Snagger

The Series gear box is certainly weaker than the LT77 or R380, but I have never heard of a broken Series transfer box, regardless of what engine is turning it or what idiot is driving it. I don't think transfer box reliability is a problem, but your point about the expense of the adaptor kit is entirely accurate!

No-one should flame you - you have to buy on your own plans of vehicle use and budget. If Paddocks have changed supplier, the new springs may be fine - we won't know until people like you are brave enough to try them out and report back a couple of years down the road. If they're as good as TIC but half the price, then you'll have done very well for your self. If they sag quickly, then you may be able to get your money back as they are unfit for purpose, but that will be a bit of a faff. Either way, good luck!

I'm not sure, but I think the ZF is longer than the R380, so you'd have to move the engine forwards to fit it. As for the axles, I don't know about the characteristics of the LC80 axles, but they won't affect the VIN as long as you have enough other original components. You've lost the engine point and will be losing the transmission's points whichever box you replace the standard unit with, but as long as you keep both the original steering and original suspension (you can replace the springs with new leaf springs, but they can't be replaced with a different type of suspension), then you'll have enough points to keep the VIN. Of course, the five points for the chassis depend on it being the original and unaltered chassis or a brand new chassis to original spec, but I don't think the DVLA will be too concerned about a few gearbox or engine mounts, only significant alterations.

The whole GL5 thing is an urban myth, just like how series transmissions explode if you fit a Tdi or how well the diesels run if you pour used chip fat directly into the fuel tank. I find that 1L bottles with the pull-out neck do fine for filling the axles and transfer box, and with a small amount of spillage, the steering box too. I keep one of those small bottles and top it up with 5L bottles from my local autofactor as it's cheaper in the bigger quantities. Filling the gear box is a bit of a nuisance, but a cheap way is to get an 18" length of standard garden hose pipe to run from the filler plug to underneath the centre seat, inserting the neck of the 1L bottle into the end of the hose. It's reasonably neat, if a little slow. I have retrofitted the top-fill cap and transmission tunnel cover grommet from a MoD SIII and fitted a Rocky Mountain transfer box dip stick to the gear box filler so the level can be checked in seconds from above and the oil topped up in a couple of minutes (including getting the oil out of the stowage and putting it away again) from above with no tools and no mess. It's a very useful mod and is well documented on my blog.

Mine have done twelve or more years now and close to 120,000 miles, and apart from suffering an early batch problem of a damaged spring eye because of a slightly oversized bush fitment during production (replaced under warranty several years after purchase), mine have been absolutely trouble free. They still have their original camber, despite a couple of heavy trips around the continent and a lot of heavy permanent accessories. You get what you pay for, and Heystee are very, very good.

You can't get the alignment right if you do that. You'll just have to create the space or roll the vehicle around to allow assembly from rear to front. It's done by fitting the tub, leaving its front bolts loose, and fitting the bulkhead on its two main bolts. Run a string line along the top corner of the body bulge, below the top door hinge and above the tail lights. Adjust the height of the front end of the tub until the body line matched the bulkhead and then tighten all the tub bolts. Then set the bulkhead by using the shimming washers between the outrigger and door pillar to set the door aperture spacing (984mm if I recall correctly, but measuring several SII/SIII/Defender door apertures will give you a good average to work from). Set the bulkhead parallel to the front of the tub with the steering box supports. The doors should be relatively simple, adjustment being made on the bulkhead side of each hinge and on the striker plates on the aft door pillars. The front wings bolt on at the rear first, then into the rad panel. Remember to fit the rectangular rubber pads between the bottom of the rad panel and the chassis brackets - many people forget and it caused rapid rusting as well as misalignment. There are photos of the body build-up on my blog.

That is quenching, not annealing, and hardens the metal. Annealing will soften the copper, and needs to be allowed to cool gradually, not quickly. It's a good way of re-using an old sealing washer, though, if you don't have a new one to hand, though new would be better.

Have a look at how I did it on my disc braked Salisbury axle, including dealing with the slight variation in wheel bearing spacing and the different bearing washers required to fit the replacement hubs to the Salisbury stub axles. http://www.nickslandrover.co.uk/archives/category/axles/page/2 I'm using a Discovery's brake system throughout on an axle swap on a 109, so if you are using Defender rear callipers and discs, you may find differences in whether you need to space the bracket from the axle flange or have the bracket milled to reduce its thickness where it bolts to the axle flange - it all depends on the depth of the drum and the offset of the callipers' bolt lugs, but once you have fit the new discs to the early 90/110 front hubs, you can easily assess the bracket mods by trial fitting and comparing the centreline of the disc rotor and calliper slot.

Have a look through these pages of my blog - the work is on a drum braked 110 axle, but the work would be identical: http://www.nickslandrover.co.uk/archives/category/axles/page/2 I take it that you are also fitting disc brakes to the front, not just the rear? If not, then drop the project immediately - it'd be a dangerous set up to have discs at the rear and drums on the front.

I have had a Roverdrive on my Tdi powered 109 for three years/20,000 miles. It has been 100% reliable, and the Series version shares most of the same internals as the Defender version.

I used their forward facing seats for years for my kids with booster seats and had no problems. It's all down to the seat belt geometry, as the seat takes relatively forces anyway. The fold-ups are certainly strong enough for an infant, so as long as you fit the seat belts in a way that will securely hold the baby seat in position, then I can't see any problem. A fixing on the tub floor to clamp the seat's folding leg down so that the seat can't lift accidentally would be beneficial, but I found the cheaper (plus more versatile and and neater) fold-ups perfectly adequate. I don't see any advantage to their expensive locking seats.

