Straight 6 rebuild

you're getting there

Aye, lots of bolting things back together and painting/waxoyling still to go. I'm determined to have a topless ride this summer though!

Cracking thread ajb.

I am about to replace a rear crossmember and like the idea of simply lifting the tub rather than taking the whole thing off. I'd love to know what needs unbolting before I take the plunge?

Might save me a day of headscratching or is it straight forward.

I unbolted the 10 bolts that connect it to the rear crossmember, the rear sections of sill covers need to come off, there are two bodywork braces just infront of the rear wheel arches, 8 bolts (4 on each side) connecting the tub to the outriggers just behind the seatbox, all (6?) bolts that connect the seat box to the tub just behind the seat runners, then 2 (I think) bolts on each side which go through the bottom seatbelt mounting bracket, through the sill and the rear tub. Plus the fuel filler neck rubber and if youre going to drop the fuel tank the fuel line and fuel sender wires. I left all the rear lighting wires connected and just taped them out of the way but disconnected the tow hitch electrics as it's bracket was welded to my towbar drop plate.

The doors need to be opened so the tub can rotate forwards and if the bodywork brackets are left in place (mine are welded to the outriggers) then the bodywork will need to be pulled out to clear them as you are lifting. My tub to seat box was stuck with some sort of putty (dum dum maybe?) so I made sure the front of my tub was loose enough to move by just lifting each side to break the seal, then got a mate to stick a bit of wood under the tub as I lifted the back, from there you can either stick a hilift jack under the rear lip of the tub (on a bit of wood to spread the load) or use a slim scissor jack on top of the rear crossmember (again onto a bit of wood) to lift the tub up to whatever height you want.

For me it was just a case of suck it and see, and it worked for me, meant I could easily raise and lower the tub when I was trial fitting the rear crossmember. Good luck with yours!

i built a jig on my chassis that bolted to the tabs on the crossmember and to four points on the chassis, i bolted the metal for the jig down then welded it together before touching the crossmember with an angle grinder

but i did lift off the 109 tub complete with roof and sides

NiteMare said:

but i did lift off the 109 tub complete with roof and sides

Click to expand...

You've either got a gantry crane or a few strong friends just out of shot then! ;-)

lifted it on my engine hoist using the tailgate chains at the rear and a forklift under the front of the roof

if i'd have needed to i'd have jacked it up on the chassis until i could have slid a couple of scaffold poles/boards under and sat it on four 45gallon drums so i could roll the chassis out

there's always a way

NiteMare said:

Click to expand...

One thing I have just noticed is I am missing the rear most tub supports as shown on your chassis, I guess mine lost its ones the last time it had the crossmember changed. I may fabricate some if I can be bothered.

NiteMare said:

i built a jig on my chassis that bolted to the tabs on the crossmember and to four points on the chassis, i bolted the metal for the jig down then welded it together before touching the crossmember with an angle grinder

but i did lift off the 109 tub complete with roof and sides

Click to expand...

the jig is to make sure the crossmember stays in the right position while you work on it so it still lines up with the tub holes when you have finished?

that was it's primary purpose, it was also to ensure i didn't extend or shorten the chassis rails when i cut the rot away and rebuilt them before reattaching my new crossmember

i didn't buy one with extensions as i wanted as near as possible to perform an invisible repair

ajb403 said:

I unbolted the 10 bolts that connect it to the rear crossmember, the rear sections of sill covers need to come off, there are two bodywork braces just infront of the rear wheel arches, 8 bolts (4 on each side) connecting the tub to the outriggers just behind the seatbox, all (6?) bolts that connect the seat box to the tub just behind the seat runners, then 2 (I think) bolts on each side which go through the bottom seatbelt mounting bracket, through the sill and the rear tub. Plus the fuel filler neck rubber and if youre going to drop the fuel tank the fuel line and fuel sender wires. I left all the rear lighting wires connected and just taped them out of the way but disconnected the tow hitch electrics as it's bracket was welded to my towbar drop plate.

The doors need to be opened so the tub can rotate forwards and if the bodywork brackets are left in place (mine are welded to the outriggers) then the bodywork will need to be pulled out to clear them as you are lifting. My tub to seat box was stuck with some sort of putty (dum dum maybe?) so I made sure the front of my tub was loose enough to move by just lifting each side to break the seal, then got a mate to stick a bit of wood under the tub as I lifted the back, from there you can either stick a hilift jack under the rear lip of the tub (on a bit of wood to spread the load) or use a slim scissor jack on top of the rear crossmember (again onto a bit of wood) to lift the tub up to whatever height you want.

For me it was just a case of suck it and see, and it worked for me, meant I could easily raise and lower the tub when I was trial fitting the rear crossmember. Good luck with yours!

Click to expand...

Thank you. I started the unbolting today. Well I actually ground off the 10 rear bolts as they wouldnt play ball.
Took off the ones behind the seats and anchors and the near side outriggers.
Cant see how im going to get to the off side ones as the tank is in the way. Ill do the sills and brackets in the morning and give it a wiggle to see its free.

