Eh up folks, been meaning to get round to this for a while now, but you know how it is eh? My neighbour has a really nice old series 3 landrover 88" (short wheel base). See the real truck in the background?



Anyhow, about 3 years ago, the engine died. It had been "rebuilt" before he bought it, but when trying to get up to speed (about 50mph) to join a duel carriageway it died properly - matey down the road took off the head to discover a crack between cylinders 3&4 that went right through the block and the head - ouch! After badgering him for a while, he finally relented, and through partial insanity on his part he has agreed to let me do a full rebuild - yehaaw.

So, after a large wadge of cash was transferred, step 1, without further ado, was get onto ebay to find a knacky old disco:



This pic was taken after it was dropped off at my mates wood up the road £425 including delivery from Hayle (other end of Cornwall). The climb up there between the 10' cornish hedges was a little steeper then the Francis (ebay seller) expected, and his disco pulling this one on a trailer started to burn out it's clutch - the whole shebang came to a standstill and then started sliding back down the hill till the trailer jackknifed and planted itself in the hedge (I was standing/walking/running between his disco and trailer at the time with nowhere to go, and have to admit that some wee did come out). L200 to the rescue - pulled out two discos+trailer up a 20% hill in one hit (good machines these).

I'm digressing, but anyhow, we now have a '94 300Tdi engine to replace the knacked 2.25 petrol in Olive:



It's not so shiny and has done 160k miles, but my old boss had one of these that did over 350k so there's (hopefully) plenty of life left in it yet.

After day one of the stripdown:



Day 2, with help from "Stella" and "Jen", the mongrel bitches:



then with the help of a £100 hoist and £25 load leveller, some proper work begins:



This revealed some "real quality" mechanics on the part of the person who last changed the starter motor - these starters have a big external spring on the end that pushes the gearwheel back in when the starter isn't spinning any more... a bit like the one you can see here...



So then we are left with a pretty skronky looking gearbox:

This is ma enjin, take it from me if ya dare:



After a bit of scriggling, got the box out through the engine bay

Apparently you're supposed to take it out the passenger door, but when your in a grain silo with ~1m clearance either side that's not a viable option.

After we got the box out, Graham had to do a runner to go see his girly up in Poole. I was left with free run of his grain silo for my evil machinations:



so made up a pit of doom for cleaning up the gearbox - after a bit of work, not looking quite so skronky:



time to take this bad boy apart - there's some turny bits in here:



not sure what they did really so took em out - probly useless anyhow



Thanks to Natwest for providing money bags (other banks are available), the gearbox has been split down to main, transfer and front output boxes



So with the transfer box fully stripped down it was carefully wrapped up in all the bubble wrap I have been hoarding for years and those funny cardboard shreddy bits that Milner's love to use, so that it almost looks professional and off it goes to Ashcroft transmissions for a full re-engineering and high ratio gear set, the idea being that instead of 4300rpm to do 70mph, we will be about 3000rpm instead. That's one hell of a lot of studs and dowells to take out btw...

May be interesting for the geekier, removed the dowells using the hydraulic method - drill a 1.5/2.0mm hole right down the centre of the dowel to the chamber it sits in, then fill with oil (best to use syringe, but you can dribble/run it down a smaller size drill bit), invert drill bit and push down hole far as it goes and then tap with a hammer - hydraulic pressure then forces the dowell out - slow but steady and very satisfying noise a bit like one of @Major Malfunction 's farts speeded up 1000 times.

With the transferbox gone, time to have a look at some other bits. This is the rear output housing, nicely butchered by a "quality mechanic" changing the oil seal, mmm nice job mate:



And here's the main output from the primary gearbox:



The bolty thing on the right is supposed to be done up to 200Nm or so with the tangs from the locking washer holding it in place. The end of the shaft sits in a bearing in the transfer box (next pic) and you can see where it's been eating away trying to undo itself, allowing the main transfer gear about 5-10mm lateral play - probably just as well the engine died first - next would have been a catastrophic gearbox failure.

Gave the back output a cleanup with the die set - hopefully that's enough to give a reasonable oil seal (to landrover standards at least). Took the front prop apart for a revamp and a UJ change:



Front output box rebuilt with new bearings/seals and a revamp of the most notoriously rusty bits:



And that's pretty much where I got to before I had to head up to Wales to see my lovely lassie, but meanwhile...

Graham was getting his money's worth from the hoist



leaving not much really



Got to say that's a pretty impressive chassis for 1972!

nice well done that man

The chassis and bulk head are in good condition bearing in mind it's 45 yrs old, should be finished and ready for next years meet.

Looking good! That chassis looks in amazing condition for its age!

Nice project

Heading back to Cornwall today and can't wait to get back to it - Graham's had 3 weeks or so to give the chassis a good clean up and paint, so next on the list is to take the main box apart to see what horrors are lurking in there, then strip out the disco and give the new engine a good cleanup and service. Chassis/bulkhead is damn good for the age - apparently later ones didn't last nearly as well, after the time BL/rover took a nose dive.

