deep

Looks like a TEA Fergie? I can't think of them as old. Everyone still seems to have one! Lovely beasts.

P.S., for what it's worth, I think this is the type 50 booster.

Last week I finally got my ex-Singapor military 110 through the nasty VIN process and it's road legal. 20 miles later, I seem to have had a vacuum failure in the braking system. Groan! I am after some advice, please. The brakes had been absolutely fine. While I was playing on a friends farm (going up and down steep, rutted hills at the time - it is, after all, a Land Rover!) the brakes suddenly went very firm and ineffective. Suddenly, as in, they worked, then the next time I used them, they didn't. The pedal was so firm that the brake light didn't go out unless I jiggles the pedal. However, the brakes weren't binding and still worked with a very hard press. I brought the car home and investigated. It seems, when you first touch the brakes, there is a definite hiss from the booster and there is a fraction of help from it for the first millimetre or so of pedal travel. Any firm push, though, and that assistance is gone. My various manuals haven't been much help. An internet search suggested the push rod from booster to master cylinder may have been set too long. I have now wound that in (I got around 3/16 of an inch or so). That has actually helped pedal feel a lot and sorted the brake light issue but there is still virtually no vacuum assistance. There is enough braking power to lock the wheels but that is all coming from my right leg. When I first put the car together, there clearly was no vacuum boost. That problem was quickly traced to a worn out belt-driven pump (it has the 18J motor, largely the same as the 12J naturally aspirated diesel but not identical). Much to my amazement, it turned out to be cheaper to buy a whole 19J motor and take the pump out of that than to repair the old pump. When I did that, the brakes were simply fabulous. I can confirm that the pump is still happily sucking away like it did when I fixed it, so can't believe that is the problem. In my investigations, I see that a spider-killing wasp has made a nest in the top of the pedal box - it is quite likely something has crunched up while I have been driving. I took the master cylinder off and worked the pedal several times though its full travel and it certainly feels like something has "un-crunched". Still, the brakes aren't boosting. I've done the "start the motor while your foot is on the brake" test and the pedal remains firm. The other test of running the motor for a while, then pump the brake and listen to the hiss yields one decent hiss but no second one. I have also tested the valve on the booster outlet - you can definitely suck but not blow past it. I can't detect any leaks while idling but it is a rattly diesel.. So, my question to the learned amongst us is: Is this something that could be fixed by fitting a repair kit or is a new booster necessary? For those wealthy people who would just fit a new booster as a matter of course, you should know this rebuild has put me a fair way in debt and anything I buy now is coming off a burdened credit card. I don't want to pay for anything I don't need! Thanks in advance, Don

I once had a Daimler V8. Gorgeous car. It would be worth fitting just to listen to it! They mostly fitted to a Borg Warner gearbox which was common in it's day, so there might be a kit somewhere that adapts to/from that? The manual had, I think, a Moss gearbox which is possibly far more rare than the motor. Lots of those Daimlers rusted away - it's just possible you could find a motor taken out of one. So unlikely though.

Reviving an old thread but I was surprised to see on my new VIN documentation that my engine number is down as an 18J as well. This is supposedly a 1987 ex-Singapor military and had the huge 24 volt generator (gone now), the nasty Spanish belt-driven vacuum pump and bigger pulleys for a wider belt. Exactly as in those photos, in fact. I have a 19J on the shed floor and the only major differences I can see, other than the obvious turbo, are a completely different breather system and subtly different injection pump. Number 4 in the post above is an engine number remarkably close to mine. They can't have made many as the highest number there is only 00633!

I'm no expert but I did read around the topic about two years ago. I found a test of around ten winches, which basically looked at how far they went before something broke. Every one exceeded the stated rated load, some by only five or ten percent but others by nearer 20-30%. If you look at a 9,500 lb winch, on it's first coil at maximum pull, that rating is 4.3 metric tonnes, which means it could actually be capable of putting a five ton load on the mounts. Whether or not doubling that is sufficient allowance in your design depends entirely on how accurate your calculations are! This is quite timely, because I am planning to put my 13,500 lb winch on my 110 (if VTNZ ever get realistic about accepting the import documentation, grr) and am having a real think around how best to mount it. I hadn't actually thought about calculating mount strength as my normal approach is "overkill in theory, then bodge". Not ideal, so why not do it properly this time?

Does this help? I was just looking up part numbers, came onto this webpage found you were looking for something similar! (Though I realise this is for a 110, I believe 90 rear drums are the same).

