31 August 2009

28-31st August - Disco arrives!

Well a bit of a busy one this weekend, though Friday was an LR loss due to having to get the rear brakes rebuilt on the Cherokee. As the daily driver that had to take priority.

Saturday and also Monday saw the rear springs going on and the rear axle minus the diff and half shafts. Looks tidy. It would have looked even tidier if the RM supplied U-bolts actually fitted. The axle could then have been clamped up and I could have moved onto the front. But oh no!


The RM supplied U-bolts for both the front and rear axles are 13mm diameter (larger than std) which would not have been a problem if that was the only hitch. In addition the spacing between the legs of the U-bolt are 1/2" too wide so they will not fit the spring plate without a lot of filing and also it also leaves a lot of slack around the axle tube. I dropped a mail to RM on Saturday so I will give them a few days to respond. See pic below showing the difference in spacing against the rear spring plate.


Also sorted out a plate to mount the civi towing electrics over the military towing socket on the rear x-mem. A bit of 3mm plate some fun with a chop saw then the welder = job done!

The biggest task of the weekend on Sunday was to collect the Disco :) By lunchtime it was home and driven 35 miles without any clutch, which was an experience and luckily the 200tdi has enough torque to pootle along in 3rd all the way. Though the traffic behind both me and a following SWMBO wasn't too pleased at being restricted to 45mph all the way down the A36 from Bath.

Anyway the Disco seems to be a good one and drove very well with loads of power. With change out of £400 I have a '93 200tdi with 99k on the clock, 11 months MOT and it has even had a new cambelt 8 months ago (though no docs to prove that so I will change it anyway) plus half a tank of diesel and five SAG lookalike tyres on good 109 military rims (NRC7578/Dunlop/5.5Fx16x33 - spare is new to!).

The diesel went into SWMBO's truck and the wheels will be blasted and used on Trigger.

Sunday afternoon was spent stripping down the Disco to get access to the engine and also to give it a good clean around the engine bay. Also lopped off the viscous fan and changed the oil and filter. Will change the oil etc again once it is in Trigger, but fresh oil gives it a good clean out.


The plan now is to get the 109 chassis into a 'rolling' state and moved out of the courtyard. Then get the Disco in and the engine out. That is the only way we will be able to use the engine hoist again due to the gravel.

So now to get a few orders in for conversion parts for the 200tdi but I am still undecided whether it will be a 'tdi' or 'di'. At the moment the decision rests with me sourcing a Defender exh/inlet manifold and turbo assy - which seem to be as rare as teeth on hens. At least this way the parts are std, or as much as they can be. If I cannot find the manifold soon it will have to be Di (sans turbo). So for now the alternator front pulley; temp sender adaptor and 9.5" clutch assy are all ordered.

Let's get this chassis rolling?

21 August 2009

21-23rd August - 200Tdi on it's way!

I mentioned right at the beginning of this 109 saga that I planned to replace the existing engine with a diesel. Two reasons really one to give it a bit more power and torque and also so I can run it on a small percentage of waste veg which we already process here anyway. The engine of choice would be a 200Tdi from a rusty early Disco. For now I will leave off the turbo just to make the installation as simple as possible. Whether I fit it in the future - who knows?

Anyway, in the background I have been putting the feelers out and regularly checking Ebay for cheap MOT failures with what appears to be a good engine and transmission (after all I can sell the LT77 on if it is good). So far two have come up over the past week and both have got away.

1. G plate with 180k in Avebury - couldn't view due to other social committments and that went for £315
2. H plate with 196k Andover - Was on the way over to see it Friday when he called and said he had sold it for £600 outside of the Ebay auction for cash :(

So back to the Bay and keep on looking?

Saturday was spent stripping the rear axle followed by the front on Sunday then giving both the remains of the POR15 that had formed a lump in a jar followed by two coats of Johnsons grey primer (as used on the chassis)then International black satin gloss. I was worried how much material remained on the rear diff bowl then noticed that a PO had done a weld repair after a previous 'puncture'. But it looked much better once cleaned up. Hopefully that will hold for years?



Front is surprisingly good internally and once the scale was chipped off and the surface beaten about with the wacky wheel it wasn't bad externally either. After pulling off the leather gaiters both balls were in perfect condition - so that worry is out of the way.



Also found what looks like a chassis No. (?) stamped on the outside of the front casing.



