Thursday, October 29, 2009

Engine & Tranny Work

Hey Everyone -

Before we get to the engine and transmission work I thought I'd share a 'Rover Sighting' with you.

Way back when the search for a Land Rover began there was a guy in a small town close to me that had two SIII 88s. One was Pastel Green with a Sandstone top and the other was Orange with a Sandstone top. I tried to contact him to talk about the Rovers and possibly have a look at them.

While trying to find out who this guy was, and how to contact him, I learned that he was quit the eccentric artist that would just as soon shoot you than look at you. He had a strange idea of what art is, but it was interesting to look at. It's kind of like a train wreck, you just can't turn away.

I finally got his contact info but was warned that he was a nut case. I called anyway. When I asked about the Rovers he hung-up on me.

Eventually I noticed the Rovers were no longer at his house and then found out he got rid of them.

Well, the other day we happened to go through the town and drove by his house (he lives on the outskirts of the town in the boonies) to see what new, weird and twisted art he had in his yard. Low-and-behold the Pastel Green one was back!!

This time the Rover seemed to be part of his art.

Following are two pictures of it. I took them with my cell phone camera, that's why they are fuzzy. Keep in mind, the guy would just as soon shoot a person than look at them. So, while trying to get the pics SWMBO kept asking me if this was a 'good idea'.

Do you see the nifty brush bar ornament? Ain't it cool?!

If you look in the upper left corner you can see some of his 'art'. It's an old jaw bone painted red.









Here's a closer view.

I would love to have one of those skulls. I wonder where he got it?

Maybe I should call him and ask!!

Oh - I ment to get a picture of a sign in his yard he painted years ago. It says "Send more tourists - the last ones were tasty".

Well, on to more important things.

My big brother Randy and I made a lot of headway on Grover last Wednesday. The gaskets and seals I ordered hadn't arrived by then so it was mainly a ‘clean and inspect’ session but it was a lot of ‘cleaning and inspecting’.

We started with an inspection of the flywheel and clutch plate. He said they were both in great shape but the flywheel needed to be cleaned. It had a lot of rust dust from sitting for a long time unused. He did note that the plate itself hardly had any signs of ware on it and still looked new.

I can’t exactly remember what made him figure it out but he did say the plate was not engaging properly. Sure wish I was experienced enough to determine this just by looking.

We then went over to the transmission to have a look. He played with the mainshaft and it moved smoothly and easily. He also noted that everything was clean and tight. However, there was a little play in the mainshaft and when I asked about it he said it was normal. I hope he is right.

I took off all the inspection covers so we could take a look. The gears are in such great condition it had us wondering if they had been replaced by a previous owner.

Using a penlight we rotated all the gears so we could see them. We found no wear and tear worth noting. Everything looked pristine.

He then concentrated on the front output shaft going through the 4WD section. He said there seemed to be a lot of play there and wasn’t sure why. When looking in the manual we didn’t see anything that might cause this.

So, off came the 4WD output housing.

We very carefully removed the housing and inspected the gears. Again, these were in immaculate condition. The only wear we could find was on the selector shaft, for the 4WD, where it connects with the locking dog. It turns out that the ‘play‘ is coming from where the large gear cog on the end of the front output shaft fits into the locking dog.

Here is a picture of the flange for the output shaft (on the left) and the 4WD selector shaft.

Right now they are soaking in diesel and will be cleaned tomorrow.

This is the front face of the transfer box. The remains of the blue gasket outlines where the 4WD housing attaches to it.

You can also see the selector shaft assembly - the thing with the big spring attached.

Below that is the output shaft.

The main thing in this picture is the item at the bottom.

This is the front output shaft assembly.

The rectangular thing in the middle of it is called an 'oil thrower'. I guess it's there to throw oil around!! ;)

The big cog on the end (right side) has the locking dog on it. This is the section that connects to the output shaft in the previous picture.

Here is the large cog on the front output shaft as well as the locking dog (in big brothers left hand).

The pictures don't do these parts justice. They look rusty but really aren't. I guess they are discolored by the gear oil and crud that gets in there.

And here we have the front of the front output housing.

You can see the bearing for the output shaft as well as the oil gasket. This bearing has some rust on it so it'll get replaced.

This is the part the output shaft flange attaches to.

Here's a look inside the transfer case.

Kind of cool isn't it?!

After working on the gear boxes for a bit we wandered over to the engine.

First thing we did was remove the valve cover so we could have a look. He was really surprised by how nice the rocker shaft fittings were.

He said he was expecting a ton of carbon build-up and lots of crud. There was not much carbon at all. The one that sits closest to the water pump - tappet #1 - was the only one with any carbon to speak of. There was this pale orangish build up that was flaking off and Randy (my brother) said it was normal but I did clean up what was flaking off.

