Keeping it legal.

With the annual MoT test due when we return from our travels, I've been doing some reading on the new regulations and discovered - and this isn't a new thing in the rules - that Elly is technically unroadworthy. This actually isn't a part of the MoT tester's check, but it is the law. Odd - you'd think they would agree with each other but apparently I can leave the Test Centre with a valid certificate and get nicked 10 metres down the road by an observant policeman with a tape measure. The reason for this is that the tyres protrude too far from the bodywork. The rules say that no part of the tyre that contacts the road should protrude beyond the edge of the body, which includes any wheel arch extensions. Which I've got, but they don't extend far enough:

This is the same wheel and tyre combination we've had fitted before, but when fitted to Daphne we didn't have the wheel spacers that Elly has got. Opinions vary on the usefulness of these but we decided to keep them and try them out. They're supposed to give a better turning circle, which for a Defender can't ever be a Bad Thing since they have the directional manoeuvrability of an ocean liner.
Anyway, the spacers are 30mm wide, which gives us the problem you can see here. The standard Defender wheel arch extension isn't deep enough.

The solution most people go for is something like this:

These bits of ugly plastic do the job but are a bit macho. They're fixed on with battleship-style bolts and screws which collect crud and rust. They give the vehicle a bit of a "military" look, which we don't want. And they're very expensive.


Searching around for a DIY solution it occurred to us that the design in the picture at left was, basically, the original "eyebrow" with a bit added to the back to make it stick out more. What if I added a bit, but to the front edge?
We thought about various bits of flexible or mouldable material like rubber, plastic, fibreglass or thin aluminium. None of these had a reliable means of fixing to the eyebrows at the right angle - there isn't much of a "lip" to hold a clip so whatever we used would have to be screwed and/or glued in place.

With a bit of lateral thinking, we came up with this:

This is from Screwfix and is sold as industrial door seal. The retainer is aluminium and the bit that does the sealing is a rubber-like strip. The whole thing is semi-flexible and you get 2 pieces each 1250mm long for £16. This is enough for 2 wheel arches. The only problem is they're straight and need to be curved. This requires patience and a bit of thought but, with care, you can get a pretty effective result:

1. Assemble the strip and the retainer, drill some extra mounting holes about 4mm diameter. Having marked a datum point on the arch and the seal, work from one end to the other, gently forming a bend in the aluminium. I used Bulldog (paper) clamps and spring clips to hold it in place as I went along. I did the first one but bent the aluminium first. It was easy but then trying to slide the black "rubber" bit into the now distorted channel was, shall we say, a bit of a test.

2. Eventually you'll end up with something like this.



3. Once the basic shape is formed then clamp it in place and mark the cut points at the ends. Given that the original eyebrows are very flexible - and mine bowed in the middle too - you need to be quite accurate with this final trial fitting. You can see how much things need to be pulled together:

4. Mark the correct length then remove the new extension. I intended to cut the ends to follow the line of the original arch. It looks a bit neater and more "finished". Don't cut it yet, though, in case you need to adjust the position of anything as you make the final fix. This is just to put the holes for the end fixing screws in the right place as it's easier to do on the bench:

This is the rear end of the driver's side

5. With everything secured as best you can, drill through the holes for the fixing screws. Choose your drill size very carefully for the size of screw you'll be using. I drilled 1mm undersize for the stainless steel screws I was using, and tested to make sure it wasn't loose or so tight I'd crack the eyebrow lip - it isn't very thick. Do one at a time and put the screw in before drilling the next one. The lip on the eyebrow is also very narrow so accuracy is needed here. Remember to make sure the top edges butt against each other as the tension in the eyebrow works against this. You may have to jack the bodywork up to give room to get the drill under the arch. The alternative is to remove the wheel, of course, but this makes for a much longer job. It was cold, so I didn't do that. Lazy!

