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Repairing an 88 110 Defender, "My freinds" defender..

Well it has come to pass that "my Friend" has brought his Defender over to my house for me to repair/fix.

I have not worked/driven/or even looked at one of these. much less tinkered on a Diesel before other then the Diesel on a Submarine. Diesels are all the same my "friend" said, right,, I said.

so in the coming weeks and months he expects me to bring this Defender out of the grave and make it run again.

And you ask where did he get a right hand drive defender, he bought it on line in an auction from Britain and had it shipped over here. site unseen.

and you ask how did I get roped into fixing this project. BEER and a lot of it.

So in the coming months I will need a lot of guidance and questions answered on what and where certain things are and how they work and what it ain't working now.

The first thing I have to figure out is the rear end is locked up. will not roll. My Friend said the outer part of the rear axle was really hot. I am wondering if the wheel bearing locked up or the rakes locked up. first thing is to get it to roll.

Second thing, it was starting. now it don't. I need to get it to start so I can drive it into the shop so I can really tinker on it.

I told my Friend that I would take things off and fix them and give them back to him so he could reassemble them. He did not buy that idea. So the game is afoot and it will be interesting for me to figure this beast out. I did say one time that I would have this on my bucket list to do.

Any and all suggestion would be helpful. Thanks I am in Washington State.

Where in Washington are you? I’m in Woodinville.
couple of thoughts on your friends rig:

given that it was imported recently, it probably has the original engine. Being that it’s a 1988 car, it’ll either be a 2.5NA or a turbo Diesel. (Both slow and ponderous)

for real world USA driving, upgrade to 200tdi or 300tdi would be preferable if staying diesel. To make things significantly easier for your friend and if he wants to keep up with traffic, a V8 and transmission from a Discovedy would be a tremendous upgrade here. Plus you’d be able to source parts from stateside brick and mortar stores.

your rear axle is the same as on a Discovery 1 or Range Rover Classic. If you aren’t too excited about reconditioning it, you could just switch it out. I’m not sure what year the 110 switched to rear disk brakes, if yours has drums, switching to the rear d1 /rrc axle makes sense.

There will be lots of Defender owners here at this event on Sat, April 14th. Come up for a visit. There are many season Defender DIY hands who can provide advice and guidance:

https://landroverforums.com/forum/4x...il-14th-88908/

These folks may be a useful resource:
https://www.defendersnorthwest.com/

Good luck!

Here are some pictures of what I have to work with. So these vehicles are new to me. and I am not sure what I am looking for or at.