Hi All,

We live in the sticks on top of a big hill and, due to local council cost cutting, we are effectively under house arrest every time it snows so my wife tasked me with finding a 4WD. Neither of us is keen on modern 4WDs and resent having to pay over £200 tax for a car that will spend most of the year on the drive. I am a fan of 'agricultural' 4WDs after covering 26,000KM exploring Australia in an early Landcruiser in the late 80’s so I decided a pre-73 series Landy was the best option.

Well, after some time and looking at a few Landys, I finally have one on the drive! It is a 1966 Series 2a, green SWB petrol in need of TLC. It has a new MOT and is a solid, 'rolling restoration' project with potential. It has freewheel hubs, both a rag top and a hard top with side windows, sound chassis / bulkhead / floors etc and came with numerous spares including a full windscreen frame with glass. I paid £2K which, although considerably more than I would have paid a few years back, seems a fair price in today's market.

So, today I have been tinkering, taking out play in the throttle linkage and setting up the choke etc and taking stock of my purchase. It needs a few minor tweaks such as oil leaks, excessive steering play, clutch judder, electrickery etc and a new coat of paint. I am pretty handy with cars, preparing a couple of basic rally cars in the past, designing / building a seven replica from the ground up and I am currently restoring a TR3a with my Dad. However, I know next to bugger all about Landrovers so I have a few questions, if I may, to ask the combined wisdom of Landyzone members:

1. The radiator cooling fan has no cowling. Should it have one? The fan is a 'puller' sitting behind the rad so I imagine there is a chance of overheating when stationary without a cowl to draw air through the rad.

2. How do I check the 4WD system is ok? The yellow lever seems a bit sticky when pressed down and needs a pull to get it back up when going from 4WD to 2WD. Pulling the red lever into low range seems to be ok and I know this should automatically engage 4WD but is there an easy test to check it is all working ok?

3. 2nd gear synchromesh. The seller told me that Landies only have syncro on 3rd and 4th but this smells wrong to me. Surely it should have a three syncro box? I can double declutch for 2nd cog but is this right? If not then how easy are these boxes to recon?

4. A strange one here: If I turn on the main dipped beam all seems fine apart from getting a charge warning light (the car has an alternator) however when kicking the floor switch to high beam the warning light goes out, even though the high beam uses 10W more power. Any ideas? I am thinking that perhaps a cleanup of the connections on the footswitch might be the way to go but would appreciate any pointers.

5. Both the Ammeter and Fuel Gauge are reading back to front. The more fuel I put in, the closer to empty the gauge reads and when I start the car the ammeter reads a discharge despite me measuring that the alternator is charging the battery. I guess all I need to do is swap the ammeter connections but my brain is having difficulty with the fuel gauge. Perhaps a full rewire / re-loom would be a safer option. Is this all a result of the car being converted from generator to alternator in the past?

Lastly, who are the best parts supplies around? I am working to a tight budget but will need lots of bits over the coming months.

Thanks,
Boggie

hould have a cowl,only last 2a had synchro on 1st and 2nd,moving red lever back puts it into low and 4wd if you 4wd in high you push yellow knob down to go back to 2wd high pull back red to low yellow knob shold spring up then push red lever forward back to high look around for parts there are a few big suppliers but many smaller ones with good advice too, i rebuild all the units on lrs for a living so would be willing to give you advice if needed when you repair or rebuild yours ,the steering box is a good example thats quite easy for someone to do themselves,and allways are worn ,wiring probably been completely bodged during life not difficult to start a fresh with sreies 3 wiring

jamesmartin said:

wiring probably been completely bodged during life not difficult to start a fresh with sreies 3 wiring

Click to expand...

Seems the norm - which is quite furking pathetic seeing as the early landy wiring isn't exactly complicated in any way at all

**takes a sup of tea and crunches a digestive**


Rant over, welcome aboard BTW !

If the charge warning is popping up at the higher draw, then i'd agree with you and give all the contacts a ruddy good clean, check the switch itself and also yer earths are good.
Sounds like it's a mess back there, so do a quick search on here for the manuals and check no-one has managed to balls up the connections.... which is more than likely... don't worry - i won't go off on one again....i'd look myself for the wiring codes, but i'm on the laptop and not my server ATM.....

none of the wiring is copmplicated, but did have dynamo now alternator why not simplify wiring as its bound to be a bloody mess removing regulator which was center of dynamo set up and replacing with something more simple is obviously better for chasing faults in future ,more practical and simpler ,rhino you stick with dyamo the guy might want something practical

I was just grumbling that whenever anyone decides to get a series, the first thing almost everyone finds is bodged wiring, or badly installed components - it just hacks me off that the series is such a basic, practical machine that it's not hard to maintain, repair or even modify.

Not a rant at Boggie, just the dicks out there that make our lives harder.

Cheers Guys,

Most helpful. I was suprised to see that the car still has the voltage regulator despite being converted to alternator. I am in half a mind to replace the whole loom as a precaution. I recently did this on an old Triumph TR3a but as I retained the dynamo the task was a relatively simple swap. How easy would it be to fit the series 3 loom, assuming this will have provision for the alternator? Are there any idiot's guides?

Lastly, where would be the best place to pick up a rad/fan cowl please?

Cheers,
Boggie

get yerself a haynes manual fer the wiring diagram - follow it through. wiring on a s3 should be similar enough to the 2A stuff so you can just copy it in from the wiring diag. theres only about 3 fuses and mostly sensible, is OK once you get yer head round it tho a bit daunting to start with.

god i agree with dirtyrhino - just WHY is the wiring always bodged to the max? mine's got a huge massive line of fuses in the dash (well that's OK - theres about 10 of em, everythings seperate now so quite useful) but why's it all wired in with house lectric wire? GRR

It'll still have some kind of voltage stabiliser thing for the fuel guage, tho that may well be somewhere different from the regulator box.

for the cowl, fleabay/paddocks/craddocks/make yer own from a bucket or something. not sure how important it is tbh, the rad seems pretty huge fer the engine size. might make a difference if somethin else is marginal in the cooling system

have fun with it