Simon Williams

Good afternoon all, and thanks for your advice. I tried the "one at a time" approach, shot a ball bearing across the kitchen (which I did subsequently find) and decided I was on a hiding to nothing. So I made this, which is a collar of inside dia to accept the syncro hub, OD doesn't matter, with three 5/16 UNF tapped holes and screws around the periphery. The depth of the recess is enough to leave a little bit of the splined OD of the hub showing to line up the outer splined ring (selector ring). Pop the hub into the recess,, and remove one of the radial screws. Balance one of the little square blocks in position, drop a spring and a ball down the radial hole. Now replace the radial screw pushing against the spring until the ball is level with the inside surface of the collar. The ball is now securely captured in its hole, so rinse and repeat for the other two positions. Having previously re-discovered a position of the splines where the two parts slid convincingly, and marked the alignment accordingly, I brought the outer selector sleeve over the splines of the hub, and (working inside a clear plastic bag) wiggled the hub assembly complete with springs and balls into its correct position central to the outer sleeve. I found this bit rather fiddly and resorted to using a dental pick to get all three blocks into their proper positions but as long as the outer sleeve is held over the hub and tight against the collar the balls have got nowhere to go. You can use the dental pick through the skin of the plastic bag within reason. Hey presto! Hope this helps someone else trying the same exercise, and if it helps anyone to borrow the tool let me know. x

Good morning all, and hopefully it's not too late to wish everyone a Happy New Year. It's cold in my garage, but nevertheless I'm shuffling overdrive innards in the hope I can find a combination that doesn't scream at me. This is the standard overdrive for the original (contemporary) Series 2a gearbox. I've just taken the syncro hub, which was jammed, to bits. Two of the springs are damaged, but I've got a rebuild kit from GLF so all's well so far. I slid the hub from the collar inside a large ziplock bag, so I caught all the bits OK. This overdrive has not been used in years, and there is a small amount of condensation damage in some of the bearings, so I think it's serviceable with a good clean to get the sludge out and a few replacement bearings. The gears look OK. What's the magic trick to re-assembling it - the syncro hub that is? Is it helpful to make a sleeve into which the hub slides and which you can enter the springs, ball and the little square piece one by one, maybe with a slot to load the bits and twist to hold them. Then slide the hub out of the sleeve directly into the splined collar, carrying the springy bits rather like entering piston rings into their bores out of a spring compressor. I get the impression that putting it back together inside my trusty plastic bag would be prudent. Any thoughts, recommendations etc. gratefully received. Thanks in anticipation Simon Edit for typo (there's always a typo)!

My apologies if this has been covered before - indeed I think I've read about this on this forum but I'm blowed if I can find it now. I understand there is a problem with using modern gear oils which contain sulphur base EP additives in gearboxes which have bronze components. As I understood it these are GL5 oils, but GL4 oils are OK. Is it that simple, or have I got the wrong end of the stick entirely?

Hello again, I've got to a job today I've been dreading, which is refitting the two roof light windows in the rear of the body. These are the two long thin and curved ones. I bought the Britpart rubber which is shaped like two back to back "C" sections, but I'm very not convinced. The problem appears to be that there isn't enough rubber to occupy the gap between the glass and the hole so the window glass just falls through. To be fair this may be because the window is too far out - it hasn't taken its proper position flush with the rest of the roof. But I managed to push the glass right through, it bounced on an old coat lying inside the rear body but I thought I'd pushed my luck too far already and gave up. Plan B involved robbing the (rather perished) rubber moulding from another SWB safari body I bought for the spare glass panels, these mouldings are a different shape and the glass goes straight back in. The moulding has moulded itself (as mouldings will) to the compound curve of the shoulder of the roof, and the glass has taken up its proper position flush with the alloy surround. Success! But! I'd really like to get rid of the old second hand and perished and tatty moulding, but I don't think the Britpart rubber is the right thing. Rubbersmart.co.uk offer a variety of sections of which one marked RC-1634 looks useful and a close approximation to the second-hand rubber I've re-used. Has anyone solved this problem before? Thanks as always in anticipation of help from the experts Simon

