14 year old seeking advice!

[GeniusAndHisAssistant]

hi everyone-

i am 14 years old, and (as long as everything works out....) was just given a free 1972 series 3. (at least, we BELIEVE it is a series 3!) it has been sitting in a barn for 30 years, and will need lots of work (new frame, rebuilt motor...) i've re-built two motors and know how to weld, so this shouldn't be a problem BUT... i know nothing about land rovers in general! i figured that i'd try to pick everyone's brain on some things. first: how do you tell a IIA and a III apart? second: we're going to be dragging it out of a barn in the next few weeks, and soaking it in oil. then we're going to see if the motor will spin, and if it will we are going to check the electrical system and see if it'll crank... chances are it wont, but who knows! does anyone have any advice on things to do before that?

any general advice you have would be great too!

thanks in advance!

ebben in vt

[ThePhotographer]

Congrats, welcome to the LR world. Series III have plastic front grilles not metal, and headlights on the front wings. Late IIA bugeyes have the lights on the outter wings but are in a bezel. Have any photos?

[John O from Jersey]

This might be useful: http://www.roversnorth.com/t-how-to-...and-rover.aspx

Late IIA's (69-71) had lights in the wings too just like Series III but the biggest difference cosmetically is probably the plastic "safety" dashboard introduced with Series III. And as Zach said the plastic grille.

Good luck and welcome to the insanity!

JO

[HybridIIA]

More info here: http://www.eastcoastrover.com/INFOseries.html

[disco2hse]

YES!!!

A lad after my own heart. I was doing similar at your age and at 15 I owned my own commercial fishing boat, after having rebuilt it (it was over 100 years old at the time). What a fantastic journey of discovery you are about to undertake. Wish I was there with you.

About the Landie, yes there are specific design differences between II's and III's. Not hard to make the distinction.

What you will need are workshop manuals. There is the Haines book, but to be honest it lacks too much useful information about specifics. You are much netter off with the actual Land Rover Parts books, Optional Parts Catalogue and Series III Workshop Manual. These three contain nearly all the model specific information you will need. This assumes a level of workshop competence and access to appropriate and specific tools. Those two things you will gather as you go along your journey.

Here's a link to workshop manuals http://www.landroverweb.com/landrove...rover-manuals/.

The other thing you will need are parts. Generally speaking, most Series III parts are relatively cheap. They were built in the bad old days of British Leyland ownership, but the upside is that there a lot of the parts were interchangeable between BL built vehicles and that means you can often parts made for other vehicles and sometimes make minor adaptations to get them to fit (indicator switches, dash switches, gauges,...).

How about you post some pics, we'd all love to be part of your rebuilt

[disco2hse]

Series III have plastic front grilles not metal,

Not strictly true. I have a metal Series III grill under the house. It is genuine Land Rover and has the Series III shape, but is metal.

[bkreutz]

Not strictly true. I have a metal Series III grill under the house. It is genuine Land Rover and has the Series III shape, but is metal.

I'd like to see a picture of that, I've never seen(or heard of) one, maybe they never came to North America?

[disco2hse]

Here ya go. It came from a Series III flat deck my wife's cousin used to own. It came to me with the Thomas winch now on the front of my Stage 1, which it why the solenoid box is still attached to the grill.

As a matter of interest, here is a snap of a recent score, capstan winch to restore (it's a heavy damn thing)

[Firemanshort]

Alan - I wager that metal S3 grill is a Kiwi thing. Everything on your island is the same but just a little bit different.

Ol' Ebben in VT could probably rely on the metal versus plastic test for any rover dug out of a barn in New England.

(Cool capstan by the way)

[disco2hse]

haha that is true, even the crickets are "different".



About the grill, Ozzie and Kiwi, correct. The plastic ones tended to get smashed up on the farm too quickly.

[rwollschlager]

I was in a very similar situation to you not 7 years ago. i was given a series III 88 for christmas in 8th grade and it had been garaged since 1979. At least I had a solid frame and good wiring to start with.

to free the engine, pull the spark plugs and put marvel mystery oil down there and let is sit for a few days, then refill and wait some more, and you never know it might just free up.

When and if it is free, put new spark plugs in it, put a new battery in it, check the carb for debris, and then put a little fresh gas down it and see if it kicks. I was surprised when my 88 roared to life after 26 years of neglect and minor maintenance.

hopefully nothing is wrong with the engine or transmission, typically when one of those failed they either junked the truck or parked it. If those have/had oil in them the whole time hopefully the insides are still good.

