Andrew Chua

don't rule out the battery. i've gotten a faulty optima yellow top before and for a good 4 months i was trying to figure out if i had a parasite drain in the circuits. on some days it started fine on some days after sitting for 20hrs, will refuse to start. the battery would charge enough to crank over if left sitting for 14hrs at most. until one day when i parked it up for 14 days, the battery could not be charged and even with a c-tek 7000 charger which is a 8 stage charger. it indicated charged but would drop to 10v immediately when disconnected. That was not the end of it, during that period at the battery had problems charging, the alternator ran at 100% duty cycle and hence it burnt out, further adding to the problem which had me really confused over where the real problem was. interestingly there were times when the voltage read 13.3v when the engine was not running, immediately after a ignition off.

well, not everytime the sticker is correct. there was a time when i swapped the internals of a 1.410 to 1.222 so the sticker still said 1.410 but it's 1.222 internal. to be 101% sure, take off the round cover and count the teeth of the largest gear (not largest diameter)(3 segments of teeth).

They both have their advantages and disadvantages : 90 : + better steering around tight spots + better break over angles + lighter (when not loaded) + better fuel economy + anti-mother in law + easier to recover when winching / pushing is involved - cannot carry much - less stability - cannot install center winch and side boxes 110 : + passenger carrier (5 door version) + stable at higher speeds + more stable on rough terrain + easier hill climb (once over the break over and approach angles) + better on soft grounds (traction) as it's weight is spread further + lotsa space to mount air tanks, LPG tanks, winches, storage boxes - turning circle - body flex (rattle) - fuel economy - high price (ok maybe in singapore, can buy 2x 90 for the price of one)

try changing the switch first. it's a screw on from the outside on the front housing of the t-box. change that washer too. if shorting the connectors return 12v to the ECU, then the switch must be faultly and not closing the circuit when in high. it's not a solution, imagine getting stuck in mud and you decide to switch to low (so t-box in low) but FTC is still enabled as the ECU still thinks it's in high. now do you want to crawl under and remove the wire? I'm not sure, but i though it was 12v short to ground = FTC off. so the switch closed contact = low range. Check with the nanocom or rovacom. i remembered the first generation nanocom had this problem of reporting it in reverse as well.

after a long chat with the mechanic and he taking $400 from my pocket in my case, the problem was just the 2 rubber washer which that intermediate shaft sits on. the box itself was perfectly fine. $10 for the parts. sometimes the seal just wears out. while the hole is still perfectly round after more than 15yrs. moral of the story with this leak is that it's a real pain to get to leaking parts. no wonder land rovers keep leaking and their owners don't fix them.

they usually start leaking about 80k km. so if caught early, you don't even have to change the loom. you jus reseal them on the injectors and they are ok. if you never want this to happen again, you can splice the loom to insert a connector to allow for the oil to come out there rather than let it choose to make it's way to the ecu.

grrr.... that's where mine is leaking too. hence i've stripped the entire box to do it all over again after 1mth of usage. actually, i'm paying the guys to do it as i don't have the time to do it. anyway, is that a way of fixing this leak without having to strip the box?

ok sounds worth a try. i'll order some and hopefully they ship down to singapore. Thanks!

from my own experience, gas shocks have a shorter life span but they do a better job as they 'react' faster. some long travel shocks allow for extrem articulation. so it all depends on what you want to do with the truck.

Hi all, I've a strange problem and it's as above. the R380 box sometimes blocks me from shifting into 2 directly from 1 or neutral. say when i'm moving off from a stop, from 1 to 2 and it doesn' want me to go into 2. mind you, i don't rev hard on gear 1 some i'm sure i'm at a reasonable speed which gear 2 will be usable. i've got a 1.222 disco t-box fitted though. other times, it's when i'm at a stop and i try to put it to 2, it won't allow me to do so until i release the clutch and try again. Sometimes on a bad day, it grinds when it drops into 2. on a good day, it all works well. any ideas before i migh have to do something drastic like overhaul the box? Andrew

i own a my2002 defender with the 'new' center console. after taking it apart a few times, i doubt it will stand up to repeated removing and fitting. my take, if you do not already have a 2002my dashboard, no big deal. the mud stuff console is a better answer as to cost wise and durability. besides it's more 'customisable' in how you want things to be laid out. note : Td5 from 99 to 01 had the same dashboard layout as the tdi aside from the warning indicators and the digital speedo and meters.

if it didn't come with it. it doesn't have the loom. please do yourself a favour and change the window regulator to the original powered window ones. they are a lot faster than the bolt on ones and the bolt on ones force the door card out and hence closing the door is a little harder.

