Series 3 109 Station Wagon, full ground up resto and 88 redo careless resto driving project

Wagon Loon · Nov 8, 2021

Next job to tackle on the 88 is her gearbox woes.

So these are what came out with the gearbox oil change.
They were attracted to the magnetic drain plug. What a good idea.
So the box is leaking oil into the bell housing and I think reverse gear teeth and third and fourth gears have damage too .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.
But after many hours of research online, I've come to the conclusion that it is cheaper for me to get a rebuilt gearbox and transfer box. Because so many parts need replacing in mind it's just not economical to do so.
There was some small shiny bits came out too, which are likely to be bearing material.
A replacement set of seals and bearings for this Suffix A gearbox are very reasonably priced. But when you start to add matched gear wheels things start to get expensive. Plus the bearings in the transfer box are gone and it's very noisy too.
The Suffix C or D box on the 109 only has a synchromesh gone as far as I can tell. It has a label on the bell housing as a Gold factory reconditioned gearbox and transfer box, so I'm going to rebuild them myself and hoping the parts required won't be too excessive.
Have found a chap down in Cornwall who rebuilds Landy gearboxes, and he has lots of parts available to choose from, so hopefully he may build a good one. A couple of years use will tell, and U know there's some supposedly reconditioned ones out there which are just bad.
Fingers crossed I get lucky.

Wagon Loon · Nov 12, 2021

Happy Days

One rebuilt gear and transfer box

Just got to finish putting a new sill on the Bug and can get busy with the Landy Gigi.
Going to replace the rear main oil seal at the same time, so may pull the engine oot to do that.
Must be delivery day!
20L of 20W50 oil just got delivered too

GSF 109 · Nov 13, 2021

Wagon Loon said:
Happy DaysView attachment 252534
One rebuilt gear and transfer boxView attachment 252535
Just got to finish putting a new sill on the Bug and can get busy with the Landy Gigi.
Going to replace the rear main oil seal at the same time, so may pull the engine oot to do that.
Must be delivery day!
20L of 20W50 oil just got delivered too

very shiny!

Wagon Loon · Nov 14, 2021

Thanks, it's very clean.
I can't wait to get busy fitting it, but first I'm finishing fabricating a new sill for the C1

Which had some rot along the bottom, so have replaced most of it with new metal.
I noticed some damage on the bell housing of the rebuilt gearbox, where the starter fits.
It looks like the bell housing and starter had a fight and the starter won making a small hole.
The plan is to braze it with some aluminium repair rods, they need the metal to be heated to 700°C which will be hard as the thick aluminium will suck all the heat away!
Hmm, gotta try and fill the small hole though before fitting.

Zed. · Nov 14, 2021

Wagon Loon said:
I noticed some damage on the bell housing of the rebuilt gearbox, where the starter fits.
It looks like the bell housing and starter had a fight and the starter won making a small hole.

if you're refering to the hole in this photi

16367206832897904669019632173169-jpg.252534

it looks like someone's wiped it with an anglegrinder

you or someone else?

as to welding / brazing, I'd try to find someone locally with a tig set as getting the bellhousing hot enough with a blowlamp to braze will take some effort

on the subject of alloy repair, I bought a 240v Camarc 'spoolgun' migset to do a job (not content with that I bought another (415v) for spares -although it does work) decent equipment is out there for cheap if you're lucky & in the right place

Rich.

BikerB · Nov 14, 2021

I would have to say angle grinder as well, not sure how the flywheel or starter could have done that damage.

Wagon Loon · Nov 14, 2021

That was my first thought, when it arrived on the pallet, but I couldn't figure why someone would have done that ??
The mig spool gun with 100% Argon gas I's a thought, because to tig weld it would be a huge fight with all the crud which would keep coming out of the casting.
Or maybe I should just leave it alone, but I'm not keen on having a hole in me bell.
The other option is to swap with the bell housing from my box, which would entail pressing the first motion shaft bearing into the new old housing and fettling it all back together. With a new oil seal and gasket which I could fabricate.
Hmm, what to do..

