Project: Wilks

[Funrover]

So you decieded to paint the roof eh?

[01001010]

After I found that picture, I decided to do so. Before I found it, I had not seen a Bronze Green 109 without an all white roof.

[01001010]

Here is some GREAT information posted by TeriAnn over on Expedition Portal in a thread about Series Reliability for overland travel. If you own a Series, this is a must-read...

Originally Posted by TeriAnn

Series reliability is a mater of recognizing where the weaknesses are, of putting the vehicle into top shape and keeping it there by religiously following the factory recommended maintenance procedures using top quality parts.

Series Land Rovers require frequent maintenance to stay in top shape.

There is a link to a copy of the factory maintenance schedule near the top of this page:

Series tune up specs

The schedule is in Adobe Acrobat format. If you are going to have a reliable Series Land Rover you need to get religious about the maintenance.

Now about the parts:

Frame - ladder box frame that is very strong but can be killed by rust. Salted roads are their downfall. Most of the time they rust from the inside out so if you galvanize a used frame there may be substantial rust damage already within. Replacement frames are readily available & by far the best are new galvanized ones. Best to own a pressure washer and pressurize the underside after each run in the mud or salt. Best to pay particular attention to the tops of the frame where mud can collect and sit.

Body Panels - Aluminum alloy with steel door frame parts, steel bonnet frame, steel bulkhead & steel radiator bulkhead. Genuine factory panels are thicker and stronger than aftermarket panels. Avoid taking the aluminum panels down to bare aluminum if you can when painting, You will never find a modern primer that adheres as well as the original factory primer. Protect the steel body parts as best as possible.

Engine - Heavy, low power (gutless) but very robust. Petrol and diesel versions share the same engine block design so the petrol engines are very robust and will usually keep running long after normal engines have worn out & expired.

Gearbox - The design was considered innovative then it was first introduced in 1934, but even though there has been several revisions to strengthen it the box is not all that robust for moving a 109. Parts are being discontinued for the SIIA gearboxes, and the NLA lay shaft sometimes break. You can still get all the parts for a SIII gearbox. Figure you should have less than 160 lbft of torque going through the boxes. The Series engine will bolt to a LT77S five speed gearbox but the length is too great for an 88. Ashcroft sells an adapter to fit a Series transfercase to the LT77S.

Transfercase - Really strong and very hard to kill if you keep oil in them.

Prop shafts - reasonably strong but very short slip joints. If you decide to play any suspension games have the propshafts rebuilt with long slip joints and high angle U joints. If you play with the front end for increased articulation best to take a divot out of the top front of the bulkhead transfercase directly below the front propshaft.

Front axle - about as strong as a Dana 44. Seldom gives trouble as long as you maintain them properly.

Rear axle - The 10 spline axles are too weak for serious off road travel, especially for a 109. One ton Land Rovers used ENV diffs & Series III 109's and Defender110s through 1993 used Salisbury rear diffs. The Salisbury is a Dana 60 built under license in the UK.

If have a 109 strongly consider a Salisbury upgrade. If you have an 88 you can buy 24 spine of bigger axles to fit inside the Rover housing. A must in my book. Salisbury drive shaft flanges don't break but they do wear & cause a drive train clunk when they are worn.

Diffs - Not very robust. An ARB or Trutrac is a much stronger replacement carrier and aftermarket 4.75:1 R&Ps are much more robust than the stock 4.7:1 R&P.

Steering - An important part of anyone's exercise programme. Robust if maintained. When you first get a Series rig pull the steering rod ends and inspect the inside of the tubes. They tend to rust from the inside so it never hurts to verify how much metal is there to start with.

Springs - the leaves tend to rust together and friction builds up. When in doubt replace them with new ones. Some people switch over to Parabolics. There are some good ones & some bad ones. Hystee automotive and Rocky Mountain are 2 brands with good reputations. Be sure to keep the U bolts torqued per the maintenance schedule.

Shocks - too short and the limiting factor for articulation when good springs are installed. The only real way to fix this is to relocate shock mounts so you can install longer shocks.

Electrical system - Points manufactured these days are poor quality and a constant source of problems. Consider a Pertronix system. The biggest problem with most Lucas electrical systems is oxidation of the connectors or switch contacts. Always carry electrical contact cleaner for switches & 400 grit sand paper for cleaning up bullet connectors. It never hurts to keep a collection of barrel connectors & just swap out the oxidized one when sanding down the bullet connector. A positive earth combination ignition and light switch is designed to handle the current from stock wattage lamps & only about 13 amps max on the switched electrics. You get maximum reliability if you add relays for the headlights and add a relay to run all the switched electrics.

Use Lucas fuses. UK fuses are rted differently than US fuses. A 30 AMP US fuse will handle much more currant than a 35 AMP Lucas fuse.

The stock generator can not handle the power draw of 2 wiper motors, a Kodiak heater on high and headlamps. Think Alternator conversion. A Delco with built in regulator usually works best.

Brakes - They work OK and are reliable if you follow the factory maintenance schedule. Both front shoes on a 109 are leading shoes which gives your three pairs of shoes stopping your 109 in the forward direction but only a single pair stopping you in the rearwards direction. A 109 can be real hard to hold stationary in a steep nose up attitude. I consider front disc brakes to be a safety upgrade for 109s used in the mountains. Never Mix US and UK brake fittings. They fit together but are incompatible.

