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Because the ratio is different (except for the Stage 1) the carrier is a different thickness. (and the hardware is metric I think the changeover point is 4.27:1. ie. That, and numerically lower uses the 3.54:1 carrier, numerically higher is the 4.88 one.

I have one as my daily drive, but I live in the bush so parking isn't generally an issue, but the turning circle does give you the willies at times, even when I go into town (and the population is under 1000) You reverse park everywhere, and even reverse U turn. Was driving our SWMBO's GU Patrol ute up to and around Byron Bay (hippy central) for four days over the last weekend and the turning circle is sublime compared to a Deefer. The turning circle issue with 255/85's is about to be addressed with some 0 offset rims I'm dropping them off to my tyre bloke this morning, he's only had my new rubber sitting there for the last two months too.

I'm guessing Super Pro, no other urethane bushes from here come close.

and that's the weakness of the high pinion 79/80/100 series front CWP, as a lot of LC drivers find out here. A GQ/GU Patrol ffront diff is miles stronger than either Rover or LC, (it's a Sals/D60 size high pinion CWP, and you lose a bucket load of ground clearance as a consequence) but from what the Rover boys that have fitted them reckon, the CV stubs aren't much better than Rover,so it ends up being swings and merry-go-rounds. At least the GQ/GU front end is an easier fit than the LC front.

I think they're a good thing, you get a nice cushy ride, decent load carrying and excellent articulation without a compromise (except when the LL fails....) 110's assembled here back in the eighties had them fitted. I was checking out some links the other day and it appeared as if ZF in Germany (the owners of Boge, SACHS, etc) were going to offer a rebuild/changeover service for load levelers as they were also fitted to older Mercs, etc to service/tap into the classic car market.

I think the Isuzu 4BD1 engined 110's made here used that high range too when behind the LT85, or at least it's the high range everyone wants, particularly when turboed.

Texaco Cold Climate fluid definately works better than the average Dex II/III atf fluid and was the factory fill on TD5's (my very late '98 Tdi had it from new too) Less to no groan/squark/noise with the semi-syn ACE/PAS fluid vs too much noise and inconsistent feel with the Fuchs ATF 3000 (or was it 4000?) I tried. Exxy (good) syn fluids like Castrol Transmax Z work well too.

Ditto Chapman, and surprised he hadn't come up earlier. Revolutionised GP car design several times, and was canny at making some more £ for the GP team by making and selling road cars.

One of my mates is an ex-LR (Australia) engineer, he was part of the Perentie design team. When I was looking to buy a Deefer about 12 yeqars ago one of his words of advice was to ditch the stupid stock tie rod and drag link + diff channel and replace with HD ones, out here at the time that meant either make your own or buy Maxi-Drive (as well as the rear lower trailing arms) Being an odd thread size it isn't cost effective to buy the taps and make just one of each, and even with jsut sleeving a stockie, you still need to run a tap down the threads when welding the sleeve on, and it isn't leagal to weld steering components here anyway. The stockies bend far too easily, in the most anemic of conditions. Never had a problem in 11 years with the 32mm OD Maxi ones.

The OE Land Rover/Girling ones seem to have really poor pistons and seals, much to my astonishment as I always used these cylinders on race cars. After replacing two genuine ones in as many years I ended up replacing it with a PBR m/c (cheaper than a seal kit) and it's been fine for many, many years.

Hmm, mostly a full time beam axle 4WD likes a bit of toe out, and Land Rover's spec is 0-2mm toe out anyway. I've always run 2mm toe out and the 130 tracks dead straight and it has bugger all caster (it really needs the swivel balls slotted) Most Deefers I've heard with the wanders often run toe in. Set them straight or toe out and it improves them, but it can come down to tyre type and construction too. Toe out helps turn in too (it improves turn in response) but on rear drive cars will induce wander.

FWIW here's Keith at Roving Tracks answer to clearance problems, and good work shedding the weight http://www.rovingtra...s/steering.html

Heim used to be a US brand name, much like 'Rose Joint' is a brand name that became synonymous with rod ends and spherical bearings in the Commonwealth countries.

Classic ackerman has the intersection at the centreline of the rear axle. I've never plotted out the angle of the arms for a coiler front end, I'm guessing it's setup for a 100" wheelbase ? You want some ackerman, without it tyre scrub is a real issue at low speeds. (speaking from experience) I have to ask, what's the problem with the rear mounted TR ? Is it that it's a bit low and gets whacked ? Keith (Roving Tracks) makes his cranked so it isn't as vulnerable. I just use a Maxi Drive one (32mm OD ?) so it can take a beating.

