1965 Series 2a Station Wagon in Holland

Well it seems like ages ago since I posted.

It seems like ages ago since I started weighing the new pistons

I have a set of handy cheapo pocket scales that I bought at an electronics shop a few years back. It was a strange purchasing experience: I had gone into the shop asking for a set of electronic scales to weigh pistons. The chap was like "pistons?" - yeah "you know engine parts - pistons" was the response. He had a look on his face of "well that's the first time I've ever heard an excuse for buying pocket scales like that - most people use them for weighing drugs"...

...welcome to Holland!

Anyway - I digress. The scales are probably OK for most things that weigh under 1kg - give a 0.1 gram reading which makes them ideal for weighing most engine parts. Land Rover connecting rods, however are a bit too heavy for the scales so I couldn't weigh them as a whole piece.

This isn't a massive problem because "the old hot rodder trick" (as the Americans might say) is to split the measurement of the weight measured at the little end and the big end. This is usually done on seriously nice balance machines and much better scales than I have. The investment in either making my own "decent kit" or buying it is beyond my budget for the Land Rover...


(Image borrowed from internet - follow link in picture to source site if you must)


...so I did the next best thing:

IMPROVISED!

Hmmm

Well...

...not brilliant but hopefully a bit better than just slamming the new parts into the engine.

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So ears wot 'appened

Bit of OSB - one set of pocket scales - one DTI magnetic stand - one kitchen table




It was very tricky getting repeatable results.

The shaft on the DTI magnetic stand is a bit too small so the little end or the big end of the connecting rod could wander a little bit to the right or to the left resulting in a fluctuating measurement at the scales. In the end I placed each connecting rod "in the middle" as much as I could.

Professional bits of kit have nice swinging chains that stop this.

So it was apparent from the beginning that the best I was going to get out of this exercise was a rough idea of the connecting rod with the heaviest ends.

This actually is kind of what I want to achieve as I have no intention of shaving off little bits of metal to try and make each component "perfectly balanced" (this is what race engine builders do)

I wanted to avoid the "worst luck" combination of all of the heavy parts being assembled in one cylinder and all of the lightest parts going in another.

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Because the pistons fitted on the scales (just) they gave repeatable reliable results.

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So here's what I got from a bit of measuring =>



Please note I'm worried the most about reciprocating mass (as you do), so I'm only considering the estimated (well it was measured but unreliably measured) little end connecting rod weight in the final sums.

If I had been unlucky I reckon I could have chosen a combination that would have had a difference of 52 grams - I reckon now I've got a combination of parts that give a maximum difference of 16 grams.

So I now feel a little more confident that I have picked the best combination of parts - that I'm not prepared to modify (!) - to get the best similar reciprocating weight within the engine. If I'm really lucky my rebuilt engine won't be as rattly as some of the others!

Some times you get into a mind set where everything is rubbish



(Sorry yet another fast show reference)

Today I found a bag with spares in it!



Just goes to show eh?

It was BRILLIANT after all!



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So continuing the theme of opening my eyes and seeing just what was packaged up by the previous owner and is now sitting on shelves =>

IP

Injector pumps

I have two.

One made in Spain that I assume is more modern



Well I say more modern - I mean built more recently





The "more modern" one has loads of information on the ID tag

Whereas the other one that was "Made in England" is typically secretive (!)







Having seen this video on yewtoob =>



I reckon I'm gonna have a bash at that with the original pump (which I assume is the one marked "Made in England")

Does any one here know which DPA sealing kit I ought to get?

http://www.dieselkontor.de/index.php?cPath=22_137

The options in the link above are DPA 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

The pumps are only labeled as DPA...

Well it has been some time but do you remember this?

Stretch said:

Luck seems to be running out for finding parts for the dynamo again

Strike #1

Went to see a company that repairs alternators and starter motors only to find "we don't do that any more - haven't done that for 5 years - guy who did it left - you should know that!"

