Snagger

Hi folks. My '95 Classic's headlining has finally succumbed and fallen away from the backing. I don't want to replace it with an after-market item because a> their quality is poor, and b> because this is a "soft dash" with a one-piece lining without a sunroof, which no-one makes replacements for anyway. The plan is to re-cover the original backing. Could anyone please tell me the name of the colour used on these - it's a very pale beige fabric, while the rest of the interior (except the windscreen surrounds which match the roof) is light grey. Thanks!

If you have a Fairey type OD, then the standard nut will be there once you remove the OD unit form the transfer box. If you have the Rock Mountain unit, the nut is replaced by a differnt type stah still does the same job, and is secured by two grub screws instead of the tab washer. In either case, if it's loose, 2nd gear tends to jump.You also can't tell that the detent springs are weak by looking at them, or comparing them to another old pair that have been in compression for decades. they only cost a few pence, so you'd be best off replacing them.

Like with all things, you get what you pay for. TI Console and RM make good springs, but here are other makes, especially the "unbranded" ones, whose quality are poor. As for the handling, a lot depneds on the dampers you fit with the springs and your tryes. Many expect miracles from the new springs, even though they have retained their original dampers to save a few pounds. the original dampers can't cope with parabolics, but many ignore the advice and then blame the springs. The same applies to drivers who are using old cross-plies at low pressure - the tyres will undo any benefits in handling gained by better springs. My 109 uses radial tyres, HD TIC springs and Proconp ES9000 dampers. the handling was nice and tight, though it seems to have gone softer recently, especially since the Alps trip. I suspect the dampers have failed - Procopms are good when working well, but they don't seem to last, despite their life-time warranty.

I think if it had been blowing between pots you'd have some serious erosion of the gasket - copper is pretty soft, after all. I have no idea how long it normally takes to drain the diesel through the piston rings, but overnight is much longer than I'd expect (never having done it or heard of it as a test before) - I'd anticipate the bores draining in about half an hour. From the position you're in, it's not a great deal of extra work to remove the sump, pull the pistons and check the rings for coking. At least you'd have the peace of mind of showing I'm wrong! You'll need a torque wrench for the big end cap nuts, but you already need one for the head bolts. You'll also need a ring compressor. Bad valve stemn seals will cause oil burning. To replace them, you'll need a valve spring compressor so that you can remove the valve stemn collets, washers and springs to access the seals. Make sure you get decent replacements - there are plenty of bad pattern parts around. You can check the valve seats and guides while you're at it.

One thought. The rings are all gapped, which means that for the diesel not to have drained into the sump within the two hours, the gaps must be clogged. I suspect you might have coked pistons and rings.

Jumping out of second is one of the symptoms of a loose main shaft nut. Make sure the castellated nut on the back end of the shaft (inside the transfer box) is fully tight. If it has come loose, you may need a new lock tab washer.

Well, the seal suppliers that I tried all said that the size needed wasn't available in polyurethane (the preferred option, and a possible opportunity for Polybush and the likes, I think), and PTFE o-rings would cost me £60+VAT for a minimum order of 100. I'll be sticking with standard rubber o-rings, then. The size needed for a SIII is either 14x2.5mm or 16x2.5mm The 14mm (inside diameter) is a snug fit in the groove, while the 16mm is just loose enough to rotate freely whilst being totally secure. When I bought LR replacements in the past, they were 14mm, but this time I have gone for the slightly larger size from my o-ring kit (a few pounds from Halfords). With a small application of graphite grease, it should last reasonably well - I think it was the abrasion that killed all the others over the years.

Don't buy the brake parts from Paddocks - they'll be Britpart, which have a terrible reputation for swarf filled leaky cylinders, oval drums and faulty shoes. Make sure you buy Lucas/GKN hydraulics and Delphi or Lockheed shoes. Goodridge make good brake hose4s which offer a big upgrade over the originals. Britpart seem OK for bearings, sttering rod ends and electrical parts, though.

