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

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Anomalous readings...

The gps speedo took about 10 minutes to lock onto a suitable 3 way fix, weather is the culprit.

Sitting outside the church waiting for the sgt mjr to exit, I noticed the readout fluctuating from 11-12 kph, so yeah, it’s doing what any gps does when the chipping rates are being bounced around a bit.

Just happy to have it regardless, at least until I get my regular speedometer sorted.

Not ideal weather for driving this beast but I have to dump off a million cans and bottles to the recycling depot to free up the cargo area.

Wasn’t a productive week hobby wise, after locking up a muscle in my hip while doing a quick peak hour prime mover breakdown recovery, which saw me hooking a chain to the broken down truck and hooking that to a tipper and dragging the dead truck for about 1 km to where it was out of harms away.

I was jogging along beside it giving instructions by phone, in thongs.

I quit jogging after about 500 mtrs, bugger that.

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The rains are here...

That puts the mozz on my plans to work on the 109, at least for a few hours...

Swung into the best fish and chip shop for miles around to get more food than I need.

I wonder if I have any grog in the fridge?

Hmm...

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The rain eased off, stopped, then tinkled for a couple of hours, so I used it to my advantage and gave the paint a bit of polish.

Needs a lot more elbow grease but it’s coming up alright I guess.

I removed the perforated vinyl window film from the passenger side door window too. It’s been on there since the last rebuilt and held up well, so I’ll be buying some new stuff and doing it again in future.
Lovin’ the perforated vinyl.

Lots more to do of course, but it’s happening.

The sgt mjr has been throwing commands around but I’m resisting.

She no like the roof console as it’s easy to bump ones head on, but after you’ve headbutted it and yelped 10-20 times, you learn not to just jump in, but sneak in carefully.
She’s right though, it’s a pain in the...head, so I might ditch that soon.

Probably going to ditch the tailgate and cat flap shortly too.

Can’t seem to get the passenger side fuel cap off, no idea why but it’s just spinning.

I’ll replace both fuel caps in time.

A tune is becoming priority as it’s getting tricky at the traffic lights.

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I’m thinking of having new badges made, probably the same style as the last set but this time saying Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Sure beats Solihull, Warwickshire, England.

I’ll get a new Four Wheel Drive, Holden Powered too, or think up something snappier.
It’s registered as a utility, so might incorporate that somehow, dunno yet.

I keep looking at the glass and wishing I had green glass, or “fast glass”, so I might look into that. Perforated vinyl is awesome but green glass is better I think.

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Brisbane Queensland
Australia

Four Wheels Down
Utility Wagon

?

Can anyone think up a better quip than that?

I’m open to ideas.

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Still undecided about how to complete the safari roof. The old plan entailed polishing it to a mirror finish but that’d be hard to maintain these days I think.

Second plan was to vinyl wrap it, but I can’t think of a single decent idea as to what colour/image I’d wrap it with, so I’m leaning towards painting it, probably silver, or white. I’ll have to reflect on that a while longer.

I’m getting used to driving it again and it’s kind of fun though I do notice that vigilance is required in keeping the speed down. I’m just not used to the sounds it makes and this morning as I was driving to work I focussed on keeping it at lower rpm levels, to where it started sounding a bit like a light aircraft engine buzzing along and then I remembered that that’s how I used to drive it before. Strange that I’d forgotten about that. Can’t remember everything I suppose.

It’s hard to describe it but it kind of gets into a happy spot and the sound/vibrations sound a bit like a light aircraft at cruise speed.

That sound is a little bit harder to detect than it was before, but that’s likely due to the new muffler that was fitted to it sometime after I sold it to my brother.

I have to sort the tune out soon, it’s not stable.

It’s early days...

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Was sneako’d by a nasty gout attack in my right foot at about lunchtime today, and wow, the trip home was made much more interesting.

Standing on the 109 brake pedal when gout is rockin’...is probably like consciously stepping on a dingo trap.

The trick is to stay off the brake as best as you can, but that’s not always possible and there were a couple of times where I was looking for an escape route rather than stand on that pedal any harder.

Only a gout lover can appreciate what I’m saying.

The trip home was still fun though.

I’m getting used to driving it again and am falling back into the groove.

Still driving too quickly in it, have to learn to slow down but that’ll come.

I can see that people are surprised when they’re driving near the 109, for its apparent that they’re not accustomed to an old Land Rover scooting along and pushing them along.

They don’t understand that the turning circle is ridiculous, so cutting bends, straightening out the “s”’s  and using it all up is just how you have to drive.

The 109 style of driving can trap you too, if you’re not careful, like when you enter a small car park and no other cars are there so you sneak right up the front and then when you come back a few minutes later you find yourself surrounded by other cars.