The pro diesel tuners all give 720-750* as the safe maximum temp pre-turbo for long term durability. This includes the boys in the US playing with Cummins and Power Stroke engines, engines that are significantly stronger and run much more boost than a little Tdi. Any more and you reduce the life of the turbine blades, exhaust valves and pistons significantly. Pump timing is also pretty critical in this, as cylinder pressures/temps can vary significantly depending on timing and may not be reflected accurately in the pyro reading, but it's the closest thing we have to see what's going on in the chamber. Slightly retarded pump timing will give higher EGT's as the cylinder pressures/temps are lower, (and less power and worse fuel economy, relatively speaking) more advanced timing lowers EGT's as more work is being done in the cahmber so we have higher cylinder pressures/temps which in turn gives more power/better fuel economy. What does this mean ? In a nutshell, if your engine is tuned properly, EGT's are more critical as more advanced timing is increasing temps within the chamber. I suppose it all comes down to how many miles you do and do you rely on your Tdi or not ? Mines a daily driver/work vehicle and I can also be thousands of km away from home on a trip so I don't really want it to go pffft in a puff of smoke if I can help it. To me a pyro is as essential as a reliable coolant temp gauge when you start increasing the fuel. Landys aren't overly common here either, so second hand bits aren't that easy to come by if I need a new engine. If it was a Land Cruiser or Patrol it'd be a different story. The other point is that the bottom end isn't really that strong, bearing size, crank, rods are little better than the original 2.5 diesel. The TD5 is much beefier/better designed to take abuse (read power)

Apparently I don't get any smoke at revs and I can cruise past 720*C easily, and I run a 3" dump and exhaust. I'd be installing a pyro. I had to back mine off initially, It'd blast past 750* easily and smoke a bit. On trips I get excellent fuel economy too.

I've had a 50mm VDO gauge for years. Remove the clock and it slots straight in (a little smaller than the OE size IIRC, but not an issue with an O ring behind the bezel) I just used the 15psi one but boost to 16.5 these days, but isn't an issue, it just reads off the scale a bit. I teed into the boost compensator connection on the turbo.

Good quality rod ends are worth their weight in gold. On race cars years ago I would only use Ampep Silverline or Goldline in the finish. Even really good aircraft spec brands such as NMB didn't seem to last as long as the Ampep ones. I was never impressed with Aurora. There's a company in the US called Seals-It that makes rod and and spherical bearing seals. The speedway and rally blokes use them to get a decent life out of their bearings, otherwise grit/dirt/sand has them flogged out in no time. I wouldn't bother trying to get anything to match the OE TRE threads, they're a bit of an orphan thread size. (11/16x16 ?) I'd just use something like 5/8" UNF. FWIW it's easier to get the ackerman you're after with a rear mounted tie rod, it can be problematic with a front mounted TR, depending on the offset of wheels you use, disc size, etc. Jam nuts can be an issue too. (although that's all that's ever really used on race cars and aircraft) A split tube and clamp has a longer fatigue life as the stress isn't concentrated at the root of one thread. Tony Southgate did this on the TWR Jags he designed for Sports Car racing back in the late eighties/early nineties. It surprised me when I read about it in Race Car Engineering or Racetech back then, but it makes sense and all I can assume is that they had a few failures on the race cars.

Ouch.

What's the cost of fuel in the UK and Europe now ? FWIW I did a 1600km run last week and returned just under 10l/100km on one tank and averaged 10.3 for the entire trip and I was fair up the Deefer, sitting on 110-115km/h indicated most of the way. 300Tdi, just about to turn over 300,00km, original injectors, 255/85's (so the odo is pretty close to right, as is the speedo) on a 130 with bullbar, winch, roof racks, spotties and muddies. Oh, it's had the fuel turned right up on the pump too, I have to lift on long climbs as the EGT's can easily climb past 720*C. No complaints on fuel consumption here, but we're only paying around 145c-154c/litre (63.7p=A$1.00 so 154c/l=98p/litre)

Thanks mate. I knew you and Nige no longer had anything to do with them and Ali Read has mentioned on the Aussie board a few times he used to use them with success, but that was a few years ago now too.

How are they stacking up ? Are they working out OK without any/too many problems under Allmakes ownership ? I'm almost scared to ask, but hopefully Nige and Steve can chime in at some point too, especially for those of us OS (read: on the other side of the earth) and out of the current UK loop. Ashcrofts CV's appear to really work well, although a few blokes here are having them get a little clicky after a few road miles which I'm guessing appears to be the old tradeoff of dropping the HRC for ductility, but possibly compromising the longevity.

True, the only point I suppose I disagreed with was the life of the OE vs Super Pro. Most all of us over here have found the SP's to comprehensively outlast the OE rubber bushes in most spots on a coiler Landy, particularly the OE ones that have been supplied recently.

hahahaha