Jocklandjohn

My leaking ancient fuel injection pump has been replaced with a fully overhauled s/h one that has been reset to original Bosch spec. All fine. Except that the pretty good acceleration through 1st and 2nd dies a death in third and doesn't return unless I rev it to death, and even then its unable to cope with anything other than flat ground. I was going as fast as I could (45mph, foot flat to floor in fourth) and was overtaken by a bin lorry! And the hill up to home which I could do in 3rd and change into 4th I'm now limited to 2nd as 3rd wont pull it. I've had a hybrid turbo and bigger intercooler on it for the last 6 years and the guys who set it up for me obviously tweaked the old fuel pump to suit, although perhaps a bit too much as I was getting more black smoke than I'd like. It went well though. Turbo is fine, boost ok, and fuel delivery spot on so I reckon I've got plenty cool air getting in and simply need to increase the fueling. The fuel screw on the injector pipe side of the pump has a small metal sleeve on it and a round plastic cover which spins around but wont come off, presumably because the metal sleeve retains it, and under which the 13mm lock nut resides. So, whats the method for removing the metal thing, and once off will the plastic sleeve come off too? Any suggestions for the amount of screw rotation to be going on with? Hopefully I dont have to fiddle with any other pump settings?

I'm fitting a small inverter but a good quality one. Instructions says that to install safely I need to 'Neutral Earth Bond' it and run an RCD inline to ensure I don't get fried. Here's the instructions: link. SO, having looked at the drawings and text I'm contemplating doing the following: Connect the battery Positive to the Live on Inverter Connect the battery Negative to Neutral on Inverter Connect an Earth from vehicle chassis to Inverter. Insert small fuse at rear of inverter (which I presume makes a connection between Earth and Negative) Purchase a Safetysure (or similar) RCD socket (so the RCD is built-in and neat). From the Inverter 3-pin plug outlet run a plug fitted with 3-core wire to the RCD socket that I'll fasten to the van above the small worktop on a wooden bulkhead. Is that me safe? I've already run a mains hookup on an isolated circuit, with an RCD Consumer Unit in that, feeding a 13 amp socket. Is it wise to utilise the substantial earth to chassis I've fitted for that and loop the earth from the RCD box into the Consumer Unit's substantial earth (I used a chunk of 4mm /2 cable) or keep the inverter circuit totally separate?

Just as an aside..............I stayed in Texas for a spell and once my neighbours complained of something rattling under the bonnet. Took a look and found a large rattlesnake curled up in the engine bay where it had been attracted by the warmth the previous evening!

Personally I'd leave it in situ - fastened and braced to fit the vehicle where it should be - and get inside and start a careful process of pushing, jamming, wedging and tapping to get the worst of it straightened out. Trying to do it on the ground with it wandering all over the place, getting scratched and even more messed up would not fill me with inspiration.

Just a wee headsup on locks. Most locks (providing you can get into them) can be repaired after a fashion. Sometimes repaired properly, other times bodged. Don't write them off until you've had a poke around inside them. Lubrication. A big issue. If you use normal lubricants they will certainly make the lock work, but they may also gather all the carp under the sun and hold it inside the lock creating a nice grinding paste that helps to wear the moving parts out even more quickly. Read more here. Best to strip and clean regularly if possible and use a silicon dry lock spray or powdered graphite that you can get in a little bottle/puffer. When I was a builder/carpenter/glazier and lock fiddler I regularly stripped locks, cleaned out tumbleweeds and all the horrible mucky oily paste that'd accumulated and simply rubbed the entire mechanism with the lead of a very soft pencil I kept for this job (a 9B grade if you really must know). Locks worked a treat, the graphite was 'dry' so did not attract more carp and the locks worked fine for another few years. Best thing is to pick up a really soft pencil and have a go with it as a lubricator. Here's the pencil wisdom so you can add this to your mental toolbox: here And if all else fails you can always use it to write to Santa asking for a new lock for Christmas.

I don't wade that much unless necessary, but recent flooding events all over the country have had one very common thing happen, which I've seen in the flesh, watched on tv news numerous times and very recently was the 'victim' of. Its the wnaker in the 4x4 going hell-for-leather into the flood. It happened to me a month or so ago: 18+ inches of water all over the road, a couple of small hatchbacks in front of me, another few behind. As we inched through the deluge a tosser in a Shogun or similar came barrelling through from the other side, didn't even slow down and sent a massive wave right over the top of the first cars and right in my partly open side window, with the wave coming right up over my bonnet. I suspect 4x4 boy may have done for the first car which pulled in after we got out of the 'river' and ground to a halt. I actually pulled across in front of a 4x4 on one occasion as I could see what he was going to do so drifted over the (submerged) white line right in front of him, that slowed him down big style but he was not happy. If I'd not had a snorkel fitted I suspect I'd have had a trashed engine on at least two occasions.

