Eightpot

Take a look on paddocks website at the exhaust systems - the last version of the 300tdi defender exhaust (without cat) is a perfect system - follows the same route as the TD & N/A exhausts and doesn't have the transverse mounted silencer. it's got a nice fat bore as well so sounds great and seems to give a little more power. halfords sell a usefull universal exhaust hanger which helps mount it in the centre.

you always need to check a driver has insurance before letting them drive your car. If they have no insurance then you could be prosecuted for allowing an uninsured driver to be in charge of your car - whether there is an accident or not. If thier insurance policy allows them to drive another car not owned by them, and you have insurance active on the car then you're fine. If they have taken out temporary cover on the car then you're fine. If they don't have the right cover, then they simply can't test drive the car on a public road.

Good info - another one I use is www.4x4autoparts-online.co.uk who refuse to use any Britapart. Run by a very nice bloke who knows how to treat customers as well.

The installation instructions I have for the 2.8 conversion kit from Conversion & Precision stipulate that 1mm washers must be installed between pressure plate and flywheel. That's when using LR clutch plate and Isuzu pressure plate, so could be to take account of a difference in depth between Isuzu and LR pressure plates, maybe the LR clutch plate is 1mm thicker, or the position of the flywheel might be slightly different on the Isuzu. I run the Isuzu pressure plate, LR clutch plate and have 1mm washers in and pedal position and operation is perfect.

I've used RAC day cover a few times, worked out at less than £20 a day for a regular car.

Cat D isn't a 'write off' - it was just uneconomical for the insurers to repair - cost of repairing a cracked bumper or scratched panel on a P38 might quite quickly creep towards the bottom book value of the car when it's repaired at an insurers bodyshop using genuine parts. Cat D doesn't have to be declared to anyone, though it is good form to tell someone you're selling the car to and one reason you should always do a HPI check these days.

Electric fans are a bit carp, but not as carp as the viscous fan would be on the 300Tdi I've just dropped into an early 90, after it's finished a few hundred revolutions through the steering box

Well I popped into my local old school motor factors - such a shame there are less and less of them these days - he bought out a box of thermostatic switches, and I'm in business. he had quite a range that close the contacts from 80 up to 105 degrees. I picked one that closes the contacts at 95 deg, If that seems to be tripping the fan on too early I can always go back and get a higher value one - only £9 per switch so no biggie.

Thanks Mike - well I've just pulled the ac switch out of the housing and it appears to be an M22 thread, and I just came across a list of intermotor thermostatic switches on another forum - I'll nip over to my local factors and see what they've got.

I need to fit an electric fan onto a 300Tdi conversion I've just done, and was wondering if I can use one of the AC switch ports on the thermostat housing to screw in a suitable thermostat switch - has anyine done this and know if any suitable switches will match the thread size?

I managed to get some Cooper 235/85 at Tiger tyres in Maputo in Moz for an incredible £120 each last year, fitted and balanced. I think they did me a bit of a deal and maybe there's a better tax rate in Moz?, but worth checking out as it's only a short run from SA.

Or start partying in Capetown, drive up the east coast till you're fed up with feasting on lobster, pineapple and cold beers, drag yourself out of a warm torquise sea and when you've finally got bored of looking at elephants lions and dolphins, ship back from Mombassa. or drive from mall to mall on a six lane motorway through the states. Both have thier merits.

I thought the plastic sleeve was to stop the seal getting damaged while sliding onto the crank? I did one last week and there was no way I could get the seal over the crank nose without deforming it without using the plastic sleeve. That said, I couldn't get it over with the sleeve provided with the Bearmach oil seal either, but it slipped on easily with the sleeve I had from a Britpart 300tdi oil seal. Is that just me being overly sensitive though?? I was under the impression you had to be really careful with the seal lip or it will leak if you so much as touch it.

You can mount a TDi canister filter on the pasenger side inner wing, you just need to make a simple bracket to mount the filter to the inner wing. Easy to connect up to the intake on the turbo then as well. To make room you would need to move the washer bottle over to the driver side -- to do this just remove the bottle, follow the wiring back a little way till you get to a multiplug near the heater, undo it, then you will find the same multiplug on the drivers side (for LHD vehicles). The washer bottle fits neatly between rady and expansion tank. Even the washer tubing reaches if you unthread it behind the dash and route it to its new location.

I had to repair a similar problem in the same place on my old Rangie - a small rust hole led to a split which almost went all the way round the chassis! I ground out all the rust, welded in flush repair sections and ground the weld down flat, then wrapped a 2mm steel sleeve round the chassis and seam welded it. It had to cover the shock mount area as well, and holes drilled through for the mounting bolts. It's been a year now since the repair and I've carried a lot of weight in the back an it's holding up fine, yours looks in better nick than mine did so I don't think you'll have any problems.

If you're getting a lot of bounce it means your shock absorbers aren't doing thier job. I don't think soft springs help either as they don't resist the bouncing very much. I normally fit NRC9448 & NRC9449 springs on the front (standard HD), and with a good gas shock absorber with standard rubber shock bushes (not tightened up too much) you should have a nice handling front end.

I'm going to mention these polydiscs again just because I was so amazed with how effective they were at cleaning a crusty old chassis, I will never use a wire cup brush again. They cost arounf £7 each, and you will need probably 3 to do a 90, but they strip back to shiny bare metal extremely quickly and no danger of getting bits of wire stuck in your face. Used to take me about five hours to clean a 90 chassis up with a wire brush, can do it in about an hour with these.

I've used the hammerite underseal a lot and never had a problem - the metal on your chassis looks a wee bit crusty underneath to begin with, did you clean it back to clean metal first? Unlike hammerite paint the underseal is just underseal, not a rust convertor. If you've got a small angle grinder, get a couple of abrasive polydiscs (look a bit like a round brillo pad) these will whip it off quickly and don't clog like other abrasives. Flap discs will work as well and a wire cup brush in a drill for the corners and awkward bits. It's quite an oily mix, and if you're careful you can burn off areas that are thick with it with a little blow lamp. I usually warm it over with a blowlamp after I've put it on as well as it helps it flow evenly so there are no pinholes in the coverage.

there should be a label under the oil filler plug on the transfer box stating which ratio it is - though it may have been jet washed off by now.

Sounds very like a worn vac pump - get a piece of tube or hose and put one end to your ear and the other end on the vac pump then various other spots on the engine and you will know for sure if thats the culprit.

The washers are need to get the isuzu cover plate in the right position - I think they need to be 1mm thickness from memory.

you can use a discovery windscreen as well, should think you'll be able to find one of those locally easy enough.

have you checked to see if your shocks are ok? If they're worn and coupled with rusty old saggy sloppy springs you might have a ride like a victorian pram. 90's definately pitch about a lot more than a 110 going fast along a rough track, but I wouldn't have thought it should make that much of a difference on a regular road if everything is working as it should - I regularly swap between a 90, 100 &110 wheelbase and haven't hurled yet. You can pick up Armstrong shocks for £12 a corner on the 'bay, so worth trying that first before getting the drive extended.

You should find the green/black wires running from the bulkhead, along the side of the heater motor near the inside of the wing. A few inches past the heater there is a two pin plug, and then a short extension cable of the same colour connects this to the washer pump.

hmmm, yeah - ref the horn, you would have had to be pushing the horn button at the same time as connecting the wire the wrong way round otherwise it's not actually live (unless you already had a wiring problem/melted loom somewhere that is causing all of this) I was thinking of my early range rover which has a permanent live to the horn, and the switch controls the earth.