Hi All,
I've become the surprised owner of an ex-military Series 3 109" 3/4 tonne utility. Unusually for an ex-MOD vehicle, it is LHD. It's believed to have seen action somewhere in its life because the previous owner, a retired army officer, found a number of spent bullet cases in the nooks and crannies. It appears to have had various colour schemes over the years, originally seems to have been NATO green but has also been sand coloured, so might have been in the desert/Middle East. It also has what appears to be an oil cooler in front of the radiator, which also makes me think it may have served somewhere hot. It is currently green and black camo. It has the 2.25 petrol engine and is 12 volt electrics. Apart from some interesting rear bulkhead repairs using Dexion, it is very original looking. I paid the princely sum of £100 for it, as a non-runner, on condition that it wouldn't be broken for bits. It has spent a number of years dry stored in the previous owner's garage and hasn't been run for about 9 years. Brakes and clutch are but a distant memory. Today, my son and I stuck a battery and jump leads on it, cleaned out the float chamber and connected a temporary petrol supply. There was no spark and the points were in poor shape, so they were sanded up and gap set, as were the plugs cleaned and gapped. We then had sparks but there was not even the slightest attempt to fire up. Much head scratching later, we realised that, although the previous owner had gone to the trouble of labelling all the HT leads, he had inadvertently put them back on the distributor cap in the correct order but started one post away from where he should and also put them in reverse rotational direction. After looking through the oil filler to identify when number 1 should fire, we identified the correct post for the number 1 lead and put the rest in the right order/direction. She fired up first turn! Happy Days! Doesn't sound too bad but there is a slight intermittent misfire. Hoping some new plugs, points and HT leads may cure that. Next jobs will be clutch and brakes, before moving on to the structural repairs. I'm expecting we'll have lots of questions because it's the first Land Rover I've ever had and although my son has a Defender and has worked on lots of those, plus Discos and Freelanders, he's never worked on a Series vehicle.
I've become the surprised owner of an ex-military Series 3 109" 3/4 tonne utility. Unusually for an ex-MOD vehicle, it is LHD. It's believed to have seen action somewhere in its life because the previous owner, a retired army officer, found a number of spent bullet cases in the nooks and crannies. It appears to have had various colour schemes over the years, originally seems to have been NATO green but has also been sand coloured, so might have been in the desert/Middle East. It also has what appears to be an oil cooler in front of the radiator, which also makes me think it may have served somewhere hot. It is currently green and black camo. It has the 2.25 petrol engine and is 12 volt electrics. Apart from some interesting rear bulkhead repairs using Dexion, it is very original looking. I paid the princely sum of £100 for it, as a non-runner, on condition that it wouldn't be broken for bits. It has spent a number of years dry stored in the previous owner's garage and hasn't been run for about 9 years. Brakes and clutch are but a distant memory. Today, my son and I stuck a battery and jump leads on it, cleaned out the float chamber and connected a temporary petrol supply. There was no spark and the points were in poor shape, so they were sanded up and gap set, as were the plugs cleaned and gapped. We then had sparks but there was not even the slightest attempt to fire up. Much head scratching later, we realised that, although the previous owner had gone to the trouble of labelling all the HT leads, he had inadvertently put them back on the distributor cap in the correct order but started one post away from where he should and also put them in reverse rotational direction. After looking through the oil filler to identify when number 1 should fire, we identified the correct post for the number 1 lead and put the rest in the right order/direction. She fired up first turn! Happy Days! Doesn't sound too bad but there is a slight intermittent misfire. Hoping some new plugs, points and HT leads may cure that. Next jobs will be clutch and brakes, before moving on to the structural repairs. I'm expecting we'll have lots of questions because it's the first Land Rover I've ever had and although my son has a Defender and has worked on lots of those, plus Discos and Freelanders, he's never worked on a Series vehicle.
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