Common misconception that viscous vans draw power all the time. The whole point of the viscous coupling is that it only engages when the engine warms up. When not engaged the fan will ‘idle’ and spin with the engine but you’ll be able to stop it easily and it will put no load on the engine...

Thermostat should be opening at 88 degrees, not 100. There are many poor thermostats around, even genuine are hit and miss these days sadly. Waxstat are the preferred manufacturer, but you still need to test it before fitting. I’ve had most success buying them from Land Rover.

Your shafts and CVs may well be fine, especially the rears, so I would hold off ordering those until you’ve stripped it down.

Or headlamp dim dip resistor

You can just change the switch, which is the bit the contacts are mounted on. It’s held in with two small screws, you can see the first one in your picture on the side of the barrel. The other is diametrically opposite and is fiddly as hell to get to, removing the barrel from the car solves that...

MWC1737 and MWC1736 Or YRM do them: https://yrmit.co.uk/product/support-for-door-striker-lr-defender-series-2-3-door/

I did the same. There is no factory rear lining for a 90 without the window apertures as hard-tops never had lined rear roofs. So mine just has gaps. Not sure what you mean about alpine windows sitting proud. The rubber sticks out a few mm but there’s no difference in that respect between a...

NVH is more usually noise, vibration and harshness rather than general handling, however the bushes will affect both. For your purposes you’d be hard pressed to beat the standard Land Rover bushes, shocks and springs. Cheap, effective and last for years.

Your mystery part is the bracket from the footwell that supports the inner wheelarch liner. I’ve known Britpart stub axles to be so poorly sized that the bearings wouldn’t fit on them - hopefully yours are okay!

Looks good. Those PAS pipes should be clipped to the front chassis crossmember at the solid section, if they hang loose like that they’ll vibrate and fracture over time.

Yes, thicker steel. I think they used to do several options of thickness too. Would last longer yes, though I wouldn’t see that as an issue as given that a non-galvanised chassis will do 25 years easily a galv one of any thickness should last long enough for anyone.

Yes, two C-channel sections overlapped and welded. In my opinion it’s worth the premium. It’s as close as you’ll get to a new Genuine chassis without buying one, but with the benefit of galvanising. The Marsland is more original in construction, has the later strengthening additions around...

Having done several chassis swaps and used both manufacturers my recommendation would be Marsland. Original specification GKN-made chassis, modified to suit your engine mounts etc. and then galvanised. Nothing wrong with Richards per se, although mine had some mounts out by 1/2” or so, but I...

Are you sure it’s not the breather on the top of the tank? Very common leak area. Failure of the tank itself is not impossible, but is not common either.

Good summary, but the above is not quite true. OEM has no legal basis and anyone can sell anything under that label so long as it was once used by some manufacturer somewhere. In many cases it is not the same as the Genuine Land Rover part. A good example is propshaft UJs. The standard sized UJ...

What brand are the bearings and stub axle (if changed)? I’ve seen this problem several times caused by cheap crappy parts being used for either one or both of the above.

It’s still worth greasing the pushrod end. Still a moving/wearing part after all. Also worth greasing the slide where the bearing runs, which the input shaft runs through.

The Boomslang looms are just the cheap Chinese relay looms that have been available for years on eBay for about a fiver, reboxed and sold at a premium. The build quality is poor - I’ve had crimps fail and one wired wrong so the main beam flash didn’t work. A much better option is the...

It’s point loads that are the issue when jacking vehicles, so strong concrete is needed with good support underneath. What’s the soil and sub-grade like underneath the drive? Assuming reasonably good ground, in your situation I would go for 150mm of compacted type 1 sub-base and then 100mm of...

If it has failed then the primer pumps are fairly common to various normal and industrial engines. These guys may be able to help, I spoke to them years ago about the injection pump and they said that they carried some spares. http://pslaterfie.co.uk/lift_pumps.php The workshop manual for the...