The Rover-Landers of BC

Well, after being inspired by other rebuild projects done by fellow Rover-Lander members I started thinking, wouldn't it be awesome if we all took on at least one old Land Rover and brought it back to life! So when this 1956 "project" came along I thought its time, time for me to bring one back to life ... so the story begins..... (June 2017).
First job was to clear the garage (barely room to swing a cat) then rent a U-Haul trailer and to head up to Logan Lake pick up the old girl.
I wasn't really picking up a Land Rover, more a big pile of misc parts and a chassis, hence a car hauler wouldn't work, so I opted for an enclosed trailer which was just about big enough to squeeze all the random parts, boxes, panels, axels, engine (in multiple parts), gearbox, wheels, etc and slide the door shut.... then back to Richmond we went. I wanted to set my self a reasonable goal for finishing the rebuild, I thought maybe 1 year was a reasonable time, ummm, maybe a little optimistic as I have two other running Land Rovers that often shout out for my time and attention. How about 18 months? We will have to see........

Photo 1 - A trailer full of Land Rover parts!
Photo 2 - A garage full of Land Rover parts!

The first step I did was to go through the pile of parts and separate them into 12 Rubbermaid storage bins, marking them up as I went along, Brakes, Steering, Suspension, Engine, Electrical, Heater, etc.. etc .... with the little amount of space I have, I had to be some what organized.
Next step was to get the chassis up on stands (two aluminum saw horses) so I could have a good look at it and decide on what parts needed repairs.

Photo 1 - Sorting and labeling parts.
Photo 2 - Chassis up on stands, ready for inspection

Looks great! Can't wait to see it complete!

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The old chassis is surprisingly solid for being 61 years old! There is only bad rust in 3 typical places, (water/mud traps) the Rear cross member, the Gearbox cross member and one of the bulkhead outriggers. These 3 parts will need replacement, the rest of the chassis just has light surface rust and can be brought back to life.
I was surprised to find out that the Series 1 chassis parts are not so easy to find in North America, (lots of places selling Series 2, 2a, 3, but not Series 1) so I decided to order these replacement chassis parts from England.

Photo 1- Too far gone, rear cross member
Photo 2 -Rusty Gearbox cross member, it's gotta go!

While I patiently await for chassis parts to arrive, attention is turned to the rest of the chassis. I signed up my son to assist me with removing all the old paint and surface rust. Also removing the old suspension bushings which really, really did not want to part with the chassis! After much swearing and sweating I found the best way to remove them was to force out the inner metal tube with a really big hammer, then using a hacksaw to cut almost through the outer metal tube. Then I used a selection of pullers (and pushers!) to get the rest of the old bushing out. Not a nice job for sure!

Photo 1 - Prepping the chassis, removing old paint and rust
Photo 2 - Using a puller / pusher then a BIG hammer!
Photo 3 - Old bushes (removed) New bushes ready for install.

Awesome. Let me know if you need anything.


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Hey Andy,

Looks like you and your son are having fun. Yup, the ONLY way to remove old bushing is as you described. Ah, memories.

FYI - I also have a number of spare parts (pistons, wheel cylinders, trannies, etc.), so let me know before you buy from overseas.

And let me know if/when you need to weld on the new parts. I just finished rebuilding a boat trailer and have run out of metal projects for the moment. (But don't let my wife know!) :bounce:

Hey Guys,
Thanks very much for the offers of parts and assistance. I'm sure I will take you up on that as the project progresses. I am actually a little ahead of my postings here as I started this in June/July and I will catch up to real time with my postings over the next few days.

Continuing with chassis prep I decided to remove the pedal shaft as it was looking quite worn. The only way I could get it to move was with a bottle jack! As I was cranking the jack handle I was hoping it would budge before the chassis rail on the opposite side starting moving :shock: thank fully it did. just popped out (friction fit).

Photo #1 - Bottle jack removing the pedal shaft
Photo #2 - New Chassis parts arriving from England

Its always a big decision to choose the chassis paint. So many to choose from! I went back and forth and did lots of research, finally decided on POR15. Partly because it has a lot of great reviews and partly because its available locally (Lordco). Its not cheap, but as the old adage goes, you get what you pay for!
I was told over and over that the secret with POR15 performance is to complete all 3 steps. Its basically a 3 step process with the painting being the third step. First is the POR15 degreaser, (then rinse with water) second is the POR15 Metal Prep, (then rinse with water) then when totally dry, the third step is the POR15 paint. I have to say when done correctly you do end up with a really nice hard & even finish. I did a full 2 coats at this stage and may do a third & final coat a bit later.
I did one half of the chassis at a time, mainly due to space around the chassis. I left the 3 chassis parts that needed removing and replacing unpainted and would come back to them after welding.
Still haven't decided on whether the steering relay will come out yet (not a nice job at all!)

Photo #1 - the 3 step POR 15 process for chassis painting.
Photo #2 - one half of the chassis getting the first coat.

Andy,

POR 15 degrades over time when exposed to sunlight. (Don't ask how I know... :( )
You may want to top coat it with a chassis paint such as POR-15 (45904) Top Coat Chassis Black or similar.

Looks great Andy! Can't wait to see you puting around in an 86"! I used the POR15 system on my truck and I works great. The "metal prep" is just phosphoric acid, you can usually get it at a marine supply shop for quite cheap. As mentioned above ^^ any areas exposed to sunlight for an extend period of time should be top coated.

Matt

Also forgot to mention, put some plastic over the por15 can before you put the lid back on or else you'll never get the lid off in one piece! Hope I'm not too late with that tip!
Have fun

Matt

Good tips, thanks Matt. Yes, I pretty much destroyed the paint lid on the 3rd time of opening.
Martin, I haven't seen that top-coat at Lordco, have you seen it for sale somewhere locally?

With the three new chassis parts in hand it was time to cut off the old rusty bits and prep the area for welding the new parts on. I had read that the chassis can move about a bit when you cut off the rear cross member so I found a long piece of threaded ready-rod and bolted it in place through the Leaf Spring hangers to try and keep everything straight and true. Also took lots of measurements so I could check everything twice before welding the new bits on.

Photo 1 - Old Rear Cross Member cut off, laying besides the new part
Photo 2 - Threaded ready-rod temporary installed in case there is any movement in the LH/RH chassis rails.

Getting ready for chassis welding, I started clamping all the pieces together (soon found out, a man can never have enough clamps!)
Also fabricated some steel plates to over-lap and strengthen the new and old parts.
After lots of research and having once had to remove the gearbox out of an old Series 2 through the inside of the cab, one modification (upgrade?) I wanted to do was make the gearbox cross member removal from under the vehicle. This way the gearbox can be dropped out the bottom for gearbox maintenance or new clutch etc, just like my more modern Defender. I fabricated 3 different styles of "brackets" until I decided to go with the ones you see below.

Photo 1 - Clamping the new Rear Cross Member in place to confirm measurments.
Photo 2 - Fabricated over-lap plates to add strength when welded.
Photo 3 - Brackets fabricated for making the Gearbox Cross Member removable.

With the chassis now 80% painted it was time to load the chassis onto the trailer and take a visit to a fellow Rover-Lander and good friend who luckily lives near by and has a lovely Welding machine and a good knack for making the metals flow. With all the new bits prepped and clamped in the right places it was time for welding to begin.... finally the chassis would be whole again!

Photo #1 - Chassis 80% painted, loaded and on the move.
Photo #2 - Rear Cross Member clamped and ready to weld.
Photo #3 - Welder doing his magic!

Once back in the garage I am able to complete the chassis painting of all the newly welded on bits and I give the whole thing one more coat. I still have to treat the inside of the chassis with some Waxoyl or similar product. I did take the opportunity to paint as far as I could reach on the inside of the box frame legs on the back end while the rear cross member was removed. (also removed an big old mouse nest from inside the chassis :shock: ).
Next I installed 4 new axle bump stops (really just wanted to finally install some new bits lol).
I also dry fitted the Gearbox Cross Member which was now modified to make it removable. I made up some steel tube sleeves to slide on the fixing bolts to ensure they wouldn't crush the cross member when cranked tight.

