Mark

Hmmmm Auto would be nice, but that pretty much means buying another car and basing the new truck on that. I already have too many cars, so for now I am going to stick with an axle upgrade for the moment... I will give Gwyn a call in the morning and see what he has to say about them. Having said that I need all this, I have yet to actually break a shaft or a CV, only Diffs. But by strengthening the diffs, the weak spot just moves to a different area, so while I have the opportunity to build the axles up from scratch I might as well build them as strong as the budget allows.... cheers for the comments, please do keep them coming. ta Mark

hmmm.... will give him a ring...

The plan is to run something along the lines of a 35" BFG MT pattern - large, but not hugely aggressive... Didn't know GKN did rear shafts too... I know the fronts are like rocking horse manure to find, so I suspect the rears are similarly scarce....

Only difference with a 300tdi disco axle (assuming it is standard) is the internals are 24-spline. It's not an LSD...

Being the budget concious builder that I am, I want to try and build up some reasonably strong axles but based around my Early Disco 10 Spline Axles. I know conventional wisdom says get 24 spline axles and ring Ashcrofts, however, I can't really justify the resultant bill.... I have already acquired a pair of 10 spline ARB Diffs, which is another factor constraining me to stick with 10 spline, so I am really after suggestions as to what the best way to go would be in terms of shafts and CV's. Front: I have acquired a set of GKN Flexy front shafts, and will be using these. Currently I only have the standard Rangie/Disco CV's which use a seperate stub shaft. Is it easy to fit AEU2522 CV's to disco hubs? I am assuming that I would also need to change over to drive flanges as well as the 2522 CV's have an integral outer shaft? Does the machining required to fit AEU2522's mean I could fit Ashcroft CV's at a later date? Rear: My intention was to stick with standard 10 spline mushroom headed shafts, as they are cheap and there are plenty around. However, I do wonder if there is or ever has been a strengthened rear shafts for 10-spline axles? I would far rather the shafts did not break in the first place... Any help, or offers of obsolete kit much appreciated... Cheers Mark

You could find a cheap 24V alternator and 2 small 12V batteries, and run the whole thing as a seperate system. You wouldn't need a big output on the 24V alternator, so I would have thought you could pick up a truck one fairly cheaply? Just an idea Mark

You appear to have a 3.9 EFI (top end at least) in place of what used to be a 3.5 carb ??? am I close?

Scorpion one on my white disco: and a GoldDigger one on my green disco: enjoy Mark

Not yet - but that's because I havn't done it yet... I will be using the bits off my 200 TDI disco, so essentially it is just a case of joining the gaps. I will do some pictures when I do it tho. In the meantime, this is what it used to look like: It is actually a chunk of 2.5" od stainless tube that I found in the scrapyard, that was already vaguely bent in the right sort of shape. I cut and shut it to make it fit, and then bought the plastic bits as seconds from southdown's ebay shop... It goes into the airbox via some bits of silicone hose, and another bit of 2.5" tube... hth Mark

Battery install was a bit involved, as I have EDC and ABS under the bonnet which rather clutters things up a bit... the write up is here tho: Battery Install enjoy Mark

Fuse box came from here - its a few items down - the 5025 one. it is almost the same unit as Devon sell, but devon don't seem to do the one with the negative bus as well as the positive one. it's not overly cheap, but I spent ages trying to find a fusebox that had a single feed in, bussed to some outputs, and also had a bussed negative side too. I have been exceedingly pleased with it. The noise of the compressor is not a big concern. it is certianly not quiet, but it only get used when I am outside the car. In normal driving it is turned off completely. hth Mark

Meant to say the electrics are fairly easy: The pressure switch is in line with the existing switch in the box. I replaced the switch with a nicer one, and got rid of the box, mounting the switch and the trip on a little panel under the seat. That way you turn it on a the switch, and it pressureises to what ever your pressure switch is set to, and turns off. Make sure you give it a decent feed though as is seems to draw a few amps... Mark