6. Once all the fixings are in place, take it off again and trim the ends to the profile you've chosen:

7. Do a final test fit and once you're happy, apply some of this stuff - or something similar - to the back of the aluminium strip:

I did a trial the night before the final fitting just to check it would stick and it took quite a pull to get the test piece off, so it'll do for what we need it to do.
8. Then fit it all together again, tightening the screws in order. It'll help to have someone support the new piece as you work along the edge otherwise the glue will get onto everything you don't want it to.

I'll probably trim the forward edge to a more streamlined shape, but at the moment it seems about right.

 ..and this is what you end up with. Not really heavy-duty but good enough for us. It makes Elly road-legal now and for £32 and a couple of hours work, not a bad solution. Not only that, but the bodywork now stays cleaner since a lot of the muck that the unprotected tyres threw up is caught and prevented from hitting the bodywork. If it doesn't stand the test of desert travel we haven't lost much and we'll probably do what everyone else does and shell out for those ugly, pumped up things. Or take the spacers off....

"You f*cked up, you trusted us"

Anyone remember Animal House ? The reason for the question might be clearer in a minute.


Mech Prep continues. Fettling and fine tuning, or just generally faffing about, I suppose. All the little jobs that still need to be done seem to be multiplying the closer to departure we get. For instance having changed the wheels and tyres to the "desert spec" we decided that they needed to be properly balanced, and with a tiny bit of wheel shimmy evident again the whole setup could benefit from having the wheel alignment checked. Sandy at IWL doesn't have the full kit so Elly went to one of our local tyre fitters - big national chain - to have it done. This was a mistake. I trusted them. I therefore "f*cked up".
With the work done I drove 5 miles home with no issues, but the following day, driving around, the wheel wobble and vibration through the steering wheel was horrendous. I had to stop 3 times as the shimmy wouldn't stop on deceleration and was so violent I thought something was going to snap. Getting home, I got underneath to have a look. What I saw didn't impress me one bit.

The track rod had been heated around the pinch bolts enough to burn off the paint and melt the nylon in the self-locking nuts, which hadn't been replaced. Evidence of this kind of heat treatment on a steering component is an MoT failure. Elly went back to the Big National Chain for an investigation.


The results of the discussion I had with the manager were positive - he agreed to re-check the wheel alignment - but not until I'd made my disappointment clear regarding the workmanship of his staff, who in turn suggested that if the tracking was out then I "must've hit something".
"Not yet, but I might", I thought, but let it go - for the moment, at least.

My complaint about the heat-treating of the track rod was brushed aside until I pointed out how the clamps are supposed to be released, and I had to insist that new nuts were used to finish the job. The MoT rules state that if the locking nuts etc are missing or damaged then the car won't pass the test. I pointed out to Mr Manager that NyLoc nuts will only "Loc" when the "Ny" is present, not dripping out of the nut like wax. Then it's just a "nut", and worse than useless on a steering component. Since none of these were available, I'd have to go back again to have the job completed safely - for now, at least. I could do it myself, of course, but there's more to be discussed - the question of the track rod damage has yet to be sorted out. As the place is also an MoT test centre then the standard of their work in that area has got to be questioned:

After all that, there's still a horrible vibration which is proving difficult to track down. Everything in the steering linkage, wheel bearings, swivels and track rod ends seemed tight with no play, knocking noises or rumbles, so I was getting a bit desperate for new ideas. I'm off to foreign parts next week for 3 weeks, leaving little time to sort the problem out when I get back. I need to find a solution pretty soon.

In desperation I changed all the tyres around to try to get back to a position we were in a week ago, which was with no - or very little - problem. An hour to swap them all around, a test drive...well, it wasn't a long test. Within a few hundred metres it was clear that the problem was still there and as bad as ever. Back to the driveway and put all the wheels back to where they'd been an hour previously.


