Ibex94

Yippee! DVLA have now provided me with a VIN for the Ibex. They wouldn't want to make it easy - reminds me of Arthur Dents experience with planning permission for bypasses. Took me three phone calls to find someone who could advise who I should contact. Then when following up my letter was advised I should have sent it registered. Rang to see if they got the letter, which after 5 mins on hold was advised they couldn't see anything on the system and not to try again until their 4 week guarantee for response expired. (Wish I could find emoticons on the ipad). Needless to say they used all the 4 weeks from the delivery of the registered letter so I chased again, nothing on the system they'll investigate! Suggested I might like to complain. Funny how half an hour later I receive phone call to say it had just been processed! Anyway received letter this morning with the magic number on it, one issue however, they now want the dealer or garage to sign to say its been applied - don't think they get the self build bit, see what gets said when I sign for it. Now to apply for the IVA test - form seems easy enough.............

I'd vote for a frame

Welcome, Linky below should take you to the Defender on Ascension thread. http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=88996 However Lewis makes some good points above, changing the bulkhead is no joke if you're new to Land Rovers everything passes through, around or is hung off it. doing this job will also reveal bits of chassis that are very difficult to get to when all assembled so also figure in a few repairs at the same time. Genuine land rover chassis's hide a lot of internal components buried in each of the rails. The chassis should have straight side, if the chassis has issues then you may see the sides swelling where the rust has started to jack the two pieces of metal apart. In comparison the oily bits are relatively easy and more frustrating and expensive than time consuming to fix. NB. One of the golden rules of buying a vehicle is never to a friend, there are a few exceptions but..... Also worth a look at military dispersal if you're after a basic truck (and you've got experience of the black and green ones), may have a few bruises but you know they've been maintained. LRO had an article about buying one probably about 12 months ago. NB. Second golden rule is don't buy the first one you see.....unless you've checked a few more out before you go back and buy it. Also worth asking if a local forum member can spare some time to show you over his truck and point out where the problems lie, also check out local LR clubs. Good luck with your search. Rob

If you've got the right common supply and the terminal corresponding to position then you should get continuity if the switch is functional. If not check for continuity on the other terminals and see what you find. Repeat for position 2 and finally start bearing in mind you will loose position 1 continuity while starting. I would do these checks on the bench before fitting. If you don't get the continuity results you expect then I would suspect the unit to be faulty. Rob

I had mine rebuilt by Allards, too long ago to remember how much but they do a nice job and I don't remember it being too expensive.

