V8david

Yes mate, my panel=your glass bit! Good luck with it. Like most jobs I suspect it needs taking apart completely, cleaning and greasing. Total pain in the arse and incredibly time consuming...

Could also be you've lost pressure in your primary circuit and are operating on the secondary (only going by the manual here ). Have you got any leaks? Like Bille said, get underneath and have a look around while someone operates the brake.

Yes mate, works a treat now. I took the panel out, took off the seals and cleaned them with soapy water. They were rock hard and jamming the panel in the roof, bit of a clean and they're good as new! Also took out the headling section and tightened up the trim, that was loose and also causing it to stick. It's easy enough to get out. The headling piece is clipped along the front edge of the panel with 6 clips. Pull them out and slide it back, then you can see the 6 screws holding the panel in, 3 each side. Unscrew them and lift the panel out. If you need to get the headliner bit out as well there's 2 rivets (one each side) attaching it to the slide mechanism, drill them out and it comes out nicely. It's simple to get back together, bit fiddly and a PITA but you'll get there. I gave everything a good clean and smear of silicone grease and it works a treat. Good luck with it mate. Having said all that is your panel glass? In which case I don't know if this'll help at all

I stuck duct tape over the glass and frame top to hold it in place while I dismantled. Door card out, bolts out from front and back edge of the door, unscrew and remove the window motor/actuator mechanism and remove from inside the door, undo the two screws attaching the channels to the inside bottom of the door, wing mirror off (were applicable!) waste rail seal off, then the frame lifts out with glass still attached. Take tape off and out slides the glass... Must say it's one of the few step by step procedures in Haynes that went rather well!

where's this topic going?! reckon there's at least infinity times a million punch lines for that... adult naughty step?... sorry

Thanks very much all. Most helpful. I always thought the recommended setting for the swivels felt a bit light. As usual with old landrovers it's down to 'feel'! Thanks all for excellent and intelligent answers to my stupid questions

Cheers Dougie. Just what i needed mate.

Not sure anything is up with it really, just read about taking them off and giving them a good clean. I have slightly annoying symtoms of occasional poor idle. After starting it struggles to idle and sometimes stalls when I put her into 'D' and the revs drop. This soon settles and after a short run she'll idle at 750RPM in 'P' and 'N' and drop to 500RPM when I put her into gear. This also happens after a run. She'll be performing fine but if I switch the engine off, say at a services or at the supermarket, or even just to fill up, when I restart I get the same problem. It has trouble idling and will sometimes stall when I select 'D'. Again this soon clears once I get going and is fine within minutes. The problem can happen during a run, without switching the engine off and on, but not to the same extent and nowhere near as bad as switching off and on again. So anyway, I've read about the stepper and it's a nice easy job to do, worth giving it a clean anyway even if it does nothing... I think what I should do is work through the efi manual from the tech archive...

Nice one. Cheers Fridge. Top two pictures cover it. Just what I needed! All I need now is the swivel setting...

Hi all. Two questions really... 1: Can someone give me a difinitive figure for setting the swivel preload. With the seals in place (i.e. I want to set them by just taking the wheel off, disconnecting the steering rods and not dropping swivel grease all over the drive!) I have heard 14lbs resistance from my local independant LR specialist, please advise! 2: Where can I find the stepper motor/idle air bypass valve (etc. etc. heard so many different names!). It's a 3.5 Efi. Various descriptions i've heard are vague to say the least, and pictures I've managed to find do not look like what's under my bonnet. So there you go, 2 stupid questions...

And mine. You may not need to lift any carpets. There's 3 pipes on mine, 2 really thick rubbery ones together and one little plastic one which is the drain. Type of plastic used makes it prone to kinks. David

Cheers mate. I put new swivel bearings recently and set them about 3 times! Good thinking with the washer on the radius arm bushes, that could be worth a try. Car's square! I was pi##ing about with the tape measure for hours this morning! Wheel bearings also good, checked them while doing the swivels. Cheers for the thoughts though, will keep this updated as I go... Covers all sorts from steering shakes to tyre wear.

Right. Done some geometry checking today, thanks for the info Highway_Star , and here's what I found... Axle measurements check out ok and everything seems straight. Checked the wheelbase. On the left side, the good side, the measurement is 100 inches. Spot on. Measured repeatedly, moving the car back and forwards, always 100". That's something I suppose ... On the right side, the chewed side, the wheelbase is between 2/16" and 3/16" shorter. This is consistent around the wheel. I moved it back and forwards repeatedly and measured it with the wheel in various positions. This explains the castor problem and tyre chew I reckon.. So... I've located an axle which i'm going to overhaul and make look pretty and swap over and see what happens...

Mine was dripping at the weekend. The pipe was kinked just before it went through the bulkhead and the condensation was backed up. Untwisted the kink and about a litre emerged from the bulkhead! Great british design strikes again!

