Transmission mystery

[artistinajar]

I'm thinking about purchasing a right-hand drive Series III diesel 88, British spec. The seller says the trans is non-synchro, but I haven't heard of any Series IIIs coming out of the factory with non-synchro gearboxes. However, in the pictures, I also noted that the brakes master cylinder is a single rather than the dual with booster that I'm familiar with in US-spec Series IIIs.

Is it possible that this vehicle actually does not have a fully synchronized tranny or has someone simply installed a Series IIa trans in it's place?

[msggunny]

Hi, my Landy is a ex MoD 1977 SIII 88 and has the single CV non power assisted brakes, single line. It is possible too that some one in the Brit military swapped out a SII tranny for the syncro'd SIII. Mine is syncro'd but i have a few other quirks that are reminiscent of either cost effectiveness for the MoD or some Brit solider deciding that it would work better with the spare parts they had laying around.

Good: the CV is cheaper to replace than the dual master cylinder
Bad: single line brakes.

Ive been driving mine with non power assisted brakes with no problems. your choice to switch over.

Get the Ser#'s from the tranny and check with RN or the web to see what truck it came out of.

Later
Richard

[Jeff Aronson]

Maybe it's not a Series III but a very late II-A?

Like many British manufacturers, Rover was notorious for running out all the old parts regardless of what the sales brochures announced for the new year. The single brake cylinder is a surprise, US safety laws mandated them, even on "trucks," so Rover had to put them in for US sales by 1972. They already had some of the parts on hand at British Leyland for the US market cars being constructed.

Does the Rover have the flat Series III door hinges or the sharper II-A ones? Is the grill plastic [III] or metal [II]. Are the headlights in the wings, but cut into the wing ["Bugeye"] or housed in buckets? If the latter, what about the grill?

The Series III also has a different clutch than the II-A; I think it might even have a different clutch cylinder, plastic rather than metal.

Or, as has been suggested, perhaps the transmission was swapped out with an earlier II-A. British imported Rovers are not always very "purist."

Lastly, I hope that diesel has been well maintained. The 2.25 diesel is not a long lived engine when used for highway or higher speed two lane driving. Even with an overdrive, it's hard to maintain 60 mph in one. They're much noisier and less pleasant than a modern Rover diesel. Make sure you spend some time in one before commiting yourself.

Good luck!

Jeff

[leafsprung]

Look at the suffix numer on the trans, that should tell you if the gearbox is even close to the same vintage as the truck. As for the brakes, dual circuit vacuum assist brakes were not standard in every market for SIIIs. I have had several SIIIs with the single curcuit brakes the ones that come immediately to mind are a swiss spec 75 and a 1976 santana.


Jeff,

They're much noisier and less pleasant than a modern Rover diesel

Rover doesnt make diesels any more All the 4 cylinder diesels were based on that old 2.0L from 1956 . . . or do you mean the TD5???

[yorker]

Lastly, I hope that diesel has been well maintained. The 2.25 diesel is not a long lived engine when used for highway or higher speed two lane driving. Even with an overdrive, it's hard to maintain 60 mph in one. They're much noisier and less pleasant than a modern Rover diesel. Make sure you spend some time in one before commiting yourself.

Good luck!

Jeff

that is funny you guys need to read this link- the Brit's impression of the 2.25d is polar opposite of ours, almost 7 pages of why the 2.25d is better than the 2.25p even for today's uses. Apparently most of them consider gapping and swapping plugs and points a chore...
some highlights:

The great thing with the 2286cc diesels is that you dont really need to do anything with them. After thay have had their dizzypump set up properly so the run well, there is nothing to do except normal servicing, which is oil, new oil filter, diesel filter and clean out the air cleaner too. No need to change glow plugs untill they stop working, which should be years. No points to adjust or spark plugs to clean.

The only potentially pricy thing is reconditioned injectors, but they dont need to be changed very often, they will go for thousands of miles before they need attention.

So as you see, less hastle to service than a petrol lump. And you never need to worry about starting on a damp morning again

my personnal expericne of the 2.25 diesel was very pleseant, not great under acceleration but when it gets going it could haul our unladen 109 along with overdrive and 7.50s at 65mph

I'll type this bigger as so you can see. You can start a diesel with a starting handle, if you really, really need to.
Takes two people, One to wind the handle and the other to completly cover the inlet manifold. the first few turns will be hard until the air is out the cylinder. Then wind the handle damn quick, when up to max winding speed, (make sure the throttle is wide open) remove the hand from the manifold and it will fire!!!

http://forum.landrovernet.com/showthread.php?t=81815