Good evening all, and just to close out this part of the story and bring this thread to a conclusion, here is the update I have been wanting to bring to the forum in gratitude for the attention and advice from all. The engine is back together, installed in the car, and has been run for about an hour at this point. I did have a significant oil leak from the pressure pipe from the block to the back of the head which brought my first run to a premature end, but I seem to have cured that now and it needs some more use to run it in. I have wiring and windscreen wipers to do to make it roadworthy before I can take it out for a proper run, but that will occupy me for the foreseeable future. Compression pressures are all four between 30 and 31 bar, no evidence of blowby as it heats up, the timing is the same as it was when I took the little brute to pieces and it's got the right sound about it. I'll make a proper timing check with a strobe against the flywheel marks in due course. Oil pressure is 2.5 bar hot, about 3 bar cold. Engine starts easily - well the weather is warm, so it jolly well ought to start OK - and the engine bounces on its compression as it stops on pulling the stop cable. All the things it didn't do before. So if nothing un-toward comes and bites me on the bum, we have another 60's relic saved for posterity. No I didn't say prosperity! More questions will follow - I haven't got to the bottom of the riddle of the front doors yet (new bulkhead, doors don't fit in the available hole) but having something which, like Mr Toad, I can sit in and make brmm brmm brmm noises is a massive motivator to get some of the finishing details under control. Oh, and I need to find someone brave enough to put the safari roof lights in for me. It sounds a simple job, what could possibly go wrong? My thanks to everyone Simon

Good Afternoon, and thanks for all your help. I've ordered some "fresh" big end nuts from Turners; for the sake of £10 or so it's not worth the worry. But they look like nylocks! I do hope someone's done their homework right. I'm still tempted to go off piste with Aerotight nuts. I've played with the question of how tight these nuts are as delivered, and as far as I can tell they are done up to the full recommended 25 ft.lbs. I had a very pleasant conversation with Richard Turner as of Turner Engineering this afternoon. Who assures me that he's seen it all, and that these nuts will be safe as houses. Got another little riddle where I'd appreciate the help of the forum I called into my local motor factors this morning, and I notice they no longer keep mineral engine oil on the shelf. It's either fully or semi synthetic, in a variety of grades. I've read somewhere that these old engines don't do well on fancy oils, and were never designed for them. Is that an old wife's tale? I could believe that the long life characteristics of modern oils are wasted on something designed in 1950, but are they actively counter-productive? I've also heard it said that a special running-in oil (additive?) is worth having. What's the collective opinion? If worth while what would you recommend?

OK, one step forward... New conn rod's arrived today, not impressed with the packing job, but no damage so carry on. New conn rods re supplied fully assembled with nuts/bolts fully tightened, Yes the b/e bearing halves are fastened together with the bolts, but the nuts are fully tightened. I shall need to hold the con rod in the vice to undo them. Which I can do easily enough, but my WSM says quite specifically "use new nuts" I quote from page 69-A2 "Fit the connecting rod caps and new fixing nuts. Tighten to 25lb ft." Which doesn't seem a lot, but that's what the good book says. Now part of the point of spending £160 in new conn rods was to be sure the nuts were the right thing and suitable for the service duty. I haven't got as far as loosening off a pair of B/E bolts yet (they're bloody tight) so I haven't worked out what type of nuts they are, but I'm more than somewhat narked that they aren't new, by now they are used. Do I just soldier on, 'cos I'm going round in a great big circle. What's your opinion? Thanks as always, Simon

"Turners have new rods" By 'eck that's a good answer. So a set of four conn' rods are on order, and hopefully will arrive during the next few days. They come with b/e bolts, nuts and small end bushes, and the shells I bought already should fit, result. I hope. Thanks to Steve for that little nugget, and also thanks to mod's for enabling my messages over the bank holiday. I'll keep you posted how it goes. Rgds Simon