Photo #1 - Chassis back in the garage and getting a final coat of POR15
Photo #2 - Gearbox Cross Member modification - now removable instead of fixed.

Looking great!


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Next I turned my focus to the Springs and Axles. The springs had been sent out to be re-arched & re-furbished by the previous owner so I thought may as well go with them rather than purchase new Parabolics.
The front and rear axle casings were treated to a really good clean up and then repainted with POR15. I decided to wait until they are installed before stripping them down as they were a bit heavy and wobbly whilst balanced on the axles stands.

Photo #1 - Axle casing getting cleaned up
Photo #2 - Axle casing with a new coat of paint
Photo #3 - Refurbished Springs ready for installation

ANDYD wrote:Next I turned my focus to the Springs and Axles. The springs had been sent out to be re-arched & re-furbished by the previous owner so I thought may as well go with them rather than purchase new Parabolics.
The front and rear axle casings were treated to a really good clean up and then repainted with POR15. I decided to wait until they are installed before stripping them down as they were a bit heavy and wobbly whilst balanced on the axles stands.

Photo #1 - Axle casing getting cleaned up
Photo #2 - Axle casing with a new coat of paint
Photo #3 - Refurbished Springs ready for installation

Looking great! Love to see the finished product. That will be one tasty Landy.

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I bolted one end of the springs to the chassis, then bolted the Axle casings to the springs and then the other end of the springs to the chassis. Using all new bushings, bolts, u-bolts made the job a lot easier.
I left all the fixings a little loose because I read its better that the springs have some load on them before torqueing them all tight.

Photos - Springs and axle casings being installed to the chassis

Now that I have the Axle casings secure I could focus on stripping them down for cleaning, inspection and to replace the seals, bearings & the distance pieces. The previous owner had purchased some Britpart seals. I know that the reputation of Britpart seals is not the best, but these looked as good as other brands of seals I have purchased and they are here and at no extra cost so I'm going to use them and see how it goes ....

Photo 1 - Rear & Front Axles - pulling out bearings, seals. Inspecting & cleaning up any reusable parts.
Photo 2 - Rear diff, inspecting bearings and replacing seals.

The Distance Pieces had some wear and were a bitch to remove and the new ones needed a shop press to get them installed. The Distance Pieces can get scored and the seals that run on them will start leaking.
There are some good arguments to leaving the axle seals out so the axle oil can run right from one end to the other. I considered the options and decided to refit as per factory install.
My rear axle had what I'm told is a popular modification with the installation of hub spacers. These are 1/2" spacers that allow for the use of Series 2/3 half shafts which are a little longer that Series 1's and still easy to get hold of. Original Series 1's half shafts are very rare and quite expensive.

Photo #1 - Distance Piece - old & new
Photo #2 - Rebuilding, reinstalling
Photo #3 - Brakes and Brake drum all reinstalled (1/2" hub spacer shown with arrow)

Andy, I am absolutely gob-smacked by this project and your mechanical prowess!! Here I thought you were just a figurehead and now I see you are not mortal but a Land Rover god!

Keep in coming, you'll have the beginning of a masterpiece.

Cheers,

Hey Stuart,

Thanks for the words of encouragement, I've been surprised so far, everything has been fairly straight forward, just like a big Mechano Set really, just like we had when we were young ... I have a few challenges with elbow room here, but I remind myself that this little garage is still better than doing this out in the driveway or on the lawn! ha..

Starting pulling a few other parts out of the pile today and discovered those Land Rover Engineers had thought of everything! There is even a nice little toilet seat under the center front seat! Don't even have to stop to use it :shock:

Photo 1 - Center seat toilet lid closed
Photo 2 - Center Seat toilet lid open and ready for action (where is the TP holder?)

Back to business, starting stripping down the front axle, I'm determined to have a "rolling chassis" by Halloween!

I pulled the seals and bearings out of the front diff drive and then removed and disassembled the front brakes, bearings, swivel balls etc.. spent some time cleaning out the axle casings (old smelly gear oil!) There appears to be very little play in the main differentials & they are turning very smoothly Much better than my Defender for sure!
The Chrome Swivel Balls, bearings and seals will all need to be changed for new and I will install the Railco bushings "upgrade" when reassembling.

Photo #1 - Stripping down the Front Diff drive seal & bearing
Photo #2 - Stripping down the Swivel Ball casing, seals and wheel bearings

Once all the parts were disassembled from the front axle I began inspecting & cleaning up everything to see what could be reused and what is scrap! The Swivel ball casings, brake drums, brake backing plates all are good, so just a good cleaning, then de-rust treatment and repainting. The multiple seals, bearings, bushes, chromed swivel balls are all showing some wear so will be renewed.

Photo #1 - New seals installed in the Front axle
Photo #2 - Cleaned up and repainted Swivel Ball housings
Photo #3 - Cleaned up and repainted Brake drums

What are you using to get rid of all the rust? Vinegar bath? Or just elbow grease and wire brush?


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Today I have all the front axle parts laid out on boards on top of the chassis (no room anywhere else!!)
There are a lot of parts and I split them in groups and start the rebuilding process. The brakes are straight forward enough, I have a lot of new parts ready for assembly so I focus on that for a while.
I bagged the old swivel balls up (just stinky!) while I wait to pick new ones.
The half shafts look good, I will likely replace the U joints just because its easy at this point.
There are "Warn" wheel/Hub lockers to inspect, I don't know much about these (never had hub lockers before) so will have to do some internet searching / reading on these. There is also a spare set of "Cutlass" Hub lockers, not sure about these either!
I replaced the Distance Pieces on the Stub axles that the seals ride on like on the rear, again this was a challenge to remove them and I needed a shop press to reinstall the new ones.
I decided that all the seals, bearings and most of the nuts/bolts/ locking tabs should all be replaced.

Photo #1 - All Front Axle parts laid out and the reassemble begins..
Photo #2 - Warn Hub Lockers

Hi Ray,

The process I am using for rust is yes. lots of elbow grease, wire brush, wire brush wheel (on hand drill) then I good bath of the POR de-greaser while scrubbing with a stiff brush, good rinse then the POR metal treatment, another good rinse then when totally dry apply the POR paint (typically 2 or 3 coats)... The POR (Paint Over Rust) application can be applied over a rusty metal as long as its not loose rust or greasy.
Then I hope it will last for ever! (well, at least another 60 years)

Cheers,
Andy

Hey there Andy! Just discovered your project thread, the build looks great. Is the Series I going to replace Jill's Disco?

It seems that being a retired president has left you with time to spare... Nice work, heck of a job in such a tight space.

Hey Pete,
Good to hear from you and nice to see that you are still visiting us here on the forum.
I don't think the Series 1 will replace Jill's Disco (she likes the Automatic's...), but she may soon get mad that she wont be fitting the Disco in the garage when the winter snow arrives! I told her I would "have it fixed up and running around in no time" .... ha, good that I didn't put a date on it ..........
Andy

Always give the month...but never the year. :wink:

Ok, managed to get a few hours on the SI today, focussing on the front axle. There is a lot of confusing information out there on the installation of the Railko Bush kit that is typically used on later Series Land Rovers and also recommended for a Series 1 upgrade (I'm sure there will be some die hard Series One guys out there that prefer to stay totally original, and that's ok too).
The new Railko bush gets installed on the top position of the swivel ball and the roller bearing goes in the bottom where the steering arm connects. This is great for all Series Land Rovers except the Series 1 because the steering arm connects to the top position where the new Railko bush is getting installed. I have read that its just a case of moving the steering arm on the Series 1 to the lower position. This is not the best, plus you then need an extra swivel pin that doesn't come in the Railko kit. Also moving the arm to the bottom puts the steering arm upside down (has a taper) and the ball joints connections upside down, So not ideal.
Anyhow, to save a looooong story and after lots of research I opted for leaving the steering arm on top (with the Railko bush attached to the arm and the bearing at the bottom, This still involved drilling out the little securing pin and a heavy press to remove the old splined pin and the press again to install the Railko pin. Not really the simple DIY job that I had been expecting....