Strike #2

Chap who sells lots of wired and wonderful stuff reckons the solid rivets with the hollow ends used to fix the electrical hardware to the end cap of the dynamo are very difficult to obtain. Best to drill out a bit of your own solid rivet (This is only done to help protect the plastic components you are clamping) - so I'll measure and order some with him. As for getting bent bits of metal for electrical connectors and such it looks like it would be DIY...

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So I've started "cunning plan"

Not quite the same as the original solution but it might work.

Step 1

Wire brush off all the rust from the little contacts - pain in the arse - used pliers to hold parts and save fingers (!)

Step 2

Believe seemingly daft / strange idea on model building forum about using old skool (bitch'n') electroplating techniques

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/showthread.php?t=2834

Assemble products needed

1X old margarine tub
1X bottle of iodine (apparently - well - according to the thread above this is hard to get hold of so he went through a process of heating vinegar and dissolving iodine impregnated salt because junkies do something with iodine - 'uck knows what - but hey in Holland I had no trouble getting hold of the stuff so read what you will into that)
1X bottle of vinegar (I'm using basic "cleaning" vinegar)
Some copper (this might turn out to be a problem because whilst I bought some copper pipe saddles and paid a price much more than I expected to pay for "copper" it doesn't necessarily mean I have bought copper - this could be some copperique {fake copper introduced by a baby boomer capitalist society fixated on extorting as much money out of people as possible})

View attachment 106496

Step 3

Whack it all in the margarine tub and give it a go

View attachment 106497

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If I end up with copper(ique) coated electrical terminals then I'll be a happy chap - I can then make the connections and spray the parts that won't be touching anything with a varnish to help them along too. (If I just remove the rust the parts will corrode really quickly and repairing the dynamo will be a waste of effort)

According to the thread on the model building forum I should see an effect by tomorrow morning. My slapdash whack in a bit of this and that approach might not be quite right so it could be a mega failure.

{Tune in for the next exciting installment}

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this mixture apparently gives off hydrogen gas - so to make sure I don't blow myself up it has been banished to the little house on the prairie green house spray cabin at the end of the garden. (Yep the grapes can get it if it goes bang)

Click to expand...

Stretch said:

Well I'll be ***********ered!

Who'd have thought it?

The daft electroplating experiment seems to be working!

I got fed up with the copperique (the pipe saddles from the DIY shop) and thought I'd just lob in an old brass gasket from a series 2 differential (you know the one from the nose cone) and blow me sideways and call me Nancy it looks like it is doing something =>

View attachment 106627

It doesn't show all that well in this picture because the flash was necessary - so I'll take a new picture tomorrow in daylight - but the part being shown is actually slightly yellow - brass yellow.

Very exciting.

As you can see from the picture I had little faith in the process after the copperique experiment failed and just carried on using the little green house on the prairie for spraying (hence the Eastwoods extreme chassis black dust floating on the electrolyte). I just bunged the nose cone gasket in there as I had nothing to lose whilst I got round to cutting up the copper head gasket as planned.

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So anyway the plan is now

1) get hold of a tumbler cleaning machine so I can get these small parts totally rust free (my usual mechanical rust removal method of drill and angle grinder wire brushes is not suitable for small parts)

2) cut up some of the copper head gasket or cut up this brass gasket (haven't decided which just yet)

3) re-do the experiment with new clean electrolyte


{As always - to be continued}

Click to expand...

My mad attempts at electroplating with out electricity?

Well it has been a bit more of a struggle than I hoped but I stuck with it and have finally gotten some promising results.



Even with my dodgy point and shoot camera it is (now finally) clear to see that the steel parts are finally getting a coating of brass (or is it copper?)

Another day and I reckon I can get the dynamo reassembled - yeee haaar

Really wanted to get the engine block mounted on my engine stand today...

...delay...

...turns out the threads of the studs in the bell housing are "bitsa"!



The parts book says the studs are 3/8" UNF - well that might be true on one end

On the other end I'm pretty sure they are 3/8 " BSW



What kind of dickwad would mix up so many different standardisations?

