Is there a place here for modified ex army Land Rovers?

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G’day BEARMAN,

I’m inclined to agree with your assessment as per how the bolt broke.

If all the other bolts were tight then it would change the whole narrative, but because I discovered 2 other loose bolts 1/4 of the way around the crown wheel when having a quick scout, that kind of suggests I’ll find a couple or more loose ones when I get around to replacing them.

The sheer point was at the first thread, which is about 1/3 rd the length of the bolt, so it seems strange, at least to me.

I just tried to find the broken bolt to take a photo but I can’t locate it at the moment, too much junk piled up around the workshop from the plethora of broken vehicles I work on.

Mine had Loctite on them, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, the threadlock had failed on the 2 other loose ones I found, so I’m inclined to think that for whatever reason, that’s potentially the cause, along with the brutal life this diff leads in that it’s equipped with a Detroit Locker.

I never reconditioned the diffs when I built the vehicle as they hadn’t done much work, and I was told they’d been recently rebuilt by the previous owner when he fitted the high speed gearing.

I suppose it was my own fault for not having checked them over way back then.

I was already aware of the punishment the drivetrain is copping as I’d already had to resolve a similar problem at the drive flange bolts, where they’d snap or come loose frequently. I resolved that by drilling and tapping those to take M12 cap heads, which has so far done the trick, but in so doing, I’ve only moved the problem to the next weakest point. I don’t really know where that will potentially be, given that the universals etc are super tough, being the same as those used on the Ford GT 351 vehicles, or so I believe, but whatever, the problem will no doubt manifest somewhere else in time.

Now that the drive flanges are sorted and the crown wheel is on its way to being done, it only moves the weak point again, perhaps into the transfer box?

I met the bloke who designed and machined the parts for Marks Adaptors to suit the Nissan box, but he reckons the transfer box is built to a standard beyond what I’m subjecting it to so who knows where the next weak link will manifest.

That’s why I don’t run wider tyres nor wheel offsets.

It’s all a learning curve I suppose and trying to fathom things is half the battle.

That’s why I sold the vehicle after building it, I was over the challenge and wanted to get away from it, having built too many vehicles over my lifetime.

I’m trying to get my mojo back but it’s still tepid at this point.

I’ll have to pull my finger out and get this thing going again soon as it’s starting to bug me...

Too much to do and scant time in which to do it.

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Finally got the rear diff sorted.

The broken bolt was extracted by wedging a screwdriver into the crown wheel mating face and prying it apart enough to get a small pair of pointy nosed vice grips in and bingo, the broken bolt backed out relatively easy.

I just need to put oil in it, bleed the brakes, and check the oils in the front diff, gearbox, transfer box, and it’ll be back on the road.

I fitted a new radiator to my other car yesterday also, and I’m pretty happy with that too, it went smoothly.

Thinking of driving the 109 up onto some steep ramps and washing the inside out because it’s picked up a lot of dust in the last few years.

I’m over the spring/parabolic height nonsense.
I’ll have to get springs made for it. Wasted too much time with the spring issue. Had enough!

The 109 still needs a million things done to get it back to how it was envisioned to be but it’s getting there slowly.

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Almost finished the basic chores necessary to get the 109 back on the road.

Need to pull all the wheels off and put new screws in the brake drums, then check the oil levels in the gearbox, transfer box and front diff. Then it should be pretty much ready to go.

I can’t remember if the hubs on the front diff are separate to the diff itself, requiring their own oil, or if they get their oil supplied from the diff. I suppose I’ll find out somehow.

Might lift the front off the ground and suss out the steering and relay.

Today the 109 got a wash inside, not with a sponge though.

I removed the few items I had sitting in the back, then let fly with a truck wash I use on a fleet I maintain, then rinsed the daylights out of it.

A workmate freaked out when he arrived about an hour after I did it, to find water still running out the doors and tailgate.

If ya gonna wash a Land Rover, ya don’t stroke around.

