I am man! Defender! Provider! Mechanic!

Its looking good, a Land Rover sized garage is so at the top of the list for the next house. When will it hit the roads of Aberdeenshire? I’ll keep my eyes open.

may or june at a guess … works about to go mental.

Don’t do the simoniz at less than 20 degrees temp. Multiple coats but let each coat get wet enough to cover wet fully. Needs little more keying than a scrub with a green pan scourer.

20degrees. ….. best take it to oz with me ….

The only room in my house that gets above 20 is the living room when the mrs is stoking the fire and im outside…. and i wont get to spray in there !

well you were right stoner.

window sporting a nice shiny crack.

to be fair i was warned before we started and suspected it would crack- there was a slight chip in the edge of the laminate – soon as the string came past it that was the end for it .

screen wass buggered anyway – when i cleaned it up it was clear that water had got between the layers at the bottom.

finished fitting it to keep it water tight but i suspect a heated screen will be the answer just prior to MOT need to find a freindly fitter :d

1991 ex-MOD winterised 110 with a 2.5NA. Originally bought because I wanted a basic no frills easy to repair Defender.

As bought off Ebay unseen on a cheeky lunch time bid!
In good mechanical condition but with pretty much every panel dented.
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Drove for a few years whilst generally sorting it mechanically including fitting a gas flowed head to the original 2.5NA and experimenting with general 2.5NA ‘tuning’ as chronicled on LR4x4. Pretty much all panels replaced and repainted The overlanding bug bit after working in Morocco for a few years which led to a roof tent, awning and general other overland-y bits.
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Fast forward to now and rebuild time, the cross member is starting to rot and has a small hole despite slatherings of waxoyl so the decision has been made to rebuild it onto a galvanised chassis. The bulkhead and any other steel/brackets are to be galved, and everything else re-painted, re-zinc plated and re-powder coated
The engine is to be removed and replaced with a rebuilt Defender 200tdi that is currently stripped ready for Turners to do some work on the block. the gearbox is already a new Ashcrofts D suffix H Lt77 that I bought a year or two ago along with a new LT230 1.4 transfer box.
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Its been a while but.

A new loom was fitted, all my led lights were fitted ,all the trim was sprayed vinyl black , the panels were all lined up as best possible , lots of persuasion needed for some. All suspension done up propper.

Last week my front axle swivel colapsed so i rebuilt both swivels and hubs inside out new seals, bearings , cv joints and drive members , all the slack in the drive train seems to have **** off.

A test drive reveals it to be spritely….. For a lumbering beast.

Mot is on the 16th and insurance was 213 quid fully comp agreed value on all mods declared with heritage . The only thing they had an issue with was e changing the engine my self with no “engineer ” sign off…. As i have done in the past – asked what constitutes an engineer…… – she said a mechanic or an engineer – to which i replied well i have a degree in mechanical engineering and i am employed as an engineer. She was happy with that – as was adrian flux last time round.

Nice work. Looks good. Like the wolf rims and split door look. I’d be looking at raising the bumper are lower in air intake though 😉

Yeah i want air intake mushroom level with the roof.its just beging to snag trees there. Wont take long but not high on priority atm .

Bumpers not moving any time soon , thats a fair effort. If it starts to hinder me ill get it moved,

nice one trail_rat. That’s turned out reet nice.

just done the annual filters & oil change on mine. Such an easy and cheap job to do.

And did the rocker clearances for the first time last week. Just as well as you could fit your finger between them 😉 Cant hear a single tap now.

Did the timing belt , water pump , crank seal , inlet/outlet /turbomanifold gasket , tappets (removed rocker shaft to check push rods) checked glow plugs out out of curiousity – see if any were oily.

Rebuilt the brake master cylinder ( was slowely sinking to floor with engine on and brake held on)

And tried to set up the head lights.

Yesterday was a productive day,

Previous owner had done timing with paint marks qnd got the cam out by 2 teeth and the ip out by 1 so was well worth doing , even less smoke and doesnt need glow plugs or to turn over , it starts like most other healthy 200tdis without even turning over.
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Last week i rebuilt both front swivels on acount of funny steering. Turned out passengers lower bearing had colapsed and was letting the wheel move about 1/2 inch on the swivel pins….. And i was thinking i was just gonna adjust the wheel bearing 🙂

That leaves the gear box as the only original untouched bit….

got to think about doing my timing belt sometime.

Ive kindly been given some new pulleys. Did you use a torque bar on yours? Is it an easy job (not forgetting I have no fan or cowl to remove anyway)?

