Eightpot

I ran without any silencers for a while which was ok, but I did find it got a tad irritating on long motorway journeys. I just have the rear small tailpipe silencer now which just takes the edge off but still souinds good and is free breathing - if your just tooling about it it though it's absolutely fine with none. Ditto the above - make sure the end of the exhaust is outside of the bodywork or it roars like crazy.

I had to clean up a surface rusted chassis with an angle grinder and cup brush recently, a very unpleasant job due to the huge cloud of rusty muddy dust expelled, and got pretty dangerous too as my goggles got dirty very quickly, dust mask was quickly overcome and it was difficult to see what was going on. Had a quick look round the workshop and found an old Mondeo twin electric fan left over from a project that never happened, and after sticking it to some old bits of angle iron and putting a couple of crocodile clips on the ends of the cable came up with this... I've made it so it can lie on it's side to drag air out from under a car or stand vertical for doing sanding jobs etc. Clip it to an old leisure battery, and the extraction power is pretty impressive - it easily keeps clear air under the car while attacking a rusty chassis with a grinder and did a pretty good job of getting the mist out of the workshop when I sprayed a car recently - it wasn't near my spray area but a box behind the fan was completely painted by the mist being shot through the fan

Ref the seals, I've used Britpart, which were utterly useless and frankly don't fit, Bearmach, which are better and can go in ok but take a bit of care (filing the edge of the seal retainers a tad as above helps), and Genuine Land Rover which always seem to go in nicely - definitely worth paying the few bob extra for genuine. It's very easy to damage the outer seal retainer, especially once you've done a few and get cocky, so might be an idea to order an extra seal kit. I get the pistons out using a tmax tyre inflator - take the valve head off and then just put the rubber hose over a bleed nipple - hit the switch and mind your fingers...

The switch needs to be pushed in to turn the brake lights off. the brake pedal holds the button in normally. Adjust the switch by screwing it into the housing till the brake lights go off, the when you push the pedal down a fraction they should come on.

It's heavyish, it's only 3mm thick or something though so maybe adds a few Kgs, nothing to worry about. I used it on my old ex-MOD soft top with Tdi fitted. We used to use it for all our trips, and with the Tdi fitted and new turn of speed, the gearbox noise got unbearable as well as the general noise created by the panel vibration. So I got this stuff and spent a day doing the underside of all the panels in the front, and under the seatbox where I could, and then making sure all the panels were fitted properly with no gaps etc. I made up some nice rubber footwell mats out of rubber matting from Machine Mart, and did one for the back as well. The difference was pretty significant, especially over 50mph - I'd say a reduction of 40%ish. The high pitch scream from the gearbox went pretty much completely, and it made a big difference to the noise transmitted through from the exhaust, engine and whirly bits - not surprising really as without any soundproofing there's only a thin bit of ally between your ears and a thousand clonking screaming honking moving parts I won't over egg the results, but it was definitely 20 quid worth spending for me.

Thanks for the update - genuine springs are pretty soft, some of the work being taken up by the Boge strut, so it doesn't take a lot to make them lean I don't think. I was just wondering if the shock absorbers might be causing this - if you are using standard LR ones, which tend to have little resistance on the compression and stiffen up when being pulled out. So coupled with a soft spring, when you swing the door open and get out of the car you put a load on the driver side suspension which goes down easy, then the increased resistance going up halts it on a slight angle. Guess the way to check this would be to rock the car a bit after you've got out and see if it levels up??

That's the very stuff. It doesn't look 'orrible, cos you put it on underneath the panels, so you can't see it - but it does go on very neatly anyway - it's made to be on the outside of a house after all. It's very permanent too, especially if warmed over with a blowlamp, mine didn't shift after several desert crossings.

a good and cheapy way to make a significant difference to the sound level is go down B&Q and buy some roofers flashing tape (like a roll of thin foil lined bitumen). You can get it in widths roughly the same as the width of a floor panel. Take up your floor and transmission tunnel and line the underside with it - just give the panels a clean and the stuff will stick to it - helps if you warm it over with a blowlamp too. The outside is foil coated so no mess under the car and it kills the panel vibration dead and really reduces sound coming through. If you line the underside of the seat box too it gets even better. A neater way of doing it than putting underfelt and carpet in in my opinion and means you can still hose the interior out.

Oooohhh - where can I get some of that from??? I need to make a new floor in my Rangie ambulance and would like to ditch the thick marine ply - i've been looking for something like that for ages.

I think I had a similar noise in the same place on an old ex-MOD 90 I was running a while back. A resonance with a slight ring to it which seemed to come from around the bellhousing area. Not sure I ever got to the bottom of it, so no help from me I'm afraid, but at least you know you're not going mad edit - I did check quite a lot of stuff to reduce noise & vibration and I put soundproofing pads on all floor panels, so it wasn't that - I suspect it was either a gearbox or clutch component or a silly bracket somewhere - I think it did disapear in the end but can't remember why.

I'm not totally convinced the weight makes all that much difference - it seems right that it should, but maybe the torque characteristics of the diesels mean it doesn't. I've been monitoring my fuel useage for a couple of years now in my Rangie ambulance (with 2.8 Isuzu turbo diesel) - while we were in Africa I was getting a steady average over a tankful of 29mpg when doing distance driving on fast dirt roads, and the all up weight was usually sitting between 2.6- 2.8 tonnes. It's all stripped out now and weighing around 2.1 tonnes, and if I sit on the motorway at 65 in overdrive, I get around 32mpg. A lot of energy must be lost through the 4wd system and the weight of all the propshafts, diffs, gears and big heavy wheels the engine has to turn all the time. And then we get excited about fitting a Kenlow fan to save energy

Well I wouldn't buy a car just so you can go on holiday in it, so buy the one that you like most & that's going to be of most use to you in the first place, then suffer any inadequacies for a couple of weeks if you go away in it. They will all do what you want, but the Disco's will get you there quicker and with a bit of aircon, and more elbow room, handy if you have an account at Greggs. Defenders are extremely practical in every sense, but not as comfy or economical, but no beer tastes like the first beer taken after slithering out of a hot dusty Defender. If only they'd made a long wheelbase Disco, that would have been a touch.

