Snagger

The Series oil cooler (the big one in front of the rad on MoD RRF models) apparently has a poor flow rate - I understand that the external cooling coils run through the oil tube, rather than being just brazed to the outside, creating a lot of resistance to oil flow. I don't personally know if that's true. The cooler on a factory Tdi is just a large diameter cylinder insde the rad header tank with minimal oil resistance. I used a Series type cooler on my 109 when I had a 12J 2.5nad. The 12J uses the same filter housing and oil stat as the 200Tdi, so I used that to feed the Series cooler. I ran the return line to a SIII sump with the cooler and temperature sender fittings (a direct swap on pre-Tdi engines), so the cooler circuit ran in parallel to the engine circuit. It worked very well in that engine, but the turbo on a Tdi draws a heavy flow rate from the pump, and I doubt that the pump could handle the two circuits. That's why the Tdi saw a change to an in-series single oil circuit (through the cooler when warm and onto the engine), rather than retaining the earlier parallel circuits.

2.25 mounting rubbers are much smaller than Defender 200Tdi rubbers (which are the same part as the 2.5nad, TD and petrol mounts), so might further reduce engine vibration, but at the cost of reduced service life. SIII diesel rubbers are very stiff, so will last very well but will transmit more vibration. The correct Defender mounts are supplied by various manufacturers, and even the Gen Parts ones seem to be of incorrect specification now, being very hard and transmitting a great deal of vibration at idle. The higher quality Bearmach mounts seem to be the best (after a lot of trial and error with different manufacturers and different engine mounts) - they have a central rib with radiused edges, rather than square section edges, and are soft enough that a thumb nail easily deflects the rib, while the bad (including gen parts) are sigid enough that they have almost a plastic nature to them. Transit mounts are reputed to work well too, but there are lots of different Transit models and years, and you'd have to get the right type. Mikey can hopefully tell us which year and spec Transist mounts he used.

It's just as simple as it sounds, or even easier - just loosen the securing clamp at the base of the distributor and intially set the timing to TDC. Then start the engine, and keeping clear of the fan and belts, rotate the dstributor slowly one way and the other until the engine reaches its highest idling rpm. Once you find that peak, stop the engine and tighten the clamp (stopping the engine is just to protect you while you use the tools). Then restart the engine and adjust the carb to get a nice, steady idle (and on carbs other than the Zenith, adjust the enrichment screw for throttle response). I'm pretty inexperienced with petrol engines, so can't give much advice on setting up the carb, but the timing is really that simple. It just seems alien to completely disregard the factory timings and manuals, but they were all set for 2 and 4 star leaded petrol with very different burn characteristics from modern unleaded.

I adjust mine roughly every 20,000 miles, and that's with drums all round on a 109, and have nice, sharp brakes. It doesn't need doing often unless you do a lot of off-roading, where dirt and water in the drums contaminate and abrade the pads and drums, needing cleaning out and adjustment far more frequently.

For the clutch, have a look at the fluid level in the master cylinder reservoir. A worn clutch can slip, but the pedal throw to disengage it should be consistent as the hydraulics automatically adjust for that. You might have a leak or a soft flexible hose which is swelling on pedal pressing, allowing fluid to accumulate there rather than being forced intot he slave cylinder. The steering wobble could easily be a tyre issue, so check that first. If that's OK, have the wheel balanced and check the steering joints for play (rod ends, swivel bearings, PAS box shafts and wheel bearings). If that's all OK, have the alignment checked. If the problem only occurs under braking, check the discs aren't unevenly corroded or warped. The two faults can't be linked, though.

The brakes are working really well. The only trouble I had after refitting all of the callipers and bleeding the system was the old ABS accumulator pump being worn out - it was taking too long to pressurise the system and was activating the "three amigos" warning lights, but that's an unrelated fault. The callipers themselves are working beautifully and I haven't lost a drop of fluid. I'm very pleased with the pistons, and even though they might not last forever, they'll last much longer than the genuine mild steel equivalents and are a much better option than a complete set of pattern callipers, not just because they actually work and hold fluid, but also because it's a cheaper option.

You can use the mounts from a 2.25 engine on a Discovery/RRC 200Tdi, but not on a Defender engine as the injection pump on the Defender unit will foul the rhs mount. In that case, you'll need to use the Defender mount and modify the chassis bracket to fit.

A leaking hub seal would be one cause, but it could be the seal land on the stub axle or worn wheel bearings causing that seal to leak, so check them too. Another potential source is the joint between the stub axle and swivel housing, with the brake back plate attached in front of that joint, though you'd likely see oil on the exterior face of the back plate or the axle/stub axle flange joint if that was the source. You are sure that it's EP90, though? Leaking brake fluid combined with brake dust does thicken and darken...

