Finally Arrived

[rejeep]

My new to me 74 S3 109" just arrived late in the evening this past Saturday.
Haven’t really had the time to take some better pictures, just what I saw when I pulled into the parking lot where we were meeting.




Not really much wrong with the truck.. was driving it all day Sunday..

Did notice a few things that the PO had warned me about.. and since this is my first Rover I will be looking to people for some sage advice and help as how to deal with these...

I really don’t want to turn this post into a laundry list of what’s wrong.. But there are a few things that are irking me since they impede my ability to drive it comfortably (safely, I gave up comfort with my first CJ5 and for sure this thing)..

1. My fuel and water temp gauge are not working..
the needles flicker around a bit, but do not read anything intelligent.

2. I noticed my Speedo is about 10 MPH off at 30mph (drove by an officer who was nice enough to pull me over and tell me I was doing 40mph.. Much to his shock also I was on the wrong side of the vehicle.. No ticket and a good laugh)

3. My interior lights and gauge cluster lights do not work.. tried playing around with the switch, no luck there.. but I admit.. I just looked to see if wires were connected.. didn’t want to mess around too much without direction.

4. Last but not least.. like every other rover I have seen I will need to pay attention to the doors sooner or later.. What have people done as options? Defender replacements or rebuild originals..

Sorry for all the newb questions so quick.. but it’s a great truck and I love driving around in it.. I will be fitting my Roverdrive today so I can start driving it to work.. I feel a bit more refined than I do in my Jeeps.. and I get many more looks from passing drivers when they see my dog on the LH side of the car..

[mongoswede]

My new to me 74 S3 109" just arrived late in the evening this past Saturday.
Haven’t really had the time to take some better pictures, just what I saw when I pulled into the parking lot where we were meeting.






1. My fuel and water temp gauge are not working..
the needles flicker around a bit, but do not read anything intelligent.

Could be a bad connection or a broken wire. Open the rear door and lift up any carpeting on the rear floor. There are 2 access hatches in the floor. The one closest to you should be where the sender is. Pull up the cover and make sure the wires are all clean and attached. You should also be able to put a digital ohm meter across the sending unit to check its reading. I don't know what its resistance range is but it should be detailed in a manual.

2. I noticed my Speedo is about 10 MPH off at 30mph (drove by an officer who was nice enough to pull me over and tell me I was doing 40mph.. Much to his shock also I was on the wrong side of the vehicle.. No ticket and a good laugh)

Sounds like the wrong sized tires or someone replaced the speedo at some point but from a different rover unit. For the short time you might put a GPS on the dash and drive by that.

3. My interior lights and gauge cluster lights do not work.. tried playing around with the switch, no luck there.. but I admit.. I just looked to see if wires were connected.. didn’t want to mess around too much without direction.

Kind of strange given the quality of early rover wiring . You might check the fuse....if its original wiring there are a handful of fuses that control everything. If its been hacked then it could be all sorts of stuff.

4. Last but not least.. like every other rover I have seen I will need to pay attention to the doors sooner or later.. What have people done as options? Defender replacements or rebuild originals..

Unless you find a good deal on defender doors you might be in for a bit of a shock. Last time I looked the defender doors were very expensive. Rovers North has rear doors for the 109 listed in the $250 ish range which is reasonable. I think you can still get door bottoms and tops for the front which are also fairly reasonably priced. Otherwise you can pull your doors off, sandblast, weld, etc or reskin but that may prove to be more work and cost then just buying new ones.

.....

[amcordo]

2. I noticed my Speedo is about 10 MPH off at 30mph (drove by an officer who was nice enough to pull me over and tell me I was doing 40mph.. Much to his shock also I was on the wrong side of the vehicle.. No ticket and a good laugh)

CONGRATS on being the first person EVER in a Series to be pulled over for speeding!

[amcordo]

My new to me 74 S3 109" just arrived late in the evening this past Saturday.
Haven’t really had the time to take some better pictures, just what I saw when I pulled into the parking lot where we were meeting.




Not really much wrong with the truck.. was driving it all day Sunday..

Did notice a few things that the PO had warned me about.. and since this is my first Rover I will be looking to people for some sage advice and help as how to deal with these...

I really don’t want to turn this post into a laundry list of what’s wrong.. But there are a few things that are irking me since they impede my ability to drive it comfortably (safely, I gave up comfort with my first CJ5 and for sure this thing)..

1. My fuel and water temp gauge are not working..
the needles flicker around a bit, but do not read anything intelligent.

2. I noticed my Speedo is about 10 MPH off at 30mph (drove by an officer who was nice enough to pull me over and tell me I was doing 40mph.. Much to his shock also I was on the wrong side of the vehicle.. No ticket and a good laugh)

3. My interior lights and gauge cluster lights do not work.. tried playing around with the switch, no luck there.. but I admit.. I just looked to see if wires were connected.. didn’t want to mess around too much without direction.

4. Last but not least.. like every other rover I have seen I will need to pay attention to the doors sooner or later.. What have people done as options? Defender replacements or rebuild originals..

