Snagger

The clutch sleeve is often left inside the transfer box, but they are easily sourced and usually worn out anyway, so it's not a major loss. What is more of a problem is that people remove the Fairey without removing the lever, bracket and link rod, none of which are very easy to source (though the Roverdrive levers would work with a custom fabricated link rod). But yes, your point that morons are in more plentiful supply than overdrives is accurate.

So, lower mpg than a Tdi, similar speeds (limited by gearing rather than engine performance) and a lot more custom fabrication... or you can stick to a well trodden path of fitting a robust, reliable and far easier to install Discovery 200Tdi engine (with Defender manifolds and turbo if going into a 109) which has the additional benefits of having the power and torque where you need them, being water tight, not needing a mating kit, using almost all standard parts (just the hoses need alteration) and being easily serviced or supplied by any LR agent that you already use for other parts. I know which is the better option.

I recently replaced one on my wife's Lightweight, and 12" is about right, including the end fittings. If that's too short, just get a brake hose - they use the same materials and unions but are longer.

The Roverdrive lever uses an identical mounting bracket and comes out in the same position as the Fairey designed unit's lever. All Roverdrives for Series LRs come with a green plastic knob with the same flattish shape as the yellow and red knobs for the transfer box, with "ROVERDRIVE", "ENGAGED" and "DISENGAGED" engraved in white. I very much doubt that anyone would scrap a vehicle with a serviceable Roverdrive on it - they're way too uncommon and too valuable for that. My money would be on a Fairey, which do sometimes remain on scrappers because the last owner doesn't have a clue that they're removable and relatively valuable; a Roverdrive would have been a recent and very expensive addition that the owner would try to recoup.

I have had partial success rebleeding the brakes (I have been suffering an excessive pump run time to pressurise the accumulator, resulting in the ABS/ETC self-test failing). The procedure is to: Depressurise the system by pumping the pedal 30 times, leaving it for one minute and then pumping four more times; Connect a filled pressure bleeding kit tot he reservoir; Bleed the four front lower nipples, outboard ones first then inboard; Switch on the ignition and bleed the pump; With the pump running, bleed the accumulator; With the pump running, bleed each of the two nipples on the top right side of the main hydraulic unit; Recycle the ignition switch to bleed the master cylinder (no nipple) until the pump stops; Bleed the rear callipers with the pump running; Bleed the front calliper upper nipples with the pump running. Then test the system - the pump should stop within 45 seconds (but if tested shortly after bleeding will stop quickly as the system is already still pressurised). I have found the lights normally extinguish now after a pressurising period on a cold start, but not every time. My brake pads are slightly worn, so I'm going to try again with the pistons pushed and jammed back in their callipers to ensure there are no possible air gaps in the callipers and allow a long period of bubble-free fluid flow from each nipple just in case any air is trapped at the top end of the system, masked by the bottom end being bubble-free.

Why do you want such oversized tyres? They're bad for performance, economy, handling, off road ability and steering/wheel bearing wear. Their only benefit is for sand or deep snow driving. I would keep to 235/85 or 7.50 - that what LR found most effective for the Camel Trophy and the British Army and Royal Marines found most effective for almost every combat environment.

I have a Marsland chassis. In short, I would recommend you get a Richards...

My local LR specialist doesn't use Ashcroft anymore - it might be bec ause they are trying to increase their own margins on gear box replacements, but they said to me that it's because Ascroft's quality is no longer what it used to be, having dropped when Ian Ashcroft handed over to David, resulting in a much higher return rate of faulty units. I did see a lot of Britpart boxes last time I visited Ashcroft's workshop. Worryingly, Turner Engineering use Britpart too. Sadly, I think both are trading on the name they worked so hard to make.

The mass if the fan is small, and when the vehicle is in motion the fan blades' angel of attack is reduced by the movement of the ram airflow through the rad and cowl, so it has virtually no turning resistance in normal operation. At a crawl or at stand still, their is no ram airflow, so the angle of attack increases and the fan suffers drag, but that is exactly when you need a fan. An engine driven fan is more efficient than an electric one because there are no changes of electrical state between kinetic, EM and electrical (and back again), with all of the associated losses and inefficiencies of each change of state - the energy for the viscous fan is kinetic and is taken directly from the crank shaft, making it very efficient. As I said, the fact that the fan is always turning, albeit idly when the engine is cold and the viscous unit not locked, means that the rad and thus the engine temperatures are kept optimal at all times, rather than allowed to rise above ideal and then struggled to lower and suppress (anyone knows that maintaining a constant is easier and more efficient than trying to change a value). The figures of resistance, bhp or fuel consumption quoted by electric fan manufacturers are for engines at high rpm on a bench with no ram airflow - not a real world scenario and deliberately misleading. If any fuel savings or performance increases were available by fitting electric fans in place of viscous or fixed units, all of the premium car manufactures would do so, not only for customer appeal and increased sales but also to reduce the environmental taxes levied on the manufacturers themselves (some of which are based on the average emissions of all their vehicles produced in that tax period). But check under the bonnet of any LR, BMW, Merc, Audi, Jag, RR or Bentley with in-line engines and you'll find they all have viscous fans...

