TD5 power

hiI'm afraid its the plated weight on the trailer not the actual weight your towing at the time, i'm in the same situation and don't think there's a way round it just got to do the test.HTHmatt

hi Have you tried connecting a jump lead between the alternator casing and the main battery negative terminal, this would eliminate any earthing issues. I have a theory that the main earth lead is failing internally, as it heats up during driving the resistance increases limiting current flow giving the impression the alternator isn't working correctly. When the truck is warm the connection inside the lead is broken meaning no current can flow and therefore no lights etc however as it cools down the connection is remade and the problem appears to fix itself. hope this makes sense matt

hi as above change the fuel filter and give it a run, also if the throttle controls a butterfly there will be a vacuum pipe from the intake to the injector pump check that this is intact and clear. hth matt

hi its more the internal design compared to the ability to survive the pressures, a cooling system operates at 1 bar as does a standard turbo set up. An intercooler needs to flow a large volume of air fairly quickly where as with a radiator it is designed to restrict the flow slightly to give more cooling effect. with this in mind fitting a rad as an intercooler i would imagine would lead to lots of turbo lag and reduced efficiency. Matt

hi although you found a solution, if the return is really 1/4" hose then that is way to small and will be holding the performance of the winch back. I would look at upping the pressure side to 3/8" and the return 1/2" you should be able to find a local ag engineer or hydraulics place to make the hoses up for you. Bit of a long trip all the way over hear from sweden Matt

hi what diameter hose are you using for the return side of the system as if this is too small it may allow pressure to back up causing strange valve problems. HTH matt

good to hear glad its finally fixed matt

hi sounds like they're on the right track now, i would have thought for the time it would take them fitting a new engine loom would be easier depending on parts availability i assume the insurance is paying. One thing i have had trouble with in the past is the pins in multi plugs (ECU) getting pushed back leading to no or intermittent contact, worst i had was a pin on the diagnostics wire in a tractor, meant the laptop was useless however 2 days and a multimeter found it. All i wanted to do was a 10 minute calibration. HTH matt

hi what do you mean by "could not get a pulse from the injectors"? is it that they think the injectors aren't being opened, in a previous post you said that it was producing white smoke whilst cranking which means at least some injectors are firing but maybe not at the right time. matt

hi i would say go with the ap lockheed parts £18 isn't that much for a brake disc and you know its from a reputable manufacturer. As mark mentioned the dust seals are a pain i recently did mine and i think it is very important to get the bores for the retaining rings as clean as possible. you could do one piston and the ring would go in first time but the next would wreck the ring for no apparent reason, definitely get a spare seal kit you will need it i ended up with only 1 spare ring out of 4. Matt

hi i agree with bogmonster all four injectors need to be changed and drain the rail incase there is any water in there. If that fails ask them to swap the crank sensor from the demo vehicle. Does anyone know if the puma engine uses a separate cam/ fuel pump position sensor? if so try changing that What they also should be able to do is look at the live values from the sensors when they crank the engine like rail pressure, engine speed etc it should be fairly obvious if one reading is way off what would be expected leading to incorrect amounts of fuel being injected possibly at the wrong time. matt

hi the process i have used on my new chassis is apply mordant solution (T wash) this helps the paint bite into the surface acid etch primmer from what i can find has to be sprayed to get good results a couple of coats of normal grey primmer one or two coats of high build black top coat I've still got the final top coat to spray but should be done this week once thats done i will probably coat the inside of the rails with waxyoil, with all that done it should easily outlast the rest of the truck HTH matt

hi Black smoke is fuel that has started to burn but wasn't completely burnt where as white is fuel that has not been burnt at all. As western says white can also be coolant. The garage will have removed the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) from your engine, it's an emission control system and as they said your engine is better without it. EGT is exhaust gas temperature and is measured whilst tuning engines to make sure you don't melt something expensive. Injectors can be tested but need to be done by an injection specialist i would just get yours reconditioned especially if your planning an overland trip. here is a link to an article in the tech archive about tuning the 300tdi engine, your engine is constantly over fueling giving the black smoke i'm pretty sure this mod has been carried out on your engine but it has been adjusted too far. I'd suggest turning the smoke screw anticlockwise by small amounts at a time, i believe you will see a marked decrease in the smoke. HTH matt

hi The compression test results are nothing to worry about it is possible the head has been skimmed at some point which would increase the compression ratio leading to your results, which have a large accuracy range anyway. Oil can affect the results as it helps the rings to seal, it is common to test a cylinder then add a small amount of oil and repeat the test an increased reading would show the rings or bores are worn. I think the injector pump has been tweaked too far, black smoke is unburnt fuel so either too much is being delivered (injector pump settings) or the injectors need recon as they are not atomising the fuel correctly. As above change the glow plugs not expensive and can only help Matt