Photo #1 - Swivel Balls, old vs new
Photo #2 - Close-up of years of old scars (hard for the oil seal to work with these)
Photo #3 - New parts including the Railko bush, ready to install

Swivel arms being retro fitted with the Railko bushes. Splined pin needs to first have the securing pin drilled out and then a press popped it out at around 20 tons of "push"!
Once installed (pressed into place the new Railko bush then needs to be drilled so the new securing pins can be installed.

The new Swivel Ball bearings and Railko bushes were gently tapped into the new swivel balls. This part went smoothly so I was very Thankful on Thanksgiving Day!

Photo #1 - Old Splined bush compared to the new Railko bush (and pin)
Photo #2 - New bearing race's being installed
Photo #3 - New lower bearing compared to the old bearing

My Axle from an early Series 2 had the style of swivel pin like yours. I didn't have to go through all of that since I acquired a newer axle but I suppose I would've had to do the same thing. I don't think it matters too much where the steering arms are as long as the bearing is on the bottom.

Do you know the advantage of upgrading to the Railko Bushings or is just for the availability of parts?

Do you know the advantage of upgrading to the Railko Bushings or is just for the availability of parts?

From what I have learnt, the Railko Bush helps dampen the steering, less vibration and more responsive feel.
Also the old splined pin and cone parts wear faster, are getting harder to find and are more expensive to buy these days.

The Swivel Ball assembly was straight forward. On initial testing I could tell I needed more spacing shims so will have to leave these until the new shims arrive.

While I wait for parts to complete the Swivel Balls I spend some time on the front half shafts. Changing the U-joints and inspecting the splines and bushings. The U-joints require the rubber dust guard to be removed as these u-joints are running inside the axle and in a bath of gear oil.

New shims arrived quickly thanks to Jeremy at Rocky Mountain, so spent some time getting the correct "drag". Lots of confusion on web about what is the right amount of resistance. Its doesn't help that its a mix of Series 1 and Series 3 parts with the Railko bush. I settled for between 6-7 kg of "drag" which feels right. I can always add / remove a shim later on if required. Then fitted the swivel ball seal and retainer. The swivel balls are ready for refitting now.

Photo #1 - adding / removing shims
Photo #2 - New seal and retainer ready to go on
Photo #3 - Seal & retainer installed.

Good progress today with getting the swivel ball housings reinstalled, then the brake back plates followed by the slave cylinders and brake shoes. Then slid the two half shafts into place.

Looking good Andy!

Thanks Dave, its a labour of love as you know with yours! Good days and bad days.....

Completed putting together the front brakes and hubs. All I need now is a steering bar and the wheels on and this chassis will be rolling again :bounce: First time for 7 years (previous owner dismantled this Land Rover in 2010)

After looking into the steering parts more I confirmed that there are two types of tie-rod ends (early type & the later type), the early ones need to go into the early steering bars and the later ones should go with later steering bars and they shouldn't be mixed.
The early tie rod ends have a shank on them that is designed to have the clamp tightened on the unthreaded section where as the later one is threaded all the way along and the clamp is designed to be tightened on the threaded section.
The early ones have a castle nut and split pin where as the later type have a ny-lock nut. The tapers and threads are the same.
I found that you can use the later (series 3) steering bars on a series 1 but you should then use the later tie rod ends.

Photo #1 - Front axle almost fully assembled and completed
Photo #2 - Early type of steering tie-rod end (left) compared with the later type of tie-rod end (right)

Andy,

You are quite correct re the tie road ends. There are a number of reports in the UK, of owners who mixed them up and ended up with failures causing crashes, and even death. :|

M.

Damn Andy...you are just ripping along with this project. Gonna give those Land Rover restoration guys in Solihull a run for their money.

Yes .... :happy7:

She rolled out of the garage on the weekend for a 3m "leg" stretch, felt how cold it was and rolled right back in again..

Now to dig out the next box of parts.

I guess it is my turn to get a move on.

Yeah, I need to empty my garage now so I can get to work on my trucks too.


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Coming along nicely Andy. What are you using for hosting/posting your pictures on the forum? I can never get any small enough for the forum to load them?

Matt

Here is a simple free tool to resize and save a copy of your photo's so you can upload them from your desktop to this forum.

http://www.rw-designer.com/picture-resize

M.

Re Photos

I just open them with Microsoft Office Picture Manager (as far as I know it is pre-installed on all Windows products) click on edit and resize to 900 x 600, quick and simple and uploads easy every time .......

- Cheers,
Andy

So onto the Internal Chassis Rust protection, I would of like to go with the Waxoyl product but I found it hard to get hold off and very expensive. When surfing the net for alternatives I found some good reviews for Eastwood Internal Chassis Coating which comes conveniently in large aerosol cans with a 24" tube for getting inside the chassis.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that KMS tools stock this locally and it comes in Black and Green. Green was on sale for about $25 a can, so that helped me decide!
All in all it went very smoothly, I found 3 large cans did a good two coats of the complete internal chassis and the nozzles performed as advertised and gave a 360 deg spray coverage. It is quite runny, I would of liked to of seen it a bit of a thicker mix. (they likely keep it thin so it doesn't clog the nozzle).
Once complete, I had a good look through several holes along the chassis and the coverage appeared very good. There was a couple of cross sections that I couldn't get the tube to access. I considered drilling a couple of new holes :shock: but then decided against it.

A few tips I learnt along the way,
-Tape up all the chassis holes you are not using, this will stop the paint coming out and dribbling all over the outside of the chassis and floor.
-I taped some stiff wire (old coat hanger) to the spray tube, this helped keep the tube straight and allowed for more control of where the nozzle end went.
-Do a dry run inserting the tube into all sections of the chassis before actually spraying.
-Push the tube in as far as it can go, then spray while slowly withdrawing it back to the hole.
-Keep a damp rag handy as you will get a bit of mess / runs and this stuff dries quickly.
- Its smelly and messy, use disposable gloves and respirator.

Andy,

Let's face it, anything with the Eastwood name must be good :wink:

The truck is looking great by-the-way

When you finish that one Andy just tell me your hourly rate, I have 5 waiting...


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Ha, yes Bill, Mr Eastwood is the best!
Hey Ray, keep them safe until until I finish this one and then Ill come over and give you a hand!

Ok, this week I have been jumping around a bit on different areas of the LR, I made up and ran some new brake lines, spent some time inspecting the steering relay (not looking forward to that!) and ended up working on the fuel tank.

The fuel tank looks original so its likely 61 years old :shock: Actually pretty good shape. I have heard they can seep a bit around the seams so I filled it up with water and let it sit for a few hours. All good so far. After some research on the web I decided to give it a tank sealer treatment, mainly just because the previous owner had stripped it down of all fittings and cleaned it inside and out, its off the vehicle and probably never a better / easier time to do it.
I went again for the POR-15 (no I don't have shares in the company!) just because it has good reviews and available locally.

Basically the process goes like this;
Step 1- Pour in the Degreaser mixed 50/50 with hot water, seal up all openings on the tank with duct tape and then pick up the tank and slosh it around for 30 mins. Pour out and rinse out well with a water hose.
Step 2- Pour in the Metal Prep, seal up all the openings on the tank with duct tape and then pick up the tank and slosh it around for 30 mins. Pour out and rinse the tank out with a water hose.
Step 3- When the tank is totally bone dry (a heat gun can help with this) Stir up the tin of Tank Sealer and pour it into the tank. Once again seal up the tank with duct tape, roll the tank slowly onto all four sides, then the two ends, repeat this a few times for 30 mins. Remove the duct tape from one of the holes and drain the excess tank sealer out. Let the tank dry / harden for at least 4 days.

That's it, it was nice and easy to handle a small Land Rover tank for this process. Now I feel better a bit more confident that my 61 year old tank will keep my precious fuel on the inside of the tank...

Wow looks great!


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Its been a productive couple of weeks, I finished the restoration of the fuel tank and installed it along with the intake, sender and fill spout....