Hmm, looks like I've come up with a blank. Can anyone at least point me in the direction of some better information? I'd love to be able to drive the poor thing...

He's going to tidy it up and sell it. However, it is some distance from here to France!

I'd have thought a motor like that would be very happy with a four speed! Ironically, a mate just bought a Defender with a Mazda 3.5. I'm curious to see it now.

Hello, knowledgable people! I've been chasing fuel leaks around the Lucas CAV injector pump on my 1987 non-turbo 110 Land Rover. One of the parts which was leaking (but not longer is, for now) is the bit circled in the attached diagram. It seems to be some sort of adjustor but is not mentioned in my downloaded CAV repair manual. Does anyone know what it is and how to adjust it, if so. I've pulled the top off my spare TD pump (similar but not the same) but it is quite different in that area so no real help. I've also found that, when I track down a leak and repair it, diesel then starts to force its way out of a new orifice. This makes me suspect there is too much internal pressure in the pump, which doesn't make much sense to me. Is there something I should know? Or is it just a chain effect of old o-rings failing on a car that hadn't run for some years? I would, obviously, like to avoid taking the pump off and trying to find someone in New Zealand who can service it (after all, the car runs beautifully!) so any help would be gratefully received. I've spent the last year rebuilding the vehicle and it nearly passed the brutal VIN inspection yesterday. I am quite keen to get this project finished.

I've driven the LD28 in a Land Rover and can confirm it's not a a conversion you'd use for power, though it is flexible and can get up some speed, if your ears can take it. It doesn't have a TDi's terrible turbo lag though. The Aussies used an Isuzu 3.9 in some of their Land Rovers so a range of Isuzu motors could be an easy fit. My parents had a 2.8 in their camper van which was a nice engine. However, if you are used to the Mazda and like it, that sounds like the way to go. The quote above for a rebuild kit might work out to be quite good value?

Yup, like Josh said, it was a common bastar...conversion here in NZ to stick an LD28 in a 90/110 or even a Series Land Rover. It works because the motors rev fairly well but they are really noisy! They must fit ok because there were many done and few reported problems if done well.

That's fantastic, when you get into it properly and it works out. Often it doesn't, with me, because there's a tiny something I missed. I know exactly what you mean by "pulls like an absolute train". I used to love that! Well done on a nicely sorted job and thanks for giving such good info.

As a few people have noted, waterproofing the coil is most important. Even if a distributor is vulnerable, it takes a little while for water ingress (unless you dump a hot distributor in cold water!). I had a couple of Land Rovers with this problem and both responded well to using a squirt of CRC before any river crossings. With the old Stage One V8, I actually found a puddle of rusty water in the top of the coil! A proper water proof coil cap made that motor very water capable, with standard distributor. Simple "first stage" diagnosis - coughing and spluttering when entering water = distributor; sudden total loss of ignition = coil. All assuming you haven't actually put your whole motor under water...

I'm quite sure my old 109 Stage One V8 was plated for a four ton trailer, as was my older Series 3 diesel. With the latter, I actually did tow four tons (with a 2¼ inch towball) and brakes weren't a problem because it didn't reach speeds which tested the brakes at all - i.e. I could stop very strongly. The Stage One was capable of much higher speeds with a heavy trailer but, in either case, I'd have avoided any big downhills with that weight because I know how freaky brake fade can be (a 1950 bus with vacuum brakes on some big New Zealand hills). Of course, coupled brakes overcome that to some extent, if you are brave enough to rely heavily on them. I have also towed a five ton horse truck up quite a steep hill with a Series 3 88" (an emergency situation, it was stranded on a blind corner), which it did deceptively easily - deceptively because it broke a half-shaft a few weeks later. Conversely, I have towed large loads (such as a car on a transporter) with some modern vehicles, such as my work-supplied Mitsubishi 4WD, and found the experience very unnerving, despite having more power and vastly better brakes. Twitchy power steering with little feel, over-sensitive brakes, suspension not designed for it and the ability to build up speed too easily all contribute. What I have learned from all this (law aside) is that the inherent stiffness of a Series chassis, their brakes and steering that require a firm input and the lower speeds involved make these cars very suitable for towing heavy loads, especially as you can call on a whole lower set of gearbox ratios. My one big caveat would be to beware of brake fade on big hills but, really, if you have to tow heavy loads up and down big hills you should be using a truck. I also recall, when I was interested in big loads twenty years or so ago, that the way to go was using electric brakes. I have absolutely no idea how they work but it could be worth a search?

