EdF

I am shortly buying another touring caravan which is German and fitted with the 'new' 13 pin socket. I believe 90's have a 'ready-made' towing electrics connector under the right wheelarch which presently powers the existing single socket towing electrics. Does anyone know if this socket will power 'twin electrics'. that is, the usual caravan set-up with the conventional 7 pin socket for the lights and another socket for powering things in the caravan, such as the fridge. I can get an adaptor for single or twin old type sockets to the caravan to the 13 pin caravan socket. Thanks for any help.

Thanks to all who replied so far.. I think the Lockheed one may be easier to source by mail order (I live in the frozen north, where parts dept. guys are trained to say, "We dinnae stock tha..") I don't mind photographing my pedal (anything for a laugh..) if I can get a reminder of how to post a photo.. I thought they all had a spring to return the pedal, not to help push it.. or surely it would create pressure on the hydraulics and thence the clutch...? But I won't swear to it, even though I've removed and refitted a couple..

My wife, having had several serious leg injuries, finds the 90 TD5 clutch a bit too heavy. I once had a link to a servo that can be fitted to the clutch, but it's lost. Anyone know where to get one? Thanks..

My neighbour has owned a RR V8 since new. It's an 'R' regd and has only done 55k miles but the body is getting a little tired round the edges and he'd like to find a reputable restorer to tidy the bodywork and generally 'go over' it. As we live in the north of Scotland it may be difficult, but he's prepared to travel and leave it. DIY is out of the question.. An interesting footnote, he was quoted £392 to fix a seized front caliper and replace a brake pipe. He was presented with a bill for £780 when he went to collect it. Talk about 'think of a number and double it'... A main dealer... He didn't pay it..

Personally, I think the 'Special Vehicles' badge is a bit misleading as many seemingly 'ordinary' Landys have it on the back, but no doubt someone else will know otherwise. Perhaps it denotes a non-standard vehicle, but I don't really know.. I believe that all standard 90's have the same suspension whatever the body type (hardtop, pickup, County, etc.), however, perhaps you're right. See if the springs still have a colour code (daubs of paint in a vertical line down every coil), then you can check if they're standard or not using the spring table at http://members.shaw.ca/jbarge/springinfo.html . There's also the question, 'how long does a standard Landy spring & shock absorber last?' The shockers on mine weren't leaking but I think they were knackered after 40,000 miles and 6 years. Also, the springs lose their boing after a few years, depending on usage. The most comfortable 90 I ever owned as far as suspension is concerned was a 1987 V8 County, but I think it was only because all the bushes were shot! That led me to believe that Countys were sprung differently, but I was wrong. I won't be looking for any other springs, I'm quite happy now with the ride. The springs I have on are standard rears and NRC2119 'green' on the front, which are Disco TDi/early RR HD 150lbs rating. Cheap as chips (£9) from Paddocks. It's difficult relying on the opinions of others, sometimes you just have to try something out and if it's not right for you, try something else! We're planning some very long trips on the road and I feel this set-up is right for that, for us..

Just been for a brief 5 mile spin after putting the new Bilsteins on. A very good improvement, even the trouble and strife was impressed and said it was money well spent.. Now, bumps are truly 'absorbed' which they weren't before and the motor has a much better 'feel' to it. Had to replace a front turret 'ring', the thing with the four captive bolts which goes on top of the spring to hold the turret down. They now come with, wait for it, METRIC threads!! I used the 'black' Bilsteins (road use) from MM4x4 at £152 inc. vat & carriage for all four. Best 'good make' gas damper deal I could find.

The spot of weld occured to me, too, but my welder was sold after a V8 90 rebuild. I seemed to get one bolt with a head a tiny bit bigger than the rest, and it seemed ok. I had thought of drilling the head and putting a peg in it, but didn't want to jeopardise its strength.