The old brake lines had been removed and disposed of by the previous owner so I didn't have any old "templates" to follow, so I had to start from scratch, using information from club members, manuals and the internet. I borrowed a brake flaring kit and got to work.... I learnt a lot along the way about "double flares" and "bubble flares" and male fittings and female fittings etc.. but it is very important that you identify the type of flare you need for each connection. With the newer Series 2 & 3 parts that you have to buy for the older Series 1 Land Rovers its quite likely you will require a "double flare" at one end of the brake pipe and a "bubble flare" at the other end.. :shock:

Its a good feeling to start emptying boxes of random parts and bolting them into place. I cleaned up, painted and installed the hand brake assembly. Its awesome to see the old 1950's engineering that went into making the handbrake work on the LHD.
After getting the hand brake installed I turned my attention to the Master Brake Cylinder. A lot of people modify a Series 2 Master Cylinder to work on a Series 1, mainly because its a bout 1/10th of the price and more readily available. After inspection of mine, it looks it really good condition (internally) so I have decided to order a new seal kit and try that first. Only time will tell if that was a good idea .... I've not had a lot of success with new MC seal kits in the past and once vowed never to use one again ... we will see!

Merry Christmas Andy,

I used a brake hone to clean up the master cylinder on my 80" (same one as your's) when I first rebuilt it. But she started leaking after several years. Well after fighting with multiple rebuilds over the years, I gave up. I was going to get the master cylinder sleeved with a stainless steel insert, but it was way cheaper and better (IMHO) to replace the unit with one from Wilwood. (http://www.wilwood.com/MasterCylinders/ ... 20Cylinder)

Unless you are going for a concours resto, the change is invisible and he benefit of incorporating dual circuit brakes instead of the original single circuit swayed me. I also added 2psi Residual Pressure Valves to improve the feel of the brakes. Works like a charm.

M.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the tips. With the new MC fitted did you keep the original brake fluid reservoir? Also did you re-run the brake lines to separate the front and rear into two circuits?

cheers,
Andy

I love the brake fluid reservoir in my Series 1. It’s like an old pre-war can for truffle oil, or something equally obscure.


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Hi Andy,

Actually, I replaced the remote reservoir with a plastic one as mine was rotting out. A simple brake-safe hose connects from the reservoir to the existing pipe.

On my 80", the brake lines already split (front/rear) at the MC with a T-junction, so I just removed the T, added two connectors and short pipe sections to connect them to the MC. No proportioning valve mind you. I really only separated them for safety if one line is compromised.

M.

OK, it's time to address the dreaded Steering Relay.
It actually turns smoothly and has no play or obvious wear & tear. Originally I was considering just leaving it well alone.

On closer inspection I could see that where the upper and lower oil seal sit there is grooves worn into the shaft and its unlikely that new seals will ever keep the oil in. In addition to this I cant get any new oil in or out of the steering unit. I have come to the conclusion that sometime in the past a previous owner has given up trying to seal the oil leaks so has just filled the unit with thick grease.
So with no idea if its full of good grease / old grease / no grease the only option is to change the whole unit or change the inner parts.
After a few days of trying to remove the complete unit, including a 20 ton hydraulic jack, a full can of penetrating oil and various large hammers.... I come to the conclusion that I will go with just removing the inner parts.
I recently discovered that the previous owner had already removed the upper and lower oil seals and the retainer, the famous large spring has apparently be free to come shooting out at any time but it had chosen not to .... not yet anyway!

Can you clean it out by spraying brake cleaner into it and then injecting fresh grease?


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rayhyland wrote:Can you clean it out by spraying brake cleaner into it and then injecting fresh grease?

That's what I did. Worked great.

Ray / Martin, Thanks for the tips.. So to clarify, you mean to and spray brake cleaner into the little hole in the top with the hope the old thick grease breaks down and all drains out the little screw hole in the bottom? Would brake cleaner break it down that thin?
How would I know how much of the old grease has been removed?

Hummmmm ..... I can see that as an option if the vehicle was all complete and the relay was hard to access, but right now as a rolling chassis it would probably make sense to fully service the unit.

I'm going to ponder it some more with my mug of tea and a cookie or two or three .....

If you can’t get it out, and you said it’s nice and smooth, I’d go this route. If it’s stiff then you need to do what you need to do. I’ve heard of people having to cut them out with a torch...

Mine was really really bad. Drove it like that till we reached the UAE when I came across a spare.


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As the Steering Relay body doesn't want to move I decided to see if the Steering Relay inner parts would come out.
With bucket positioned underneath I gave it a few good taps downwards and the shaft has started to move down. It moved down about 1 inch before getting stuck again. It did open up at the top enough to let me get a bunch of penetrating oil into the relay body. I will leave it soaking for a day or two before giving it another good bang downwards. Apparently the BIG spring is in no hurry to leave its home!

Photo - Steering Relay Shaft moved down about 1 inch before getting stuck again.

After another day of good soaking time in penetrating oil and grabbing a bigger hammer I was able persuade the Steering Relay "guts" to fall out the bottom into my rag filled bucket, a lot less drama with the big spring than I was expecting, partially I expect due to the amount of rusty, corrosion that had built up inside the relay body.
It looks like at some time in its life, water was able to find its way into the housing and everything is pretty rusty.

1st Photo - is looking through the Steering Relay body from the top
2nd Photo - is all the "guts" spread out after retrieving them from the bucket

Can you reuse anything or are you getting all new parts?


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Nothing really worth re-using, all very rusty and corroded. The internal replacement parts are not expensive and Jeremy has them all in stock.

Well, after feeling a new burst of energy from removing the Steering Relay inner parts I decided to have another go at getting the old steering relay body off. With the guts removed I could see that a simple pulling jig could be made with a piece of 3/4" ready-rod through the center of the body and a couple of spacers and washers, all I had to do was crank the nut down the ready rod and it should pull and pop the relay body right out of the chassis...... ummmm ... sounds so simple, what could possible go wrong....

Photo 1 - Pulling Jig in place, start cranking on the nut to pull the steering relay body out of the chassis
Photo 2 - Movement! The steering Relay body starts to move upwards... Success?

The upwards movement continued, this was going way too easily?
Then I realised that the "pop" I heard wasn't the Steering Relay body coming loose but it was actually the welds breaking on the metal tube that the relay sits inside. The top and bottom welds had sheared right off and the sleeve had come out still firmly attached to the relay body...
Once off the chassis, it still took a lot of work to remove the metal sleeve from the relay body, 61 years of crud in the gap had done an amazing job of welding to two parts together.

Now I will have to get this piece welded back in place (still seems very solid) then I can finally install the brand new Steering Relay.
I think I will rebuild the old one and keep it as a spare, I hate throwing out any original Series 1 parts :roll:

Photo 1- The welded sleeve popped right out of the chassis before the corroded parts would let go of each other
Photo 2- Hopefully this sleeve will pop right back in and I can get it re-welded back in place.

A quick call to "Rothman's Mobile Welding Unit".. (a very friendly, helpful Rover-Landers Member) and we had the welding on the go!

It didn't take long to get the metal sleeve back in place and we also took the opportunity to replace the 3 tabs that support the Front "Breakfast" piece, they had been chopped off :shock: by a previous owner for some strange reason.

Photos 1 & 2 - The young :wink: welder in action.....

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

any updates Andy?

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.

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)

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

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.

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.

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.

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 .......

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

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

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.

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.

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".

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

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

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.

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?

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 .....

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.

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

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)

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.

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.

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

While chatting about new engine parts with "engine people" I was recommended to change out the core (freeze) plugs while getting this deep into the engine rebuild, after 63 years they could start to rust away on the inside. I was surprised how solid they actually still were, just a thin layer of rust on the back side. They took a fair bit of 'tapping" to get them out. I was told to whack them on the lower half of the plug inwards until the top half flipped outwards... but of course it wasn't that easy. The old core plugs just wanted to dome inwards until a hole was punctured through them. I was resigned to getting a bigger hammer and to knock them right through until they were inside the block, then grab them with some pliars on the edge and yank them back out of the hole I just knocked them through.

