101 forward control

[Robotstar5]

Back in the days of 6" thick parts manuals you always had to be careful checking which model you were ordering for when it had "applies to VIN xxxxxxx - xxxxxxxx" etc. sometimes took me hours to write out parts list to take to the main dealer (pre-interweb days) at least when I worked for BL/Rover etc. I got employee discount.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Back in the days of 6" thick parts manuals you always had to be careful checking which model you were ordering for when it had "applies to VIN xxxxxxx - xxxxxxxx" etc. sometimes took me hours to write out parts list to take to the main dealer (pre-interweb days) at least when I worked for BL/Rover etc. I got employee discount.

I've still got parts manuals like that for Land Rovers !

 

[MrFluffy]

Does this bring back bad memories Robotstar? Part No 608294B. I've used it but mainly to look at bits not covered in the other manuals eg window opening parts etc as the exploded diagrams are pretty good. It also details the size and threadform in use on individual fasterns. I don't think they make parts manuals like this any more!

I've got the "how to operate a 101" they gave to squaddies, and the workshop repair manual also issued by the MOD. Both of which also have come in handy as it goes!

 

[Robotstar5]

I've still got parts manuals like that for Land Rovers !

I put all mine on Eblag, got decent prices for them too, one even went to an Italian chap.

 

[MrFluffy]

Ok, tonights little progress was dealing with the viscous fan clutch being wrecked. Its a clever design and I quite like them in a odd way but this one was really stiff and I'd noticed it spinning when the motor was cold at tickover, and when I worked it round by hand it suddenly free'd off. A test with the blowlamp warming it a bit showed it no longer had the ability to lock.
I mentioned it to the 101club's spares officer who is a font of knowledge and he told me the fan type on the 101 was no longer available but the MOD had some adapter made up towards the end of the vehicles service life to carry a different fan. And I had a nos sd1 clutch in my stash with a parallel mount on the hub instead of the screw on connector of the likes of a defender unit. So, what to do but convert the sd1 clutch to fit the 101.
Take solid lump of steel barstock, and whittle down. Nice blue chips, but they come off tan anyway which is perfect.

Then, after having a m18x1.5 thread cut on one end, and the features machined to suit the sd1 clutch, it was done.

Got my pack height sums right too. Its because I used my calculator with extra large buttons on I reckon. 99p of magicness.

I need to make a suitable nut now, but its got a bit late and have work in the am so best leave that until tomorrow.

 

[Robotstar5]

Just a few more minutes turns into a couple of hours when you have an interesting job on

 

[armalites]

Top work, anything is possible when you have the skills. Is the clutch upside down in the second picture?

Do you need to use and SD1 fan or do they mount in the same way?

 

[MrFluffy]

I found a fan in the box that fits and only has one small nick out of a blade as opposed to the original 101 unit that had two big lumps missing out of blades, but the mounting is the same as the original 101 fan and they match in diameters etc. I do't know if the fan itself is sd1 or off my old range rover classic though. Whats also useful is rimmer and co still sell brand new sd1 viscous fan clutches because the target market is big enough to support it so I can buy a new one if I had to now.
Its upside down in the second shot but mounted on the right way round, I took care over that because its easy to get wrong as you can see it looks almost the same on both faces but only one side has the correct profile on the locating hub and thats facing down towards the water pump. So still have to put the fan on it first before mounting it on the pump. I assume they did that to maintain the distance from the fan to the radiator and as I haven't yet got a cowl for it, I've been preserving the dimensions so when I do get one it should fit.

If your wondering why its bright blue, its because it came on a bright blue rebuilt sd1 engine that came along with another project. I think they were blueprinting it

 

[MrFluffy]

Not much actual stuff done today, because we took a little (400km) drive out en famile (well my wife drove as its her car and she's not a great passenger, so its thanks to her, I just supplied banter, gps control and fronted the ice creams, lunch out and bits and bobs) and came back with these.
They are the original mortar gunner rear seats, which whilst I have been looking I have never seen anything but wanted ad's for and never really expected to find complete for sale stand alone, then bizarrely out of the blue these popped up on a french small ad's site. They also bolt the body and have mountings for air portable lap seat belts which I also have. The series bench seats I have in the earlier rear pics don't have a frame for the rear to support them correctly and no belt mounts so not only more original, also a lot easier to put in as I would have had to make one up before it hit the CT inspection proper. And I can use the series bench seats in my 90 if I need to as their mounts fit that.

They still have the delivery labels on them.

Think I need to go buy some scratchcards now...