To conclude, I got the rear output flange off easily enough and found that the bolt head in question had made a mark in the flange shaft, enabling the head to turn. I realised the propshaft had been off before as Ashcrofts put the Disco ratios in the transfer box. One of the new bolts held in that hole as well as the others so I just put it back together. In future I'll take it easy when untightening/tightening those nuts (by holding the ratchet handle extension shaft 'tight') as jagging away at the nuts obviously causes the bolt heads to damage the flange. To get the bolt/s out of the flange one needs to take the circlip out of its slot and slide it down so it sits behind the brass coloured disc, then sit the flange on a bench, bolt threads upwards, and tap down with a hammer on each bolt in turn, letting the bolt heads push off the circlip and disc. I asked a LR technician in the stealership how to do it.. Easy when you know how.. I managed to fill the rear diff with fresh oil - standing up..! Used 4ft of hosepipe (caravan internal water pipe - nice and soft) with a funnel poked in one end and the funnel supported with a small bungee to the spare wheel. Poked other end of hose into oil filler 'ole, making sure the hose had a nice fall on it (back end of 90 on ramps), then gradually poured in 1.7 litres of EP90. Only took a couple of minutes. Used to fill one of those half litre plastic bottles and squirt it in, used to take ages.. Incidentally, in future I'll order the nuts and bolts from Paddocks as 8 nuts, 8 bolts, a new big Nylock nut for the output shaft and a fibre washer came to over £18.. And that's with 4WD club discount..

Interesting replies.. The springs which were on the front were the originals and I replaced them with a softer cheap pair from Paddocks which are better but the damping seems suspect as the wheels tend to bounce after hitting bumps. I put softer springs on the back but had to replace them with the original ones as I now tow an avatar trailer with a heavy noseweight and even solo the ride height dropped too much. I've ordered the black Bilsteins from MM4x4 (£155 inc. vat & carr. for a full set) - they say the yellows are (arrggh) heavy duty for offroad. The progressive springs sound interesting, who supplies them and would they be 'heavy duty?? I just did a search but only found a reference to OME ones. I checked out JE but all their full suspension mods are into 4 figures, too hot for me, though I wouldn't mind a suspension height drop. I'll post again when the Bilsteins are on..

Yes, I agree, I get fed up of seeing ads for 'heavy duty' this and that.. As I've written before, a 90 already has heavy duty suspension, compared to a Discovery at least. A 90 has the Disco heavy duty springs as standard, and a Disco weighs 400Kg more. One only has to look at the spring chart and read off the ratings.. I'll bang off an email to Scorpion who may do it - at a price.. The standard front suspension on my 90 (before I changed the springs for something softer) made a small pothole feel like hitting a concrete step. The standard shock absorbers are pretty basic, I believe, and are very cheap to buy..

OK, I'm not going to get ANY replies!! I suppose using '90' and 'comfort' in the same sentence is a contradiction in terms... I'm thinking of trying the black Bilsteins from MM4x4 at £40 ea inc. vat & carriage but has anyone experience of the Britpart ones from Paddocks?

Luckily, my local stealership has all the bits I need in stock, but their small parts carousel (which goes up through the first floor) is knackered.. Two guys had to wind it around by hand to get the pinion oil seal.. They'll all be shagged out as they can't get it fixed for 2/3 days.. Can't understand why LR put 'old' nuts and bolts here and there.. UNC, AF, metric and metric fine all gets a bit annoying! Every Landy owner should own an angle grinder. I think LR should put one in every toolkit!

Just replaced the rear diff pinion oil seal - at last. Came to replace the rear propshaft and - arrggghh - one of the studs (bolts) poking through the handbrake drum began turning when tightening the nut. Never known THAT happen before.. Had to burn it off and I've got the handbrake drum off. I think removing the output flange looks easy (famous last words??) by locking the flange using the remaining bolts and undoing the big Nylock nut in the middle (someone please confirm!!) but what bothers me is that there seems no apparent reason for the bolt to turn, the head looks good, the corners on the head are not worn down and when I put a new bolt in there seems no reason that won't turn as well.. The motor is low mileage and not that old (2002) and there's no sign of previous 'trouble' and things having been dismantled before.. Any advice most welcome..

I used one of those galvanised strips full of holes you use to hold roof trusses and other timbers down - they're useful for all sorts of small jobs. I enlarged one hole and drilled another 60mm away in a length of it about 2ft long and fixed it to the flange holes (that the propshaft bolts to) with a couple of 13mm bolts. Happily, it sat exactly under the exhaust pipe. This enabled me to undo the flange nut fairly easily - using an old bit of pipe over the socket ratchet handle for extra leverage. There was no groove in the flange shaft. What ticked me off was that I distorted the new seal putting it in as I couldn't find anything of a big enough diameter to use as a drift. I took it out again and will have to get another. Doh... What do you guys use?? I think I used a bit of plastic drainpipe last time...