Time to get help. With all my previous checks done by just swinging like a monkey on everything underneath that I could get hold of, I decided to try a different attack direction. Sue got in and with the engine running (to power up the steering) she moved the steering wheel to and fro while I lay underneath, tried not to get anything soft caught in anything moving, and watched what happened. Initially it looked like everything was moving the way it should, but as I got more interested it was clear that, with the steering now mobile instead of static there were 2 places that weren't moving the way they should. One was the joint on the steering drop arm. This wasn't moving smoothly and has a definite dead spot in it, together with a "click" that I can feel. This needs to be changed even though the play, if that's what it is, is tiny. It'll only get worse. The other problem was obvious now everything was moving. Remember the Panhard rod bushes that we changed in November? This is the remains of the bush at the chassis end...

The clue was a bit of shredded rubber poking out of the joint. With a bit more energetic movement of the steering wheel the movement got so bad it was clear that the bush had completely disintegrated. I think this is the one that I fitted before buggering up the other one and have Sandy finish the job so I'll have to dig the invoice out and find out where I bought it - and not buy another from the same source.This is probably why the tracking has been out, then adjusted, then out again. It would depend on the position of the axle when the readings are taken. The system is supposed to account for that by the wheels being rotated through 90 degrees for a second reading. This takes care of any variables such as bent rims. They didn't do this.

I took the bash plate off to get a better look at the front track rod and first of all found another buggered nut:

Look carefully and you'll see that the nut is empty of the Ny that provides the Loc.

 and the rod looked as if it'd been barbequed. The problem here - and any knowledgeable metal workers can skip this bit -  is that steel has a temper chosen for the situation in which it'll be used. Some stuff is so hard it'll shatter if you hit it, other kinds are ductile so they'll bend under load to form nice shapes. The latter condition can be induced by heating the metal and allowing it to cool slowly. Like here. Only problem is that this softening of the metal in the steering rod isn't a good idea. Who wants a floppy rod? Anyway, moving on...
The excuse for the heat - once I'd reminded them that it was they that had done it - was that the track rods wouldn't adjust because the threads were rusty. When I suggested that they should use the approved Landrover technique for freeing them the response was "we don't have much to do with 4x4s". They're happy to take my money and press on in ignorance, though.

Peering down the steering damper, this was hard to miss now I had a clearer view:

The pinch bolt on the track rod has been turned so it presses hard against the damper, leaving a bright metal score across it. The score has been caused by the bolt moving left and right across the metal skin as the steering wheel is turned. It's so bad that it's forced the steering drop arm (Landroverspeak for the bit that connects the steering column to the wheels) out of alignment. The only way to get full right steering is for the bolt to force the damper out of the way. Not good.

Altogether, a bit of a horror story. The return visit to the tyre place wasn't successful in terms of getting the new nuts. They "hadn't been able to find any" even though a Landrover main dealer for the area is 200 metres away. We, the manager and I, had a quiet conversation and he's agreed to reimburse the cost of replacement track rods and retainers and re-do the wheel alignment...all I have to do is get the parts here before next Saturday.

I replaced the Panhard rod bush with one from a Polybush kit that I had in the bottom of the spares box. If I'd remembered that they were there I'd probably have used them when we did the job last year, but I used rubber ones instead. The idea was to put the Polybushes into the spares box for the trip since they're "easy to replace in the field".

Well, the split - that is, two-part ones - might be. The one piece versions? Not a chance. Despite trying my best with the big vice and various sizes of sockets I couldn't get it to go in, so it was back to Sandy and his expert workshop to sort it. The result, now that it's back on the truck, is the complete absence of any steering wobble! Hurrah! Sandy's solution to fitting it was to soak it in boiling water for 5 minutes. Why didn't I think of that instead of lathering it with more lube than an inflatable sheep?
So, I needn't have ordered the new steering damper, the new bushes, the new drop arm ball joint kit...Oh well,they all need replacing anyway, probably, so I might as well get on with it and prevent problems in the near future. The new damper only took minutes to fit and wasn't expensive, and the ball joint can wait until next week when I have to take the steering linkage apart anyway.

