ajh

One advantage of Koni is the lifetime warranty and the adjustable valve.

The one Britpart part (and I got it when I ordered a Borg/Beck unit but the vendor substituted) is their clutch. I didn't realize it at the time but when the friction plate exploded it was obvious they didn't bother to put any metal into the friction material.

Since I've had no luck finding a 200TDI exhaust manifold to complete a project putting a Disco 200TDI into a Series III I'm looking at the option of having manifolds cast. Clearly doing this for a larger volume is more cost effective than doing one off singles. What I'm trying to do is determine if there would be any pent-up demand out there and what people who needed one would consider a fair cost for getting a new manifold? Alternatively; if there isn't enough demand and someone has one around (ideally along with an intake) please do get in touch; the current project is late and this is really holding things up.

Boost is slightly higher; should probably give the max fuel and half turn and the smoke screw a turn to compensate to avoid running lean. Otherwise identical.

So 3/8BSF by 5/8 is BSF different from UNF then? That would explain why nothing fits.

I'm hoping to find out the size and thread of the two bolts that thread into the bottom of the 3rd member and hold the track rod guard in place. Despite having boxes and boxes of misc bolts around I somehow lack this particular size and need to get some; and longer than stock which makes it a bit tricky without the exact size or dragging a 3rd into the shop which as you might guess is a tad inconvenient. Thanks.

Isn't slotting the holes also an option to allow a bit more lateral movement without pressuring the studs as much?

With the front swaybar fitted a bit of extra damping is needed. My main thought is ... would two different shock rates per side be bad? Should I just get 4 of the Pro-Sport instead of the bigger one for the inside-the coil. If I had bypass dampers available it'd be much easier to decide since I really only want the extra damping for high-speed/rough road durability so some that would only add in the first 50% of the stroke would probably be ideal (the way you set-up piggyback dampers for racing). Right now I'm leaning towards 4 TF120s in the front; then if the rears need replacement go with a set of Expedition Big-Bore there, or do the same 4-damper set-up there, though for that I'd need to get the mounts.

Just discovered my Koni Heavy-Track leaking oil, since I fitted the dual front shock mounts when I built things I think it's time to fit all 4. What I'm wondering is which I should fit. Terrafirma is the easiest/cheapest for me to get so I'd like to go with those. I was looking at some combination of big-bore and pro-sport. Since the outboard shock limits wheel movement a bit I was thinking of fitting the Pro-sport outboard and a Big-Bore inside the spring. Anyone done something like this and have feedback? This is a 110 with HD springs and 2" lift. I just need to order ASAP since I'm off the road until they arrive (again, though I probably have a set of old shocks in the back I can use if needed if I thought to keep any).

Thanks; yes that's more or less what I thought. I guess I'll need to take it to the shop for balancing to see how off it is and if it could be that. The phase does look to be right. Of course I just discovered that one front shock has leaked out about 1/5th of its oil which explains the odd handling I was getting... (finally) so many possible things to check when things don't feel right.

It was actually all new; but the issue was the bushing housing rocking in the swivel. Though I just spent some time looking at things and it's not looking like the same issue. Yes there's a bit of play but it's tiny compared to most of the ones people bring in to get fixed and likely just bearings bedding in. The actual problem became more apparent when I noticed oil on the lower shock; it looks like the top 2-3" of travel has zero damping... so much for spending more on Koni; they lasted about 80,000KM. I'll just order a couple sets of Terrafirma +2s and fit all 4 fronts this time.

Yes, I've seen that. I was wondering if anyone worked out the relationship of phase and lift-delta from stock.

I suspect this is due to using Britpart swivels. When I was re-building I didn't realize that I should be updating things to the new-style of swivel (with top bearings) so I got the ones as fitted for a 1992 (with bushings). I'm once again having unexplained movement on one side and I'm pretty sure it isn't the wheel bearings as I replaced these recently. So what happened last year was when I pulled the knuckle I found there was movement in the top bushing housing where it was put into the swivel ball; this was obviously causing wheel wobble. When I replaced the bushing it seemed to go away but I suspect the cause has returned. I do plan on getting a set of newer swivels at some point but as a temporary fix has anyone come up with anything useful? Fitting with jbweld? Welding the bushing housing to the swivel? I'm leaning towards the 2nd option and then just changing the whole thing out in the spring.