Ah, I did a search before I posted and saw a reference to self tappers, but didn't understand what it meant. I'll remember that one for next time. I just shifted it by hammering it inwards in a couple of spots with a big sharp screwdriver, which distorted the steel ring inside the seal enough to give a little bit of movement, then finally managed to oik it out, a la Mo. Corr, what a $£"*&! job. Difflock or someone else could do worse than market a little oil seal puller for this job. I've got one of those cheap sets of three different sized pullers and the smallest 'arms' were too chubby to go in the gap between seal and driveshaft, so I made three slimmer ones out of mild steel, but one of the ends came off under load. Might work with more care, maybe, perhaps... Many thanks both..

I cannot shift this oil seal... Done the job before on another motor but this one is stuck fast. Any ideas please? Tried a puller but can't get the legs in, not enough room..

I know I'm going to get a few varying replies here, but what would others recommend? I have standard ones on now. Once tried Monroe gas ones on the front of a previous motor and they were okay, De Carbon adjustables all round on another (on soft) and I couldn't tell the difference from standard. Don't want to spend a fortune, but I will if it's worth it. Quiet road use only.. It's a 2002 90 TD5 County pack, so anti-roll bars. On another tack, I was wondering what to paint the rear crossmember with as it was getting a bit rough. Tried some paint but it stood out like doggies whatsits, so I carefully stippled black Waxoyl on with a brush - just enough to cover the surface - and replaced all the manky bolts with stainless bolts and washers (fun getting old ones out..) and it looks great. the Waxoyl is hard enough and doesn't rub off.

Hi, I find the springs in standard 90's much too hard and I put softer springs in the front and back of mine (and on my last 90). I used this spring chart where you can find the spring lengths and ratings fitted as standard and maybe some alternatives. http://members.shaw.ca/jbarge/springinfo.html Kindly supplied by a forum contributor. I found the ride much improved, but although the spring heights given in the chart may seem okay and comparable to standard, I found that the ride height of the vehicle can be affected. I had a thread about springs going on here some months ago and got some strange ideas being aired, for instance, one guy thought my 90 would 'throw itself off the road' with softer springs. There also seems to be a widely held opinion that 90's and 110's need heavy duty springs fitting, which I've never been able to comprehend, but if you look at the chart carefully you'll find they already have heavier duty springs compared to, say, a Disco. The Disco heavy duty springs are what is fitted as standard to a 90, and a Disco weighs another 400Kg! Disco's have softer springs than a 90 and weigh more and you don't see many of them in ditches. I think I put Rangie Classic springs on the front and Disco rears on the back.. The front is 'just right' as far as comfort is concerned, the standard springs were bone-jarringly hard, but it does ride a bit higher at the front now, and you'd think it wouldn't! Also, the Disco springs were better on the back, but perhaps too soft with a load carried and it rode lower, and as I started towing a trailer with a very heavy noseweight, I put the standard springs back on the rear. So, I don't think they were ideal for ride height and I would have changed them for something else. I can't tell you which to put on as a 110 is different to a 90 but yes, I think it's worthwhile if you can figure out which ones to use, and as the man said, it depends what you carry in the back. Paddocks are your best source (IMHO) and some are so cheap if you get it wrong it won't break the bank. Changing the back springs takes about a half hour a side, the fronts take longer.. (To change the back springs I carefully support the chassis on axle stands, remove both rear wheels, both shock absorber top bolts and drop the axle one side after another, don't usually need spring compressors.) I've changed shock absorbers before, but on a previous 90 Koni adjustables made so little difference (on soft setting) I leave the standard cheap an' nasty ones on these days. I haven't noticed any difference at all in body roll. Perhaps if cornering at 90mph, I would, but I don't...

There is another factor which you bring to mind, the trailer sat behind the 90 like it was another part of the 90, not a trailer. Having towed various caravans, twin axle flatbeds, and three different horse trailers, this is the most stable by far.. I towed it from near Warwick to home, 502 miles up the M6 etc and not a twitch out of it. Artics, buses and sidewinds didn't affect it. It's probably the most solid horse trailer I've come across. As for the Straightliner Stabiliser, it doesn't use a simple friction device like the majority of (cheap) stabilisers, but a gas ram and if the trailer starts snaking, it's the only stabiliser on the market which will push the trailer back in line, rather than just attempt to slow the movement. The inventor claims no trailer has ever snaked with one fitted. The bad accident I mentioned earlier happened so suddenly I could hardly believe my eyes. The trailer went left, right, and then threw the Disco left across the road.. I was doing 55mph and about to pass the outfit, so it wasn't going that fast. The trailer turned over and the two ponies ran off. They seemed to be the only things unharmed. It just happened, there was no apparent cause.

