mickeyw

Ok, my bad. Didn't read him carefully enough I shall however contest the thought that a 2.5NAD is quieter than a Tdi. The 90 D I have driven was very noisy indeed.

Given that you do a fair number of road miles, you must be some kind of masochist if you are contemtplating converting TO a 2.25 NAD! Pretty much every other engine you could convert to will be better in terms of performance and some in terms of economy. The 2.25 NAD has quite a few less beans to give than its petrol stablemate. Thinking about it I wonder how many 2.25 oil burners are still about? A 200 or 300 Tdi would be a relatively simple fit and far more pleasant to drive.

That's brilliant. I know all that can be done on Solidworks but that's a handy resource for non-CAD types. Better keep it handy for when I need to built a wooden Toy Rover

Nige would have to make one out of cardboard first Anyone for cardboard gearcutting?

Right, one PC reboot later and we're good. I couldn't get a very good shot of the top mounting bracket as it's a bit bright outside today but here it is anyway: Bracket, substantial bit of 50x50x3mm wall box (it's what I had knocking about), from rear x-member to under wheel arch: Making use of 4 existing bolt holes in the x-member: Inside on top of the wheelarch: And where the floor fixing will go, this isn't bolted in yet, but there will be a large spreader plate beneath the floor that pulls against the underfloor supports, and hopefully an extra stay to the chassis too.

Hi Legion, I had the chance to have a peek under the wheelarch of a Puma 90 recently. The bracketry is substantial to say the least. It also positions the belt mounts further forward than I wanted.I g00gled the part number you quoted and came upon this thread on the Defender 2 forum, which I see you have contributed to. My own methods have gone a slightly different route, but substantial IMO. I have used the LR bracket referred to in the OP. Looks like this in the flesh: This was an easy fit, I had to drill one extra hole in the gutter to use all the fixing positions. Washers were required to pack out the height differences. I shall add some photos of the wheelarch mount insise and underneath once I have persuaded my phone to give me it's photos I have just the floor mount to do now. There is a nicely positioned hole in the top of the rear x-member I might be able to make use of... fingers crossed.

You have just hit the problem nail upon its head! A huge industry has emerged with its sole purpose being to prove that whatever happened, it was someone else's fault Their actions benefit only themselves and the person they got off the hook. The rest of us just have to go suck on something sour.

AFAIK that switch tells the car when it's in low range, so in your truck I'd just ignore it. Ah! As PieEater has said, it's probably the diff lock switch ( in the area of the front output housing?). In which case swap the switches over. Take care when refitting not to wind it in too far. How to tell? Engage diff lock lever and using a test lamp connected to the terminals, wind the switch in until the lamp comes on. It should then extinguish when the diff lock is disengaged. If you wind it too far it will jam the diff lock linkage inside!

I have a 2" square receiver on the back of my 90. It is such a versatile mounting - I have an off-road recovery point (2" sq steel lump) held in with a 3/4" steel pin (tractor top link size ), or a Dixon Bate adjustable hitch, or my home made tyre changer depending on what I want on that day. My 2-bike carrier was actually made to fix to the Dixon Bate drop plate with 2 pins (this was before I had the 2" receiver). It supports the bikes under the wheels, the bikes are then secured against the spare wheel. It could easily be made to use the 2" sq mounting, it really makes swapping from one accessory to another very easy with 1 or 2 pins with R-clips. I'll have a look for some pictures tonight. It is a right pain having the bikes on the back, as access through the back door is not possible. I wouldn't want to hang the bikes off the spare wheel, as the door has enough to do supporting the spare on its own! However if you have a swingaway carrier the whole construction is a lot stronger. If you converted you spare wheel mount to something like this you could hang all sorts from the wheel

Nah Barry, too many vowels used for that, I see you're still trying

Now that is just completely ridiculous!!!!!! "Owners of classic cars and motorbikes tend to be enthusiasts who maintain their vehicles well - they don't need to be told to look after them, they're out there in all weathers checking the condition of the engine, tyres and bodywork," he said. This may be true for some, but by no means all. I am not anti classic cars, or their owners, but an MOT only costs £40 at most places (if you pay full wack then you should find another test centre) The article makes big issue of the facts it's saving the motorists money. Classic cars can be insured pretty cheaply, and get free road tax (pre '72). What is the big hardship of finding another £40? "The vehicles make up about 0.6% of the total number of licensed vehicles in Britain but are involved in just 0.03% of road casualties and accidents." Well I can see that changing when some rusty old classic has brake failure having not seen a test centre for a few years!

