'74 Land Rover shed - back on the road for £1k

[FWDRacer]

timolloyd said:

Red Firecracker said:

Has to be pre 1973 to legally use silver and black plates.

Shame my MoT inspector didn't pick this up. Don't think I'll worry too much for now. Judging by the number of fonts and badges I see on others' plates, I reckon this will be the least of the BiB worries.

Absolutely

[timolloyd]

Finally got around to fixing the Landie today. It fired first turn of the key after standing for seven weeks, which was impressive. The stalling on steep hills was caused, I think, by the inline fuel filter. My Dad took it out and replaced it and the pipe either side with one long pipe, and all seems to be well.
In celebration we treated it to a full tank of unleaded and a 50-mile round trip into the Kent Weald, including a muddy byway for a couple of those miles.
It performed really well, on and off road. Pleased to say the low range box and four wheel drive seems to be working as it should.
With the vehicle actually running reliably again, I can get back on the case with the long list of odds and ends that need looking at.

[Red Firecracker]

Great to hear. I finally brought mine home today after doing a gearbox swap and a few other bits over Christmas at my mates workshop, including modifying the hood sticks so that it goes into my garage now. Still more things added to the list to do though!

[Dogwatch]

Re the number plate issue. As was pointed out on another thread, in the late 60's/early 70's the shiny new reflective plates were the cool thing du jour (and useful too given the poorer vehicle and street lighting of the time) so it is quite likely that the Landie never sported black and white plates (even if it was legal to) until they came back into fashion as a 'badge of age'.


Glad the losing power situation has been sorted. Nothing knocks your confidence like an intermittent engine fault.

[4rephill]

Dogwatch said:

......Glad the losing power situation has been sorted. Nothing knocks your confidence like an intermittent engine fault.

The thing I never get with any intermittent fault is, when you finally give in trying to fix it yourself and decide to put the car into a garage to fix it, the fault never occurs the whole time the car is with them, no matter how long you leave it with them!

So you go back to take the car home, and on the way home the bloody fault crops up again!

Then, to add salt to the wound, if you turn round and head back to the garage, just as you pull up the fault goes away again!

[timolloyd]

Nice little trundle around some country lanes yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately there were a couple of occasions where the fuel starvation effect reared its head again. Nothing like as serious as before, but I'm wondering whether there might be dirt in the tank and fuel line.

[grumpy52]

Check the length of the fuel pick up pipe in the tank , this is something I read about many years ago , the pipe for some reason was a couple of inches shorter than it should have been and only caused problems when the fuel ran to the rear of the tank when going up hill .

[timolloyd]

It's been a while since I posted, but the Series Shed is still going strong.

The scary/dangerous/annoying problem with running up hills didn't stop completely, so I went back to basics and drained the fuel tank. Not sure how my neighbours felt about this, as there was much, much more fuel in the tank than the gauge led me to believe.

Anyway, after frantic running around the garage gathering every receptacle I could, the last dregs made their way to the drain hole. The petrol went from a gushing pale blue to a brown-tinged trickle, with added sprinkles of rust and dirt. After a bit of careful torch shining and squinting, the inside of the tank looked reasonably well drained and clear of lumps of anything.

I put the plug back in, put as much of the 'clean' petrol back in as I dare (the stuff that didn't have bits in it) and then drove down to the garage to top up the tank.

It ran OK for a few weeks, until the same problem reared up again, although not nearly as bad. I ignored it, and all was well for another few weeks. Then, after using it all day, I jumped in to return home and discovered that it would not run without the choke almost completely out. I limped home and when time allowed opened up the carb, having been given some advice about a dirty jet.

Sure enough, the jet was clogged so I blew the dirt out. Now, the engine would at least keep running without choke, but idle was very rough. With a bit of tweaking of the idle and mixture screws on the simple Weber unit, I managed to get it running smoothly. I had forgotten what a joy a simple carb is.

Since then things have been much better in Land Rover land. I've had one problem hill, but intend to just keep topping up the tank now and hoping for the best.

My Dad found a brilliant set of five Michelins on eBay, to replace the military-type cross plies that the Land Rover came with:



I won the bid at £120 and I am well pleased with them, at this price. They all have around 10mm tread, which on a vehicle like this means years of use. I fitted them today, and they're quieter, less prone to wandering, and having reduced the rolling circumference, the Land Rover seems to scamper up the hills a bit more willingly and pull away in second too.

Here's the difference:



So, with it running better I've also splashed out on new wiper blades, locking fuel cap and bonnet hinge bushes to replace the ones that weren't there at all - on windy dual carriageways I was genuinely worried about the rear edge of the bonnet lifting away!

I have also tried to solve a persistent oil leak from the engine. I thought this was down to a poorly seated oil filter seal, but having changed the oil and filter again today (it's second oil change in around 1000 miles), there is still a drip. It's on the drivers side of the engine block, and seems to be falling from somewhere above the drain plug, but below the rocker cover.

I wondered about the sump, but it appears to drip from higher than that - any ideas?

[Red Firecracker]

Check that your oil bath air filter base hasn't become porous/got a hole in it. Simple to check, remove it and if there is oil on the base of it or in the place where it sits, then that's a good indicator.

[IroningMan]

It's ages since I looked under the bonnet of a Series LR; do they use a Lucas-type mechanical fuel pump? If so then check the diaphragm in it for splits, check that the internal non-return valve is working and that the internal filter is clean.

[Hooli]

Is a weep from the head gasket possible, or doesn't it line up with where you think it's coming from?

My only experience of series LRs had a V8 in so not much help there.

[timolloyd]

Thanks for the suggestions. Will take a look another look at it.

[timolloyd]

MOT time approaching...
I've had the Landie back on the road for almost a year now, and its running well. I am loathed to go prodding about too much before the MOT - what will be, will be, right? I have found a cracked rear stop lamp lens, so have bought a complete replacement set as the others are faded and brittle.
I think the coolant could do with flushing and replacing again as the temperature gauge reaches the top quarter. I don't want it overheating during the MOT.
Other than that, I'm erring towards booking it in, and seeing what happens. Everything else seems to be working OK.
I'll keep you posted...