This is one of those jobs that you pray you never have to do. But my Land Rover failed the MOT on the drop arm ball joint and not wanting to pay the garage to do it (what seemed a simple job) nor wanting to buy a whole new steering box, I decided to do it myself....
Land Rover had/has a reputation for incessantly changing part numbers of their vehicles throughout their life, but instead of batch changing everything at one major upgrade, they would enter new parts onto the assembly line at various times of the manufacturing year....
Having a dim-dip system in your car was a regulation that came about in the 80s in the UK, but is no longer necessary. The feature was fitted right into the Puma era. On UK Defenders, the two settings of the headlight switch will dim the headlights on the first setting (by routing power through a resistor under the RH front wing) and allow full power on the second....
My rear door has been slowy rattling, creaking and breaking more and more. The weight of a Wolf wheel on the back certainly doesn't help....
Oil leaks can be annoying, none more so than from the oil filter housing. It's characterised by a drip from the oil filter generally when running. It drips onto your diff, covers everything and there's a few things that can cause it....
Wheel bearings have the habit of wearing out on expedition. The constant driving with dust and water creates a testing environment for your hub seals, so it is not uncommon to have a dodgy bearing or two on expedition. I think it's one of the mechanical things that is so crucial and fairly straightforward to fix, that it's worth getting some practice of it before you leave on expedition....
Propshafts always seem quite a simple and accessible part to replace, being held with only 4 bolts each end, but I found it to be a knuckle bashing, space lacking job that seems to take longer than it should....
There comes a time in a Land Rover's life where it starts to drop oil. My 1993 200tdi will have dropped litres of fluid in its lifetime, so this latest spill is nothing new....
This is one of the quickest and cheapest fixes you can do on a 300Tdi. The leak off pipes link the injectors to a spill rail (diagram label 7), which takes excess fuel back to the injection pump and then back to the tank. They are small braided hoses that can wear over time and can introduce air into the system....
A leaking Transfer box is not uncommon as there are some very common places it leaks from such as the bottom cover plate, intermediate shaft seal and font/rear output housing seal, but i've not seen one leaking from the PTO cover before....
My headlight flashers have never worked. I've done lots of electrical work on the Land Rover, but I hate removing the steering column shroud. The first time I tried to remove it was on one of the expedition Defenders in Belize and was greated by a puff of smoke as something shorted....
Having assembled the door, it was now ready to fit. It's a bulky job at times and lining up the door can be a pain but naturally is the most satisfying aspect of this work. The newer Td5 rear door is geometrically the same as the older door, so will fit fine with the same hinge bolt and lock striker locations....
I don't like the rectangular Reverse and Fog lights on Defenders. They fill with water, the connections corrode, the bulbs become loose and people stand on them when climbing up to roof racks....
In my quest to make improvements to improve my 200Tdi Defender, I've replaced the 80's looking warning light panel on the dashboard with one from a Td5 model (1999 onwards)....
I hate filling the gearbox. The transfer box is not so bad, but the gearbox (both the LT77 and R380) is annoying to fill as there is hardly any space to get above the filler hole to pour the oil in....
Adjusting valve clearances is a Land Rover servicing task for every 12000 miles. Its purpose is to measure the gap between the top of the valve cap cap and the face of the rocker arm to allow for expansion of the valve stem when the engine is hot....
When I bought the door, it was green so I needed to get it resprayed the same white as my Land Rover. As such, I had to remove everything from it first. It took less than 30 minutes in total. Here's what I did....
I had a bit of a problem with my diff lock, in that it wouldn't engage. The transfer box lever would move to the left one "notch", but not into another notch by the time it hit the far side of the lever assembly....
In the 300Tdi engine, the water pump is located quite high in the engine (near the cylinder head). A relatively small loss of coolant can result in the pump sitting high and dry and the engine overheating....
When you find yourself not being able to change gear without a clunk then you may have worn splines on your halfshafts and drive members, due to high mileage or heavy clutch changes. The halfshaft transmits power from the differential by engaging the splines of the drive member which bolts to the hub....
My reverse light hasn't been working. I only found this out recently whilst meeting a gritting lorry on a narrow lane at night. With the windows steamed up and putting it into reverse, there was nothing behind but darkness. I stuck my head out the window and half drove up the hedge trying to find the gateway i'd only just passed....
When I bought the Land Rover, the gear lever was extremely sloppy in 5th and reverse. Sometimes it was hard even to engage reverse as pushing the lever to the right would almost push it into my leg....
Bushes wear out. Fact. And on expedition they get a hammering. In Belize, the number one most frequent job would be replacing bushes somewhere on the vehicle. Some would only last 6 months. In the environment where you're driving on rough roads, the suspension takes the most punishment and the bushes are the only bit of "give" between the hard bits of metal....
Having cleaned the door down and sent it off to the body shop, it came back gleaming in Chawton White for the cost of £100. Putting the door back together is mostly straightforward...
If your vehicle is made post-2002 then the wiring loom will connect straight away. If you are putting the door on an earlier vehicle, it will require a bit of fiddling because the connectors are different and the newer door's wiper is negative switched whilst the older door's wiper is positive switched....
The Salisbury axle on a Defender 110 was used through the Series era until 2002. It has a reputation of being very strong, but also not very DIY friendly, as the pinion is part of the axle casing and the diff carrier removed by needing to spread the axle casing apart. So to replace the differential you would effectively need an entire new axle....