Closed loop systems greatly increase the purge time when switching back to diesel, so you could end up with the coking problems I had when I ran dual fuel. I'd recommend a switchable return line system that changes to the SVO tank as the same time as the feed (a little diesel in the SVO tank does no harm), but is switched back to diesel at least 30 seconds after the feed. The biggest vulnerability in the system is the coolant circuit through the heat exchanger - plastic T-pieces are a bad idea, as I found out personally half way up a mountain. Use brass T-pieces.

You'd be surprised - most companies will wriggle out claiming that the policy is for hard paved public roads only, invalid on driveways other than your own, car parks, fields (shows, car boot sales and the like) and may even be difficult about icy public roads. The small print often doesn't even specify it, anything unspecified being uncovered. Flux polices cover all non-competitive off road use (at least they did when mine were started a few years ago), and they will put it in writing that succinctly if asked. They were the only company who would cover my much modified 109 for a sensible price, and came in cheaply even for a high agreed value. Their service was very good when I unfortunately needed it, too, with no messing about, loosing paperwork of delaying inspections or payment. I now have three vehicles insured through them.

You can't use a diaphragm pump without it being allowed to let its fuel out - by having the pump pressurise the SVO fuel but running on diesel, the pump pressure will exceed its limits with the resultant damage. Electric rotary pumps would be fine to have running as they will only be able to produce their nominal pressure and no more, though switching the power off when not required would be preferable for pump longevity. If you're sticking with the engine driven diaphragm pump (I'd recommend you keep it), then you need to have it drawing the fuel, not pushing, by re-rigging the entire fuel system so that you have parallel diesel and SVO systems, from tanks, feed lines and filters, only then joining at the selector valve, to then continue to the lift pump and directly to the injection pump. That way, the lift pump will serve both fuels, never operating without allowing fuel flow and not requiring an additional pump for the other fuel. The only down side with this arrangement is that the fuel filters will be under negative pressure, so you need to be careful about their seals because leaks in will be harder to spot, being air inward rather than fuel outward.

I painted the outside of my chassis in Schutz (six layers in high risk areas like the rear cross member and outriggers), but have not done the inside as minimal spray will enter the chassis - occasional wading in ponds or rivers shouldn't cause internal corrosion, and I have no intention of ever dunking it in the sea! Galvanising is good, but is not as permanent or indestructible as many like to think, so protecting it further is prudent.

The white "Explorer" will be a Pro-Comp, which is indeed American made and is a low quality, cheap damper (the tyres and springs are the shock absorbers, though many people misapply the name to the dampers) that is used in about 90% of parabolic upgrades. They're fine, but you need to keep an eye on the condition of their pistons - the rubber boots trap condensation, which rusts the piston, abrading the seals and causing the damper to lose its oil. The MoD never fitted parabolics to their Land Rovers, except the 101FC, which had straight parabolics from new. The bottom ends of the front dampers (and rear dampers on 88"s) are retained by the washer and split pin from new - it's not a mod or a botch and is perfectly satisfactory, but it sounds like your bushes are worn out.

The temperature gauge earths through the sender unit. The hotter the engine, the lower the resistance of the sender and the higher the reading. A bad or dirty contact would increase the resistance and lower the gauge reading, not increase it. The sender could be faulty, but it's unlikely. Timing and breathing faults (valve clearances and blocked exhaust) can cause similar temperature problems, but a failing thermostat which doesn't open fully at the correct temperature is the most likely cause if the rad appear to be in moderate condition (not blocked and has lost less than 10% of its fins). If the rad is missing more than that or is blocked by mud or the entangles damaged fins, then the rad is the likely cause. It certainly isn't the fan or viscous unit.

Or you can look on it that you will be doing it again in ten years if you use standard pistons...

It won't be the fan or viscous unit - they're only useful at low speed. My bet would be the radiator (mine is crumbling too) or a failed thermostat.

I used Zeus ss pistons and seals on my callipers, and am very pleased with them.

My TI Console (Heystee) springs are about 15 years old and are as good as new. I had to fit Polybushes as one of the rear spring eyes had lost its grip on the standard metalastic bushes, and another rear spring eye cracked about ten years ago, needing replacement of that leaf, but both seem to be due to a fault with a batch of metalastic bushes that were fitted to the springs when new (slightly oversize). that fault was eventually noticed, but too late to stop damage to a few peoples' springs. However, with the replacement leaf and Polybushes, I'm very happy with the ride and articulation. It still sits level and the springs have even cambers when removed after all this time - they have at least another decade left in them. the same can't be said for the Pro Comps, some of which leaked due to the pistons corroding and abrading the seals within a few years. The lesson is, don't fit the rubber boots.

The mufflers on turbo exhausts are straight through, rather than baffled like normally aspirated engine exhausts, so replacing the centre section will make no difference.

Discovery has four ports rather than three. While the look otherwise similar, I don't knw if the internal capacities differ.

To stop the diesel engines, you need to stop the fuel flow. That can be an electrical issue, and you need to check the wiring and terminals for the solenoid, ignition switch and the alarm/imobiliser ECU. It can also be a fuel feed issue, including blocked filter, air leak into a pipe or a blocked fuel tank breather. I'd take a good look at your fuel cap, given that the engine seems fine after an hour or two.

Since the max gross weight of a 109 and Discovery are near identical, I had planned to fit the whole Discovery system to the 109. I had been under the assumption that 110 Defenders also had the smaller rear pistons, not just the 90. However, either way, braking will be significantly increased over the original full drum system. By the way, thanks to the master cylinder details, I was able to get a complete master cylinder, servo and pedal box in excellent condition from Stoneleigh for £25.