Jocklandjohn

Late to the thread (sorry) but for future reference in the Highland area Hamish Grant at Inverness 4x4 in Inverness knows more about Land Rovers than anyone, has a full garage facility & spares available on site or can obtain ASAP (usually overnight) with local & global delivery. Also in Edderton (near Tain on the Dornoch Firth) Tom & Morag Robb have a garage facility and large parts dept (doing mail order globally, they took over Davidson & McMIllan Parts in Inverness a few years ago and moved to run it from home during lockdown). Tom's whole family have LR's of various types from straight ones to unusual hybrids. He also does a good line in recycling old LR doors which he welds up and then takes to the galvydippers on the other side of the Moray FIrth and builds up to new on the clean frames. Either of these businesses will be able to sort you out with most parts, lots of knowliedge of TD5 and later electrigizmos too as well as encyclopaedic knoweldge of mechanical stuff. Crucially also well placed with courier knowledge & contacts so can get stuff to pretty much anywhere, even offshore on the islands. Interesting aside Tom Robb's mechanic whom I met recently was saying several local Estates are reverting to old LR's 90 & 110's because of parts and cost for Toyota/Nissan/Datsun 4x4's so they've seen an incease in business in that sector. I would highly recommend either of them. Inverness 4x4 is https://www.inverness4x4centre.co.uk/ 01463 233303 and Tom Robb is https://www.dandmlrspares.com/

Ullapool is a small close community, and as you can imagine this will be the butt of many good-natured jokes for a long time to come! It wouldn't surprise me if someone 'hid' it on April Fools day.... 🙂

Midges I hear you ask? Well depending on where you are its either not bad, or hellish. This is the latter, except rather a long way beyond hellish and heading for apocalyptic:

Ullapool. Loopallu... 🙂

It was a real pain. I loved the brake and the simplicity of it for its holding power, but try as I might I could not get it to work on any run longer than a few miles. Once warm it started to judder and then it was game over. The problem with such fine tolerances is that they're good until they're not in your favour!

Well well. Ullapool.... Seems one of the couple who owns it drove to the shop and forgot they'd taken it, walked home and got engrossed in stuff. Then looked out window - no LR and panicked, called Police. It was found where it had been left. Sigh. Stand down chaps and chapesses!

And happy days - it was found! No details yet of culprit but it was retrieved within 2 hours it seems.

STOLEN FROM ULLAPOOL IN THE LAST HOUR FROM A LOCALS HOME IN THE CENTRE OF THE VILLAGE. It might be headed south so please can people SHARE. This is just awful. The amount of time and effort spent doing this up REG - X697 USX

I fitted one to my 110, went according to the book. It would heat up and jam on, and several times I'd to stop at the roadside and disconnect it in order to get home. Finally stripped it completely and refitted it. Same again. Had one more go but no use. I contacted X-Eng for advice and followed it, got a mate to assist and check it over. Same problem happened again. We ended up coming the conclusion that the problem was too much end-float on the output shaft (newly refurbed boxes from Ashcrofts) and although VERY minor & maybe even within tolerances was sufficient to create some friction in the handbrake which increased as it got hotter. Eventually I had to remove it, revert to drum (which works fine) and the disc was sold on here with a full explanation of my reasons for selling and offer of money back if it was a problem for the buyer (although X-Eng offered to take it back themselves). Cant recall who bought it, but its apparently been fine and dandy so I was just very unlucky. The brake itself was hunky dory, worked like a charm, but it seems that some vehicles just wont accept it without it creating some issues. See above.

Looks like there's sufficient clearance inside above the lintel to allow a wooden cross beam with a wooden pillar partly hidden on each side (so you wont lose much opening space) this enables the side-load to be both 'pulling' on one side, but 'leaning' on the other. Any doors hung on them will not be putting too much strain on either side so you could hang two wooden doors on them looks like; any strain going 'out' is really only at the top of a door, as the bottom pushes towards the side its hung on. The door tops can be right up to the top brickwork. I may be viewing it wrongly, but I was a joiner for donkeys years and made and fitted more than a few doors like that from scratch. You can have each side double/folding so they look more neat ie 4 doors across, each side door in two pieces.

Big caution - whatever material finish (if any) is already on either bonding surface apply some of your chosen 'stuff' well beforehand and leave for a while. I suggest this because I've had reactions between both sika and tiger seal products on other products they *should* be compatible with which meant the stuck-on thing fell off! Changing the surface finishes solved the issue. Bit of a PITA as I'd tried to ensure compatibility before commencing. Recent roof adaptations were stuck using Soudal Fixall crystal sealant which has proved really strong (so far).

Bit of a long shot, but I know there's a lot of very generous folks on here so....Joanne Coates - rural Yorkshire lass, hard working, fantastic documentary photographer working with marginalised communities and doing loads of other solid stuff thats aimed at helping those who need it, is in possession of a stuffed clutch (a Volvo afaik). If anyone is inclined to give a gal a leg up in any way possible she'd be very grateful. Her details are on the twitter:

They'd certainly be interested in knowing whether fake Bosch-branded products are being sold openly as 'legitimate', and have a vested interest in preventing loss of reputation etc.

If he doesn't explain then it might have been another video I watched. Hmm. If I find it I'll post it!

17mins in on this excellent video shows it and I think he explains it in the dismantling stage earlier:

Last 30 years of MOT's on mine (110 HT with campy bits and stuff) has been Class 4 with 18 years of those with the same tester but last year the regular MOT place was backlogged after Covid with a 4 week wait so took it to another place that only had a 2 week wait. When I turned up they had a bit of a tyre kick and said sorry Class 7 and we cant do it as our lift is too feeble. Otherwise they said they'd have done it as Class 7. So back in the queue for the regular tester ( another 3 week wait!) and it was all fine and he remarked how pleasant it was to MOT something that was well looked after. So, still Class 4.

