Jon W

Right I know this has been covered before somewhere, I have a 90 bikini top with fittings. I may have acquired a series 2, which I want as a summer toy so hence taking the hard top off. Now I guess the hoop will fit onto the cappings but is there anything else? I know the screen rail and bits above the doors look different. Will the drainage channels behind the door work and the canvas itself will that fit? A cheap solution for the summer I thought of was to put a defender screen on for the summer although not a period look it would be functional. Cheers Jon

Yer bolts are tightened with it on it's wheels, alright it does sag to the drivers side slightly. Could this have anything to do with it?? I will go back to the supplier and ask as am pretty sure they will be shocked that they have gone so quickly. Oil leak, yep I have one of those as well but not so bad that it has reached the bushes. As you can see the picture I paint doesnt make it sound the healthiest of vehicles. But it does still drive nicely when it doesnt have the panard rod problem. Jon

Urgh, this is going to cost me I think. looking at it, looks like the radius arm bushes will need doing, plus the ball joints arent in the best of conditions. Swivels leak a bit and are old so preload probably isn't what it should be. Problem is this truck is going to be taken off the road in November so it doesn't seem worth paying out too much on. My plans for it in November are either break it for parts which will go onto a project 90 if I get one or use it as an off road only depending on time space and money. Now the dilema is this, the axle in there at the moment is a 10 spline axle. So do I rebuild the swivels which will cost about 150quid in parts. Or buy a second hand 24spline axle which is in better condition. Ideally a 24spline would be better if it was to be transplanted onto another vehicle. If I did rebuild my 10spline axle could I put 24spline internals or an arb in it sometime in the future, as it seems a false economy to replace it with something that is already warn. Cheers Jon

I haven't noticed an ovalised hole, but then I haven't been looking for one so I will give it a good look over in the next few days. Thanks for the idea bish. Yer I am going to run with this rod for a while but I would like a spare one incase this one eats the bushses in the next month as nee the truck driveable Any other ideas are much appreciated Cheers Jon

Right here is the problem. 1994 Land rover 300tdi discovery. A while ago I had a bit of steering shake at 55 - 60 going round corners, so changed the panard rod bushes. This set were a pattern part off ebay, anyway they lasted a month. I put this down to poor quality parts. They went from fine to undrivable in the space of a trip less than 100 miles. SO got back and got a spare panard rod from the scrap yard just to keep me on the road. Last week I decided I would put new genuine landrover bushes in rod that came off the discovery, the place i got the parts from pressed them in for me. So less than 300 miles and 1 days off roading today, I left the off road site and immediately something was wrong, the bushes were shot and violent wobbles at anything over 25miles an hour. The spare panard rod from the scrap yard is on again now and its fine to drive again. So what can cause bushes to fail like that so quickly?? Surely there is something wrong with my truck for this to happen. My defender lasted 10years of hard use without them being changed. Thanks for any help Jon

I had a problem like this, on my 200tdi, it worked out to be the timing was moving, as my front pulley have come loose and worn the keyway, so the timing would advance and retard accelerating or on engine breaking, hence a lot of smoke. Problem resolved with chemical metal for the worn key way and new woodruff keys. So have a check of the timing and front pulley. Jon

Spectators allowed??? Am down at the parents at the moment so it is only just down the road. Jon

Yup its normal they all do that, so dont worry about it. Jon

Had this on my discovery before the snorkel was even fitted I don't know how they ended up in there, they were slightly squashed to say the least. Jon

Well what can I say a cracking event. Best one I have ever done, nice change from the usual dragging the car on the end of a winch line all the time. Good range of navigation, speed sections and punches. Topped off with coming 3rd after devon and tony baskerville. Thank you to all those involved in making it such a good event, the marshalls and organisers especially as it must have taken an incredible amount to get it all sorted. Plus over £4.5k raised for charity. Cheers Jon

Well the engine alone would fetch a bit, so it might be worth breaking it. Otherwise it would be a case of finishing it or selling as an unfinished project which never seem to go for as much. Jon