If ya can’t flood them out then you haven’t built them properly.

No harm came from it.

I was a bit surprised and how much dust came out. It wasn’t nearly as much as I expected.

I might bring it back home on Sunday and start using it as my daily starting Monday.

Still need to figure out how to install some kind of air conditioning too.

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The plan to drive the 109 has been placed on hold for the moment.

I’ve discovered an oil leak at the output shaft on the transfer box.

I’m unhappy with the amount of play in the output shaft too, so I feel compelled to look into it.

I’ve seem a Youtube tutorial which seemed to explain some of it, so further research is necessary.

I did test drive it to check out the diffs and transfer box and they’re all working as they’re supposed to.

Oil levels in the front diff and gearbox were where they should be, but the transfer box wanted 800ml, and that appears to be solely attributable to the output shaft issue.

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I still haven’t done anything further to the 109 since my last post.

The weather has been knocking me around a bit, such that finding the energy to work on it just isn’t happening.

I drove it today though, just to see what it was like and it drove well enough, though it seemed a bit light on power wise.

I basically used it to carry some tools to another site in order to swap out a problematic fuel pump on a 98 K3500 Silverado 4x4.

As I was about to head back, I asked to borrow a timing light as mine didn’t arrive with all my tools etc when I had the 109 transported up from Victoria, and I knew the distributor drive gear had failed and that the timing wasn’t done when the dizzy went back in, so I was eager to time it.

Turns out the timing was not even on the timing tab, so a quick reset was done and yeah, that helped a lot.

I’m just nursing it as I want to resolve the play in the output shaft before I start launching it around, but I can already feel that it’s going to perform much the same as I remembered it.

Early next week I’ll get stuck into it as I wouldn’t mind using it over the Christmas break, though the sergeant major is still harping on about me fitting the passenger side step for her but I keep telling her that I need to install the left side fuel tank first.

She points out that I’ve been telling her the same story for about 10 years but that’s simply not true, it’s really only been about 9 and a half years.

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Today I finished working for the year so hopefully now I’ll be able to devote some time to the 109.

I’m very disappointed in the indicator and brake light lenses I fitted a number of years ago, as they’ve all faded like crazy, so I ordered a replacement set and went about fitting them today but it wasn’t to be. The assemblies have all fallen to bits from UV exposure.

I think I wrote about the dodgy plastic assemblies all those years ago and from memory I was only putting up with them until I found suitable LED lights to swap them out with.

I’m not that impressed with what’s on offer I’m afraid and am leaning towards sourcing the original steel assemblies and just fitting LED globes to those in order to retain the vintage look.

It’s been suggested to fit modern LED strip type lights to it but I simply couldn’t do that, they would spoil the look I reckon.

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Happy New Year everyone.

I haven’t been near the 109 over the break as I’m still resting my eye but finally the occlusion is dissipating, slowly but surely.

It’s taken months to reach this point and I’ve still got another month to wait for my appointment with the eye surgeon, who I already know is unable to do much to help me.

I’m just grateful that my sight is returning.

Santa brought me (coz I haven’t been too naughty) a 500 Lumen spotlight and a red dot laser to attach to my handgun so I was pretty happy with that.

The light allows me to see my sight picture a bit better and the laser looks like it’ll really help too, but it’s all cumbersome.

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I’ve made up my mind about which way I’ll go with regards to the indicator lights, parkers and brakes.

I’ve decided to go back to the original style steel bodied lights but this time with glass lenses.

I’ll fit LED globes to them and see how they go but I reckon they should be sweet.

Once I get back to work I’ll buy them. They’re a bit dear at about $50 a light but that’s the way she goes...

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Hooray! I’m finally regaining the sight in my right eye. It’s been a long long time, too long, but it’s slowly settling down.
Just the fact that I can see better, albeit marginally, improves my attitude and motivation level.

Noticed something odd this morning while flicking through my subscriptions on Youtube, where “seriously series” put up a new video and the series 3 they used to highlight the video, well it just looked odd.

