . I don't know how the prices compare to getting all the switch gear, column shrouds and relays from a Defender, but it's certainly be easier and neater to fit and keeps the standard look for classic restorations.

Take the hoses and steel pipes of the engine for inspection first - they're easy enough to do, but he matrix is harder to get at. The steel pipe that runs along the top of the head rusts up and the hoses may have collapsed internally. I'd second the idea of back-flushing the matrix and soaking it in rad flush for a while to dissolve deposits before stripping it out.

Good point about ensuring the relay is securely mounted. I have an uprated securing collar at the bottom as the thin pressed original wasn't snug enough.

They do several versions to cater for negative ad positive earths and also with just a simple intermittent function or to also have three automatic sweeps when the washer us used. It just splices into the low speed wire from switch to motor, with a spliced input feed from the washer wire if you chose that option, and a simple permanent live feed and earth. No extra switches and ten minutes to fit, easily installed inside the instrument binnacle.

The smart screen was easy to fit. It just needs a couple of momentum activations of the original switch and repeats the interval until you make a single activation, but it sometimes doesn't see to read a switch movement, needing another go. It might be due to the same earthing fault that has been causing my dash lights to make the temp/fuel gauges over read.

Mine is in Epsom, which looks really good too - metallic greens suit the RRC. I have only seen one other in Epsom, and it was also from 1995 - I think it must have just been a soft dash colour.

Have a look at smart-screen.co.uk . I have one in the 109, and though it sometimes needs a couple of goes to get it to work, it's a good addition.

If you have replaced all six rod ends, then next check for play between the steering relay shaft and its arms - that can usually be sorted by tightening the pinch bolts, but worn splines will require new arms. Check the same for the drop arm from the steering box. Check for even the slightest movement in the swivel pins and Railko bushes - that causes a lot of play, and check the steering arms and bottom pins don't move relative to the swivel housings - that requires new studs in the bottom of the swivels. Steering box adjustment can help, but if the innards are worn out, then it'll need replacing.

As above, but use a small sheet of metal that you can slide along to protect the roof panel from the brush, so the bristles only attack the gutter and flange.

I think that stiffening on the rear axle was pretty common on SIIs, but not SIIIs. The front axle has a filler in the pan, so any 10 spline diff will be feady to go straight in, but the rear diff is filled by a diff case plug as there is no plug in the pan. Looks like you have a bit of welding ahead of you, though you could swap the internals of a 3.54 to the casing in the diff if you're feeling bold...

The shuttle valve would do it - if the valve has moved because of a pressure imbalance in the circuits (bleeding can do this, sometimes, or working callipers or hoses), then the ECUs will read a fault and bring up the lights. The shuttle might also be restricting fluid movement to the side that had low pressure.

The trailing arm bush in your last photo is long since expired - look at how the rubber is so swollen, specially at the bottom. I'd recommend replacing all the bushes that hold the radius and trailing arms to the chassis first and seeing how you get on, though removing the arms to check the axle-end bushes would be a good idea. Your damper bushes are also worn out - see the gap in the bottom of the damper eye? Remember to check the panard rod bushes and brackets. A-frame ball joints d wear, but you can normally hear that before it becomes significant to handling, appearing as a single but significant clunk that can be heard and felt when braking or taking up drive. A-frame bushes don't tend to cause trouble. I'm not a fan of poly bushes. They increase wear and strain on the other parts. Even the comp safari guys have found that the best bushes are the original spec ones.

Multiply the mileage by 1.6 and you will have an approximate km reading. The numbers are close enough to support the idea that your odometer has switched to km. As for the three amigos, I had the same problem on my RRC, which I think has a similar system. I did have a fault with one wheel sensor, but this only brings on the ABS light, not ETC or general brake warning light. I found that switching the ignition off and restarting cleared the light after a few seconds. This meant that though the pump was pressurising the accumulator, it wasn't doing so fast enough to meet the self-diagnostic 45 second time limit (the pump has to pressurise the accumulator within a set time to ensure that the pump is fast enough to recharge the accumulator with frequent braking or rapid and frequent ABS or ETC activation because each time the ABS or ETC cut in, they will take pressure from the accumulator. My pump was simply too tired to meet the time schedule, and replacing it cured the fault. Other common parts would include relays and fuses. I don't know if a faulty reservoir float sensor would cause all three lights to illuminate - it should certainly illuminate the general "!" light, but perhaps not the ABS and ETC. Worth checking, though.

I'm pretty sure that you now have what it would have been fitted with when new, as long as you have the alloy tops with both panes moving.

And ruining his back!

