callum

I think my main battery has died, currently on charge, but was reading 10v which is never good. Was all prepared to go and buy what I recall being a popular forum battery of choice, the Numax CXV-X 1000 amp but i went to tanya battery and found that it is no longer available! http://www.tayna.co.uk/Numax-CXV-X-1000-Amp-P7632.html they offer a similar alternative by Enduroline, but I thought i would see if there are any other currently popular batteries? The battery on its last legs is an optima yellow top and is used for occasional winching and as the main battery (its in a land cruiser, shhhhh) but not for anything too strenuous, so i won't be buying another optima. thanks for your input.

a bit late now, but another option for half shafts where the seal has caused a groove is 'mar-tacking' (e.g. blobbing some weld in and filing back) the splines where they go into the diff to move the position of where the seal sits at the cv end of the shaft. this is primarily done to aid servicing, particularly in field, as removing the cv's from the shaft can be very difficult, but it also allows you to set where the seal sits on the shaft. this thread describes things, but unfortunately my pictures have disappeared. I will see if i can find them on the computer http://www.landcruiserclub.net/forums/showthread.php/41792-mar-tacking-shafts?s=e792c26960c5e1202fb16cc665959579 for a bit of extra longevity, if your swivel balls are in decent nick, you might want to import some longfield wiper seals to replace the rather crappy felt items that are standard. I've had some on a few years and they seem to do a good job of keeping the grease in and dirt out. You can also get rubber boots from australian mine suppliers for further protection, but i never went that far!

interco do a pretty skinny super swamper, which might be close-ish to what you'e looking for. http://www.intercotire.com/tires.php?id=8

Not checked this in about 3 years and its finished! Good work, looks (and sounds) great. Quite a nice fusion of parts that were never meant to meet, hope you're enjoying using it. I think the land rover pumps must be pretty weedy. The isuzu pump on my (now departed) 110 made the steering much lighter.

Did they put a flexi section in the exhaust? I had a drone that came about 2000rpm in 4th and the same in 5th. Once I fiddled with the exhaust to allow it to move more, the noise went away.

The challenge is to get it under £100. I've used Footman James for my 110 for a number of years and my insurance got to £99 at one point, 25 y.o with unlimited mileage and agreed value. since AIG had to be rescued its now back over. £100.30 I think. Best I could get with my Landcruiser at the end of last year was £390. Its only a few years younger than the 110, but Footman James wouldn't insure it as they have a different threshold before they're considered classics, 20 years if I recall correctly. Land Rovers are classics at 15 I think, maybe less, as incidently are mr2's I was told. I'll have to wait till next year before trying again for that car.

what is this mystical siped buckshot mudder you speak of? I've only ever seen one with solid blocks. Well they do have a single half cut on each block but I presume this is not the siping you refer to.

um, i'm not 100% sure to be honest. when we went to askja we had to walk a bit from a car park. i'm led to believe that straying off the roads marked on the map is not permitted, e.g hooning about in the sand, and some french guys got a big fine for doing so whilst we were there. i'm afraid i don't know the ins and outs of it and it could well be as complicated as green laning laws in england. Best bet would probably be to try an icelandic forum. When the ground has a good cover of snow, i think you can drive where you want and thats when the super jeeps are necessary. and now for a appropriate picture...

wow, the ferries are stupid money. Might be best just to rent a 4x4, you'll be cheaper and have more time in iceland. a kia sorento or pajero would be fine for most stuff. only difficulty is bringing camping equipment by plane and you might have to look into renting that in iceland too. we would have probably been overweight if we'd had to take tents with us and cooking stuff, or at least would have had to pack more efficiently. Sounds like your heart is pretty set on doing this in your own vehicle though. You could save money by ditching the trailer. we were fine for space 4 up in a friend's old pajero. Have you got a roof rack? pull that off and see if you can reduce your height. In all seriousness, iceland is not the sahara, so don't over prepare. you'll get mobile reception in the most remote places and the off road routes all featured on the maps on a garmin nuvi. You won't be tackling anything too tough as there are big fines for straying off the marked routes. i also think 6 days is a bit tight, we just managed our way roughly round route 1, taking in some off road routes in 7 days, followed by a few on the lash in reykjavik. hope you enjoy yourself.

um, i don't know what your closest ferry port is, but you have to travel from wherever you are to hanstholm, actually looking at the smyril-line page its now somewhere in the north of denmark. from there the ferry goes to the faroes and then on to the port of seyðisfjörður on the east of iceland. You used to be able to get the ferry from scrabster, but now its only from denmark so you have the cost of getting there first, then the cost of taking the ferry to iceland. my memory is a bit hazy, but i think hiring a 4x4 would be about £800 for 2 weeks. that was just from reading a sign outside a hire place in reykjavik thought, maybe you could find it cheaper. If you can stomach that, then once you get there, costs are not too bad. we just camped as hotels and guest houses can be a bit pricey. In hindsight, as it was pissing down on quite a few occasions, we should have split up the trip and stayed in a hotel at our half way point in akureyri. Camp sites were i think about £12 a night for 2 tents and stuff in the supermarket is not especially more expensive than here. Exchange rate was 200kr at the time and is 180kr now. a pint is about 700kr and as long as you didn't go anywhere too fancy, or get anything too fancy at a restaurant, they were ok too. Food was generally of a pretty good standard. I woudn't worry about the weather in june, at worst you'll get a bit of frost on the tent in the morning, although its a bit colder in the highlands. some more random photos not really in any order, but on a sort of driving theme to encourage you

Only way now is via denmark, so it makes it quite expensive i'm afraid. To be honest you'd probably be cheaper getting a hire car for 2 weeks. You don't really need any special preparation, unless you're going in winter. Driving off road is illegal (in summer) so you're not going to encounter anything a standard land rover (or any other 4x4) can't handle. There are very big fines for straying off the trail, so its quite funny to be in the middle of a desert with nothing for miles and miles in any direction and two cars will be edging slowly by each other so they don't stray off the track. Hopefully i've not put you off though, because a 'road' varies somewhat. the picture at the bottom shows a road on the gps. i don't have a photo, unfortunately, of the road that the gps took us up when we headed to hengifoss. I've seen more defined tracks in a farmer's field. we eventually stopped half way up a hillside when we did in fact reach a gate. You could do route 1 in just over a week, which would let you see much of the country and there are good off road routes which leave and join route 1 and are good fun. not sure i can actually add photos in this quick post box, so i'll try and add some in a minute.

