Landrover 90 200 tdi advice

Hi all,

As my newbie post, here's my 1st problem I could do with some advice on...

Last Thursday I was on the verge of parting with my hard earned dosh on a 1989 'G' Landrover 90 which has had a 200 tdi defender engine fitted within the last 2 years. The landy looks the part, the body is very neat with no dings and the chassis is solid with the exception of a couple of minor rust spots on the rear member. The odo reads 135000 miles and i believe that the engine has done approx 80000 miles.

It is fitted with TD5 alloys and has 12months MOT and 6months tax... The interior is neat and clean with 3 seats up front. It hasn't been used offroad and is fitted with a couple of spots and a couple of reversing lamps... All sounds good so far....

Now, I know the guy that is selling this personally and he very kindly loaned it to me for 24hrs to have a good look around before I commited to buying. During the road test I attempted to try the hi/low/diff lock but I discovered that the lever wasn't connected and was just actually sitting in its hole!!!

I asked the guy why this was and he replied with 'My 5yr old daughter used to put it in diff lock with out me knowing and I'd end up driving around the roads in it' and 'once I was towing a trailer up a steep hill and I tried to select low but with no luck and ended up snapping a pin' His brother in law has since disconnected the lever, leaving it in high. He said that it would be a 30min job to fix the linkage but for the price he wasn't prepared to get the work done prior to me buying it.

I promptly replied that I would not buy it unless this was reconnected and was working and decided to walk away. Later he rang me and offered to get it fixed by his brother in law but it would cost me about £20...

Now if this does get fixed is there anything I should look out for before I buy? Is there a cheap bodge he could do that I wouldn't be aware of? Could the transfer box be damaged? Is there anyway to fully test it?

I'm about to part with £2200 for all this so I'm sure you can all understand my concerns...

Many thanks for reading my problem, I hope that some of you can offer some good advice...

atb Tom

fookernell, 2200 ferra g dodgy 20 year old motor - you should get one like that for half that price, or one twice as nice for that money! I just been offered an L reg 110 CSW for a grand and a half ffs. Much too pricey, you can definitely do better.

you say just sitting in the hole , could u pull it out of the hole or was it still fix, was it like side to side and forwards and backwards feeling floopy.
if so its a easy fix there a short bar rod its connected to and a what u do is position the lever and do up the little allen key , but i would still want it fix be for i bort it , it not a big job to do u can do it sat in the drivers seat

i would say 2200 is about right if it tidy 90 tdi

I couldn't pull the lever out of the hole, could just move it left to right slightly, very hard to move though and it would move up or down...

Is this pricey at 2200???

Many thanks for your help...

fred dibnah said:

i would say 2200 is about right if it tidy 90 tdi

Click to expand...

Only if it's VERY tidy, ie perfect (pref galv) chassis and in absolutely tip top nic with no welding (if it's welded already then it's starting to go, there will be lots more next year!), is it definitely a defender 200, and yes, definitely confirm the transfer box is pukka. People are having trouble giving htem away at the moment, there are loads on the market. You can get a reasonable proper (J or K reg) 200 for less than this.

Also rule number one, never buy a used car from a friend!!!

check the bulk head as well

2200 quid is a bit steep in today's market. I agree don't buy it unless he gets the transfer box working first. I also agree buying from a friend (or selling to one for that matter) is a recipe for disaster. His story about the kid putting it in diff lock and him not noticing is a bit weak as there's a **** off big orange light on the dash to tell you when diff lock is engaged.

If I was selling my car, any car, landy or not in todays economic bunfight, i'd not hesitate for a second to spend 20 quid on a repair to sell it....over 2 grand...or 20 quid...you do the math, i know which i'd go for...Mark