I will try that, I know what you mean! The alignment check said that the cambers were well in tolerance, and by the time they had set the toe out, the only thing out was the castors. Thing is, as and when I swap parts over to try, I'll need to have an alignment check to see if it's worked. But that's £40+ a pop. I have a couple of ideas... To check a stub axle, if you put it in a lathe and spin it, any bend will be obvious? Also if you take a half shaft out and role it on a flat surface, a bend will also be obvious? Like checking a pool cue on a pool table. That'd leave the swivels, and as steve_d said, the flange on the end of the axle tube, or indeed the tube itself. So gradually moving forward...

Please elaborate! I have the RR manual on CD if that's what you mean. Cheers Escape, I can just about cope with that!

Cheers Steve, good points. Speaking of the word 'shunted', I think we may have got to the root of the problem. Having been in touch with the bloke I bought it off, turns out he was shunted in traffic (someone drove into front nearside) quite a while back now. So that would explain the exact same tyre wear when I first looked at it, and also explain NIL improvement in any of the chracteristics even after hours, no, days of blood, sweat, blue air and £££££££s. So I think it's safe to say something front axle wise is bent. I'll start with the stubs and then try the beam itself if necessary. I don't think there're any bends chassis wise. The radius arms aren't bent (I don't think). But then any bend in the radius arms would immediately affect castor? Almost worth buying a 2nd hand front axle with radius arms and killing loads of birds with one expensive stone. Any thoughts?! Steering rods definitely aren't bent, they're new, as are all the ball joints. Really looking forward to getting this sorted

Thank god for that! I think now after much deliberation and waffle I'm going to start with swapping the stub axles. I've managed to locate a pair to try next week so i'll let anyone who's interested know how it goes. Failing that I think he's got an axle case to try. And beyond that I think i'll try another RR. Cheers all, will update when I have more info!

When you say the tyre wear was caused by the rear axle being bent, it was the rear tyres that were wearing funny wasn't it?! Please don't tell me a bent rear axle can cause front tyres to wear funny! I'll be even more lost then! All the readings for the rear wheel alignment were fine anyway. So where can you get something like that checked? Is there a bent axle checking facility anywhere?!

Cheers Mike, I'll give it all the once over. Thing is the uneven tyre wear was on it when I bought it before I did any of the work. So through the process of elimination (albeit a very bloody expensive process) all that's really left is to start replacing axle parts. If not the axle. I guess it's up to me where I start. At least if I buy new parts and then end up buying another axle (can't believe I've just written that!!!), I can stick all the new bits on the axle. Patience is really wearing thin.... I think the frustrating bit is, if I take say, a stub axle off, hold it up to the light and stare at it's shiny shaft.... how the f**k do I know if there's anything wrong with it? Even more so, take off a swivel ball, how do I tell if there's a problem?!?!? Stick it in my swivel ball testing machine I suppose...

Could the problem also explain why I'm STILL getting vibration at 50-60mph, despite replacing the possible culprit of the props? It's like a humming vibration. So I've got vibration at speed, dreadful inner shoulder tyre wear on the front right, new christ knows what and still no joy. The reading for the left caster (mentioned in the first post) is also out of tolerance (according to the data sheet from the tyre place). So basically both ends are fooked (right more than left though). So....... I don't know......... get another axle I guess. I'm waffling/ranting now because this is F**#@NG pissing me off! I just want to take a 30yd run up and kick the car into the river.... F**#@NG money pit.

Cheers steve, yeah I went for that way round. Seems to be fine!

Cheers mate. i guess the caster being out also explains the shaky steering over bumps when i fitted a bilstein steering damper. I went back to the original to get over that having replaced pretty much everything. So the next question is where the hell do I take it to have everything checked so someone can finally tell me the culprit? Failing that do I just but a known good second hand axle and overhall it? I'm sick of chewing tyres! Anyone know anyone or anywhere I could get it all checked?

Hi all. The front right tyre of my RRC is wearing bloody quickly around the inside shoulder. I took it to have the tracking/wheel alignment checked and was told the caster angles were out on the front wheels but they were (obviously) non-adjustable. (I would have thought that wear on the inside shoulder would've been caused by camber rather than caster...?) I have replaced the steering rods and track rod ends (pre alignment), the swivel bearings, and set the preload. New steering damper and props, and polybushed throughout. The readings were: Nearside front caster: 0.27 degrees (tyre wear on this side is fine and even so not bothered) Offside front caster: 1.32 degrees (tyre wear shocking!) So my question is, what is there left to be wrong?!?!? Is it worth replacing the wheel bearings as a last ditch attempt? ALSO... been reading on the defender forum about setting the tracking yourself with string. Does anyone know the toe in/out in mm to set the tracking with this method? AND FINALLY... Also on the defender forum (interesting place that! ) there are posts about setting the swivel preload with the seals in place. Does anyone have the figures in lbs or kg for swivel preload on a RRC? Think that's all for now. Cheers.

That's confusing. Perhaps someone fitted yours refering to haynes and ours are still original! SOMEONE MUST KNOW!