steve200TDi

What I found was that you can adjust the box in the usual way with the grub screw on top of the box which move the output shaft south, I'm guessing there some sort of taper somewhere which closes up. But you can only go so far and I was running out of travel to remove the slack. So yes tightening that big adjuster on the side pushes the pad that the rack slides on nearer to the teeth on the output shaft removing the play. Remember to wind out the grub screw tot the top before tightening the pad and also do all the adjustment with the arm in the straight ahead position (which is actually slightly to one side) where the two notches in the drop arm line up with the hole just to the back of the output shaft. Steve

Ok cool, yep I use the Corteco seals. Steve

Does it have the tee into the bottom hose from the bottom of the header tank? It has exactly this! Do you have the air bleed pipes connected (top of inlet manifold via plenum heater to top of rad / top of rad to header tank)? Not sure will have to check Could be a stuck/dead stat, cheap & easy to replace to prove it - just make sure you get one with the vent hole in it. Ok, so how do they normally fail? Yes, a simple thing to replace. Steve

I've had success with rebuilding steering boxes, but only with swapping out output shafts, I have left the input shaft well alone. There is a manual online for rebuilding them, I can't remember where I found it now! I made a tool up to tighten the sliding rack up. There's a little grub screw underneath which you need to loosen. So if you have a good output shaft that you could put into the other box, I would give it a go! Let me know if you have any questions! Steve

Thank you! Steve

Another two years of trouble free megasquirting! Been to the usual Seven sisters pilgrimage as well as green laning and playdays. But last week it seem to boil over on a short trip to the shops. We nursed it back the mile or so and checked it over. (Two weeks prior to this we had happily driven round seven sisters for two days!) There was signs of water coming from the cap, but nothing else. We decided to check the level (which had dropped due to it boiling over) and start it up to see what it would do as it could be a mysterious one off! It warmed up and sure enough it started to boil and the expansion tank cap relieved it's pressure. You could hear the water around the engine crackling and boiling, so we stopped it at that point. So our thoughts were maybe the water pump has failed (due to no flow and boiling over), or there was a blockage (a build up of sludge? although the coolant has been changes in the last 2-3 years, or the expansion tank cap has failed (it was coming out under the cap where I suspect it would and I could hear the whole engine boiling) The cap could had relieved the pressure to early allowing the coolant to boil sooner? Our plan of action was to inspect the water pump, as there couldn't have been flow! It did sound unlikely, but it was possible, so we drained the coolant and removed the water pump. Sure enough it spins up nicely and the impeller is still attached! Hmm.....so we ran some water through the rad and engine to see if we had flow. The rad came straight out from top to bottom. The engine going in through the top hose and a slow trickle of water later out through the water pump area. Now that all seems good, but I wasn't sure if the thermostat would let any water pass or does it have a small bleed hole as the water did take a moment to come out the other end? We have thought about removing the thermostat and inspecting and testing it and also replacing the expansion cap, but not done either yet. This is as far as we have got as we are still puzzled to what might of happened? We've had no overheating/boiling issues before so it has come as a bit of a surprise. Any pointers or thought are very much welcome as we've run out. Steve

The next race is over at Bilsington Priory, a wonderful scenic location. They need marshalls (a print screen!): On a side not, how do you reduce the size of the picture to remove all the white?! From here: https://www.facebook.com/Southern-Counties-Off-Road-Club-30404284604/?hc_ref=ARSz7mx0VhGfcFgUHHJobxOKcFxlrXeX-pxKEbaCwFy4i95iwLDzCfCJlE4wAPnMRwM&fref=nf And we wouldn't say no to spectators and budding photographers! Checkout the website too: www.scor4x4.com See you there! Steve

I'll have to look up what an 'untilty' is..........I guess it a flat belt that doesn't tilt?? Steve

Yep exactly, I did make a point of cleaning and checking the splines! I know now to periodically check it until it stops coming loose! Steve

At first I only had rubbish lock washer which I thought was coming unlocked causing the nut to loosen, so before the last race I rebuilt the steering box and fitted a proper lock washer like this: http://www.lrseries.com/shop/product/listing/2411/AEU4025-STEERING-BOX-DROP-ARM-NUT-LOCK-TAB-WASHER.html And tightened the nut up as tight as possible before bending over the lock washer. Now the arm is loose on the output shaft with the lock washer still nice and locked, so I can only think that due to the harshness of racing the arm has wiggled about causing to move up the shaft and seat on a further or it's actually wearing the shaft away. I thinks its the first, but it is bizarre and I have had it before on my other land rovers too! Steve