Hi Martin, Interesting placement at 26, I hope he's mechanically minded if you're sending him away with a Defender - still will keep him busy if there's not to many girls to chase. 200 and 300 are very similar, 300 incorporating a few refinements to try and make it quieter and improve emissions I think. Same capacity, same quoted output, and running a very similar cooling system with DNA coming through from the 19J TD. As per previous comment we would appear to be a little conservative over selection of technology in the Defender forum so you get lots of us going on about how simple the 200 is and how the TD5 is the devil incarnate with all its electric voodoo. Whilst the engine is an important feature of the truck there are plenty of other bonus bits Land Rover threw in to keep our wallets empty and day fulfilled If cooling is your primary concern then the condition of the radiator is significant and when in all likelihood the 200Tdi truck is as old as your lad there is good potential for the rad core to be in a pretty poor condition either internally full of cooling circuit debris or externally full of mixed carp with half the cooling fins missing. However its not a difficult job to replace either with std or to find one with increased cooling capacity. However I think Land Rover probably have got it about right with the std radiator. Std viscous fans seem to keep running well and probably don't warrant needing to fit electric unit instead. Do make sure as previous post that the dig plastic cowl is present and in good condition as this makes sure that the engine fan draws air over all the radiator surface. Most Land Rover engines from 200Tdi seem to be capable of high mileages if oil changed regularly. I rebuilt mine when it was originally transplanted as previous owner had been careless enough to roll the vehicle leading to one of the rods being bent. But you really could see much real wear to bearings or cylinder boars - from memory had done ~70k miles. I think your selection comes back to how simple do you want to make repairing / diagnosing faults with the engine. What you will find plenty of on the forum however is discussion on the gearboxes in particular how they can fail. Most likely location for a problem is the spline coupling between the main gearbox output shaft and the transfer box input gear. Lubrication can be poor in this area and the two sections of spline fret against each other, steadily wearing away leading them letting go quite suddenly. When you get to drive a truck 90 or 110 get a feel for how much backlash there is in the transmission, how carefully do you need to feed in the clutch to avoid a thump when you get the full attention of all the oily bits between the engine and the wheels. There are plenty of other interfaces which wear: Gearbox to transfer box - remove rear cover from transfer box and have a look at the end of the shaft and gear mentioned above, get son to rock the truck forward and back with engine off and in gear and you get the picture. similarly propshaft uj's wear and let go - you will need to become familiar with a grease gun - and unfortunately the grease nipples are out of sight and therefore often out of mind under the truck and can be neglected. When under the truck have a look to see how much grease is around the UJ's and sprayed over the floor the more the better - There are plenty of trucks out there with after market cheap UJ's fitted which aren't up to the job (journals are larger less pins are fitted load per pin much higher). The final easy place to check are the front axle drive flanges in particular under the plastic cover on the end of the axle, here you can see what condition the drive shaft splines are in. The drive flange is the component that connects the drive shaft to the hub and will ear out over time - the good bit is its normally the flange which wears and not the shaft and they're relatively cheap and easy to replace. Finally on the front axle if it swivel hubs are fitted with grease then it may be worth removing the fill plug and having a look at the oil. The seals do fail between axle and swivel and when they do the diff oil will be a dirty graphite grey colour. Won't stop you or fail tomorrow but does indicate the axle will need some refurbishment. Also check out the threads on back lash loads of good guidance and scare stories. 200 Tdi's were fitted with LT77 gearbox as standard 300's the R380. (On the R380 reverse is below 5th.) I think the R380 is better but both will wear and Ashcroft transmission do a sterling trade refurbishing them as they do with the transfer boxes also. At the end of the day find the truck in the best overall condition for you budget whether its 200, 300 or TD5. Don't spend all you budget on the truck as you will have to pay some tax to Solihull before you're happy the vehicle is it good enough condition to send down to the middle of the Atlantic. Buy him a set of spares (tax) / consumables and tell him to replace what he uses. Also buy a good set of tools to send out also. (All jokes aside about Halfrauds, there tools aren't bad, you get a lifetime guarantee and you can get a really good deal if you can find someone with a trade card - they're about 60% of the list price.) You'll need to go up to 30mm to cover most the vehicle - can only think of a couple of places which you couldn't work on mainly rear hub bearing which I think are either 50 or 55mm. Also bear in mind other options are available, L200's, Shoguns, Troopers and Land Cruisers. All are used around the world and the luddites may suggest they're preferable to what Solihull have produced. Good luck Rob

Both went in the area at the bottom of the strut which is being continually worked both appeared to be in similar condition, whilst worn neither were badly degraded/perished? As far as I could tell they were both original items. The failure left a hole in each bladder you could stick your finger in. I agree national speed limit failure would have been exciting.

My Westy has an extension welded to the steering column. It also doesn't have a steering lock or an ignition key. Never raised a comment at MOT's and I think the original builder put it through IVA with the extension fitted.

Hows this for murphy having a bloody good laugh. Had the truck in my field dragging an animal house to a new paddock. When a bloody great bang went off and the front end dropped flippin great failure of front suspension unit. Drove vehicle carefully down to my local specialist to have it changed, didn't have time to do it myself and barely worth the effort for what he was going to charge to change it out. Job complete ready for test drive and they don't get it off the forecourt before the other unit blows. Can't believe that after 130k miles both units go within 5 miles of each other

They seem to just gum up and stop. Was in scrapper a couple of weeks back and not a single rear wiper was to be had! Guess that says it all.

I would expect the black to be an earth - easy to check with meter, set to continuity and listen for the buzz normally. Blue I think is normally feed to front lights so may go direct without relay - listen for it clicking when you turn the lights on. Does the switch illuminate? you may find the black core provides the earth for that. Rob

Probably be a good idea to identify what wiring loom is installed / what remains. Does vehicle still have a rear loom - it runs through the offside chassis rail a comes up into the truck at the back of the wheel box on the off side - there should be a bunch of bullet connectors with four way connectors attached as this is where your rear light supplies are distributed from - offside / nearside / trailer. Rear loom plugs into a multiway connector on the bulkhead. The bulkhead loom generally covers the cab and everything forward supplying front lights via section of loom running along each wing. On the older trucks, up to the end of 200Tdi's, the lights all have wiring tails with bullets to plug into the loom apart from headlights which have the connector crimped on. 300Tdi's and TD5's have lights with connectors on the back with econoseal plugs fitted to the loom. There should also be two head light relays somewhere in the cab either with the fuses above the tunnel or behind the instruments. Let us know what truck you've got and advice will be easier to give / spares to provide. Land Rover switches are renowned for being fragile. Advise you stick with standard headlamps unless you upgrade wiring and switches. Hope this helps. Rob

Wouldn't worry it's the tension side of the beam.

