ashtrans

I have a customer that buys new 2.4 TDCi 90's and puts train body's on them, if you want to try again let me know and I will ask what he wants for them, Dave

Hi James, whats the serial number on the 1.6 ?

despite putting a few new batteries in I was shocked at the range of the central locking, approx 1 to 1.5 meters, totally useless, I came across this : http://www.aulro.com/afvb/90-110-130-defender-county/102087-puma-remote-locking-distance-fixed.html If you take out the front speaker, drivers side, and shine torch up and look towards the firewall you will see a green box, it is about 15 cm long and 8cm tall, with two harnesses attached to the bottom of it. The harness closest to the steering collum has an Orange wire with a light grey stripe, about 15cm long, leading out of it. You can also see it from the fuse box, below the steering wheel, if you look in the gap on the right hand side. This wire (orange/light grey stripe) is the Ariel for the remote. I was lucky enough that this wire was close enough to be able to grab it with a pair of long nose pliers from the fuse box (without removing the speaker). I then soldered a length of wire about a meter or so long, used a stiff piece of plastic strap to poke down in the gap behind the dash and from the bottom of the "A" pillar, a second piece from the right hand side of the steering collum to the fuse box and then just pulled the new wire through, then up the "A" pillar, behind the plastic cover. Job done - 15 meter remote distance

Sorry Nige, we made a batch of 40 or 50 but they were quite fiddly and time consuming to make so when they ran out we decided not to make another batch, this and the fact the newer version doesn't use the cage. I don't think Devon 4x4 ever made them. Yes Will the RD128 does use the same design as the RD99 and they do have problems but you are far less likely to see these issues with the RD128 compared to the RD99 due to the much higher loads seen with the RD99. We have just sent some RD99 rework kits out today to D&G tuning and to the US for testing, a spot of reading for you : My link

the pinion shafts are a slightly different length, clutch splines are different length and the end diameter for the spigot bush

thanks very much for the ideas here, I will first suggest fitting groved discs, better pads and the Mintex 1144s, Dave

Hi All, I have a customer with some very heavy late 110's, mainly TD5's and Puma's, Hi is keen to try and improve the brakes and I am looking for some info on this, I am not sure but I guess they are getting hot and fading. so far I have seen you can get aftermarket drilled/grooved discs and different pads but are there any other options worth considering. thanks for any help, Dave

if you put the compushift on a ZF you have the best of both worlds : normal auto, Tiptronic auto, with either paddle shifters or a spring loaded 'sequential' lever, full manual control, Dave

Hi, we fit an oversize O ring and silicon for good measure on all rebuilds although if they have worn too far they go on a rework pile to be clocked up, overbored and sleeved,

many thanks Ralph,

Hi, I have been asked this by a customer, I don't know the answer and wondered if anyone else may be able to help : 'We are doing our first TD5 install and in getting the fuel cooler lines installed we found something odd (at least we think it is odd). One line that goes off the fuel cooler on the RH side of the engine goes to the lower RH side of the radiator, but this hose passage on the radiator (and 2 other Td5 radiators we have here) is not drilled to go into the coolant passage of the radiator.' Many thanks for any help,

The cakes were great !

Hi Mike, I wouldn't be overly concerned just yet, 1) the drive flange does have surface rust which is not ideal but it looks superficial and would probably have this after a week under the truck anyway, you could maybe give it a quick wire brush and squirt with waxoyl, 2) the yellow marking on the ring and pinion gears is not rust, this is 'orca' marking paste used to check the contact pattern when setting up the ring and pinion, totally normal, a good sign if anything, shows it has been built correctly. 3) the ring gear looks like it has packaging debris on the teeth which would make it turn rough, maybe get some white spirit or similar on a rag, put it in a vice, flange down, and wipe the teeth to clean them, once clean, give the bearings and crown wheel a squirt of oil and roll it a few times by turning the crown wheel with clean gloves on. the diff looks like a new part to me rather than recon and the factory do set them quite tight, if you cannot turn it by rolling the crown wheel you can put a drill on the drive flange nut to spin it a few revs to get the oil circulated, it will then hopefully be quite a bit smoother.

