1956 Series One Rebuild Project

[mepham55]

That’s exactly what happened to my chassis when I removed the old relay. I had a muffler shop stretch a new piece of pipe to fit the hole, then I welded it in. Make sure you slop a bunch of anti-seize on the new relay for the next owner that will have to deal with this in 60yrs!

Matt

[rayhyland]

any updates Andy?

[ANDYD]

Hi Ray,

Yes the project is still ticking along, good progress made over the last couple of weeks.

Once the welding repairs were complete, a clean up with the grinder then a few coats of paint and the new Steering Relay slipped right into place and was bolted in tight.

[ANDYD]

With the dreaded Steering Relay now sorted I turned my attention to the Steering box and column. After a quick inspection it was obvious that it would need some repairs. There was a broken corner flange on the aluminum steering box and also a chunk of metal missing from the end of the steering column. I happened to have a spare aluminium Steering box on hand and luckily Matt on the Island hand a spare inner steering column. I picked up all the new seals, shims, ball bearings from Jeremy at Rocky Mountain and started stripping apart the old Steering box.

Photos showing the damaged aluminum steering box (and the new box)

[ANDYD]

The Inner Steering column missing an edge from the channel that the ball bearing run along;

[ANDYD]

Onto rebuilding the Steering Box with the new parts. The new ball bearings were a little tricky getting them all in place at the same time while tightening everything up. After a few failed attempts I found the best way is to clamp the column upright in the vice and use a light grease to "stick" them in place one at a time until it was time to lock them all into position.

[ANDYD]

I had to re-take the end cap off the steering box a couple of times to add/remove shims and get a nice smooth movement without any end float and without any stiffness. Really just a case of trial and error until it feels right. I believe the outer column is from a Series 2a as it had the bearing at the top end instead of the Tuffenel Bush that the Series 1 has. I changed the bearing in the column as its easy to do at this stage and considered this as an "upgrade".
Once it was all back together, a good clean up and some POR15 on the steel parts. Then a dry-fit onto the chassis as shown below.

[bsa_m21]

Great progress Andy. Is she going to be on the road in time for the show next weekend? :P

Actually, when you finally get her all connected, and put load on the wheels, you may find that you need to re-shim some more.

FYI - I modified my steering box by adding a tensioning bolt to the cover plate, like the later boxes have, to allow you adjust the play without shims. I drilled a hole and welded a nut to the plate, then used a grade 8 bolt and lock nut. Seems to work well.

58-column.jpg

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[ANDYD]

Hi Martin,
Thanks for the tip. The later Series 1's do have that that steering box adjusting screw, mine has one too.

I recently turned my attention to the Gearbox. Before stripping it down for inspection I had the task of removing 60 years of a thick crust that resembled a Grease & Dirt cement.
Once I began chipping and scraping I was happy to see that shiny aluminum emerging .......

[cbalme]

Good to see some progress on the box, if you clean it very well now you'll thank yourself later. I didn't do enough cleaning so I spent a lot more time cleaning each individual casing and piece. Rinsing the inside of the box with diesel also makes life easier after you drain all the oil.

What is the PTO for? Winch or for running farm machinery off the back?

Have fun

[ANDYD]

Hi Colin,

Good advice, yes I will be scrubbing away as I take it apart. I was wondering what to flush / rinse the internals out with when I'm done, is diesel the recommended "flush" treatment?

Its looking a little cleaner now and parts are coming off which makes it easier (lighter) to move around. Taking it all apart to have a good look at the seals, bearings, gear teeth etc

[ANDYD]

Spent some time on the front end of the gearbox, stripping parts and scraping and cleaning and more cleaning ....
I convinced myself to change the clutch withdrawal bearing, seals and bush, even though the original components weren't showing any obvious signs of excess wear and tear. Better now than later I guess.
In the back of the bell housing is the smaller Layshaft bearing, this is a notorious bearing for failing and was on my "must change" list. Sure enough, once removed I found lots of wear in this bearing.

