Orange

I'm trying to come up with a solution to mounting my bigger-than-standard spare wheel in the back of my Range Rover..... Why the Defender forum, then, I hear you ask - bear with me!! I've got an idea to mount a standard defender/series spare wheel mounting bracket (the rear door type) on the inner wing, but don't have one and haven't got a vehicle close by to be able to measure... Can comeone give me the dimensions of the back plate and the length of the 3 studs that come off of it please? Also, how many mounting holes are there in the back plate? Much obliged... Adrian

Ask Mark how strong a disc handbrake can be......... Seriously, though. I spent many an hour after each time off road dismantling and rebuilding the drum brake so that it would work. Even after a real fight to get one fitted to the back of a Borg Warner, I am much happier that I can apply the handbrake and rely on it, no matter how covered in cr#p the underneath of the car is. Adrian Satisfied customer

Cheers, Mike! Will probably opt for the pub on Friday night as am currently not sure what time we'll be arriving!

Quick Q for those in the know... Is there going to be a BBQ at the campsite on the Saturday night like last time?? Obviously, if you could arrange 'less weather' it would be great!!! Cheers Adrian

Save me some fittings and pipe please!! Very neat!

Can you put the T/box in neutral, then it doesn't matter where the auto shifter is, it still won't go anywhere..... (he says, not knowing, but suggesting it might work...)

Guardian also offer a copy of the Southdown system. You'll find it on ebay if you search for 'tank guard' However, after looking into these, the Southdown one still comes out at the top of the list because all the others sell the parts to complete the system separately, so it soon adds up! for the small amount of difference, I'd throw the money to Southdown!! BTW - Second Hand ones are quite rare

For mail-order stuff try Jetex - have a look in their custom exhaust section... Sad as it is to say it, it is also worth having a word with the spotty oik behind the Ripspeed desk in your local Halfords. They pointed me to a couple of local places...(local to me, that is!!!) Can't hurt next time you are in there.

Found a little list of LPG filling stations..... You'll need from page 37 onwards of THIS list!

Another hour of searching and it's found! It's a pdf file that Ralph (Western) posted in response to Jules' question about brake bleeding. Here One for the archive maybe?? Ta everso!

I know that somewhere, some kind soul posted a link or article about it, but can I find it?? Can I b####r!! I can see it now, and can even remember the three points to be bled on the front caliper, but a search in the Tech Archive and then the entire forum only turn up pictures of a boy-band member!! Would someone put me out of my misery??.........and post the link up again?? TIA Adrian

In terms of a cost to effort ratio, buy a new can!! They are pennies and if you've got one part that doesn't seal, chances are there isn't a lot of life left in the can!!

Believe me, I've been thinking about letting him practice on the rearmost 18" of the wings, roof and chassis..... But that's another idea for another day!! I'll let him ruin the back of his Disco first!!

Are there any bits on your car that you can practice on, rather than starting out on mine??? GULP!!!

Will hopefully be going as long as the car is back together in time!! What's all this pointing the finger malarkey, Mr Stumpy!! I only said I thought there was one down the road. It's the one at Glyn Neath I'm thinking of. I'm sure a grown up will be able to tell you where there are several!! The details taken from Multi-map: Glyn Neath Express Address: Neath Road, Neath Port Talbot SA115EW Telephone: +(44)-(1639)-722809 Might be worth a phone call!! I know they do petrol and diesel as that's where Mark and I filled up in March!

That must be one for the car and one for the lay-dees!!

Try dropping Ralph (Western on here) a pm and have a little ask...he's king of part numbers!!

Or the Ginger Sanctuary from Katherine Tate??

Did I hear the rumble of a ginger army rising once again to rule the world?? I've met lots people too, but my memory isn't what it used to be if I remember correctly!! I think I've been in the sun a bit too long for a ginger-nut!!

I've already got one door that looks like yours, Bish!! A big sneaky tree stump in an overgrown bog took care of that!! I would like to say that I did all the work myself, but Mark was the real worker here! I was there for moral support and making small rectangular patches that even a competent monkey could do!! My main job was the cleaning and prepping while Mark did the important stuff and then the cleaning and painting after the event. Still, If I wasn't there, it would have taken him 6 days.......at least that's what I'm telling myself!! As Mark said, we have discovered more and more work that needs to be done and I'm sure I will pick a few more skills up on the way, but for now I can only do bits as and when Marks schedule allows!! Still, at least we won't have to do the sills again!!