 

[MrFluffy]

Right, time to get that tyre done. Its taken me 3 hrs sweat to get the old tyre off, it was welded in place somehow and every time I touched it I ended up covered with black crap, I wore gloves it was so nasty. It resisted the jcb pavement foot bead breaker for about 15 stomps. Never had one put this much of a fight up. I think it was just so degraded it had started to break down and went ultra sticky. Even when I finally popped the bead I had to use that bar in the background as a tyre lever.
And the person who said they cut off tyres with a angle grinder, er I gave it a go and I think thats lethal advice. The rubber snags the disc and causes it to shatter. Note very shattered angle grinder and that was just trying to snip the bead area. I had goggles on and felt the bits whizz past my face.

Somehow I have managed to not damage or pinch the tube, so I gave the rim a wire brush in the drill session, then treated it with rust converter, then I painted it to try and stop the rust progressing. Waiting for the paint to dry before fitting this brand new tyre. I expect it will be easy to mount in comparison because its nice and new and soft still.

 

[armalites]

Fair play, they are hard graft even with a tyre machine. I've never done by hand and I have no intention of doing so either

The tip I was told years a go with these and series rims, always inflate the tube/seat the bead with the valve out, if the tube is not correctly lined up the valve stem can pop inside the rim. If the valve is out worst that happens is you have to wait for it deflate. If you don't do then it then can end up having to stick a screwdriver through the holes and puncture the tube. I've never had it happen but it seems good advice. One of these is really usefull too, allows you to pull the valve through after and makes it less likely to pinch when fitting the tyre.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TYRE-TUBE...397948?hash=item20d96795fc:g:cdIAAOxydB1Sm0Sq

 

[MrFluffy]

I normally inflate without a valve core because it lets you pop the bead onto its seat easier without and I have a tyre chuck on my inflator that grips the valve and stays on so I just clip that on to keep it located once its in the right place but I can see the valve core escaping being a issue because it tried to do it.
But this time I was scratching around because my core tool had disappeared and I checked every vehicle we have and all plain ended valve caps without the core remover.
Take small air fitting, 8mm nylon tube to some bsp adapter, grip in mole grips to keep my fingers away from the sawing zone and bandsaw slot in nipple bit, instant valve core tool after a dust down with the blow gun to remove stray brass. Worked perfectly.

I could have put this tyre on by hand it was so lovely and new and soft in comparison, just knee it into the well and a few flicks and it was on. I've ordered one of those valve fishes linked to above on ebay though, save my fingers trying to fish a stem through on occasion when I've done the blind fumble inside while holding the tyre off the rim with a tyre lever.

Also removed the vacumn bulkhead fitting someone had for trailer brakes, and blanked it with a tiny reversing camera, And free'd off seized nato tow hook with a cunning combination of a large hammer and the atf/acetone treatment. I really am itching to take the rear bumperettes off and needlescale this entire body section and wire brush it when I get some body paint of the correct to paint it afterwards.

Apart from that fixed the leaking exhaust and what seemed like hours putting the new speedo cable on and routing it properly because I had to cut off every single p clip holding the rotted original cable with the dremel so I didn't butcher the wires next to it. Doesn't feel like fantastic progress for a solid day working on it but I believe its starting to come together.

 

[octo0072000]

it's all the little jobs that take the time seems to take ages to get done and at the end of the day seems like you have done very little
but eventually you will get there keep at it,
sometimes better to walk away for a bit sort another job out then go back with a new perspective on it the list will get shorter

 

[MrFluffy]

Well more progress.
Found a s/h radiator cowl which was part of yet more stuff mia over the years, not in terrible shape but a chunk missing near a mount and a crack. So drew the profile, printed out the missing bit in white abs (no black left!) drilled the end of the crack and bonded it and the infil piece in with epoxy. Came out ok.

Made the nut for the fan, staked it with a centre pop and loctited it to boot and assembled the whole shebang. Ran it up until hot, motor sounds really nice burble now, but as soon as the thermostat opens, the rad neck leaks. Also after 20 mins runtime the fan bearing turned out to be not so much nos, as worn out old stock and I need to source another sd1 fan clutch to boot.

I think the problem with the filler neck was the distorted seat stopping the radiator cap having a even surface to seal on. So turned a thick washer with od to match the neck id, and bored it to a little larger than the brass section of the rad cap, so presenting a flat seal to the cap. Then I bonded it in with structural adhesive. It should still allow the cap to vent (might need to check the psi...), still allow it to expand into expansion vessel, but hopefully it'll seal. If this works, I'm going to replicate it on my jcb which also has had some idiot standing on the radiator in its past.

