callum

vass have 1 or 2 6.50's for sale http://www.vass.co.uk/treads.asp

the axles on that one are quite possibly just standard. Such large tyres on Icelandic cars are usually for flotation purposes. As such they aren't built with the kind of off roading which puts a large strain on the drivetrain in mind. As is pretty evident there's not much allowance for any articualtion and you'll probably see that the back axle has been shoved back in order to allow the body chop. The off roading done there does not seem to involve very tight spaces or crawling over big rocks so the main requirement is to drive over snowy or rocky terrain. The usual route to fitting such tyres seems to be body lift and then shove all of the suspension components down using a combo of spacers or cutting off and rewelding mounts. The result is not enormously useful for the UK unfortunately and i get the feeling that sometimes such mods are done for show as much as anything else. Curiously most of them don't carry a spare tyre, which i suppose is due to the difficulty in storing a 40" tyre, however it can leave you up a certain creek. Oh and staright line travel becomes pretty much impossible as they wander really easily, speed limit is only 55mph. The sorts of roads pictured there are passable by a reasonable stock 4x4 in summer and tend to be all marked as routes on satnav systems. This includes roads with fairly big river crossings and muddy bits that look like they're only farm tracks. The satnav sent us through the river pictured. Anyway in their home territory, these things have their place, but in the uk, not really the best tool for the job.

you could give some taxi tyres a bash, they're pretty skinny.

i'd say you'll probably be alright. i run 285's on 7" rims and have done so for a while without event. 30mm wider, with 25.4mm wider rim and taller sidewall, i can't see it being an issue. manufacturer recommendation in 8.5 i think from memory for 315's. i would doubt a deviation from standard of 0.5" is somehow going to be the key factor in some catastrophic failure of the tyre. can't speak from experience airing down low though, i don't drive like that as i've no means of reinflating easily for the drive home.

i recall this coming up in the past and i think th outcome was that they were a protected part, meaning the bearing manufacturers would only sell them to the factory and not resellers. best bet is to try a local bearing suppliers and see what they can come up with.

yeah my csd has a 12v supply when the engine is on. if i remember when i am back down to viist it next weekend to hopefully put the rockers back together and swap the timing belt and pulleys i'll take some photos for you. if you ever want to stick the rev counter in, let me konw and i'll search out the wiring/pin colours for you. its wired a bit funny, not how you might anticipate and it will save you a bit of head scratching. anyway, hope you had a bit more luck today, will be a good feeling when you're runnign and can see the fruits of your labours...and indeed drive it too.

you can fit 3 each side on teh back, but not on a seat, only on the cushion. 8 folk in a lightweight down a rough track....comfortable.

i only kind of skim read this as i'm heading out, so apologies if i'm repeating stuff. seeing as i've just been down to work on mine (almost back together having lost its timing belt and done the damage that such events entail) i'll give you a bit of help. t shaped one is for your rev counter. get one out of a trooper to make your like easier, but of course you can ignore it. circular one, i don't know what that does, but i've never had it connected on mine. green topped one is the cold start device, it will click, but if you take it out, you won't see it move. one below that is your stop solenoid, maybe give that a quick check over to make sure its hunky dory, a faulty solenoid ultimately caused my timing belt slip as it had to be stalled to stop when cold. your starting trouble will most likely be fuel starvation. so first thing is check all your unions are tight. last time i had the head off (only a year ago because of a broken exhaust manifold stud. a head gasket set is about £60 ) i forgot to reconnect 2 of them. the engine started and ran, but was only firing on 2 cylinders so was a little...rattly). the engine also takes a bit of effort to fully bleed. you have to leave it running for a bit and fettle the lines and stuff to get the bubbles out. i expect it you floor it at the moment it just stalls. anyway, check for no air leaks first and then be prepared for a bit of fiddling and waiting to get it fully bled. what's your extra spring for?

your name came up in the for sale so i thought i'd ask if you've had any more progress. having it running is pretty cool at least.

clean it up and paint it, filler it if you wantit to look super swish. for the last 5 or so years i've just removed the rusty bits of my crossmember prior to the mot and then painted it and covered it in a lot of underseal at the back and bottom. if you remove the rust, its difficult for it to be failed on that. the crossmember has now been removed, but it did a lot of mot's until i had the chance to change it. i think your mot tester has been a bit harsh to be honest.

you could try footman james and see how they go. any mods i have made have been ok, the only small issue was when changing the engine to isuzu. they had to go away and check, but they came back shortly after and said, no extra required on policy. the policy is based on an agreed value and i just have to send in photographs every year at renewal. When i do this i just make sure they get about 10 good photos of the entire car, engine interior and underside included. the policy is for a classic commercial (a 110) so is less than £100, but even if the landcruiser cost a bit more, i don't think they would refuse you cover. is it the height of the lift insurers have issue with? you could consider using a smaller lift and ditching your wheel arches if that would help your case.

