I've been recording my progress on a blog for my own sake over the first year of work on my 2A. It does make for a good log of work done but there's no conversation around it so I'm going to start sharing here. I can use all the help I can get, as you'll soon see from my posts!

I'm restoring my '69 2A Petrol SWB back to roadworthy status. I bought it a year ago after it had been beaten up a bit off-road (I think) and subsequently SORN'd for around 8 years. I'm making good progress and hope to go for an MOT next summer. Work, family, and a house that also needs a bit of work makes this very much a 1-2 hour per week project, but I'm enjoying it immensely so far.

Anyway, you can catch up at http://spannersonthefen.blogspot.com/ if you like, but I'll just start sharing here from where I'm at, which at the moment is getting sidetracked, as usual..

Steering Link and Relay

With the battery and air filter cage off my attention was drawn to the condition of the steering link assembly that joins the steering box drop arm to the top of the steering relay in the front crossmember.

The steering link is a 22" tube with a ball joint each end, just like the drag link and track rod underneath. Closer inspection revealed the balljoints were at least dried out, if not worse, and the tubing had seen better days. With the other steering components now renewed, and wanting to clean and paint the front chassis as far back as the front outriggers, I decided it was time to remove this steering link and refurb or replace it.

The upper relay lever sits on a splined shaft, keyed slightly by a pinch bolt that has to be completely removed. The pinch gap can then be opened out with a screwdriver and the lever levered up and off. (You can't get a hammer to this as the chassis is immediately beneath it. I used a balljoint splitter that a friend had widened out with an angle grinder - this turned out to be a perfect fit.)



The drop arm is harder to remove. It's also on a splined shaft (the steering box rocker shaft), and is tight up against a brake pipe union which makes getting even a small 2-arm puller on it very difficult. There's a custom Leyland tool that is designed to fit (#600000), now made by Laser and sold for £35, but as it turned out, I didn't need to remove it.



With the upper relay lever off, you can pull the steering link further towards the front of the vehicle, which pulls the drop arm with it far enough to remove the ball joint on the front side of the steering box mounting bracket. Short version: you only have to take the upper relay lever off, which is easy.

I could now see one bolt was missing from the upper relay housing, exposing the inside to the weather, and another was bent in place(!). I carefully, and luckily, extracted the bent bolt without breaking it.

It looks like this top plate was fit very slightly off centre to the bolt holes, so when this third bolt was wound in it seized and started to cross-thread, but he continued winding until it stopped completely, and then..

I don't know what happened to the 4th bolt.

I am hoping when I remove this plate to replace the seal and gasket beneath it, when I go to refit it, I don't find the thread damaged on that side.


The more things like this I find, the more looking I feel like doing..


I was lucky to get this out in one piece..

I've ordered a new steering link assembly inc. balljoints, plus new bolts, seals, and gaskets for the steering relay, top and bottom. Next job will be get all that fit and the relay topped up with oil again.

Following another 167 stupid question on this forum.. I've made a bit more progress.

New steering link and balljoints are on, but I still need to get a steering drop arm puller as I believe it needs to point straight down when the steering box gearing (i.e. the wheel) is at mid-point, and it's currently not, and I don't get as many turns one way as another with no other impediments to blame it on.

I fit new gaskets and oil seals to my steering relay and spent a bit of time blowing diesel into it with an air compressor to clear out a blockage. I got a lot of crap out of it over time and eventually got a fair amount of oil into it. Over time and once I start driving it I hope that oil and a return to use frees it up some more. I'll avoid a strip-down and rebuild as long as I possibly can.. there are legends about the springs in these things.

I also finally sparked up my new welder and have done the passenger bulkhead outrigger and rear fuel tank outrigger so far.


Now I'm waiting for an elbow pipe and sender unit in the post for the new fuel tank, and slowly taking out the seat base to get better access for fitting the new front fuel tank outrigger.

I got the seat base out in the week and today I've scraped the worst of the mud and old oil and ****e off the chassis under here and off the gearbox. Then I sprayed it all over with Traffic Soil Remover and left it to soak for a while before giving it a pressure wash.

It looks better.. but.. the one outrigger I thought would just need a cleanup, the N/S rear tub outrigger, from the other side under where the passenger seat was is just rust and needs replacing. Well it's just one more outrigger, I've done two already and have two more in progress so what's another one?

But the rail here looks very rusty, and the crossmember behind the gearbox is too. There are no holes I can find and it rings like decent metal with the hammer but it's going to need a serious cup brush and angle grind session. I'm hoping I can get that rail down to bright metal too with the grinder, because if I can't I'm going to be cutting back until I can find some so as I can weld an outrigger on there.