That's a point, Phil. 300Tdi vehicles mostly had more rationalised axles with the thinner drive flanges and a smaller plastic centre cap on front and Salisbury rear and flattish flanges with no cap on Rover rear axles, while the older axles on RRC and Discovery had domed solid flanges with integrated shafts (ie shaft and flange were one piece). I would suspect that all the axles which had these earlier domed flanges has 10 spline diffs, but it would still be worth pulling a single shaft to check the diff end of it to count the splines - you'll have to remove the shafts to pull the diff anyway, and it's only five bolts to undo. I think the Rover axles with the thick flanges and big plastic cones (nearly the same size as Series metal cones) will also have 10 spline diffs, but am less certain of it. If you have the choice, go for rear diffs - not only are they easier to remove (you don't have so much to strip to get the shafts out), but they will have driven the correct way - LR front diffs are identical to the rear diffs, which mean they are working in reverse, which increases their wear and chipping. Given that RRCs and Discoverys are permanent 4wd, the loads and forces applied to front and rear diffs will have been equal - it's not like buying second hand Series diffs, where the front diff has spent most of its life idling. Fridge mentions to check for the filler plug. Most Series diffs were filled by plugs on the diff case nose, but went over to plugs in the diff pan (domed face of the axle casing) when they rationalised the axles in 1980. Those diffs had no plug in the diff casing. I think it's unlikely that any Discovery diff would have a filler plug in its casing as they only entered production in 1989. Check your existing axles for where you fill up - if it's in the diff case rather than the pan, then you have the additional complication of finding older RRC diffs that have diff plug or adding a filler plug to your axle case. You could make that filler mod by drilling a large hole in the correct spot and welding on a threaded collar for a plug or even a very large nut with a suitable (and short) bolt with a copper washer - it doesn't have to match the LR plugs after all, it just has to allow you to insert an oil pump hose or the neck of a 1L oil bottle. Better still would be to remove the diff pans (especially if rusty) and fit the aftermarket HD pans which are heavily reinforced to avoid the need for diff guards for serious off roaders (diff guards are prone to holding mud and water, accelerating rusting of the standard diff pan). You could get away without the filler plug at all by jacking up a wheel and removing a half shaft to pour a measured amount of oil in through the stub axle, but you will have no easy method to check levels and I suspect this method of filling would get tiresome very quickly. Some may argue that if you have no evidence of oil leaks, checking levels should not be required. Generally true, but driving in very wet conditions will wash oil away, hiding any leaks. It is an option, though.

I sold one last week for £50, and it was in top condition. To be honest, I think it was worth more than twice that, but I was fed up with it taking up space in the garage. I'd say £50 without brakes, but you might have to wait a while to find a buyer. The diffs need to come from a 200Tdi vehicle, but I think they may have gone over to 24 spline before the 300Tdi changeover. The front and rear diffs are identical, so you can pull a single half shaft from a rear axle by undoing just five bolts to count the splines on the duff end of the shaft - if it has ten splines, then pull the diff and check it over carefully. Soaking in a big tub of diesel, petrol, parafin etc will clean it up for inspection of the innards.

It's a common failure, but affects my 300 tdi much more than my 200. I can't imagine why...

The 88 is already an 8-speed, and fitting an overdrive will make it 16. It gives you 4 reverse ratios too, but include high 4wd and it gives 24 forward gear combinations and six reverse! The 3.54 diffs should cope amply with the V8 - the diffs are stronger than the 4.71s as the crown wheel is thicker and flexes less, so doesn't strip teeth like the 4.71s can under heavy load. It's the half shafts that are the weak link in a Rover rear axle, though, so exercise mechanical sympathy with the pedals. There's no need to remove the front prop if you try modifying just the rear axle first as Parrot suggested (not a bad idea, as it saves on cost initially and the rear axle is simple to do, while the front is a bit more complex because you have to remove the swivels, which involves disconnecting the steering rods and brake lines). Just make sure you don't engage 4wd while the diffs are mismatched or you'll break something expensive; put a label on the red and yellow levers or cover them with a rag - anything to act as an easy reminder. 3.54 diffs will reduce the torque through the half shafts compared to 4.71s, but not enough to protect them from a V8 if driven clumsily, so a pair of uprated shafts would be beneficial if you are going trialing. Otherwise, standard shafts should cope, but a couple of spares, or at least a spared for the right hand side (short side), which is the one most likely to fail, would be worth keeping handy. The increase in gearing won't be a problem for climbs with the V8 - the problem, as Fridge and I have tried to allude to, is descents, where the gearing will reduce engine braking effectiveness (pedal braking is a bad thing as it encourages a skid and subsequent loss of control on slippery surfaces). This can be helped by those low ratio gears and very judicious use of the hand brake.

I used self-adhesive neoprene strips to separate the seat box and sill, but you still need to think about the bolts and washers. Plenty of grease can help with that, but if you can find slim plastic washers to fit under the steel ones, so much the better.