Ok, so we all know the SIII, and most incarnations of SII, have a rubber o-ring in the groove of the ball at the bottom end to stop the stgeel ball rattling against the walls of the steel "cups" on the end of each selector rod. The problem is that these o-rings, being plain neoprene rubber, tend to wear out quickly, and the use of grease or oil to reduce the abrasion of selecting gears causes the rubber to perish. I have been trying to find alternatives. Polyurethane seems to be out because they don't make o-rings of that size as a standard - they'd need to be custom made, which would make them very expensive. PTFE has been suggested to me by a seal retailer, and they're getting back to me with a price for a minimum size order. Now, PTFE would have great longevity, but will it be to hard to prevent the stick from rattling? Apparently, it has some give in o-ring applications, but is much harder than rubber. Has anyone tried this successfully, or would anyone be interested in trying it if I have to make a small bulk order?

You can't use the Protection & Performance bar like I did in my 109. I think you could only remove pert of it, using the kit from www.mudstuff.co.uk , but it may cause trouble for the fuel filler neck and you'll need to think about the seats- the standard seat backs are supported by the bulkhead and will fall down if it's removed.

Wow! That's an amazing turn around. I love that cockpit green on a Series vehicle, even though it looked bad on the Defender Heritage edition. As far as the bumpiness goes, an ex-MoD vehicle probably has HD springs to cope with being fully loaded, so replacing them with standard or even parabolic springs will make it much more comfortable. I lined the back of my tub with the chequer plate patterned matting from Wright Off Road, matching the kit in the cab. It's excellent stuff. I also glued a cheap, chopped up camping roll mat to the roof panels before fitting a LaSalle head lining, which smartens things up no end (as well as stopping the internal rain). The December edition of LRe should have some photos of it, or you can take a look on my blog (sig below) to get an idea before you fit water absorbing and easily stained carpets.

I had already replaced the outriggers, dumbirons and rear cross member on my 109, together with a patch on the main rail next to a silencer box, but it was nowhere near that bad! The next piece of rot I found resulted in me starting again from scratch with a new chassis. I figured that if you have rot as bad as that in one place, then nowhere in the chassis is going to be terribly good, and it's be a lot quicker, safer and cheaper in the long run to replace the whole thing. Good luck with the repairs, though - you obviously have a talent for welding and are much braver than me!

They were replaced at the same time as the rest of the bushes at about the same time as the CV joints, So the suspension should all be fine. Just to rule them out too, the worn tyres have been replaced with new and balanced since the UJs were done, with absolutely no effect. I think it's transmisson related, either in the prop or the axle. I'm just wondering if there's anything obvious on the axle to check, other than wheel bearings and swivel pins, as I can't find much play in the prop.

It's not the wheel bearings - I replaced them as a matter of course when I fit the new CV joints. The swivel pins are good too. The front suspension is entirely standard, apart from DeCarbon dampers. The rear has police springs (about 1/2" lift) , but the vibration seems very strongly to be from the front. The amount of vibration was cut by about 80% after replacing the UJs, though over the next couple of thousand miles a lot of it has come back. It's not bad, just irritating. Evertything seems to point at the prop, but I have a habit of replacing lots of expensive bits before finding a cheap and simple cure...

A tiny amount of play on the steering box drop arm loses a lot of movement, so make sure the big not on the output shaft is very tight. Then check both steering relay pinch bolts, all six rod ends and look closely for relative movement between the lower swivel pins/steering arms and the swivel housings - worn studs can allow the arms to move significantly without turning the swivels.

