I thought I’d put a bit of an update on my old girl and the latest thrilling instalments. Since getting her back on the road last June I feel I have had my fair share of mechanical woes but the good thing (always look on the positives!) is that all the bits I have fixed have not failed… so I’m just working through the bits that I thought might not require care and attention.. Since January I have done the following:
Replaced the engine mounts – they were completely knackered.
Replaced the engine fan – one of the blades snapped off, slicing the inner wing..
Had the carburettor fully rebuilt. I could see that fuel was leaking from the inlet pipe and found the thread stripped. I tried to bodge it together but in taking off the carburettor I must have disturbed something and it soon became apparent the whole thing needed an overhaul..
Serviced it, including oil change and new spark plugs plus lead, distributor cap and points – plan is to change the distributor to an electronic version so I don’t have to mess around with points again.
Bought bench seats for the back – only short wheel base ones but that’s all I needed.
Replaced the bearing in the steering column – now my steering wheel doesn’t feel like it’s about to fall off which is nice.
And now the current and most annoying item – replacement of the clutch. Just before Easter I was on my way into work and suddenly lost drive. I got myself recovered and dropped off back at my place (the bloody recovery guy put it in my neighbours parking space / car port… and it’s been sat there ever since – do you think I should talk to her.. I left her a note…).. back from my Easter break I set to sorting it out. What a pain it is. I started off with removing the floor, then the seat box, then the steering wheel followed by disconnecting the prop-shafts and gearbox mounts. When I got to disconnecting the adaptor plate from the gearbox (it has a Holden six cylinder engine fitted) I found just 3 loose bolts holding it together and the adaptor was found to be
****. Reading up on various forums it seems that clutch alignment with these conversions is a common issue.. anyway some pictures.
Our free trip back home courtesy of the NRMA roadside assistance..
Floor etc. removed – what a hideous job, there are so many bolts / screws holding down the floor though at least they were all new so removal was pretty easy.
One very broken clutch plate…
**** adaptor plate.. and the ‘new’ one I got hold of..
So I’m back at work now and won’t be able to resume work on the Old Girl until Saturday. I have had the flywheel skimmed and bought a new clutch plate so I think I have everything needed to try and put it back together. I have checked the alignment of the replacement adaptor plate and it looks to be correct… I am not looking forward to lifting the gearbox back in – I took it out on my own but suspect getting it back in won’t be quite so easy. I am also taking the opportunity to try a replacement gearbox that I picked up from eBay a couple of months ago. It was only $50 and having inspected the gears it looks good… the gearbox it replaces was very noisy with a couple of other issues so I’m hoping for an improvement (and maybe even a speedo that works). I guess I will road test it before refitting all the floor..
Ah the joys of Land Rover ownership… I think it generally does pretty well. I use it every day driving to work which is about 30 miles and considering that’s facing Sydney traffic I don’t think it does a bad job. It has been a little disappointing with the latest clutch issue but I’m sure it will be worth the aggravation.
Cheers guys!