SteveRK

Nice Job there. Looks very 'factory standard' as well

Heres my 1993 original crossmember before it was replaced. Its not too differant to your new one? And a pic after the new one was fitted. It was flat (horizontal) for tacking the inner panels onto it:

Ouch! Never mind the pain from that minor skin burn how is SWMBO coping?

The fuse holder can ONLY get hot if it is introducing a resistance. In theory if it was zero Ohms resistance across the fuse it would not introduce any resistance-current-watts heat) so i would look at re-doing the fuse connections as a starting point. Over time the current through the fuse can introduce increased resistance due to oxidation of the connections and fuse blade.

To me it sounds too fast to be any single cylinder making the noise. Something mechanical is making the noise but beats me what and why,

Try as you might you probably wont stop water entering. I have added 'dams to stop leaves getting in there but also removed the scuttle to seam seal the valley after rust proofing:

Lets keep the windscreen drama in perspective please The toughened 'zone' will provide quite sufficient safety in the event of a severe impact. Or were we all driving death traps in the 80s & 90s????????

Before changing any parts - is there a spark (on more than one cylinder), are the plugs showing signs of getting fuel, if they are wet heat them on the stove, is the fuel pump running for 2 seconds when switching the ignition on

The output from the tansducer is a ragged pulse 6 times per road wheel revolution. The supply is 12V on the green lead and the output is around 12V on the yellow lead.

sounds electrical relay iffy' solder joint syndrome? Could be main relay under drivers seat or starter motor relay, or even a fuse connection.

If the gearbox has locked then there should be no free play - I'd check that nothing is fouling the torque converter to flywheel/flex plate and also the camshaft/timing chain assembly

Apologies in advance if this is a silly question we are all assuming that the sealant job was not done prior to you buying the car - i.e. you had checked the roof before the work was done?

Hi Mike yes i did the normal run in process but on inspection recently after taking the engine out for other reasons some of the tappets are showing signs of non-rotation, a future problem in the making but its a very little used RR so i'm not too concerned,,,,, at the moment. The 3.9 cam angles are very similar to 3.5 carb' but not the 3.5 injection. This could imply that they got it wrong on the 3.5 injection and reverted back to the 3.5 carb' version.

Replaced the camshaft, tappets, push rods & chain about 1000 miles ago so i suspect the cam is still o.k. although having checked the receipts it appears to be an Allmakes cam' Looking at Rover spec's for camshaft valve timing there is a lot of variance in the opening and closing angles depending on whether its carbs', 3.5 injection or 3.9 injection. I'm suspecting I have a 3.5 injection cam' and its always run slightly iffy since changing the camshaft, but was running iffy before (orignal camshaft & tappets utterly knackered) Next stage is to re-check valve timing on No.1 cylinder and if not as it should be remove the front section to investigate re-timing the camshaft

Two questions for those in the know about camshafts, timing and options: Would a 3.5 EFi camshaft work o.k. in a 3.9? reason for asking is that that having done some visual checks on No.1 cylinder exhaust valve timing it appears that the valve 'duration is a lot less that the std' 285 degrees. I replaced the camshaft & chain a while back (non genuine cam') but never bothered comparing it with the original worn out cam' before fitting and wondered if I had been given the wrong camshaft??? secondly, if a friend was to have installed a new camshaft and chain on my, oops sorry 'there' engine but stupidly didn't quite get it correct to the tune of 1 tooth retarded cam' timing would the engine still run o.k. albeit with a rough idle and surging at low speed/light throttle????? thanks

How are you sure that water has got into the fuel lines?

I have a feeling that they had 2 stud welds on the inside that a long plate slighly smaller than a number plate with arms on attached to

Not withstanding the amount of technology that modern diesels employ essentially it should start so long as its getting fuel. This requires the pump to be working to get the required pressure for the injectors and then (if its a common rail engine)the engine management needs to actuate the injectors. If its getting fuel to the injectors o.k. i would expect to see white smoke from the exhaust after a fair amount of engine cranking to confirm that fuel is getting into the cylinders. My expectation is that it isnt as its not starting.

Exceptionally cold air = exceptionally dense air per cubic volume being sucked in? If for whatever reason the ECU isn't able to determine density of the air (as a calculation of its temperature) then it might be running weak, hence glowing manifolds?

Owners manual shows 6 fuses and 2 relays under the drivers seat if electric seats are fitted. 30Amps for the motors, a relay and 3 amp fuses for mirrors/seat memory are fitted for each front seat. Mine doesn't have electric seats and doesn't have this fuse box fitted. I suspect the relays are for supplying low current to the switches on the seats so that they are not passing the full seat motor current.

I'm not sure of the specifics of this but I think one of the diodes in the alternator is shorting to ground, hence the ignition light coming on with the engine running and alternator is charging. If so and depending on the model of alternator you can sometimes buy the diode pack as an assembly instead of exchanging the whole alternator.

Some basic checks to isolate the gearbox from an engine fault would be to hold fixed revs the engine in neutral to see if it runs stable or not. If when driving the revs surge then if the gearbox is o.k. the car should also surge at the same time, if it doesn't then something is 'slipping' in the gearbox drive. from you kangaroo description it sounds like the vehicle is surging as the revs climb so I would check that (if fitted) the gearbox to inlet manifold vacuum pipe is intact as a starting point as the symptoms could indicate a large air leak somewhere.

Try this link to the Bosal web site: http://www.catalogue.bosal.com/pages/exh_cartype_search.php It doesn't give dimensions but if you search you will see that from 1985 they reverted to single pipe after the middle silencer/resonator box. The 3.9 bore diameter output is larger than for the dual output but I couldn't say whether the down pipe to middle silencer bore is larger.

If the engine is taking a long time to warm up then a rad blind will have no effect if the thermostat is remaining shut (which it should be) as no water will be circulating through the rad'. If the thermostat is not fully closed then a rad blind may help improve things as water will be circulating through the rad' and the blind will help reduce some heat dissipation - a bit. diesels as you know take forever to heat up on idle or low load running so any leakage at the thermostat can have a noticeable affect on heater output. If your thermostat has one of those air bleed holes then that alone can seep enough coolant to prolong warm up at idle.

If the head is warped to the extent that it needs skimming i would expect the rocker shaft to be seized stuck? Bolting the head back down evenly would straighten a modest warp if using tin gaskets?