RichardAllen

This must be a really easy one, but I have not found anything with a quick search. Does anyone have a neat dodge for inspecting disc brake pad thickness without taking the wheels off ? I have a 300TDi 90 on alloys, so the calipers are well buried within the wheels. I think previously I have always taken the wheels off, but would like to able to do a good thickness check in the drive or at a campsite, without going to all that hassle. All help gratefully received. Regards Richard

I made one a few years ago from "Flexoid" Oil Resistant Jointing. I rang someone up and got a sample, can't remeber who though. It worked for at least a year before I sold the S3 109", but I've no idea whether it is working now, and as noted above, you can get the right part number. Regards Richard

Merry Christmas to the brotherhood. A toast: To wives and girlfriends May they never meet ! Seasons greetings Richard

Irritatingly I did have my iPhone with me, but was so excited about getting my neighbour out of a pickle, I did not even think of it. A clear failure to adhere to the Golden Rule Regards Richard

At lunchtime today I went to the next village to pick up wife and kids from playgroup. The route is across two steep Cotswold valleys, with very narrow twisty lanes plenty of snow and ice and no gritters. On the way home we followed at some distance a local landowner with kids and nanny in his Bentley R Turbo. He had a nightmare of a time sliding all over the place eventually getting stuck on a hill unable to go up or back down and blocking the road. He was after some help so I took a different route home and dropped the family off. When I returned he had the farm 110 in front of the Bentley, trying to pull it up the hill and that was going nowhere either. So from the top road, a quick pull with the winch got the 110 up and out of the way. We needed two long pulls with the winch got the Bentley up onto the main road. The first pull went fine but slowly as we inched it up the hill, all the time my 90 was in danger of being pulled down,as I had no way to anchor it. Main lesson - remember to chock everything before detaching winch cable before the second pull. At the end of the first pul with everything apparently stable, I let a tiny bit of cable out so I could detach the hook and reverse up for the second pull, and immediately the Bentley started to slide back down the hill then pulling my 90 with it. (Fresh trouser / forum story moment - "farm tractor removes Bentley/Land Rover cocktail from hedgerow"). Luckily we had just enough manpower to stop the sliding after 4 feet or so and then get out whatever we could find to chock the Landy and the Bentley: one Land Rover metal chock, a trolley jack, a hi-lift base and a hi-lift adaptor - that Bentley is damned heavy but we had it secured. I then had to reverse back and winch across the main A road - causing a minor jam, as the Bentley was going nowhere until we got to the level ground of the main road. The final problem was retrieving my towing strop. The Bentley has no towing eye or obvious tow point, and the manual was no help, so we put the strop around the front wishbones' bracket. It got well and truly jammed by the pull so had to be cut out (the middle section is still there). One way to meet a neighbour! He was going to Anglesey to get a ferry over to Ireland for Christmas - and decided to continue with the farm 110 rather than the Bentley. Excellent judgement - eventually. I hope he has had a safe journey And, I suppose I should admit it, the first time I have got to use the winch really in anger in 2 years - and it looks good. So my grin is spread from ear to ear and I feel as chuffed and smug as a chuffed smug person who has just one a Simon Cowell lookalike competition. Maybe I ought to do the right thing and join 4x4 Response Merry Christmas to all - Support the Forum !!! Regards Richard PS Sorry no pics

How do I identify whether my 300 TDi 90 CSW has a 100 amp or a 65 amp alternator. It does not have aircon. This must have been covered before somewhere, but I could not find it. All help gratefully received Regards Richard

Is there any firm anyone knows out there in UK who will NOT send me a Br*tp*rt item ? EVER ? Bearmach ? Fine. Allmakes ? Fine too. I know I can buy genuine, and I know Br*tp*rt supply some original equipment. But I just don't want their stuff anymore, again, at all, ever. And I seem to have some difficulty getting internet suppliers to understand this.

I've been away and missed this superb thread. It says so much about the LR4x4 community and I, for one, wore my forum rugby shirt with poppy in it with great pride. I had not expected to see poetry on the forum and have been very moved reading this thread. So I thought I would share this poem. It was written in Russian during WWII by Konstantin Simonov to his girlfriend, later wife, Valentina Serova and is called "Жди меня" - "Wait for Me". It was narrated in translation by, I think Laurence Olivier, in the "World at War" series Episode 11 - "Red Star" : Wait for Me Wait for me and I'll return. Only wait, very hard. Wait when you are filled with sorrow as you watch the yellow rain. Wait when the winds sweep over the snow drifts. Wait in the sweltering heat. Wait when others have stopped waiting, forgetting their yesteryears. Wait even when from afar no letters come to you. Wait even when others are tired of waiting. Wait even when my mother and son think I am no more. And when friends sit around the fire drinking to my memory, wait. And do not hurry to drink to my memory too. Wait, for I'll return, defying every death. And let those who do not wait, say, That I was lucky. They will never understand that in the midst of death, You, with your waiting, saved me. Only you and I will know how I survived. It's because you waited as no one else did. Regards Richard