Everywhere I've seen on the chassis so far has been original looking black paint with light surface rust.. except for here. Lesson learnt.. it's the bits you can't see easily that will surprise you when you do get to them. I felt a bit like having a smoke after finding this but I went for a beer instead and now feel more determined.

I got one of those twisted knot cup brushes for my grinder and that's cleaned up the chassis under the seat base well enough for a couple of coats of chassis-in-one. No actual rot found.

Cut and welded in an 18" repair section to the rail behind front fuel tank outrigger and driver's bulkhead outrigger. Neither were welded along the top and so had rotted out behind. Then welded on a new bulkhead outrigger square and correct and improved the standing of the rotted door pillar at the same time. I'll get to that bulkhead late spring or summer as I've no room for welding except the drive and that's won't work out much over winter.

Front fuel tank outrigger soon will be my last welding this year and then it's fit new fuel tank and new rear springs.

New front fuel tank outrigger on today. Now fitting new tank and hoses before starting on new rear springs and rear chassis/axle tidy up and paint.

Having started this project August 2017 and spending an average of 2-3 hours per week on it since then, I'd really like to get it on the road next summer. Kelmarsh Land Rover Show 27-28th July 2019 looks like a good target and only 1hr 20mins from me. Can I do it? This will look quite spaced out but bear in mind 2-3 hrs per week realistically around working on the house and herding the boy.

December - Finish fitting new tank, hoses, chassis cleanup under seat base etc. Christmas.
January - Fit new rear springs and check straps, tidy up shocks, clean up and paint rear chassis and axle.
February - New brake fluid, bleed brake and clutch, engine service - plugs, fuel filter, timing, etc.
March - Welding - dumb irons
April - Welding - door pillars
May - Welding - passenger floor well repair, passenger rear tub outrigger
June - reassemble
July - lights, washers, wipers, road test etc.

Hmmm.. looks doable..

Oh yeah.. and fit some seats(!) .. and, eh, all the other things I didn't think of..! (front pinion oil seal leak, for example)

New rear springs ready to go on over Christmas..

(I don't know how to make the image smaller..)

Good work mate, looks like a pretty solid project!

Coming along Faster progress than mine has been!

Well I've been removing rear chassis bushes, mostly. Lovely job. Sad I won't have to do it again for a while. Today I've been cleaning up the rear axle, chassis rails from the fuel tank backwards, spring hangers, check strap brackets and rear crossmember all getting ready for a couple coats of CIO before I start bolting nice new bits on. While under there I did find both the rear bump stops need a chassis repair so in the spring when I can get her out on the drive again I'll replace them both and weld in some new metal. No other gremlins found while I was caving down there (I'm 6'4, it's a tight fit under a landy in a small garage ) so hopefully my next trip out will be to paint. I like painting, makes me feel I'm getting somewhere.

Pictures of rotten bump stop rail and the 'before' shots of the rear axle and chassis.

Your welding and work look a spot on. Looking forward to watching this.

resto_d1 said:

Your welding and work look a spot on. Looking forward to watching this.

Click to expand...

Cheers resto but to be fair I'm new to welding and it's all been chassis thick steel so far which is very forgiving. We'll see how I get on with those door pillars later this year..

First try at flares looking ok (imperial, double). Opinions welcome, I've never done this before except for a few bad tries before this one.

I'll do some more experiments before I make any up proper but it looks like the tool I've got is up to it once I get my technique sorted.?

Looks like you may be putting too much pressure into the tool, as in you've flattened it a little too much. Also its the wrong flare for the fitting on 1st and 3rd pic
No harm in practicing technique either way, it only costs you 1" or so of pipe each time

Cheers Kev. The fittings could be wrong, my Dad sent them to me because he thought that's what I needed. I haven't tried them in my new wheel cylinders (lockheed delphi on my series 2A) yet. I'll have another go, with less pressure as you suggest.. and that flare I think had too much pipe out the top to start with. It's all just messing about at the moment and this copper pipe I've got is expendable as I've got 25' of cupro nickel coming for the proper job.

The fittings may be right but you want a male/convex flare rather than a female/concave

Yeah leaving the right length of pipe does help keep it tidy, on my set the thickness of the die is how much you leave out of the clamp

I've been out to the garage.. change of plan..!

My old brake pipes have much longer male unions on, and what look like bubble flares, which I wasn't expecting - but then I have no idea what I'm doing at this point..

And the new male unions my old fella sent me (photo'd above) will not screw into the back of my new wheel cylinders.

So I think I need imperial fittings, and bubble flares. And I don't have a tool for bubble flares, and they seem to cost the same as a set of 7 ready made pipes for a 2A..

time for tea and a ponder

Expect it would be imperial on a series.
I only have a cheap set like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/45-STEEL...939655?hash=item1ee8dee147:g:YG8AAOSwfBFbf58g
Works fine with a bit of practice