Valve opening and closing sequence seems to be OK, although if it wasn't I suppose the only reason would be a bent camshaft if the clearances are all right. I tried to be clever with a pencil on the rocker and a piece of cardboard on the side to measure the movement and all that happened was the...

I've checked the valve clearances but will do as you say, checking the actual opening and closing compared with the book but not today...I am knackered.

Steve You probably remember a previous post about a seized pump which I managed to free. This was a spare pump which I thought I may have to use to if the original one failed. I could substitute it and if everything worked then I would know that the original pump was at fault. So to answer your...

Thanks for this. I admit I went over the top with taking the pump out but I just wanted to be sure that everything was OK even though I didn't need to. I told you I was an amateur! It had been working fine the week before when I put on a new tailpipe. My wife thinks its the new tailpipe that's...

One morning I found that it would not start – bled the filter/side nipples on the dist pump/cracked open the injector pipes – no start. Checked the glow-plugs reversing them in the engine bay. They work OK. Compression test cold all between 350 and 370. Removed dist pump from vehicle to check...

Thank you everyone for your help. I removed the slotted top bit and seeing that the plungers were seized tried to tap them out with a chop stick. This didn't work so I made a couple of short dowels out of hard wood and both popped out. I've cleaned them up, bathed them in diesel and put them...

Thanks. I have never run it on Biodiesel despite attempts by a farmer friend to sell it to me cheap!

Thank you both very much for your advice. I'll have a look at it tomorrow and see what I can do. Thanks for the offer of a phone call. The problem is I am rather deaf and cannot hear anything on the phone so if you don't mind I may contact you again when I get stuck.

Thanks Yes This is the conclusion I've come to from having a look at diagrams, but I am wary of dismantling lest I upset the calibration. Any suggestion s as to how to do this without cocking everything up would be greatly appreciated.

Even without the vanes it will move only a fraction - about the travel of the bolt in the ring on the advance retard device.

Thanks for the input and link. It doesn't spin with or without the vanes.

Thanks Steve. I'll try to include a picture of the head. It is the central bit with the vanes which should rotate freely At least I assume it should and I don't want to find that I put it on the LR and the quill or something else breaks.

The inner part of the hydraulic head of my 1980 Series 3 diesel rotates freely when it is out of the body but when I replace it, mating with the spindle, it just moves a bit then stops. I imagine that the whole device from spindle to head should rotate easily but I cannot think of what is...