When stripping the rear axle I found the old military ratio markings for the diff (4.7) under layers of grime.



+++++ Stop press ++++++ Disco now found!!
Well all change again! After losing the last 2 Disco's keeping my eye on The Bay has now come up trumps. A 'K' plate 200tdi with 100k on the clock. Good engine with current (new MOT) plus 3/4 tank of diesel for £350. Reason - the clutch lever in the bell housing has pulled through. Common problem but one that gave me a bit of leverage on the price. We collect next Sunday :)

16 August 2009

16th August - Chassis top coat on

Surprisingly the sun shone all day on Sat and Sun so I able to make an attempt at the final coat of chassis paint.

Now I have been wondering whether to paint it Deep Bronze Green (DBG) using the Containergard (as I have so much) or to use the black Rust Bullet top coat that I bought for the job (but is probably going to struggle to achieve even one coat with only 1 litre).

Saturday I had a quick go with the Containgard and realised fast that it requires a lot of thinning and dries almost immediately. So never drag the brush over a previously coated section! Anyway, I used some DBG on the front end of the chassis and left it overnight. Looking at it in the morning it was obvious it would need two coats to do the job when thinned to a suitable level so I would need to use half the can to do a good job.....and I really wanted at least half a can to paint the outside of the LR after all?

So back to the black. Sunday - Decanting about 300ml of RB into an old (but clean) baked bean tin (Tesco budget brand) then thinned with some synthetic enamel thinners (aprox. 10%) and tried it on a small area. Coverage was good so I thought what the hell and went for it. Luckily there was enough, but it was tight and wasn't helped by me spilling some during a moment of lapsed concentration. Time taken for another lap = 3 hours.

So here it is and ready to leave for a few weeks until the axles are ready to fit.



Next job. Get those axles cleaned/stripped and painted.

09 August 2009

9th August - Chassis in the yard and now 'battleship gery'

The likely lads managed to move the chassis last Monday evening and it is now ensconced in the courtyard.

Being away all week then followed by the crud weather I was grateful to have two days of sun this weekend. I made the most of it and managed to get two coats of galv primer applied.

So here it is in it's battleship grey splendour and ready for a final top coat next weekend if the weather sorts itself out again (it's Summer for godsakes...isn't it?)



Also a decision has been made on the paint for the bodywork etc. After a discussion on the HMVF I have decided on BS381C-224. Protega Containergard in Deep Bronze Green with a sheen/semi-gloss. Bought from Smith & Allen for £45 delivered for about 5 litres. More than enough for two LR's?

Also I have been having another sniff at finding out more about the military origins of Trigger. The best source I have found for older LR's seems to be the HMVF and the thread below has turned up a bit more info on South Eastern Command (which it turns out later became know as South Eastern District).

http://www.hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?t=14135

02 August 2009

2nd August - The old chassis is no more!

The plan today was for both Minivin and myself to head up to Swindon for the Sodbury Sortout ....which we then found out had been cancelled! :( So my planned order of paint will have to go by phone it seems.

Anyway to make use of the spare time and as the weather was unusually clear and warm it seemed daft not to crack on with the task in hand. So with the old rolling chassis sitting in the drive the remaining bits were removed, axles cut out (most of the bolts were rusted solid in the spring bushes) and the whole chassis cut up ready for the scrap man.

So from this...........



A 109 chassis can be reduced to this in 3 hours with the help of a 9" grinder and 5x 2mm cutting disks....



What was interesting (from an anoraky persepective at least)was the internal condition of the chassis rails. The rails on the front half of the chassis were in surprisingly good condition for a ~45 year old vehicle. The original dip paint finish had started to peel and there was only slight surface corrosion at the base of the rail. But the rear half of the chassis was completely different. Serious spalling had occurred and you could easily see that the original material was now around 0.5mm thick - and had then been plated over where it had holed. It appears that this 109 had been used to maybe launch boats in a salty environment in the past? It had belonged to a Co. working on canal boats for many years but they had been working in fresh water...or maybe not?

At the end of the day the minimum it would have required was a rear half chassis and a repair to the drivers side front dumb iron assembly. As the former is no longer available a full chassis is the only option....bank manager withstanding!

STOP PRESS!!!! -- A 'team' of trusty fellows have been press-ganged into being over my place at 1900 tomorrow to shift the new chassis.