Thanks chaps,authoritative as always. Regards Richard

I want to tweak the pipework routing on my Defencer 300TDi engine. Is there any harm putting in parts made from standard domestic copper pipe ? I am thinking about the potential for corrosion either on the copper pipe itself or elsewhere in the engine coolant system. All wisdom gratefully received. Regards Richard Allen

The booklet might also carry some serious stuff, for example, my post about my angle grinder accident brought out a lot of good tips on using tools safely. Regards Richard

When I Googled "paypal standing order", one or two sites came up that seem to have put this facility in, however, I could find no way to do so from within Paypal. So have sent some hard-drive tokens to keep my conscience clear for a few weeks. In fact I am feeling disgracefully pleased with myself all round just now. I spent all day strutting about in my new LR4x4 rugby shirt, and even spoke to a Disco owner at the supermarket. I'm sure it will wear off. Regards Richard

Rugby shirt is excellent, I am now officially an all-black . Thanks a million Nige and anyone else involved for all your efforts Regards Richard

As said above it is all about hard cash. This is why iconic vehicles are kept going or brought back. The Beetle was retired, popular opinion brought it back in a modern form. The MGB, the mini (twice) numerous versions of the VW camper van, even, dare I say it here the Toyota Hilux have al;; been resurrected or kept on past the natural life of other models in their manufacturer's range.. The hard cash comes from us the buyers. If the manufacturer does not make a vehicle we want to buy, he loses the sale to someone who does. A question I would pose is how much of the allure of the Range Rover, Disco and Freelander comes from the fact that it is made by tha same people who have made the most Series/Defender range of the most capable 4x4's for the last 50+ years. Vehicles dearly beloved by a popular image of land-owning, tweed wearing fiarly wealthy country people. Without the Defender the Range Rover and Disco might just become some complete monmstrosity range of vehicles with immense off-road capability for which their owners pay dearly in many ways and then never use. All just because of the popular image. No Defender, no image ? That is my question. If it is the case, and the Defender, as a recognisable utility vehicle from 1950's is withdrawn, Tata may find the rest of their range becomes pretty unattractive. And if that happens, they'll have to bring the Defender back :D A big if in the middle there. Regards Richard

I have been looking for an axle stand for expedition use, mostly for wheel changing, but maybe for repairs too. My normal axle stands are sturdy enough but very bulky. I have read many bad experience of fold-up axle stands, most of which, I believe are no longer sold. My hi-lift is essentially unstable; I am aware of the trick of putting a wheel under the chassis which saved a lot of damage when the vehicle toppled off the hi-lift once (no one underneath !) I am clear that a hydraulic jack should never be relied on as an axle stand. I am not keen on the space and hassle of an air jack, which does also assume the engine is running. On the basis that for an expedition everything should have at least 2 uses, can an old-fashioned screw jack be used as a reliable axle-stand, assuming it has a wide enough base, or can be attached to one ? Does anyone have any other cunning ideas ? All wisdom gratefully received. Regards Richard

My plan is exactly that: make sure you never have to be somewhere by a given time. I appreciate that this cannot always be so with visa expiry, but I do think it should be the basic plaaning assumption. Stay a while in nice places, pass on through the dull ones. Regards Richard

Simply beyond price. Regards Richard

I would like some views about this from anyone who saw it. Given that it is about making a TV programme, highly edited etc etc: - It appeared that the covers were still on the driving lights, yet he saw the arrows late while driving at night/early dawn - hmmm. Would a set of roof lights have helped if they had been switched on - I am sure that the swerving from side to side, was due to upsetting the trailer balance, which is maybe, perhaps along with a ditch, what caused the vehicle to roll. - I am absolutely no fan of these heavy canvas rooftents and certainly would expect the roof weight to have contributed to the roll - Would a 110 with no roll bar/cage rolled like that have let the 5 people inside get out almost unscathed, or would the bodywork have just crumpled ? I was very interested in the kids' reactions throughout, as I plan to take my kids on something similar. They definitly appeared to thrive when making friends their own age which says a lot for fitting in some volunteer work along the way. All said, at least the guy got another vehicle, got stuck with a dead battery and had to be rescued by a Landy :lol: I am definitely planning a two vehicle trip, as a second vehicle, so long as it was running, would have got him out of all the worst scrapes. Any views on this or links to places such things are discussed ? Regards Richard

