The oldest Land-Rover Series 3 around - new boots arrived

[chodweaver]

A lot of older Yanks have a setup whereby when you switch the wipers on they come on intermittent with a long delay, then as you turn the switch further the delay decreases and then eventually you get to constant wipe and then, with another click, to high speed.  Unfortunately they tend to be on a stalk rather than a knob but you might be able to use the guts out of one of those.

Not just older yank chod - my 02, 03 and 06 Chrysler Voyagers have all had that sort of control on a column stalk. They don't seem to go wrong either, so if you can find a scrap one, Bob's your uncle...

[garethj]

This was my old S3 V8

 

A Stage 1 car so was mostly a Series 3 with drum brakes and leaf springs but with a detuned Range Rover V8 and permanent 4 wheel drive.  It had an overdrive which was very useful and motorway cruising was fine because the whole thing was so noisy at 30mph it wasn’t really any worse at 60mph.

The “detuning” of the engine was done by putting some large washers in the inlet manifold so when I got it serviced I asked the garage to remove them.  I think this took the power up from about 90bhp to something like 120bhp which was a right laugh with the non-assisted steering because the scenery was now coming towards you much more quickly.

The 109s with the six cylinder or V8 engines had twin shoe drum brakes and a servo and I found them ok.

At the same time as owning this I had a Kawasaki ZZR1100 which would sail past 170mph with ease.  Much more terrifying was getting the derestricted Landie up past 80mph.

[mat_the_cat]

We had a dusting of snow last night, so I thought I'd take it out for a spin in the forest. Here's a terrible video of me attempting a cold start on the cranking handle again. I'm not sure @dollywobbler has anything to worry about just yet!

I wish it'd been a bit deeper, but it was good to see what traction was like - surprisingly good even before engaging 4 wheel drive. 

The tyres are Michellin XPC, which are a winter tyre so not a surprise I guess! I chickened out of continuing the track at the end, as it's been unused for a while and the brambles might scratch the paintwork...

Looks good in the white stuff though

[N Dentressangle]

Looks great, and drives quiet and smooth too. Very nice.

I love the starting handle video - your 'fuck this' thought after attempt 2 is nearly audible 😄

[mjrose78]

Fantastic! This is exactly what I wanted to be doing with my 2a today, however my light restoration has ended up heavy. Hopefully next winter!

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk

[mat_the_cat]

On 12/30/2020 at 9:40 PM, N Dentressangle said:

OK, I've ordered a 99 relay and will have a crack at it as per:

https://forums.lr4x4.com/topic/68527-intermittent-front-wipers/

Will report back

The difficulty I'm finding (purely at this stage from a research perspective) is the availability and price of the two-speed switch, LR part no. 575146. There are some on eBay, but not identical so don't link a set of contacts together in the off position to enable self parking via the microswitch in the wiper motor. This may be a possible, and should work with my existing on/off switch:

https://www.smart-screen.co.uk/product-page/smartscreen-intermittent-wiper

[mat_the_cat]

A request for knowledge! Does anyone know what this is for?

Colin, the previous owner, came up to me with a bag of 'bits left over',  some of which were parts he'd replaced but were too good to throw away, lights etc.  But this he couldn't remember, possibly something to do with the gearbox perhaps? 

[RayMK]

1 hour ago, mat_the_cat said:

A request for knowledge! Does anyone know what this is for?

Colin, the previous owner, came up to me with a bag of 'bits left over',  some of which were parts he'd replaced but were too good to throw away, lights etc.  But this he couldn't remember, possibly something to do with the gearbox perhaps? 

If it's flexible rubber or plastic, I've got one behind our upstairs WC.  It's a metric to imperial waste pipe adaptor.  Otherwise, no idea.

[somewhatfoolish]

Is it leather or rubber? Could be a swivel gaiter if so.

[mat_the_cat]

It's foam, so I was wondering if it's to do with noise reduction? ()

[warch]

Isn't it from the transmission tunnel where the gears pass through it, to reduce the amount of road/gearbox visible from the cab?

[mat_the_cat]

No - it's similar to that though, but larger and without the flange. Unless it's underneath that perhaps?

[somewhatfoolish]

13 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

It's foam, so I was wondering if it's to do with noise reduction? ()

On a land rover? [hollow laughter]

[mat_the_cat]

On that subject, an improvement is hopefully on the cards, and I've made a start today. I had a small amount of sound deadening sheet left over, so I've stuck a sheet inside each door to stop the skin from drumming.

More importantly, I've added some to the bulkhead immediately behind the engine, after sealing up several holes with grommets.

By itself this won't do a massive amount, but can only help. The biggest improvement I hope will be this:

http://www.wrightoffroad.com/technical_info.htm

A moulded mat which gets good feedback on various forums, and should look fairly neat too. It's not cheap, in fact at over £300 it's around 10% of what I paid for the vehicle in the first place! But if it makes it more enjoyable for both of us then I think it'll be worth it. Just waiting for it to be manufactured, then should be a simple job to fit.

[Rusty_Rocket]

Those proper rubber fitted mats are worthwhile.  A friend fitted one to his 2A and reckoned it did cut down the NVH.  Apparently, the best thing was it meant things like coins/ cards/ phone didn't fall onto the road through the gaps quite so easily!

[Talbot]

On 1/6/2021 at 11:34 PM, mat_the_cat said:

A request for knowledge! Does anyone know what this is for?

