Our Series 2A project

Prob thought it was a characteristic of 45 year old vehicle!

There is nothing loose anywhere...perhaps it is the front axle :\

rustyrhinos said:

Prob thought it was a characteristic of 45 year old vehicle!

There is nothing loose anywhere...perhaps it is the front axle :\

Click to expand...

Well, its just an excuse to upgrade.

Its a good excuse to have a mental breakdown more like LOL.

Well, the new track rod ends and swivels have cured both the clunking on acceleration and the clunking when steering. Thank god for that!

Shiney bits, yay! Not that they will stay shiney for long!





And now set about putting in a few creature comforts...

where did that gator kit come from ?

Paddocks do em - as duz Ebay, Sean



here

ta very muchly

Yup pretty sure I got mine from paddocks. In theory you can do it with sivels on the car...personally I wouldn't want to attempt it!

as far as I am aware - the gaiters are all split - so you wrap them around the swivel and then glue them together to make them watertight. I have a set, but my concerns are with the swivel ring bolts shearing and then having to drill them out.

Are those gators worth it? I have them on my landy, but they are cracked and i was thinking of just taking them off.

If they're cracked get rid of them. They will let the water & crap in, but not let it escape, so worse than useless.
That's why a lot of people don't think gaiters are a good idea.

as far as I am aware - the gaiters are all split - so you wrap them around the swivel and then glue them together to make them watertight. I have a set, but my concerns are with the swivel ring bolts shearing and then having to drill them out.

Click to expand...

Yup thats right, hence me saying it would not be something I would want to do under the vehicle! Swivel rings bolts should be OK, partic if yours is leaking

Not updated this thread for a little while!

Having already taken it to Algeria and back, we are now going to Morocco next month. The spec is pretty much unchanged really, the only thing I can really think of that we have changed is the radiator, rear brakes (will do fronts if i get time) and (soon) the tyres.

Spent almost an entire afternooon (OK, bit of an exaggeration but we did faff about a lot with it!) making a bracket for the expansion tank). Ended up being over engineered but oh well at least it will last:

Well, as a few will know, it made it to Morocco and back without many issues - clutch cylinder was leaking - fixed with a 50p seal. Was running on 3 and a bit cylinders for most of the trip, but that is now fixed (I should have thought of the fix while I was out there as it was pretty obvious, but oh well, I will learn for next time). And the chassis snapped at the front (not on one of my repairs btw!). Apart from a few serviceable type things, it is ready for more green laning and overland trips

Fitted some light guards. Bought them at a show, they were rusty, grotty and who knows how many layers of paint, so I stripped them back, sprayed with anti-rust primer and then gunmetal grey.



On:

Oops didnt realise the pics were that big. Ah well!

I want to get some covers/guards for the front fogs but yet to find anything suitable. My old fogs came with guards, but since knocking one off somewhere couldn't find the same ones again.

Thought the jerry cans could do with a bit of a freshen up...



And fitted a bit of luxury Behold the Tesco cup holder!

So...was doing a turn in the road and the clutch went completley solid (pedal would not move at all. I was in gear and heading for a wall so pushed the pedal hard, and then it went...along with leaving a load of clutch fluid on the floor. No probs I thought, probably just the clutch slave seal as it was replaced in Morocco with a non-standard part anyway.

Got told back by the rangie, took slave out, repaced the seal etc. Went to refit...and as I was about to put it in, noticed i could see light through where the slave woud go in. Hmm, odd I though, so had a look round the back to find this...



So we set about taking the gearbox out to find the culprit, and found this:



Not very good! Has got quite hot then! So set about rebuilding the box while it was out (and used a new genuine clutch release bearing). I bought a spare box as a donator rahter than just getting a bellhousing - that way I figured I could use the best of both boxes. Turned out I needed new bits, including the layshaft, but much of it was fine. All seals etc replaced.

Make-shift workbench





Made a bit of an error by not locating the handbrake bits correctly, but oh well these things happen. Also bellhousing needed hellicoiling a it didn't want to tighten up...similar story with the slave cylinder.



While we were putting the gearbox in there was a distinct strong smell of petrol...after looking about noticed that the fuel tank sender was flopping about...seems the screws that were put in were not the right ones and there is no thread left. So I had a few choices...use a bigger self tapper...which would mean drilling the sender...or pop a rew rivets in there...so that is how it ended up. Now obviously if the sender needs taking off, the rivets will end up inside...but my theory is, the next time I would want to be taking that off, it will be for a replacement tank anyway!



Put it all back together, took for a test drive and wow, what an improvement! I have only driven my series landie, so before I just assumed that the gearboxes were that sloppy! Much more positive changes, less slop and less noise. Very happy

So...next job, sort out the niggly things...mainly things leaking (rear axle), wheel stud missing, wheel studs coming out with the bolts attached and shaft bolt snapped off.

I remembered last time I replaced the stub axle on the rear, it just didn't feel right, took more force than I would have liked to get on, bearings very tight, just generally bad...but it had to be fitted to get the job done at the time. Perhaps another reason to buy genuine parts. So got the old stub axle off...what a blodey pain - could not get the stub off by itself, it had to come off with the hub and then be separated with force, same story with the bearings - not right at all!





When I jacked the landie up, noticed the rear shackle bolt had snapped...I reckon it had been like that for some time considering the rust around the snapped part of the bolt...perhaps jacking the car simply revealed it. Thankfully I have a spare, and it came out easily leaving the bush intact in the spring.



Shocks next...as we seem to kill standard ones (previously fitted Armstrong HD shocks) pretty quick, thought I would give some "uprated" ones a go - so fitted Rough Country Hydro 8000 supplied by Llama 4X4 - they seem pretty good (not road tested yet!). Thought while I was at it I would try one of the mud wheelsets forr size...I know it is not to all people's taste fitting these to the Series, but to be honest, I don't care, and they are my Green Laning wheelset anyway.



Then back to the stub axle...the new one was a much better fit, everything slid on nicely as it should. Took the brakes off and give them a good damn clean as well.



After that, repaired the missing wheel stud issue and the studs which would happily come out with the nuts, which was annoying. And then the drive shaft bolt which was snappped...drilled out the centre of the bolt, poked something down the middle and thankfully it unscrewed nicely...and was left clean, so that was a result!

Next to come soon...checked over the braking system and found that a front brake cylinder was leaking...it was a cheapo aftermarket one...it fell apart in my hands when I took it off! So will be replacing that with genuine. And then will be checking over the slightly suspicious looking welding that we got done in Morocco when the chassis snapped.

just signing up for the updates.
well done and keep up with the pics!