Would weather/temperature conditions have an overall effect on the calculations as well - do we get slightly better mpg on very cold days due to the denser air?? I don't think overdrive makes that much difference to mpg. on my rolling barn of a Range Rover ambulance, I've been experimenting with different tyre sizes, starting with 205, up to 235/85, and have now also added an overdrive. This has brought my rpm at 65 down from around 2750 to 1820 (perfect for my Isuzu diesel), and I would say at best, if I stick to cruising at 65mph, I maybe get 2mpg extra. On the plus side, at 90 it's only doing 2600 rpm Surely the only way to make a serious dent in economy is to reduce weight and wind resistance. Maybe lower the springs, a smooth steering guard to improve airflow under the front, road biased tyres. Then remove the roof and sides, recline the seats, fold the screen down and wear a swimming cap.

Tyron bands were fitted to a lot of military Defenders - they are basically a metal band that fits round the well of the wheel rim and stops the tyre coming off the rim so quick in a blow out I guess - the bead can't get into the well of the rim. I have a couple of new looking ones here you are quite welcome to if you cover the postage (guess they are for 16" rims though??) Only downside is they are a bit of a pig when it comes to changing the tyre, and only a high end tyre fitters can normally do it as they need good hydraulic presser down thingies to push the tyre down far enough all the way round so they cabn get an allen key in to undo the band. Your backstreet guys cant do em.

cheers bud, I'll take a look at that - put a load of brake fluid in at the mo which seems to have helped a little, hoping that the box has just been off a car a while and the seals may be a bit dry, but it's an old 3 bolt box and frankly I'm only delaying the inevitable investment...

You can use it on any Disco, 90, Rangie, front or rear. It's just a rubberised metal ring that sits on top of or under the spring, supposed to isolate a bit of noise and vibration I think, though can't say I've noticed a bit of difference, but a quick and easy way to get a little extra lift. If you have a couple of axle stands and a bottle jack it's quite quick and easy to put them on - Jack up car under rear axle and place axle stands under chassis (near radius arm bushes) remove rear wheel Undo bottom shock nut Slowly lower jack under axle, and it should droop low enough that a little gap appears over the spring, if not pry it down a tad with a bar - slide in spacer. put everything back and do the other side.

not sure there's a simple and clean way, I would try to undo both hoses from the steering box at the same time (if you only do one, fluid will start pouring out of the open port on the box) and then dunk then in a bucket and open the reservoir cap. or just leave it

Just to make sure you're checking the right bit, on the side of the transfer box casing, drivers side near the chassis rail, you have the small round vacuum actuator with the vac pipes coming of it. Just a little forward of this is the round diff lock switch. (pic below) I thought there was only one wire coming off from memory, but checking this picture there are two, so you should get continuity between the two terminals when switch is moved. Check the terminals are in good nick though, as I had to re-solder one of mine as it had gone dry. I'll check my manual later when I get to my workshop, but just have a quick google it looks like one terminal should be earthed, the other fed to live via the lamp.

Even if petrol was a bit cheaper and cleaner for any reason, would you slip ten jerry cans of it under your bed at night or put them next to your gas cooker?

Hope it all works out better than the box I changed yesterday - bought it from Newbury after the guy assured me it didn't leak. And guess what Worse than the one I took off. Nice way to spend a bank holiday.

The round warning light actuator on the side of the gearbox is just a mechanical switch, it's pushed from behind by the actual diff lock actuating rod inside the 'box that slides forward and back to engage/disengage diff lock (towards front of box is engaged, to rear is disengaged) If you take the switch off*, you will be able to see the rod behind it and you should be able to see it move back and forth when you pull the vac knob up and down. These systems are pretty robust on the upside, so as long as everything is connected up ok, they generally last a long time - mine's 30 odd years old and works great. *it's been a while since I've poked around with this, so I'm pretty sure it's the switch you need to remove to do a physical check, but if not there may be a little cover or something next to it - 90% it's the switch though...

Thats already the case for many overlanders travelling from the EU - there are very tough restrictions in Germany for example which forbid many modifications, even down to wheels an tyres. (sold an MGB to a German guy couple of years back and he couldn't get it through TUV test as it had minilite alloys on) I've met quite a few European overlanders who were travelling in UK registered cars because of this - our legislation around modifying cars is one of the more relaxed around. We get a tough break on some things, price of fuel, taxes etc, but we do get away with some pretty lenient rules on modding our cars.

There are a couple of things you might have slightly out - when I did mine, I first centralised the steering box ouput shaft by rotating the input shaft from lock to lock, counting how many turns (3.5) then taking it back 1.75 turns so it was in the centre. Then checked drop arm was pointing straight ahead. the drag link might need some adjustment then to make sure the wheels are pointing straight ahead when the steering wheel/drop arm are in the straight ahead position. Sounds like you might need to wind one of the ends in a couple of turns to shorten the drag link and give you a bit more right lock.

I've been eyeing up air powered sheers/nibblers for cutting out shapes and panels in sheet metal - they would appear to be a great labour saver and a better option than slitting disks or hand sheers which curl the metal, but has anyone used them and are they any good?

ok, cheers