I do have the wiring diagrams but not the band width to up load anything at the moment. You need to look for the fog light relay which is stuck behind the instrument binnacle. The connector to this should have a blue with purple trace wire which comes from fused headlight relay output and provides the headlight on signal. If you frig this terminal to be high (on) then relay should work as you want. Behind the dash there are a number of headers which common up different supplies look for either white or purple to provide this frigged live feed, white is fed from the ignition switch pos 1, purple is a fused permanent live - would suggest you use a white otherwise you are holding relay energised all the time. You then want to identify the red with yellow trace in the large multi pin connector to the rear wiring loom which is your live feed to the rear fogs which you then need to divert for your front lights. Be aware that the relay is rated for 2 or 3 21watt lamps. LR don't tend to provide much margin on their electrics to upgrade much. Hope this helps think I've seen wiring diagrams in the tech archive previously. Rob

Check out car builder solutions, www.cbsonline.co.uk they have about 6 LED optionus. Fill yer boots. Rob

Second Tayna and Numax went for the lead calcium at ~100Ah and 1000CCA. Not tried in anger yet but quite a battery with a few good reviews. Rob

Good news!

Easy to replace, make sure you get a replacement lock ring and rubber seal with the sender unit if you decide to replace it.

Here's a couple of photos of the hoses I had made up to suit the oil cooler, got rid of the hard pipe sections that fit up to the oil cooler couldn't get them to fit round the air filter. Radiator end Oil filter end side view

If fuel gauge works ok otherwise when on the level then its just fuel sloshing about the tank, if you've got a drivers side tank then going up hill should give you a low reading.

Hi Bruce, Its surprising how just a little bit out affects the way the hoses nature wants them to lay when you try connecting them up. If you rock up with your hoses and ask them to remake then they won't have a template to realign them to, particularly if you retain the existing fittings. You will also be surprised how just a little bit longer can be just a little bit too long. Chances of getting something back that fits right and you're happy with are probably quite slim. Bear in mind that the replacement hydraulic hose will be stiffer than the std hose. With regards the turbo return pipe I'm not sure why it has the external steel braid - assume temperature. However everything is doable although price may be less palatable. That one may be easier to replace from the LR catalogue. PM me if you want to discuss further and I'll give you a ring. Rob

I had to go bespoke building the Ibex and had to modify both power steering and oil cooler pipes. I started with 300Tdi power steering pipes which run across the front chassis rail and took the pump delivery connection off the 200Tdi hose then grafted together with hydraulic hose to suite. Had to dress down swage on the tube to get hydraulic hose on. The oil cooler was all new fittings and hydraulic hose. Would recommend you go down to your hydraulics specialist with an idea of what you want to make up your hoses then get them to supply you with the hose and fittings including the ferrules. This will allow you to put the system together in your garage and get alignment right before taking it all back for swaging. Be careful and remember that you are likely to be unable to remove the hose from a fitting once you've pushed them together its surprising how they grip - don't forget the ferrule! get system all aligned then get a marker out and match mark the fitting ferrule and hose. Will post some pics of mine at the weekend. Rob

All good in principal however you may be surprised at how much metal is deposited, how uneven it can be deposited, how rough the surface finish can be and how frustrating it is to dress back when you need a better fit or finish. You can probably be reasonably tolerant to misalignment of the diff casing to the axle however alignment of the swivel at each end is a little more critical. There are far more finished faces, journals and rebates on the swivel pin housing to fettle after galvanising which would lead me to question the benefit received from galvanising them. I'm currently fettling galvanised bits of the ibex prior to painting - I've been amazed how hard and time consuming I've found dressing surfaces back when it's inappropriate to use an angle grinder or file. Emery paper etc looses its edge very quickly even using DA sander. Think you might get away with the axles and brake back plates but you're going to spend a lot of time at the bench fettling the rest I fear. Rob

MMM like that idea!

I think you should find the gauges and warning lights are all LED's on the TD5 dash and that there are no lamps or holders. Rob