Ben, Ideas are there to be shared. Make sure you post up some pictures when you are done tho! First thing I did with the t-max pump was to remove all the plastic from round the top of it. It is a very compact unit once you remove the tat from it. Once you have all that off, you will see a black pipe that joins the 2 heads together, and has an manifold (sort of) at one end. This is tapped 1/8 BSP (I think, might be 1/4, but I am pretty sure it is 1/8) so I just screwed an appropriate push fit connector in with a thick PTFE washer (the push fit had quite a long threaded bit, whereas the tube only had a shallow thread). The best picture is probably this one to see it: if you don't fancy using the existing black pipe, I think the heads are tapped with a BSP thread too, so you could just remove the black pipe, and add fittings as required. hth Mark

Changes are indeed afoot, and we are very close to coming up with what we hope is a good solution. We will make a proper announcement once everyone involved is happy, which should be very soon. I realise you are on the edge of your seat, but please do contain yourself for just a touch longer. Cheers Mark

Ben, I am afraid I know exactly where the skip that I found the pressure switch in was, but I don't know that it will do you much good I am afraid. The push fit connectors and the hose came out of the same skip, at various times too, so I can't even suggest where you might like to look. It is made by Festo, and I will see if I can get a model number off it for you, but it's a little inaccessible with the seat in place... Mark

As has been said, the 200TDI is a far better engine, and pretty easy to get hold of now. The Turbo version of the 2.5 NAD is known to be quite stressed, and not one of LR's better creations. I believe the block is different between the NA and the Turbo as well, to take account of the extra stress, so bolting a turbo to an NA block sounds like a recipe for problems to me... Mark

the general wisdom says the biggest you should go on a disco without bodywork mods is 245/75 16. I have a 40mm (ish) lift on mine, running this size on standard disco rims, and they work brilliantly. hth Mark

As has been said, running air tools is going to require a decent tank or much bigger compressor. I have one of the t-max compressors installed in the disco and have been very pleased with it... Mark

Range rovers had both - ally floors were rivited and steel ones were welded. In theory they are not an mot fail as they do not constitute structure of the vehicle, but these things are all subject to the interpretation of the tester. Personally, I think the best thing to do on a disco is to fix the edges (need to be welded), and fit a shortened ally floor out of an early (pre 86) rangie with rivets.

Have a look in the tech archive for the boot floor replacement in a range rover - the principle is the same for a discovery. The sides are available as repair panels too, if they are really that disintigrated

Yeah, 0.8mm wire - it was very close to the limit of the machine, but it did it, and they have never shifted. incidentally, the upright plate is the original, done by Southdown. I did the hoop type points.

Having been a red-cross qualified first aider in the past, I would be interested in becoming qualified again. The course I did was run by the red cross but it was specifically for our Scout Group Leaders and on our premises. It was to qualify as a first aider, rather than a first response course and was 4 days long, and needed renewing every 3 years (2 day course for renewal). Sadly I let it lapse after several renewals, but I suspect you are looking at something of at least that magnitude if not beyond. I would be interested in what you and Mark come up with Cheers Mark

With all due respect chaps, I have had my Butters for a few years now, and despite it being one of the newer ones, it has never let me down, and the thermal overload has never cut in - I have welded various land rovers backs together, including the recovery points on Oranges old Winch bumper, as well as doing some chassis repairs on my dads Regent IV Bus (quarter plate really is just a repair patch on that)... My welder looks like this: so not a million miles from the one you are looking at - it is an AMT185 I believe... It is capable of this sort of thing: which is a 20mm bar onto 6mm plate. This is probably showing one of the least pretty welds of the ones that I did too! If you want to see more of what I have done with it, have a look here: Box section sills or here: boot floor or even here: Disco Inner wings IMHO, they are good bits of kit. hth Mark

as above, it sounds like it got hit pretty hard... Jericho was breaking a 300tdi in the classifieds the other day - might be worth looking at...

The vast majority of my 68 IIA was put together with UNF fasteners which use imperial fractional sized spanners. There are some BSF, BSW, BA and UNC, but very few, so mostly imperial fractional spanners should be required. There shouldn't be any metric on the vehicle, unless added by a previous owner. In my opinion, you should always use the right size spanner for the job. Badly fitting spanners will either damage the bolt/nut or your hand when they slip off. most often both.... hth Mark