Snagger

Speak to RemoteKey - they have a lot of knowledge and offer more option than just about anyone else. I was able to replace the single-button system on my 95 RRC with their modified genuine DII unit (brand new, not s/h or recon) that has lots of additional features that they can enable or disable for you but that LR don't offer the initial customer of vehicles fitted with the same system. They supply their systems ready for DIY installation and are really helpful and very cheap.

I have recently replaced my original pump with a second hand unit. My pump was a bit tired (190,000 miles with mostly short trips means a lot of pump cycles) and was taking too long to pressurise the accumulator, so the ECU's system test would time out at 45 seconds after start and the pressure would still be too low, triggering the three amigos. The system was all working - it was just the self test that was failing because it was too soon for the pump. It was a bit noisy too, though just a harsh buzz rather than any metallic sound. I tested the replacement pump before removing the original because I didn't know its history. I just connected its two plugs to the vehicle's wiring while leaving the old pump fitted and hydraulically connected. It was much quieter on the very short dry test, but once it was fitted and bled, it was as noisy as the original. As best as I can remember, the original pump made the same noise when I bought the vehicle with 80k on the clock. The pressure switch shouldn't make any noise as there are few moving parts and they only move once under pressure. Any continuous noise must be from the pump itself, either the motor or the hydraulic head.

It sounds like a dash wiring fault to me, but it could be an ECU fault as the central locking, alarm and immobiliser all share the same ECU. I have found a company called RemoteKey extremely helpful with this sort of thing, and they seem quite content to give free trouble shooting advice over the phone. I later used them to fit the later two-button fob system as used on the DII to my RRC - they modify them for you to do a DIY fit to earlier models of RR and DI so you can get the more reliable and better featured system, and they will enagle and disable secondary functions on the new unit to the customers wishes which LR won't do.

I believe the DII ABS system is the same Wabco system as used on the soft dash RRC. The brake warning light (the same one that the hand brake illuminates) is triggered by low reservoir levels or low accumulator pressure. The electric pump should fully charge the system within 45 seconds of energising. If it doesn't, the warning light will stay on, as will the ABS and ETC lights. A tired pump can still provide sufficient pressure, and letting the pump run for a few seconds before engine start (where the 45 time limit will be reset again) will give it more time to pressurise the system and cheat the time limit. Air in the accumulator or pump can also affect the pressurisation time. Replacement pumps cost about £800 new, so be systematic in your diagnosis! I recently did this on my RRC and replaced the pump with a second hand unit that has cured the issue. A sensor problem can be down to wheel bearings or worn swivel bearings, but can also be due to worn CV joints, stub axle bushes and drive flanges. I had a faulty sensor which set of the ABS light on full lock, which transpires to be a break in the wire near the sensor head. A bad sensor can be cheaply diagnosed if identified on diagnostic computers by clearing the ECU fault memory and swapping the sensors in the affected axle from side to side and testing again after a drive that illuminates the light - if the ECU fault reports the other side from before, you know you have a bad sensor, but if the fault stays at the same wheel, you know it's a wheel, drive or swivel bearing fault.

First of all, ABS is a safety critical system and should not be having cut wires soldered up - have the garage replace the sensor they damaged at their cost under threat, if necessary, of reporting to trading standards and all the local papers and Land Rover magazines/forums. I suspect that sensor has been buggered by the damage. However, it is possible that the sensor merely needs repositioning - it should be pressed in by fingers only as far as it will go and the steering should then be moved from lock to lock to set the sensor's distance from the CV bell. If it's too far from the bell, it won't read the sensor ring on the bell and will not sense the wheel rotation speed. Just in case you aren't aware of it, the rear windows have a child-lock button to deactivate the switches on the doors, but the switches on the cubby box should still operate them regardless. This is the button with the amber window symbol in the middle of the four window switches on the cubby box - it should be pressed in to enable the rear switches and out to disable them. If the windows don't work as above, there is a fault. If the ABS light, central locking and rear window faults occurred at the garage, they have a legal duty to repair their damage. They may have spiked the ECUs by letting the battery run too low a voltage (leaving the ignition on and doors open while running tests will do that), or they may have caused problems by jumpstarting it or using it to jump another vehicle. It needs diagnostic tools like Test Book or Autologic, and if they don't have these facilities, the garage will have to pay a garage with those tools for their time to run the tests.