To take a break from the engine rebuild I thought I would work on a dry fit of the transmission. The reason I needed a dryfit was because I have a new later Series removable gearbox cross-member fitted to the chassis so I wanted to change up to the better designed (IMO) later series gearbox brackets and mounts. The Series 1 gearbox mounts consist of multiple parts including rubber, tubes and washers where as the later mounts are just a moulded piece of rubber with a stud sticking out of each side. The later ones are readily available and fit very nicely onto my later gearbox cross-member.
The dry fit went well, everything lined up well. The later brackets bolted right onto the gearbox without any modification.

Back to the engine rebuild, I turned my attention to the pistons. After lots of measuring I was surprised to find everything was still within the tolerances given in the work shop manual and all parts are still "standard" size. I had purchased new piston rings and bearings so I spent some time cleaning, removing the old rings and fitting the new rings. My pistons have 4 rings, apparently some have 3 rings. I found the best way to get the rings on and off without scratching the piston or dropping the ring into the wrong groove was to wrap tape over the piston grooves I needed to cross over, then just slide the new ring down the piston to the one open groove that you wanted to install it into. Some rings have "Top" or "T" marked on them, its important to have that side upwards. The new rings all went on smoothly with no broken rings.

I also spent some time taking the oil sump pick-up apart to clean inspect and measure. Which was a good thing as I found someone had assembled it incorrectly in the past and some parts needed to be reversed! The oil filter was in rough shape and had some extra holes drilled in it. The previous owner had sourced a replacement filter which was one piece compared to the old one which was made up from several parts. Has anyone tried or have experience of using the newer one piece filter?

Nice rebuild
Did you ever look into if it’s possible to put a
Inline oil filter or something better than just a screen :D

Thanks Herman,

It does have the main oil filter further down the line so the pick up filter in the sump is just really a pre-screen.
My plan to keep it as simple and original as possible, but I am always open to some hidden upgrades if it was done on the Series 2 & 3's.

Cheers,
Andy

Andy-

Great work. Your journey brings back a lot of memories of a rebuild I did of a 107 Station Wagon. It was so much fun and taught me about a lot of things in life.

Have you been in touch with Ike Goss down at Pangolin 4x4 in Salem, Oregon? I'm sure you have, but he's a wealth of info. Here's a glimpse at my truck. You see it here with the Duke, another 107. The Duke is on the right.

Looking forward to seeing more progress.

Matthew Clark
PCRC • Seattle
1973 88" Hardtop

Hi Mathew, thanks for you comments, those two Land Rovers in your photo look like beauties!

Well, I'm a bit behind on my progress and photos here so I will attempt to catch up over the next week.
I had one bad piston and had a hard job finding a matching one. I learnt a lot about all the subtle differences that the S1's pistons had.
I finally bit the bullet and ordered one from Cox & Turner who always has everything and anything you could possibly need but with the shipping it doesn't come cheap! The photo below shows just some of the differences in just a few years.

I have the engine totally stripped down now and I am prepping (washing and degreasing) it for some new paint.

Before starting the engine painting I thought it made sense to install the 4 new core plugs. First I put the pressure washer through all the water ways and made sure everything was flushed out and clean. Turning the engine on the engine stand to help flush. I then used compressed air to clear any remaining water.

I used a smear of Hylomar Aerograde sealant in the engine openings and then tapped in the new core plugs using a large washer bolted to socket (see photo). They tapped in fairly easily although it was challenging to keep them square as they tapped into position. There is 3 core plugs along one side and 1 core plug on the back end.

Now the engine is totally degreased, clean and ready for paint, the long arduous task of masking has to be done. The masking takes about 5 times longer than the actual painting but its worth spending the time on it. My Engine is 1955-1956 which the books say should be a silver / grey. I found a locally supplied engine paint that was very close to the colour I needed, and then painting began!

Ticking one job off at a time I have moved onto fitting the new exhaust valves into the existing valve seats. The existing valve seats were in good condition but had a few tiny lines (see circled photo) so I wanted to remove the lines and also to match the new valve profile on the old valve seats. I started off by marking each new valve (1 to 4) so I didn't mix them up, then added a layer of grinding paste between the two surfaces and attached a cordless drill on the end of the new valve (I taped the new valve end so the drill jaws wouldn't scratch it) then slowly spun the new valve with the drill while applying a little pressure, rotating clockwise then counterclockwise. It didn't take long until i had a nice smooth clean valve seat and all the tiny lines had gone. I repeated this on each on the four valves until they all were seated nice and snugly.

Hey Andy,

Looking good!!

If you haven’t done the intakes yet, you can replace and upgrade the guides to “modern” ones with real oil seals.

2.25 valve guides and seals are cheaper than the original type and have a much better seal arrangement. You don't really need any seals on the exhaust guides due to the orientation and positive pressure that they are under when valves open. The inlet guides can be fitted unmodified, but the exhaust ones, if you want to change them, need to be cut down a bit. See below:

Hi Martin, thanks for the valve info. I have already completed the valves, all new parts from England. I believe the later Series 1 seals are already a better design than the early valve seals. Time will tell!

Moved onto giving the cylinder bores I wanted to do a light honing. They are still standard size bores but were quite polished with a few small piston scratches, so a light honing should be all it needs. Keeping it simple I just used a sprung honing tool on a cordless drill with lots of clean engine oil. A few minutes in each bore took off the polished mirror finish and left me with a nice hazy finish

I had read that because of the sloped top on the Spreadbore engine, its hard to get the pistons in from the top because the ring compressor cant sit flush on the surface when sliding the pistons in. So its a great opportunity while the Crankshaft is out to slide the pistons in from the bottom.
So flipped the engine upside down and slid the pistons with new rings, slowly and carefully with lots of oil rubbed into the bores.

Next was fitting the new shell bearings to the crankshaft, again with lots of clean oil. The old ones were showing a little wear.
The new ones clicked in place easily and then it was time to drop the crankshaft into position. Following the specs in the workshop manual to check gaps and torques for bolting everything into place.

The end cap and seal is notorious for being a pain as the cork seal "cross" is tough to get into place without tearing it.
New main end seal was installed first, then the cork "cross" is installed. It protrudes about 1/16th so the challenge is to slide it into place without slicing the extra 1/16th of cork off as it slides in.
At first I tried the sacrificing a couple of feeler gauges (see photo) which seemed to work at first but then as the feeler gauges slid in with the part I realized that there was no way to get them out again. Ummm couldn't leave them in there so off it came again. Good job I did as the cork cross was pretty chewed up.
The next idea was two polished plates with a "c" clamp, the idea was to clamp the cork cross as flush as possible while gently tapping the end cap down into its slot. This method seemed to go fairly smoothly and the end cap slid down into position. There wasn't any pieces of torn cork left laying around afterwards so I'm fairly optimistic that it went into place intact. You really have no way of telling as you can not see it once its all in place.

Next on the list was the new camshaft and bearings.
I found the only way I could get all the bearings in the right place was slide in the new cam shaft in to about 2" from its final location. Then assemble each bearing (comes in two halves) onto the camshaft, then once the bearing are clicked together, slide the camshaft the rest of the way into its final location. It was a bit fiddly but not to bad. Once everything is in the right spot there are a couple of locating / securing screws t keep everything locked in the right place.

Moving onto the exhaust valve rocker shafts, another bunch of new parts from Cox and Turner. You can see some wear on the old shafts.
The shaft comes in two pieces, its like a puzzle figuring which rocker goes where and which way around. The springs and washer all have to be in the correct spots or else nothing will line up correctly. Once it is all in the right order a couple of special screws hold it all in place.

The Series 1 engine has some strange metal water "pipes" running through the block. I cleaned them up a little and slid them back into place.
The cover received a quick coat of matching new paint and then installed with a new cork gasket.

Moving my attention over to the cylinder head, although the head surface was nice and flat it did have some fine lines from the old gasket and a few scratches, likely from storage. My original plan to get the surface skimmed in a machine shop but an old wise friend convinced me to give his "old school" method a try. It was basically getting a nice thick flat piece of glass or marble counter top, apply some fine sand paper (with adhesive backing) and using the weight of the head for downwards pressure, move the head around in a figure of eight shape. I had to change the sand paper a few times but after about 2 hours I was able to remove most of the fine scratches and old gasket marks. My thoughts after trying this method is its a good method for fine scratches & marks but for any thing more than that or for any type of warping it would take days and days to do, so better to take to a machine shop.
After a good cleaning and some thorough de-greasing it was ready to masking before painting.