Sorry, the thumbnails came out too small. I can't edit the originals, so I hope they're not too big:

No problem, Chris - I appreciate your help! I can see your concerns over having excessively long shackles. I'll see what castor I can get with standard height seats before shimming them. I'm trying to include manual drawings of the ambulance anti-sway bar systems - forgive me if they don't load correctly: Nick

I hope this doesn't come up as a repeat of my last response, but that hasn't appeared since Meccano's reply. The following is in response to his comments: 1) Does anyone know where I could get a suitable inclinometer for setting the castor angle, and have an idea on price? 2) I am using 1-yon shackles, but also 1-ton hangers at the front of each spring, so the springs sit relatively level from one end to the other. Do you think I'll need to make some extra long shackles to avoid deep spring seats? 3) So, the dampers will fit using the standard attachment points without fouling the track rod on full lock? 4) Using a Discovery TD5 front prop would prevent any vibration from the mismatch between the horizontal transmission axis and inclined diff - does anyone know if the lengths are similar and if the UJs are the same (allowing the yolks to be swapped to fit the earlier transmission and diff)? 5) I was planning to use the standard rear anti-sway bar from the Defender, using mounts which bolt to the sides of the chassis rails, wrapping around the exhaust on the left side. For the front, I was hoping to mount the anti-sway bar on top of the dumbirons, using SII/SIII MoD ambulance sway bar brackets, though this will mean I have to fiddle with the Tdi rad/intercooler assembly which is mounted there at present. I read somewhere that using one anti-sway bar by itself can lead to dodgy handling - is this correct?

OK - I rralise that they will run like that, I was just worried about damaging the viscous unit with it continually slipping.

Unfortunately, I can't remove the prop and go for a test run as these Classics have the viscous unit, not the standard centre diff. The bearings seem fine, though. I wonder if upgrading to a TD5 Discovery prop (with the yolks swapped over if they differ) would help?

Hi folks. My '95 RRC (300Tdi) develops a mild rumble and vibration at the front end at about 68 mph with medium toque loads applied. If the throttle is backed off or pushed all the way to the floor, the vibration stops, and the speed band for the vibration is only 2-3mph either side once it has started. The CV joints in the swivels have been replaced (the left one had failed), as have both UJs in the front prop. The rear prop's rotorflex and bush are new, though the UJ did not need replacement. Fitting the new UJs in the front prop temporarily reduced the vibration but did not eliminate it. I now suspect a worn slip joint or unbalanced prop, but don't want to be replacing good parts on wild guesses. Does anyone have any other ideas, please?

I think you're right to use the bushes on these bars, but also agree with the others that the geometry is what's probably caused the failures. The axle moves around a fixed point, and that point is the front spring bush - the distance from that point is almost unchanging, but the rear end of the spring moves fore and aft and also vertically (hence the use of shackles). Since the bottom of the axle is connected to that fixed datum, the top of the axle also needs a fixed datum on the same side with the same relative displacements. To avoid torque forces on the axle, the anti-tramp bar needs to form a parallelogram between the vertical extent of the axle, the longitudinal locator (radius arm or the front half the of the leaf spring) and the chassis. I think the best results will be achieved if you can make anti-tramp arms that run parallel to the front half of the leaf springs (measured from the spring bolt to the axle seat, ignoring the curvature), with the front end of the arms pivoting at a point the same height above the spring bolts as the rear end is connected above the spring/axle seat. The use of a rose joint on one end of each arm will also help with cross-axle articulation.