The rear discs get the road spray from the front tyres, while the front brakes stay dryer while driving. That might be a factor too, but the braking balance will be the main factor - the pads and discs are fundamentally similar front and rear, but the rear callipers have half as many pistons and operate at reduced hydraulic pressure, so have much less than half the operating pressure. The rear pads are a little smaller in area, so the pad pressure on the is is probably about half that of the front pads...

It looks to me like the outboard pad is either worn away because its piston is seized, rather than the inboard piston being seized, or that its friction lining has broken away. Its wear pattern on the disc suggests the latter as the polished section doesn't look scored from metal contact and the rusted section is free of scratches from the pad's back plate. Without seeing it in the flesh to check the depth of the corrosion on the face of the disc or any wear lip between the polished and corroded sections, I can't be confident of any assessment over the serviceability of the disc, but personally I'd scrap it. Check the callipers and their pistons carefully (I recently put a calliper rebuild guide on my blog).

It's not likely to do any harm as long as you make sure the extra lines are tucked neatly close to the swivel housing to protect them from impact damage and pinching by steering rods, but I can't see it being of any help at all. The problem with bleeding the front brakes is not the pipework itself - you will merely be adding to the total length by modifying it. The problem lies in the design of the slave cylinders; their pipe and bleed ports are half way up the sides of the cylinders rather than at the top, so any air above the ports tends to stay put. Making sure the pistons are fully retracted minimises the size of the air pocket. The only way of guaranteeing all air is removed is to either use a vacuum bleeder or remove the hubs and brake backplates from the swivels and bleed the brakes with the slave cylinders orientated so the pipe ports are at the top/

The measurement is between the underside of the rubber bump stops and the top face of the corresponding steel bump plate on the top of the axle, not from the chassis rails to the axle tube.

I use a SIII gauge and sender with the standard Tdi thermostat. The temperature sits right in the middle of my gauge and the heather works very well. I was careful to use a genuine sender unit as pattern senders are notoriously unreliable.

My money is on diff pinion bearings. It doesn't take much play to create vibration. Look for a weepy pinion seal.

I would make them permanent - the standard earth system is very prone to corroding. I have done the same on my RRC - they (and Defenders and Discoverys) have similar problems, and when the earth strap deteriorates, the starter tries to earth through the hand bake linkage (so do Series). For a Sereis vehicle with its sturdy hand brake link system, not much happens, but the coilers have relatively puny Bowden cables for their hand brakes; the cable's teflon coating melts, jamming the cable in its outer sheath, locking the brake on. It gets a bit smokey, too...

What works for me is to fit the hub and turn the first hub night up to the bearings by fingers. Then I grease up the outside of the box spanner and tighten the nut with only a light to moderate grip with a single hand on the spanner. Turn the hub a few times back and forth, give it a tug or two and generally move it around to make sure the inboard bearing is seated against the stub axle's seal land, then loosen and re-tighten the nut in the same way with the spanner. The grease prevents you from over-tightening; the spanner will slip through your hand first.

I was about to say that the symptoms are typical prop shaft problems (usually worn UJs), but you seem to have already found that out!

It is coil sprung. There were early professional conversions that used the standard chassis with spring turrets welded on, using a cut down leaf spring as radius arms. It wasn't particularly common, but I haven't heard of any major issues with it. The time scale of when these alterations used to be done was well before the new DVLA points rules were introduced, so it wouldn't affect the VIN status at all (nor would returning it to standard). Always check over modified vehicles very carefully, especially on things like chassis alterations, suspension, steering and engine conversions. On engine conversions, the problems are often poor wiring, bad plumbing or misalignment. Check the engine mounts carefully, too. Those long bonnets were introduced on the SIII Stage I V8s, so predate Defenders, but it's not uncommon to find people fitting Defender sourced bonnets to Series vehicles after and engine change dictates more space. I did just that on my 109. I'm not keen on the grille panel he's fitted, but that's just individual taste. I used Defender front panels too because they're easy to come by and look alright, but if you can source the Stage 1 V8 grille, it would fit a Defender slam panel anyway and would retain a factory look. While I think that unpainted galvanised bulkheads are awfully ugly, some seem to like the look. Either way, at least you won't have to worry about rust for some time.

