Hello experts ! Only just found this site -by chance- after one of my infrequent (these days) visits to the "other" site. Not really going to dwell too much on all the B/S that just happened (and was just removed) but suffice it to say I was also banned... three times. On one occasion is was for not standing for any nasty nonsense from one of RRTH's mates, another time because RRTH did not like my writing style/use of punctuation, particularly italics, and finally because after being trolled by RRTH (who chose to edit almost every one of my posts - simply because he could) I finally 'lost it' and posted up all the bad stuff I had been told about Carl (and LLT); Oh dear..... I think I am detecting a pattern somewhere there !... I also contacted VS in Canada prior to this but quickly realised they did not really care. If you have such a great 'resource' as Richard why would you ban them ? Worse than that for several years many other highly-technical folks with excellent P38 skills 'crossed swords' with RRTH (and his over-inflated ego) etc and were also banned. Just goes to show what happens when you 'give idiots power'... Enough said....

Had my P38 (4.0 SE) for 15 years....and for many of the expected (GEMS) problems too. To be fair my own skills are more soldering-iron related than spanner-related but that's always quite handy with a P38; When folks ask me "what are these like ?" I learned to say "you need an Electronics Degree, a bucket of superglue and a big bag of patience".... but folks on here already know that of course...!

Great to see so many of the recognised P38 experts on here now.... and also to read stories like Richard's French adventures too; As we know it is cathartic to 'share the pain' and know there really is hope with these beasts if you just persevere with them; And that is exactly what John Brabyn intended of course.

Welcome aboard! Sadly I'm not an expert but I do enjoy listening to those who are :)

I used to moderate on a decent sized BMW forum and editing people's posts is just a complete no-no. Any mod who does that should be removed.

Anyway, I was saved from getting too used to the other place before I was told about the Pub so I'm happy!

How big's a decent sized BMW then Morat?!

The small ones are the best :)

F161 UCR

Sadly it has now gone to the great scrap heap in the sky, although many of its parts lived on. I still have those wheels.. which is starting to piss me off :(

This is what set me onto the path away from RWD and towards a P38 (via a Jeep)

Orangebean wrote:

How big's a decent sized BMW then Morat?!

Answers on a post card,, I'd say about a 3' cube size, lol...

Dave, welcome to the site,, I'm sure you can help having owned a p38 for so long..

We have a better class of nonsense here.

This, is the best kind ;)

Coming up on 158k now, and it really is (read as James May) rather excellent.

Sorry Nick but I still think the E30 is the best looking 3 series they ever made, the later ones just look a bit too bloated. Like someone pumped up the spare wheel and the air leaked into the car and inflated it.....

and welcome to Dave too before we get completely sidetracked. Where in the country are you?

Sloth, that's rather like my mate's E39 530i Individual, but a bit lighter than Nachtblaumetallic :-)

Don't see many 530i models about - I'd quite like one. Well, what I really want is an E39 M5. Mine is a 530D SE - but the original owned specced pretty much every toy apart from navigation, which is no great loss.

That was my wife's 540 touring six months after she bought it. 4.4 V8, 6 speed manual, memory sports seats, upgraded stereo...and utterly mint. Basically it was as close to an M5 touring as you could get in an E39.
We got rear ended on the A303 by a corsa driven by a stupid old cow who was talking on her phone and didn't notice the queue forming. She took the rear corner off a Lupo and still had her foot buried into the carpet (wrong pedal) when she hit us.

Sorry Dave! Have the mods got the ability to split threads on this forum yet? :)

Ouch :(

Mine was rear-ended about a year ago by a tool in a white astra-van coming down a hill. Speed limit dropped form 70 to 40, he did not. Left skid marks all down the hill before stopping in my boot. Ruined the bumper and crumpled the body underneath. Thankfully the place that sorted it were able to get a new bumper and pull out the metalwork almost perfectly, and under the cut off for writing it off. Like yours - bar one ding in the drivers door, it is mint. No V8 sadly though... it is the sensible, economical, reliable one. Ignoring the £1200 worth of injector work 6 months ago.

Something something P38...

No problem chaps, 'happy to be high-jacked' if it is interesting ! Besides the later THOR P38s also have the BMW engine etc of course....

Someone in a rush (in an Audi A6) tried to write off my P38 last year; His N/S/F alloy (just) locked with my N/S/F alloy.....@ about 20mph

I was parked up but it shoved all 2 tons of P38 back 2 feet.... and the axle (end) back about 2 inches... and the N/S Radius Arm bent too

'Long story short' we "came to an arrangement" and the whole front axle and the radius arms swapped with one from a scrapyard...
In fact changing this as 'a complete unit' was just as well as it is almost impossible to get the radius arms off the diff casing ..

( LR's favourite trick of alloy bushing + tight steel bolt + salty water + time = lots of cursing trying to separate them !! I wanted to keep the old axle too - well just the diff. really - but in the end I 'cheated' whilst getting the radius arms off... I used an angle grinder to cut the bolt ends off and a very big hammer to drift them out.. P38s are certainly 'Heavy Engineering'; Indeed I found it quite helpful just to think about Isambard Kingdom Brunel's own struggles whilst doing this particular task....)

"just as well as it is almost impossible to get the radius arms off the diff casing .."

Oh shite, that's just what I wanted to hear before I take my radius arms off to get new bushes knocked in...

I've swapped two front axles. The first time I took the axle off complete with radius arms, the second time me and Marty unbolted the axle from the radius arms and left them on the car. Agricultural engineering at it's best but with big sockets and a long length of tube to put on the socket, it isn't that difficult. You'll also need a crowbar to get the axle disconnected from the radius arms.

• Not sure how 'agricultural' it is but i definitely used the word 'dung' a few times (ok, not that word but a 'variant' of it) doing this !

As you know these bolts are slightly 'splined' (so they fit tightly in the bush); And my splines obviously worked really well....
Guess it depends on how corroded they are (and so how wet they have been) but good luck ! Also guessing you need a ruddy great press to get the bushes out of the arms, too (?)

It's not getting the bushes out that's the problem, it's getting the new ones back in...

The genuine rubber bushes (not the polybushes that don't last) are about 2mm oversize to the radius arm hole, so you need the Land Rover Tool to get the new ones in.

I've recently invested in a 20T shop press and the tool to do radius arm bushes. Makes it so much easier, and definitely do forum discounts on pressing bushes if anyone needs them doing.

Did mine a few weeks ago and it makes such a difference! There was plenty of cursing and an air angle grinder involved in getting the old ones out though...

axle end

Well, 20 Tons should do it Marty ! Do these bushes just lose elasticity over time ?

Attached a photo link (now I know how to do it): "Whack" at the end (on the wheel) pivoted it about point "P": You can also see the slightly bent axle end (diff. casing) plus the bent (-almost to the exhaust-) Radius Arm.