Eightpot

I bought some new mounts when I did my last engine conversion- standard round mounts. When I was road testing, I kept getting a hard judder through the steering whenever I braked, like ABS - only I haven't got ABS. After lots of head scratching, it turned out the engine was diving forward on braking, and the alternator fan was chopping in to the steering box - I bought another set of standard mounts, Britpart I think, and they were much much firmer compared to the others, problem disapeared and been fine since.

The biggest problem we found on our trip was people finding out where we were staying and bestowing hospitality upon us, though you are of course still in darkest Europe. You'll be able to relax when you leave the EU and reach civilisation... Have a great trip!!!

I imagine it would use a peg/hole hinge (dunno the proper name) on either side similar to a defender drop down tailgate hinge, rather than a piano style hinge? So muck no problem.

Numax batteries are superb value for money and are very tough. Not sure if a pair will fit in a Defender battery box though?? They can be used as either a starter or the aux battery, I swap mine over from time to time which I think helps prolong life even further. Chdeck out the x-eng site for prices/specs.

Fitted some paddock ones to my Rangie - I found them good quality, and they're still straight after lots of off road work.

I see you're not that far away and can recommend a Land Rover gearbox reconditioners a bit nearer - R Whitehouse & Son on Halfpenny Green airport business park - 01384 221304. I've been very pleased with the work they've done for me. There isn't much more work involved in fitting the disco engine, just need to make or buy the right downpipe, drill & tap a couple of holes for the bellhousing, move the clutch pipe over a bit. You'll have a couple of other things to think about as well being a petrol conversion I guess - fuel hoses/filter/return for one, maybe wiring too, but nothing taxing.

i think the 2 door he's looking at is also the later of the two, with the TDi, so double bubble.

ok, my error, just knew 300TDi was introduced in '93 - but anyway, the '93 car 'should' have the Land Rover engine, not the VM engine, although with old Land Rovers, anything may have been fitted by now....

If it's a Land Rover diesel engine, it will look almost the same as yours - the '93 should have a 300Tdi. '89 range rovers were fitted with VM Diesel - photo below;

Italian made VM diesel has a bad reputation, best to avoid. Range Rover is very similar to Defender otherwise - chassis, suspension, axles, so same possible problems. More chance of rust on the body - more of it is made of steel than a defender. Check floor in the load area, wheel arches inside the back doors, floor in front area, sills, body mounting points, 'A' pillar. More chance of electrical problems than a Defender - electric windows, central locking etc can be unreliable. Also find out which gearbox they use, so you can prepare yourself for any specific problems. I think they will use LT77 though unless auto.

Sounds like all the batteries are probably goosed - if you can unscrew the vent caps and peek inside, you'll probably see the plate are buckled or broken up. If you scrap all three, you may well get enough for a new battery - think I got nearly 15 quid apeice for the last ones I weighed in. If the batteries are well gone, even jumping won't help as the knackered battery will be sucking up all the juice. Once when I was in Kenya, a guy came up to me in a fuel station asking for jump leads, his landcruiser had knackered batteries, and he wasn't supposed to turn the engine off, but forgot when he went to get fuel. I tried jump starting him for ages, but the dead batteries just swallowed all the charge. Then a guy came out of the garage with a new big diesel battery, turned it upside down with acid pouring out all over, then let the terminals touch the car batteries terminals - massive spark, car started

I took the floor out in the end as it was a good chance then to fix my slack handbrake linkage, no other way to get to it. Took longer than removing the floor from my Defender, but easy enough. Took the lower dash out, heater (easier than I thought to get this out), unbolted seats, then you just need to undo all the screws that hold the main floor section and the rear footwell section. There are two big nuts on some kind of hinge under the car that hold the main section down and allow it to hinge up for some reason?? (but not very far unless whole dash is removed) they are under the main crossbrace under the seats and after you've removed the seats are the only thing other than all the screws you will see under the carpet holding the floor in. You may need to remove some exhaust bits too - I've got a diesel & different exhaust so didn't have to. It may actually be quicker to do the job from underneath & drop the box depending on how rusted up & manky your screws and bolts are, but fitting or removing the O/D is extremely simple with the floor up - 5 minute job. Taking the floor out gives really good access to the gearbox, so I could give it a good clean up, replace a couple of gaskets on some of the side covers and fix a couple of leaks and re-tighten all the bolts - hopefully I'll have a leak free box now, so will have been worth it. Also made it really easy to clean up the whole central part of the chassis and give it a repaint. Took a day to fit everything back in, but I was putting some bits right as I was going and did a thorough job of resealing the floor. Makes it a nicer job if you get some nice new nuts, bolts and screws ready for reassembly, I've done it all with stainless so hopefully next time it will be a nice quick job.

