1965 land rover series 2a, swb, 4.203 ;) much welding!

[Dez]

I succumbed again. I find it hard to live in the praaaper cuntroysaaade and not own one of these.


its a '65 SWB van back, with the rarer split fold tailgate setup rather than a hinged door. its more or less bog stock apart from a plethoria of extra lights (and associated switches), and the addition of a perkins 4.203 lump. for the uninitiated, thats 4 cylinders and 203 cubic inches (about 3.3 letres) of clanky rattly dirty derv smellyness. its also been upgraded to 7.50x16 tyres, presumably in an attempt to improve the gear ratios to suit the low-revving industrial lump.


engine code gives it as a 4.203 lump produced in the uk in 1976.


someones also replaced the rear lights with some lovely trailer jobbies-

theyll need sorting asap!

it has got a proper pukka dixon-bate ball and pin tow hitch though, which is nice. although it appears to be bolted to a crossmember made out of cornflakes and biscuit tins.


the interior smells just how it looks. like wet dog and a brace of dead pheasants. annoyingly (because they're expensive) it hasnt got a banjo steering wheel, but the rest of the interior is all correct, including the heater.


not sure what the plans are yet, theyll be very much one direction, or the total opposite, depending on how rotten the chassis is (and it don't look good.....)

[dumbiron]

I always think i want another old landrover, until i get one then i realise why i end up selling them so quickly.

[Dez]

Jul 15, 2013 11:16:17 GMT dumbiron said:

I always think I want another old landrover, until I get one then I realise why I end up selling them so quickly.

Oh, they're great as long as you don't really want to go anywhere in it. About 20 miles max, and only on sub 50mph roads. Any more than that is pretty tedious.

[Dez]

Jul 15, 2013 11:39:28 GMT pOG said:

Brilliant.
Those Perkins lumps really do make these about 8x more masochistic as a driving experience. All the torque at about 1200rpm and then totally flat out at 45mph.

Not sure whether a '65 would have had a 'Banjo' type wheel orginally - as I recall, my '58 had one but the '62, '68 and '72 all had the same as you've pictured.

I trust it comes with the obligatory worn & pitted swivels, wandering steering and complete absence of anything even vaguely resembling brakes.

Yeah, it's no speed machine. I've only really got it to assist with doing up our house. Good for pulling up trees and lugging rubbish about. Slowly. Apparently you can get 65 with rangy diffs and and an OD, but that's not really the route I had planned

I'd like a banjo wheel but won't be getting one unless I can find one at non-eBay prices! My previous one had a smaller mountney on it, but was more or less undrivable unless you were hulk hogan.

I've got one good swivel and one rusty one, unbelievably perfect steering, and partially seized brakes, so pretty good going for one of these!

[darrenh]

just ended a tumultuous 3 year relationship with a 30 year old landy. i think its a bit like the old alfa adage about not being a true petrol head until you've owned one. well, in fact we should all have two land rovers in our life time, the first one teaches you what not to buy the second time around.

[dodgerover]

Is that Perkins a automotive version or the boat/ tractor/ industrial variant, they are a bit different internally but the car version will rev out better, think the others are governed to about 2000 rpm, you can monkey with the pump to get a few more revs. There is also a turbo version available which was apparently just a bolt on thing - perkins fitted a turbo oil feed with a blanking plug from the start of this engines production run.

My Landie was the only vehicle I owned that i never bothered fitting a radio into....

[dumbiron]

Jul 15, 2013 14:19:54 GMT dodgerover said:

My Landie was the only vehicle I owned that I never bothered fitting a radio into....

PARDON ?? 

[Dez]

Jul 15, 2013 12:39:42 GMT darrenh said:

just ended a tumultuous 3 year relationship with a 30 year old landy. I think its a bit like the old alfa adage about not being a true petrol head until you've owned one. well, in fact we should all have two land rovers in our life time, the first one teaches you what not to buy the second time around.

Lol, I haven't leant a thing. This one is wibblepoo, but it was cheap. My las one was very nice, a full resto, but cost a lot more. Parts are cheap and welding isn't an issue though, so it suits me better really.