It was time to do something about the lack of metal holding the sills of the car together!! I enlisted the help of my brother – Mark – who is a lot more experienced at this sort of thing than I am (read as he’s done it before!!) and the Doctors haven’t forbidden him from wielding a welding torch! I'm sure he won't mind me saying that the welding isn't pretty, but it's structural!! We set aside 3 days to work on the car. 2 days to do the rear floor and 2 days to do this job. We started with the sills, but it turned into a 4 day job as there was more rust than originally thought – ain’t that just the story of Range Rovers!! This is not the definite way of replacing the sills, but it’s a good way to add a lot of strength where Land Rover decided they could skimp and it means I don't need to add separate rock sliders B) Firstly, you’ll need to make sure you can tame a welder (person or machine) to do the sticking back together. There isn’t really a good way to do it without hot metal and there’s no point starting without knowing that you can get it back together! Gather several angle grinders with a seletion of cutting, grinding and flap discs along with a couple of wire brushes. A couple of paint and rust removal attachments will also come in handy for getting through the seam/under seal - I used a whole one on one side, so two will probably see you right! Having several angle grinders will save you having to keep swapping between discs... Off Side (drivers) Park the car in a place that it isn’t going to need to be moved from – just in case – and begin to strip the plastic trim from the sill. To do this, you’ll need a narrow punch or a Phillips screwdriver to punch out the middle of the plastic rivets. As you can see, the only thing holding my trims on were the remnants of 6 months of trips to Slindon, Seven Sisters and Shorham Cement works: Next is to remove the door seals. Might as well take them off completely as they’ll only get in the way! Then pull back the carpet in the footwells. This is where the fun starts! Unless you are really lucky, you’ll probably find a sight like this: Years of damp carpet and soundproofing have resulted in a very rusty floor! Nice! All this needs cutting out and plating, otherwise you are likely to put your feet through the floor! We decided to do part of it and re-visit the whole footwell structure at another date very soon! As the rust is pretty well advanced, and the best metal to weld to was under the seat support, we took the trim and seat out and released the support from the floor to enable a straight-forward patch to be welded in. Then the cutting really begins! Time to chop back to decent metal and have a bloomin good clean-up in order to make the welding easier. In the process of poking and prodding to find good metal, we managed to release the A- and B-pillars from all of their support. Including the support that runs under the floor in the front footwell: At this point there is nothing supporting the weight of the door hanging off of the A-pillar. It’s probably a good idea to prop it up, but it’s a PITA trying to grind around a door that won’t move. It would have been a whole lot easier if the door were taken off and I’ll do that next time……..Ho-hum! The next couple of pictures give you an idea of the amount we had to cut out: Once all of the nasty stuff is out, it’s time to assess the damage and make the new sill sections. We decided to use 100x60mm box section. Mark had used the same on his Disco, so knew what we needed to do…..however, when dealing with his, he split the box along it’s length (seam), clamped it together and re-welded it so that it was a taper fit into the existing section. This time, it wasn’t needed as there was so much material removed that there wasn’t a lot stopping us pressing the complete box section in. As the base of the A-pillar was completely shot, we made the sills longer than necessary in order to be able to weld the new repair section in place and secure the outrigger to the sill. These pictures show the new sill jacked into place with it’s prettily angled end protruding from the a-pillar: No real reason to slope the end, other than for aesthetics. The ends were caped to stop mud getting in and rusting from the inside out. The whole section was sprayed with weldable primer (Halfords – not cheap) to offer a little protection from the crud. The sill is tacked into place inside and out by the WB (welding biatch!!!): And fully welded on the outside: The floor patch tack welded into place: Then our attention was switched to the inside and fixing some strength back into the A-pillar with the addition of a couple of brackets on either side of the outrigger: At this stage, the proper fabrication started to happen. Until now it had been flat plates with a few bends, now though, the experience started to show… This section was cut and folded using a combination of angle grinder, guillotine, hammer and folder – much to my amazement – in not quite record time! I am very envious of those who can think freehand-3D if you know what I mean! It was all measured, but I'd end up bending it all the wrong way The next bit of fab was the replacement B-pillar which looked something like this: Everything was then given a quick spray of weldable primer to stop the flash rusting. Then the seat support was welded back on… Attention then turned to another minor repair to be done on the drivers side. This'll be familliar to most: Cut out the fluffy bits and a quick clean up: Make a patch and weld on – note the lack of seat belt mount as they aren’t going back in!! Rear seats are so last year! Near Side (Passenger) It’s basically the same story for the sill, with a little less rust to cut out. The same size box section is used to replace the original sill, with the extension to beyond the A-pillar. This time we managed to release the spot welds for the B-pillar, but the A-post and side of the footwell were a completely different story Nowt wrong with the floor on this side, so we left it alone!. After a lot of cutting and thinking and phoning round to find repair sections, this was done: The side of the footwell was repaired first, then the bottom of the A-post, then it was all welded to the sill to firm it all up much the same as the other side. There was also a patch to weld on the inside of the a-pillar, too, but I didn’t get a piccie of that! Following all this welding, there was a lot of grinding to do, not to mention wire brushing and painting. I decided that I wasn’t after pretty, so did enough to make it look better ad then painted it with red oxide primer, then a metallic silver top coat. It’ll do me!! That’s it, really! 4 days worth of work that was supposed to be 2 on the sills and 2 on the rear floor……. Let’s leave the rear floor for another day, eh??!!

As Bish says, sounds like the internal baffles have broken free and rattle every time there is a change in pressure, or a 'lumpy' flow through the system. If you choose to replace the cat, it'll be very dear - you could always see if there are any breakers with known good ones... The other option is to not replace it and put a straight pipe in. The MoT man might get a bit suspicious, though, when one side has one and the other doesn't!!

In honesty we haven't cleared it since the axle rebuild, but I feel the solenoid fault will still be there even if the sensor faults have been cleared!! I think a short piece of wire will be getting used again soon!!

Bish - I've done an axle re-build on the front following my early exit from Seven Sisters in March, but the fault light is still on (when the bulb is in!!!) so I guess it hasn't solved all the problems. The solenoid is still knackered, I think.......it works, but it tells me it's knackered!! Corrode - I spoke to Jules some time ago, but I feel some more communication is in order. Ta for the reminder!! BogMonster - mine is a 1992, therefore I don't think I need to worry about the difference between the vacuum/electrical differences. Ta for the heads up on the other stuff, though! I feel a little more digging is needed. Hopefully with the aid of a 'new' solenoid unit, I might be able to leave the bulb in at MoT time!! Probably safer not to, though, cos that will be the day it goes wrong!!

As the title really! I'm in need of two things: 1st is the ABS solenoid set-up from under the bonnet (on top of the drivers side footwell/inner wing) and 2nd is some extended brake lines. Mark has managed to source the brake lines and I'm in the process of sourcing the solenoid, but would like to know if I can broaden my search area by including Discos??? Will they all fit together to make an ABS system that works and the MoT man will be happy with, rather than one that works, but has no 'start sequence' on the dash-board light ?? TIA Adrian