PO Nightmares

The_Vermonster

Well-known member
So I'm probably not alone in buying a Defender from someone only to find that some corners have been cut. Some are ok, and others are potentially life threatening. I think it would be fun to see some of the scary stuff you find, and even help each other out with solving it.

I'll start with my scary story. I dug into the dash and the first wire I found was a half stripped red wire, just hanging out. Not sure where it goes, but I wrapped that up quickly. I then checked some fuses to see if any were broken. Instead I found an 80A fuse in the slot for a 5A. Needless to say I have some work cut out for me.

So what have you found? Pictures are a bonus.
 

javelinadave

Administrator
Staff member
I found lots of still hooked up wires that were just cut and 4 mismatched non LR springs on my truck.
 

rocky

NAS-ROW Addict
Wait a minute isn't that how you get fuses to quit blowing!?! Keep going up till it stops.


I procrastinated over the trailer wiring and forgot to tape over the bare wire. One day it shorted out at a gas station.....resulting in a no start. Bit of a puzzler that.
 

The_Vermonster

Well-known member
Ok I have one that I need some help on. Our Heritage cert says it came from the factory with a 2.5 liter diesel, and the VIN confirms this. The PO says it was imported with a V8 gas engine, but replaced due to a blow head gasket. It now has a 200tdi and LT77. The conversion was done by Skytop Rovers which is no longer around. This seems to me to be a complete and total hack job. To me, everything is too far rearward. Shifting into 2nd, and 4th was funky so I rotated the lever a bit. But the more that I look at it the more upset I get. I even found two drywall screws attempting to hold some metal together.

So aside from the hack job, is this sitting too far rearward? I will be pulling the whole thing apart this spring and starting with a new chassis. I'd like to plan for this if it involved motor mounts and driveshafts.
 

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The_Vermonster

Well-known member
Do the motor mounts or the cross member look like they were modified to make things fit?

Hard to tell. The conversion was done a few years ago and there is quite a bit of gunk covering everything. It doesn't look like the chassis is original. There is no VIN to be found and the metal where it should be is newer than 3 ft back. So it might have original mounts, that are not correct for this engine.
 

CaptMilks

Well-known member
Yes it looks like it is sitting back farther than a stock 200 Tdi. On my 300 R380 the diff-lock shifter center-line is about 4.5 inches from the seat box. I think the forward cut out section is where the main shifter housing should be. Easy to measure the engine mount locations to see exactly how much it is out.
 

xplorutah

Well-known member
Good luck

Take a pic of the engine bay where the engine is in relation to bulkhead. I would bet the engine is where it should be, and the trans is sitting more rearward.

- Perhaps a long bell housing trans instead of a short? Not sure you can do that but I know there are differences between a V8 bell housing LT77 and a diesel bell housing. I would bet this is the long version pushing the trans and t-case too far back?
- Or perhaps it is the wrong tunnel cover?
 

DefendersNW

Well-known member
So aside from the hack job, is this sitting too far rearward?

Yes...

Which transmission do you have?

The tunnel cover is an R380 - so that if a 200tdi was mounted in the correct location for the motor mounts, with a long pattern transmission you would have this creative solution.

Correction would be to move the engine forward (300tdi position) or replace the transmission input, bell housing, and tunnel cover to the short pattern LT77 that is correct for the 200tdi.
 

nas90tdi

Well-known member
I don't understand why it is so far back. That is not even correct using the LT77 mounts with the R-380. That would still clear the flange on the seatbox. Transfer would be in the exact location as normal LT-77 and just pull the engine about 1 1/4" back with the correct bell housing.
 

The_Vermonster

Well-known member
I checked my notes, this is definitely an LT77. I do remember seeing that someone had taken a grinder to the serial number though :confused:. It was getting a little dark, but it is very possible the right hand engine mount was welded on. The seatbox and tunnel are all non-original from what I can tell. I hope these pictures help I'll try to get better ones tomorrow.
 

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Jeff B

Well-known member
Po nightmares....

I've owned two of my Range Rovers for over 10 years.
Most of the time when I find a previous owner nightmare and start cursing someone, I vaguely remember doing some hacked up shit and have no one else to blame..... oops!



.
 

The_Vermonster

Well-known member
You are missing your crossmember , wouldn't be crazy about that.


Yeah that is like 3rd on the list of reasons it doesn't move. This has turned out to be a little bit more of a headache than I thought it was going to be. But I keep telling myself the price was right.
 

nas90tdi

Well-known member
As long as the price was right, don't stress about it. Anything is fixable on these stupid trucks. I have had some raging heaps of shit before and some of them are my best LR memories. Back when it was all new and exciting. Now, it's just feeding an addiction, but I think that is the case for a lot of us.
 
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