1. Grounding 2. alternator 3. regulator 4. battery do you have air con on the truck? cos sometimes when it kicks in and your alternator cannot output the rush of current, things might dim slightly. the condition and age of the battery does matter if the alternator is not working 100% well as that would be the 'reserve' bank it draws from when something with large current cuts in (main beam or a/c). on a more elderly truck, the grounding sometimes gets a little corroded and hence this can be the start of your worst nightmares. if it's only the lights, check the main beam switch. they tend to melt in the long run hence when wobbled a little they do lose contact causing a slight dim of the lights as they go off and back on. if it's a regulator problem, you should fix is quick as the eletrical don't seem to like high voltage and very soon more random things will happen before they burn up.

That's the Hi/Lo Switch. by default the switch is not engaged, but when in neutral or low it tells the ecu to use full range throttle control rather than FTC or fast throttle control. You can confirm via a nanocom or disconnecting the switch and putting the t-box in nentual or low. I found out 2 weeks ago when doing a t-box swap.

at idle it will sit at 88. on cold morning it can take quite awhile to get up to 88. usually get up to 86. when pushed hard in the tropics mine will read 91 at most.

yes, it will fit and there are no electronics other than the diff lock lamp. there might be an oil temp sensor fitted so you can wire that up to the dash if you want. my 98 t-box from the disco has it.

ok, my defender 90 is back on the road and i'm $900 poorer. Swapped the front output housing around and now the switch can be fitted. I can hear the stereo while driving now. no more whines. The reason for the problem was that the gears were fitted without preloading and gaskets were fitted where there was not supposed to be. Hence the bearings started to move around and then after the gears followed. Hence when the t-box is in neutral and the g-box is in 5, the gears all started rattling terribly like the box was going to fall off. I've damaged the 1.222 gear (largest gear, 3 section) and the low range gear (largest diameter, with the dog collar pins) in this exercise. Hence, if the shop you go to doesn't do it properly, they screw you up big time. Anyway, i'm going to overhaul the damaged box and put back the 1.410 gear and replace the bearings. But that's another project in all. maybe i'm better off at selling the entire box which is now in pieces for the next interested party to overhaul. It's all been washed nicely and the entire case looks so clean and slivery.

there will always be some rotation play in the prop shaft. it will never be tight. 1/10 of a turn seems acceptable. you can try step on the brakes first before clutching in.

If you are even more curious, there is an LT230SE. These boxes are fitted on a discovery II with a V8. they have 1.211 ratio high. these boxes are more electronic controlled and do not have a manual select of the diff lock. (hence most people believe that they do not have a diff lock)

After doing a lot of reading, i've come to realise that the above item is the low detect switch fitted on a LT230T late model. The LT230T early model has a different low detect switch fitted in another place. The box that i have a is LT230Q. This model doesn't have any options to fit the low detect switch. This switch does the following : A high/low detect switch is fitted in the front output housing and connects to earth when low is selected. The switch is connected to the engine ECM, the SLABS ECU and the BCU. The purpose of the switch is to enable selection of the hill descent feature and to modify the engine fueling and automatic gearbox gearshift maps stored within the respective ECM's and ECU's. The main difference between the T and Q boxes : The LT230Q, while similar to the LT230T differs mainly in the following areas: • Helix angle of gears increased to 31° together with an increase in the number of gear teeth thus giving quieter running and an increase in power transmission efficiency. • Increased length mainshaft input gears together with increased thickness bearing housing and repositioned bearing. • Redesigned intermediate gear bearings. Redesigned high gear bush giving quieter running Now i'll have to try to figure out how to move the entire front output housing from the original box over to the box that i just bought.

eh, sorry, that's a little hard to do now that the original box is totally in piece with all the bits washed and taken a part.

according to the owners manual, a stock Td5 will do 45' on the side. this assumes no roof loading. 35' is starting to get scary for me already!

after a long trip across the border and back, i've hauled the t-box back. to my horror, i've noticed that the 2002 Td5 T-box has an additional sensor mounting which looks like this picture. the box that i've gotten doesn't have it. Now my guess is that sensor tells the ECU if it's in low or high range and if in high range to activate FTC (fast throttle control). Anyone has any ideas? Assuming that this is correct, if i leave out this sensor, will the ECU think that i'm in high or low? if it's default to high, i can just install a flip switch in the cab to use the full throtle range when in low by closing the circuit, rite? Failing which, i can try to port over the gears to my original box. Will i further mess up the box by moving the gears around? Thanks! Andrew

i had a leak in the heater matrix. every morning i smell a faint smell coolant when i open the door and i wonder where it was coming from. until one day, i turned on the heater at full blast and the smell was very much saying, i'm leaking here. so living on the equator, i bypassed the heater matrix.

Cool, thanks guys! That was super fast replies. I'll be off across the border on tuesday to get it. Thanks! i'll update one i have it installed. Now i'll have a spare 1.41 t-box after i bin the 1.222 gears and over haul the box back as thankfully i kept the 1.41 gears.