Expect to replace everything rubber and all of your hydraulic systems will need a good sorting. Obtain a green bible or the workshop manual cd and it will provide step by step instructions for everything you will ever need to do to your rover, makes it less like a challenge and more into a big set of Lego's. Post pictures up here and more often then not the forum can also be an invaluable source of information as well.

What i cannot stress enough is take your time and do everything right the first time. When people told me this I thought I knew it all and half assed a few things to get it on the road, which ended up taking 3 times longer to fix in the long run. The trucks been sitting for how many years? A few more months wont hurt it.

The hardest part of the ordeal for me was resisting the teenage temptation to beat things up and treat it like a modern disposable car, especially in the woods. My 88 started out with a straight body with minimal dents, and now there isnt a straight panel on it. I've blown and rebuilt my transmission twice, rolled it over, and sunk it up to its dashboard in water (not all in the same day). I regret it now looking back as most/all situations were very avoidable, but I have a story to go with each dent, and the aluminum can be annealed and bent back when I'm done having fun with it one day.
Let the journey begin,
-Rob

p.s. as an incentive to finish it while your still young, its the ultimate chick magnet

[GeniusAndHisAssistant]

here's what i've determined: i have a series IIa, bugeye. is this the rover that was not produced much?

rwollschlager gave lots of tips for starting it up, but i have one question: when you say hydraulic lines, do you mean cooling/brake? i know it needs new brake lines, as that was the reason it was parked; the owner blew a brake line going down a hill and parked it in 1982. it was only driven for 11 years and has 88000 miles. ive heard that the running gear is only at half life... music to my ears !

no pictures yet, but they'll come soon.

any more tips would be great...

thanks!
ebben in vt

[Tim Smith]

Hey Ebben. Congrats on the rover! I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

Normally hydraulics would include the brake system and clutch. If your truck had a hydraulic PTO fitted that would be another story (but a super cool and rare bonus). By the way, only use Castrol GT LMA in the brakes and clutch. Other than DOT 5 which is super expensive, LMA is one of the few brake fluids that play well with the rubber still found in Girling (read: rover) hydraulics. DOT 3 or 4 is going to get the truck going but it will slowly eat away at the rubber, so if you use it then plan to flush the system later.

For your truck though, the cooling system would probably also be included in the replacement scheme. Just the rubber coolant and heater lines though. And that is just because they are so old. I'm sure you could start it and run it with the original cooling lines, if they aren't broken, just to see that the engine is up to par. Eventually though, you'll need to replace them before you can trust in the truck.

Something else you should do is hammer around the frame to find the weak spots. Pay close attention to the front horns (the section of frame between the front springs), under the master cylinders and the rear stretches from the end of the transmission to the end of the springs. If any of that goes "thud" or "crunch" then do not drive the truck as it might collapse under it's own weight. It's all fixable and if you have the time then cut and weld away.

[Revtor]

Ebben, welcome to the party! (It's a slow, leaky, rusting party but a fun one!)

Check the Bugeye Registry thread and compare your trucks serial# to the list, see if you can maybe find it! You can post it there and get it added to the list.

Hydraulic systems use fluid in pipes to transfer motion a far distance. (for us it's brakes/clutch) Its how pushing your brake pedal in the cab can make your brake cylinders move at the far corners of the truck. Imagine if there was a mechanical system of rods and connectors that had to move all that distance - it would be a huge complicated system prone to rusting and lots of friction. Not what you'd want for critical things like brakes and clutches! The engineers use Hydraulics, because the pipes can be bent to run anywhere and efficiently transfer motion. Power steering systems use hydraulic pressure to assist the steering wheel, and the rams on construction equipment (shiny silver rods/pistons) use hydraulic power too - to get the power of the engine to move the digging arms.

Rover also made an accessory hydraulic pump that ran off the trucks transfer case. It could constantly circulate hydraulic fluid under great pressure to drive any number of accessories. Winch, diggers, etc etc. If you have this consider yourself very lucky..

The cooling system uses a pump to circulate water/coolant. Not under great pressure like you brakes or clutch, and its a constant flow, unlike your brakes/clutch which only move when you push a pedal. The coolant circulates through your engine, drawing heat out of the metal, and then when the hot coolant gets to the radiator, the air being drawn through the radiators fins pull the heat out of the coolant.. It then continues on its way back to your engine to grab more heat and give it to the air.


have fun!

~Steve

[Nium]

Welcome aboard! Couple of useful links

http://www.lrfaq.org/index.html

http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/indexPage.htm

http://www.clifton.nl/index.html?calvin.html

Cheers!