It’s been a crappy week. ANything mechanical, electrical or technical has conspired to micturate on my pomme frites this week. Not just on the Landy.
The good news first – the new starter motor went in no problem and works a treat. Fires first time and engages perfectly with the ring gear. So I shall refurbish the original one with a replacement clutch/bendix thingy and put it on the shelf for a rainy day.
I also got the Gunson Eezibleed out of it’s box for the first time and it was a doddle to bleed the brakes. Happy with that.
I moved on to bleeding the clutch though and the skies started to darken…very long story short, tricky pushrod/slave cylinder games, first test of clutch and DOT4 all over the garage floor – pushrod prob slipped off the fork, but I was very worried about possibility of the pivot having punched a hole in the clutch release fork. Not wishing to open the gearbox to have a look so bought a “cheap” borescope from Maplin, and fortunately fork is intact.
[img]http://forum.landrovernet.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=169680&d=1391179894[/img]
So going to try and refit the slave and pushrod later and try again.
In the meantime Ive done the first door. It’s been tricky – feel like a watchmaker at times, and it didnt help that the GRP manufacturer doesnt seem to have been too accurate with his cut outs hence my needing to buy a dremel-a-like to make some modifications. However, first one done, and it seems OK. We will see how well it fits in a week or so. There are some big holes for the rain to come in though. I might need to add some modifications but Ive made the Landy “rust proof” and rot proof by removing fabrics and of course the door is now plastic. Only the glass channels will be probably rust.
And finally I did manage to collect the remaining sill from Swindon way this week. It’s come out a treat, and in fact fitted even easier than the first. I can now put the roof one which is something my dad will come and help me with this week.
My dad was gloating too – he said it was all going too smoothly for a proper car rebuild 😉
Like an idiot I took the psuhrod (and clip) off when I removed the original slave cylinder months ago.
Ive broken 2x clips trying to replace it so have given up.
Theres loads of people on the forum who claim to have lived for 6yrs without the clip in place and I can see why. So Im using a dab of sikaflex to hold the rod on the fork overnight then tomorrow morning I will slip the slave on and have another go at bleeding. Stupid sodding Solihull design 😉
Pushrod stuck nicely with sikaflex. Slave reinstalled, bled and it’s all fine – good clutch feel, can select gear no problem. Exhaust reattached, had to give the alternator a squirt of WD40 and a nudge – it had seized from sitting still for 6m after a good bath. I can drive her out of the shed and re-fit the roof next week.
Feel much better about things today. Im off for a pint to celebrate!
If you ever have the box out, weld a nice 5mm lump of metal in behind the push rod socket on the release arm! (or try to find one of the early cast iron versions)
cheers makecoldplayhistory, well here’s a treat for you and all the other thread fans. Fender* got a drive out of the workshop today.
Dad came round to help me lift the roof on. There’s a bit of shoving and easing to be done, but it should fit OK later when I start bolting it together.
The bonnet is on and will soon have some new external catches fitted to pull it down square. I want to fit some new bump stops for the bonnet too.
She really starts like a dream – not even a quarter turnover needed and she fires straight up. Sweet! The front vent flaps and the new rear door are at the paintshop at the moment – vent covers will be white as well.
Now just got to press on with the doors, both the roof down, put the seats in, fit the seat belts and she’ll be ready for her MOT. Couple of weeks tops I hope.
Stoner the 8 spokes you got on are EXCELLENT rims, thats why the electricity boards spec them on their landys so technically a factory fit.
The STD landy rims are OK (ish) but they are VERY heavy and will kill your acceleration and affect fuel consumption. If I was going for factory std then I’d go for the wolf rims fitted to the Defender XD, strong, and lighter than the std rim – also be very aware that there is a significant difference in the loading spec of std rims! i.e. 90s and 110 can have different spec wheels even though they look similar – something to be aware of when buying second hand.
Cheers jock.
Thing is 5x new 235/80 for those 8 spokes is not cheap. If I can get factory 7.50s rim and tyres for a bargain they’d look the better part.
Wow! I would go for those take-offs. If I still had my ex-MOD 90 I’d be tempted because my wheels were rusty. The 750×16 size looks perfect on a 90 or a 110 and I’ve never been in favour of fat tyres; they reduce your ground pressure and I’ve seen them build up a bow wave in very deep mud rather than cut down and through.
This pic taken after I’d hand-painted the wheels with Dulux Once in Ivory colour. It lasted surprisingly well.
Stoner, why don’t you look around for a galvanised MOD front bumper with a towing pintle, as pictured below? This was galv, I just painted it black.
Just put a set of Boost alloys (235/85’s) on my Mum’s 90. Looks much better than the 205’s on SWB rims it had before.
I had some 265’s on my 110, but I’d go for 235’s now.
8 spokes and modulars are nice but you get alot of muck and spray up the side of the motor compared to std rims. I use 130 rims on my 80″ which look better than SWB rims but look the part.
Just working on the NS front door at the moment. Blimey it’s shot – 30% rust.
Even the rivnuts in the handle have corroded so need to order another one. Just as well they’re only a few quid each…
But why o, why, o why are door cards so bloody expensive?!?!? £70 each!!
Why hasnt someone knocked up a vaccuum plastic mould and started banging out plastic skins for £10 each? Mine are a mess, and I dont think it’s worth trying to save them 🙁
Don’t know why you live Stoner but April 6th there’s an autojumble at Newbury. I bought everything to convert a softtop 90 to a station wagon there one year. Loads of people selling panels, trim etc.. Always worth a tip.