Thanks for that, and sorry for mis-spelling your log-on name!My shackles are indeed 1-ton, but so are the dumbirons, so the current spring and axle axis are horizontal, just like with standard dumbirons and shackles. I don't really want to lose any suspension height if it can be avoided because the winch, bonnet spare wheel, steering guard, bull bar, pioneer tools and extensive sound proofing make the front very heavy and have already lowered the front end to a height comparable to when it was on the same springs with standard chassis and shackles without all the accessories. I suppose, if necessary, I could have some extra long shackles made to rotate the springs and gain track rod clearance, but I was hoping to keep things simple. Do you have any ideas where I could get a reasonably priced and sufficiently accurate inclinometer? It sounds like good news regarding the dampers, if I understand you correctly that you didn't need them to be inverted for the track rod. Having seen the other solution of custom brackets above the rod line, I had just assumed that there was a clearance issue. So, do you think that the erect dampers will fit straight on to the standard SIII spring plates with no track rod problems? As for the rear dampers, would using the coil sprung mounting system be better at resisting body roll around corners, or would it only help momentarily as the turn started? The idea of fitting a TD5 Disco prop was just because with the relatively high ride height, the UJs are deflected by about 15 degrees (a guesstimate, not measured angle), but it looks like once the axle is swapped the front UJ would be nearly straight while the rear retains the kink. I figured that a double-cardan joint would help a lot with vibration, especially when under load. I don't know how the length of the Disco prop compares to a SIII front prop, but I assumed that swapping the yolks with Series ones would be a fairly simple affair. No doubt I'll now learn that the UJs are a different size! As far as the anti sway bars go, I had planned to make custom mountings for the rear chassis that would be bolted through the sides of the main rails (with crush tubes, naturally). The chassis brackets would have to extend down from the rails a little for the bar to clear the rear fuel tank, and would have to be flanged 90 degrees to the coil spring arrangement (ie. you'd be able to look through the bracket longitudinally instead of laterally) so that the left bracket could be wrapped around the exhaust, which runs along the underside of the chassis rail. I can't see any problems with that. The front is trickier, but I had hoped to mount the bar using brackets on the top of the dumbirons just like the military Series ambulances. The problem may be connecting the bar to the axle. From what I can understand, fitting an anti-sway bar at one end only gives some undesirable handling characteristics. I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of that - it's always useful to have the expertise of someone who has already done what you have in mind.

Hi everyone. I have a 109 on 1-ton chassis and shackles with TIC HD parabolics. The braking system is the late dual circuit, servo assisted type. The dampers are Procomp ES9000s. The vehicle is used as a daily commuter and also for trips, with a high gross weight and relatively high CoG. I'd like to fit later axles for a variety of reasons, principally better brakes, greater steering lock, CV jointed swivels and wider track. I have already secured a Discovery 200Tdi front axle in great condition, and plan to fit a Defender's disc braked rear Salisbury axle. As far as I can see, the rear axle looks pretty simple, just needing the leaf spring seats welding on and either a bracket welded to the axle for the 109 damper configuration, or the use of the coiler's upper damper mounts bolted through new bolt holes (with spacer tubes) in the chassis rails (advice on which would be best would be appreciated). The front axle looks far more complicated, with the issue of the diff housing being very close to the right side spring and clearance issues between the track rod and the springs and dampers. There is also the issue of setting the castor angle. I have found one existing thread on here regarding the conversion, and it gave me a few ideas, but it's a long-dead thread and there was no follow up as to how well the vehicles were performing. I was wondering if anyone one could please give me advice on the following: 1) How do you set the castor angle accurately to the required 3 degrees? 2) Is it necessary to have thick spring seats, or can the correct castor angle and track rod clearance be achieved with relatively standard thickness seats? 3) Does fitting the dampers inverted to clear the track rod, as done on the black Air-portable (Mechano's?), cause any problems for the dampers, or do I need to fabricate brackets to mount the dampers above the track rod axis? 4) I was planning to use a TD5 Discovery front prop shaft so that the rear end would have a double-cardan joint - can this be done without much hassle? 5) Has anyone any ideas on how to fit the axle donor's anti-sway bars too, as the 109 suffers significant roll on corners, especially when heavily laden?

Hi guys. I'm new to this forum, so don't pounce! I have been running a 200Tdi in my 109 for nearly a year and it has not yet harmed the transmission in any apparent way. This includes a 2,500 mile trip to do the Alps this summer, where the vehicle had to run down the auto-routes at 70mph with a 3.5T gross weight and all the drag of the kit on the roof, as well as dragging that weight up to 10,500' to the Sommelier glacier, and several hundred miles off road. The only mods to the transmission were the Rocky Mountain overdrive and transfer box bottom plate, and the only trouble on the transmission was that the oil turned a bit darker, like caramelised sugar. That is due to the heat from working so hard at high weight behind a Tdi and using cheap Comma mineral oil. Other oil changes where the vehicle hasn't been worked unusually hard produce normal looking waste oil. As for fitting the engine without the turbo, using the intercooler would not only have no positive influence, since the induction air is already at ambient temperature, but would actually slightly restrict the air, marginally hampering performance.