The original Inlet valves were in great shape so they just needed a clean up and new valve seals. The valve guides also looked to be in great shape with very little excess movement. I wanted to re-seat the valves so it was back to the valve grinding paste, hand held drill in forward / reverse on the drill until I had a nice clean "grey" ring around the valve and around the seat to get a really good seal when the valve is closed.

Before fitting the valves I wanted to get the rockers and shaft installed. I had picked up a new shaft, the rockers were in good shape so just a clean up was required. I carefully laid the parts in a line as they came off the old shaft to make it easy to refit them onto the new shaft. It was quite fiddly to get all the mounting posts and rockers correctly orientated, but with a few swear words and some patience I had the assembly installed onto the cylinder head.

Then back onto fitting the inlet valves, I had earlier dry fitted them with some Vasaline, marked them 1-2-3-4 because they have been individually custom fit onto each valve seat. They still needed the valve seals installed, I had a pack of new original seals, so it was just a case of carefully placing each new O-ring seal into the recess at the top end of the valve guide and sliding in the valve. Once the valve is installed, it shouldn't be removed again as this can rip the O-ring. (the valve shape allows the valve to be inserted through the o-ring but the shape doesn't allow easy valve removal with out seal damage).

The final step was to reinstall the valve springs & special retaining washers, the spring needed to be compressed with a valve spring compressor ($20 of Craigslist) and then the tiny split cone in two halves are held in place while slowly releasing the spring compressor. The split cones are retained inside the special washer and everything is held together nicely... time for another cuppa tea!

Looks great Andy, she’s going to prrr nicely once your done with it!

Matt

Thanks very much for sharing the rebuild. I picked up a series 1 2.0 spreadbore engine recently with the idea to strip and restore as a good one. This post is most insightful. Good luck with everything.
Cheers
Ian

Thanks Matt & Ian, I'm actually enjoying it (when its all going right!)

So with the head now complete, it was time to refit it to the block. I had purchased a new copper head gasket as recommended by Cox and Turner and also a light spread of jointing compound . It's often said that the jointing compound is not needed with the copper gaskets but there seems to be mixed feelings on this so I thought it wouldnt hurt to put some on. I used the Hylomar Aerograde mainly because I had some handy.
Head was installed, the bolts torqued up to the required spec and tightened in the order as listed in the WS manual.
I had to remove the Valve Rockers assembly that I had previously installed onto the head because the 4 long Tappet push rods (inlet) needed to be slid in before, but only a 20 minute set back, so live and learn I guess!
The valve rockers were then adjusted to position each rod between the Cam followers and the valve rockers.
Finally it is starting to look like an engine again!

Looking fantastic!


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Thanks Ray. Your trip half way around the world in a Series 1 did add some extra inspiration to keep this project moving along ...

The front cover seal was next on the list, the old one didnt want to come out, so I had to basically break it apart, taking care not to damage the soft aluminum cover.
Eventually it was all out and then I added a little sealant and tapped the new seal in place with a suitably sized "washer" that I had laying around. The aluminum cover was quite dull even after cleaning so I buffed it up a little with a wire wheel in a cordless drill.

The pile of engine parts is getting smaller so I know i'm making progress!
I cleaned up the engine mounts with cleaner and degreaser and painted with POR 15 and bolted onto the engine with new locking tabs.
Then onto installing the oil filter mount with new gasket.

Time to get back to the S1 project after a long summer of camping and club trips around beautiful BC!

I had continued to paint a few engine parts and pretty much dry fit every part, this was partially because I wanted to confirm if I had any parts missing. It was great to finally start emptying boxes of parts and see where they were supposed to go on the engine.

Mainly to make some space in my very small garage, it was time to remove the engine from the loaned engine stand (thanks Martin) and drop it into the chassis. I could continue to work on it while sitting on its mounts.
I had previously dry fitted the timing chain, which would have to be re-checked once my search for a replacement flywheel was concluded. I learnt a lot about S1 flywheels over the summer and how many different types there were in just a few short years, but I will save that for another post.
Once the engine was sitting on the chassis I spent some time setting the intake and exhaust gaps, fairly easy to do just following the WS manual.

Engine coming off the stand and going into the chassis. I had the gearbox set back a few inches so there would be a gap between engine and gearbox to fit the flywheel .... when I found one.

Flywheels .... my flywheel that originally came with the vehicle had a fair bit of damage to the teeth from engagement with the starter motor, it had also been machined down by about 1/4" on the clutch face. There was no way I was going to going to be able to use it. So the replacement flywheel hunt began. My research led me through a confusing amount of conflicting information on the different flywheels that were made for the Series ones and none of them are inter-changeable unless you also change a whole bunch of other parts.
So basically, there were at least 4 different flywheels used between 1954 and 1958. A lot of this was because the starter motor was different around the 1955-1956 years as they went to a "pull-in" type rather than a "throw-out" type of starter. This also changed the teeth from one side of the flywheel to the other and also the chamfer on the teeth that assists with the starter engagement is on a different side. There is one type that has fixed studs that attach the clutch to the flywheel compared to the other type that uses bolts to attach the clutch. Then there is the half year that they changed from machined flywheels to cast flywheels... There is a whole other chapter on the ones that have a interchangeable gear rings and the ones that dont! :shock:

To cut a long story short, on my engine, I eventually came to the conclusion that the previous owner had the incorrect flywheel fitted, hence the damaged teeth from the chamfer being on the wrong side and it was turned down to try and make a thicker flywheel work. I eventually found a good used flywheel (big thanks to Stuart L and Alan S) that was correct for the engine and year.

I knocked out the old center brass bush and replaced it with a new one which was installed using a mix of the correct size socket and some large washers. I gave it a good clean up and confirmed the face was flat and true.

The original clutch plate still had a fair bit of material left on it but it seemed like a good opportunity to put a new one in. I noticed the new part was identical except the center spline section was thicker on the old plate (see photo). I don't think this will be an issue but if you know better, please let me know!
The flywheel and clutch parts were now ready to be installed.

Putting the flywheel housing, flywheel, Clutch plate all went smoothly, just following the WS manual step by step....

It was time to finally connect the Gearbox to the engine. I have read that the alignment can be tricky. I didn't have the special tool to centrally align the clutch plate so I found the correct size socket and socket extension that seemed to do the same job. I used this to get the clutch plate as central as possible before bringing the two parts together.
I had to adjust the lift slings a few times to get the gearbox and engine as level to each other as possible, then rolled the crane lift back to bring the two parts together. The two parts came together surprisingly easily, there was one point where it started to feel like it was sticking so I turned the flywheel a few degrees each way until things started moving again.
Once the two faces came together the bolts were put in place and the gearbox mounts secured.
That was good progress for the day ....

While I work on the bulkhead, getting it ready for paint, I also wanted to wrap up any items that are located under the bulkhead and would be harder to access once the bulkhead is installed. One of these items is the pedal shaft. The original was very worn so I had ordered one from Craddocks in the UK including some new bushes.
You can see on the photos what 64 years of wear can do to the pedal shaft.
I also prepped and treated the Clutch and Brake pedals for new paint and installed the new bushes.

When trying the pedal levers onto the new pedal shaft I found one of the bushes to be too tight to fit onto the shaft. Not wanting to have to reorder a new bush I decided to try honing it out with a small brake cylinder honer. I only had to open the internal bush diameter by about 0.5mm and it only took a few minutes with the honing tool to open it up to the perfect size.

The next step was to install the Pedal Shaft and Clutch Lever Shaft into the chassis. I also dry-fitted the rest of the pedals parts just to confirm that they would line up with the two oval shaped pedal holes in the foot-wells of the bulkhead.