Yes, that's the point.. A few years back I saw a horse trailer with two ponies in it snake and turn over, right in front of me, throwing the lot into the path of oncoming traffic, on a dual carriageway without any central reservation (now converted to a motorway, between Glasgow and Kilmarnock). I used to be a fireman, and that was the worst accident I ever attended, and I was off duty in my own car. There was probably one fatality and many people seriously injured. I've also seen the aftermath of two caravans, another horsebox and a stock trailer turn over. I'll do whatever it takes to prevent that happening to us.. What concerns me more than anything is that the trailer when loaded may be exceeding the stated manufacturers weight limit of both the Land Rover towbar and the trailers tow hitch. And how would I stand in court if I had an accident caused by one of those components failing? We've all heard stories of land Rovers pulling artics and trains, etc., but that's not the point, as sgnas writes. If anyone is concerned about stopping a trailer snaking, look up the 'Straightliner Stabiliser' sold by SAS products online. I've got one..

When I was a kid, if a horse went down the street (usually the rag & bone mans) and left a deposit, many a housewife would collect it and put it on their rhubarb. My mum didn't, thank God, we had custard on ours.

Some interesting points... I think the 90 has enough problems without bags of cement in the back! I take it you were joking! Surely if the towball is dropped (and it is a bit too high) then the nose weight will increase? The trailer is front heavy, if the jockey wheel disappeared, the hitch would clang heavily on the ground. We only ever travel one horse and this trailer loads in the 'herringbone' (diagonal) manner, so there's a forward and rearward position. The trailer maker recommends when carrying one horse it should go in the front but it appears to me that that would increase the load on the hitch and towball as the horses front feet would be forward of the front axle.. The trailer maker reckons there's more weight on the back feet of a horse, something we would argue. I suspect the problem would be better with two nags on board as that would get more weight over the axles. I am beginning to realise it's going to be tough getting the balance right, a problem compounded by not being able to get the towball any lower than the present Landy towbar will allow. On my last post an adjustable Dixon-Bate was suggested, but even that isn't quite low enough, but better than the Landy one. This is without resorting to a drop-plate. The only answer seems to be to take a nag in the trailer back to VOSA and weigh the noseweight again.. Just hope they don't want to MoT the nag as public transport.. Which I think they will be again soon... 60 miles per half bale of straw, not bad... Can we demand horse lanes in cities and on the M4??

I posted earlier about getting my 90's towball height correct for a trailer.. As a follow-up, I made a startling discovery.. I was in touch briefly with the Land Rover tech. dept., who told me that the weight limit for my 90's towbar is 150Kg. That is, the maximum amount of weight that can be exerted on the towball & towbar by the trailer hitch. I believed my trailer was very heavy as I couldn't physically lift the towball even a fraction of an inch, so after I tried using the bathroom scales which went right off the scale, I went down to my friendly local VOSA (MoT) HGV/PSV testing station. A very nice lady let me use their axle weight 'mini-weighbridge'. I set the trailer level and put a steel bar from under the trailers tow hitch down onto the weighbridge and wound up the jockey wheel. I was rather shocked to find that it read 140Kg, as the two horse trailer was EMPTY! I'm not going to reveal the make of trailer as I have told the makers and asked them to check it out, but it's a rare beast so don't panic if you own a nag box. I also noted that there was a weight limit on the trailers tow hitch, also of 150Kg. I'm pretty certain that towing this trailer fully laden would take the weight right over the limit for both the towball and the hitch. Worrying.. How many drivers check this aspect of their trailer and towing vehicle? I've never done it before and the lady at VOSA had never seen anyone else do it before. There was no charge by VOSA. And all the noseweight gauges I've seen on the web don't measure anywhere near as high as 150Kg, the highest I found was 115Kg. In these days of litigation and 'health and safety awareness' it may be wise to check the weights if you tow a heavy trailer.. I've located a maximum towbar weight guide for different vehicles at :- http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/...iceofTowcar.pdf

Smo, I don't think you read my first question... If I was about to bolt the towball to the crossmember, why would I be looking to place the towball lower than my present standard Land Rover multi-hole tow plate?? Don't worry about it, I have days like that, too. In fact, every day....! Yes, the Dixon-Bate from Paddocks looks good, just hope it's low enough. Bit hard to judge from photos..