Yesterday I was finishing off lots of little jobs so not too many pictures to show. I cut the tailgate hinges off and welded them back on in the right place, fuel tank plumbed in, tow bar electrics wires up, the seatbox bolted up to the rear tub, sill covers back on, refitted the seatbelts and installed a new belt for the middle seat, and got the truck cab back on. Here's a couple of pictures (minus the rear sill cover at this point) of how it looks:





If anyone is interested in how my mate is getting on with the Sprite, the engine is still at the machinists, the gearbox has been stripped and rebuilt, all the little parts have been degreased, sandblasted and painted and he's now turning his attention to the shell of the vehicle, starting with the bonnet. This was hiding behind a healthy amount of filler, the other side is pretty much the same.



Having spent an evening making it, here's the first of many replacement sections going in.

The last week or so has been spent finishing off little jobs, putting the exhaust back together, painting the last of the chassis etc and also doing cosmetic things. I was given some fairly ropey looking bench seats by a mate, one of them was missing the seat base and the vinyl on them was past it. I managed to get hold of some foam from a gym (they were getting rid of a pole vaulting crash mat so had a LOT of foam to get rid of!) and spent 12 quid on 2 metres of black vinyl so made some seat bases and recovered the existing seat backs. The frames were stripped down, gently wire wheeled and sprayed with some spray galv paint, hopefully the shinyness will tone down as they look a bit too 'new' at the minute. THey came out reasonably well, definitely an improvement on how they were.















Next up was to strip the Land Rover badge of the who knows how many layers of NATO green paint, it took a few sessions with paint stripper and a bronze brush to get rid of it all. Hidden underneath it all was a fairly deep scratch (battle scar? Chicks dig scars, right?) which is weird as the body work doesn't show any signs of damage there, perhaps it's not its original badge. Either way I cleaned it up, sprayed it matt black and then picked out the lettering with some fine grit wet and dry, after a few years it's got it's identity back!







I flushed the brake fluid with new stuff and changed the oil in both the axles, swivel hubs, gearbox and transfer box, I noticed that at some point in the last 4 weeks the near side swivel hub has decided to fail so I replaced that while I was doing the oil, fortunately I had a spare from when I did the off side one a couple of years ago. While draining the gearbox was presented with these:



Now, the last time I did a gearbox oil change I also had a spring fall out, so, is there one remaining in there still or did one come out when the previous owner had it and is there none in there right now? I guess I'll find out in the autumn when I take the box out! The pretty savage gashes in one half of the spring would explain why I lost 3rd and 4th gear for 10 minutes about 18 months ago, you can quite clearly see where the high points of two of the helical spurs have bitten it, I'm trying not to think about what it may have done to the teeth. I'm sticking with my plan of taking the vehicle out for the summer, it's clearly been like this for 18 months so another couple won't hurt, I'll just carry on double declutching!

did you replace the flat metal on the seat bases or just do a good clean up and paint?

Just a wire wheel and paint.

Well, the time has come for the old girl to come home, it's not 'finished' (whatever that means), there are still a couple of smaller odd jobs to do which I'll get round to in time but I wanted to get it out for the summer. My half of the workshop seems an awful lot bigger without a 109 in it!



This is my pile of ex-Land Rover bits, less of course the several pounds of rust that's been swept up off of the floor over the last 10 months!



At home again, out enjoying the sun, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy driving it!







Need to get the top off again to make the most of this weather, pics to follow!

quite a good start to finish time, sept to now

Been out enjoying the old girl the last couple of weekends but also putting it to work (the pampering is over, time to earn it's keep again!). With the beautiful weather 2 weeks ago I got the top off and had a couple of days as a convertible



Met up with a couple of mates and did a bit of laning last sunday.







I think my tow hitch (plough?) may be a tad low.



Then this weekend it was used to fetch firewood from the woodland that my mate manages, didn't complain at all heading back up the tracks with the back full of ash, beech and hazle.







I'm very glad to have it back on the road, though we did have a bit of a 'moment' yesterday afternoon. Dual carriage way at 50 mph, the bonnet caught a gust of wind and lifted up, came out of the hinges and while still attached by the bonnet stay twisted 90 degrees over the driver's side wing. Bit of a brown trousers moment. After forcing the bonnet back on and lashing it down to get home I checked out the damage - driver's side washer jet knocked off, driver's side wiper spindle bent, driver's wing mirror shattered, 3 inches of the rearward edge of the passenger side of the bonnet is scratched up from being dragged along the road, the bonnet stay is bent and there are some knocks and scratches to the paintwork. How it didn't shatter the windscreen I have no idea as it came bloomin close when it took the wiper spindle out! I think we came of very lightly, most of the above has already been knocked back into place with a hammer, I've ordered a new mirror, washer nozzle and some rubber bonnet clasps to stop it ever happening again!

Looking lovely.

I worry about my bonnet sometimes. It's maybe worth stripping down and checking the release mechanism. It might not be engaging properly due to paint, dry grease or being set too low.

It really does look well.

omg last thing you want on a trip out, could have been a lot worse