LandyManLuke

£489 gets you a Portamig 181, with 4m Euro torch, argon regulator etc. Brand New. Delivered. Portamig are british built (In York), industrial style machines, they knock the spots of Sealey, Clarke, SIP etc. Someone mentioned judging a welder by its weight, mine (a Portamig 211) is a heavy lift for two people. £58 for my Parweld 9-13 adjustable mask, it's great.

Is SIP a good make? that's questionable. I have heard of lots of people who have had problems with the wire feed mechanism. Personally, i would want more than 195A for roll cage mounts etc. With welders it really is a question of 'you get what you pay for', a cheaper welder will be harder to use and give poorer results than an higher quality welder. Have a look at www.mig-welding.co.uk, there is a helpful forum on the site.

read this thread Disco/RR, pretty much the same.

I replaced them with the same, new.

Things have changed a little by version 10.

An A-frame over 200 miles sounds a tad like inviting trouble if you ask me. hire a trailer. they're not that expensive.

what version of outlook is that Roger? my outlook.pst is 267Mb.

or get a 12v (or possibly 240v travel style) hairdryer.

and copying back a new outlook.pst will re-instate the 'backup' you can disable the the current file by renaming it outlook.old, or cut/pasting it to another location.

The folder won't exist in its own right, outlook stores all its data in the file 'outlook.pst' unless you've set it otherwise. You can export/import certain folders to a seperate *.pst folder using the built in function in outlook. the file will be in "C:\Documents and Settings\**username***\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook"

You need to decide what you want to run, inverters are available from 100w to ~3kw.

different threads, metric/imperial etc.

In terms of winching, the size of the batteries buys you the time that the Winch(es) are using more current than the alternator can supply. If you're winching seriously, you'll never be able to meet demand (400A winch, 150A alternator?) There's not that much between the batteries you've selected really. Are you getting Deep cycle, or Starter batteries? the two are completely different. Factors like the space you have to house the batteries, and cost, are going to play important parts, i'd get the biggest that would fit. Actually i wouldn't, i'm fitting proper winches, but y'know.....

If it's a problem, take the injectors to a diesel injection specialist, they can check the spray pattern of each injector and then ultrasonically clean and service it, if needed. Don't be tempted to try looking at the spray pattern yourself, the pressure is high enough to force fuel through your skin etc, which would be nasty.

Procomps are cheap, and OK, for the money. they don't last indefinitely, but they're only £30 or so and are available in different size/fitting combos. The ES9000 is nitrogen changed.

Assuming the photo and diagram of the alternator correlate, the two wires will be 'sense' and 'Field (D)' In terms of identifying which is which in the loom, with the ignition on (not cranking, i.e. at the point you'd expect to see the alternator/battery warning light) grounding each of the two green wires through a test bulb (important, if not you will have a direct short) should make the dash warning light glow. Alternatively, you could measure the resistance between the green wires and the positive terminal, in theory the higher resistance will be the 'Field (D)' wire as you'll be measuring the resistance of the bulb. In practice, stray resistances on the path between the dash and battery could make this harder to do. Yes, the sense wire is there so the alternator knows how much to charge the battery, most alternators use 'machine sensed' regulators, there is no need for this extra wire as the alternator simply looks at the voltage at the output terminal, assuming this is also the voltage of the battery. the alternator here is battery sensed, so its actually looking straight at the battery's voltage. as this wire will draw little current (in contrast to the main battery lead, which handles a lot of current) there will be negligable voltage drop/resistance, so the measurement of the battery's voltage is accurate. I doubt the alternator will work at all without these wires connected, as it will need exciting (the field windings need a voltage across them to generate the magentic field needed to excite the stator windings), this is provided by the current through the warning light, once its running it will self excite. In terms of telling 'sense' and 'field (D)' apart, in theory if you could put a <14.4 voltage on 'sense' you should see the output voltage rise. Right now, i'm struggling to come up with a definitive test, still looking at it though.

Firstly, don't always go on the ratchet, quite often i will squeeze a little more. Don't over-do it, the metal can shear and break. Dependant on how the wire fits in the crimp, i like to strip, twist, fold in half and twist again, so there's plenty of metal to metal contact.

Shouldn't be too hard for you to make up a short loom to bring the common connections together. A bit of fore-thought and you can run the wires together, along the back of the switches, rather than having a jumbled mess.

I got home with a jury-rigged fuel tank strapped to my wing mirror, best i could do 'in the field' and it lasted the 20 miles home, then i changed the lift pump.

I had a dead lift pump, and all it would do was idle, at standard revs, if you asked any more of it, it would run out of fuel and starve. It doesn't sound like the lift pump to me.

I've seen it done using standard door hinges, and the orginal catches. The other option is to get a normal side opening door and cut it down.

The Kenlowe fan is a rip off. I fitted a Mondeo fan, cost peanuts from the scrappy and fits well too, with a little bit of fettling. Don't secure the fan through the rad, you run a good risk of dammaging the fins. Obviously there's less room to work in on a 300tdi. One of the reasons i put the electric fan on the 200tdi was the room it gives to access the engine.

Ta for the link, i shall have a play, will have to do some guesstimating at this stage i guess. Pics might be handy, but yes you're right, still got the 3.9 under the bonnet, also it hasn't got the aircon compressor mounts, which is something i'm working on.

bump.

My 13 month old Wickes grinder is currently limping to its grave, having spat its locking pin out yesterday, and finishing off the brushes today. The bearings are also knackered, the drive gear housing gets hot after 3 or 4 minutes and it's generally in 'well used' condition. Screwfix have an identical grinder for £15 quid a pop, which beats the £25 wickes want (last time i checked) The other option is a more pricey £30 a go from B&Q, with the B&Q returns policy and all that entails. I've read Tony's thread here and HFH's thread here but was wondering if anyone has any recent experiences or has seen any deals about? Ta Luke