hi the only way i can see to use one pump would be to remove the original power steering pump, Then run the winch pump constantly with a priority and pressure reducing valves to divert the required amount of oil at the correct steering pressure any spare could supply the winch. However this does have some downsides, there are two options a fixed or variable displacement pump. With a fixed the pump would consume a lot of power and heat the oil which would then have to be cooled again also finding a pump that would run across the engine speed range would be hard. It could be made to work with the current system. A variable pump would work but the system would be very expensive in comparison and the system wold have to be modified to accept the new type of pump. The amount of heat generated would be kept to a minimum as the pump only produces as much flow as required, to really take advantage the vehicle would have to be designed with using this system in mind. The government still thinks hydro steer is too dangerous to be allowed on their roads, so in my opinion there aren't enough benefits to out weigh the cost of the system. Matt

hi its a good idea but the pumps are no way big enough for a winch, an autobox runs 10bar pressure i cant find a flow rating but would guess 20lpm at the most. manual boxes would be even less as it's only for lubrication rather than drive. im afraid with those pressures continental drift would look like a Ferrari compared to the winch:ph34r: sorry to rather kill the idea it would be a neat solution. matt

hi i'll second what errol said, you will have to remove the starter but taking it apart and cleaning up the solenoid should get it going again but do check it on the floor first cause you don't want to be doing it twice Matt

hi ive got two sugestions, firstly if you connect the multimeter accross the battery and the turn the key to start what is the reading on the multimeter, anything lower than 10volts the battery is probably dead but you could try charging then repeating the test. How did halfrauds check the battery? My second sugestion is to clamp a jump lead securely to the starter casing and then to the battery negative terminal to make sure there isn't an earth problem. as for turning the engine have you got a socket large enough for the front crank pulley nut? HTH matt

i agree with mo, just keep looking it will turn up edit just had a look at the autotrader ad, the truck looks immaculate but thats a lot of money for a truck if your going offroading you'd be always trying to protect the paintwork. matt

the only one that would slightly concern me is the one between the gearboxes, its hard to tell how bad the leak is from pictures but to fix would involve splitting the boxes not a hard job though time consuming. The power steering box might be just a seal however if the shaft has worn then a rebuilt box is required at around £200 The swivel seal is easy enough £10 for the seal and an hour to fit. I think it should be a good truck but is starting to head towards being expensive depending what you want to do with it Matt

hi looks a nice truck the only things i'll add are the steering box looksto be leaking and the front left swivel seal is also leaking a little. From the other pictures it looks like there is a leak between the mainbox and transfer box, also i would want to check the front leftbulkhead outrigger it looks a bit corroded on the end. Personally i would want to put a new rear crossmember on as it looks abit of a bodge at the moment in my opinion however it's probablystructurally sound so wouldn't have to be done immediately. The reardoor is probably feeling the strain of having the spare wheel mountedon it, a replacement would be easier but its possible to repair. overall it looks a good truck but i would say it depends how far the seller is willing to move on the price, if you cost out the work you would want done and then keep that in mind when putting in an offer you shouldn't go far wrong. good luck matt

hi yep lr don't mention the ring spacing but the engines on tractors at work required the rings to be as you said so i would go with that. one thing that is mentioned is the two compression rings have to be fitted the correct way up, one side should be marked top, also they recommend you check the ring gap part way down the bore the measurements below are for a 300tdi but i would assume the 200 be the same. top compression ring 0.4 to 0.65mm secondary compression ring 0.3 to 0.5mm oil control ring 0.3 to 0.6mm Matt

hi i think it is very much possible with some valves combined with some electronics to get a self centering system with feedback, it would make a good project but probably prohibitively expensive. You could always put a camera in the wheel arch and link it to the lcd dash in the new range rovers to keep an eye on the wheels or just a simple sensor. As Chris pointed out the construction and use regs won't allow it on most road going vehicles, agricultural and construction get past as they should not exceed 20mph. In Germany the limit is 60kph, the new Fendt 900 tractor's steering has a system to give the operator feedback but i don't know how the system works. Currently joystick steering is used on some construction and forestry equipment one joystick is used for direction and steering and the other for the machines hydraulics, it allows much more space in the cab things like monitors can be in front of the operator rather than to the side. Matt

hi glad you found the problem breaking the rings on 3 out of 4 cylinders is impressive As for the honing if the crank is still in place then try and cover itas best you can with rags, the angle and spacing of the hone marks onthe bore is important to oil consumption and the life of the bore. Technique depends what tool you've got. one with lots of balls is designedto polish the bore and will leave the original honing pattern. The other type has 3 or 4 stones and is more intended to re shape oval bores or increase the size so will remove metal fairly quickly meaning the final pass with this type of tool will determine the finish of the bore. A bit of searching round on google should give you a reasonable idea of techniques and finishes required, as long as the bores are in good condition a couple of quick passes with the first tool and lots of oil should give a good surface for the new rings to bed into. make sure the new shells are good quality from turners for example they may cost a bit more but will be worth it. HTH matt

hi thanks james, had to remove the old version of microcat before installing for some reason but all working well now cheers matt