The previous owner had done most of the hard work with the bulkhead restoration which just left me a with a few days of sanding and prep work getting it ready for paint.
I was sure I had a few extra holes that had been added through the bulkhead but as I wasn't totally sure which ones were the extra ones so I decided any extra holes I had once everything was installed, I would just install rubber blocking grommets into the spare holes.
Bronze Green will be the finished colour, I had brought a sample tin back with me from the UK and I had a local paint company in Richmond mix me up a bunch more which they did using the sample from England. I rigged up a small painting tent at one end of the garage and painting begins ..... :mrgreen:

That looks to progressing along nicely

Thanks Richard, its good to be putting "big bits" together, makes one think they are making some progress!

After four coats of paint the bulkhead was ready for install. I had dry fitted it previously along with the seatbox and back box. I read that was important to do as there can often be 1/2" difference after replace Chassis parts and better to do the adjustments before the finish paint goes on!

Bulkhead installation went smoothly, as did the two vent flaps. Then onto the steering column brackets and seal.

The Steering Wheel that came with my S1 was from a later Series truck, so I went on the hunt to find a n earlier one. The one I found was a little rough with some cracks in the normal places but I knew if I gave it some TLC these wheel can come back to life. I pushed JB weld epoxy into the cracks and gave it all a good sand down.
The masking of the metal wire spokes was a pain... but after a few hours it was ready for paint.

The steering wheel center horn was next. I believe the one I have is an early Series 2, but I prefer the horn to be in the center of the wheel rather than on the column as the earlier Series 1 were located. I picked up some "Wrinkly" Paint which was slow to wrinkle, but did eventually wrinkle nicely to give it the proper look!

Steering wheel is put in place (dry fit only) and then I spent some time installing the pedals and linkages including new felt pads and grommets that the pedals pass through from underneath. A bunch of bulkhead braces and brackets were cleaned, painted and installed. She's finally starting to look like a Land Rover :D

Hey Andy,

Looking great!!

Good to see you are not wasting all that time at home you now have. :bounce:

Martin

Fantastic work Andy 👍👍👍 makes me want to strip mine down and start all over again.

Thanks Martin & Dave, Yes I am finding myself at home more lately :cry: .... but I guess the small positive in all these crazy times is I can spend some extra time on the project instead of being out and about in the mountains. Mind you, I have a new R380 Gearbox for the Defender sitting in the garage waiting for installation, so that project might bump this project soon!

Anyhow, back to the grind S1.... So one of the previous owners had decided to coat most of the beautiful galvanized metal parts with a thick black paint, it looks like it was applied with a roller or brush, not very pretty at all. The next job was to remove all the 'orrible black paint around the windsheild and clean up the metal work.
I used Aircraft Paint Stripper which is powerful stuff but powerful stuff was needed to remove the think coating of cheap black paint.

While the garage was full of paint stripping fumes, I moved onto the dining table (much to the delight of the wife!) to begin the re & re of the dash panel.
The dash panel was in need of some new paint and it also had a few extra holes in in which I planned to fill with metal epoxy. The dash lights were also a mix of 3 different types, so I would be looking at getting 3 new matching lights. The gauges were in good condition but a little dirty and needed cleaning up. The odometer has 57k on it which I believe to be original according to the documentation. All the parts came apart quite easily, things were made much more simple back in the 50"s

The gauges cleaned up nicely, I used a Q-tip dipped in soapy water to clean what I could. Repainted the gauge bezels black and repainted the panel Bronze Green
I researched the 3 lights, I needed 1 green, 1 red and 1 amber. The new ones I could order from England were plastic and over priced ($20 each :shock: ).
I really preferred to find some metal rimmed ones and remembered from my boat building days that Cole Hersee made some very similar looking ones that were marine grade. I was able to order all three lens colours with metal rim's, the correct dimensions and better quality than the originals for $10 each. I have listed the part numbers for the lights if anyone is interested. The bezels come in silver(which some people like) but I sprayed mine black.
Cole Hersee Part numbers;
PL-20-AC - 12v Amber lens
PL-20-GC - 12v Green lens
PL-20-RC - 12v Red lens

Nice work. There is something extremely satisfying about renewing the gauge cluster isn’t there?

Andy that gauge cluster is looking great! But isn't the speedo supposed to be on the other side?

Looking forward to seeing the finished project.

Hey Colin,

Yes, I did look into that and I couldn't find confirmation that they moved the Speedo over to the left side on a Left Hand Drive but it did make sense to do this when sitting on the left side. I'm wondering if the new wiring harness would still work either way, will have to look into that. Was yours on the right side Colin?

I'm sure our Guru Matt will let us know if Speedo was moved to the left side for LHD. Wonder what others have in their LHD's???

-Andy

ANDYD wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 12:15 pm
I'm sure our Guru Matt will let us know if Speedo was moved to the left side for LHD. Wonder what others have in their LHD's???

-Andy

The speedo never moved for LHD vehicles. I have spoken.

Matt

Oh wise one, thank you for your wisdom, I will reverse my decision and move it back to the right side!

Cheers, Andy

PS- Should the badge say Birmingham or Solihul ???

The Birmingham badge was used on trucks (not 80”’s) up until 1959 on the early series 2’s. I have a 1959 built late 1958 with Birmingham badges and a 1959 built oct 1959 with solihull badges.

Matt

Hi Andy, Just wondering if you had installed the new seals on your vent flaps. I am Just about to do that on my 1957 88" Looks like it could be tricky so I would like to talk to some one who has done it Cheers Robin

Hi Robin,

I haven't done the vent flap seals yet, I see them readily available at various locations in the UK but have put them on the back-burner for a while.
I have seen others use just a simple square shaped self-adhesive foam strip but not sure what direction to go in yet,

If you do yours in the meantime, let me know how it goes,

Cheers
Andy

very cool ,its looking good

Hi Andy, I have been avoiding these seals for a few weeks. As far as I know the series one seals are the only ones that are not a one piece seal. The kit I purchased has four individual parts , one is bevelled that goes in the top. The parts were tightly rolled up in shipping so I am pressing them under some heavy books in a warm place to try and get them straighter before the install. I hope the weather stripping glue I was told to use is good or I am anticipating a mess. Cheers for now, Robin

Thanks Troy, do you have a LR project on the go?

Robin, yes four separate pieces for the seals as far as I know, looking forward to seeing how yours turn out.

Back to stripping all the thick black paint off the galvanized windscreen frame and adjoining parts. It wasn't a pleasant job at all and make sure you wear a respirator and gloves when using that aircraft paint stripper. It took a couple of days to remove all the paint and then another couple of days cleaning the galvanized metal with a white vinegar mix. It came up not too bad but a lot of vinegar soaking and "elbow grease" was needed. The glass was in not bad of shape but does have a few scratches and one piece has bubbles in the glass? I have never seen bubbles in glass before but I will likely change it it down the road, easily enough to change.

Keep the bubble glass. Adds character, like an old farmhouse where the windows are thicker at the bottom than the top.


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Ha, yes your likely right Ray... maybe I will keep it :)

It was good to get the windscreen on as every big part that gets installed opens up precious space in the garage. My Rubbermaid bins of parts has been reduced from 12 bins down to 8 bins, so thats good progress.
It was time to turn my attention to getting the engine running, after the full engine rebuild I want to make sure it runs smoothly before getting too far into putting all the body parts on. I made a list for what I needed to get the engine running, Fuel lines, Fuel pump, Radiator, hoses, carburetor, Distributor, accelerator linkages, at least some wiring for starter motor etc ... ok, so that would be the focus for then week or two.
I started with the radiator as that was another big item along with the front grill panel which supports the radiator. The aluminium front grill panel had 4 layers of paint (green, orange, red, green) which was pretty bumpy so had to come off. It also has a couple of extra holes which I wanted to repair.
So back to paint stripping (sigh) then I repaired a couple of "extra" screw holes with metal epoxy and prepped for new paint.

While waiting for the paint to dry on the front grill I jumped over to cleaning and painting all the accelerator linkages, there are lots of these as the pedal is on the left side and the carburetor is on the right side. Then on the Carburetor end there is multiple levers that connect to choke, fuel mixture and accelerator controls.