...that their biggest market is probably not the EU. They're based on advances made with the BFG Krawler. The old MT was replaced because it was an old design, just like candles are an old design so we use light bulbs now.

yup, wheel carrier and receiver hitch. got a diagram with the first and the second one didn't really need any explaining or instruction. They both came with all the bits, although I used longer bolts on the hitch as they didn't really accommodate a spreader plate, and both were well finished. They used to supply scorpion racing and possibly some others, so i think they are more of a fabrication company. They also go, or went, under the name of wva holdings or something to that effect as a fabrication company, which maybe explains why guidance and customer service is lacking. I was very happy with the quality of the stuff I got and it was significantly cheaper from them than scorpion (and whoever their successor company is) for the same product. That being said, the items were not particularly complicated and given the stories above, i might be inclined to avoid items which are more complex than big bits of metal welded together.

to clarify a bit, i think the main issue with the front diff on the 80 is that its smaller and also that its reverse cut to give high pinion and avoid deflection of the crown wheel when driving forwards. the downside of that is it is more likely to spit the crown wheel in reverse and strip teeth. for putting toyota diffs in a landrover casing, an 80 series front is required and a 4runner v6 rear is required to get the electric locker. i'm not sure what the uk equivalent of the v6 4runner diff used in the US is though. these are 8" diffs. the larger 9.25" diffs as found in the rear of an 80 series won't fit. if you want a pair of the larger diffs, your best bet is to seek out a 60 series landcruiser. the track is slightly narrower than a land rover, but spacers would fix this. factory lockers on a 60 series axle are cable operated, but they're quite rare. i think, you would also find these axles on a 70 series, but i'm not really sure which ones, probably not vehicles in the prado guise. http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/4R_TechInfo.shtml this site provides a bit more info

i think in your neck of the woods you have a bit more scope for playing with the sals as you can buy some dana 60 bits for it. personal preference i suppose, i would think its not worth your money or effort to change and your wieght saving seems a bit optimistic, but perhaps i'm wrong.

bit of a strange one and not sure what the potential causes are. diff lock seesm to engage fine and disengage after driving a bit, but occasionally when driving along with the diff lock out, e.g at motorway speeds, the diff lock light will flicker and stay on for a bit and then fade off, and then come back on again etc etc. anyone had this before, any suggestions? thanks callum

well to round this one off, i tried: bicarbonate of soda and water, which didn't seem to do anything i then added rice to the mix, which made a slight difference, but not too much then i tried bleach, which did a bit more, but they were still a bit hazy, although the one i'd had a go at with the bicarbonate of soda and rice was a bit better than the bleach only one. the final winning combination this evening was rice and wonder wheels. reflector and lense are both nice and shiny now and i didn't have to split them apart, although a few grains of rice remain in one bowl. thanks for the suggestions folks, job now done.

...particularly those of hella rallye 3000's. i picked up a pair of these second hand. granted i did not pay much for them, but i'd like to get the best out of them. They are fitted, it appears as standard, with 100w bulbs, however the output is so-so and i think its due to the lenses. looking inside, the reflectors seem clean, but the lenses are kind of stained white and a bit streaky. i tried washing them out with water and soap, but it was not so successful. the lenses are sealed to the bowls, so there's only a gap of maybe 8 x 20mm to work though and i therefore cannot get in to polish them. any suggestions as to how to clean them inside? ideally i'd like to separate the lenses from the bowls, but prying at them, just breaks off bits of the lenses. I'm worried if i use a more abrasive cleaner i'll damage the plating on the bowls.

i would try the foam ones, but the paintwork where the rubber ones were is not good, so i need to put some fresh rubber ones back to make things look neat. i'll give the suggestions above a try, island 4x4 ones seem a good price, of course maybe i should give brit car a chance to exchange them.

anyone know who'll sell me some? part no muc4299 ordered some from brit car, but they sent me the new foam type, which is no good. difficult to tell if someone is going to send me the rubber type i wan't unfortunately, so if anyone knows of a company that does sell them, it will save me lots of phoning around. lrseries have one pictured, but their blurb says they only have the foam type. a few folk list it under that part number, but i dont want to end up with contless bits of foam at £8 a pop at each go. thanks callum

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=26013 there's a thread, was sure i had posted pictures somewhere.

to be honest i think your soundproofing efforts are best spent elsewhere. money might be better spent ensuring everything else is up to scratch, particularly air tightness before laying out for another engine blanket.

costco sell these for £65. seem to go a bit higher and a bit lower than equivalents from machine mart etc. rather heavy though. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200345429_200345429

i saw on an australian forum someone had made extensions from lawn edging. luckily his 90 was green so it matched quite well.

hmm, maybe the part does not exist for td5 models, certainly does for pre td5 models. i assumed the shim was to prevent corrosion. that being the case, i think i'll just order double and see if the bulkhead. some work with the scalpel will sort it if its a problem i suppose. anyway, thanks for your help ralph, that was a pretty quick response.