Congratulations on your new arrival. Don't make too many plans for your leave time. You will want to sleep when she sleeps, otherwise you'll find those 37 pins looking even more of a blur

Nige, I can dig out a spare keyboard for you if you like. Any translations offered?

Or a worn pump pulley. That will make the belts squeal, cheap or otherwise, as the profiles won't match correctly.

General SAGs, if still available, will be pretty horrendous for noise and grip on tarmac. The are an off-road biased tyre. The Security you have as mentioned are a copy of the Extra Grip and these are deafening at anything over 30MPH! Probably worse than the SAG! The Avon Rangemaster in 7.50x16 is a great all purpose tyre; it'll do good economy and last a long time on the road, and is well behaved too. It may not be a mud plugger but it can be surprisingly good off-road. I used to run them on my 90 when I first got it, we also had them on a 300Tdi 110 CSW. For your predominantly road use the Rangemaster would be ideal. Alternatively for something a little more modern, something in 235/86x16 (the metric equivalent of a 7.50x16), there are many copies of the old BF Goodrich All Terrain such as this. This pattern is also available in 7.50x16 I notice, but more to choose from in the metric size Also may be worth considering is the General Grabber TR. It may be not off road enough for you, but our 110 we just sold had these from new and covered 67k miles when sold with plenty of tread left on the rears, so excellent mileage on them. Remember the knobblier the tyre, the worse the fuel consumption, if that matters to you.

You need to compare all the tyres in the same size too, and at the same pressures, possibly at multiple pressures too if you want to be that thorough! Also try out difference soli types, therefore multiple venues. One tyre will work well in sandy soil but by rubish in the claggy forest mud, or clay. It's not just down to tread pattern either, a genuine Simex has more flexible side walls than say one of the remould copies with a near identical tread face; and this will make quite a difference to the grip. They are so many variables in this type of testing.

However we like it or not, the Defender as we know it has to change. Future regulations in UK and current ones elsewhere will eventually make it unsaleable. However as places like India are likely to be some way behind in this respect, maybe it still has a market there if the cost can be cut to an affordable level. While I was waiting to collect my battered old 90 from its MOT, I looked over a high-ish spec 90 station wagon this week at our local stealer. £31K was the price tag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When you consider the luxury available in a Freelander for considerably less £, how can such a high price be justified on the crude (relative) offerings of the Defender??? If nothing else the Defender needs redesigning to cut manufacturing costs. The salesman told me 2015 was the end of life date for the current Defender, so they better come up with something pronto!

Yes, I have one the same from ebay. I use it to suck coolant out of the rad prior to a hose or stat removal. They're amazingly efficient with water, I've not tried any oils yet.

I never bothered with any lacquer. I tended to give the rims a tidy up blow over after the winter salt had been washed off and the weather was dry enough for outdoor painting. The paint is durable enough but as I always end up scraping my wheels on rocks and other off-road obstacles, my repaint was a little more necessary than it might for for a motorway cruiser

There would be a huge amount of work to body lift a Defender. Lots of rusty bolts to battle against etc, something needed that can lift the body up, and plenty of general awkwardness, cursing and faffing. I'd say for the amount of work involved in a body lift, it would be easier and possibly cheaper to invest in whatever is required to lift the suspension further. At the end of the day it does depend on the facilities you have, and how you value your own time. Wide angle props, extended brake flexy lines, spring spacers, shock mount relocating brackets. All these are easy to bolt on and can be done bit by bit.

Pop down to your local Halfrauds. They do a aerosol wheel paint, in silver and steel colours. The silver is a bit bright and blingy lookng, but the steel is a good match for most car wheels, incl my silver-ish modulars I used to run. Application method: Remove wheel from car, Wire brush, degrease the worst from the rim, Cut a large cardboard disc from an old box, the inside diameter at 16" or whatever size wheels you have. Use 2" wide masking tape tucked into the tyre bead and stuck against the tyre wall. Sit your cardboard mask over the tape and a quick spray over makes a big improvement. If the rust is at all bad, use some primer first.

Have to agree with CW

Hmmmm, last mechanic must have been quite a chap to have fitted spark plugs to a diesel I'm sure he meant to write glow plugs I wouldn't be surprised if this old couple have had your 90 since new, and looked after it like only people of their generation do.

Nige, did you get to the bottom of this? I'm just looking at this as my front prop has a lot of wear in the sliding splines. I just read elsewhere that FRC6243 was for a 4spd V8 and FRC8386 for a 5 spd V8. My chassis is 255*** which point towards the later I believe. If you look here it says all models EXCEPT V8!

Si, how do you expect Nige to entertain us with tales of horific injuries from using that? Oh hang on, this is Nige after all...