ronnie_rotten

So plug welding may be an acceptable way to 'plate over' the entire rear floor area (grot removed first)? That would certainly be a lot easier/cheaper/quicker than a seam weld. My usual tester said he'd never seen a floor rivetted in, and didn't really like the idea as rivets can shear. He also said that a rivet in good steel is better than weld to a rusted out area, so he'd have to see it to really comment fairly. Then i guess the tigerseal comes into play to seal the edges. May in the future u-pol will invent tiger weld....

Well, the old car had to go, so a disco had to be bought, but it it have to be quite so absent of metal at the rear end?!? Even as bad as it is it's safer than the accident waiting to happen that was 'the flying rover'. However, the mot is out in feb, and if it wants another one the entire boot floor realistically needs to be replaced. There seems to be enough good steel around the edges to work with, but i'm thinking one big sheet reinforced and cut to shape and welded in would be better than the 3 sections and 3 crossmembers available for the 'proper' repair. Now, i can't (or at least never learned to) weld, but i'm willing to learn. I'm guessing that the tail end of a 20' seam weld should be pretty tidy by the time i get there, and then the first 15' could be ground off and redone with my new found skillz! At least half (maybe more) of me wants to get a nice tube of tiger seal and glue the massive plate in, in about 15 minutes flat, but that would be naughty. And technically, by all but the worst sort of pikey, be considered a bodge. Still tempting though. So i suppose i want to be talked into, or out of my first welding job. Or offered 600 quid for a disco that has taken the toll of 109,000 miles, almost entirely behind the rear seats!

thanks, it 'aint exactly the hardest job to have a peek is it?!? I'll have a squint later. As for spect, i'd call it 'lean' or maybe meagre... Got leccy windows and mirrors, no sun roof or abs to go wrong, which is good. My last disco was manual windows, electric nothing, even saved money by skipping the rear doors. 3rd world spec, i recon. But it had a boot floor, which the new one doesn't. :\

It's a m reg, late '95 i think. It's not the end of the world if i need to run out some wires, but if they're already there it saves me a job!

howdy all. Just bought a new old disco (woohoo!) and i notice there are no speakers in the rear pillars like my old 3 door. Assuming i can source the panels with cutouts, will the wiring be there to plug the speakers into?

Just thought i'd add my experience here. The only way myself missus and sprog could ever fit in the hicap was with child seat in the main passenger seat and uncomfortable missus in the middle straddling the tunnel. Gearstick inoperable in any other setup. This was the case with first rear facing seat and 9kg+ recaro young sport. Hate to say it, but i think it's a fit a middle seat and earplugs, or buy a disco! And be careful, the first option only works until the second bundle comes on the scene, hence the sale of my hicap, and the hunt for a disco! Congrats, by the way!

Hey all. I've just sold my '98 hicap to a mate, and would you believe,it's developed a couple of gremlins! We swapped the wings for a straighter pair and after reconnecting the lights we have a few issues. 1) it used to be that the headlights would misbehave until full beam had been left on for a couple of minutes, ie the headlights would dim to candle power unless only side lights only were on, or full beam on main head lights. When you flicked the switch between full and dipped headlights, there was a buzzing relay sound during the transition. Bzzzt. 2) we've now only got full beam (both sides) and hazards (no indicators). No rear light or sidelight on drivers side. The 'pull to flash' on the indicator stalk doesn't work, but push for full beam works when lights are on (not sidelights). 3) no foglight, but switch and dash light are ok. Perhaps because it's on the drivers side, where no power is getting to the lights? While checking the connection of the little gold (dip/dim?) Module thing in the drivers wing, it came unplugged and that's when the symptoms in point 1 became 2 and 3 and the buzzing stopped. We're not sure now if we've damaged it or the relay has just burnt out coincidentally. Both yellow relays in the fuse box are fine. So. I hope you're all as clear as mud with that. I like to be thorough in confusing an issue first thing in the morning! I suppose we can just run wires from one side to the other to power the missing tail, side lamps etc, but that won't do much for main beam or flash. Maybe that's the indicator stalk? Where's the sneaky buzzing relay, haynes manual suggests they're all in the fuse box? Issues here seem to be simelar (in part) to badger90's post 'lights on 90' posted at an ungodly hour this morning. Not the only one loosing sleep over electrickery, am i.....?!?

brilliant. Sounds like a job i can handle, even on a sunday! thanks for seeking out that thread, i appreciate it.

thanks for that. I do a bit of research on what's involved in removing the input gear, and maybe get on the case tomorrow. I always dreaded the day i'd have to go inside the spinning whirring nightmare that is 'the transmition'.....

so in other words, remove the transfer box, swap out the input gear for one from a cross drilled transfer box, and run on that 'til the end of the splines on the gearbox output shaft wear away? You say bodge, i say excellent solution to an annoying issue! I suppose fitting a complete 'cross drilled' transfer box is the easier way of achieving the same effect? What year did the design change? How can i tell them apart? I'm currently running what a believe to be a 1998 gear and transfer box.

still havn't got under, but when driving today, there was a total absence of the 'multi ping' noises. So they were definately made worse when towing the caravan. My ever wise and practical missus suggested 'oh well, whatever it was has probably dropped off now. So that's good.' a girl after my own heart. If it ain't there, it can't make a noise.... : ) Is there anything simple and inexpensive to do about worn splines, if that's whats causing the clunk? Or do we just live with it until it 'drops off'. :/

thanks all for the replies. There certainly can be a trouser worrying bang on take off, though my softly soflty approach to the cluch seems to limit it a bit! I'll get the spanners out and do a thourough investigation of the props. That seems to be the general concensus on what's amiss....