[ANDYD]

While waiting for some new parts to arrive I switched over my attention to the four wheel drive selectors and transfer gear levers. After close inspection there was no obvious signs of wear or damage. I did find a stud sheared off the exterior of the housing cover which was easily extracted and a new stud installed. Not seeing anything else of concern and knowing the set up of all these levers can be tricky once taken apart, I opted for just cleaning everything up, new seals and gaskets, and putting it back together.

[ANDYD]

One tip that I found worked out well, particularly if you have limited space, is to set up a work bench on the back end of the rolling chassis using some 2x8 planks. This way it can be mobile, moved back and fort to create more space and also allow you to get on all sides of your "mobile bench".

[ANDYD]

After bearings and seals were all changed I spent some time degreasing and painting random parts ready for reassembly.

[ANDYD]

After I reinstalled the top cover, clutch withdrawal mechanism, hand brake assembly it started looking like a gearbox again.

[ANDYD]

While I waited for some new parts to arrive to complete the gearbox I switched back to the steering to dry-fit the complete steering system to see it all working.

[cbalme]

Great progress Andy! You have a much faster turnaround time than me. Are you going to do a full tear down and rebuild for the motor as well?

[ANDYD]

Thanks Colin, it doesn't feel like its moving quickly, but its nice to be able to walk away from it for a couple of days and then come back when I have some renewed energy.
It doesn't help when I spent most the weekend working on my other Land Rover (new brake pipes, tappets adjustments, oil & filter change etc etc...sigh!)

I did manage to find a few evenings to start cleaning up and stripping down the 2lt engine. I know it was running when the previous owner started the restoration but that's about all I know. It turns over by hand nicely and nothing looks broken or damaged .... so far! I plan to strip it down, clean it up, inspect all the pieces and go from there.

Some photos of the engine strip down .....

[bsa_m21]

Andy,

You might want to closely inspect the narrow part of the block casting between the cylinders for cracks. This is typically where they occur. If you do have any cracks, they can be repaired by a good engine rebuilding shop using the old school drill-pin-braze method of casting repair.

Great progress!

Regards,

M.

[ANDYD]

Hi Martin,
Thanks for the tip, I will have a good look for any cracks.

I admittedly don't know much about complete engine strip-down of this 2Lt engine.
-Are there a list of "must do's" as I put it back together?
-Are there certain parts that should always go into the shop like Head, camshaft etc..?
-Should the timing chain always be replaced or only if showing wear?
-Is there a list of "must change" bearings and seals?
-If not already done, should the valve seats be hardened for unleaded fuel? How can I tell?

Cheers
Andy

[ANDYD]

Tonight the engine strip down continued, removing the Timing chain, Crankshaft and pistons. No sign of any cracks or damage, the piston bores look clean and shiny.
I took care to keep all the relevant parts together and made notes and took photos to aid in getting it all back together.
Everything needs a good clean up so I will focus on that over the next evening or two.

Photos showing various steps of strip down (note engine is upside down in the photos)

[ANDYD]

Not a lot of progress in the summer due to camping trips and vacations!
I did take the opportunity when in the UK to stop in at Cox & Turner and pick up a package of Series 1 Engine rebuild parts.
They were very helpful and put together all the parts I was missing / needing for the 2L spread bore engine rebuild.
.....Also found a steering wheel horn push button which I needed and is a rare part to find these days.

[ANDYD]

Continuing on with the Engine strip down, after reading that the series 1 camshafts were a bit of weak link and are more than often suffering a lot of wear on the lobes, I continued with fingers crossed, working my way towards the camshaft, I was hoping mine would be different and I would get away without having to change it out. Of course, I wouldn't be that lucky, and just as I had read there was plenty of wear on the camshaft and the followers..... so off they came and another order went off to Cox & Turner in the UK.

[ANDYD]

While your changing the camshaft it only makes sense to change the cam bearings at the same time as well as the inner shafts.
New camshaft, cam bearings & reconditioned cam followers arrived for me as a nice Christmas pressie :P