Good stuff! Totally different to mine - they must have done a different design at some point. Well made though.

Ander - is this the seats you got or is it another sort - I ask because my seat is different from this one.

When I bought my LR in London - an ex Vodafone fleet 110 HT, 8 years old 2.5TD (19J) with 110,000 miles on the clock- I drove it back to the Highlands via a stop to collect a vintage motorbike in Kendal which was shoved in the back. We hit a blizzard in the Lakes whilst in Kendal that created havoc with giant snowdrifts and cars abandoned, but I eventually got back onto the motorway and continued. However it got so bad, and the forecast was even worse for the next few days, that the Police closed it (it was shut for 4 days, with people staying in emergency shelters). Ahem..... except for me. The Police put me off the m'way up an off ramp (which I pulled a few cars up as I went) but at the top there was nothing to stop me going back down the other side, so I naughtily did so back onto the motorway into 2 feet of powder snow and kept driving with a bow-wave of the stuff flying out in front of me all the way back to Fort William where I arrived 10 hours later. There was a pair of monster snow chains supplied with the toolkit for the vehicle and I didn't actually have to use them. That was a Monday. They dug the last vehicle out on the M74 on Friday morning. 600 miles in dire conditions and no problems, Done it a few times since.

I'm not sure - I might have - I keep most of these bits of paper somewhere and I know I have a box of bits from when I fitted the seat because I also retrimmed all the other seats to match at the same time. I will have a look in a couple of days time (away at the moment) and let you know.

Welcome! (and to add to what they said above) £12k is a good and very realistic budget and will get you into some decent vehicles. The 90 might do you but from personal experience I can say that a 110 will give much more space for kids and their'stuff'. The fuel consumption on 90's and 110's is about the same so no fuel saving with the smaller one anyway. You will be well into TD5 territory, and more recent Ford-engined machines with your budget. I'll leave others to comment on the wisdom of either choice. However a basic decision is - do you want to pay the premium demanded for CSW spec (which is County Station Wagon, with 5 doors - 4 side ones and a rear, fancy interior trim and glass all round) or could you make do with a HT (hard top) with only 3 doors - two side doors and a rear, and no side windows. The latter are usually a lot cheaper, but you can then add side windows yourself - cut out a section of the van side (easy job), bolt in windows with mastic to seal. And for seating there are numerous options that can be retro-fitted. I did that and chose the specifically designed for Land Rover folding rear seats made by Exmoor which bolt in securely, have full seatbelt fittings and comply with all EU regs for child carrying and restraint. Yes they can be daily drivers. They might be slightly higher in their use of fuel - maybe 30-35mpg but the savings come in overall costs of ownership such as doing your own oil and filter changes - a really easy job - which will save you at least £100 every time you diy it. Add the reasonable cost of insurance and spares over its life and the overall running cost will easily equate with the running costs of a car. High mileage is not necessarily a problem - if regularly serviced a modern diesel should go anything up to 250,000 miles with ease. Of more importance is a proper LR service record with ALL services logged. Also find out the provenance of the vendor and vehicle. Ones used on the coast (or inland for that matter) might have been used to launch boats and the rear end of the chassis regularly dunked in seawater and be a rust candidate and potentially be a bill waiting to pounce on your wallet. Have a good read of the forum, get a sense of what people have done with their vehicles, what works for them and might suit you, then ask questions - you'll get sound advice here (as I have had over the years) from a great bunch of (mostly!) unbiased people (many of whom are experts). And finally - take your time, look around, look at lots of examples and get a 'feel' for whats what. A common misconception about Land Rovers is that they are tough and you can abuse them - and for well-looked after and serviced (and properly driven) vehicles thats mostly true - but what they cannot withstand is neglect - it simply kills them. I saw an 11 year old LR 110 being sold that looked ghastly - it had a bash in every panel (and the roof and bonnet from people standing on it), the door handles were broken, the mirrors trashed, but it had only 30,000 miles on the clock, had been used by a govt agency and had a service record that was astonishing because in the location it was worked it was Mountain Rescue support, Coastguard support, Fire Brigade support, as well as doing its proper job, and the servicing had to be bang on as lives depended on it. The buyer got a fantastic vehicle. My friend bought a 3 year old 110 with pristine exterior, shiny inside and glittery wheels, with the same mileage. When I checked the transfer box oil for her it was obvious the plug had not been removed in a long time, and when I removed it, virtually nothing came out. It was running with virtually no oil in it, and goodness knows what damage had resulted. Good luck!