There's a load more photo's here if anyones interested in more details.

https://goo.gl/photos/o5QHVcj4DhoP5ZT27
https://goo.gl/photos/o5QHVcj4DhoP5ZT27
https://goo.gl/photos/BnNmZS8ZqJpMP2B36
https://goo.gl/photos/6VGwjCaBdDWEtQ1x5

top work going on there

Very interesting keep up the good work I will enjoy following well done

Like it "following"

Thanks for all the positive input guys - got one of the photo links wrong before, it should have been

https://goo.gl/photos/4GfG7xSPkRHGhWwe7.

A lot of the photo's are for reference so we know how to put it all back together, so probably not too exciting.

Had a quick nose around the silo tonight, with a nice beer - Graham's done a full refurb on the fuel tank - looks like rover only made one tank and on the petrol models just blanked of the hole for the diesel return, so we should just be able to by an extra pipe/nozzle and plug it straight in without needing any modifications. He's also stripped all the cruddy old paint/underseal from the chassis, down to bare metal. Chassis has had a bit of welding work done over the years, some good, some not so good. Pics to follow soon.

Braking is a bit of concern at the moment - there are various kits to convert the fronts to disc brakes, but they're silly money, and we have to draw a line with the budget somewhere. For now, we are going to upgrade to the larger drums, found on the long wheel base models. Fortunately, the wood in Wales is home to a very dead LWB, so whilst I was there I had them away, along with the spare front diff. We can probably (hopefully) use the backing plates from the brakes, the rest will probably be shot - as the backing plates retail at £130 each, that's still quite a saving.

Keep the photo's coming.

Spent a few days in the Silo, with the excuse that the weather was too poor for real work. Here's the currect state of the chassis, down to bare metal on the top and sides:

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We've put in a few patches and rebuilt the tub/bump stop mounting, and the fuel tank outrigger. Sure I could weld better than this 20 years ago, I blame the new welder... but it's strong enough and better than the welding on much of the rest of the chassis:





Once the top and sides are finished and painted up, we're going to flip it to get at the bottom. Left Graham to get on with the chassis work, whilst I've been concentrating on stripping down and inspecting more of the mechanicals.

Had the rear diff apart and adjusted the backlash - an L200 wheel bearing adjuster fits the bearing end cap adjusters perfectly . Put it back in the axle for now to keep it clean and gave it an anti-rust coat:



Made a start stripping down the hubs I brought down from Wales, with a bit of swearing and hammering, managed to get the old drums off. As expected not looking too clever in there:



After a bit of a brush up, the back plates were not looking too bad though - plenty of metal left in there:



Here's one I did earlier (actually that's the transmission brake after refurbing, and wasn't quite as rusty):



Had a look at the MAP freewheeling hubs that I salvaged, but they're looking pretty ropey and not sure if the parts are going to be available for them - might have to do without them for now. That's about it really, not too exciting I know. I decided to hold off on taking the gearbox apart until all the grinding/welding is done and as the Disco is outside, nothing is happening there till the weather improves or we move the chassis out of the Silo, which ain't going to be for a while yet.

Been a while since any updates - things have been moving along slowly but steadily. Graeme finished the top part of the chassis a while ago - took quite a lot more work than we initially expected.



That's all coated up with chassis black now, so it was turned on it's side to do the bottom.



The nasty bits are all welded up now with the first coat of zinc oxide on - hopefully have the chassis completed next week. Graemes been away for long weekends, so as soon as the grinder dust settles, I've been working on the gearbox. Found a few nasty bits - broken (dog teeth?) on the layshaft:





Knackered synchro springs:

Knackered bearings:



The bellhousing also had a nasty crack, with all the bolt holes badly elongated, probably from over tightening when the clutch was changed:

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Managed to get a new one off ebay, in pretty good nick, just a bit grubby, lot of other bits were needed - all the bushes, thrust washers, bearings, reverse gear and shaft, layshaft. Finally starting to build it back up again now - sure this fits in here somewhere:



The new reverse shaft has been sitting on the shelf since I was 11! - felt bad opening it, should have sent it to timewatch:

Been pretty busy on the Landrover project - cleaning and painting everything up has taken an age, but think were on top of most of the nasties now (although we still havn't touched the bulkhead yet). Have been working on the gearbox mainly, but have also completely stripped the axles down for rebuilding. Here's a few pics of the gearbox build up.

Mainshaft built back up, with all new bushes, thrust washers and synchro rings. Replacement layshaft on the right, old output gear on the left (the new one from Ashcroft on the end of the mainshaft provides the higher geared high range). Just about managed to salvage the thread on the end of the mainshaft where the old nut had come loose

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Here's the guts of the mainbox now installed and the bellhousing reattached.



Completed mainbox with the selector forks and top cover in place - see some muppet put the output gearwheel on the wrong way round

Transfer box reattached to the gearbox showing the nice shiny new Ashcroft gears:

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and the completed gearbox - the first major item to go back on the chassis:

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Rear diff is all built up now with pretty much all new brake components and nicely set up diff (as nice as a cruddy Rover diff gets anyhow):

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Decided to invest in some new swivel balls for the front axle, as the old ones were all pitted and rusty (when this happens they usually just get filled with grease instead of gear oil which should go in them to properly lubricate the bushes/bearings and the halfshaft UJ):

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Improvised a press out of two old brushcutter blades and some threaded bar to get the bearing races and b****d bushes into the new swivel balls:

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That’s all looking so clean. Wonder wat it will be like after the usual Landy oil leaks. Lol
Nice job tho. Like the perfectionism going into it.