This is factory - blinking heck pick a side - any side and stick with it!

You are always going to get a mix of threads as they have different properties but some mixes are stranger than others

Just had to redo the threads in ALL of mine because some utter plum wound them all the way in. As in so far that the unthreaded part in the middle had gone in and rubbed the thread out! If I remember right the threads are 3/8ths UNF and UNC.

Jam1 said:

You are always going to get a mix of threads as they have different properties but some mixes are stranger than others

Click to expand...

I was surprised to find what looked like one system on one end and another system on the other.

LordOWar said:

Just had to redo the threads in ALL of mine because some utter plum wound them all the way in. As in so far that the unthreaded part in the middle had gone in and rubbed the thread out! If I remember right the threads are 3/8ths UNF and UNC.

Click to expand...

Well today I got this =>



I can see those lumps of plastic flying off down the street when the recycling gets collected...



But I have nuts! I have bolts! I have washers!

This should keep me going for a little while - I'm bound to need more but a nice selection is nearly always a good place to start.

As for the dickwads



I like to think that they weren't!

I've threaded on both BSW and UNC nuts to the coarse end and they both fit. I was warned on the series 2 club forum that the pitch was the same for these 3/8 inch threads. I can't feel a difference between a BSW or a UNC bolt on the thread - they both go on smoothly. The other end is definitely UNF as the BSF won't even get started...

...so I'm concluding that they weren't dickwads - they put UNF on one end and UNC on the other - they didn't mix up their systems.

Oh yeah - as for progress - it has hit an all time low. The Mercedes decided to spray fuel all over its underside so I've been cocking about with that as well as dealing with "other stuff". "Other stuff" is always miserable and takes up too much time.

Well goodness me! It is all go today.

Nearly the bargain of the century - well I say bargain - I mean pretty good price for a bit of vintage bling.

40 euros delivered =>

(Not bad at all for Holland - trust me I'm a vegetarian etc)



The sticky out bits on either side of the package were a pleasant surprise.



This is a Shelley Tangye jack...



...one like this would have been supplied with the Land Rover when new.

I'm slowly going through all the vintage bling to make the vehicle seem all that more special when done - 'cos like I was taught in the armed forces "bull**** baffles brains"

Right - all that messing about with threads on the flywheel housing (or adapter plate as the Americans might say) was to try and fit the engine to the engine stand.

So I got the correct bolts ordered and sent from England - and promptly forgot about them when I went to see the Land Rover today!

Cock.

That wasn't the worst of it though - I think after my last tidying up session I've packed the third main bearing cap for the crankshaft in a box in the roof space. I need that bit now!

Cock (again).

Oh weeeelllllll =>

Here's how far I got today. I'm going to see how scary it is going to be fitting the engine to the engine stand from the flywheel end.

I'm not 100% sure if this is a good idea. As the engine gets heavier and heavier (as you put more on it) I'm not sure if the aluminium flywheel housing casting is up to the job. I might have to rig up something on the side of the engine and mount it sideways or add some additional support at the front.

What have others done?

Anyway before you fit the flywheel housing you need to fit the crank first (on this three main bearing engine).

Take one engine block and tip it upside down



Take one shiny new crankshaft out of the packet



Clean up the casting where the bearing shells are going to fit

Break out that new bottle of Millers Assembly lube

(oh yes)

(Glug glug)



Make sure ALL plain bearings line up correctly (!) (Note to self: check in the book about this)



Carefully place new crankshaft in new home



Now the flywheel adapter plate can be fitted



...really really not sure about this flimsy aluminium casting...

...to be continued (once I've found the third bearing cap and I've remembered to order some plastigauge)

My engine weighs over 600lbs, and its mounts are right at the front, so there's a minimum of 300lbs hanging from my bellhousing when it's mounted in the car. Now add another G or two makes it 6 or even 900lbs. The bellhousing is about 4mm thick, much the same as your adaptor there. So it should be more than man enough for much less engine weight.