Wagon Loon · Nov 16, 2021

Getting a nice collection of gaskets, also bought gasket paper, so I can use quite a few of the new gaskets as the pattern to cut more spares

Since the engine will likely have to come out for the main crank oil seal, I may clean and paint the engine. The engine bay could use a tidy too, but there has to be a point at which to stop lol.

Wagon Loon · Nov 18, 2021

So finally got paint on the sill fabrication, so when it's all back together, can get busy with the Landy gearbox change and engine tidy up + new seals.

I also ordered an engine/gearbox stand, which had a good discount at £50 delivered.
Since I'll take the engine out to fettle and change the crank seals. Also since I've quite a bit of baby blue 2 pack paint left over from another job, which I can modify to duck blue, might as well clean and repaint the engine too. Also paint the fan something like this..
https://images.app.goo.gl/w4KGJYvYb48hnn6t6
All of which will be easier with the engine stand, then the 5 bearing engine from the 109 can be mounted on the stand and worked through. If I'm really lucky the 5 bearing 109 engine will be able to fit back into the corner where it is currently. But would be much more convenient to have the engine on wheeled stand, so it can be worked on and put away as suits. But that will be another year lol.
Just happy to be getting the Bug C1 finished and clear to make space for Gigi to get her recon gearbox

and some much needed tidying up done in the engine bay.

auld duffer · Nov 21, 2021

If your ever down Forfar way and happen to have the box in the back of your car I will tig it for free for you .. However if you want to have a go with the mig and some Argon I can tell you that if you use a teflon liner and a 0.8 tip and 0.6 ali wire turn the wire speed up and you wont need a spool for the small amount of welding you have to do there . It wont be pretty but its hole filling not structural , just clean it up with a flap wheel but give the flap wheel a good dose of WD40 to stop the ali sticking and clogging it .

Wagon Loon · Nov 21, 2021

Thanks auld duffer,
That's also interesting what you say bought the WD40 to stop Alu sticking to a flappy wheel, would that also work with carbide burrs on the air tools would you think?
I have a very powerful blow torch, the type plumbers use for bigger pipes and it runs on MapGas so it's an ideal brazing torch.
Also have special Alu repair rods for doing a brazed repairs specifically for Alu. They melt at a much lower temp, so I don't need to get the area all that hot for the rods to work.
If I can get enough heat for them to do their job, they should make a clean looking repair which would be more like soldering than braising, which could then be cleaned up, using your tip of the WD40 flappy wheel thanks.
The engine/gearbox stand arrived really quickly which was great. Unfortunately there was no mounting hardware to bolt it together with (ᗒᗩᗕ) Chasing that up but the instructions lists all the parts missing so may end up using my own.
At least the Bugs out of my workshop. Now it can get cleaned up and organised for doing work on the Landy.
My garage is too low to fit the Landy, so she'll get parked across the front, and parts pulled into the shop to work on.

auld duffer · Nov 21, 2021

Yes that works with burrs as well stops them clogging

Wagon Loon · Nov 21, 2021

Great thanks

Wagon Loon · Nov 23, 2021

So the dogs come to help with the gearbox.
But first things first.

The problem of the hole in the bell housing.
Using the stainless steel brush from the aluminium repair rods kit, cleaned up the wounded area

And experimented with measuring the temperatures in various places when heating the affected area, using the infrared thermometer; ( cheap one from Aldi, but works great).

My concern being since aluminium is such a fantastic conductor of heat, I may not be able to get the working area hot enough before too much heat got to the new first motion shaft bearing seal. This would be bad.
Here is the kit details I'm using

I need to get the working area to just under 400°C for the rods to melt, but must not let the seal area reach 45°C approx, to avoid damaging it.
My other concern is that the flowing rod would just run out through the hole, and some did

Falling onto the clutch slave housing area.