Very nice! I need to get the Lightweight back together for Billing. After that, I hope to get the 110 axles witht he same rear conversion on to the 109. Still not quite sure how I'm going to mate the later brake servo and mc to the SIII pedal box, but I have a few ideas...

I had dreadful trouble with our Lightweight (the others I own are Tdis, so don't have carbs or ignitions). It had similar symptoms to yours initially, and as I worked through the list (follows), it gradually improved to merely being down on power, poppling on the over-run and backfiring and running on when switching off the ignition. I started by adjusting the tappets, checking the timing and stripping and checking the ignition, replacing the coil, cendenser and points. There were a few issues in there and a small improvement was made. Next came the fuel system - partially cloggd lift pipes in the tanks, a leaky lift pump, carb clean and rebuild (no fault found in there) and new exhaust manifold (corroded at the inlet manifold joint below the carb, allowing air to leak into the inlet manifold, bypassing the carb) helped, as did rebuilding the emcon system (diaphragm was perforated, allowing excess air to bypass carb), but still no cure. I also replaced the exhaust. In the end, I found the biggest problem was that the factory timing figures and the timing markers just don't work with modern unleaded fuels - they're 3-5 degrees out. Setting the timing by ear, adjustingt he distributor until the highest idling rpm was found, and then adjusting the carb to set the correct idle speed cured all the trouble. The engine now runs sweetly and quietly with plenty of "go", no over-running or missing and starts instantly regardless of how many weeks or months go by without a start up.

Does it only do it as you accelerate? Try to replicate it, and as the ticking starts, back off the throttle to merely maintain the existing speed. If that silences the noise, then it's justt he Tdi injectors - I get that too and it's just a characteristic of the fairly crude 200 Tdi fuel system, but it does sound quite loud and tends to sound like a transmission fault. The other likely cause is a worn or failing prop shaft UJ which is only revealing itself when significatn torque is applied to the transmission. I think that bearing issues within the gear or transfer box are unlikely, though not impossible, and any input pinon bearing issue would be unlikley to show up in 4th gear as there are no tangental (radial) loads on the shaft in that gear, only torque. I can;t see it being the clutch, either.

I have just taken the old back springs off our Lightweight as one of them has lost 2" of its camber, though it still retains most of its positive camber. the spring has ecome about 2.5" longer than the other, and if the spring had flattened, this would be 3.5-4". At the mid point, this translates to a 2" move aft as the spring flattens under load. That's a lot for the bushes to take, and is probably why LR fitted the bolts transverseley, rather than longitudinally. I can see Toy's point, too. In an idea world, rose joints would be best...

I sounds like a bearing fault, then, but you could have a fault in a second gear thrust washer - when first is engaged, the second gear is free to spin on the main shaft, and if the thrust washer has welded itself to the gear and broken free again, as happened in my factory recon box a while ago, then you with have two damaged bearing surfaces in contact.

You're welcome for the input. I just reread your symptoms and had missed the bit about the nut being finger tight and the transfer box input gear having end float. Most of the SII box is similar to the SIII box. I would assume that the transfer gear is held on the shaft with the castlatted nut, the locking washer and a spacer washer with two slots that allow the tabs on the locking washer to pass through it into the shaft's splines. If you are missing that flat slotted washer, that could be a problem. Running the unit with the nut just finger tight will certainly be a in issue - it is supposed to be effing tight - 100 foot-pounds rings a bell. Finger tight will not pull the components up tight - the correct torque squeezes any oil out of the joints and squashes any slight variations in end profiles that could otherwise increase end float; it's enough to pull the bronze phosphor 2nd gear internal bust hard enough against the 2nd gear thrust washer that the end of the bush becomes compressed and leaves slighly protruding witness marks where the bush sits over the oilways cut into the washer's face. Julian's diagnosis of a worn rear bearing could also be correct, though I would expect you to also find radial play, not just end float. It's worth checking for.

The bush inside second or third gear is too long, allowing the gears to move longitudinally slightly on the shaft even though the nut is fully tightened - the nut pulls the shaft back through the rear bearing until the play between the front face of the bearing, first gear, thethrust washers, the 2nd/3rd bush and the third gear shims are taken up against the circlip that sits inside the third gear. That is the cause of the gear stick movement. If you can feel a click through the clutch pedal, that is a separate issue with the clutch release mechanism. It could be anything from a worn or corroded bush in the pedal box, through a worn and ssticking hydraulic cylinder, to a worn or dirty release fokr or release bearing whick is sticking.

