1982 Land Rover series 3 station wagon

[darrenh]

Jul 1, 2017 20:06:06 GMT jamesd1972 said:

Lot of effort - interested to see if it works ! I think yours is more than nice enough to be worth the spend on a set of parabolics - ours probably isn't. Our original springs have much improved by driving them and a lot of rust has worked its way out. Difficult to know when to soak them in parafin / grease mix. First clutch and gearbox replacement though...
Current Britpart peeve is the cab gaiters for the transmission and handbrake that haven't lasted a year / 1000 miles of use without splitting. Grrrrr
James

agree on paras, what put me off were horror stories of springs flattening and leaning to one side. thats why i "played it safe" with multi leaf, lol. well the truck is becoming historically significant, and its a genuine classic car now, i wanted to keep originality.

a few pages back i fitted some leather gaiters for hi/lo and handbrake off of ebay, they are still in great condition !

[jamesd1972]

Off to search e-bay then !
Need some dum dum type stuff to stick the seat box and floors down as well.
Anything easily reversible is fair game but I reckon there will be people swapping back from tdi units to petrol. Don't get why people would spend £1000 on a conversion to save £100 a year on fuel.
James

[darrenh]

i did get the springs fitted today. i had no issues removing them as all the hardware is only a year old. i did uncover some interesting things though. when i fitted the springs originally i replaced all 4 of the chassis bushes. 2 of them were genuine land rover bushes, 2 of them (the long ones for the rear of the front springs) i couldnt get LR so i got britpart (yeah i know) when i went to fit the britpart bushes i only ended up using 1 of them because of this...



so then i got an allmakes bush for the passenger side to replace it.

so thats 2 land rover, 1 britpart and 1 allmakes.

when i dissembled today the LR bushes were still pristine, the allmakes in passenger side pristine, the britpart in the drivers side completely smashed to pieces. crush tube through the middle was separated from the rubber and had 1mm play radially and would slide back and fourth within the restraint of the shackles. !!

the 4 spring eye bushes themselves (supplied with the springs, i.e britpart) were all ok except 1, and i've never seen anything like this before....





some how the outer carcase of the bushing had worked all the way towards the engine and slid over the spacer on the shackle, YET ! the actual rubber bushing and crush tube stayed centralised. ??

as far as the actual springs go, wins and losses. the ride height is infuriatingly the same ! however the springs are much softer. with the original 9 leaf i could climb on the front bumper and jump up and down and the suspension would not compress (i am 100 kilos) now with 8 leaves the suspension compresses nicely. out on the road you can tell straight away, its way smoother and supple.

all i can hope is that the springs will settle an inch or more with time (these are brand new don't forget)

[jamesd1972]

Part win then !
If it drives better you'll use it more so it will hopefully do whatever settling its going to do. Not sure if I'd hold my breath though !
Ours definitely runs better doing at least one little outing a week brakes etc. Just keep going a bit better with use.
Enjoy.
James

[darrenh]

swapped out the 900 mile old britpart chassis bush, just in case you are reading this and not au fait, that smaller tube should be through the middle of the bigger tube, and be bonded to the rubber inside the big tube and not be slopping around by a couple mm.



using my old puller (made from scissor jack screw) to put the new allmakes bush in



i also had a "screw it just do it" moment on satrday and took the bottom 3 leaves off the front springs (bought new U bolts in the week) so i now have a 5 leaf front spring. i have to say hand on heart and no rationalisation it has dropped the truck about 2 inches to where it should be, and the suspension now dips if i stand on the front bumper. HALLELUJAH. the bad news is that these springs, in one form or another, have only been on 2 weeks and the spring eye bushes have slipped already, as in shifted in the end of the spring eye to one side or the other and butted up against the shackles or the chassis brackets (respectively)

so all in all thats a 100% complete and utter comprehensive fail by britpart (no way !) i know there's a few white knights out there who will jump on people arbitrarily bashing britpart, but at least my cynicism is based on experience and observable fact.

[norniron]

Just read the entire thread (don't tell SWMBO, she thinks I'm booking a holiday...)

Great work in keeping the LR on the road

[darrenh]

Jul 16, 2017 15:36:51 GMT norniron said:

Just read the entire thread (don't tell SWMBO, she thinks I'm booking a holiday...)