I heated the Mapgas cylinder up in warm water as it's about 6°C in my workshop, and I need full power.

And success

The other side looked like this

Cleaned it up

It turned out better than I was expecting

Wagon Loon · Nov 30, 2021

working away to get the old gearbox oot.
I don't think this seat box has been out in a very long time. There is so much galvanic corrosion I'll have to rebuild the seat box when it comes out. New ends needed and also the toolbox will have to be replaced or made, maybe with galvanised sheet I have handy. Hmm that opens up some possibilities as some I've seen have a double battery capacity for the six pot I think. But a bigger tool box would be useful for storing stuff out of sight.
Parts of the 'restored' bulkhead need work too like here.....

That's just nasty, but can be cut out and re fabricated with galvanised sheet.
Got to be very careful of the poisonous fumes when welding, but the galvanised metal can protect over the weld which is a little future proofing I hope.

There's other areas needing repair/restoration too.

But now has to be the time to rebuild the seat box and do the small repairs.
The seat box is s whole mini project in it's elf!

Lastly, I can fit the new fuel sender if I can figure out how the wiring should actually be?

My reading of the wiring diagram is that the feed wire + from the guage, should go to the sender, then from the other terminal go to Earth. The variable resistance potentiometer within changing the meter reading.
I don't like what I see, as it's a confused mess and the tank is I think being used as an earth ?
Start again I will, and what's that terminal on the oval part for ??

Getting ready for lift out

auld duffer · Nov 30, 2021

The terminal on the oval part has been used as the earth by the looks of .. Two insulated connectors on the sender are likely to be the signal wire to the gauge and possibly a low fuel warning light .. the usual path for a fuel gauge is one signal wire to the gauge and an earth using one of the mount screws for the sender to chassis ground .. that can be via the tank if the tank is mounted metal to metal and the chassis and gauges have a good earth circuit.

The other insulated terminal is usually a source to a warning light ..

Its probably a generic sender that does the job but doesnt require the other terminal , If your gauge isnt working its likely because the wire the fitter thought was an earth, viz the short wire to the oval tab, which looks like it was connected to the other insulated connection on the sender, isnt an earth connection.. If you remove the spade , fit an eye and secure it to the sender plate screws the sender should then work, providing the tank has a good earth to the chassis

auld duffer · Nov 30, 2021

Repair on the box came out looking good ..

Wagon Loon · Nov 30, 2021

Thanks,
Got these repair rods for the birmabright body repairs. But they did a sterling job on a difficult fix.
I will use them to fill the holes in the seat box front from the spot welds. Then I can have better spaced rivets in fixing

the new repair sections.
I just need to source the correct rivets, for the seat box.

auld duffer · Nov 30, 2021

Rumor has it that "birmabright " is nothing more than a standard grade ally. Im not sure what grade but when making ali body panels I always used H14 which was a half hard alloy that allowed for some working before it would need softened again by annealing . Ive welded the landrover panels easily with the tig without any problem other than dirt contamination , hard to avoid with ancient aluminium.

I read somewhere that birmabright was a shortened slang for aluminium used in the factory .. a jokey term for Birmingham Bright basically describing the volume of nice shiny ali sheet they used in the factory Might not be true but its a good story

Wagon Loon · Nov 30, 2021

Lol, probably.
I thought it had a bit of magnesium thrown in, and was excess Spitfire construction material, more available than steel after WW2.
I would love a TIG, and I would spend many hours making the most tiny welds look beautiful. Such a versatile bit of kit.
The rods and map gas torch doesn't pull the junk out of the old metal. Maybe one day I'll get a TIG, but the rods should suffice for the meantime.
If it doesn't snow too much tomorrow, may be able to get levers disconnected and some bolts out of the old bell housing.

Series 3 109 Station Wagon, full ground up resto and 88 redo careless resto driving project

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