You could build it up without the housing adaptor though, and then you'd be bolting to iron - albeit with the bolts not so well-spaced.

boguing said:

...
You could build it up without the housing adaptor though, and then you'd be bolting to iron - albeit with the bolts not so well-spaced.

Click to expand...

Yeah - I thought that that might not work because of the crank sticking out - I might have to revisit that idea though. Thanks.

Just bought some "Les Cromie" series 2a (should be ribbed) footwells.

The series 2 club reckons they are the best => exciting...

Delays again - trudging through life doing other things.

Still somethings did get arranged and sent



In that box I bought a speedometer cable (buried in the bottom), a number plate light in case I need it for the Dutch registration (if I indeed go down this route when it is all done - depends on Brexit and the value of the pound and the price of vehicles over here blah blah blah) and the clutch and brake reservoir. The rest of the stuff got chucked in for free.

Having had a quick look it looks like there's a few parts that might "come in" - nice deal



Other big news =>

Les Cromie foot wells turned up

There's a lot of positive stuff on the interweb about that bloke. I'll add to it by saying he shopped about for me to find cheaper shipping from the UK. He didn't have to do that and I only partially whinged about "making couriers rich" (I didn't even add in the bit about "of all the undeserving people on the planet courier companies should never be getting more than the bare minimum"). So any way he seems to live up to his reputation on the web.

Next thing => I hope they fit!



Nice bit of spot welding there - whilst I have a spot welding machine I don't have tongs with a throat as deep as that - so that's helped.



I wasn't expecting the corner pieces - but they came too.

I might need to tidy up a few edges - we'll see







It should all be right hand drive fitment...

...next week I'll see eh?

(manjana manjana manjana manjana manjana manjana manjana)

Well it has finally happened - I'm moving to the back of the warehouse.

It will be mostly under glass - in the light - Yes! Although I'll need to put up some shading in the summer months the extra light for the rest of the year is going to be welcome.

It is quite a nice space - 71 meters square - space for two cars plus work benches and storage. Lush.

Here's a picture of what it looks like at the moment (excuse the Mercedes)



I'm gonna be building walls and buying racks for storage this week and then figuring out how I'm going to move that sodding big fat 109 inch chassis of mine by myself...

Well building walls took longer than expected. Not the best built things in the world but as I add to them they are slowly getting stiffer and more wall like. The good thing about using all the crap that has been left behind by other renters is that the land lord is happy because it won't cost him money to chuck the stuff I use and I'm happy because it would probably cost about 15 euros a square meter to buy equivalent sheet material...

...so a time rich cash poor solution has been made. So far I've invested about 5 euros in screws.

I got loads of the Land Rover junk moved into the new work space today - as well as the chassis!

Bit Heath Robinson but it worked. Ratchet straps + plastic castors + wood

Now I've got the safari roof on trestles in the new work space I can see what a mess it is. I had started to remove the safari sheet of aluminium ages ago because the front left hand corner has been bashed as has the rear right hand corner. Once the roof came off the Land Rover I ran out of space in the old workspace and it ended up against the wall (where I faffed about removing the bitumastic goo and the horse hair insulation on the under side).

The Upper safari sheet is meant to be in "Limestone" cream and the under part of the roof in the body colour (Bronze Green). As you might be able to see the underside green has been eroded away and has been replaced by algae. So it is still green (which is nice). The cream upper has also been worn away and has also got the algae treatment. I'm having to use alloy wheel cleaner to remove it all because there appears to be a dispute with the water company and the building has been disconnected...

...anyway here's some pictures of a messy safari roof to show what I'm up against (not literally up against it of course it is far to slimy with its algae coat)



(Fantastic shot of the wall too - China would be proud of one like that)

Nasty wrinkle on back left hand corner





That ripped hole is the real ****er =>



Front left hand corner is a bit better




All of the rivets on the upper surface have already been drilled out (before the seasonal adjustment disorder set in). The last bits to be removed are the heavily rusted bolts that hold the stiffeners on the front and back.



(^ that was the back - the front is shown next =>)



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Well that should be a fun job.