That’s a trap which requires a steely resolve. Backward, forward, gain a few inches more each time. It’s tricky and now I remember why I’d always park right up the back of a car park and walk the rest of the way. Starting to remember.

I love my 109.

Must be delirious...

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Keep the revs down low, remember the camshaft profile, drive it like a diesel...

The steering is firm but predictable now. There’s no chasing it all over the place.

In 60 kph speed zones its a toss up between lugging it in 4th or dropping it back into third.

I’m now shifting it into 5th between 95 and 105.

It’s just cruising along.

Might increase the engine operating temperature another 5 degrees to see what happens.

Might toy with disconnecting the water heated plenum chamber at some stage too, as I can’t see any reason to keep that connected, it’s not like it gets that cold in Brisbane.

A mate in the UK is going to source me another set of billiard ball gear shift knobs as these current ones are shagged.

This’ll be the third set I’ve had. I like them.

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I see a pair of aluminium 72 ltr fuel tanks for sale on Facebook Marketplace, in Brisbane.

I’m tempted to grab them but I figure I could spend the money better elsewhere.

My steel tanks are in pretty good nick still.

Reminds me about when I had an aluminium rear fuel tank and 1 aluminium side tank.

I sold them as I couldn’t see a matching side tank becoming available anytime soon and now a matching pair pop up, albeit something like 10 years later.

The $200 price tag for a pair is a steal if you ask me, it’s bloody tempting.

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Finally got a chance to arrange for the brush bar to be straightened in the whopping big press, but it won’t be happening right away.
I’ll be trying to get it done on a Saturday morning in perhaps a month or so.
The gentleman who’ll be doing it is flat strap doing accident rebuilds on heavy trucks and by the looks, business is booming.
Every bay was full and there wasn’t much room out in the yard.
He’s had to stop doing general servicing on fleets just to focus on the wreck rebuilds.

I’m grateful for him being able to help me out.

The engine tune issue is becoming very frustrating.

The trip to work wasn’t pleasant.

I messed around with it a few times and just can’t get it right, so I’m going to have to spend some time trying to nut out what the problem is.

Right now I’m waiting for the engine to cool down so I can bypass the water heated plenum, just in case that’s somehow affecting the fuel in the carburettor by heating it too much.

The backfiring and stalling at traffic lights is making it a chore to drive, hard to relax.

Whatever I did today while tweaking with it did have some effect though, and has given it a significant power boost, but it’s still not right.

Under acceleration it’s no problem, it boogies nicely, but the moment I back off it starts backfiring and stalling at lights.

The problem with the carburettor started after the distributor drive gear broke.
My brother isn’t very mechanical and had dramas refitting the dizzy, and because it wouldn’t run right, timing being way out, he had someone else look at it and unfortunately that person was also not up to speed with how to set the timing and instead went wild with the screwdriver and messed around with every screw on the carby, including the automatic choke, and boy did they make a mess of it.

Sigh...

I’m thinking I might have to start from scratch and put in new spark plugs and dizzy cap, then get the carburettor rebuilt. It’s possible that it needs a kit put through it.

There’s something just not right with it and it’s bothering me.

One thing I did notice was the vacuum advance line on the dizzy had some kind of light adhesive around it, where the air fitting is, and I’m wondering if they might have cracked or broke the little plastic barb when they did the dizzy repair, and if that’s a part of the problem.

The dizzy isn’t standard, it’s been re-graphed by Scorcher, and worked great when I had it done.
It wasn’t even a rebuilt dizzy, it was brand new in the box, shipped to Scorcher to be tweaked to suit this engine.

I’ll be cranky if I need to source a new vacuum advance module.

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Didn’t get a chance to bypass the water heated plenum, it got dark before I could have a crack at it.

I attempted to tune the carburettor and managed to improve it somewhat, but it needs more refinement.

The run into work was generally uneventful and I spent the time by closely monitoring the engine temp.

The digital controller for the water pump and thermo fan gets its temperature readings from the top radiator hose, while the VDO gauge gets it from the cylinder head, so there’s about a 7 degree difference.

Reflecting on that, and given that the cylinder head is showing about 95-97 before the thermo kicks in, the digital controller is reading between 85-90, so I’m taking a punt and pulling down the engine temp by 5 degrees just to see if that does anything.

After a run along the highway, the engine temp seems to remain constant and isn’t bringing the fan on, which I’m comfortable enough with, but as soon as you decelerate and pull up, it’s struggling to stay at idle.

If there are hills or traffic lights involved then it’s a juggle of handbrake and feet, it’s annoying. Unless I grow another leg?

I’m noticing that the backfiring is happening more when the engine temp is up in the mid 90’s, so that’s why I’m decreasing the operating temp by 5 degrees.