Overall, a busy few days. A few lessons learned and, best of all, the smooth ride restored.

Clock's ticking....

Time to get stuck in to the work we need to get done before the end of the month. I have to be away for over 3 weeks in March and with the departure planned for early April we need to get ourselves sorted out. By removing the CB aerial I was able to get Elly's front end far enough into the workshop to protect me from the howling gale and driving rain that always seems to be a feature of working on anything nowadays. At least I can shelter behind the truck for at least half of the job if the wind direction is right.

 But, as you can see, there's not a lot of room to spare. Certainly, if I want to jack the front end up then I have to be aware of how little room there is! Doing the same with the back end isn't possible because of the roof tent.

New windscreen wipers were a necessity after driving against the seasonal low - and blinding - sun a couple of weeks back. With the screenwash freezing on the glass and the wipers like toothbrushes I had to resort to a sponge and a puddle to see where we were going.




The second job last weekend was to sort out the brakes. I doubt, from the colour of it, that the brake fluid has been changed in quite a while...

...and while I was at it I decided to check the wheel bearings, swap the wheels and tyres for our "desert" ones and replace the rear brake pads. As usual, this became a much more involved set of jobs than I'd planned. First of all the parts I ordered took an age to arrive after the supplier declared some things were "out of stock" despite saying the opposite when I placed the order. Then the courier delivered everything to the wrong address and I had to spend 2 days tracking it down. I know that it's not my responsibility, but if you don't help yourself, nobody else seems to give a toss. Then I opened the box....

Anyone reading this that does their own maintenance knows the reputation of the "Blue Box Bits". Had I known what I was going to get I wouldn't have ordered, but the ad didn't make it too clear, or maybe I didn't read it carefully enough. Anyway, having waited nearly 2 weeks for the stuff I needed to get on with the job. I can see myself replacing the pads sooner rather than later, though. The fitting kit that I ordered seemed OK with all the new bits - retainer pins, springs and split pins.... 


First stage, then, is to get the wheels off. Now, having had the wheels balanced a while ago I hadn't tried to take them off since. The usual tools had no effect on the nuts whatsoever - they were seriously tight; so much so that I managed to bend the Landrover-original wheelbrace.

It should be the shape of the one on the top. A good job I discovered it now as to have this problem with wheel nuts while at the side of the road wouldn't be too great. It took an impact socket and a 5 foot lever to get the buggers off.






Stripping the hubs back to the bearings is easy enough and the front wheels had a tiny bit of play that I felt needed to be taken out. Sandy at the garage suggested that a "tiny bit" of play is OK, but what's a "tiny bit"? I decided to set the bearings again with the torque from the manual and see what happens. I replaced the drive flanges while I was at it, since these seem to wear out quite quickly. 

Getting the wheel spacers off was quite easy  -I was expecting a fight - and the front drive flange bolts had been replaced with some with socket heads. I was a bit worried that if these "rounded" when I put the key in, I'd have more trouble getting them off than if they were the standard hex bolts, but they came out really easily despite being coated with more Loctite than they really needed.

It took a lot of work with taps and dies to get it all off and clean the holes.








Difficult, but if you look closely you can see the difference in the shape of the "teeth" on the flange and the space between them - the new one's on the top. On "Daphne" I replaced them with heavy-duty items but never felt totally convinced that this is the right thing to do. The flanges are a sacrificial item and a bit easier to change than a halfshaft, certainly easier to carry spare flanges than spare shafts. If the flanges are stronger the next item in the chain to wear out would be the splines on the halfshaft....I think I'll stick to carrying spare flanges.

With all that done  it was time to replace the brake fluid. I used one of these to make the job "easier"....which equals not needing any help. 