S/H Wolf wheels here (may still be available). Nothing to do with me - just spotted them: http://www.4x4overlandtravel.com/t1735-defender-parts

Whats wrong with a gate hook and eye from the hardware shop? £5 and perfectly functional.

Well I got excited but am still perplexed! For a brief spell with the earth wire off and only a live and signal wire connected, it looked promising, the needle sitting at the bottom of the scale and dropping down when power removed. I hard wired it and drove and it didn't move up at all. I dont think it was making a proper connection. I have a leaking fuel pump and its dripping onto the sender area and I suspect this may be partly to blame. I think I need to get the fuel pump swapped, clean the whole thing up and start again. Thanks for the help thus far, I'll report back when I solve the problem!

Aha. Now - I thought I'd tried that but may not have, however I've just come in from disconnecting all the earth straps around the gearbox/chassis and cleaning up and vaselining them. Having just read your comment I nipped back out and connected only the power and the needle just went up to the bottom of the scale NOT across to the far side. So.......the earth that was connected to the original gauge was obviously NOT doing anything and something I've connected an earth to when I rewired the radio must be causing the problem. Sir you may have solved the problem! I'm going for a drive shortly and will report back!

And apart from a frozen ar5e I'm getting exasperated! :-)

I'm trying to get some sense of the actual operational function, rather than what may or may not happen in the real world - I know what should happen - the pressure should rise to around 50PSI in the middle of the gauge when started then come down to around 20PSI when idling and respond to throittle blips by rising and falling . What I'm saying is that the gauge MUST deflect fully across the scale with only power to the + and - terminals. I have two gauges. One that was on the van and one new one. If I attach a small 9V radio battery to the terminals (leaving the signal terminal unconnected) I can make the needle ping right across the scale to over 100PSI, I'm sitting inside the house just now doing it with one of the gauges! So that suggests to me that the connected state of the gauge, WITHOUT THE SIGNAL WIRE ATTACHED is full deflection across the gauge. The attachment of the signal wire must therefore 'moderate' the needle swing and do so according to the calculated pressure of the oil (as determined by the transducer). Is that a correct assumption? (I cannot think of any other!) If it is, then the problem I am experiencing must be something to do with current/voltage at the oil filter assembly where the transducer/sender is fitted.

Can some electrical expert tell me before I start rolling about on the ice under the van - Is my understanding correct that the normal state for the oil pressure gauge with pos and neg connections to power and earth MUST be a full deflection of the needle - ie off the scale. And that the presence of a connected signal wire (from the pressure sender/transducer) provides the resistance that allows the needle swing to be moderated to show the pressure state as calculated by the pressure sender/transducer. Is that how this system works? (I ask because if I connect power and earth to the gauge from a small radio battery even when it is not on the vehicle - like in my living room! - the needle moves across the scale.)

Yes tried all that. I've just come in from another bout of wire juggling. Can rule out faulty gauges as the one that I just removed has had 5 years sterling service. The new one is obviously a different batch so no problem there. Anyway here's what I just discovered: I took off the normal wiring to the gauge and ran a line direct from the gauge positive and negative terminals, then touched the (two) batteries in every conceviable permutation: 1) Straight to neg and pos on main battery - needle deflects off the scale. 2 Straight to neg and pos on aux battery - needle deflects off the scale. 3) Straight to neg on main battery and pos on aux battery - needle deflects off the scale. 4) Straight to pos on main battery and neg on aux battery - needle deflects off the scale. 5) Straight to pos on main battery and to earth on chassis - needle deflects off the scale. 5) Straight to pos on aux battery and to earth on chassis - needle deflects off the scale. And I did them all with reversed polarity too and the needle tried to go the opposite way (ie left rather than to the right across the scale as normal) To eliminate a power or earth problem I connected the two separate leads from the gauge to a small 9V smoke detector battery and bingo it went off the scale just the same - ie full deflection right, off the end of the scale. Is my understanding correct that the normal state for the gauge with pos and neg connections to power and earth MUST be a full deflection of the needle - ie off the scale. The presence of the signal wire (from the pressure sender) provides the resistance that allows the needle swing to be moderated to show the pressure state as calculated by the transducer. Is that how this works? If so.....I'm coming to the conclusion that its something to do with the resistence of the sender at the oil pressure housing? The sender was renewed as well so I'm not sure how this can be happening with any of the individual components so must be some current flow problem perhaps? Bad earth? (but I would have thought all the other gauges might be affected too, or some other items). There is another connection to the area of the transducer, which is the existing pressure sender. Basically the way the system works is that a brass extension device is screwed into the hole that the original pressure sender is installed into in the oil filter assembly. New piece has a small hole in the side to enable fitment of a transducer to give the pressure gauge a feed, and the original pressure warning light fitment (connected to the dashboard) is screwed into the end of the new piece thus retaining the original dash warning light - and this light still works fine on my van - the red oil can coming on when starting then going off as the engine runs, just as normal. I guess my next test will be to remove the wire to the other pressure switch (dash light one) and see if that makes a difference. This is the extension device: And here's a schematic (courtesy of Ralph/western):

