[rob love]

Yes Dave, there was a fair bit the same. But in a lot of cases, it was the differences which were the initial weaknesses. We took the original and changed some of it to North American components, which generally did not work out well. The original taillights, which were built in to be protected by the rear bumpers, were replaced with the US military type taillights, which were mounted higher and unprotected. The vibration inside the lamps caused early failure of the bulbs, and as well they were not so well protected in this location.

We added blue foam balls into the fuel system, which came apart and wreaked havoc in the fuel system.

We added an inline fuel pump of North American design which did not like where it was mounted, and failed often. Especially the early ones....it got better over time but never cured. Our first design fuel filter did not work either, and was later replaced by an oversize spin on type.

We changed the German alternator. Ours was poorly mounted, and tended to break the mount, or quickly wear out the upper bushing. It also had voltage spikes which would burn out headlamps.

One of the biggest problems, though, was the location of the batteries under the floor of the passengers. Terminals constantly worked loose, causing the alternator to overcharge and destroy the batteries and the alternator's internal voltage regulator as well.

Broken seatbacks, dead ignition modules, plastic seatbelt covers, air cleaners erupting into fire all by themselves....I could go on and on (as Stuart well knows) but these shortcomings have been brought up elsewhere on this forum. Do a search under my name along with the term Iltis.