Snagger

My 300 Tdi and R380 now have 200k and the box is fine except for the common 2nd gear glitch. I was under the impression that LT77s do the same thing, but I'm not sure.

I though VNTs were cheaper than that. Oh well, there goes that idea for my Tdi RRC... Since you already have the Tdi in, it seems a better option to maximise its performance rather than start again. I'd be worried about what the Cummins would do to the diffs and shafts. But, it's probably less fun.

Put simply, extend the white wire with the red stripe that used to run to the solenoid mounted on the battery stand to the blade terminal on the new starter motor and run all the brown cables that connected to the battery to the stud terminal on the starter motor, along with a heavy battery lead. The alternator wiring doesn't change, though the terminals may, but the alternators can be swapped over if you want anyway. Your biggest issues are the temperature sender, heater plugs and the fuel solenoid. The temp sender needs to be a SIII type, not the 90/110, otherwise it won't be compatible with the gauge and will always read in the cold arc. The fuel solenoid can be connected by an extension of the coil LT wire, if you had a petrol, or by running a new cable to the appropriate switch terminal using a petrol switch. The heater plugs run from 12V, so don't use the ballast resistor from a SIII diesel. You can either use the timer relay run with a direct battery feed and ign switch control as per a Defender or just fit a heavy duty switch on the dash, whichever you prefer.

Thanks, Task. Red oxide, Schutz and wax were what I was leaning towards for the inner shell. The local blaster I used for steel parts on my 109 rebuild used red oxide and it has stayed perfectly intact on the bull bar, side steps and fuel tanks, wing braces and other exposed steel parts despite racking up nearly 40,000 miles in the seven years since completing it and all the stone chipping that has got past the paint over the oxide. It's not as reliable as galv for rust prevention and interior covering, but at least there won't be any warping or slumps and scum on visible areas to worry about. It's not an easy decision and I am vacillating a bit... The rebuild will be well documented on my blog. I will have to set the site up to avoid confusion, because it is currently set up to reflect the work on my 109 - it has subsections for the various different parts of the vehicle, and another section for each of the RRC and the Lightweight (now gone). I'd want to break the RR rebuild into sections too, which suggests I need to tidy up the 109 subsections under a 109 banner.

£300 for a 200Tdi engine and all ancilliaries, and I don't think the VNT turbos cost the earth. The diffs could probably be done for the cost of the gaskets and oil only (I have a 4.71 Salisbury diff sitting in my garage that I'd give away). No custom mounts, fly wheels, adaptors, prop shafts or blown transmission parts... The only really expensive item would be an underdrive, if you went with that, but I don't think gearing alterations of any sort would be required with the tweaked Tdi anyway. And there's a lot to be said for having a quick and easy installation and easy sourcing of replacement parts in the future, and you know it's going to fit and work well from the outset, with plenty of other peoples' experience in doing it. Just a point of view... But, I do see the attraction of trying something new, just for the challenge of it. It's more of a risk, but could be more satisfying to complete.

If they haven't asked for the new part back and it is otherwise the same as the failed actuator, then you have nothing to lose. I would hope that each of the wores has the same colour coding, but that might not be the case.

Great. Thanks for that, Darren. The Paddocks sills were likely Britpart sourced, so that may speak for itself. The outer rear wheel arches have previously been replaced and are still mint, so that's one job off the list. I also had the forward sill body mounts done recently, so that's another one down. It should all be pretty manageable, and a good friend is an excellent welder, a real artisan in fact, so I'm sure he'd be willing to do that for a little beer money. I only have an arc welder, so would blow holes in the new parts anyway!

At the risk of being a really boring suggestion, have you considered a 200Tdi with tweaked pump, VNT turbo (they bring peak torque down from 1800 to 1400rpm on the 300, so I assume it'd do the same on the 200) running with a little more boost and a big intercooler? That way, you'll have a simple fit with no chopping about, and all standard or off-the-shelf parts. Insurance should be easy and you won't have to worry about blowing or upgrading the transmission. It'll even leave more space and budget for an auxilliary heater like an Eberspacher or Webasto! As a towing vehicle, an underdrive might also help, or fitting an LT230Q from a Discovery with 4.71 diffs from a SIII (the diff swap alone would probably be too low geared)? The latter would be less flexible than the underdrive, permanently lowering the overall gearing and wanting a speedo recallibration, but it'd give plenty of torque and would again use standard parts, making maintenance and repair far easier.

Please don't do a lash up job. I know it's a single and relatively short journey, and that you'll keep the speed down, but a hitch failure could still easily kill someone if it hits them or causes them to swerve to avoid the trailer. It sounds like you have a better plan now, anyway, but no driver should ever consider risking driving an unroadworthy vehicle just because of the inconvenience of waiting for delivery of the correct parts - much better to delay the collection of the trailer than risk others' well being and your livelihood.

That's because Discoverys are much easier and more comfortable to drive, not because of the engine.

There is supposedly no difference in output between the Discovery/RRC version of the 200 and the 300, and only a small degradation of the Def version of the 200, presumably something to do with the manifolds and turbo configuration. The 300 is smoother and quieter, though. It also has a crank driven oil pump that is regarded as far superior, and has the benefit of preventing bearing seizure should you have a timing belt failure, unlike the cam shaft driven 200 pump. That must have saved quite a few crank and cam shafts in the early days where the timing pulleys chewed up the belts. However, it is much more prone to warping or cracking heads if over heated, but at least you can still buy new heads - the more robust 200 heads have been unavailable for quite some time and even the reconditioners won't hold stock, needing your own to rebuild. Personally, as someone with one of each engine, I don't see the point in changing unless the 200 needs a lot of expensive work. My RRC has an R380, which is a nice box, but has one design flaw - they suffer premature wear on the second gear baulk ring, so changing up from 1st to 2nd will crunch if you don't momentarily pause in neutral. It's based on the LT77 and I believe it has the same gear ratios and larger bearings of the LT77S, which is what our Tdi should have (the old 77 units were used behind 12J and 19J engines, I believe). Again, there's little point in changing unless yours is faulty. I think that you would be able to retain your existing tunnel and trim, though - the change in the cabin of the 300Tdi vehicles was probably because the engine and transmission moved (the engine went well forward as they used the standard long bell housing).

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.