Snagger

I was going to suggest the very same thing, or the timing is significantly out. Make sure you have no air leaks into the inlet manifold - I had all manner of problems on our Lightweight, rebuilding the fuel and ignition systems, replacing the exhaust, manifold and gaskets, carb and temporarily fitting a whole new ignition. It transpired to be the emissions control PCV valve (a funnel shaped unit between the rocker cover breather and the carb) that was still malfunctioning, despite rebuilding that too, letting air bypass the carb. The resulting weak mixture caused running problems that included backfiring.

I did something along those lines in my wife's Lightweight, using new fold-up sideways facing seats for the back of a Defender. My kids loved being driven around facing backwards, especially with the soft top rolled up. Have a look here: http://www.nickslandrover.co.uk/rear-seats/ I have removed the complete set as the vehicle has been sold and the buyer didn't want them, so it's available complete for £200 if you fancy it.

The thread title sounds like a Green Party press release! I think you probably do have just a sensor issue. like you already suspect. It could have moved close to a heat source, had a heat shield or airflow director move out of position, be covered in mud or debris, or just have failed or have a connection issue. that's what I'd pursue first, anyway...

The Series vehicles had flow control valves on the head for the heater pipes to adjust temperature. It was a pretty crude and unreliable system, and the 90/110 went to a more modern system of having full coolant flow unrestricted through the heater matrix and an air bypass flap in the matrix housing that directs the airflow through the matrix for hot or around the matrix for cold, modulating in between for cab temperature control. That means that the hottest setting will be hotter because the coolant flow is more (a valve will create a restriction even when fully open), the response is near instant because the matrix temperature is constant, and there are fewer reliability issues with no valve to leak or seize. The matrix pipes are rubber, and can degrade internally. The steel pipe running along the left side of the rocker cover, above the head bolts, can rust internally and reduce coolant flow too. The biggest problem, though, is a clogged matrix. Mud and detritus on the dry side can be removed by soaking the matrix in a bucket after removing it from the housing. Internal clogging from limesacle can be removed by draining the matrix and refilling it with a caustic soda solution for half an hour, followed by thorough flushing out. It's also worth checking the dash and heater housing for air leaks which let the warm air out into the engine bay.

The fan is only there to c deal with excess temperature, as is the rad. The thermostat regulates the temperature, and as long as it's operating correctly, your heater should be reasonably effective and should warm the vehicle sufficiently. Defender heaters are not especially powerful and struggle to heat a 110 SW or hard top in the coldest winters, but that's the heater capacity at fault, not the engine temperature. With the engine warmed up, the air from the heater should be uncomfortably hot to hold your fingers over at the vents. If it is tepid, then you have a heater fault, probably from a clogged matrix due to mud blocking the dry side or limescale deposits blocking the wet side. If it is working correctly but you need more heat, you need an auxilliary heater. Do not tamper with the engine running temperatures as you'll just damage the engine.

I have a 200Tdi engine and a TD5 heater in my 109, using the standard 88oC thermostat. The hot air from the foot well vents is hot enough to be too uncomfortable to hold my fingers over for more than about 5 seconds with full hot selected. You should get the same - my 300Tdi RRC's heater is incredible! It's not that Tdis run particularly cool, they just don't get especially hot unless they're worked extraordinarily hard. The TD5, on the other hand, is known to run cool in normal operations, which is why a Webasto heater was added to the Discovery IIs for the heater to be of much use in winter.

Like Fridge, I'm not saying it to preserve another original but unremarkable vehicle from its destiny behind a shed or being smelted down. I'm hardly in a position to crow about keeping SIIIs original, after all (even if I went to great expense doing so on my Lightweight). Like Fridge, I'm saying that you are choosing the wrong base vehicle for the driving applications, regardless of your taste for the aesthetics.

I can't agree more with what Fridge said - it'll be a lot cheaper and easier to get a Defender to start with than to make a hybrid, and you'll have a much better vehicle for it unless you're after something very specific or enjoy the building more than the using. And if you are as rough trailing as you suggest, standard parts are going to be much better than the need for custom parts.

I have a pair of Exmoor Trim Trakkers. They're much cheaper than their lock and fold seats and work well if you set the seat belts up correctly (not as per their instructions or adverts, where the shoulder point is much too low). I removed them to fit storage lockers; if you're interested, I'd take £200 for the pair, including seat belts. They're not perfect, but apart from some blackening of they grey vinyl on the outboard sides from being folded up against rubber matting on the wheel arches, they in good order and have had very little use (padding and fabric are mint). I think the seats are about £200 each new now, and the seat belts cost about £80 too. You can see what they look like and how I fitted them on my blog in the interior section.

