Oldseadog said:
Yes you can hand crank it round with a socket on the crank pulley bolt, you might be as well to disconnect the battery to eliminate any chance of a fire-up ... even though it should not happen!
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Sound advice I think. I can't start it at the best of times, so knowing my luck it would fire up instantly and cover everything within the vicinity in oil. Gasket on order - it's going to be another busy week of fumbling in the dark.

Guy I work with used to be in the REME and worked on these (a long time ago). He said expect to find job cards used as gaskets all over the place as they were an ideal size for the job.
 
Sign up to the euro car parts website, they do 30% off pretty regularly , I got my Bosch silver one from there, bags of power
 
There's one around the corner from me, so they are pretty handy.

Euro car parts sell the glowplugs also but they are > £10 each!

I need to change the glowplugs first. Could not start again this morning. Plenty of power from the battery so glows are my no 1 suspect. We are due some more snow this week so hopefully they will arrive soon.
 
sp00k said:
I was looking at one of those in Makro yesterday. £30 + VAT. There's a B&Q about 2 mins up the road from me also, so I'll look there. I need a tire pump but I'm not sure if one of these combined things will be up to the job. Think the wife will be kicking me out of if I spent any more money.

On a slightly different subject, I'm fairly sure that I need to adjust the valve clearances. There is a definite and distinct phut, phut sound at idle.

If I remove the rocker cover, do I need to replace the gasket or can I use a gasket sealant. If using a gasket sealant, do you leave the old gasket on?

Am I right in thinking I can hand crank the engine using a socket on the bottom pulley, turning clockwise and that as long as the ignition is switched off, there is no chance of starting the engine?
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I'd be highly surprised if you could start any diesel engine just by turning the crank with a socket by hand. Disconnecting the battery does nowt as there is no ignition system. All I would do is pull the wire to the fuel solenoid. Remember to put it back once you're done ;)
 
I'm reading all the comments above and I just checked the battery I have fitted which is a 12v 100 amp. The Battery is two years old and when the temperature falls below -4C the battery is very sluggish and hardly manages a turn of the engine. Luckily the engine is a good starter and only has to catch one turn and it fires up. Everyone here is referring to a 110 amp batteries. Could this be why my battery seems bu--ered in the cold?
 
mikescuba said:
I'm reading all the comments above and I just checked the battery I have fitted which is a 12v 100 amp. The Battery is two years old and when the temperature falls below -4C the battery is very sluggish and hardly manages a turn of the engine. Luckily the engine is a good starter and only has to catch one turn and it fires up. Everyone here is referring to a 110 amp batteries. Could this be why my battery seems bu--ered in the cold?
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That 100 amps people refer to is either the AH or the charge rate of the alternator, the battery starting power is measured in cranking amps (CA) or cold cranking amps (CCA), you want about 600 minimum on a land rover diesel. colder weather will knock the CA back a bit and as the batteries get older its cold weather performance will get worse. If in doubt change it, it will only take one cold morning for you to be screwing about it not starting to make it worthwhile....
 
chezvegas said:
I will check and let you know
Click to expand...

Cheers! My battery is an Inci Aku Supra. No other info and can't find any online. It is a fair size and weight though and has a built in hydrometer thing which is glowing green. I'm still waiting for my glows to arrive so no further forward with the truck. It's freezing every morning here so no chance of starting so I'm not even trying.

This yank video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udax9Qei1rw is exactly what my truck is like - pumping out white smoke without starting except there is no way I could turn the engine over for that sort of time without the battery dying. I think the most I could get would be about a minute continuously.
 
I bought one of these from eurocar parts- Bosch S4 Battery 069

Just fill in your vehicle details and it recommends various different batteries.

I seem to remember hearing in the past that if your battery is to big the alternator doesn't charge it properly.

Starts my 90 td fine every morning and if I had to I'd buy another one, it's a good fit in the battery box to.
 
There's something wrong if you haven't started after a minute of solid cranking!!

The size of the battery is not governed by the charging capacity of the alternator!
 
You could also waz some easy start up the air intake hose, that fired mine up straight away after I'd changed the fuel filter
 
Oldseadog said:
There's something wrong if you haven't started after a minute of solid cranking!!
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I've never actually tried for a solid minute, probably about 20 sec bursts at the most. Just feels a bit mechanically unsympathetic to all the components to keep pushing so hard to start when it should be so much easier.

My pattern is: Glows for 20 seconds, turn over for ~20 seconds and repeat until battery sounds tired (3 or 4 goes at most). Walk of shame to borrow car.

As you say, there is clearly something wrong and I think the glows are a good and cheap place to start given that the engine starts without issues after it's been warmed.
 
I was given a can of it by the garage that mot'd it when I couldn't get it to start and it fired up first time.

If that's a bad piece of advice then sorry, I was only going off my past experience...
 
Marmaduke said:
I was given a can of it by the garage that mot'd it when I couldn't get it to start and it fired up first time.

If that's a bad piece of advice then sorry, I was only going off my past experience...
Click to expand...
theres nothing wrong in using easy start per-say ,its just that it means theres a reason why car wont start ,often it was low compression due too wear and general reduced effectiveness in electrical system etc ,people then associate the need of engine to only start using easy start as engine getting addicted rather than the fact engine wont start easily to until problems are rectified , obviously if car wont start its better to fix the issue but used properly easy start wont effect your engine
 
Oldseadog said:
... And keep easy-start away from your engine!!
Click to expand...

sp00k said:
My ex-REME friend warned me off that.
Click to expand...

Theres nowt wrong with easy-start.....

jamesmartin said:
theres nothing wrong in using easy start per-say ,its just that it means theres a reason why car wont start ,often it was low compression due too wear and general reduced effectiveness in electrical system etc ,people then associate the need of engine to only start using easy start as engine getting addicted rather than the fact engine wont start easily to until problems are rectified , obviously if car wont start its better to fix the issue but used properly easy start wont effect your engine
Click to expand...


... but this is spot on, if it won't start then there is going to be a reason why and this needs addressing. I have heard loads of BS about engines getting addicted due to pre-det bending con rods and lowering compression, its all ****e spewed from those who have no idea, if you need easystart then the problem is already there, if you keep using it there is a good likleyhood that the original problem will get worse, it doesn't mean your engine is getting addicted...
 
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