Could well be..... would excessive wear there cause the disturbing noises i've described too? Gotta go to work now, will check back here after i finish and see what people think....

I've been hearing some not so good noises from under and behind the truck cab of my pickup recently. I'll try to describe it, and somebody out there may have an idea... Firstly, sometimes when pulling off i get a loud, medium pitched 'ping'. I can get almost exactly the same sound by tapping the rear prop with a metal tent peg. (Yes, i have spent time under the truck tapping things with a tent peg. Good grief.....) More worrying but less frequent is the sound you would get if you held said tent peg against the spinning blades of one of those fancy chrome fans you see in 50's american films. (This i havn't replicated, but in my head, that's the sound!) This second noise doesn't happen much, but it was present after almost every gear change and occasionally when sat at constant speed when towing on monday. Lets just say it was a long, worrying drag back from the west of ireland! There has always been a need to go steady with the clutch on this truck to avoid clunky gear changes. Something i've always assumed was play in diff or t-box. Now i wonder if it's related to the 'ping-ticky-ticky' noises. The props and uj's are in good condition. The ticky-ticky 'tent peg in fan noise' increases in speed with the revolutions of the engine (more likely the gearbox actually). Seems worse when under load. I have had the pickup fairly loaded up in the past couple of months. Maybe carrying a lot has pushed something over the edge? My first thoughts was maybe something in the t-box, but could somthing in the handbrake drum be causing it? Any thoughts appreciated.

'lr guys' eh? don't you just love em... ...OT, but here goes... a mate bought a 300tdi commercial disco from a guy, he thought somthing was amis at the bottom end. €300. result. sounded like the timing was out after his cousin replaced the head to me. rocker cover off reveals bent push rod and big gaps between valves and rocker arms. strange. maybe he should have put the valve caps back in during reassembly? called the seller to tell him his cousin needed a kicking. 'oh,' say's he. he rang back later to confirm that there never were any valve caps, and the 'lr guy' he bought it from, a friend of his no less, had run it for 40,000 miles. with no valve caps with no problem.... now, by my count, that makes, er, oh. 0 'lr guys'. but one happy mate, with a cheap legal disco!

cool website, cheers for the link. i'll be bookmarking that one! but you can't just punch in a vin and get a 'stolen motor' alert? i guess that's what the hpi check does then? scuze my ignorance, butvcan somone tell me what hpi does, and how

hey there y'all, i've come to wonderin'... is there a database or something somwhere, that you can you can use to check to see if the 'rechassied' or '200td converted' you're about to buy is built out of 'genuine stolen parts'!?! it'd be nice to go and see a truck, break out the smartphone, tippy tap in a couple of numbers, and then know if you were buying something that had been reported stolen, or otherwise. i ask because in about 9 months time, my hicap aint gonna have enough seats, and not because i'm fitting a cubby box! gonna need to find a cheap station wagon or simelar, but cheap for the right reasons, if you follow my thinking!

i used to work at a bus breakers, so i've removed a few sticky steering wheels in my time. the prefered technique was to beat opposite sides (3 o'clock and 9'oclock) fast and alternately with balled fists for 20 seconds or so, and then pull firmly on the same points, straight up the splines and towards your face. now you did leave the nut on just a turn or 2 didn't you? because if not you may break your nose. repeat if needed. it seems wrong to be hammering down on the wheel, but down on one side equals up on the other. your fists are nice and blunt, so you won't cause any damage to the wheel. never found the need to use wd40, but it may help? somthing to try while you're waiting for the puller to arrive!

actually, probably civilian doors with military style tops.....

how much should i reasonably expect to pay for the above. i know where there are some for sale, i want them, i'm poor, i don't want to pay way over the odds so if it all goes south i can recoup my money! i bought a set years ago for 120 quid, and wanted them back ever since they got pinched.

mmmmmm, salmony....

that's spooky. i just posted that i saw a series 2 chassis today with all the bits and bobs to mount a digger arm on the rear. and there's it's younger, healthier brother. syncronisity, i think they call that...

a mate took me out earlier to see what's left of an old landy with an interesting array of pto pumps, air tanks, dash switches and hydraulic oil cooler, which we concluded from the remains of a sticker on the dash was once an excavator. the backhoe is missing, but the bracket is there and it looks like the whole pto setup, too. didn't have a camera, so no pictures until i can go back. does anybody know anything about these here beasts, or have any pictures of one complete? this is basically just a chassis and pile of panels, but i'd love to know a bit more about it, cos he wants it gone from hhis field, and i don't want to scrap somthing rare through ignorance!

53000miles, so sign of breathing from filler or dipstick. will check all breathers tommorrow anyhow. the oil's pooling on the diff before it hits the floor... maybe diesel from the lift pump mixing with oil from elsewhere making it look worse than it is? doesn't explain the head bolts tho....

i've been noticing patches of oil under the landy for a while now. not unheard of, sure, but it's getting worse. exploration reveals a lot of oil on top of the diff and on thr steering bars below. often there's a drip on the bottom of the oil filter, which i've changed and checked for tightness. i removed the rocker cover, cheched the gasket and cleaned the whole area. now i can see patches of oil forming around the head bolts under the rubber engine cover, and i don't know what that signifies? anything to do with the head gasket? i've had no overheating and the water seems clean. i'm planning on gunking and steaming off the engine to see if i can find anywhere else wet, but any ideas would be appreciated.