My apologies to Hurbie, I fancy I misinterpreted the question. According to my parts list, the original LR part number for the big end bolts is 519440. Self locking nuts are 277390 HTH Simon

Britpart p/no for conn rod bolts was ERC8751. Original bolts are 80 mm overall length, the Britpart substitutes are 76 mm overall. This length measurement includes the head (ie it's not just the reduced shank portion, it's the head as well). I have asked the vendors to investigate if this is the only option but the phone has been quiet! I have corrected the oversize dowel section, and out of curiosity tried grinding a bit off the side of the off-centre oval head on one of them. This gets the head to fit into the recess in the con rod. But I don't think the head sits flat in its recess so is going to put a skew load on the bolt. Last thing I need now is for a bolt to let go! Engine I'm rebuilding is a service exchange bought from LR in about 1979 to replace the original 1963 engine which was truly knackered! It's the three bearing crank one. <Edit> I don't have a parts book for the Series 3 engine, so I haven't checked if the b/e bolts are common throughout this period, and across any minor variants of the 2.25L diesel. It could be that the Britpart bolts fit something a bit later )or possibly the original 1963 engine) But that doesn't help me to wriggle out of the hole I've dug myself. Thanks as ever Simon

Many thanks to all who contributed above, and here's an update. I decided radical action was needed, so have taken the engine out of the vehicle and stripped it. Finding abrasive dust (and lots of metal filings) in the sump. The (new) pistons look like someone rubbed a broken brick up and down them, and while the bores were scratched it was (by comparison) minor. But the big shock was the damage to the crank. I suppose that the oil pump was pumping fresh abrasive slurry through the big ends and mains. To the extent that the conn rod bearing shells for 1 and 4 were smashed flat to tin foil, and thus these two cylinders were not making a full stroke. Which presumably accounts for the reduced compression pressures on these two cylinder (20 bar against 30 bar in 2 and 3). How ever did it run without making a clatter to wake the dead? For all the world the oil pump is undamaged (uh?) but the relief valve was jammed open by dirt in the piston bore. It took a bit of getting out. But the gears themselves are re-usable. SO I am in the throes of rebuilding the engine having rebored it and having replaced the crank. Early stages yet, and I've already got myself into trouble. Anyone got an original set of big end bolts I can buy off you? I have bought eight Britpart bolts to replace the ones I took out which were overtightened, but the Britpart bolts have significant problems. The ground shank is 1 to 1-1/2 thou oversize, the head doesn't match the recess in the conn rod, and they are too short by 4 mm to use with self locking nuts as they do not have any threads protruding. Are they intended to be used with tab washers? What sort of self locking nuts are the right thing to use anyway? I don't fancy nyloks, though I can't really justify why not but I don't like the thought of the nylon getting hot. The WSM just says use new self locking nuts, so I bought some Aerotight nuts but I'm now stuck for bolts. I'm not sure of the forum etiquette of canvassing spares in this way, my apologies of it's out of order, please advise the accepted practice someone. Best wishes all for a pleasant Easter Egg Holiday Sunday, I'm off to wrestle the rear main bearing oil seal into place. I've fitted it once but trapped the side T seals and given myself excess clearance on the rear main bearing. Happy days! Best regards Simon

Hi Steve, Simon (Nick's brother) here. Thanks for taking the time to reply, and the answer to your question about the return line is that I haven't checked, 'cos it hadn't occurred to me that it might be a contributor to my problems. But it's easy to do and I'll report back. To Smallfry, also thanks for your input. I can confirm that the air cleaner is disconnected so the inlet manifold is open to the air. What are your thoughts on the disparate compression pressure measurements between cylinders? What pressure should I expect? My thanks to you both <Edit>Oh, and the fuel is clean and new in a new tank with all new pipework.