Well there was PTFE on the old sender and it worked prefectly for 5 years (until it stopped working). So I dont think that is the cause. The really odd thing is that simply connecting the positive and negative wires to the gauge makes the needle shoot off the scale. I dont even have to connect it to the sender on the oil line. That suggests it's something in either power or earth. But why it's not affecting the other two gauges I can't fathom.

It's the proper cylindrical transducer device with capillary wires going in via an 1/8th NPT threaded fitting. This is attached to (the side of) a brass extension fitting that enables the normal oil pressure sender unit (OE fitment) to be retained, and this is working fine - the dash oil light still flashes up as normal on start-up, going off once the engine settles into running. I am aware of the difference between the original oil pressure sender and the transducer needed for oil pressure and have one of each.

Ok here's the wiring set up on the back of the gauge. There are three gauges, all similar make and style. They are wired as below to a common earth and power, and to the separate senders as appropriate (to oil pressure, oil temperature and water temperature). The circuit has the Oil pressure gauge in the middle as shown above, with the water temp and oil temp on either side. The other two gauges when wired like this both work perfectly, rising/falling as appropriate to the state of the engine, but the middle oil pressure gauge goes off the scale. Things I have done so far: I changed the sender unit on the oil line for a new one - needle still goes off the scale. I ran a new separate wire from the sender to the old gauge (so not using the old signal wire at all) - and needle still deflects off the scale. I then ran a separate power and earth wire direct from the battery to the old gauge and the needle still went off the scale. I can also get the needle to go off the scale WITHOUT the sender wire attached - so only a power and earth connection, which seems rather strange. This happened yesterday with the new gauge too, connected the power and the needle went off the scale, before I'd even connected the signal feed wire. But connecting the signal wire did not affect it it any way - it still went off the scale. I am perplexed!

Hello chaps - thanks for the replies. Mo - yes earthed to battery neg, through a common earth that is shared by all three gauges (oil temp and water temp also), which had needle pinging over to right and off the scale. Then earthed direct to battery neg on a new wire. Same behaviour. Steve - the gauge has 5 wires. Two thin + and - for the backlight. And three for the function, + and - and signal. I can remove the power form the sender circuit and allow the light to still work so proving there are two separate circuits inside the gauge. The needle goes to full deflection with the ignition off, only the power to the gauges on, and the sender wire disconnected. So basically the gauges are NOT on an ignition-switched circuit. Bowie - I'm running them off the aux battery so that I can keep ALL the non-standard stuff separate from the main wiring on the starter battery. So effectively giving me a 'backup' (the main water temp and oil pressure warning lights and standard gauges run on their original wiring to the main battery.) The gauge is a Durite from VWP and it is connected to an adaptor that enables the original dash-light oil pressure warning light to be retained. The sender for the gauge is a proper 1/8 NPTF standard fitment and is matched to the gauge. It has been working fine like this for 5 years since they were originally installed and only recently did the gauge go 'ping' off the scale. I cant for the life of me recall doing anything that would cause this. I HAVE been in behind the gauges to reconnect stereo wires and install a new Eberspacher controller and wondered if I'd shorted something but my investigation has come up with nothing (so far!). The pressure gauge was working fine after all the poking about for the stereo and then a few weeks later suddenly went ping off the scale. I'll re-run wires to battery and check earths tomorrow and see if I've missed anything.

Well bocklocks! New gauge arrived today, fitted and switched power on. And it went PING over to the right of the scale same as the one I just removed! So, so far I've replaced the sender/transducer unit, replaced the wiring (all of it, including new earth, power and sender wires) and now the gauge - and still have the problem! And thats with the engine off, stone cold, not run for a week, and the rocker cover has been off so no pressure build up of any kind. In fact the needle pinging happens even without the connection to the sender, so rules out anything there and points to a power/earth problem. So am I now looking at something odd in the power supply? Everything else is ok. So what else - a bad earth maybe? This is all running off an auxiliary battery if that makes any difference and when I tried the direct wire to the gauge I went directly from both + and - terminals on the battery to the gauge, and third wire direct from gauge to sender. Can any electrical genius point me in a direction I've not tried yet?

You could even glue a new U channel back on with 3M tape or Sikaflex type mastic adhesive if you want to be even tidier.