greasyhandsagain
11-17-2009, 07:19 PM
WHEW.................Thank God I didnt have to pay a Land Rover dealer to do this job!! That is of course if they would have demeaned themselves to work on a 51 year old vehicle...
Anyway......That was one BEAR of a job. I do enjoy *really ENJOY* working on the Rover, to the point I lose sleep in my eagerness to start the next day and continue on the project. So right now, it is pretty well complete, though I am still waiting on a hand brake springs and a new transfer gear boot (the correct one) to arrive from Dunsfold. The relined woven lining handbrake shoes just arrived and they are beautiful little works of art. So, the handbrake still needs to be completed, the rear propshaft put back in and then the job will be totally finished.
A few things I have learned. British bolts are amazing. They just do not shear! Grease and sand form an amazing compound which travels into the house, seemingly on its own, and gets in the bathtub, my wifes new towels, on the CAT.....and the smell of EP90 is a perfume that lingers long after the body is cleaned. And...it will rain during your extended repair. We had a 4 day nor'easter come in just totally rained on the party, so I was still able to do my normal shop work, and get away from the rover project for a few days.
Next big repair I do...I will do the eggcrate method for sure, so I will not be faced with a large pile of nuts and bolts and forced to pick the ones proper for the task. Oh...and cheap luggage ratched straps that are rated for 400 lbs, well maybe thats the strap, but I had the hook bend and drop the gearbox onto the crossmember, thankfully no fingers were in the path. I did buy a nice small air impact wrench, which was a lot of fun to use. Why I didnt buy one thirty years ago...I dont know.
Mid 30's Ford 2 piece motor mounts are an acceptable substitute for the difficult to locate series 1 gearbox mounts, and a studebaker V8 head bolt is just the right size and length! They worked out just fine. A 7/8 inch brass rod worked great as a clutch alignment tool. It is possible to do this work without Whitworth sockets, but in the end the ones I had purchased midstream arrived and made putting it all back together much easier. Cotter pins demand patience and needle nose pliers. The rear transfer box oil seal is a piece of cake to replace once you remove the speedometer housing.
The biggest DUMB thing I done...was to remember that there was a 7/16 setting on the clutch release top hat thingy...when you replace the splined piece after redoing the cross shaft oil seal. I remembered to do that about fifteen seconds after I had put the gearbox back on, set up the gearbox mounts...and discovered that the clutch pedal only went down half way. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~So that meant that all the work had to be redone, the gearbox had to come back out etc etc. No doubt Im not the only one who has done that over the decades.
So now, The Old Girl is back together, except for the handbrake details..but pretty much the job is done. I treated her to a new set of Floor Mats and cleaned off all the 90wt grease off the little shelf where all the nuts bolts and tools had been for the last week.
Its a job I dont want to have to do again, but in the end I must admit I enjoyed it.
Anyway......That was one BEAR of a job. I do enjoy *really ENJOY* working on the Rover, to the point I lose sleep in my eagerness to start the next day and continue on the project. So right now, it is pretty well complete, though I am still waiting on a hand brake springs and a new transfer gear boot (the correct one) to arrive from Dunsfold. The relined woven lining handbrake shoes just arrived and they are beautiful little works of art. So, the handbrake still needs to be completed, the rear propshaft put back in and then the job will be totally finished.
A few things I have learned. British bolts are amazing. They just do not shear! Grease and sand form an amazing compound which travels into the house, seemingly on its own, and gets in the bathtub, my wifes new towels, on the CAT.....and the smell of EP90 is a perfume that lingers long after the body is cleaned. And...it will rain during your extended repair. We had a 4 day nor'easter come in just totally rained on the party, so I was still able to do my normal shop work, and get away from the rover project for a few days.
Next big repair I do...I will do the eggcrate method for sure, so I will not be faced with a large pile of nuts and bolts and forced to pick the ones proper for the task. Oh...and cheap luggage ratched straps that are rated for 400 lbs, well maybe thats the strap, but I had the hook bend and drop the gearbox onto the crossmember, thankfully no fingers were in the path. I did buy a nice small air impact wrench, which was a lot of fun to use. Why I didnt buy one thirty years ago...I dont know.
Mid 30's Ford 2 piece motor mounts are an acceptable substitute for the difficult to locate series 1 gearbox mounts, and a studebaker V8 head bolt is just the right size and length! They worked out just fine. A 7/8 inch brass rod worked great as a clutch alignment tool. It is possible to do this work without Whitworth sockets, but in the end the ones I had purchased midstream arrived and made putting it all back together much easier. Cotter pins demand patience and needle nose pliers. The rear transfer box oil seal is a piece of cake to replace once you remove the speedometer housing.
The biggest DUMB thing I done...was to remember that there was a 7/16 setting on the clutch release top hat thingy...when you replace the splined piece after redoing the cross shaft oil seal. I remembered to do that about fifteen seconds after I had put the gearbox back on, set up the gearbox mounts...and discovered that the clutch pedal only went down half way. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~So that meant that all the work had to be redone, the gearbox had to come back out etc etc. No doubt Im not the only one who has done that over the decades.
So now, The Old Girl is back together, except for the handbrake details..but pretty much the job is done. I treated her to a new set of Floor Mats and cleaned off all the 90wt grease off the little shelf where all the nuts bolts and tools had been for the last week.
Its a job I dont want to have to do again, but in the end I must admit I enjoyed it.