This is a Gunson "Eezibleed". You fill it with brake fluid and pressurise it with a spare tyre, the idea being that as you take fluid out at the caliper it gets replaced automatically at the reservoir so removing the need for a helper to pump the brake pedal to achieve the same result. And it works....but only for the front brakes - the ones closest to the master cylinder. I had no joy at all with the rear brakes despite pumping the "system" up to over 30psi - the maximum advisable is 20 - and taking the risk of something bursting and spraying brake fluid all over the place. In the end I gave up and The Sorcerer's Apprentice had to be dragged out of the kitchen to assist.





Then it was time to replace the rear brake pads. An easy job, takes mere minutes, and we've got all new parts, right, so no scratching around for replacement split pins and all that....Now, you'll recall my wariness of the "Blue Box" contents? Here's a typical problem:

The new retaining pins are shorter than the old ones. The part number is supposed to be the same as the ones I'm replacing. The result is..... 

....the new ones are too short and the split pin that holds the whole lot together won't fit. Britpart, AKA "Sh*tpart" to many people. I had to reuse the old ones. Nice new springs, though.

Finally, on with the new boots. Shiny wheels, too. Good to go.

Finally, the annual MoT test will be due when we get back, and the rules have changed so that any removal of emission regulators etc will mean Elly not getting a "pass". Since the PO had removed the EGR regulator - and I did the same on Daphne since they do nothing but gum the system up with old oil - this bit of the engine needed to be replaced. A search of the internet revealed that the cost of these things is enormous, and added to that all the bits of hose, solenoid etc needed to put everything back was even more expensive. Given that most people would've thrown the parts away after removing them years ago, there is probably going to be a lot of folk searching for cheap bits from scrapyards across the country. I reckon, anyway, so I picked up some stuff from eBay to refit. Might be a waste of money but maybe not. Anyone want to bet?

Start the clock..

The countdown begins. 3 months 'til the next trip and quite a lot to do to get ready. As usual I've been putting off some of the spannering as the winter weather doesn't encourage it. Cold metal, cold fingers; but I'm going to have to get on with it as I'm working away from home for most of March. So in effect I've only got 8 weeks left to get it all done, not the 12 that you'd think. This shouldn't be a problem but since everything has to come by mail it adds to the time everything takes and needs a lot more forward planning. For instance, it's not like I can just run around the corner to get a gasket or a special washer if I find that I haven't got one lying about when I get to that point in a job. Everything has to stop until the next week 'cos it takes at least 4 days for bits to arrive and if there's a weekend in between, which there usually is, then you can add another 2 days. The temptation is to "make do" with something else, which is OK for a Field Fix but not really an option at home.

Alternatively, I could go to the local Landrover dealer. They might as well have this stuck on the door...

...and they generally have "to make it a special order" as they don't keep anything useful in stock. That's 3 days and 4 times the on-line price. If I'm lucky.

Sitting in the back and sheltering from the gales last weekend I had a think about sorting out some of the limited storage. The area under the gas bottle and "flight boxes" can't be accessed very easily and is just a long tunnel.

That's where the warning triangles and wheel changing kit lives, together with other stuff that's long and thin. It's on a pull out board but this always jams as the stuff on it doesn't stay put. Time to make that a bit more user-friendly. After all, if I'm going to need it I'll probably be in a hurry, it'll be dark and cold and Really Useful Things  - like the wheel nut key -  will probably finish up falling into the water/mud/sand/snow and being lost.

A few bits of plastic along the sides help to keep everything in the right place and the "tool board" can be made up so that everything holds everything else in place.

Here's the table support with the wheel brace and extension lever/tube inside it. Fitted to the other side are 2 tyre levers, and the all-important wheel nut key is on a bolt passed through the board and there's a wing nut to keep it there. Maybe I should try to get a spare one - losing it would be a potential problem as I doubt that anything I could "bodge" would easily undo a wheel nut. Given that we rarely leave the vehicle anywhere unsafe, we could be better off not using them at all.

The 2 warning triangles sit snugly between....

...and the rest of the stuff interlocks - scrubbing brush, dust brush, hammer and the lock for the back door.