I mean, it looks straight and neat front on, impressive if you ask me, with a similar profile to my 109 I think, but there was something about it that just seemed foreign, and this caused me to flick back through pictures of my 109 as well as myriad pictures of series 3 vehicles via Google in order to suss out what was the standard layout for the parking light and blinker on a series 3.

I vaguely recall trying to figure this out when I rebuilt the 109 all those years ago, but from memory I think I just settled on copying what the majority of people had, which was parker up top and blinker down below, so after seeing the “seriously series” picture, where the blinker is up top, it got me searching online again this morning to suss out what was what.

I’m sure the placement of the indicators and parkers were covered by an ADR rule but I just can’t be bothered trying to find that, so I decided I’d try to figure it out by looking at multiple images of series 3 Land Rovers online, and try to see what was standard that way.

Most show the blinker on the bottom, which is how mine is, and from memory I think I somehow determined that to be the standard.

It’s strange to flick through hundreds of images looking at just the indicators and parking light positions, because every now and then you see the placement has been reversed and it kind of catches you off guard.

I’m not entirely sure but I think the ADR relating to indicators and lights on a series 3 mightn’t apply to an ex army vehicle as they had a number of exemptions from new.

I still love the fact that my 109 has the 27a exemption, which few people know about, and was indeed news to me when I purchased the vehicle, but during the rebuild when I was doing the research on what I could and couldn’t get away with, I discovered the missing 27a on the compliance plate and that sent me off in many different directions, looking for the “why”.

Tool holders bolted to the front panels are another one. I cringe whenever I see a non military Land Rover with tool holders bolted onto them and I wonder how shocked those people will be if ever a savvy lawman wheels them over.

Who uses their tool holders, really?

They’re shocking bits of gear if ever you need to lean up and over into the engine bay, for they’ll gouge you in a number of ways. My ribs hurt just reflecting on the number of times I copped it when working on mine, or what about the little split pins they used to have in them? Anyone who’s worked on an ex army banger will fondly recall being fanged by those blasted split pins. I removed mine and threw them far far away.

I can recall losing the plot over my tool holders while rebuilding the 109 and removed them at some stage and refitted them after all the engine bay work was done. They were the last things to go back on, weeks later, if I remember correctly.

I don’t use my tool holders for anything other than cracking jokes with, stuff like how these are the only vehicles on the road where the potential for some serious road rage is openly on display, in that the weapons are openly  carried, so to speak.

You’ve got your pick handle right there, along with the axe, either are just a wing nut away from deployment, and the shovel is on the opposite side just in case you need to plant your victim and the mattock head is there too, in case the digging gets too hard.

I remember going to great lengths to acquire genuine tools for mine but they’re all lost now and I can’t be buggered searching out new ones for they’re a total hassle in that they’re easily stolen and are too expensive to replace.

I suppose the “look” of the ex army series vehicles is what attracts people to them for they do have a tough look about them, and looks are often deceptive.

My childhood dream to own a series 3 army Land Rover were probably driven by how rugged they looked, and as a kid I hadn’t any idea about what made them tick but I liked them and just had to have one.

I’m still at a loss as to how any government could deploy them where bullets are flying and get away with it.
A stark reminder of this can be found if one looks at images of the series 2a vehicles which were ambushed in Vietnam.
Coke cans on wheels...
Those are some haunting images.

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What about a spare wheel carried atop the bonnet, that’s another interesting one.

Without a wheel upon it, the bonnet is super light weight and effortless to lift, but trying to climb into the engine bay is probably not much different to encountering a mouse trap. You’re not a true ex army series Land Rover  owner until you’ve banged your head on the bonnet and bumped the bracket that holds the bonnet up at the same time.

I have a genuine love hate relationship going on with my spare wheel carrier atop my bonnet.