Thats mostly it. Take care of your equipment and it will take care of you. Series Land Rovers are the tinker toys of the 4X4 world and can easily be modified to fit your needs. They are very simple to work on. Most experienced mechanics call them seriously overbuilt when they first look at a Series Land Rover. Except for the rear axles, Rover diffs and gearbox they are right. They will take a lot of punishment and will keep going long past when most other vehicles die from lack of maintenance. You just have to remember to maintain them if you want them to be in top dependable condition.

They are primitive, noisy, drafty and leak. If you can't overlook these minor attributes and be blinded instead by the Charisma, a Series rig is not for you.

Car and Driver magazine best summed up a Series and Rover in a 1964 new vehicle performance review "A Land Rover is less a car than a state of mind"

[XtremeMarine]

Definitely get a front bumper with the military overriders, as pictured. You would hate parking lot and shopping cart dings in your pretty paint.

[AAXD]

Originally Posted by 01001010

No worries, I hate painted cappings too...what's worst, when they're painted Black!

This is the picture that im going to have enlarged and placed on one of the walls of the work area for motivation. This is also what I want my truck to look like when it's done, only my wheels will be white...

JC welcome to the addiction, we've been waiting for you for some time now. Is that Griffs truck? Get yourself a bench mounted wire wheel and some green scrubby pads, they work wonders for cleaning up the underside of a Series Rover. I am eagerly awaiting pictures.

[01001010]

Colin,

Its great to hear from you on this morning. I actually just finished off the garage floor painting this week and should have a Work Bench by Wed. and a few other tools are on the way.

It is 3:21 a.m. right now and today is pick-up day. I had my alarm set for 4, so you can imagine how excited I am.

My camera is fully charged and ready to go. We (brother in law and myself) will be on the road before 5 and should be in Salem, VA by 11 hopefully. There was some snow here last night and I think it was going to be snowing in the Salem area so we'll see how that goes. We should be back home with enough time for me to sign on, resize and upload all the pictures.

I CANT WAIT!!!!


And I dont know if that's Griff's truck...found it on the Series2 club gallery.

[01001010]

And I'm off!

[TerryS]

Originally Posted by 01001010

And I dont know if that's Griff's truck...found it on the Series2 club gallery.

It's not. It had a limestone roof, remember?

[dav1551]

JC

Congrats on the acquisition.....and look forward to the project as it progresses.

Grab up a couple of cans of penetrating oil (Liquid Wrench) or the like and start spraying at all the fixings you can reach....It'll help in disassembly...

I would say go at it good with a pressure washer, but with water restrictions here in the South it may be prohibited down your way.

Plenty of pictures of disassembly are nice to have and to reference,...... Though in truth I got more use form notes and crude scribbles in several spiral Steno Note Books... Found them handier to access for review, and such while out in the garage/shop.

Most definitely a workshop manual and in addition a "Parts Catalogue" <--- Your parts supplier whom your fixing to get well acquainted with,, will much appreciate it.

Cheers

Dave

74 SIIIsw
00 SII

FWIW It may well not be proper with a 109 2a, ???? But "Limestone" against the dark green really looks some kind of sweet...The color contrast/match is difficult to see on screen, though had the chance of seeing a freshly done 88"sw and figure a dark green 109 with limestone sunsheet and wheels would be eye-catching.

[AAXD]

While not proper series colors, Lincoln and Conniston green both look sharp on series truck as well.

[rmuller]

Originally Posted by 01001010

And I'm off!

WELL? It's been 6 hours and 30 minutes.. Where are the pics?! And if you decided to drive it home under its own power, the story of how it broke down 6 times but you were able to fix it with random things you found laying on the road beside it.

[01001010]

Originally Posted by rmuller

WELL? It's been 6 hours and 30 minutes.. Where are the pics?! And if you decided to drive it home under its own power, the story of how it broke down 6 times but you were able to fix it with random things you found laying on the road beside it.

Ryan, take a look at the post time again..lol

WHAT A DRIVE! Incredible scenery over in NC and that was about all we got to see. Pretty bad fog the whole morning until we got to Fancy Gap in NC ( ? ) We got up above the fog, which was pretty impressive and something I had never seen in person...





And here is Wilks, waiting at the gates ready to come home...



Other pictures are being resized and uploaded. They will be up in minutes.

[rmuller]

Very nice! A nice proper 109" in need on some tlc ... can't wait to see what you do with it.

Sorry about the post time, I've been drinking, of course.

[01001010]

Its all good....

Man, according to all the reading Ive done and looking out for all the rust hot spots...this thing is in TIP TOP shape. Outriggers are all complete and not falling apart, spring perches are the same. The rear cross member looks like the bumper on my disco as far as its condition goes...the rear horns can use some TLC but this is going to be a ground up resto/rebuild. The Swivels are shiny and luckily (ironically) there's a leak of some sort so things were kept nice and lubed at the front end.

The worst thing I can think of is the passenger side footwell...in this case the one on the left side. Its got a rust spot that has become a hole about the size of a half dollar. The brakes dont work and parking brake was the only means of keeping the truck still.

Tomorrow Im going to start by cleaning up all the dust and webs and cat poop that have built up after being garaged for four years. Then a tear down of the body panels. After that, the goal is to get the engine to run for atleast a few seconds.

Pics finished uploading....

[01001010]