How easy it is depends how competent you previpus owners mechanic was.

If he knew where copper slip was

And if he knew where the blow torch was

For me it wasnt bad- but no anti sieze found an i snapped 1 in the water pump. Previous owner broke 1 in the tkming case.

Once your into the timing chest its easy. You do need a torque wrench to set tension. If you go too tight youll burst the ip bearings . Too loose ittl flap and jump

Draper do a 12.99 beam one . I bought a park one.

You asked me before why i needed a big compressor. This job is one.

The main crank dog nut is bastard tight- 340nm and loctited ( or should be) My big compressor and impact driver laughed at it.

The timing kit is worth while for the puller for harmonic damper if nothng else . Pump timing can be done with a drill bit and you can visual the crank with a torch through the flywheel.

Lastly there is a snapped belt to timed engine tut on youtube. Watch that, its all about bein methodical you manage it easy,

ta, will consider a crack at it this year

A little impromptu maintainance today.

Spotted my Farmer neighbour had his sheep out the field today into his trailer so i asked him if i could use his field to take the landy for a good spin get it up to temp and put it under load.

Revealed a nasty tendancy to smoke under load, labouring up hill etc.

Started stripping and got to here…finding lots of loose and missing bolts…..the hidden ones you dont see till the exhaust manifolds off…..

Inlets 1 and 4 were split across the top and the whole,manifold was only being held by the two top nuts “barely” torqued.

Rebuilt the manifolds with a new elring gasket and torqued it evenly and sequentially to 25nm before putting the turbo back and hooking up the oil feed and return.

Took it back and laboured it …..no smoke. Infact the only time it gives a wee puff of reek is when you let off after giving it the beans.

Whole thing feels tight , couldnt be much futher from when i took it off the road as a shonky rattly bouncy bag of bolts.

the exhaust gasket was the very first thing I did at the the start of the thread. I was going to have another look at it as Im sure the tapping noise is the exhaust. There may be nothing that can be done, unless I can find some kind of sound deadener to put on the manifold.

Why is your block gold coloured?

Did you use a brit part or elring gasket ?
Elring has metal stiffeners round the ports. Brit part doesnt.

My blocks gold because its an 11l defender block with the high turbo

just plain paper one IIRC.

I guess mine must be a 12 or 13L then as mine is still a 200tdi high turbo, but it most certainly is not gold coloured 🙁

Block codes on the left hand side on the block next to the rocker cover

Could be a disco block with a defender manifold…..dont break that its rare as rocking horse poo and unicorn tears.

Went for mot today”….after taking it down a day early.

It failed.

– dim headlights. – boomslang light relay has a really strange colour convention – once i noticed that blue is the earth and black is the main beam it was all good…. I had it as red was main beam , blue was dip and earh was black…..no wonder they were dim.
– rear fog ligt didnt work (it did on sunday ….the terminals on the switch were corroded – light rub with emery cloth and some contact cleaner and its good as new)
-one brake clip on the front offside brake line. – clip fitted

Retest first thing in the morning.

All in all ill regard that as a win considering it has all at one point or another been stored on the shelves of my garage over the last year and sat for 4 years before that.

Brakes were really hacking me off… Was locking the back and trying to turn the car. – when you plumb the g valve up the right way it turns out that well set up drums and newely refurbed defender brakes can stand the thing on its nose and anyone that tells you defender brakes are crap just has poorly maintained brakes.

The problem is that a 90 is so short that weight transfer is dramatic and makes the car unstable under heavy braking and easy to lock the rear wheels.

oh forgot – i found a resolve to that and anyone that says the above about 90 brakes is wrong and needs to get their brakes fixed – or at least check they do not havea G valve.

the common sense/logical way to plumb the g valve in is “obvious” but plumbed in right – it looks wrong. – it should enter the rear and exit the front – then the pipe is curved 180 degrees to the rear wheels. – and it will pass a tapley test with the brakes plumbed either way for mot – doesnt make it right.

my brakes will turn you inside out now and i can stamp on the brakes hard and the car stays stable and locks the front first now.

how ever i have fitted all new pistons and seals – new master cylinder , new servo hoses , new wheel cylinders , new drums/shoes and disks/pads and new wheel bearings.

the brakes are the best part about the car.

we have test/tax and insurance.

thunderbirds are go.

*till i got to work today and it didnt start after i parked up….. **** main earth vibrated loose and is corroded internally…. the joys of knowing your motor inside out is that it was started again within 30 seconds 😀 – will need to get a new one of them eventually….