It all slides in and out perfectly without anything jamming or falling out into the road. Lovely.

Do I need to get a life?

The wiring to the work light on the driver's side is sorted after I reconnected the wires to the right part of the switch, and the correct parts to connect the CB co-ax to the antenna have arrived. I tried to set the system up last weekend - while I was hiding from the wind - but all the readings on the SWR meter were in the red, which suggested a short circuit somewhere. Since the only part of the system that I'd interfered with was the antenna connection, it was going to be the likely culprit. In other words, if it's electric and I've done anything to it, it'll be me that broke it.

I sent a photo of my attempt at a connection to Jan at Norfolk CB Radio and after he'd stopped laughing pointed out that I'd put the connector on upside down...The new bits cost a fiver and are idiot-proof. Just as well.

A bit of soldering and everything ought to work a bit better. While kit like this might be useful in an emergency - which is why I want it to work properly - we've never really felt the need for a CB except for the Trail-of-Ducks trip we did in the Alps in 2014. The commercial guide/leader/organiser insisted we have one but two of the participant crews couldn't get their's to work on the frequency everyone else was using but could still chat to each other. Strange, and I know enough (despite what you've already read) about radios to know it made no sense. Halfway through the trip I had a thought and retuned our CB to the equivalent European channel to the UK one that we were all supposed to be on, to hear the two "silent" crews having a lively discussion about some of the rest of us, and it wasn't flattering. To us nor them. I switched back to the proper channel and kept quiet....for a day or two. Another thought - the authorities in Morocco aren't keen on CB radios and similar kit, so the whole lot has to be disconnected before we get to Tangier-Med....in theory, anyway.

Some more armour plate

...to protect the nice, clean and repainted fuel tank. Which, as I found out, is made of steel so thin you could puncture it with a pencil. The stone guard that Solihull provide, otherwise described as the mudtrap, is actually necessary and Elly came to us without one. I wasn't too concerned about this lack of protection, given that any large rocks would be deflected by the iromongery that forms the towbar mounting, until we took the tank out to repair the leak. As I said, with the paint cleaned off and no rust you could be forgiven for thinking that it's made of aluminium since it's so light, which for steel read "thin". With that discovery in mind, I decided it needed something under it to stop even small stones from doing damage.

The price of an ally guard is quite reasonable given the consequences of a hole in the bottom of the tank, so I was prepared to get one from one of the usual suppliers. A quick look on eBay, though, turned up this:

It's hard to tell from the photo but the seller confirmed that it was bought for a TD5, is supposed to be for a TD5 but it wouldn't fit. He said that it "wouldn't clear the antiroll bar" because his Defender was modified. This sounded a bit of a mystery but with the price less than half of a new one, and it was going to get filthy within a day of being fitted, it seemed like a reasonable buy. I reckoned that I could modify it to fit our 300Tdi since the arrangements of the metalwork underneath and around the tank seemed pretty similar. I have an angle grinder, anyway, so what couldn't I do? If all else failed I could cut it into panels and bolt it to the towbar stays.

Having arranged a courier it was promptly sent, but with Christmas in the way it took nearly 10 days to reach us in Northern Scotland from Lincolnshire. I reckon it'd have been quicker ordering from Australia, but that's the price we pay for living near the Arctic Circle. Apparently. Anyway, this 15kg lump of 8mm aluminium weighs more than the fuel tank it protects, so a pretty beefy bit of kit and far more substantial that the bit of tin that Landrover call a stone guard. It also  sits well clear of the tank's surface so the usual problem of mud and other crud getting trapped and causing rust - perhaps the reason why there wasn't one fitted - is avoided.