It's not a seizure. The fault is electrical. Try mounting the solenoid the other end up - maybe gravity will help the slug make contact rather than fight it. However, if connecting the battery directly to the starter did not turn the starter, you have either a fault in that cable or the earth. Try running a second earth from one of the starter motor mounting bolts directly to the battery, bypassing the braided strap, chassis and old battery cable; there are many contact points there which corrode or get too dirty and cause trouble, and they are the usual source of problems like yours.

I've never had alarm issues disconnecting the battery on my 1995 RRC...

They only endorse the most ridiculously expensive of their seats for child use, but that's as predictable as it is cynical - businesses see pound signs as soon as someone mentions the word "child". I used their Trakkers forward facing seats with child seats with very good security.

No, but you might have problems with the stereo if it has an anti-theft security code. The code should be in the vehicle's hand book, if you have that. Otherwise, you need to rig a bypass that keeps the stereo powered while the batteries are swapped. I had the code function disabled by a mobile stereo repair man to avoid future issues when a battery change disabled my RRC stereo. He charged about £20 to remove the stereo, plug it into a computer in his van, unlock it and switch of the code system.

Have a look here: http://www.nickslandrover.co.uk/archives/1807 That should work on a defender too, but measure the vertical space first.

That's what I did - I fitted a pair of Exmoor Trim's plusher inward facing seats to a custom cradle to have them aft facing with lap straps in the back of our Lightweight, so they're easy to use and are safe, but also leave space for loads. It's in the Lightweight section of my blog.

I used pop-rivets with the heads above the bonnet. Not ideal, but not that ugly once painted - the back of the bonnet is covered in identical rivets from left to right securing the skin to the back of the frame already and the spare wheel hides the new rivets anyway. The whole kit is ugly, but it works. The kit from a MoD SIII is better, though - the quick release strap and slim rubber pads make stowing and removal easier and quicker while also keeping the spare lower to the bonnet, minimising the loss of forward visibility.

The foot wells are different, so the clutch and brake pedals will be at odd angles, while the accelerator pedal won't fit at all. The Defender bulkhead also lacks the indentation between the tops of the foot wells, which will leave a big void between the bulkhead and fascia and could cause problems clearing the throttle linkages. The foot wells will also not mate up with the steering box support brackets. The rest of the dimensions are fine, though.

The 109's brake failure warning light normally has three triggers, though some models also had a couple of others. The standard triggers are:i) differential pressure between front and rear circuits; ii) insufficient vacuum in servo; iii) bulb test, either a test switch near the light or an automatic trigger between the warning system's relay and the ignition switch to test the system on engine start. The other optional (fitted to certain export markets like Switzerland) triggers are the hand brake and an excess pedal travel switch on the top of the pedal box (*the latter may be for single-line systems in lieu of the differential pressure valve on dual circuit vehicles). With regard to the switches, my 1982 109 has the same panel and had the brake warning light, rear fog switch and hazard switch on that panel, with the hazard switch next to the fog switch. It looks like the hazard switch has been replaced with an aftermarket one - the original is like the fog switch but illuminates internally. It's bulb contacts are very prone to bending and repairs are generally short lasting, but the switches are horrifically expensive. If the vehicle has any extra lights, they would likely be controlled by the upper right switch on that panel. An electric engine cooling fan seems a plausible explanation too.

I remember seeing it too - I seem to recall a square steel plate being used as an adaptor. I thought it might have been you who did it, actually... How do you get on with the Defender pedal? is it a little high, or did you cut a little off the leg and weld the foot back on at a lower height?