Mark

Chris, get the brakes sorted, and bring the truck along - we'll get the head gasket changed before the kickoff on sunday

Does anyone have a source of the square nuts that fit into the castings on an 8274 to hold it onto its mounts (eg bumper, etc)? The ones I have are threaded 7/16" UNC - and I have got some bolts, but cannot seem to find any square nuts in this threadform.... I have visited my usual suppliers of strange fastenings, and they all look at me blankly when I ask, so any help finding some would be very much appreciated. Cheers Mark

ben, that would be very useful indeed actually. Cheers Mark

slightly concerned as to why you had silicone lubricant to hand...

Quick question, since I am nowhere near my truck... Does anyone happen to know, or have handy, the dimensions of the load area of a 110 doublecab? I guess it's basically length and width at the height of the cappings that would be most useful to me. Thanks Mark

It would be worth checking the inlet manifold gasket, this can be a source of coolant loss. Otherwise there are a couple of good threads on here around freelander 1.8 coolant loss, so it's worth a try on the search button.. hth Mark

I have a Sealey 2.25t professional one that I bought nearly 10 years ago - they don't seem to do that size any more, but a similar 3t one is here They are often on offer, and come with a decent pair of axle stands too. It is big, and heavy to move around, but it is a very nice bit of kit to use compared to what is available at Halfords. hth Mark

So, by the sound of it, once you had the diff on the bench, simply swapping a less worn one into the same casing is unlikely to yield a good result anyway... Hmmm

Actually... I was looking for complete axles on eBlag....

My TD5 110 has a fairly worn Salisbury Diff in the rear axle after 150k+ miles, so I am considering either finding a better one to swap in, or getting this one reconditioned. However, I have read/heard that physically removing the salisbury from the casing is something of an undertaking, and not as simple as a standard rover diff... Could someone in the know make any suggestions as to where the issues are or if there are any specific tools of techniques involved. Bear in mind, I have changed more rover diffs than I care to remember, but have hardly even looked at a salisbury... Cheers Mark

Orange and I spent a long time walking around, talking to people and generally having a good day. We seem to have bought a load of NAS lenses and reversing/fog lights for the back of the challenge truck - they seem to be a consumable these days... Also got a few small tool bits and pieces and some bits of an 8274. A little disappointing for other bits, but there were certainly plenty of sellers, but it did feel a bit quiet walking around as a buyer. Mark

Only thing I would add is that if you do fit a fog lamp, it must also have a tell-tale lamp on the dashboard which functions. Having fitted one to my '68 IIa it was failed because this lamp was not present...

Going to try and get there - although the weather forecast doesn't look promising Planning to go as a punter this year - will be the first time I haven't been and sold for a very long time! I'll be the guy with the beard, and leather bush hat...

Personally I think the main difference between the HW/XL and the Challenger is the way the punches are laid out. The Challenger punches offer a range from relatively easy to stupidly hard - believe me the punches Paul lays out are not easy. They tend to be a bit more technical in nature, and baring this round just gone, they are very rarely just a straight slog through bonnet deep mud. The HW and XL format, as Neil says above is a stage with 2 punches in. Once in, you are committed to the stage if you want the 2 punches - the XL adds a time element to it as well. In the events we did it was almost like a giant trials course, but with some punches thrown in too... It means that a punch on the challenger may be assessed on it's own - and from my personal point of view are often more technical to get onto the punch. With the HW and XL format you commit the time to the stage, and whilst getting through the stage might require some technical winching and driving, actually getting the punch is often not as technical an issue as on the challenger. Whilst the Challenger series is aimed to get people interested in the sport, and there are punches that might be considered on the easier side, there are always plenty of hard ones too. From my point of view, I like the challenger format better - it seems to be a bit more open to personal choice and problem solving, as there are often many ways to approach a punch, whereas within a stage you are somewhat more restricted. Adrian and I prefer the techincal sections to muddy slogs, so the challenger suits us better. The social scene between the two events is often cited as a main difference - certainly the challenger events have a really friendly atmosphere, and whilst the competition is certainly healthy, most teams will do whatever is needed to help another team out if required. The HW does seem to become a little more fragmented in the park ferme, but there is a similar spirit between competitors that I have experienced so don't really think there is a big issue to be made. This is all based on personal observation, and not meant to be a criticism of Neil's team or of Paul's. Cheers Mark

LR Propshaft tool. cable ties

Hi Welcome to the forum, Afraid I can't help with your problem, but I would make a request that you attempt to refrain from using txt style abbreviations and attempt to include some punctuation and capital letters in the interest of making your post legible. This is an international forum, and we have many users for whom English is not thier first language. Also, people will be far more likely to help if they have not had to struggle to read your question in the first place. Thanks Mark

ummm... not quite richard.... but we'll be there one way or another... sleep is overrated anyway...

No, the bell housing is different, and the gear shifter mechanisms are swapped round. They are not easy to change over either... hth Mark

From memory, The commercial has a load barrier, and a full floor doesn't it? If so, then I believe these would need to come out - The floor so you can get to where the seat bolts in, and the load barrier so that your rear passengers have somewhere to put thier legs! The 3 usually has some bolt in uprights above the rear arches which take the back supports, and also house the intertia reel for the rear seatbelts. I don't know if these are present on a commercial though - Can't see any reason why they would need to be there if no seats were installed... There are 2 bars on the floor, about 1/2 way back which the seat clips onto along the back edge. These just bolt into inserts in the floor though from memory. You would also have to add the seatbelt anchors, but I think they just bolt in too... That's just off the top of my head, based on taking the seats out of my 3 door a little while ago.... hope that helps Mark

If you fit a tub from a doublecab 110 rather than a staionwagon, the bulkhead will already be in place, and the rest of the stationwagon bits should just bolt up to it. just a thought... Mark

I agree with you completely Michael, my point is that you don't need to spend thousands and thousands on winches to win competitions. Admittedly you do need some luck though

michael, some of us won a series this year with a collection of secondhand winches.... from various sources to be fair, not just ebay!

John, send NAS90 on here a pm... Mark

I swapped my early ecu for a later one (from a 2003 car I think) and then remapped it. It works very well, once you have cleared all the fault codes, set the injector offsets to the same as your old ecu, and taught it the immobiliser code. I think there are some options that you can toggle too, depending on the spec of the two cars (mine is very basic farmer spec, so I basically turned anything off that was causing an issue) It also means, if it ever goes phut, I can simply put the old ecu back in.

Some good advice already mentioned, but I just thought I would add a few pointers... The point about having a co-driver/winch bitch you can trust completely cannot be overstated. There are events and series' about designed for exactly what you want to do - The Challenger clubman series has a novice class and is aimed exactly at people like yourself, wanting to have a go at challenge competitions. It is also worth getting familiar with your kit, how to rig the winch etc. There are a number of play days and club events that also have some punches laid out. They are generally not competitive, but are a really good way to learn what the truck and the winch will and will not do. My brother and I started out doing some of the shires events with punches, as well as a few one off challenge events before entering a full series. hth Mark