Back to the fun stuff, first side of front steering apart, its been rebuilt because the ralco bush feels nice but with a old steering swivel pin. Fit new pin and shim it up , then assemble with britpart split rubber gaiter glued in place, and with a couple of extra holes punched in the flange with trusty whitney punch.

Second side, the ralco bush is very tired indeed, and the pin is worn out so decide this one needs stripping completely and bushes + taper bearing renewing.There's also some pits on the ball surface that the axle seal slides over that are deep enough to cause persistant leaks so need addressing.
On the 101 the swivel balls are welded onto the axle because they kept cracking on the prototypes due to the abuse/load, so its a massive job to change them but we'll just give it some magic paste treatment. So here's what a land rover steering ball looks like if your confused. The top plain bush is the ralco bush (Defender + later were dual taper rollers, no bush) with a thurst washer inside it, and the lower is a taper. You set preload with shims under the top pin. As I said earlier on in the thread, this side was so worn someone had already tried removing the shims completely and it had none.

And here's the magic paste, it was a choice of this or some belzona 1111, in really thin sections I prefer this over the belzona as its more flexible but if it was a thick buildup of a part or packing a large hole I'd choose the belzona instead. Normally its used to glue aircraft wings together and other structural high stress joins. I use it normally to bond in final reinforcements into the crankcases on my drag bike where welding would run the risk of distorting the bearing mounts. It is impressively strong for what basically is a glue.

So, let it all go off and assemble in the am. So close to being driveable I can almost taste it, but still waiting for my conformity paperwork to be processed.

 

[Robotstar5]

Did they do the oil impregnated leather swivel housing gaiters for the 101?, I had some on my LW.

 

[MrFluffy]

There's are no 101 gaiters officially which is odd because it was a military vehicle but there you go. You have to modify series ones by punching new holes in the flanges to match the swivel housings and stretch them on.
I could have gotten the leather gaiters and altered them the same, but I've got a preference for the rubber ones after having them on my 90 and finding them easier to live with. Occasionally on that I pop the gaiters off the seal and check behind them but theyve been fine so far, so giving this the same treatment.

 

[MrFluffy]

Well, think me rad neck repair worked, no boiling water after a few laps round the garden, and no cutting out now on the hilly bits after putting another 30l of fuel in it.
Got hold of a pioneer spade and pickaxe, which is mounted on special holders on the front.

Also priced up the correct sprung overcentre toggle clips to hold the engine covers snug inside the cab. 60 quid... Ugh... Or, these near equivalents from ebay for 4 quid from a chinese seller of "luggage clamps". Short arms and deep pockets me...

Also getting near to being driveable, so time to sort the seating out. Recalling back to its arrival, it had one very ruined drivers seat, the wrong seat completely in the passenger side velcroed in place. So my lovely wife stepped up to plate for covers, and we found a new seat foam for the passenger side for 12 quid new old stock. The poor old wrecked transit in the yard gave up yet more of its parts in the form of the ply out of its dry lining and a second seatbase to match the original was bandsawed out.
Special sewing machine to cope with vinyl and extra reinforced thread? no, 20's hand cranked singer more like.

I'm now pretty pleased at my seating. Its the right military variant shape, made of the right bits, and matches the tilt. And it cost 12 quid.

Theres a panel in the interior sits behind the engine cover missing which stops engine noise/fume getting into the cab area, so next I'm going to order some ally sheet and make one as I cant find one for reasonable money so far. And gosh, some welding might happen as have to convert the 3 seats to 4, which means welding on a extra seat frame to extend the single seat which is made of ally.
Still no sign of my conformity paperwork I need before I can even take it for a mot though.

 

[MrFluffy]

If your wondering about the funny bag marks in the vinyl, thats because it was a freebie sheet left folded for years, and when we unfolded it, it had pinch marks and all sorts. In the past they have come out in a few weeks of being under tension from the underlying foam so should have waited a few weeks before the final shot I suppose!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

And here's the magic paste, it was a choice of this or some belzona 1111, in really thin sections I prefer this over the belzona as its more flexible but if it was a thick buildup of a part or packing a large hole I'd choose the belzona instead. Normally its used to glue aircraft wings together and other structural high stress joins. I use it normally to bond in final reinforcements into the crankcases on my drag bike where welding would run the risk of distorting the bearing mounts. It is impressively strong for what basically is a glue.

Could this be a solution for the member who was asked to 'tidy up' a previous weld repair in a tractor cast iron gearbox casing?

Edit: found the thread http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/...t-iron-bell-housing-repair.65256/#post-842896

 

[MrFluffy]

I'd use the belzona 1111 in that case. One of the axle housings was cracked through on my second massey harris tractor and I was going to belzona that crack up, until I found the main housing mounting broke off too..