Seized selector
I had a new (to me) Defender booked into the workshop for a full service and timing belt change. The owner had only just acquired it and very sensibly wanted it given a thorough going-over before he put it into daily use. I am always a little apprehensive about this kind of job, especially when the new owner has just paid somewhere close to top market value for a 30- or 40-year-old vehicle. About twice a year I find myself having to explain to a customer, as diplomatically as I can, that he has been done up like a kipper and paid a five-figure sum for a vehicle which needs a new chassis as a starting point.
Happily, that was not the case here: the vehicle was a very straight, unmolested 90 station wagon with the 300Tdi engine, mileage only just into six figures and every sign of having led a quiet and sheltered life. It was solid underneath, drove very nicely and seemed mechanically perfect up to the point where I checked the operation of the transfer ’box.
Defenders, earlier Discoverys and some older Range Rovers have a two-speed transfer ’box with a locking centre differential. The same short stubby gear lever selects between high and low ratio (by moving it forwards and back) and differential lock (by moving it from side to side). The action of this lever is seldom very nice even on a low-mileage vehicle – the high-low selection tends to be very stiff, while the sideways movement is sloppy and rubbery-feeling. On this vehicle, high and low ratio engaged with no trouble but the lever had no sideways movement at all.
This is not uncommon on vehicles that have seen little or