Soren makes a good point. I once had to drive a fair distance with a stripped rear drive flange on a Series 3. Despite the front axle effectively doing the work, the mismatched rear pulled strongly one way under "power" (if you can use such an impressive term for a 2¼ diesel) and strongly the other way on lift-off. It was very unnerving. The basic proposal will work but so badly I'd either stick to very slow speeds or just let the welded diff spin your inside tyre like a quad does - or do what Soren wisely suggests!

I've had two that seemed to shrug off vast amounts of water. The Range Rover with the Mallory had water over the bonnet five times in one trip and never missed a beat. Literally. Even the carpets stayed dry! Modern plug and dizzy caps and make sure the coil has sufficient protection. A piece of plywood in front of the radiator for deep crossings surely helps.

I had a 3.9 with Strombergs and absolutely loved it too. A great combination. Just a word about your leanness - it's not simply the needle you use but also the absolute jet size. At large throttle openings and with the revs up, a 3.9 shifts more air than a 3.5 so needs a correspondingly larger jet. At smaller openings, the needle position regulates mixture (and is easy to set) but at large throttle openings the jet takes over. Find bigger jets or, if you are brave and capable, open the jets out slightly! In my case, I was more interested in the torque and actually restricted my throttle movement. It didn't stop the car leaping forward when overtaking from 60 m.p.h. though. Cue large grin... I, too found the manifold a bolt-on swap but went one further and put the older timing cover/front end on (as it sat the fan higher in my Stage One V8). Contrary to common wisdom on this forum about crank lengths, that was a bolt-on swap as well, though I did have to open up a hole on the alternator bracket to match a larger thread in the block. I also used a Mallory distributor on my last Range Rover (3.5 e.f.i.). In that case, it was an optical one and had the wonderful characteristic of working when fully submerged! Simply brilliant.

Classic! Good on ya for sharing that. Lots of us (me included) might have quietly skulked around hoping nobody chased this up... It's excellent that the solution was so painless and the vendor's reputation remains intact.

A mate recently got his Defender through a VIN inspection. I asked if I could have a look at his battery mount because I'm putting together a 110 which also needs a VIN. He said not to bother, it's just sitting loose in the battery box and is on his to-do list! Getting any inspection in NZ is a bit of a raffle. I always wipe down all my leaks just before I go in... Ironically, the last job on my list is a leaky p/s pump but it's quite different to yours.

I did something very similar. I bought a genuine Clubman GT, minus motor and wheels. I bought a whole running MG Metro and put the motor in (after a lot of panelwork/paint on the GT. It went really, really well but my lack of professionalism showed in the details. Who really needs brakes? There is a thread in the video forum on Project Binky. Anyone even remotely interested in Minis should get some popcorn and watch the ten videos so far. Very inspiring for Land Rover builders, oddly!

Oh yeah, forgot that - the first car I ever drove was a Land Rover. And I have had a couple of Minis too...

For me it's been something deep in my psyche. Brought up in Kenya and living most of my life in (very isolated) New Zealand, I still feel very British and that's what older Land Rovers are. I'm also a very linear thinker and like the direct designed-for-a-purpose engineering of earlier Land Rovers. There is also part of me that hankers for real adventure and Land Rovers are good for that, even if my biggest such adventure was only a 31,000km criss-cross of Australia in a 22 year old Range Rover, just over a decade ago. Anyway, I've had a dozen or more Land Rovers, including Series 1,2,3, Stage One V8, two 110s and two Range Rovers (plus eight Rover cars...). I get paid to drive a M********i 4WD so maybe don't even need to own a car at all but I've learnt that living without a Land Rover isn't what I want. I've also learnt that the basic seating position of a Land Rover works very well for me (unlike some Jap cars which have crippled me recently - an expensive visit to an orthopaedic surgeon today confirmed that!), that they are far more reliable and durable than hype would have you believe and that they are remarkably easy to get parts for, considering the age of the ones I tend to own! And yes, I do use them. Great for getting into forestry blocks for firewood, accessing summer swimming holes up the river and getting to some very remote country in my job as an ecologist.

Well, there are reasons to balance your wheels properly but the dreaded steering wobble occurs at a much lower frequency than the vibration of an out-of-balance wheel, so that won't be the problem here. There's no mystery though. Start at the wheel bearings and work on through the system. Nothing in particular may seem bad but there is a resonance set up at around 50 m.p.h. which takes very little to trigger.