You should try Heystee prices, then...Most paras other than RM use standard size bushes. I now have orange Polybushes. They don't make much difference to the ride. I found that they wouldn't fit properly, squeezing out as the steel tube was inserted; the cure was to trim a couple of mm off the inner end of each poly piece to allow the correct volume to fit the spring eye.

The front springs should sit slightly inclined if the chassis and shackles match, with the rear end of the spring slightly lower than the front. Fitting longer shackels would steepen that angle, so if you do that, factor it in to the new mountings on the coiler axle. Fitting a more cambered spring, like a tree-leaf parabolic, keeps the over all spring axis standard. However, a third leaf in a parabolic spring might be uncomfortable and lacking in articulation if your vehicle has standard weight - it works well on mine because I have a winch and wire rope, bull bar, bonnet mounted psare, front fuel tanks, steering guard and a lot of heavy (Noise Killer and Wright Off Road) sound proofing; the springs were nearly flat with just the standard two leafs.

That's what I was told too. It's amazing that on the rebuild points system, you can retain the points even though the springs have been replaced. The logic is that on most vehicles, the springs and dampers are service-replaceable components within a wider suspension ssytem, but on old Land Rovers, they constitute the entirity of the system, so we get an easier time of that part of the rules.

1.3mm is standard. I made one of 3mm hardened marine grade alloy; no more dents or buckling!

Flexible hose gets my vote too - they crumble and delaminate with age, which can create lumps and flaps which act like restrictors or one-way valves.

Ackerman angles only need to be precise for high speed vehicles. For Land Rovers, they can be fairly inaccurate, but they need to be "in the ball park" for handling, grip and mechanical reasons. LR compromise by having one set of swivel housings and arms for four different wheel bases - the 90, 100" RRC and Disco, 110 and 130, and that's just to save costs on production and parts logistics. Tyre size and wheel offsets would also affect ideal Ackerman angle ratios, but there is no possible adjustment for this on our vehicles with standard parts. Racing cars corner at speeds which lift or at least remove almost all the weight from the inside wheel, so it only scrubs lightly. Land Rovers don't corner well at such speeds... It'll also force a wheel to lose traction cornering off road. If it helped in any handling or mechanical way to reverse Ackerman angles, Land Rover and other manufacturers would produce the cars that way, but none do. It might have applications in racing, but I can't imagine why because you are still forcing a skid. Rally and F1 cars certainly have normal geometry, so any racers that use this might have it to deal with other anomalies like NASCAR racers, which use different diameter wheels on each side because they use oval circuits and all turns are in the same direction with few, if any, straights. It really is a bad idea on a Land Rover, and as I said, is of no benefit - it'll cost you a new swivel housing and require custom steering rods with a T-joint to connect the drag link to the track rod, but you'd still have tall spring saddles on the axle to clear the diff casing from the spring, creating the space for the standard Defender track rod behind the axle anyway. Comments claiming improvement and handling benefits by owners who have done such bodged axle fits are invariably by people who are comparing a new axle and steering system to an old, worn out axle and steering system with a lot of slop and maladjustment, have no feel for driving and poor mechanical understanding, are hiding their cock-up or all three. I have seen so many bodged and butchered vehicles, especially Land Rovers, that I can sometimes see why the EU want to ban all mods. Duncan, lift the axle as you have to anyway, use a Defender track rod (a Discovery or RRC rod has a damper bracket and length adjuster clamp which will foul the springs), and use the adjuster from a Disco/RRC track rod adjustment section with 1/2" removed from each end of it and the Series drag link to extend the drag link for the wider axle. That not only gives you a perfect drag link for little or no cost which can be replaced easily, but also allows steering adjustment without the hassle of removing the steering damper. It works beautifully. If you want to regain lost ride height, use more cambered springs or longer shackles, accounting for the new spring angle when you make the saddles, or do the same rear spring mod as Koos and that American did, which gives much improved articulation and smoother ride as well - Koos' front articulation is astonishing. Front tyres always wear faster than rear tyres because of the lateral steering scrub and the greater front braking forces. As long as the wear is even across the tyre, then things are fine, but if you have uneven wear, then faults in tracking, camber angles, tyre pressures and so on are often causes. Rapid tyre wear occurs if you live near a lot of roundabouts, usually more on the near side tyre than the off side because of the vehicle weight leaning to the near side while going around them.