Well, they did come from one of the large LR vendors; but does anyone know how much phasing there should be? Presumably with a lift if you shift it over one spline in the right direction some of the vibration should vanish?

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The best thing to use on engines/gearbox is 100% biodiesel and then an engine wash/spray once things soften up. When blended with petroleum it also causes the petroleum to bio-degrade at the same rate that biodiesel does normally. The one drawback is you cannot do it on anything with oil-based paint or over tarmac as both are held together with oil and biodiesel is such a good solvent it will remove the oil from the paint and asphalt. It is also not volatile like gasoline is; never ever use a volatile cleaner unless the part is away from your vehicle and you're 100% sure you can remove it all properly because a little bit of static and you might be having bigger issues.

If you'd like a box that won't leak I could get one of my spare RHD boxes rebuilt at Meridian and they replace the bushing with a needle bearing to eliminate the wear issues. A fair bit of shipping cost involved; but still not a bad option. If you knew someone going from the US to the UK I can have it shipped within the US at no cost though I still need to send the core from Canada to California.

Removed the shaft; vibration vanished. No play in either pinion or TC bearings both have less than 40K KM on them. It is not a Britpart. I can take the shaft to a local rebuilder on Monday to get it checked for balance; but they can only test to 3K RPM. The vehicle has about 2" of lift; corrected front arms, and the flanges are not perfectly parallel but they're fairly close. The last shaft did not vibrate like this.

Has anyone run into fairly severe vibration with a newly fitted front propshaft? This one is from a 'major vendor' but not LR original. There isn't any obvious free-play but it vibrates worse than the one I was using temporarily off another vehicle which was clearly extended too far on the spline and you could both see and feel it flexing at the slip-joint. Presumably a vendor is liable if a shaft is shipped unbalanced? Returning it would be prohibitively expensive in this case; do I have the right to a 'local repair' in this case? (it did originate in the UK)

That is one option, though if I can get the Defender one I already have the SP conversion pipe for the Disco and can just get the correct downpipe portion and not lose the cash spent on that. The customer is a bit anxious to get things finished and this is holding things up. The problem is getting parts to try fitting; any over here already are on engines which makes it a bit hard to confirm.

How cold are you dealing with; at -30C here things were warm in the front (csw) after about 20 minutes; the main issue isn't getting heat it's having enough heat in the cooling system to warm things up. Mounting a house-current heater in the back (somewhere safe, with a cage) to pre-heat things along with a tank heater on the cooling lines to pre-heat the coolant seems to be the most effective method. If I was building from scratch I'd also put a heat exchanger into the main fuel tank as well; then the coolant heater could also prevent fuel gelling.

Are those available? Still the same issue if I can't find one. I don't think they sold anything past the 2.25 here.

I've been searching for nearly 3 months trying to find a used set of 200TDI defender exhaust/intake manifolds for a Series conversion I'm working on (which turns out not to work with the Disco set-up and LHD) the problem is there are no 'used' parts available over here... if someone could help me track down the bits I need to convert this from Disco to Defender exhaust/intake setup I would be very thankful.

For the record that part was discontinued and replaced with generic M8 rivnuts; which of course need a rivnut tool to insert. While M6 I've put in with other methods the M8 were too stiff. Just so people know.

Well... so I welded the pivot ball back in place and it isn't coming out any time soon again. However when we went to put things back together I noticed a broken spring fragment and then that the centre of the friction plate had come apart and this was a 130 HD clutch plate (though 6 spring), the basket is still in perfect condition so I just need to source another friction plate. Any opinions on quality? Is the Valeo UQB000130G the one I want? This is the 2nd I've had to replace in 80,000KM which seems high to me; though the first one was a Britpart due to a B&B ordered but Paddocks substituting a Britpart which had no copper in the friction plate which then disintegrated one day on the trail... (boy was that fun).