The most important think to point out is that tappet #4 was the ONLY tappet to be even close to the .010 clearance. Following the instructions in the book he proceeded to show me how to adjust the settings. What’s interesting is that I could just about turn the fan belt driving pulley by hand to make the valves fully open or close. Instead, I used the crank handle with the starter dog to turn it. Once all of the tappets had been adjusted the pulley COULD NOT be turned by hand.

And here's the rocker shaft from the spark plug side.









And now from the manifold side.

You can see the carbon on tappet #1 (the one on the far left).

If you look under the rocker shaft you can also see the orangish crud.

This is big brother showing me how to adjust the tappets (the little hammer thingies on top of the springs.



Those springs are what determines the amount of gas and exhaust that goes in and out of the engine.

If there is too much clearance between the tappets and the springs too much gas and exhaust comes in and goes out. If there is not enough clearance then there is not enough going in and out.

I guess if the tappets are all different clearances than the whole thing runs out of whack.

These are some of the middle tappets.










These are the tappets at the rear of the engine. I know the one on the right is #8 and I think the one next to it is #7.


And here are the front two tappets. The one on the left is #1 an the other is #2 (I think).


















After scraping off more oil and crud the engine block number was readable - #25140728C.

I think I should be writing these numbers down somewhere for future reference.

We also checked out the water pump and big brother said he could feel a drag and hear a scraping sound. He had me work with it so I could feel it, and hear it, myself.

So we removed the pump and the back side of the impeller was in really bad shape and it was wobbly - like a bearing was out or something.

Big brother suggested I go ahead and replace the water pump. I'm going to go ahead and do this, but as a friend on the Land Rover Owner's group suggest I'm going to keep the old pump housing and have it refurbished. By doing this, and purchasing the innards, I'll have a back-up pump. Thanks for the tip Paul!

You are seeing the backside of the water pump housing - the area that is formed as part of the engine block.


You can see how rusty it is. I'll need to clean this up and prep it.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the pump. I'll get one Friday and throw it in the next post.

Well, there is a bit more I could go into, but it will have to wait till the next post.

Right now I'm tired and going to bed.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry ~

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Specks of Honor

Hey Everyone!

I'll get to the title later, however, as of tonight - 7:35 PM - Grover's chassis has been PORed. To me this is a big step. After a top coat of paint is applied (to protect the POR-15 from UV rays) things will start to be put back on the chassis.

While finishing up the prepping I realized the rubber axle stops hadn't been removed. Three of the stops are intact and one missing and all four plates are rusty.

Here's the three stops that are intact as well as the plate of the missing one.






Here are the backs - the part that seats up against the chassis.

The axle stop at top center came from under the battery tray. It is extremely corroded to the point I knew there must be a hole in the chassis that it covered - fortunately there wasn't.

The axle stops might need replacing. I'll take a closer look at them to see if it's warranted.

This is me hard at it.

SWMBO was off work today and said she would help me. Instead, she fell asleep in the sun while laying in a trailer next to the chassis.

So, when she woke up she decided to 'help' me by taking pictures using here cell phone camera - that's why they are fuzzy.


Just another one of the same.
















And another...

And there it is - Grover's chassis with the 1st coat of POR-15.












Not sure why this picture is fuzzy; I'm using a digital camera. However, I am trying to balance on the tire of the trailer next to the chassis - that could be the reason.











Here's a picture that's a little better.

The chassis doesn't look too bad does it?













The engine area.

The gray colored POR-15 had the consistency of watery milk and smelled like gas. I'm not sure if that was normal or not.

Luckily I didn't get too much on me. The stuff does not come off!! According to the instructions nothing will remove it; you have to wait for your natural body oils, and dead skin, to get rid off it. Supposedly it will be gone in about 3-5 days. We'll see.

Here's the tub area.

You will notice that the parts holding the springs on have not been painted. I've decided to wait till the parabolic springs can be installed to do this. Hopefully that'll be this Winter or early Spring.

At the same time I will finish PORing the parts of the axles that didn't get done this time around.

And there it is with the 2nd coat of POR-15.

This coat is a semi-gloss. That, and that fact that it's still wet, is the reason it's so shinny. The camera flash really makes it shimmer!

As you can tell it is a bit darker in the garage. The sun has set by this time and the shop doesn't have the best lights.



Here is the last picture for the post.

For some reason the black POR-15 didn't seem to cover as much area as the gray one did. Also, the black was a bit thicker than the gray one was. It also seemed to have more air bubbles than the gray. I did stir the stuff, but not vigorously. I'm wondering if the tackiness of the gray coat had something to do with it. The bristles on the brush seemed to want to stick to the gray stuff.

According to the instructions you apply the second coat when the 1st is still tacky, but doesn't stick to the skin. I waited almost 4 hours and tested it. The gray coat was still tacky but didn't stick to my skin. It did make it harder for the brush to glide though. I imagine this is the real reason the black POR-15 didn't cover as much; the tackiness prevented it from flowing freely.

Anyway, as you can see, I wasn't able to get all the rear cross member covered with the black coat.