Go to the axles section and look through the various posts. There are plenty of them, not just on that front page - you need to click the "older posts" icon to go back to the previous ones showing the axle conversions.Do not try to use a track rod in front of the axle by using LHD and RHD near-side swivel housings like that American vehicle ToyRoverlander showed - the steering arms on the swivels will be in the wrong place relative to the swivel pin axis and will reverse the Ackerman angles, so the wheel inside the turn will pivot less than the wheel on the outside, leading to tyre scrubbing, component wear and vehicle instability. Frankly, I think it could be dangerous. There is just no need for it anyway - you have to make the saddles taller because of the diff position; my right hand saddle is very slim over the diff housing, protruding no more than a couple of mm, and making the saddles any shallower would have required notching the diff housing for the spring to sit into. I put the saddle heights on another similar thread not very long ago. I regained the front ride height lost by the taller saddles by adding a third leaf to my fairly flat parabolics. It seems to work well and has stiffened the front end up nicely on my fairly heavy vehicle. ToyRoverlander has modified his own front suspension in a similar way to that US vehicle with extended dumbirons and rear springs. It gives a greatly increased amount of articulation as well as regaining the lost height, and because the height gain is over a greater length than my recambered standard length springs, it'll give a less curved spring profile which helps a lot with spring rate and compliance. It's a nice mod, but not necessary - using long rear shackles and recalculating the angle at which to attach the saddles tot he axle to allow for the different spring axis angle will be sufficient.

Ah, didn't consider that...

Speak to DLR, Craddocks and Blanchards about getting all the parts from a broken ambulance - it'll be a direct bolt-on fit with all the correct dimensions, brackets and torque rating.

I do have one on my 109, but it's the rear bar. I had to revise its mounting position and orientation to accommodate the rear fuel tank - ambulances only use front tanks. I didn't fit a front anti-roll bar as my Tdi rad sits atop the dumb irons where the anti-roll bar would go. The single rear bar eliminated about 80% of the body roll alone, but still allowed the front outboard corner to dip when turning at speed. Now I have uprated the front parabolics to three-leafs, the cornering is very comfortable. All the work is detailed with photos in the suspension section of my blog.

The mods I have done don't affect stresses much as they use standard parts from various different vehicles. This means that a detailed knowledge of stress calculations is not required, just an experienced mechanics eye and suitable testing equipment In the case of my axle swap, for example, all the rear suspension mountings are re-used from the original axle and the front mountings are copies of the original front mountings made deeper (for the track rod clearance) of 50% thicker steel. A check on the welds and overall security, a check on the steering to make sure that there is sufficient clearance on the parts at all steering angles and a rolling-road brake test like in the MoT, having detailed the work done to the mechanic (giving them an idea of what to check closely) is all it needs. If they're willing to sign off the work on headed paper, then they're confident that they have checked the work is safe, as they would be legally implicated if the work was not safe. This means it'll generally be the boss who does the checks, so someone who has experience and has a vested interest in making sure the check is thorough...

And the 101. The idea is that a flat leaf spring is more compliant and has a more even spring rate, so allows more controlled and progressive articulation. Curved springs don't just bend on compression - loads are also transmitted along the spring, and the proportion of that longitudinal compression depends on the spring curvature, which itself is inconsistent (think of the forces within a triangle when compressing it).

Have a look on my blog - I have recently fitted coiler axles to my 109 and it's all documented and photographed.

The low gear selector shaft detent is a ball bearing and stiff compression coil spring retained under a brass hex plug on the top of the transfer box casing. The ball sits in a series of grooves machined in the selector shaft, just like the main gear box detents. You might need a new spring. The timing is normally done by markings on the pulley with a toothed pointer near the alternator. I think the flywheel and housing system was relatively unusual. The trouble is that with these vehicles being old, parts may have been replaced and the timing components mismatched or missing entirely. You can set the timing by ear - the markings would be useless now with the redundancy of two or four star leaded fuels. Loosen the distributor and rotate it a little at a time with the engine running until you find the maximum idling rpm. Just make small adjustments from there if needed. Be careful of the fan and belt while doing this - wear a short sleeved top so nothing can get caught in the rotating parts!

I think getting an engineer's test and report of all significant mods is wise, not just for insurance and prosecution reasons but just to make sure your work is safe. I had my 109 inspected after it's rebuild, again when I fitted the Tdi and once more, recently, when I fitted coiler axles and Discovery brakes. We can all make mistakes, but getting the vehicle checked over should catch anything dangerous.

You can do the mods if you're happy with an IVA or SVA - that should present little problem. There's no chance of legitimately doing it without that or keeping the original registration, though. I quote: "To keep the original registration number: Cars and light vans must use: - the original unaltered chassis or unaltered monocoque bodyshell (that is, the body and chassis as one unit); or - a new chassis or monocoque bodyshell of the same specification as the original. A receipt from the dealer or manufacturer is required." As for DVLA, their interpretation of the rules means it's legislation - it's their trainset! The whole document can be found here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_180218.pdf