Colin, the previous owner, came up to me with a bag of 'bits left over',  some of which were parts he'd replaced but were too good to throw away, lights etc.  But this he couldn't remember, possibly something to do with the gearbox perhaps? 

I *think* that goes on the interior fan air intake and forms the "seal" against the wing.  You may find that the interior fan is drawing in a combination of exterior and underbonnet air at the moment.

[mat_the_cat]

Thanks, I think you may be right!

https://dillydiary.com/2015/08/03/heater-blower/

[Talbot]

Also, when a LR engine starts as easily as that, but then konks out after a few seconds, it's over-choked.  If you reduce the amount of choke you give it, it may start and stay running.  The 2.25 petrol often doesn't need a lot of choke, even when stone cold.  That said, it might depend a bit on the carburettor, as there were at least three different types fitted.

Just don't ever try hand-cranking a 2.25 diesel.  It's basically impossible.

[mat_the_cat]

That fits, as it normally fires and runs straight away on 3/4 choke. With it being colder than usual, I made sure to pull it out all the way! Even when cranking with the starter it was slightly reluctant to fire, which should have been a sign...

Just been to check the heater motor, and you were right!

[mat_the_cat]

Still waiting for the soundproofing, but have been assured it will be with me next week. To be fair, they did warn me that there were delays, so not unexpected. In the meantime I've been fitting some ICE!

I had some speakers in the LT, which I thought would suit it perfectly - parcel shelf speakers seen to be a thing of the past! 

These fitted quite neatly on the rear bulkhead.

Slightly short of locations to fit the radio, I decided to mount it in a holder underneath the dashboard. I didn't want a modern unit, and I reckon this one dates from the early 90s - in fact I think I remember it back in the day.

It looks quite close to the handbrake and low ratio lever, but in practice it doesn't interfere. One of the reasons for going for this one is the 3.5mm audio input, so I can play tunes from my phone.

Lastly, here's a photo of it in the snow last weekend! 

[mat_the_cat]

Had a large and rather heavy parcel arrive recently! 40kg of floor matting; this is the main piece:

There's a section to cover the middle of the bulkhead, a pair of kick panels to cover the bottom of the A posts (more for cosmetics I guess), and lastly another big moulding to cover the seat box. This needed drilling for the seat bolts, and also cutting for access underneath the seats to the fuel tank, storage etc. Here it is in place, although seats not fastened down yet as the original fixings are too short.

Annoyingly the handbrake gaiter was a bit fragile, and has now split. Another one (not Britpart!) on its way. 

 Then a fair bit of heaving to get the main section in place over the various levers. It does look pretty good now though IMO. 

Muddy footprints on it already though!

Once the seats are mounted I'll see what the noise levels are like. I meant to measure before and after, but I don't want to remove it all now!

[N Dentressangle]

You'll need that to have any chance of recognising a song from that stereo if your Series is as noisy as mine

[bezzabsa]

I keep looking for a series 3, but lowest priced one I came across was £2599 No MOT and chassis & bulkhead made of swiss cheese...

[N Dentressangle]

5 minutes ago, bezzabsa said:

I keep looking for a series 3, but lowest priced one I came across was £2599 No MOT and chassis & bulkhead made of swiss cheese...

 

but then I thought mine was overpriced when I paid £1500 for it 8 years ago

[somewhatfoolish]

You still occasionally see an oily rag runner pop up on FB etc at a reasonable price but they don't hang about. What kind of weirdo prices with 9s on the end? Was it a dealer?

34 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

Had a large and rather heavy parcel arrive recently! 40kg of floor matting; this is the main piece:

Who is that from?

[mat_the_cat]

13 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

I thought the same, but I picked this one up for £3.5k, so it seemed like it was now or never! There was an element of 'mate's rates' involved, and the chassis has been welded rather than replaced, so would be worth a bit more with a galvanised chassis. But I'm happy with it

[mat_the_cat]

1 minute ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Who is that from?

This bunch:

http://www.wrightoffroad.com/products.htm

You can buy it from other resellers, but it was a slightly better price dealing direct, they included the kick panels too, plus were really nice to chat Land Rovers with!

[N Dentressangle]

25 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

I thought the same, but I picked this one up for £3.5k, so it seemed like it was now or never! There was an element of 'mate's rates' involved, and the chassis has been welded rather than replaced, so would be worth a bit more with a galvanised chassis. But I'm happy with it

I'd say 3.5k was a real mates' rates price for that. Even when you bought it, it was probably worth twice as much. Absolute bargain - well done 👍

These days I think 3k ought to buy you something up and running and basically sound. There are many people trying to sell resto projects for that, mind.

[mat_the_cat]

My new gaiter arrived today, seemed pretty thick and rubbery although there's a lot of poor quality rubber around nowadays, so time will tell how long it lasts.

We went shopping in it tonight, so the first chance to test it. I'm likely to be biased, as I paid for it but my wife said (unprompted) that it's made a massive difference! I measured the sound level over the 12 mile trip home, a mixture of 30mph villages, and 50mph cruising. Average was 76dB, with a peak of 82dB. No idea how it compares to standard, but it's now possible to have a normal speaking conversation, and just feels so much more relaxing to drive. Worth it IMO

[Ian_Fearn]

I’ve had the Wrights off road matting in both of my Defenders for years. It makes a big difference. In fact, it’s one of those few changes that makes an actual difference rather than a perceived one!