Both batteries should have same amp hour rating for best performance and battery longevity.

damn! had the diff lock vacuum switch removed yesterday and left it dangling by the vac hoses down the side of the gearbox - unfortunately the hoses are just long enough to let the switch dangle into the prop UJ - no problem till I moved the car a few feet to get better access and the UJ ate the switch The mangling has allowed me to see what the inner working are like though, always wondered what was in there - some intricate system of valves perhaps? Must be something very special as Rimmer sell them for 181 quid new - so what does happen when you pull that big purposeful button out? There's just a bit of rubber inside that slides over the holes for the vac pipes. Anyway, I'm now desperate for a switch - anyone got one for sale??

As I said before, Isuzu 2.8 diesel is awesome in a rangie - it's a real shame they never used this engine under licence rather than Tdi's or even worse VM's. Cracking engine - tuftrided crank, chrome liners, german build quality. Keep an eye out on ebay as engines and conversion kits from C&P do come up for around 500 quid - uses existing mounts and bolts straight to an LT95. With a couple of tweeks mine is easily more powerful than my old V8 and does 30+mpg. No way I would go back to petrol.

Those cheap thin extendable 'cafe' type net curtain rods are great for doing tracking - I keep an old Ikea one just for doing tracking. it's like a tube inside a tube - so you can slide it open it to the width of the rims at the rear, make a mark, then make another mark a mm or so further in so you can set up the tracking at the front of the rims. Bit more acurate than string and makes a quick job of it. Spose you could even use a stick in a bit of old pipe to the same effect.

I used roof flashing tape applied to the underside of the floor/tunnel/seat boxes and it made a massive difference to noise & vibration. Was cheap too, and it doesn't hold water.

I'm due to fit an O/D next week, and in the instructions it says to remove the gearbox mounts and drop the 'box down, presumably to get access to the mainshaft cover etc. However, as I've just had to get the heater out to sort a leak, I'm going to lift the floor pan so I can sort a niggly handbrake problem and a couple of other niggly little jobs - this won't take me long and I could have the floor back down tomorrow - but I'm wondering if leaving the floor up will make fitting the O/D mega easy and mean I don't have to remove the 'box mounts and lower the gearbox?? Anyone done it with the floor up?

I shifted the washer bottle on mine to above the steering box - I found there was a spare second wire for a washer bottle there, even with the connector on, so was dead simple.

The government are happy enough to shaft us all for every penny, so if someone has managed to sneak through loopholes to score a small victory then fair play. As long as the car isn't dangerous, stolen or misrepresented, then the only downside to a buyer is not having to take the long walk down to the post office every year to pay a sh*t load of extra tax. Most car enthusiasts are driving or building non factory spec cars, and we are very lucky to still enjoy the privilege in this country - sold a MGB to a guy in Germany last year, and he couldn't get it past their MOT test as it had non factory alloy wheels on, even though they were minilite replicas - try getting a 2" suspension lift and engine swap past them.

early range rover does have a bolt on gearbox crossmember. I was looking in to an R380 swap a while ago and struggled to find definitive info on mounting locations - I suspect though that the gearbox chassis mounts may be in the same spot. If your LT95 isn't goosed don't discount it - they work well with a diesel, and you can change the final drive ratio if you have one of the earlier low ratio boxes, without removing the 'box. look into Isuzu 2.8 diesel conversions - engines are much cheaper than TDi's, I would rate them a tad higher, and you can get a full conversion kit that uses existing engine mounts & LT95 from Conversion & Precision - engines/kits pop up on ebay fairly regularly for a few hundred quid.

Can use a passenger front indicator unit if it's in good nick?

I paid less than a tenner for a new one at one of the shows 18 months ago I certainly wouldn't pay 40 quid for one - I'm sure one of those cheap push fit plastic ones you get at petrol stations will do you till one crops up at a regular price, or a plastic bag & elastic band

electronic bank transfer is a good if both banks support the Faster Payments system - payment can be complete within minutes or certainly hours - you have to look for & select this option specifically though, otherwise my bank defaults to standard transfer which takes days. Some banks (like mine - Halifax) have a £2500 transfer limit, others are much higher. List of Faster Payment banks here

So the RAC think lack of fueling is down to a power steering pump and a pressurised fuel tank? So presumably it all runs ok if the fuel cap is off then? If you're struggling to get revs and it's not kicking out tons of black smoke then you're not getting fuel in - could be blockage in fuel pipe, sedimentor full of carp, dirty fuel filter or knackered lift pump.