I'll investigate all my options and see what I can come up with. Regarding the steering, the video was of the last lap and it turned out that the drop arm had gradually started to work loose, not because of the nut coming loose as I had fitted a new proper lock washer, but because it had worked further on to the output shaft. I have had this a few times now where I have had to tighten up the nut, now whether this is due to warm out parts I'm not sure. I'll be changing the steering box for the next race, but if that leaks I'll buy a new recon unit. Also regarding the steering I'm not running a steering damper and I have wheel spacers. Both could be sorted for the next race to try and calm the steering down. Steve

That is interesting as someone at work mentioned you can get better pas fluid. I'll have a look at that as that would save space. I could do that and add a second reservoir and may sort it. I seem to think now that you can have hot steering fluid and it doesn't affect your steering and so having cooler fluid has got to help. Steve

As some people have said, you cant guarantee it wont brake even if it above or below the 380Nm torque limit. Give it a go and see what happens, you could end up replacing it in a couple of years, but it may work out cheaper in the long run over buying something like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rover-R380-Quaife-Gear-Kit-Fitted-Comp-safari-strong-box/173375717997?hash=item285dff826d:g:10wAAOSwVxpbLM6f Which is on ebay at the moment! Oh and if this is your build thread....we need pictures! Steve

Yep, that's me! Hopefully people can cant get a sense of what the competition is like. Let me know if you want pictures of other cars and I'll see if I have any. It's quite interesting to see what other people have done. Steve

Oh ok...... Having clicked everywhere, it seems clicking the Little blue F in the top right corner brings it up! teve

The scores are in, check them out here: Steve

Maybe a touch overpriced!! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Monster-Truck-Better-than-a-Bowler-Gumball-Rally-Discovery-1-V8-Jaguar-4-2-S-C/183295539881?hash=item2aad43faa9:g:N8oAAOSwVK9bJ7PQ

My last lap, which was a 5:59 with added GPS and speed goodness! I haven't worked out how you change it to MPH though!! Steve

My last lap, which was a 5:59 with added GPS and speed goodness! But I haven't worked out how I change it to mph!! Steve

Oh and there are prizes for people who can sport what part of my racer features in the video! Steve

I'll have a look, but even I don't think it's that exciting! But that doesn't mean I wont do it again! Steve

Check out my race report here: More photos from Sunday And a well put together video by someone who had a proper video camera! Steve

With the hot weather set to continue I knew that Sunday was going to be hot, but fortunately it turned out ok with a slight breeze throughout the day. That didn't mean that it would be plain sailing with people not overheating! Copford Sawmill is a small sight with the added restriction of trying not to churn up the fields completely and so we kept to the perimeter of the fields and used all the available wooded areas, which were very tight! The course was around 2.3 miles and so a target of 15 laps was set! To begin with a large queue formed as the course was short, so I quickly joined the queue as I thought it would be tight to get all the laps in. I kept at it until lunch time when I had developed a PAS leak! We let it cool and checked it over. At first I thought it was a leak from the input or output seals, but then found out that one of the unions on top of the box had started to come loose (after I had refitted it last week!) and that there was a drip from the input seal. I checked with race control on how many laps I had to do and surprisingly I had already done 9 out of the 15 and quite a lot of the field had only done 4-6. We topped the pas system up and went for 1 lap with the intention of coming in and checking the level. The leak did reduce but we still had to mop up a small leak. By about mid afternoon we had completed all our laps, which was a relief! There was still about 6 vehicles still completing their laps and about 11 vehicles that had retired. I thoroughly enjoyed this round as the course was a mixture of fields and tight wooded sections, it was almost like going off roading! The final times haven't been published yet, but from the times I did see we are all quite close as there weren't many long straights. They range from 5:15 to 6:30 and I was around the 6 min mark. For the next round I will be swapping out the steering box and fitting a cooler on the return line, as some of you have said that the fluid does get hot, but it doesn't affect the operation of the steering, but it may allow the oil to escape easier out of the seals! I also have a video of the last lap and a lap of the front suspension which I may put up - interestingly the axle didn't hit the bump stop! More photos and videos here:

A cracking day today. I thoroughly enjoyed the short 2.3 mile course at Copford Sawmill. A great turn out too! A wide variety of vehicles new and old turned up. Pictures and video soon! Steve

A cracking day today. I thoroughly enjoyed the short 2.3 mile course at Copford Sawmill. All 15 laps completed with only a minor PAS leak, but the offending union was tightened up! Pictures and video soon! Steve