Hi all, some photos for you : new type cast iron housings with fatter ribs Rear view showing bolts to limit end cap deflection stock 9" housing and our rover 9" housing stock 9" housing and early 9" ali housing with small ribs Bill/Will, we are using the stock 9" bearing spacing, a longer pinion would of course be stronger but this would then present other fitting and manufacturer problems, whilst the loads are very high when driving on the coast side I think our failure was due to both a poor casting and the fact that our casting is way smaller than the stock 9" and was/is less rigid. landroversforever, one side of the tooth is called the 'drive' side, the other the 'coast' side, on a stock 90 the rear drives on the drive side and the front drives on the coast side, on our force 9 diffs the front drives on the drive side and the rear on the coast side but due to the different tooth pressure angles the rear generates a lot of side forces, it's these that cracked the ali casing.

Hi Daan, whilst the ford 9" housing can be bought in aluminium this is not generally used for rock crawlers, more the 'weight sensitive' cars : strange eng the rock crawlers use 'Nodular Iron' : high 9 maybe the additional ribs and the ring to limit the end cap deflection would have been sufficient but at this stage we first need to produce a diff that is totally reliable. I will post up some pics in the morning.

Hi all, some updates : the axles are being tested by Jim Marsden of Gigglepin 4x4 on his challenge 90, they have done 3 competitions so far. As this is testing our instructions to Jim were to batter them and not hold back. 1) about 8 weeks ago Jim did the Portugese Rainforest challenge and came 2nd, the rear diff housing developed a crack and oil leak due to a whack on a rock, also ARB's had bad air leaks as the air was fed through the casing which turned out to be porous. Diffs were stripped, crack welded up, air leaks fixed, axles refitted. 2) 5 weeks ago was the 'de-cider' challenge event in cornwall, after 2 hours on the first day the rear diff housing developed a large crack top to bottom in a totally different place the the first crack. This was caused by the huge side forces generated due to the pressure angles when the rear is driving on the coast side of the ring gear. The journal end caps are being forced apart and the crack started from a weak point we had made by drilling the ARB air feed near a mounting hole. One ARB still leaked. This was bad news and needed radical measures, many changes were made : the pattern was altered to beef up the strengthening ribs from 15 to 40mm the material was changed to 500/7 cast iron, approx double the strength, we looked at different ways to limit the deflection of the journal end caps, ie a tie bar between the 4 journal end cap bolts but this could not be done due to the crown wheel being in the way. We decided on a different method, the fixed HD diff pans were removed and a 12mm thick steel ring welded on with a 15mm wall thickness, this was drilled and tapped to accept a bold on diff cover but was also drilled and tapped with 2 holes on each side so M10 bolts could be fitted and screwed in until they lightly touched on each side of the end caps then lock nutted, the idea being that this will help to reduce the end caps spreading. The bolt on diff pan can also be removed for inspection and can be rotated to allow different oil levels. ARB air lines were also fitted differently and fed through this ring to minimise weak points in the main housing. 3) Last weekend Jim did the Pheonix challenge event in scotland, no failures and no air leaks. We want to see him do at least 2 more hard events with no problems before we look at going into production.

Hi Simon, how are you getting on ? did you make any progress with these 2 issues ? Dave

Hi Technically it should be 45deg out of phase, when a single U.J. is working (at an angle) it produces a 'torsional oscillation' at 4 times rotation speed. If the drive flanges are parallel then '0' phase difference as the oscillation at one end cancels the other. If you now introduce a different angle between the two ends the 'torsional oscillation' will not cancel out. You can 'phase' one joint in relation to the other but this only masks the inherent problem. As the prop angle at the diff end (front only) is approx zero (unless a lift kit has been added) the other (gearbox) end is constantly fighting it. Fitting a 'double cardan' at the gearbox end reduces the oscillation to that produced at the diff which is usually minimal. I thought LR front props had a 'King' spline to ensure correct alignment??. If your still reading this Nige has the practical approach which does work, kind of, double cardans are a pain particularly on a comp motor. Regards Ian Ashcroft

Hi, you should be able to get the cooler and pipes all done for under £200, we have a mounting bracket for the pumas which you may be able to use for £ 10, the disco 2 diff lock kit does the hi/lo and the diff lock, there is only one cable in the photo as you reuse the D2 hi/lo cable, or if you want to keep the cost down just fit the D2 hi/lo lever with cable (£ 20) and put a simple handle/wheel ontop of a rod sticking up from the diff lock stud to engage diff lock, Dave