Thanks to the picture I noticed a couple more spots that didn't get covered. Can you tell where they are?

POR-15 isn't cheap so I'll pass on opening the second can of black to cover these spots. I'll wait till the springs get replaced.

Okay...now to the title. While on my creeper, applying the black coat to the underside, I sneezed. When this happened my painting arm shook causing several tiny, tiny drops of the black coat to land on my face. So here I sit now with black freckles.

I mentioned this to the members of the Land Rover Owner's Group and one of them suggested I consider them 'Specks of Honor'. So I've decided to look at them this way and use it as the title.

Thanks DJ!!

Now let's just see how long I have them!

Up next I'll be cleaning the engine, transmission and drive shafts. My brother is coming over tomorrow to give a good look over the engine and transmission. We should also be able to start replacing seals and gaskets tomorrow as well.

I'm hoping that by Friday I will be able to have the inside of the chassis taken care of.

Well, it's getting late and I'm tired so I'll leave you all alone for now.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry ~

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Chassis Up-Date

DANG!!! Has it really been this long since I've posted?

Guess the house has taken more time than it seems.

As some of you know, I took a hiatus from working on Grover to try and finish the kitchen before the holidays. Typically we have weather in the mid 60s during October and into November. Go figure, this year we have had freakishly weird weather and I was getting worried that I wouldn't have the last of October and November to work on Grover. We have been dropping close to freezing and the shop gets cold!! I might have to break out the big heaters.

Yesterday and today we temps in the mid 70s. So, I dropped everything to drag Grover out of the shop and clean the crud off the chassis in order to paint it.

I've been using TSP and Purple Power to get rid of the grease and oil. To be honest, I've had better results with the Purple Power stuff. One thing that did surprise me was the amount of wax on the chassis. It appears to have been put there when Grover was new. When I'd remove a chunk of it the chassis was perfect under it.

There were also traces of stuff that looked like Rhino Liner. Fortunately that stuff came off easily - the wax on the other hand...OY!!

Here are some pictures of the chassis after I cleaned it.

This is the spot where the hamster wheel goes.

I don't think it looks too bad at all now. The shiny stuff on the outside ribbing of the front differential isn't grease or oil - it's water. Guess I should have taken the picture after it dried.

Just another view of the front differential.

I was able to get a lot of the rust off the flange area.




And another view...


Can you tell I'm please with how well it cleaned up? There was so much grease, oil and crud around this area I was wondering if the framing would fall apart when it was gone.

It doesn't show to well in the picture, but look towards the top and you can see the battery platform. This area is the spot that has the worst rust problem. Some day it will be completely replaced; right now I'll place an inner pan inside it.















Here's a view of the transmission cross member and the other one. These had about an 1/8 of an inch of crud on them.

Now this is where it gets kind of cool...at least for me anyway.

After a lot of scrubbing and washing I found some additional serial numbers!!!

Here's the one on the rear axle. Sorry, I forgot to get the one on the front axle.






Anyway, it's #24125638A. To the right you can see the axle breather. This will probably be upgraded and integrated into a breather system.

Here is the set of numbers on the rear differential cover.

The first one is #4289. The last one is #63T1. Keep this last number in mind.

Again - the wet looking areas have water on them - not grease or oil.

This is the last set of numbers.

The first one is #4173 and the last one is #1T63 (that T could be a 7).


Remember the number I said to remember? Well, isn't it interesting that it appears to be the same as the last set on the front differential cover but the '1T' is switched? Wonder if there is a significance to this?

Just curious.

Okay, the next two pictures take a little explanation. I need to spray the inside of the chassis with a rust inhibitor followed by homemade Waxoyl. In order to get the stuff in there I will need to go through holes in the chassis using a spay-wand.

This hole is on the right side, and there's a same type hole on the left side.

Unfortunately I might have to enlarge these holes to get the spray-wand in there easier.

If you look real close you can see some of the dirt, sand and bits of rust in the hole. As of now it's all cleaned out; well as best as I could get it anyway.

This is a hole that rusted out in the front right horn. This is the ONLY spot that has rusted out.

I'm thinking of cleaning this hole up a bit and going through it to get the rust inhibitor and homemade Waxoyl in. It might be easier to get it in the front of the chassis going through here.

The left horn doesn't have a rusted out spot so I'd have to make one.

This last picture is just one of the 'Hmmm...' type pictures. You can see two pieces of rubber here, one in the slot on the bracket and one setting on the chassis. The one on the chassis broke off the top of the other one.

I have no idea what this was here for. It kind of looks like just a blob of silicon.

Well...that's enough for tonight. Tomorrow I will take a rotary brush to the chassis to try and remove some of the paint I couldn't scrape off. I'll have to check, but I'm not sure if the Por-15 will adhere to the old paint. I'm also hoping to paint the chassis tomorrow as well. We'll see, I still have kitchen stuff to finish up.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry ~