mickeyw

Agreed that sounds pretty cheap. I just got Pickles to quote FC for my Ninety, 3.9, LPG, auto plus other minor mods. It seems they only like to insure modded 4x4s rather than std models. I got the impression they liked you to have another car as a primary, confused. They were far from the cheapest. The NFU have come up trumps again, the engine, LPG and gearbox mods were of no concern to them. The truck is my daily driver. I reduced the cover to 2 named drivers, FC, unlimited mileage. Previously was any over 25 but just TPFT. The premium actually dropped slightly to around £280. Oh, and the woman on the phone was very helpful, and sounded very nice too

Having seen the superb quality and workmanship of Richards Chassis on display at Billing, I would suggest you give them a call.

This is my thinking at the moment. I know where's there's a tidy set in the wrong colour. Hopefully a quick squirt from a can of the right colour will fix that problem.

I was fortunate enough to have watched and discussed a demo of LT230 building on Ashcrofts stand when I was at Billing last weekend. The crush tube is certainly still used. They always use a new tube when new bearings are fitted. The wall thickness of the tube is considerable, but it can sometimes need to be crushed by as much as a couple of mm! I am told you will struggle to crush the tube sufficiently with an ordinary socket wrench. For this they use an air impact gun and keep giving the nut a bit more of a buzz until the correct crush and preload is achieved. This is something that is determined by an experienced hand. Essentially you need to remove any end to end float in the shaft, but still be able to turn it by hand. The shaft should have only marginal 'run on' when you let go of it. I was surprised how tight the shaft is on new bearings. I have seen the string and spring balance method in the LR workshop manuals, this may be a more reliable way to check the preload if you are not experienced at gearbox building.

I saw lots of KM2s being fitted at Billing last weekend. BFG bloke told me the KM is no longer being manufactured. I had been hoping to get some 255/75 16 KMs. Looks like I'm out of luck.

I recently fitted my lecky fans and put the temp switch in the bottom hose as recommended. I have both fans connected to the lower temp (88-83) I have become concerned though since the fans were not coming on anywhere near soon enough. When the first switch cut in my temp gauge (VDO one) was reading just over 100ºC. As a V8 owner I was quite worried that the engine had got this hot. When the fans were running everything cooled down pretty quickly, so I'm reasonably confident the rad is not clogged inside. I would imagine there may be a 10º difference between top and bottom hose temperatures, so if the switch kicks in at 88º, the top would be approaching 100º, which is pretty much what I have experienced. I am currently using a manual overide switch to turn the fans on if the thermo switch doesn't cut in soon enough, but I need to sort out a proper solution. I'm thinking of moving to the top hose and using the higher (92-87º) option. Surely it shouldn't matter which hose is used as long as the thermo switch used is of an appropriate temp.

Hi All, The vogue alloys on my 1990 classic are starting to look a little scabby and are letting down appearances on what is a pretty tidy vehicle. I just popped into my local alloy wheel refurb place to find out what it would cost to have them blasted and sprayed up. To get four done was going to be £375 plus the VAT on top Apparently due to the dual tone rims (silver outer with colour coded centres) they have to paint silver, then clear powder laquer, key the laquer before painting the second colour and another coat of clear powder coat. So they're doing it all twice really, which they say is why it costs so much. To my mind I have much better things to spend that much money on, never mind that the truck ain't worth a great deal of £££s anyway! What has anyone else paid for a similar service? And what other DIY methods have you used to remove the corrosion and that have given a reasonable finish? Thanks in advance.

Has anyone heard of Airtex as a brand of car parts (not as in the t-shirts)? I'm sure I have a vague memory of someone saying they were an OEM manufacturer, but can't find anything to back that up. I found this when looking for a 200Tdi Disco pump. It costs more than the Allmakes version, so I would like to think it's a bit better - not that price is ever a guarantee of anything Yes I would normally go genuine, but this is for someone on a limited budget, and we are trying to avoid a Britpart episode!

Okay, I thought I was going to get my speedo installed this weekend, but no. I connected everything up behind the dash and guess what, the speedo no worky. The mileage lights up, the backlighting works, but I cannot get the speedo needle to move when I spin the transducer with my fingers. As I mentioned above, I've previously had it all working fine on the bench, connected up as per Imperiado's instructions. So what is wrong? I've checked the wiring over and over and over, took it all out and set it up on the bench again and still no worky. I don't think I connected anything wrong, but if I did, what could I have damaged? I thought I'd check the transducer output first. From what Jimmy Neutron says it is meant to alternate between high and low output, so I hooked it up to 12v and a sillyscope. There is no output when connected like this, so I wonder if it needs any pull-up resistors to get an output. Does anyone have a data sheet for this component? I've Googled VDO 340.214/13/4 but all that comes up is the wibbly wobbly speedo thread! Also Jimmy mentions using a clock generator to advance the mileage reading. I'd love to know how to do this myself, Jimmy would you mind letting me in on this? More head scratching to do....