I also took a moment to install and connect the windscreen vents and hoses (its amazing what you can get done while waiting for paint to dry!)

Really looking fantastic Andy!


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Thanks Ray, have you been working on your S1's during this "lull"?

Once the front grill panel was installed I moved onto the Lower Dash Control panel as this had a bunch of engine controls mounted on it. All very strange to me as this is my first Series 1.
My Lower Control panel had been cut and chopped by a past owner so I found a replacement from Ebay UK. When it came it didn't have the optional heater switch hole (apparently all Canadian models had the heater as standard as we live in the frozen north!) So I had to drill a new hole. The rectangle cover (not used) is for a Throttle Control Lever which is used more on the Diesel engines to keep the revs higher when stationary for farm equipment etc ..).

Back on the front grill panel again, the radiator was apparently flushed & pressure tested by the previous owner so I plan to just install and see how it performs.
It was a simple bolt on procedure so that was easy enough.
I got a little distracted by working on the headlights, this is not going to help me start the engine I thought but it is very satisfying for moral when parts go on that make it look more like a Land Rover. The headlights were made up of a surprising amount of parts, which had me puzzled for a while but I eventually figured out the order of assembly, cleaning and painting the parts as necessary. The bezels around the lights should be the colour of the vehicle the book told me so they were finished in bronze green. I was able to un-solder and re-solder the bakelite electrical plugs onto new wiring. After 64 years the bakelite plugs are still better quality than the new plastic ones you can buy today.

Looking good Andy. At this rate she’ll be on the road in a few weeks.

How are you spray painting the parts? Rattle can or small compressor?

Hi Martin, as its been basically small or interior parts up to now I have just used spray cans. I will likely send out the large outer panels to a shop when I eventually get to it.

Next I switched my attention to the Carburetor and Distributor. In the parts box I had a Solex (right) and a Webber (left) carburetors, from what I can ascertain the previous owner replaced the Solex with the Webber. I think for engine start up I will use the Webber to get the engine up and running with the option to rebuild the Solex and eventually switch back to the Solex for originality. I expect there are differing opinions out there on which is the better carburetor to use?
The distributor cap and leads came in a kit :shock: I had always just purchased them all ready assembled in the past so this was another first for me, having to make up my own set. After reviewing a couple of YouTube videos I felt empowered to give it a try. The plug lead kit I had went together very easily and I was surprised how well it turned out. I metered out the leads to make sure I did them correctly. One thing I couldn't find out was if the leads should be all the same length or kept as short as possible? In the end as they are all quite short I just made them all equal length, except for the lead to the coil which needed to be an inch or so longer.

Looks great Andy. I’ve got some of that braided wire as well I plan on fitting to my 107”. I have a spare set of the correct spark ends for the 2L as well if your interested. They are nice because they plug into the head casting and stop crud from collecting in the spark plug well. I have a NOS cap but it’s missing one of the pointed fixture screws, do you have an old cap lying around?

Matt

Hi Matt,
Sorry, no old distributor cap, the previous owner must of chucked it out! :roll:
Yes thanks, I may take you up on the plug ends, I will send you an email.

Back to the Land Rover I thought its time to pull out the new S1 Auto-Sparks wiring harness. There wasn't any paper work or instructions with it but the S1 is a very simple vehicle for wiring so I'm not expecting it to be too challenging. I spread the new wiring harness out on the floor (which is actually about 12 pieces of wiring) and started cross checking the colour coding to the wiring diagram in the workshop manual. Apparently the colours on the new harness are made to match the original colours. There are a few options you can order with a new S1 wiring harnesses, things like the optional passenger wiper motor :shock: as only the drivers one came as standard equipment. Also you can select Positive Earth or Negative earth, Alternator or Dynamo, Optional indicators etc ... I wasn't quite sure what I had (it was purchased by the previous owner) so the investigation begins....
The largest part of the harness runs along the top of the bulkhead and you just have to figure out which wires pop through into the area behind the dash and then the rest stay in the engine bay, half going to the left and half going to the right. Then 1 section will run in the chassis to the back lights, another section goes forward to the grill area and front lights. Once I figured that out I used a couple of "P" clips to hold it in place why I manipulated the wires into the direction I wanted them to go.

A lot of the wiring along the bulkhead terminates at the Fuse holder and the Voltage Control Box, so it was time to dig that panel out of the box of bits and assemble the panel along with the Fuel pump which I had ordered from 3 Brothers LR parts as the original pump was AWOL.
After some fresh paint, on went the Fuel Pump, Voltage Control box, fuse holder (thanks for finding me the missing fuse box cover Matt :occasion5: )
The wiring harness then runs in behind the panel and the wires loop over to the terminal blocks.
I had earlier connected up the headlights and couldn't resist a quick test, connecting them up to a battery to confirm my connections and provide a boost to keep me going.

Nice job , it is going to be sweet !

Hi Andy , back when you were installing your vent doors you asked me to post how it went when I installed the vent seals. I layed them out flat back in the spring to try and get the curl out of them. Yesterday I thought I would stop putting it off. With the warm weather I feel it went very well as I think the weatherstripping glue worked much better on warm metal and seal material. I had to hold each piece by hand for a minute or so until it stuck. I couldn't get the upper piece in with the vent installed so took it off , installed the seals and put it back in and closed it on the rubber to hold it in place. Don't use too much glue or you run the risk of glueing the vent to the rubber. Looking forward to seeing what you have got done since your last post and hope this info might be usefull. Cheers Robin

Hi Robin,
The vent seals you did look great, I will likely go the same route when I get to mine.

Time for an update, The wiring continues (new wiring loom) running the cables through the bulkhead to the dash panel as well as inside the chassis to the rear cross member for the rear lights. The single rear lights are the side light, brake light and Indicator all in one, so that will take require some further study of the WS manual wiring diagram to figure that out.
I connected up the dash panel which I found fairly straight forward. I am converting mine to Negative Earth (it was originally Negative Earth). Also installing a Alternator in place of the old dynamo.

I was able to get replacement S1 engine breathers (thanks for Andre) my engine was missing them for some reason. They are different than the later Series engine breathers.
They had been "gentle" used for around 60 yrs ... so needed some refurbishment.

Back to completing the Brakes. I had ordered a Master Cylinder Internal rebuild kit, a new Brake Fluid Reservoir and the connecting pipe from Three Brothers Parts. The brake pipe route is a bit strange because the Reservoir is under the passenger seat and the Master Cylinder is under the drivers seat (on LHD).
Once it was all together, I filled the system with Dot 3 brake fluid and starting bleeding with very limited success (and a few swear words). I then borrowed a "Power Bleeder kit" (thanks Martin) and had the pedal nice and hard in about 30 mins. I definitely recommend using a Power Bleeder, much easier and simple to use.
On the back of the brake pedal there is a little triangle shaped plate with some holes in it which allows a return spring to be hooked on. Mine was missing so luckily I was able to make one fairly quickly.

I now believe its time to dry fit all the body panels. I want to fit everything to confirm the fit, repair any extra holes, straighten out some panels, see what's missing etc
I also want to take it for a good test drive before doing the final paint job. Its just nuts and bolts and I have never seen this vehicle complete before (as I purchased it in parts) ... so here goes nothing

I started with the rear tub, then the seat base and lids. The floor panel was next followed by the hood (bonnet) & front wings (fenders).

Hey Andy, looking good!! Feels more like a sense of accomplishment once the externals are put on I bet?
Cheers
Ted

Looks fantastic Andy, well done!

Any updates Andy?

Hi Ray / Ted,

Yes, I have had a few fun road trails along the river just to "bed in" the new pistons rings after the engine rebuild also to tweak the carb and do some final adjustments. So far so good, she runs like a new vehicle! She's very happy to be back together again after 15 plus years in pieces.
I'm falling for the old patina paint so not sure if or when I will get around to painting the body panels :?

But for now, back on the road and loving it :bounce:

Cheers
Andy

Back on the road again ...... first "road trials" after 4 year rebuild 8)

Fantastic!


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Congratulations!

Congrats!