You may be right. When I have a spare alternator, I'll try it and see. In the meantime, if I want to kill the engine, then the ignition key is easier to get to than the battery isolator. I am clear, though that if the isolator is switched out, (ie isolating), and the key is unavailable the vehicle cannot be run without a fair amount of wiring hassle and getting into a locked battery box, or rigging up another battery. Enough to deter the average opportunist villain I hope. I have also rigged up my isolator so that a villain will not find a standard isolator key much use either. Regards Richard

They look like standard radial pin locks with an arm made to fit the door mechanism of the car in question. Some radial pin locks are supposed to be harder to pick than standard barrel locks, but then some can be picked with a biro. I had to get a locksmith to open one recently on my gun cabinet, and he had to use a specially constructed end mill to drill it out. However, looking at the rest of the stuff on the the Solex website www.speeding.co.uk, it looks to me suspiciously like go-faster-stripe boy-racer Astra Corsa kit (eg "Start Ya person I'm not that keen on" spray, anti-theft number plate bolts -FFS, sonic scrubber - who is she ?) . I would not rely on stuff like that for my truck security without experience from one of the serious grown-ups on here. Regards Richard

If the isolator cuts off all earths, when switched off on a 300TDi, it will close the fuel solenoid valve on the fuel pump and stop the engine. However, this is may not be good for the alternator. I don't know enough about other engines to comment. Regards Richard

PS I have a separate winch isolator switch from Vehicle Wiring Products Ref MBS4.. It is near the top of the passendger side seatbox next the tunnel, which has also proved to be sufficiently out of the way. My winch switch is in series with the isolator, so both need to be on for the winch to work. PPS I have no relationship with Vehicle Wiring Products, but have bought loads from them and it has always been top notch stuff. I am wary of buying mission-critical stuff from eBay as iwhat arrives is often not quite what you expected especially in regard to build quality. Regards Richard

I have the same issue and though long and hard. I put in a single isolator like this http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-onlinestore/battconns/battisol.php Ref 60550 in the front face of the passenger seat box. Mine is fitted so that when switched on the key points downwards and the end of the key brushes the floor carpet so it cannot snag shoes or bits and pieces in the passenger side floor. The switch is quite a bit bigger than it looks in the picture. I also went for this one, as mine isolated both vehicle and leisure batteries from all earth, so the vehicle is completely dead when the key is removed. Since I have a winch, whose current goes through this, and a 2kW inverter, it copes with large battery cables. On race cars, the required practice is to mark the earth cable which is the one the marshals cut if you have a prang, so I have put mine on the earth side too. It is still easy to rig up a separate battery for safeguarding a radio etc. It is not wise to make these any longer than necessary anyway, and they are a b****r to route neatly (though if you used welding cable rather than battery cable, you get much more flexibility). Regards Richard

I have followed this thread with great interest. I believe forums are a still-maturing technology and all can be improved with better search, wiki and the like, without us having to end up with a Land Rover Face-Twitter-Book. To gush a little, the great thing about this forum, in contrast to all other Land Rover related ones I have found, is that it is authoritative. If you properly understand and fully follow a Technical Archive procedure fully, you will get it right. If you take advice offered on any thread, you will nearly always get it right. On here people are clear whether they thinking about doing something, are doing it, or have done it, learned the lessons and are passing them on. I find this clarity very rare on the internet where the anonymity allows people to appear to be experts about things of which they have little knowledge and no experience. In short you can trust what you read on here, mostly. Regarding the forum becoming stale, I feel we have three things to help: 1. Land Rover brings out new vehicles and we want to run them and fix them; so questions about Series vehicles reduce as questions about 200TDi's and 300TDi's arise which in turn give way to TD5 problems and so on 2. As we all learn, we find new and better ways to do things, people to buy from, and avoid, new sources of good information. And on here people share these things in a way that can be trusted. 3. Finally we have new members, some inexperienced, some who have been doing it for years, all of whom might just one day find a much better way of doing something; in the words of the late Carroll Smith "invent a better moustrap". So I would urge patience with newbie's and people asking the same question again and again. There might just be a nugget in there which could be easily missed. And after all we are all fallible. I have an engineering degree, 27 years of nuclear submarine engineering experience, 5 years of DIY Defender ownership and 354 posts on here. Last week I asked a simple question. On getting 88 views and 0 replies, I realised my question was poorly set out, and pretty stupid. I then looked more carefully in the Technical Archive and got most of what I needed, supplemented by a generous pm (thanks again BogMonster). So however much we know there is always something on here to learn. I applaud thoughts to make searching easier and the knowledge more accessible. But the value of this forum is the superb quality of contribution by all. If you got this far, thanks for reading. Reagrds Richard