Sorry for all the newb questions so quick.. but it’s a great truck and I love driving around in it.. I will be fitting my Roverdrive today so I can start driving it to work.. I feel a bit more refined than I do in my Jeeps.. and I get many more looks from passing drivers when they see my dog on the LH side of the car..

1. Could be the gauge - I have three sets of them and all of them do not work. So maybe it's just me, but the rover gauges aren't terribly reliable. Also could be the fuel level sender - it's the toilet like plunger in the tank the senses the fuel level. Could have gone bad.

2. Someone else will answer. I'm sure there's a way to calibrate.

3. first check to see if any of the lamp sockets are getting electric. Could be as simple as all of the lamps are burnt out. Failing that, just start from the lamp sockets and work your way along the wire to the battery. Somewhere along the chain of wiring something is either lose or dead. If you're not comfortably using a voltage tester then you can rig up a simple test lamp using any 12v lamp with wires taped or glued to the negative and positive leads. Just clip the negative to the body of the truck to ground it, and use the positive wire to touch the back of the interior light switch...

4. I just addressed my doors and door frames. The doors seperate into two pieces; a door top with the window and the door bottom. Where possible salvage what you can. Certain things will likely be beyond saving though. The items in worst shape will be the doortops - they're the frames with the windows in them. I had to replace all four door tops; the door bottoms were alright. I removed the aluminum skin from all of the door parts so that all I was left with was the steel frame. I then sent all of it - the door tops and the door bottoms to a chemical stripper. They stripped the paint off the aluminum and steel. Then I sent the steel on to a galvanizer to make them as rust proof as possible.

Another option for replacing the doortops is to get Rocky Mountain alumnium front door tops - instead of a steel frame they have aluminum.

You'll also see that the K post is likely rotted near the rear wheel well. There are two of these posts on the car. They are the verticle bar that the middle doors hinge on. These are difficult to find in stock anywhere. If possible cut out the bad parts and weld them back up then send them out to be galvanized as well.

[TedW]

2. I noticed my Speedo is about 10 MPH off at 30mph (drove by an officer who was nice enough to pull me over and tell me I was doing 40mph.. Much to his shock also I was on the wrong side of the vehicle.. No ticket and a good laugh)[/COLOR]

10mph off at 30? Sounds like a lot, IMO. My speedo (the speedometer, not the skimpy bathing suit) went off by 8% when I put 235/85/16's on my 88, which came with 15s' at the factory. Sounds like something else might be going on.

[mongoswede]

4. I just addressed my doors and door frames. The doors seperate into two pieces; a door top with the window and the door bottom. Where possible salvage what you can. Certain things will likely be beyond saving though. The items in worst shape will be the doortops - they're the frames with the windows in them. I had to replace all four door tops; the door bottoms were alright. I removed the aluminum skin from all of the door parts so that all I was left with was the steel frame. I then sent all of it - the door tops and the door bottoms to a chemical stripper. They stripped the paint off the aluminum and steel. Then I sent the steel on to a galvanizer to make them as rust proof as possible.

on my 109 the rear doors are one piece...not a top and bottom like on the fronts. The replacements I have seen are also 1 piece on the rears....unless of course I missed a hidden junction.

[rejeep]

CONGRATS on being the first person EVER in a Series to be pulled over for speeding!

in all fairness he pulled me over because he thought the truck was cool, and I was going 15 over

[greenmeanie]

If you have a problem with both fuel and temp gauges the common point betweeen the two is the voltage stabilizer. Either its not connected/bad connection or just plain fried. Its a cheap part.

[rejeep]

10mph off at 30? Sounds like a lot, IMO. My speedo (the speedometer, not the skimpy bathing suit) went off by 8% when I put 235/85/16's on my 88, which came with 15s' at the factory. Sounds like something else might be going on.

Having changed gears and tire size before on other vehicle I was also skeptical..
But I drove by one of those speed trap signs today..
I was the only car on the road and it was flashing 38 while I had the needle holding firm @30..

[amcordo]

on my 109 the rear doors are one piece...not a top and bottom like on the fronts. The replacements I have seen are also 1 piece on the rears....unless of course I missed a hidden junction.

Ugh I hope you're wrong. I galvanized the bottoms in the hopes that before winter I could replace the tops. All that work for nothing...

[mongoswede]

Ugh I hope you're wrong. I galvanized the bottoms in the hopes that before winter I could replace the tops. All that work for nothing...

I will look closer at them when I get home tonight

[SafeAirOne]

IIRC, some rare Canadian 109s had 2-piece rear doors but the other 99% of 109s have one-piece rear doors.

[mongoswede]

IIRC, some rare Canadian 109s had 2-piece rear doors but the other 99% of 109s have one-piece rear doors.

I just checked the rears on my 68 109 and they are most definitely 1 piece.

[Tim Smith]

A GPS should be able to give you a good idea how far off your speed is.

[rejeep]

yeah, i think I have a setting on my blackberry for that...
Might give it try once I get my overdrive installed...