Great work in keeping the LR on the road

thanks your secret is safe with you, me and anyone in the world with internet access

[georgeb]

We LR owners had some great news the other week. A major Land Rover parts organisation was to open in the Philippines. And guess who? Yup, Britpart!

This isn't arbitrarily bashing Britpart either, it's based on over 30 years of prematurely replacing their bits!

[darrenh]

bit of news plopped on the doormat this morning, the results of request for information to DVLA ! i was already fairly confident of the 1984-2015 period due to documents that came with the truck. i have also been (and still are) in contact with owner 3 who had it 1984 to 1992. she was pretty sure the car was born into an estate because there were fur, feathers and shotgun cartridges in secluded spots of the cab!

so land rover dispatched it to dutton forshaw aylesbury, that still exists and is still a landrover dealer called Stratstone Land Rover (result !) in fact its the same garage that owner 3 from above bought it.

the license application in Jan 82 was to a Lady at Boswell farm, fawley, henley-on-thames. googled that and is lovely big farm house in chilterns area of natural beauty, 5 bedrooms (recently up for rent at 3800 a month, eek) Then a year later it went half a mile up the road to "fawley estate" which is now called redkite farm.

wonder why it was sold so quick, probably dissapointed in the 1950s charm, especially as the one-ten had just come out !

[optimusprime]

Ah Dutton Forshaw not heard that name in a while ...been in there a few times.
Was a Land Rover Dealer and a BL/Austin Rover dealer round the back.

[darrenh]

been driving round with the modded front springs and noticed a horrible THUNK from the front going over sleeping policemen. had a hunch it might be the extended 1TON front dampers bottoming out, which turned out to be correct

so got the proper petrol SWB front dampers on. i did a quick measure of the 1TON damper with the bottom eye popped off the axle, sure enough it will/was going fully compressed by about half inch before axle contacted the rubber bump stop.

thats a fair cop i guess, the 1TON chassis is specced with bolt on bump stop extensions.

what did surprise me was comparing 88" next to 1TON damper side by side, contrary to internet saying the 1TON was only half inch "longer" fully compressed it was more like 2 inches.

[darrenh]

this morning i managed to comply with road traffic act section 47 by obtaining an MOT certificate issued less than 12 months ago.

[Phil H]

Well done 😀

[georgeb]

Yes, well done indeed.

For those not familiar, there's so many things that can come loose, wobble or dribble on these things that a stop light pales into insignificance! 😊

[darrenh]

i wanted to go out in the series 3 yesterday but after connecting the battery, it turned over sluggish, real sluggish. seeing as it had run out of electricity i thought i would run an extension lead and borrow some from the garage. this morning the meter on the charger had dropped to zero amps, the official "that'll do" seal of approval. connected the battery again and it turned over slightly less sluggish for about 10 revs, then nothing. poo.

so i went down halfords and bought a 100 quid box full of start you b=stard.

my battery is very old, it predates my ownership so at least 2 years. its got the old grey halfords logo on it (been orange for ages?) and they don't even sell a HB071 anymore. rationalising the part numbers it would be about 55AH 500 CCA type battery. the new one is 700cca and 90AH, which i know from internet research is many many more electricities. i bought the battery on the basis of "that looks like it will fit" and there is a fag paper away from being too big for the plastic battery tray liner, the land rover gods were smiling on me

[georgeb]

Mines coming due as well. Managed just over two years.

Another 'Lots of Peso' to Motolite!

[darrenh]

i was out and about last bank holiday doing bank holiday things, on the way home (about 6 or 7 miles from home luckily) on a single carriage arterial road (A2) at about 4.45 in heavy traffic, this happened at a roundabout...

dink ! gear stick snapped off in my hand !





at the time i was just rolling up to a roundabout, it snapped and i quickly steered towards the verge using the inertia to roll the car out of everyones way. crisis no.1 averted, thousands of motorists stuck behind that stupid old car on one of the busiest days of the year.

right, curse word, chill your boots a second. I lifted the clutch praying that it had nudged into gear with the force that eventually snapped the stick, it hadnt, plums. i turned the engine off and set my brain to thinking, believe it or not this is a known thing with land rovers, i had read quite a few instances of it happening. there's two types of land rover owners, those that have had a gearstick snap, and those that are waiting for their turn. unfortunately there was no story in my brain about how to deal with a gearstick snapped level with the shifter mechanism. Normally its pliers on the remains, select a gear, trundle home. so, panic set in, got the tool roll out and then spent 20 boiling hot sweaty stressful minutes trying to get any gear using a tiny tiny burred remains ontop of the stick. adjustable spanner on the end of a screwdriver, now repurposed as a chisel. smack smack smack smack, 10 minutes pass, come on just nudge in. nope. then success came after fashioning a lever system from the seat box with a gardening glove, a gaffer tape roll, a breaker bar and a screw driver up against the burr. SNICK. it slid into a gear, YES!