Hi Simon, you sound quite fed up ! hi/lo location : on the pumas we make a flat steel plate as an extension to move the ali hi/lo mounting bracket forward then extend the hi/lo rod and adjust the diff lock lever so it still works, or maybe you could fit the disco 2 linkage as this is cable operated and you have much more flexibility as to where you mount it, My link cooler : again on the puma we fit a 12" square cooler from think automotive : this has a 22mm female fitting, just make up a mounting bracket and buy some aeroquip 1/2" pushfit hoses or bend up some steel ones, think automotive sell the fittings and the hose as well as the actual cooler, the above cooler is part number 50-640-7612

Hi Red90 thanks for the info sounds like a better product than I was aware, I was not aware of the dynamic properties, will bear it in mind for future. Obviously you understand my concern, there are lots of oils out there that do not exhibit this propety and they constantly throw up syncro problems. Thanks for the heads up. Ian Ashcroft.

Hi in principle i fully agree with using Red Line oil for better lubrication, but this is not the full story, be aware the syncro may be affected. The brass syncro cones grip the steel gear cone this grip may be less effective with the Red Line oil so don't panic if there is a change. Regards Ian Ashcroft

Hi Red90, you are correct a thermostatic housing is fitted on V8 LT boxes but they use a designated back casting, this casting can be fitted onto the earlier LT77 but this will require remove and replace transmission. Non V8 back castings can sometimes be modified if they have all the lugs on the casting but by no means all. With the box already in the car the easiest solution is as David (Llama) suggests. Regards Ian Ashcroft

Hi, we are aware of the limitations of the Quaife/Truetrac and have been looking at 'other' solutions for a LSD to suit the driving conditions where a Quaife is not acceptable, cross axle etc. We have been working on an alternative and have produced the 'Rover' version of a Traction Master, those who came to see us at Billing would have seen the prototypes. The 'Traction Master' is a plate type LSD but with unique design features, it has a split center design housed within a 'conventional' case, the split halves each have 4 trapezoidal pockets acting on the cross pins. (many conventional LSD use the planet gears to generate side thrust which imposes severe design constraints) With the split center design the torque applied to each wheel is a function of the power applied, the number of plates and the angle of the pockets. The Traction master diff relies on the input power to the diff causing the cross pins to act on and separate the split halves to create torque across the diff, it does not rely on friction created within gearsets to limit the slip. As the torque applied to the diff creates clamping action the friction on the plates slip is limited from the start of a cross axle. More to follow after testing has been completed. One final comment on the Quaife, they offer a 'limited' lifetime warranty, in my opinion this alone makes the extra cost over the Truetrac worthwhile. Ian Ashcroft

Hi, these diffs use an unsupported helical gear arrangement, each gear set sitting in a 'pocket' in the diff center, the gears being in line with the axle axis. When one wheel has a 'good' grip eg on blacktop, but the other wheel has less grip eg on grass, there is a tendancy for the wheel with less grip to spin. In order to spin a wheel the gear set's in the diff are forced to turn, as they are 'designed' to be inefficient torque will be transmitted to the wheel with grip. The number of gears, shape of the pocket and the helix angle of the gears, all contribute to their 'efficiency'. As one wheel begins to slip it will transmit torque to the other wheel depending on how much slip is taking place. This is the 'progressive torque bias' . All Quaife diffs come with a preset loading or pre set bias on the helical gears to accomodate the situation where there is insufficient grip ( eg axle twist) on one wheel to start the bias loading to take place, if there was no pre set bias then with one wheel in the air there could be no bias to the other wheel. On road cornering the handling is almost 'transparent' as the outer wheel drives faster than the diff and tries to lock it the inner wheel drives slower than the diff and unlockes it so there is no cross bias effect. These diffs are ideal for fast competition eg rally raid driving where most of the time both wheel have some drive contact and used in this situation can achieve almost equal power distribution. Not as good in a 'trials' situation where one wheel is often 'free' ie off the ground as it sometime needs left foot braking to load the 'free' wheel to allow it to 'torque bias' across to the other wheel. Whilst the Truetrac and the Quaife work on a the same principle, they are far from the same, differences are the quaife has 6 spiral gears whereas the Truetrac has 3, also the quaife materials and build quality is far better. The Truetrac is still OK for the greenlaner etc but the quaife is on a motorsport level.