The weather has been pretty cold, windy and generally unpleasant over the New Year so we only got around to fitting it a few days ago. As usual, it turned out to be a bit more complicated than I thought, but not because it wouldn't fit the shape of the tank but because some of the mounting holes didn't match the ones in Elly's chassis. Not really a surprise, you might say, but a bit of investigation revealed that there were holes in the right places, mostly, but they hadn't been prepared (tapped) for the bolts that would be needed to hold the thing in place. Two of these are in the crossmember at the front of the tank, which isn't thick enough, in my opinion, to just be tapped to take a bolt. Since the hole didn't go all the way through and a TD5 has bolts to hold the normal tank protector in this position, I reckoned there must be, on the TD5, rivnuts (aka "Nutserts") to provide the grip. With no help available it was a bit of a struggle to get the guard in place to check how everything would line up, or not.



Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.

Having got this far I had to jam a bit of wood underneath so I could crawl out without having it all fall on me, since I couldn't reach any of the fixings.

Having drilled out the holes as accurately as possible given the lousy access I had a go with the rivnuts, without much success. The squeezy tool wasn't going to be up to the job of pulling the 8mm nuts



the normal DIY rivnut tool...



 so the alternative method seemed the best.





 With the back of the truck on ramps and me underneath I couldn't sit up and if I lay down I could only just reach the fixing holes. I tried to make a ramp for me as well, but ended up hanging off the spanners like a baboon and skinning my knuckles when the tools slipped. As they always do. I just couldn't get the rivnut to "bite" on the edge of the hole and stay in place, not that it was easy to get at anyway. After ruining 4 nuts and losing half a pint of blood I gave up and drilled right through the crossmember. Although it's bloody awkward - like all Landrover jobs - to get a nut on the bolt by feel, the front end of the new guard will be clamped by two large washers. I couldn't work out why the fixing on the guard was a slot instead of a hole since this isn't the best way of preventing it falling down, but this appears to be the way it's made. Odd.

I wasn't sure I liked it and thought we'd have to make something up that will ensure that if it is shaken down as a result of rough roads, it doesn't fall far enough to do any damage to the diff or the axle which, of course, needs to move about. It did make it easier to get in place, though.

If you try the same method, remember to put a bit of wood or something behind the crossmember so that when the drill breaks through it doesn't carry on going and (almost) punch a hole in that very thin gas tank....ask me how I know?

As you can see, there isn't a lot of room between the back of the crossmember and the tank. A bit of a pain to get in there with the nuts, too. Top tip - put them on loosely before offering the guard up to the bolts....

The cutouts in the side of the guard are to provide clearance for the towbar arms, which required a bit of gentle persuasion to fit.

Plenty of space between the tank and the guard - no mud traps here.

As a result of the tight tolerances by the time everything was back together it became obvious that these arms provide quite a lot of support to the bottom of the guard and, since the whole thing is a pretty tight fit, I decided that we didn't need to worry about the "slot and bolt" fixing on the front. I hope.


The bolts for the back of the guard matched up with those for the towbar brace - almost. A bit of filing  and drilling was needed but given how these aftermarket accessories normally (don't) fit, it went on reasonably easily, even if it did mean about 20 trips from the gravel, to the tool chest, to the bench and back again. The funny cutout that must provide clearance for something on a TD5 just happened to be just in the place I needed to put one of the fixing bolts, so I had to make up a bridge, but the other 2 went in fairly easily.

The "spacer" is a 12mm nut, drilled out

The small "collar" under the crossmember is part of the mount for a piece of steel angle that's a part of the towbar support. Since it wasn't easy to incorporate this part with the guard, I've left it off, but if I get advice to the contrary I might have to work out a way to put it back on and still have it do a useful job. This will be more difficult than it first looks as the big holes don't line up any more. At the mo, though, it seems a bit redundant.

The towbar is firmly bolted to the crossmember and the brace bars to the chassis - is this bit, which goes behind the towbar and fixes to the crossmember, really necessary?

So, a successful outcome, given that the thing I bought is for a different vehicle. Another Top Tip, though...I thought that the ARB would go across the outside of the guard but it doesn't...save yourself 30 minutes by not taking it off......😩