Refit the viscous fan - its better in every possible respect.

I had the WOR kit fitted both before and after my big rebuild. The NK full engine bay lining was added during that rebuild, and it didn't make a jot of difference. What it will do is impede airflow around tight cavities and trap water (they use open-cell foam), so will encourage corrosion. I don't have to worry about that too much with a galvanised chassis and bulkhead, but it is an issue for most. The glue failures on the bonnet lining could be due to engine heat. Mine is held in place by a combination of the standard LR black fibre bonnet liner and the bolts securing the Quickfist for my bonnet mounted pioneer tools, so I don't have to worry about the large pad falling off and jamming the steering linkages (SIII). Fitting the NK kit to the door skins, tub and hard top does make a considerable difference, though, and shouldn't have any negative effects as it should all remain dry and cooling airflow is not a consideration in there.

Why fit an electric fan at all? Just keep the original - it's more powerful, more reliable, simpler and keeps the engine cool in the first place, instead of allowing the engine to get too hot and then struggling to bring it back down. It is also more efficient. Electric fans are a big con - they are only fitted by car manufacturers where the engine bay layout makes fitting an engine driven fan impractical, like where chassis are in the way or on transverse mounted engines. LR (and all other manufacturers) go to extreme lengths to maximise performance and fuel efficiency (especially nowdays), so if fitting an electric fan had any benefit, they'd be doing it in the factories...

I used 1 square metre (roughly 10 sq ft) of Noise Killer's material on the bulkhead (even more coverage than Cat_J has managed) as well as their Defender bonnet and Series inner wings kits at great expense and it made no discernible difference to the noise level. The WOR kit that was already fitted seems much more effective. The NK bonnet pads also tend to come unstuck, despite being thoroughly reattached with impact adhesive and the foil tears and peels away. However, fitting some of NK's interior matt to the hard top sides made a very big difference to the thrumming from the back of the vehicle.

Wide track Sankeys generally have their tow ring along their chassis line. The vehicle's hitch should be attached to the rear cross member, not below it. Narrow track Sankeys had their hitches bolted tot he top of their A-frame, so tend to sit nose low when connected to a Land Rover.

There are several exhausts for the 2.25 SIII 109. They all come in three sections. The down pipe has two versions, and only the earliest run straight below the chassis, the vast majority of vehicles having the later type which drops under the bell housing cross member and then up again over the transmission mounting to run through the hole in the cross member behind the transmission. There are three intermediate pipes. The first is to connect to the low slung early down pipe. The second connects to the higher, twistier late down pipe. The third is much like the second but also has an additional muffler box towards its rear end (the elliptical section muffler lies parallel to the chassis side). This third type was rarely fitted (I was told by a franchised dealer's parts department that it was an Australian spec part and was not fitted to UK vehicles, and that my 109 must have been part of a cancelled Australian export order). There are two basic versions of the tail pipe - one for left exit and one for right. The MoD generally used the right exit type as they had no rear fuel tanks. This means that the exhaust is not directed at pedestrians on the pavement. Models with rear fuel tanks have to use the left exit pipe.

I suspect my pump may be worn out too after 16 years and 180,000 miles! How much did your pump cost and what brand was it?

The HD flanges come in two versions - the thick 200Tdi and earlier version and the thin 300Tdi and later version. They are a direct replacement for whichever type of standard drive flange you have on your vehicle and are not inter-changeable. The 300Tdi+ type do fit easily under alloys, just like the original flanges do on those axles (I have a pair on my RRC), but as I said, the early type will not fit without a lot of modification or spacers.

Ouch! The bearing shouldn't have any discernible play in itself, but the pinion shaft will be able to wobble in a good bearing - a tiny amount of movement at the bearing becomes a large movement at the end of the shaft. That's why the front end of the shaft is held in the spigot bush (check and replace that while the box is out - it costs pennies but makes a big difference to the box, especially in 4th gear).

That's certainly the easiest way if you can get the parts cheaply enough. I was initially doing the same, but the shaft and flange splines were wrecked, needing brand new replacements. I decided to keep the stronger early shafts and flanges, with their stronger hub bearing arrangement (the wider spacing helps the bearings deal with side loads from cornering or side slopes better, but it can't make an enormous difference if all the late models went over to the narrow set up), since I already had a full set of good parts. As long as you remove the seals from inside the 300 stub axles and use RTV sealant to semi-permanently bond the plastic centre cone to the drive flange, spline wear shouldn't be as rapid as usual on the late axles.

