Eightpot

You really won't notice a huge difference with the 1.4, it will just drop engine rpm, there's enough torque in a good engine to disguise the gearing difference but you won't necessarily go any faster as there isn't the hp to overcome the wind resistance.

If you still have the original LT77, military 110s had lower ratio 1st & 2nd gears than standard which will help if you change to a 1.4 box I've used 12j's on 1.4 boxes and it's fine, though slight inclines have you dropping down the gears. You will help yourself a lot if you avoid roofracks, lots of bolt-on ironware and aggressive tyres I've done lots of overlanding in n/a defenders - 60mph cruising speed is a bit wishfull, think mid 50s with occasional downhill thrills and lumbering tortuous uphill slogs. There are some pluses to the n/a, long road trips aren't a strong suit though and even changing the ratio won't help much other than lower the engine rpm a tad. my last trip in one I had to get it to Florence in 24hrs, ragging it flat out through the night all the way on motorways without stopping - I managed an average speed of less than 40mph. The engine & transmission noise gets very intrusive on long journeys and I'm pretty sure has contributed to my tinitus, so have a think about lining the floor panels, closing floor gaps and using heavy mats etc.

Last time I camped at a LR show, we all got woke up at 7am with a generator running it's nuts off, which went on for over an hour - I eventually gave up hopes of a lie in and went outside to see what was so important, to find a lady in a pink robe in a neighbouring tent operating a toaster and heating hair tongs.

Are you sure your car is 24v? Is there an alternator on the other side? Most Defenders of that vintage only used the 24v Alternator to charge the radio batteries.

With coach enamel (polyeurethane) you should use either a good quality white spirit or ideally 'Fast Flash thinners' which are made for the job. I've accidentally used standard thinners before now and got away with it, but being such a strong thinner it can cause problems with whatever you're spraying onto.

Fish eye comes from oil and silicone contaminents, not water - usually from oil blowing past compressor rings, traces of wax left on the surface or using things like wd40 in the same area. Water leads to micro blisters.

There's not an easy answer to that, it's a big subject. If you want to go with the factory colour you're limited to cellulose paint really, 2k is too dangerous to use on a diy basis if you're not equiped or trained. If you don't need to stay with a factory colour you can use 1k synthetic enamel which is quite forgiving but largely only available in BS and RAL colour schemes, though Lechler have a good colour match system which gets very close. Your local paint supplies shop is probably the best place to go and get supplied with compatible etch, primer, filler and top coat. Don't be tempted to use 2k unless you pony up for a 6hp compressor, air fed respirator and suitable ventilation equipment.

Sounds like the stop solenoid wire is linked to the brake circuit & energised/turned off with the stop light circuit. Aside from poor repairs or wiring modifications which will need some time working through the wiring with a diagram and circuit tester, it may in worst case be down to a short circuit resulting in a partial loom melt behind the dash/fusebox - one or two wires short out, get hot and melt the insulation of surrounding wires so the cable inside touches. Fixable either way.

To be honest I'd be making a nuisance about repair for a few days, then when they're totally fed up talking to you switch tack and get a healthy payout so you can buy another and move on. You could be driving and enjoying your new car in a matter of days rather than fighting for months then waiting for a rebuild.

The big reserves don't have much impact on animal behaviour, they are protected wilderness areas so animals are left to be wild. Kruger and masai mara are each the size of Wales, Kalaghadi even bigger - and each have less daily visitors than Alton Towers. Most animals won't come into close contact with people other than occasionaly seeing a car in the distance. Very much different to a safari park for example.

There's a big difference between European wildlife, which in the main are prey animals, and apex African predators such as lion, leopard, cheetah. They don't see cars as people, just big slightly irritating non food items. In general they aren't afraid of humans as we are easily caught & killed - we are bottom of the food chain without a gun. Same goes for elephant, rhino, hippo, giraffe - they can crush us like bugs and very often do. Elephant also very often like to crush cars like bugs. Big cats like to catch thier dinner very early in the morning or early evening, they rarely bother during the heat of the day and other animals know this, and there tends to be a truce around waterholes so they often walk past each other though with some distance - and game animals are very difficult to catch on open ground anyway. Even a cheetah struggles to catch impala, the chase can go on for well over a kilometer. Kruger is a great place to visit to observe animals being animals.

I had a corker of a prang a couple of years ago when I offered my broadside to an rapidly oncoming transit van , ended up with a very banana shape 110 and a few bruises. Insurers offered more than I paid for the car straight away, and let me buy it back at a bargain price. Didn't bother putting a new chassis on, just sold it on for a profit.

While you've got your wallet out you might as well pop some new piston rings on while you've got the thing pulled apart, and give the cylinders a quick hone..

Exactly, and with a 300tdi it's usually a problem with the alarm module not providing the earth path on that yellow relay. It's not ideal running a wire direct to the starter as it's a fire risk if not going through a relay, so worth reinstating the standard wiring.

Just quickly scan reading this and not fully reading replies, I would suggest that someone has had an ignition problem in the past and wired directly to the starter motor with that red wire - i.e. a bodge. Ignition switch takes permanent live from brown wire. Red/white takes power from this when key in correct position. The Red/white runs to the starter relay under the fuse panel & triggers the relay. The thicker red/white supplies power to relay on top of starter motor. The alarm module provides the switched earth path to the starter solenoid under fuse panel - this can cause problems and may be the cause of original fault - no earth, relay doesn't work. Using a multimeter check to see if the relevant pin on the relay is earthed - if not you can cut the wire, put a ring terminal on and attach it via one of the fuse panel screws to bulkhead (or get a replacement alarm module if you want to keep immobiliser)

Core plugs rarely give trouble - in 30 years and 50 land rovers I've not had one leak. Concentrate on oil leaks 🙂

I can recommend D & A Steering in Birmingham by the way for service exchange boxes, I use them at work - very good quality work and well priced.

Its a superceeded part number, same box.

There are guys out there with small flatbeds & trailers that just run cars door to door back and forth from UK to Europe, dropping & collecting cars as they go. I used a Polish guy couple of years back who delivered a car to Italy for me, cheaper than it would have cost me in fuel to drive it there. Can pm you his number though not used it for a while.

Yeah POR15 tank paint is extremely good - used it a couple of years ago on a thoroughly pinholed rusty Fiat petrol tank with a leaking seam, it's still 100% leak free.

If you're planning on overlanding, and doing Africa/middle east/stans/Asia etc, I'd either swap to standard height shocks or match the springs - quite easy to bottom out a laden truck on bad roads, hidden speed humps, wadis and washouts and you want the impact on the bumpstops & chassis rather than the shock mounts. Even with matched stuff I've punched the shock mounts through on rough roads. If you're not overlanding or doing a different kind of trip ignore 🙂

Ah, I see what you mean - not tried it but can't see a problem aside from the pressure being higher - there was also an in-tank pump for the 2.5 4 cylinder engine and carb V8, PRC7020 which is probably a lower pressure

He was going for a 'bull nose' look. He also made a custom dash that looked like a smashed pinball machine, and made a custom 'pepperpot' rear lamp arrangement with lamps hidden behind circular cutouts in the rear panels - looked a bit like firing a shotgun into a lampshade if you can picture that. On one of the South African groups I follow, but when he asked what he could get for it and I suggested a box of matches, admin had a sense of humour failure 🙂

The back of that 110 was as bad as the front - I didn't have chance to grab a pic as I got kicked out of the facebook group for mocking it 🤣

Saw this come up on one of the FB groups last night - thought it might be harbouring a merlin engine or something but its 300tdi, mods are purely aesthetic