well done, i also managed this feat, thankfully a kind sould sending his steering box back for reconditioning offered to swap me for his top. i think the tops are aluminium and seeing as someone else has managed to strip the thread, it would appear to confirm this. been a few years since i did this, but if i recall correctly it is an allen key (8mm?) fitment to remove it. the large nut is just a lock nut, so, once you've removed the 4 outer bolts you are effectively screwing the lid off by turning the allen key clockwise. if i have my directions mixed up, it will soon be obvious to you and you should turn it the other way. when replacing the lid, make sure the seal is in good condition and th emating surfaces are clean. mine has a very very slight weep, but i've never been bothered to take the lid off again and sort it.

as above. MOD 90/110 doors and '83/'84 civillian one ten door lowers (note these dont have an internal handle attached to the lock and differ from military ones in this respect) have a seperate lock hole. the military handles are about £60 from a dealer each. on MOD ones, the rear door handle is of this type too. your easiest bet is series handles, but they're pretty ****e and if you can get hold of them, the proper 90/110 ones are much better.

metro and other austin rover fare is 48 spline a'la 300tdi. i swapped my 36 spline column over to fit one of these. i think 36 is a rover spline, which may fit sd1 and 1st gen rover 800. i've never had a steering wheel off the latter to test though.

from experience, 7" is fine. and from other's experience, 6.5" does not seem to be too much of an issue either. http://www.ihana.com/ 30000km i think on and off road through south america without issue related to rim width. regarding widening wheels in the uk, it seems to be a bit of 'my friend's cousin's, aunt's son in law was once told by a vosa inspector's nephew that widening wheels was illegal'. widewheels seem to be happy enough to do it on a commercial basis without disclaimer, although they're happy to charge you a lot for it too. would no doubt be cheaper to get it done closer to home juriaan.

i had those mats as well. they were as waterproof as a foam sponge. becasue that was what was suspended between the two sheets of heavy vinyl. unfortunately the sheets of vinyl were incredible generators of condensation. so even when i had remarkably managed to prevent any water from entering the vehicle, they were sodden and contained about half a litre of condensated water. two weeks on the radiator in the house was enough to dry them off and about 2 days was enough for them to fill up with water again. as a percentage of the kit they probably cost me about £30 for the pair and were a complete waste of money.

i should avoid bellargio, the mainstay of their business seemed to be selling ringers to the US. the greater crime though was a visual one though, chrome and cream leather nouveau riche chic...nice. they also did a sideline in threatening people on forums for pointing out that their '1969' td5 130 was probably not that legit. perhaps they thought ariel typeface would frighten people. I believe, unsurprisingly, that the company is now dissolved. to be of a bit more use, the thin insulation referred to above i think is this stuff... http://www.spacetherm.com/ about £12 a square metre i think and available at builder's merchants. you have to be careful with its installation to make the best of it though. as with many insulative matters, your greatest enemies are condensation and uncontrolled ventilation. so get sealing those gaps and be conscious of situations where interstitial condensation may appear.

...admittedly i found that after scrolling through a rather long list of kamaz's in the final standings

kein problem

there is a question of what sort of off road situation you want to take such a big bus and family into that would necessetate 37's, however assuming that's sorted, there are different answers. i think the upshot of the slee off road version of things is that is a pain in the ass. http://www.sleeoffroad.com/technical/tz_35.htm but you can read and digest for yourself. but being honest i don't believe them and this is based mostly on the fact that americans seem to solve all suspension problems by lifting things and i don't really agree with that school of thought. I would think that with a bit of body reshaping, not such a dramatic lift (and all that it entails) should be required and this could be combined with a small body lift. unfortunately such things can be a bit of an expensive suck it and see, but as you already have 37's to play about with, its not beyond you. Best place to ask would be ih8mud. but being american based they'll probably tell you to lift it.

its the two bushes at the axle end, of each radius arm, drilled top and bottom. better to buy preformed ones from haultech as drill your own efforts will be more liable to tear than ones that are moulded that way.

i don't think that's quite true. i've had a licencse since 2001 and certainly since then, diesel has always been more expensive. a quick google search puts diesel at 80p a litre in 2000 and 80.8p for diesel. its not a big difference, but that would certainly not make diesel significantly cheaper than diesel. no doubt the gap is getting bigger, but diesel has not been significantly cheaper than petrol for a very long time. firdge i think it's because its gods own fuel still cheaper to run a modern diesel as they tend to get much better economy, but if the disparity in pricing increases as modern petrols improve efficiency, i think it will be 6 and half a dozen. here's another theory http://www.petrolprices.com/why-diesel-cos...han-petrol.html probably as many theories as the kennedy assassination.

i think...although i could be wrong...that diesel used to be cheaper (long before i can rememebr unfortunately) because it was a waste product from the petrol refining process. as the popularity of diesel increased, presumably it reached the point where the demand for waste exceeded the supply from the manufacture of petroleum. hence it would then have to become a product rather than biproduct, which costs more.

they work quite well here

i'd vote fr lopping off the two ends, you don't need them anymore. alternatively you could go for the raised end look http://www.pangolin4x4.com/pangolin4x4/pro...rs/bumpers.html you just need a middle though