A Landy is reborn

[kstrutt1]

If you have the brakes off changing the seals can be done fairly easily by undoing or cutting the 6 bolts that hold the sphere to the axle and the steering link then pulling the complete wheelend off, be warned it is very heavy though.

[tractorman]

Cheers for that Kevin, though I was half hoping you'd say it was a real pain of a job that wasn't worth the time and effort!

I've got the new seals and retainers, but decided to order some (rubber) gaiters and fit those while I've got it apart. They should hide any future oil leaks (and make it slightly easier at MOT times)! While I appreciate that the front "hub" won't be light, it's a heck of a lot better than the half-axle on either of my tractors: they have some beefy reduction gears in them (and they have to come off to get at the brake shoes) - I'll post a picture when I am using the "main PC" (the pics aren't on Flickr yet); if nothing else, it will explain why I haven't sorted the brakes on the big tractor!

The copper brake pipes came the other day, but I can't say I am very impressed by them! My "quirky" system is such that genuine pipes aren't really suitable - so two pipes are far too long. On the positive side, I have more Kunifer pipe than I thought, so have got most of the front pipes done with that. I'm "looking" for work now - I've run out of unions and eBay messed up and dropped them from my "Basket" when I wasn't looking! However, there is a little work on the brake pipes to do in the morning and then I can think about putting the radiator and "centre panel" back on and getting a some of the cooling system piped up!

[arceye]

If its the front ball swivel seals you need to do... you can save yourself some work and do it in situ by splitting the new seal as per this linky http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/LRhubseal.htm

Easy Peasy, saves time, effort and it does work ok, and as it is so simple you don't need to bother with gaitors to hide future leaks, well unless the balls themselves are corroded.

Just a thought

[kstrutt1]

If they are not leaking much you could also fit the leather gaiters, they have been on mine for 4 years now, the oil leaking out keeps them supple!

[tractorman]

Thanks for the link arceye - I had seen it a while ago and wondered how well it worked. I suspect my spheres aren't as good as the ones in those pics - the "restorer" was liberal with underseal to put it mildly!

I suspect the leather gaiters wouldn't get as well oiled as yours Kevin - I don't intend to use the Landy much, it's more a machine for collecting stuff that won't (or shouldn't) go in the Golf and do those little trips that would block the Golf's DPF with monotonous regularity!

Here's the picture I threatened you with:



Suffice to say that the reduction box/half axle wasn't moved far from the tractor, though it had to come right out as there are seals on the brake "backplate" that should be changed when the half shaft comes out (good practice though some don't bother). The jack is on the BACK of the unit (it drops down when you pull it off the dowels at an alarming rate. Note - that is the LITTLE tractor - the other one has somewhat larger units (and not very good brakes)!

[tractorman]

Apart from the "mods" to the front wheels (move the bleed nipple to the top cylinder), the brake pipes are sorted. Actually, that's not true - the pipes on the master cylinder are the wrong way round! I fitted them the same way as on the old master cylinder (and as shown in the parts list etc), but I read on a LR forum that the back part of the master cylinder does the front brakes, so I'll have to swap the pipes around - and they have different unions, so those will need to be swapped over too!

I mentioned the incorrect flexy hoses in another post. It bugs me that people are allowed to make such dangerous errors! Here's a photo of a wrong hose that also shows how the radiator just clears the steering arm (and a nice new tee piece and brake pipes!). The hose is being used to stop muck getting into the pipe (I left the cap off the end to show the wrong union). The pipe from the master cylinder is Kunifer - it just looks like copper in the photo! I've deliberately brought the brake pipes over the chassis instead of under it - you never know what is floating in the water at high tide, so I wanted as little pipe exposed as possible!



Thinking of the radiator, there are now two rubber mountings for the bottom "pegs" - the old bump stop rubber DID have a use! The annoying thing is that the fan housing just fouls the bonnet catch. I think I can trim a little of the plastic frame enough without weakening it too much, which will save having to move the mount and cut a lot of the original radiator mounting/baffle away (though I need to trim it a little so the radiator fits properly).



The main job this week has been to sort out a heater control valve. I bought one on eBay that is for a London Taxi (allegedly) as the Prima engine only has a stub for the heater hose (the Montego's heater would have the valve) and spent a while making it fit! I also cleaned up the heater (someone had sprayed it with underseal as well as two coats of paint - red and navy blue). It isn't up to my usual standard - partly because it was too cold to spray paint at the time!



The top hose is to sort out (I need another "elbow") and the take off for the header tank will come from the radiator end of the hose - not the thermostat (as shown in the photo).

In order to work out where the radiator will go, I needed the front panel to be in it's "normal" position (which has been "leaning against the garage wall" for a few weeks!) and, in order to do that, I needed to fit the "new" bonnet. It makes the restoration look a lot nearer conclusion:



The next job is to trim the centre panel so the radiator will sit vertically - and the baffles don't rub against it. That shouldn't take long...

[tractorman]

All was going well - I did a lot of little jobs on Saturday and Sunday and then decided to change the hose on the clutch and check the weeping joint. The "wrong" front brake hose was the same length as the one on the clutch (and I suspect the original should have been shorter) and I was going great guns with making a new metal pipe to replace the two old ones. Then I discovered that the master cylinder's union is 7/16" and was stuck solid to the pipe - even a hammer and punch failed to move it. I then realised the joint between the two pipes was also 7/16", so undid the joint to discover that the union on the lower pipe was for 1/4" pipe - the pipe was 3/16". So the job was stalled until some new unions, suitable for 3/16" pipe arrived (yesterday)!

