Just buy a trickle charger Morat....mine's an Accumate Pro - 12v/24v, polarity protection built in. Run it for 5+ years, good piece of kit

ALR1051? I have a couple of spares if you want them

On aluminium you need an etch primer on bodywork, even if using coach enamel, else there's no key for the colour to bond to, but I've only come across spray etch primer in the past. The theory goes that aluminium forms a chemical layer of aluminium oxide that must be etched into. But I have hammerite (am a big fan) on my P38 rocker covers at the mo - which seems to have coped with the heat v well for the last 6 months, I don't think i primed them either.
On the AC pipes, I've been playing a lot with a Castrol High temp bearing grease left over from rebuilding the Defender's wheel hubs. So I would maybe coat the aluminium pipes with HT grease before then putting on a physical barrier of rubber hose (old coolant hose ?) sliced down one side if the pipework is particularly exposed. BTW, the HT grease seems v effective on powder coating and black ABS - the oil helps restore the colour, and leaves the surface moderately sticky/ a bit waxy. The rear ABS either side of the tailgate has lapped it up, and now looks great. Acetone also works a treat in stripping the crud off the outside of the aluminium metal work - less keen about letting it near any rubber (or paint work, or ABS....), but it flashes off v quickly. While i'm brain dumping, Clarke do an excellent Aluminium cleaner which I've used for checker plate - paints on and then washes off - not sure it's advisable for ali in sensitive areas though - you'd need to be able to remove the components and strip to ali only

Fun vid of the triallers

Erm, I just noticed - Are you planning to wash those glasses and drink out of them after? Remind me to bring my own glassware should I ever be invited round to yours :o)

OK, just use electrical tape on it, don't be tempted to switch over the colour coded part with your spare wing mirror, it's a total PITA.... I did do it, but only because the colour coded cover of the fitted unit was badly cracked, and the replacement I got was not a heated unit ie wrong body connector. God knows how they assembled them in the factory - the wiring goes right through the centre of the pivot, with a heavy spring and massive starlock-clip in the tightest of spaces. It looks like they put that part of the wiring through the pivot from the connector side before splicing it with the wiring for the mirror servo and putting heat shrink tubing over it

Ingenious, Dave

Same - just change the fluid - doesn't look much worse than mine when I changed it - which was dark brown and had a burnt smell. Did you change the fluid since you got the car? ie that's what it look looks like after less than 1 1/2 years ? or this was the first change? At least it didn't have any bits of metal in (hopefully)

Same - just change the fluid - doesn't look much worse than mine when I changed it - which was dark brown and had a burnt smell. Did you change the fluid since you got the car? ie that's what it look looks like after less than 1 1/2 years ? or this was the first change? At least it didn't have any bits of metal in (hopefully)

That's an easy fix - with a grinder grind 1 mm depth and about 1.5cm length from the side of the grease gun nozzle - you may have to do the same on the opposite side. I think I had to do that for the Defender, in fact, but it gives you the ability to get the nozzle onto the nipple between the two halves of the UJ, never had a problem since. The simplest ideas are the most satisfying :o)

lpgc - fair comment, zero recovery doesn't mean zero oil - although the tech's reaction at seeing zero oil recovery suggested he was used to seeing at least _something _come out as an oil fraction - and the machine print out specifically records recovered oil. Still seems you're best off having a shop add the oil through the port, which is, as you point out at the top of the system - although if you were to replace the compressor they recommend adding oil direct to the unit before reconnecting. Sloth seems the expert on air con so I defer to him though.

I had mine done recently at ATS. The machine recovered no oil (as in, there was nothing there), and then they added 5g of PAG oil and 5g of UV/ oil mix (along with 1250 of R134a). Those figures came from whichever database ATS use - either way they're not just putting back the same amount they recovered, so I wouldn't mess around, just take it to a centre that has the right reference data. Groupon are doing 36% off at ATS currently...