Cheers turbo but have had a good poke around and it it definately something escaping from the back of the engine by the bulkhead. Yer there should be 2 of us working on it, my mate who has done a few of them before so hopefully it will go smoothly, he reckons we should be able to do it in just over 3 hours, as says you can do it without having to take all the front cover and timing off. Any bolts that I should be soaking with WD40 now, I will probably go and spray any rusted ones I can see. I decided to get a set of new head bolts as don't know the history of the engine and they were only £20 and don't want to get part way and not be able to put it back together. Just hope it actually works noticably better than when it's done as it is so flat running on 3 cylinder lol. Jon

Hmm this seems to be the general opinion. Not what I needed to hear when I have to be in yorkshire and then scotland for the muddy truckers on thursday, Just got a headgasket set, so it look like it will be a late night tomorrow night to get it done. Ah well dam land rovers, I should have stayed with the german engineering. Jon

Well my discovery, has seemed a bit down on power recently and have replaced a few bit here and there as I have found issues. It has not kicked into life like a normal tdi does, but crank a whole turn and then needs to idle while the 4th cylinder come in. I replaced a spill pipe which was split a few months and this didn't do much, I suspected the lift pump so I have replaced this and the pipe to the filter. Sedimentor cleaned out and filter also changed. Then when checking the pump was fitted ok with my head under the bonnet I heard this chuffing noise sounding like the exhaust gasket was blowing. But traced it to the back of the head, there is a chuffing and gas being release out the back of the head, this is a bit oily. Oil and water levels seem fine however and have not gone down, no oil in the water so I am hoping it is not the head gasket. Does anyone have a diagram of the back of the engine? as would like to see what it could possibly be as can't see down the back of the engine. I know there are core plugs down there but I doubt it is that. Any advice is much appreciated. I thought I woulod put it in hear to get more views as these engines are in Discoverys, range rovers and disco into defender conversions. Thanks Jon

It's the pipe from the lift pump to the filter. I think I will just try and get a new pipe as it is only short so hopefully won't be too expensive. Cheers Jon

Just to bring this back up again. I have just put a new lift pump on my 200tdi, and now it is leakiong at the union. How do you change the olives?? as mine seem firmly attached. Do they just slide into the pipe end?? Thanks Jon

Not too bad so far but I will have covered less than 5k on them so far. They are definately a much softer compound than my old BFG's used to be as the saharas howl more on the road and you can feel it more round corners and heavy breaking. Personally I like them as they are very predictable, but for high milage you can't beat the BFG's. I went for insa's as doing a bit more off road so doesn't matter that mine have rock cuts all over them already and are only a few months old. Jon

When I looked the dakar was the bfg copy and they came in 265/75. I have the insa turbo sahara in the 235/85 size and these measured 32" when I 1st got them on rims. Jon

Gearing will be affected too. I have 235/85r16 and it is ok but wouldn't probably go much further without tuning it or changing the transfer box. Jon

That didn't take long then, whats next?? Jon

Any idea what a 200tdi rev too?? Im sure my disco revs up to over 4000 without any limitation. Jon

It's all sounding really good, can't wait for it as am co-driving for Robbie Birket. He is currently putting the finishing touches to his recently tray backed TD5, pictures should be up on 4muddyfeet. Whereas I just need to get my GPS working properly now or learn how to use his, oh and maybe the odd bit of fitness between now and then! May see some of you there. Cheers Jon

To make it more confusing for some reason my disco 1994 has the left hand rear shaft with a slim newer type shaft, and the short shaft is a imperial mushroom headed shaft so who know who built it like that, as it wasn't me! Jon

Yer I know that is an option, but was wondering if there are any recommended ones. As I know with my VW transporter you could fit a L200 intercooler very easily. So was wondering if people have any pictures of their setups etc and which types will actually provide more coolinmg than is already there. Jon

I would like to put a larger cooler into my disco. Non I would love to be able to afford to be able to pay for a big one built for the job but I can't. But most intercoolers seem to pass from say one side of the engine bay to the other and are not twin pass which would allow both the inlet and the outlet to be in the correct place where the old cooler would be. Has anyone managed to find a good size intercooler off another vehicle which will fit without to much chopping about to get it to fit. I ahve my eye on an evo 8 intercooler on here, but I think it would mean moving the battery and all sorts to get it to fit and long runs of turbo pipe. Thanks Jon