The radiator is finally mounted properly and I was able to work out that it needed an elbow -for the top hose. That also arrived yesterday - so the cooling system job was stalled too. I then fitted a "master" junction box on the bulkhead. This will save me having to struggle to get half a dozen leads onto the solenoid terminal (which is well hidden behind the n/s bulkhead/steering box support and is hard to reach. I couldn't be bothered to sort out the Montgeo cold-start stuff, so that job was abandoned for now!

It was somewhat cold in the garage for most of this week - howling gales and rain also put me off working there. My humour wasn't helped when I remembered to dip the oil tank on Monday - and found there was only about 50mm of oil in it! The Rayburn went out on Wednesday morning and the oil arrived about four hours later!

Due to the cold weather, I've started work in/on the kitchen again. The refurbishment stalled in May, when I put the Landy in the garage (though I did fit some cupboard doors in May/June). One of the reasons for putting the job off was because I have to fit a window sill and take some tiles off the window wall and plaster where they were (they were flush with the plaster!). Taking the trim off around the windows revealed some large gaps between the timber frame and the walls! So much for "insist on the best". They know I will never buy from them again - my Starion-owning friend is a window (etc) fitter for a quality firm!! Luckily, my new window sill and upstand (oak) will go in easily and some new oak for a surround arrived this morning, so I may have the window sorted by Monday, then I can start on tiling above the other two worktops! Hmm, the weather may be warm enough to work in the garage - I hate tiling!!

[tractorman]

Well, the kitchen is all done apart from some bits needing Danish Oil and the floor has the remains of the double-sided tape that held the vinyl in place.



Nell can see one fault - the food bowl is empty!

So, after some gardening and domestic stuff, I couldn't put it off any longer - it's Landy season! It was a lovely warm morning and I was rather hot after our walk. As soon as I got near the Landy, it turned cold and windy again.

I did get a couple of jobs done last month: the clutch now works as it should; at least the hydraulic side of the clutch works as it should! I had bought some 7/16 UNF unions for the clutch master cylinder last year; I was not amused to find that they weren't quite 7/16 UNF and ran a die down one to make it fit. It's not something I would even contemplate with a brake pipe union, but it seems to have worked well with the clutch - it is holding the pipe nice and tightly and there is no sign of fluid loss after a few pumps of the pedal over the last three weeks or so.

I also sorted out the top radiator hose, though can't get much further with the cooling system until the wings are back on - the header tank bolts to the n/s wing and there is other plumbing to do before I know where thetank will fit on the wing!

So, the next job was to sort out the oil seals on the swivel housings. I bought new seals, retainers and gaiters last year and decided to have a proper look at the spheres today. Once the o/s wheel was off, I realised that the black crud on the housing wasn't underseal - it's rust covered with grease/oil!



The n/s one looks worse - but I haven't really tried to clean it off yet:



I did try to get a second opinion, but the advisor was a Subaru expert and wasn't sure:



(note the vinyl floor covering, ready to go to the recycling place)

It's not the ideal time to buy new housings - I returned my acetylene cylinder to BOC last week and "bought" one from the Hobbyweld place on Wednesday (for £205: cylinder deposit and gas) and have bought two vacuums in the last week or so (a new Vax and a used Sebo)! However, it is the perfect time to replace the housings - the brakes are disconnected and the wings are off, so it's a lot easier to do them now than it will be when everything is together again. No doubt that the pins will need replacing when/if I strip the hub - they are nice and tight (and smooth) at the moment, but that means nothing on a Landy!

[tractorman]

Nell must have been thinking about the swivel housings (note the "technical term") last night as, when we got home from our walk, she wanted to go in the garage!

It's a good thing she did as it gave me an excuse to have a closer look at the housings and the n/s one is worse on the bit you can't see in the photos! As it was, I decided to pull the hub off and have a closer inspection and, if nothing else, it proved that the shortcut (sawing through the seal and retainer and wrapping them around the "axle") wouldn't have been wise.

I think I am right if I say that there shouldn't be water when you remove the drain plug - and that it should have more than an egg-cup full of (black) oil! Oen good thing though - I managed to undo all the bolts holding the housings to the axle (but will replace them as a matter of course!)

So I now need a new swivel pin to replace the stepped and sloppy one, new brake linings as the old ones are down to the rivets in places (the seller said he'd serviced the brakes before he put the thing on eBay) and a new wheel cylinder (the bleed nipple has sheered off in the cylinder - some time ago as it is somewhat rusty) as well as new housings!

There was me thinking I had spent all I need to spend on the dashed thing!

[JPB]

Sadly no, there's not intended to be water in there! I say "sadly" because there invariably is, unless the swivel pin housing in question is on a split new Defender that has yet to leave the showroom. But what other vehicle (apart from small chassis Triumphs, Reliants and some motorcycles..) provides the sensation that you're playing with some form of Meccano for grown-ups? There'll never be another vehicle like the good old LR and I think that's a sad state of affairs.