i wait for a nice gap in traffic, start the engine, tentatively lift the clutch to see which gear i managed to engage, brrrmmmm, hmm that pulled away pretty easily with no struggling, revs rise, revs rise, speedo says 15, engine is screaming, yes of course its bloody 1st gear, i mean why wouldnt it be the least useful gear, ever, in this situation traffic was gaining fast in the rear view, really fast, think of something brain! the brain comes back with a reply, no way? Yes way, you have a gearbox on the gearbox and it has a neutral too ! snick, and we're in overdrive 1st and burning along at 20 whole miles per hour,. brrrrriiinnnnggggg. i ended up pulling over about 5 times to let traffic past then i was saved! i saw brake lights up ahead, heavy traffic! i have never been happier to see heavy traffic in my life . then heavy traffic becomes stationary traffic, but i don't care because i have a choice of zero or 20mph, i can do zero reeeeally well too. turned out the traffic was a bad accident so i dove off down some country lanes and pootled home in 1st overdrive !

tuesday after bank holiday i ordered a new gearstick then when it arrived started stripping the floor panels off. here you can see the business end of the stick, the tip sits in a gate among 3 selectors, one for 1st 2nd, one for 3rd 4th, one for reverse



gearstick mounting plate takes 4 bolts to remove from the gearbox, then underneath you can see the ball is held into a socket with a cup, a large spring and circlip



bit of wear on the side of the stick, this is where it pushes against a sprung lockout plate to get into reverse gear



4 bolts removed to split the mounting plate from the alloy socket section, then take the circlip out to release the remains of the stick



fast forward a couple hours of bolting it all back together, most time consuming part is refitting all the floor and trimmings.

[jamesd1972]

Ooh posh you have floor mats !
Nice simple fix - once home....
GLad it’s out and about and still enjoying it.
James

[georgeb]

I fall into the former, but with just enough to get mole-grips on, category 😊

[darrenh]

did a servicey thing ! 3 gearboxes and 2 axles using the mail order 20 litre drum of EP90 from smith & allan.


main gearbox dropped slightly less than expected, should be 1.7 litres (i think) came out golden brown anyway, pinch of grey CV grease type sludge in the last drips, no large lumps of metal (good!) in the oil, nor when i probed the hole with my pinky (no sniggering at the back). there was a few slithers of shiny in the recess of the drain plug though, kind like when chrome flakes off of a rusty old bumper, if that makes sense ?





transfer box had allot of oil in it (methinks waterfalling from main box) was still gold but definitely heading towards grey end of spectrum. no metal chunks from the LT76 gods!





gearbox number 3, fairey overdrive. this had ALLOT of oil in it. supposed to be 0.4 litres but it was full to the top. see previous waterfall comment. i probably need to have the overdrive off soon, as a result of it being overfilled often its leaking out of the main shaft. for whatever reason the main shaft pokes out the back of the box externally (has an o ring seal in a land to seal against the casing)





while i was scrabbling on the floor noticed this rear spring eye bush (rear of front spring) has failed. my records checked i fitted these springs 405 miles ago (not a typo) the outter sleeve of the bush has separated from the inner rubber and crush tube and walked sideways to the shackle standoff (the rusty portion along the centre line of the bolt should be inside the spring eye) proper proper shonky quality, well done again britpart.



also did the valve clearances. the last time i did the clearances the top end got allot louder and tappy (the opposite of what youd expect) one reason for this can be that the tip of the rocker is warn to the shape of the valve stem, so when you stick a feeler guage in there it averages out the wear and makes the clearance too big. DTI seemed to agree, all bar 2 of them were on or over 0.30 (should be 0.25mm). setting them with DTI was fiddly as hell, for some reason it wouldnt stick to the cast iron head very well. but got there in the end and engine runs lovely now !

this picture is valve 2 BEFORE adjustment. .25 feeler gauge dragged nicely, but dti showed it as 0.28