I went to Billing on the Saturday, sounds like that was the best day weather wise as I did get a bit toasted at times. But £14 to get in! It gets more and more extortionate every year. I was also unimpressed at having to join a queue of 100 odd people to get across the footbridge on to the showground. There was just one chap there to tear your ticket in half and stamp your hand, he could have done with a couple of helpers. As for the show itself I too have to say it seemed quiet, there were far fewer traders than I have ever seen before and even the camping areas had plenty of spaces left. There also seemed to be a lot less visitors, but I expect that was due the Newark show. I had a lengthy chat with the guys at Richards Chassis and despite my not actually being in the market for a chassis they were happy to talk. I think the products they had on display, especially the ungalved and unpainted chassis really enabled one to get a good idea of their quality. I would now have no hesitation in buying from them. I asked whether they were going to start making repair sections like rear X members, someone needs to fill the void for quality repair parts. Also spent a very worthwhile hour or so at Ashcrofts' stand while Phil gave an excellent demo on stripping and reassembling an LT230. I like to do this kind of job myself so I now have expert advise on correctly shimming and setting bearing preloads. I think it is fantastic that these people are prepared to give time and patience. Well done Ashcrofts! And how much did I spend on goodies? Absolutely zilch. There were a couple of bits I was looking out for but no success there. A worthwhile day out for me.

V8 oil pump drive gear - wouldn't even fit into the housing because the gear was pressed onto the shaft VERY wonky. Sent it back for a refund. I ended up getting one from Turner Engineering as they are close to me. Their part was the same price as the Britpart one but actually fitted and worked. Decent stuff isn't always expensive! RRC exhaust front pipes - horrendous weld quality, and had to be cut and re-welded to make them fit. I'm learning, slowly.....

I ordered the OEM version from LR series. It has all the hallmarks of a Britpart item so I sent it back and ordered the genuine part from them, only about £3 more than the OEM one. I've had it all connected on the bench and it seems to work OK, although I can't verify the MPH accuracy yet. My old speedo read spot on. Hopefully the new one will too. I have the green drive gear with 265 tyres.

You're not alone Only three uses , you're not being careful enough

Hold the head of a medium sized ball pein hammer in the palm of your hand and use the flat side of the hammer to press the pin in, easy enough, no grease or any other lube required.

Just in time for Billing?

Yep, they sure do bend! My mother was in her 110 CSW a few years back and got hit by a Ford Sierra that was really motoring it. The Sierra hit the 110 down the drivers side and spun the 110 a good 90 degrees. The insurance assessors wrote the car off - 2 bent axles (Salsbury rear), totally mangled steel wheels, A pillar moved back 2 inches (so bent bulkhead), B pillar moved back and folded the rear side door lots. The rear radius arm fixing also tore out of the chassis bracket. Basically the wheels and the protruding door hinges took most of the impact, I would say to have spun the car like that the back wheel took a bit hit, hence the bent Salsbury. So they do bend! Fortunately my mother and the Collies all got out of the car unharmed, albeit rather shaken. Having seen the other car I know she was a lot safer in the 110.

The curved tubular cross member will definitely need to come out. Just undo the 8 bolts, and if necessary spread the chassis rails a little. I now use a 4t port-a-power ram for this, but before that it was a small bottle jack and a lump of timber. Make sure you're not beneath it when the whole lot drops out. It WILL hurt

Bish My DIY sliders can be seen on a previous topic here. They're pretty much the same as markyboy has shown. Made from 100x50x3 box section.

Had an e-shot from Screwfix today. Hitachi 9" and 4½" twin pack of grinders for under £60! Looks pretty good to me. ** See here **

I got mine here. Do not waste your time like I did with the OEM part, it's absolutely nothing like OEM quality, more like Britpart quality in fact! For the extra £3 go genuine! The supplier was quite happy to take the part back and send me a genuine one so hats off to them for that. Hoping to get this setup fitted in the next week or two Can't help you with the gearing issue I'm afraid.

I was cutting 5mm the other day with a 1mm disc on my 4 1/2" grinder. Went through it a treat, and a damn site quicker than a jigsaw. A bit of practice will give you more confidence in these thin discs, they're surprisingly forgiving. If thin plate is distorting with heat you may be giving it too much welly As previously pointed out the grinder's only good for straight cuts. I did have to resort to the jigsaw when I made my gas tank cradle. That was 3mm plate and took ages to cut. Oh how I want a plasma...

I've always sat in and twiddled the light switches, wobbled the steering etc for my MOT tester...

That's the one

You didn't snap me this time, but you did get a couple of shots my blue 90 in the car park at the Cowpie the other week.

I was selling, so the idea was to come home with LESS stuff. I achieved this too by not looking round 'till near the end. Mate of mine bought a 2" lift kit (4 springs, 4 shocks and a steering damper for £25! I think it was a good day to be buying but not so good if you were selling. What do the rest of you reckon? I think the sun caused a few wallets to get stuck in people's pockets And I ask, how many forumers were there? I was wearing my HOFS t-shirt, the truck was wearing LR4x4 stickers too; but only one came and said hello no-one even asked for a cheeky forum discount