It all started out nicely enough as I had the factory spare wheel holder in the tub behind the drivers seat and was using that, but the look of the spare wheel atop the bonnet soon overtook the practicality element.

I then got rid of the in tub wheel carrier as I fitted later model seats in the tub, so my spare wheel was relegated to the bonnet for good.

You have to be the son of Hercules to open the bonnet now, and I can’t help wondering if that’s half the reason for the pre enlistment medical/physical exam.

Can you do push ups?
How many?
Chin up?

They should have just asked, can you clean and jerk a Land Rover bonnet or better yet, just had the potential recruits demonstrate their strength by doing it for real.
They could have had them filing past a series Land Rover just past the front door, and that first test would have weeded out many of the young hopefuls.

Aside the crazy weight atop the bonnet, those domed aviation style rivets are only good for so long before they start worrying through and thus that day came for me at the same time as having completed the big rebuild.
I’d removed the spare wheel in order to remove the bonnet, which is just 1x split pin and washer then lift, it’s off and one can then climb up and over...without hindrance or mouse trap effect.

Upon refitting the bonnet, I was placing the spare wheel back on when one of the few remained rivets broke, leaving the wheel carrier affixed by only a couple or three other rivets.

A quick look and it was then made apparent that several of the rivets had snapped or worked their way through the aluminium bonnet, but you couldn’t see that from outside the bonnet where the heads were for they all looked normal, though a couple were a bit loose and could be turned with your fingers.

I was pretty surprised and counted my blessings at having it happen right then and there for had it not happened, the odds were that the next decent bump in the road and whoosh, bye bye spare wheel.
The height of the wheel and the sliding forward may have planted the spare in through the back window of some little old lady’s car too, so yeah I was grateful for the problem showing itself when it did.

Still, as I get older and all my injuries let me know they’re still my friends, I still carry that wheel atop my bonnet.

It’s like the barn door, it’s perfect for me as it allows me to mount the spare wheel at the rear of the vehicle, which is a huge plus for weight distribution, and it kind of looks ok, but I still can’t shake my love affair with the tailgate and cat flap.

I know that as each year passes that I’m finding it harder and harder to climb into the back of my 109, so one day I will refit the barn door and save myself the drama, but in doing that I’ll probably want to hang another wheel off that too, not because I need 2x spare wheels, but because it’ll look the part.

First things first, stop being a sook and stop being lazy and get it back on the road, it’s only a few short hours away from being ready to drive again, so....maybe tomorrow.

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 as well as myriad pictures of series 3 vehicles via Google in order to suss out what was the standard layout for the parking light and blinker on a series 3.

I vaguely recall trying to figure this out when I rebuilt the 109 all those years ago, but from memory I think I just settled on copying what the majority of people had, which was parker up top and blinker down below, so after seeing the “seriously series” picture, where the blinker is up top, it got me searching online again this morning to suss out what was what.

If you just google series 3 pics you will see most have the blinker on the bottom but most of the pics are of overseas vehicles.  Australian Series 3 all had the blinkers on the top.  If you google "Australian Land Rover Series 3 pics" you will see the pics show a mix of mil and civilian series 3s - low and short wheelbase and they all have blinkers on the top.

Garry

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Thanks Garry.

I’ve got them all pulled out atm and I’m about to order some shiny new ones, so when I refit them this time I’ll swap them around to get them right.

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The glass indicator/brake/parking lights arrived today and well, I’m really happy with them.
I’ll fit them this week and finally begin using it as my daily driver.

I’d forgotten how light the 109’s are, but was reminded of that today when I used it to pull a Toro zero steer mower out of a swamp where it sank down to its chassis.

Using a strap, it took a few goes before it finally yanked up and out of the bog.
I didn’t engage 4x4, just relied on the locked rear diff to do the job.

Still weighing up the options with regards to air conditioning, still haven’t decided which way to go with that yet.

It’s been really difficult these last couple of weeks just doing my job.
Getting old and fat, plus the weather has been off its head.