Actually, the answer was in my post - as I said, the half shafts stick out through the wheel centre even if the plastic cones are removed, so the hexagonal cap of the HD flanges will protrude from the centre of the wheel. However, the HD flanges would need some trimming to allow the wheel to fit onto the hub - they'd need to be trimmed to have a similar profile as the original flanges between the five bolt holes as the the inside of the wheel will foul the flanges' straight edges. The HD flanges' centre caps will fit through the cap hole, though, and if chrome plated, might not look too bad (they'd resemble the wheel nuts, after all). Still, it's a lot of fiddling and not a very viable solution. Spacers are the easiest solution if you have PAS.

The lay shaft does need to be unbolted after removing the cast assembly that covers the lay shaft and input pinion bearings. You should have four nuts and two bolts removed from the bell housing-gear box interface, with two studs remaining in place. If that has all been correctly undone, a hefty tap from a rubber mallet should break the gasket's grip. This is the problem with sealants, though - using heavy grease smeared on both sides of the gasket is so much better as it seals equally ell but allows much easier and cleaner disassembly.

I looked into this extensively because I have a set of alloys and a 110 Salisbury axle for my 109 (the Discovery front axle is already set up for alloys). You have two problems - the hub and the black plastic cone. The hub is deeper on the older axles as the wheel bearings are set further apart. That means that the hub protrudes further from the wheel mating face. There is a very small bevel on the hub between the drive flange between each of the drive flange fixing bolts, but that bevel isn't deep enough to allow LR alloys - it hits the interior of the wheel and hold the wheel about 4mm off the mounting face. I used 6mm spacer made from the centres of scrap brake drums to overcome that problem, but then you run into the problem of the studs - with the wheels 6mm further out, the nuts have 6mm less thread engagement, which could be dangerous. I fitted a full set of Wolf studs to the axle, but they're 12mm longer and prevent the nuts from full tightening down onto the wheel - they run out of internal thread about 3mm short. another set of the steel washers fitted to alloy wheel nuts should do the trick, as would shortening the studs by the offending amount. The next problem, once the wheel centre clears the hub and bolts in correctly, is the plastic cone. It's not just the cone that protrudes through the wheel centre though - it's also the nose of the drive flange and the end of the half shaft. I found that the drive flanges' nose sits flush with the outer face of the RRC wheels I am using (Boost and Deep Dish may differ), which would be enough to prevent centre cap fitting alone, but the shafts protrude a further 6-7mm. My solution has been to have the nose and shaft machined down , bevelled to create a V around their splined joint on the outer end and then TIG welded, with the whole assemble shortened to clear the inside of the centre caps. The aim was to make the Salisbury shafts and flanges similar to those on a 300Tdi Rover rear axle, with the 6mm spacers making so small a track alteration that the difference between it and the front axle would be invisible. All of the above is not a cheap fix, and using off-the-shelf 30mm spacers would be cheaper and easier, but I don't want my wheels that far outboard because I don't like the aesthetic, the paint damage of the heavier steering it gives.

That makes sense - I should have thought of the forces and tininess of the spring a bit more deeply...

I had my RRC's brakes bled at the local specialist after trying unsuccessfully to bleed the system myself after rebuilding the callipers. They bled the callipers but not the compressor, accumulator or valve block, saying they never cause any problems. Since then, the compressor has taken a long time to charge the accumulator on each start - long enough for the self-test to fail, leaving the brake warning light, ETC and ABS lights on the dash illuminated. Once the pump stops, stopping and restarting the engine clears the lights. I have bled those under-bonnet areas as per the manual and it has helped, but I think that not including the calliper sin the sequence has prevented it from being fully successful (either that, or the pump or pressure switch may be failing). I only have a Haynes book of lies, but it clearly requires the use of a pressure bleeder. It also requires an assistant to hold the pedal pressed down while certain operations are carried out.

I'd refit the original fan. It'll keep the engine temperature cool, rather than allowing it to rise and then trying to lower it, which is waht an electric fan does. It's also more reliable, more effective and more efficient. the stats about electric fans' benefits to economy and perfomance are complete lies - for a bench mounted engine, yes, but for an engine with ram airflow from the vehicle's motion it's complete horse.... - the forward motion of the car means that the air the fan is sweeping through is already at high speed, so the fan slices rather than scoops the air, leading to almost no fan drag at all. Furthermore, the original fan was taking its kinetic energy directly from the crank shaft - no wasteful changes from kinetic to EM to electrical in the alternator and back into EM and kinetic again in the fan motor, and no electrical resistance to worry about. You won't have to worry about the sensitivity or reliability (both suspect) of the thermostatic switch, the reliability of the electric motor once it has been submerged in mud, and you won't need to worry about the fan depleting your battery. Electric fans are one of the biggest cons in the LR after-market industry. If they are so good, why do all car manufacturers still fit viscous or fixed fans wherever possible?