I did some driving work on the film 'Charlotte Gray' in Lochaber and was tasked with collecting the WesCam crew from Inverness airport and taking them to the helipad so they could kit out the camera on the local helicopter they'd chartered, then drive them down to Fort William. The two camera guys were really pushed for time and seemed to be struggling so when one got frustrated over not being able to reach tools I offered to help and was told to go away as it was "specialised work" (!) but I persisted and said look I know a metric socket when I see one yada yada yada and soon we were all in it together lifting, threading, bolting assembling and generally getting it done! It was even better when they started assembling the cameras (I'm a professional photographer) and we got on great. Result was they invited me for dinner that night, and insisted to the Location Manager that I get to be on set to be film runner when the chopper landed to change rolls. So I ended up lurking in bushes and sprinting out with fresh reels, and carefully handling exposed rolls until the shoot ended. It was dramatic stuff with the train passing, chopper flying alongside - one of those 'if it goes belly-up its a nightmare to redo' shoots with a tight weather window as well as the normal service train schedule to contend with too. Great fun but bloody hard and nerve-wracking work! Your van project is brilliant!

As far as I know the straight pipe matrix is the later model years (1990 onwards), and the curved pipe matrix is the earlier (up to 1990 approx). If you have a 1997 vehicle its likely to be a straight pipe type. Best check abasing the VIN number though to be sure.

That same problem happened on mine, but although it started to deteriorate whilst in warranty it became unusable when out of warranty by several months and they didn't want to know. Bought a new one, and a year or so down the road with it this one is starting to show the same problem. Works great though but those switches are pants.

Me too.

Whichever. route you choose to do this make sure that you use proper closed-cell foam. Avoid open cell stuff as it simply soaks the moisture up and eventually goes mouldy and can smell pretty horrible. Proper closed cell stuff if you want to test it, is impossible to suck air through. Open cell stuff you can sook air in through. When I did mine years ago I filled the panels with foam sheet* to the level of the ribs and then carpeted (foam back) over the top of the whole lot. Worked just fine and never had any issues. Speak to any 'chemical converters' who make the stuff - I bought several sheets from one of them (minimum order was £100) and was able to do a couple of vehicles with it - two/three layers on the roof, rear sides and also the floor in the rear tub (under a 1/4 ply sheet). Made it quieter and much warmer, and zero condensation. Like these folks: https://www.kewell-converters.co.uk/materials

Yes its a 200tdi engine (Defender spec) retrofitted into a 19J with many of the 19J bits such as exhaust and air filter setup. I'd forget the wheel area - the crud and discomfort of doing any work on it down there would put me off! Under seat ok, but I considered every potential location and decided to put it in the engine bay - modern heatshield material is pretty good and robust, plus it minimises coolant piping, makes for easy fuel pickup and keeps the complications to a minimum (only wires going in through the bulkhead). Plus once you have to troubleshoot any problems you'll probably be glad that everything is relatively visible! If its like mine - it needs bleeding every so often if I've disturbed the coolant system to release air bubbles, and its easier with it higher up in the engine bay.

Aye ok Ralph, I guess a good clean up and refixing will probably be a good option for starters. Its had 30 years of use so may have some rough spots that are enough to let the puffs out. Cheers.

I've had some exhaust puffing coming from down the rear passenger side of the engine (Defender 200Tdi replacement for a 19J). I replaced the head a couple of years ago, renewing all the gaskets and noticed afterwards that the puffing continued. It looked as if it was coming from the elbow off the back of the turbo going into the exhaust down pipe. When I recently replaced the exhaust I made sure to put some exhaust cement around the join but I'm still gettting puffs that appear to be coming out of the join between elbow and exhaust down pipe. As far as I can see its not coming out the back of the engine (so not head gasket) and its not coming out of the exhaust manifold gasket, so not that either as far as I can establish. Few photos to show soot accumulation - it *appears* to mainly/only be around the elbow to downpipe join. Without dismantling anything and using a mirror & torch the soot seems to mainly be on the outer face of the exhaust manifold (where the rear end joint is - its a three-piece casting). This is directly opposite the exhaust/elbow joint. There's also soot around the back of glasswool heatshield I put on and all around the inside of the (remains of) the stock LR parts OE elbow heatshield. Is it possible that the elbow - which is now 30 years old is slightly 'worn' and leaking? When I replaced the head and took it all apart there was no obvious damage to it or holes. Its got a new clamp on it and whacked up plenty tight, and I put exhaust cement around it when I fitted it, but is it possible that if there's a worn spot that it will blow-by the exhaust cement? Pictures taken from front of engine bay on passenger side looking to manifold, downpipe from the end of the turbo on right (with blue wrap) and exhaust clamp in lower corner of frame, excpet last image which shows soot accumulation around back of elbow/downpipe and heatshield.

I bolted a 6mm thick by 150mm or so wide steel plate onto the outer face of the chassis inside the engine bay, long enough to come up to the level of the top of engine coolant pipes and bolted the Eberspacher onto that. It needed a kink in the bottom to bring it into the desired alignment between engine and inner wing. Its fairly close to the intake pipework and exhaust manifold but I've put good quality reflective foil on the side of the heater itself, and also onto an alloy heatshield I've made to fit it. The first Eberspacher (D4W) was on there for 25 years and no problems other than normal worn out parts, and one wiring loom disaster when I forgot to cable tie it back out of the way and it touched the manifold and got fried. That first Eberspacher died last year and the specific spare part was unobtainable so I replaced with a newer model of the same heater. Advantage of this method is you can pretty much choose your ideal location free of the contstraints of the limited side space for fitment. Its got a slot cut at top so the securing bolt for the Eberspacher to its cradle can be fitted.