[Dez]

Jul 15, 2013 14:19:54 GMT dodgerover said:

Is that Perkins a automotive version or the boat/ tractor/ industrial variant, they are a bit different internally but the car version will rev out better, think the others are governed to about 2000 rpm, you can monkey with the pump to get a few more revs. There is also a turbo version available which was apparently just a bolt on thing - perkins fitted a turbo oil feed with a blanking plug from the start of this engines production run.

My Landie was the only vehicle I owned that I never bothered fitting a radio into....

I've no idea to be honest. I've read a lot of Internet talk about em, but no hard and fast rules on what's what. Not driven it on the road yet so I can't say what/if its governed to. I've heard about the turbo version too, but can find zero info on it. Mine does have quite an odd exhaust manifold though compared to others I've seen, it exits up and forward.

[dodgerover]

Yep we had one like that too, even had the same top hose! No idea now what it came out of although it was from a road vehicle and was supposed to top 50 mph, there may be some info on the pump though stating max RPM's.
I know of one person in the past who fitted the turbo conversion from his dead 4203 into one that came out from a fridge unit and as far as I know it was fine as long as he owned the vehicle.
The good news is pattern parts are/ were easily available and cheap too. We never ran ours as we decided to rebuild the top end before fitting it as it seemed down on compression at which point we found it had a lump missing from one of the liners....

[dazcapri]

When I was a YTS back in the mid 80's the garage I was at had a 1958 LWB as a runaround/tow truck,the Perky engine IIRC came out a Commer Walkthrough shop that one did 48 mph but it did it uphill,downhill or towing a car.

[jamesv]

Growing up as a kid, my mates dad owned one of the local farms so we all used to thrash about his land in various Land Rovers, and said mate had a 109 with the very same Perkins lump, coincidentally the landy was nicknamed Perky, even got used to 'rescue' the farms JCB Loadall when it got stuck, not a lot could stop it, but it certainly wasn't fast...

[whitbytom]

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this one!

Fingers crossed the chassis isn't too crispy, it seems the price of new galv chassis for these has rocketed in the past few years, largely due to lack of competition it seems. The best price I found last time I looked was circa £1500 delivered!

[Dez]

I've got a 'suitable' replacement chassis already

In fact I've got a lot of interesting bits tucked away for this one. I was thinking of doing the welding to the current chassis and banging it through a test as a temporary measure though, some bits look surprisingly not rotten although I haven't investigated thoroughly yet.

[Brian Damaged]

Lovely Crusty Truck Of Death.

Banjo steering wheels were discontinued in 1965, at about the same time as the handbrake lever was extended. If yours is a late '65, that's why. Back in the late 90's I had an ex-WD Rover 8 FFR from the same year which had neither.

[hairnet]

had to google banjo steering wheel

this??

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rover-Series-1-11-11a-1-2-2a-steering-Wheel-and-Centre-Cover-Refurbished-/181176175680?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item2a2ef10c40

[Dez]

I'm not sure if its long or short handbrake bri, as every landy I've had has been a 65, so could have been either. Steering wheel would presumably make it late/long though.

Mark, yeah one of those. But seeing as that's half what the whole truck cost, I think ile pass.....

[mdh]

Dump that old oil burner and drop a V8 in....you know you wanna!! ;-)

[Deleted]

if I was in the need for a 4x4...it would be a land rover defender 90........all the rest are just pale imitators

[nitemare]

that's looking pretty straight, my March '65 109 has the banjo steering wheel and straight handbrake, the straight handbrake was discontinued due to the fitment of static seatbelts that came as law in the front in March '65 which meant a lot of folk found it difficult to reach down for whilst wearing the seatbelt, the cranked handbrake stands up within easy reach whilst wearing seatbelts but rubs/knocks your left knee

if you should decide to hunt down a banjo steering wheel remember that you'll also need a steering box to go with it as they mount differently to the three spoke whee, the nearest possibility of fitting a banjo wheel on your column would be a morris minor version as far as i can make out but then you'll have to figure out a centre cap

here's my '65 109