My shop

 3/12/23

I’d you wondering what my work shop looks like (we refer to it as “the Shed”) here is a video showing all the various 1970 landrover parts in various stages and waiting to be reassembled.

It’s not the greatest shop but I’m blessed to have it; many have less and many have more.  I have almost everything a garage needs except a lift, and the only reason I don't have a lift is because i don't have the ceiling height for one.  But I have a gantry with crane, engine hoist, engine stand, sand blasting cabinet parts washer, 20 ton press, drill press, 2 air compressors working in tandem to fill a 250 gallon air tank, MiG, gas and arc welders, several wire wheel grinders, and vices, and most of the specialty tools one needs to work on Landrovers and Jeeps.  I don't hesitate to buy new tools that will make a job easier. 

Steering and linkage

 March 8, 2023

Steering Relay

So far I've chosen no to remove the steering relay from the chassis.  They can be a real problem to remove (although it was pretty easy on my 109) and given that as far as I know it works OK, and given some other issues I've had disassembling a 55 yar old truck, I'm going to leave it.  But I have been replenishing the oil in it.  The procedure is to remove one of the bolts (I removed 2) and using a syringe fill with oil slowly add oil in those bolt holes.  the relay has plates inside and it take a long time for the oil to seep in (a week or more of slowing adding oil).  But part of working on any old Land Rover should be to periodically add oil in the relay.

Well that whole thing went to hell in a handbasket quickly.  The relay was a major job; right up there with chassis bushings.  I finally got the relay out with the chassis turned upside down and a 20 ton press straddling the frame.

Read more about it in the Steering relay removal and replacement section.

Transmission Brake

 Transmission Brake

4/18/2023

Because of a rear output shaft seal leak I had to redo the transmission brake.  After cleaning and painting the backing plate I installed a new adjuster unit and a new actuator unit, along with new shoes. The adjuster and actuator units were probably reusable but I had new so I replaced them.  I also replaced the brake shoes as the old ones were oil soaked.  What I found out, however was that the combination of all those new parts made the circumference of the brake shows too large to fit the drum on.  

After multiple times taking off the shoes and putting them back on, the fix was to shave 3/16" off the actuator side of the shoes.  The aftermarket shoes were made different and I assume were a little different size at the points where they fit into the adjuster and actuator.

I did have another set of new shoes from a different manufacturer that might have worked better but I didn't realize that until after I'd finished the job.

A tip: to make sure the shoes and drums will fit, before you fight getting them on with springs (I didn't figure out this hack until too late), just use zip ties to hold them in place and see if the drum fits.

Make sure you have the leading edge of the shoes (the pad furthest from the end) in the direction of rotation (Rotation is counter-clock wise), and the adjuster turned all the way out.  Of course also make sure the internals of actuator and adjuster are properly put together and greased. Not that the actuator only moves the shoes about 2mm so the shoes to drum fit is pretty close.

A couple of other things I learned in the process.  You cannot put the springs on the shoes while they are in place; you have to put them on first then stretch the shoes into place.  If you have the hub on before you do all of this (initially I did not but it was in place by the time I realized the drum wouldn't fit and I did not want to take it back off), and the actuator in place, the spring will not pass between the two.  So my fix was to put the actuator partially in place but held out just enough to pass the spring, using a zip tie to hold it out of the way.  Another problem in getting these shoes on is that the springs tend to fall out, so I used bolts of the correct size, stuck into the spring holes to hold them in place until the shoes are in place; you can also use golf-tees to do the same job.

These shoes are not the right way around.  I took this photo before changing them.  the long (leading) edge should be on the left/down side. Adjuster on the left, actuator on the right side.

Pic shoes the leading edge (left) and trailing edge (right).

Chassis

 Getting the Chassis ready

4/9/2023

After stripping the frame I removed the steering relay and replaced the spring bushings (both jobs I never want to do again).  It’s been sand blasted and primers with a zinc based coating and painted with Expoy black.