Can 'e fix it?

Hash tag doing other stuff that's almost related to the Land Rover

Today had great fun eating Yorkies driving a VW Crafter (wanted a Sprinter but hey ho). Got me self a palletstelling - weird I don't know what the term actually is in English (blinking 'eck I've been 'ere too long). It is a frame work - kind of like shelves - for holding pallets.

3.5 meters high (doesn't fit in a VW Crafter! Had to leave the back doors open) - five uprights
About ten meters long
At least two levels - 16 horizontal load bearing beams

Bit rusty but it won't look too out of place next to that dodgy wooden wall I've kind of half built. Plan is to use this frame to reinforce the wall a bit.



Got a free ratchet strap from the seller to help hold it all in the back of the wagon. (Embarrassed? I should have been - I had straps to hold the doors half shut but forgot the bigger ones to stop all that metal from sliding about the back)



All for a bargain price of 250 euros. (For those who don't know - brand new would be about 3000 euros - second hand for similar that's not so rusty would be about 600 to 800 euros - so I'm happy to get out the wire brush and a bit of Hammerite. Main reason it was cheap is because it doesn't have a health and safety certificate and most companies would want shiny - this is stuff that's already had a life holding engine parts and is a bit bent in places. Sill I have an 'ammer and a stick welding machine...)

Trudge trudge trudge - still messing about with other stuff



Tomorrow I'm just going to ignore the other stuff that is taking so long to get done and just work on the Land Rover!

Fandabidozi

(showing me age)

Yesterday "something else happened" again. So there was no Land Rover action.

Today, however, I realised I haven't ordered the correct pinion bearings for the front differential. Happy days. So anyway they're now on order and might turn up before krimbo with any luck. If they miss the krimbo rush I'm buggered - nothing happens in January in courier land...

...still got to finish off the rear differential today. This is now a mongrel differential. I've "stolen" the pinion and crown wheel (plus differential cage) from a series 3 differential and fitted it to a series 2a so from the outside it looks like an original series 2 differential. (The series 2 / 2a casings have a ribbed outside with out a flat bit that's on the series 3 version)

Setting up the pinion went surprisingly well - I just needed to mess about with the spacers on the pinion shaft to get the drive flange in the right place. Fitting the pinion seal was a bit of a pig in the separate series 2 end cap. (I'll try and dig out some pictures of that if it isn't clear what I mean - let me know if you want them!) But after that with new pinion shaft bearings I got a nice contact patch pattern =>

You've already been introduced to the Heath Robinson way I'm using friction on some half shafts to make sure the crown and pinion wheels are in a "loaded" position.



The green book says to set the backlash and then tighten the serrated nuts by a half serration to pre-load the side bearings.

This is kind of OK but you have to bear in mind the effect of tightened end caps! Tightening the end caps can have a big effect on the position of the parts in the system. It is a bit fiddly because it is difficult to move the serrated nuts when the end caps are too tight. So there's a bit of a song and a dance needed.

Eventually got them right and torqued the caps =>


The contact patterns on the teeth are not too bad.

As usual the pictures are a bit restricted by the flash - the wear pattern is actually sitting a little higher than it looks in this picture - should be central under load on both sides of the cogs



(Again not the best picture in the world but I hope you get the idea: Apply a load to the output shafts - turn the pinion shaft so the engineers blue goes through the pinion gear - then turn the pinion shaft back the other way so you get contact on both sides of the crown wheel)



Locking the serrated nuts gave me some food for thought.

The series 3 lockers are bit better in the way that they grip round the serrated nut - whereas the series 2 versions rely on wire locking to hold them in position.



(No wire locking hole in the series 3 lockers)



I went retro and went for the wire locking version =>



(Sharp eyes might notice that I cocked up the first attempt shown above and did it the other way in the end)



(Should do a trip - like we used to say)

EDIT:- Oh yeah you really need to make sure the wire locking is nice and present (not too tight - it will snap!) so the lockers can not move out of position