Over in the TILES section, DRanged and JDNSW have raised/ reminded me about something that has no doubt been mentioned before but could do with another airing.

Earthing, or lack of, in Defenders and discos.

In the D1 Tdi, the main culprit seems to be the useless braided earth strap from the LH side of the chassis to one of the starter bolts, it corrodes and breaks down with time, causing slow cranking, poor cold weather starts and at the worst case ruining the starter itself. I have been fitting an additional strap directly from the battery - to one of the bolts holding the A/C compressor bracket to the timing case. I use a 600mm long strap, one end 10mm lug and the other a 8mm lug for the battery terminal.

In the Tdi Defender, the poor earthing also extends to body earth problems, which consist of erratic gauge readings when headlights are turned on, (Or off) dull brake lamps when lights or indicators are on etc etc. This can be best remedied by adding a earth lead from the battery to the underside of one of the seat rail bolts under the passenger seat. This helps earth the frame and bulkhead adequately to the battery, as all body earths come from there anyway. As regards cranking etc, check the main earth wires to the transfer case and crossmember bolts on the passenger side next to the battery box, and there are two smaller ones on the opposite side of the transfer case attached with a M6 bolt.

Defenders are quite prone to problems in the tropics and muddy areas due to corrosion building up between panel surfaces etc.

With Disco Tdi's, Also check the small earth wires behind the battery under the front of the reservoir bracket, if they are loose there will be some minor body earth issues, like radio noise and flickering lamps etc.

I haven't come across any earthing issues with D2's yet, although several fuse boxes have been replaced of late due to twisting and cracking the circuit boards in them.


JC