It's hard to tell from a photo, but I suspect the mottling in the second photo is more discolouration than pitting, so it will probably seal well. Fingers crossed for you! Been in and out of Luqa a fer times since I last posted. What is the large building with the internal courtyard in your town, just towards the centre from the football pitch? It looks official and pretty historic...

Early RRCs had one damper ahead of the rear axle and one behind for the axle tramp reason mentioned before, but it didn't really work and reduced the effectiveness the dampers in their normal mode. It also creates a torsional force on the axle, trying to skew it in relation to the chassis, which is why it was dropped before the Defender and Discovery came along - my RRC has symmetrically set dampers that slope aft towards the rear axle, just like on a 109. As also previously commented, that trailing slant allows the suspension to travel further for a smaller damper movement and thus prevents over-damping of the rear suspension. All LR models have vertical front dampers as this is the most effective orientation and helps the suspension deal with the weight of the engine. The rear dampers on coil sprung models also slope outeard towards the hubs. This resores a little of the lost motion caused by having them trailing, as the hubs will move up and inwards on cornering or uneven ground, so the dampers will have a small beneficial effect on the rate of body roll when cornering. It also means that the movement of the dampers is amplified when cornering, though not when both springs are compressed, because the lower end of the damper is mounted where the axle moves more with assymetric suspension loads, further increasing their resistance to body roll. It's also likely that this outward set helps with reducing rear and perishing of the rubber bushes at each end. I suspect the front dampers are only mounted vertically on all models to keep them out of the way of the steering system and out of the path of the wheels and tyres on all steering and axle articulation positions, otherwise they'd probably be set the same as the rear dampers on that model.

Yep, a snapped lay shaft. The way that the SIII shafts were made reulted in a lot of changes in diameter, but they didn't radius or fillet the changes, so stresses are concentrated at those step points. The splined nature of the shaft, with its slide-on gears, further weakens the shaft. The SIII shaft, on the other hand, has all but the primary gear (the one that meshes with the input pinion) incorporated on the shaft in one piece and has radiused sectional steps.

D3s are prone to turbo, EGR, air suspension and HEVAC servo failures. Timing belts are a pig to change and clutches on manual versions cost about £1.5k to replace because the entire body shell has to be lifted off the chassis to separated the engine and transmission. They also have weak suspension wishbones and chew up tyres in about 20,000 miles. They're not very economical either, but at 2.5 tonnes, that's hardly surprising. They're extremely capable and comfortable, but they're unreliable and extremely costly to service and repair. Keep the D2.

While the frame is clea rof the old skin, clean up any rust and use a zinc rich or red oxide primer on it, and then cover the parts which will contact the new skin with duct tape before fitting the new skin to keep the aluminium and steel apart.

There is a relay in the dash which controls current to the starter solenoid. It sounds like the relay is clicking in, but it may have burnt contacts or the solenoid and motor may have a fault. Use a voltmeter or even a lightbulb on a length of wire (with an earth) to check that the terminal at the end of the white wire with red trace on the solenoid is getting power when the key is turned to start. If it is getting power, try giving the solenoid a wallop as they can stick when they get worn - turn the key and listen for the clunk of the solenoid, and if you hear nothing, give the solenoid a solid tap and see if the starter spins up. At leasy you will isolate the fault this way.

The story that SII booxes are stronger than SIII is an urban legend and is complete rubbish - the strongest standard box for Series LRs (other than the LT85 in the Stage is) is the SIII Suffix D and onwards.. The SIII's single piece lay shaft is stronger than the SII's, while both use the same bearings throughout and a similar main shaft, input pinion and reverse gear.

Paint the surfaces and then run a length of duct tape along the joint before fitting. Cheap, simple and perfectly adequate.

As Jeremy said, reverse gear has straight cut teeth, while the others are helical (certainly all forward gears in a SIII box are helical, though SIIs may have straight cut second gears too). That is why reverse is noisier. Suffix B and later SIII boxes were fitted with needle bearings on the reverse idler, but all earlier boxes have a bronze phosphor bush. This does wear, but so does the shaft the gear turns on. This wears a taper that can tend to throw the gear out under load, and can eventually wear through the case hardening into the mild inner steel, which tends to pick up a rough surface like cast iron. It could be the source of your noise. Like the others said, I'd just run it until something happens, keeping an eye on oil levels and changing the oil every 12,000 miles (as you're supposed to).

I used the Woolies Trim channel recently and still have a rattle. I think it's iether the lock itself or the bottom plastic channel.