How's the BECM?

I'm still none the wiser after your vid :o) I had the same problem trying to catch my RR making a noise, as you say, drive beside a wall and the difference is dramatic. I'm afraid i have no mikes to recommend, although you can get professional kits 2nd hand on ebay, but I suspect you're better off with a cheap BT mike. If it is a cv joint then I'm sure you'll spot it as soon as you jack it, and/or disconnect the front prop completely to see if the sound disappears. Happy hunting

I dunno, swapping the whole axle sounds like a right PITA, it must be coming from somewhere specific - you could put a few bluetooth microphones on the underside to try and track it down. Do you definitely have P38 wheels ie not in need of spigot rings, and with proper P38 wheel bolts. It took me longer than it should have to work out that my P38 came with the wrong wheel nuts (but the right wheels, so they didn't fall off in the meantime). I replaced a P38 diff (rear) but that was just whiny, and made a clunk going from fwd to reverse. Not sure what the front diff would sound like. If you removed the front prop for a run that might help narrow things down ?

My main problem is I don't know what wuh-wuh-wuh sounds like :o)

I don't know if aluminised steel is much better than mild. I'm keeping an eye out for a sensibly priced, standard, stainless version at some point. My 50th Defender one came from Rimmer - which fits well and mimics the original, but the SS and the welds still lose their shine after a few heat cycles. My P38 has a Klarius one - which bumps on the panhard rod if i go v fast over speed bumps, but I'm not sure if I should blame that on the manufacturer, or the welder. What's wrong with your SS version, Sloth ? is it badly designed?

Bit rubbish, but there's a vid here https://youtu.be/RiAycOtZOwQ

Yep I think the race method would be tricky with a press, too much of a balancing act to keep things true, then again if you have an M12 threaded bar/ vice and impact gun then the press can stay in the corner. Biggest learning was to make the inside of the radius arm shine : o) I needed to use a 1m breaker bar to drive my first two bushes into poorly prepared holes. On the second two holes I took out 1-2mm of crud to get to to 58.5mm and the bush ran in with just the impact gun (and some grease). It also just occurred to me that a second 30306 race, inverted (ie small side facing the bush) and jubilee clipped to a 70mm drive cup, could be quite effective to push down on the outer plastic cup of the bush, it would only need to be removed once it touched the lower compressing race and replaced with the M40 washers for the final drive into the arm

Hi Dave and Mark, sorry but no photos, although I cd knock something up. I put the taper race directly on top of the radius arm. I put a jubilee clip around the top of the bush, not really to compress it, but to stop it spreading. You don't need to weld a pipe on top. To push you'll need a few thick washers ID more than 24mm and OD 58mm, which will clear the bush core, and then a 58mm pusher to drive the whole thing down on an m12 bar. To stop the washers sliding around (if you can't find large enough m24s) I jubilee clipped the washers and pusher together. I used M40 washers, OD 58mm, and an eBay bush pulling kit which has all the sizes you need to drive. Make sure you grind the inside of the radius arm until it's shiny (get some decent grinding stones). Have an sds drill on hand in case the radius arm bolts are stuck in the bush cores, cut the spare thread and loosen the nuts, keep the nut half on the thread to retain the tip of the sds chisel when you pull the trigger, they will give up soon enough. Get new nuts and bolts, for sure.

Stripped the compressor yesterday - the piston seal was starting to deteriorate, sorted now. BTW, through necessity I had to replace the seal without removing the piston from the motor housing (basically because the internal grub screw was not giving a mm, and threatened to strip). In many ways it's easier than removing the assembly to do it, and I used a wood chisel to pry off the brass collar, rather than a screwdriver - since it gets into the groove left by the old seal much better. You still need to remove the end cover from the motor though, to stop the piston flopping around while you're working on it, I just jammed a piece of wood in there to stop the rotation and brace the bottom of the piston against the housing. I'm an EAS virgin no longer