I imported 2x Miracool water vests before Xmas and have been wearing one to try to cool my core temperature during the day and the vest is amazing in heat, but it struggles in humid weather.

I used to wear a Miracool vest when I was working out in the Cooper Basin and it worked phenomenally out there so I’m waiting for this rain to boot off so we can get back to regular heat, and to where the vest works.

Crazy weather.

Somehow managed to get my face badly sunburned last friday, and suffered all weekend with that. That was with sunscreen on too.
I think I copped it via the polish I’m using on a truck I’m working on.
Pretty sure that’s where I got it as my eyes got fried too.

Been looking at solar powered mini split air conditioning systems  too, with a view to installing one in the 109.
Not sure if that’ll happen yet as it may still be cheaper to fit a universal regular compressor driven one yet, though fitting the pump isn’t going to be easy .

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Today’s the day...this time for sure.

I know I’ve been saying I’m going to get the 109 back on the road for days, weeks, months and I’ve meant to, but health dramas and work commitments keep intervening.

Finally got my eye surgeon appointment set for this coming Monday morning, and while it’ll be good to get a checkup, I’ve known for years that there’s nothing they can do to help me.

That’s what Central Serous Retinopathy, coupled with laser exposure and acute UV damage will get ya...

Work has been hectic and well, that never stops.

I’ve been breaking in the new cooling vest I imported from the USA a few weeks ago and it’s helping to keep my core body temperature down, but it can’t help reduce my ever expanding belly.

I had to lengthen the velcro straps as my rapid weight gain has forced me out of all my clothing and work clothes.

Copping a bit of ribbing for getting so fat so fast, but I can’t complain too much as I was thin and athletic all my life and I figure it’s probably ok to let myself go a bit now, though having said that, the extra weight restricts me in more ways than I ever imagined.

Ahh well, way she goes...

The plan today is to get a haircut, do a mandatory rolling comp at the pistol club, wire up the lights on the 109, then whipper snip and mow...

Then have a few beers...

I’ve attached an image of the cooling vest so people understand what I’m talking about.

Anyone struggling with the heat would do well to look at sourcing one of these, for they’re simply fantastic in dry heat, but in humid heat they’re a bit less effective. They weigh a bit too, so if you’re on your feet all day they’ll take a good week or so to adjust to.

I used to wear these years ago when I was marching through many of the deserts in Australia, where my colleagues were literally half my age and I found the vest gave me quite an advantage.

I used to wear the vest under my shirt but lately I’ve been wearing it over the top of my work clothes, mostly because I’m now really struggling to get into my clothes and there’s no room for the vest.

Looks like I just have to get new clothes.

Oh well, better get this day underway...

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Phew, been at it for a few hours and am pleased they’re installed, though I’m yet to wire them up.

Fiddly things they’ve proven to be.

Had to pre wire each light prior to installation and regret not looking at the job more closely before starting the install as the paint on the rear quarter metal sections is in need of a do over.

Didn’t notice that all the silver has degenerated beyond redemption over the last heap of years.

The paint on the body panels wants a good polish up, as does the powder coating, but unfortunately the silver can’t be saved.

I’ll have to look at doing that again in future.

Biggest gripe with the new lights, isn’t to do with the lights themselves, for even being a bit fiddly, they weren’t that hard to put in.

The magnificent wiring job I did when I rebuilt the vehicle didn’t allow for any excess, and all the wires were trimmed to nice tight lengths and were tucked away out of harms way, thus now that I’ve ditched the other lights in favour of these glass ones, there’s not a lot of wire to play with.

I swapped the stop lights from the bottom spot to the top this time and was going to swap the front parkers from top spot to bottom, but that short wire issue stopped me.

I can always rewire everything later but it’ll have to be bodged up for now as I really need this thing back on the road.

Probably not going to finish it today but will attack it again tomorrow.

I’ll have to get used to looking at these new lights for they’re a lot different to the old ones, but I think they’ll grow on me.