Finally, a couple of remarks about resources I used to help me. http://www.lrworkshop.com is getting very good these days. Somebody's put a lot of work into that. I found it easier to use the circuit diagrams, connector diagrams and header diagrams off that than to look them up myself, even...

I'm just looking for a suitable relay holder to replace the old one. The original Land Rover item seems to be unobtainable, so i'm hoping that something like a Lucas Rists 51152073 will do the job. They seem to have a slot in the back so (if I'm lucky and it's the right size) I can mount them on...

Right, I've succeeded in starting the engine. The problem seems to have been an intermittent fault in the wire that activates the main relay. I bridged the load terminals on the relay holder with one of Xylia's hair clips and tried the ignition. Yes, sure enough a yellow engine light appeared...

I had a look this morning and checked for a 12v live on the relevant terminals on the black plug (there's about three of them) that provide power to the ECU. There's nothing there. There's also an ignition switched live in another terminal, and that comes on. So I think the problem is that the...

Yes, it's some sort of header. I'll see if I can find a diagram of what's supposed to be joined together here. A quick Google indicates that it's no. 0294. It doesn't look too complicated - it's just joining wires of a similar colour together.

I think someone has been there before us! A previous owner has cut their way into the black wires on the black ECU plug and run a lead to the battery terminal. I had half an hour before it got dark this afternoon and was looking for earth resistance between the earth sockets on the black ECU...

I'm a bit late to this conversation but like @Stanleysteamer I was going to say clamp something to the spring rather than weld directly to it. The heat will do weird things to the hardening and tempering of the spring and it might be apt to crack after being in use for a while. If you're...

As well as the switch itself, the wire is apt to become brittle where it joins the spade terminal. Mine snapped off, so I re-joined it with a dollop of solder. It's stopped working again now, so I may need to re-do it.

Yes, years ago I had a fuel pump relay like this. I could change the engine note by wobbling it. Once the TD5 starts it will actually run without the fuel pump connected, just not very fast. I don't think it's a fuel pump relay problem in this case though, because that usually yields different...

I should add that neither my Nanocom nor the AA man's OBD machine could communicate with the ECU. There's just an error message saying 'failure to communicate with ECU'. That was true of both my ECUs.

My 2006 TD5 Defender refuses to start. I'd just pulled in to fill up with diesel and it failed to restart, although the engine spins freely on the starter. Other symptoms include: No engine check light or glow plug light on switching the ignition on. Temperature gauge goes straight up to hot...

Can I have yours then, if you don't want them?

I see a new structure has gone up near my place in Wales: That's happened quickly. It wasn't there four weeks ago. It says Vodafone on the gate, but it doesn't seem to be in operation because there wasn't a mobile phone signal in evidence on the iPhone when I was taking the picture. The...

Well, it's the nearest seaside to me when I'm in Wales. I suppose I could go to Aberdovey instead and see how rapacious the wildfowl are there for a change.

Maybe that's why I get pecked by seagulls on the sea front at Aberystwyth. I thought they were just after my chips. But maybe they're making a more subtle existential statement about my existence.

I can't remember what the mileage was when I swapped the gearbox, but it was probably around 120,000, in February 2021. The old one was just getting so noisy that it was hard to trust it, and in the last couple of longish drives I did with it I was expecting it to fail. The new one has a tiny...

That looks good. Electronic speed control, plus forward and reverse all working well. A lot better than some of my experiments with second hand electric motors where they just buzz but don't do anything, or go round backwards very slowly. Maybe just renewing the relevant belt would help. They...

Ashcroft's say that the bearings wear out on 5th gear, hence the noise. They offer an option of a stronger bearing on their reconditioned units (which you have to pay more for, of course!). I bought one off them with this option around three years ago. I'll be interested to see what it sounds...

They're smaller than the diameter of the ball. So you'll probably need to take the ball off the centre part of the axle if you don't want to cut it. Anyway, that's an opportunity to change the gasket, put a new seal in between the axle and the swivel ball and give everything a good clean. Not to...

Yes, my heart sinks when I try to buy something and as part of the payment process a message comes up that they're going to send a code to a mobile phone number. Quite often it doesn't arrive, or if it does so, it's long after the 10 or 20 minute window they give you to enter it has expired...