This reduction will bring the fan on 5 degrees earlier though, so that’ll be doing extra work.

Maybe today, if I get time, I’ll bypass the plenum to pull extra heat away from the carburettor.

Gotta try things, it’s the only way to find out what works and what doesn’t.

That’s motor racing...

I do enjoy burning around in the 109, but I wish it was running better.

Might have to unbox the new water methanol injection system too, and refit the capacitive discharge ignition.

It’s all time...not money, just time.

I’m swapping back to my other car for the run home tonight just for something different.

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Not much to report, the 109 is soldiering on.

Still haven’t resolved the tune issue, haven’t had time.

Today in the peak of the heat, I noticed the fuel pump making a bit of noise and I wonder if it’s cavitating?

Maybe the fuel lines are getting too hot but I can’t fathom that out just yet.

The plan is to dig out a brand new set of Brisk Premium LGS spark plugs from the storage bins and maybe make myself up a new set of spark plug leads, then whack on a new distributor cap and rotor button. Then look at the carburettor and fuel pump.

Today I was asked if I could help out a mate by jazzing up a car for him so he can flick it quickly, and he’s prepared to kick me over a few bucks so I agreed.

It means going into work for a day over the weekend.

Got a bloke travelling up from Sydney to look at a truck I did up last year, so the rush is on tomorrow to have that one jazzed up and ready to rock in case he buys it.

Work has been the usual, this won’t start, that won’t run, can’t get gears in this, foot control valve needs replacing in that, airline blew in this, airbag gone in that. The list is seemingly endless.

It’s a challenge to find the energy to work on my own stuff when I’m running around like a hairy goat all day every day.

Thank goodness for that cooling vest, it’s really helping me to function through the heat.

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No progress has been made to the 109 lately as a couple of health issues prevail.

I did use it during the week to do a nearby parts run, not because it was necessary to put the parts in the back or anything but rather, the blasted gout returned and it was simply easier to hobble over to the 109 as it’s parked only a few metres from my work area, whereas my sedan is parked about 30 metres away.

It went ok, except for when I was parking at REPCO, where the gardeners were finishing up their chores after mowing and a fluorescent lady decided to use the leaf blower right where I was swinging in to park.

Rather than make a fuss about her marching over and positioning herself right behind me so that I couldn’t back in, I just parked right there, half in and half out of the parking bay.

I knew what was about to happen and I kinda prayed for it to happen and yeah, sure enough it happened right on cue.

As I shut down the engine I sprang open the door and hopped out, BANG! The engine backfired, sounding like a .25 caliber gunshot, right when she backed her fluorescent backside up near the back of the 109 and started blowing leaves away.

I was lucky enough to catch a peep at the smug smirk she flung my way, for having successfully stroked me around, but alas, I also got to see her expression change when the backfire occurred.

I’m pretty sure she thought I threw a cracker at her because she scanned the ground around her before chucking a greasy look at me, like, yeah good one smarty.

Ordinarily I’d have jumped out and jokingly chastised her for baulking me but she didn’t look like she’d appreciate a joke so I remained expressionless and just turned and waltzed off.

It only took her a few moments to blast the leaves away from the parking spot but I wasn’t waiting. Better to trump her snakey move by ignoring her and just parking out in the middle of nowhere, like I just don’t care.

Pretty sure the backfire made a statement and it got me to thinking, you don’t hear cars backfiring these days.

Anyway, I waited till I rounded the corner of the building before I smiled.

This weekend I’ll dig out a new dizzy cap, rotor button and spark plugs so that next week I can slip those in and take it from there.

Been looking at prices to have the carburettor rebuilt and while I can do it myself, I’d rather try to suss out the people who originally blueprinted it for me and see if they can go over it again because they really nailed it last time.

I’m also thinking of grabbing a new harmonic balancer as it’s possible the damper has slipped, giving an erroneous timing tab reading, so while the balancer has only done low kilometres, time is the mitigating factor in that it’s possible for the rubber to have shrunk over the last decade or so, causing it to slip.

I can’t remember if I marked the balancer hub and ring with a punch as a precautionary measure when I installed it, for that’s what I used to do back in the day, so that you can tell at a glance if it’s moved. I’m actually surprised that they don’t add punch marks at the factory as part of their assembly process. Weird that.
I also fitted a Dellow balancer guard to it so even if I did punch mark it, there’s no real way to see the marks without first removing that. Strongly doubt I marked the guard, I probably wouldn’t have been that clever.

Time is my enemy, just can’t find the time to do things. Maybe the world is speeding up or something but I can’t rock and roll like I used to, though I constantly amaze myself with the amount of progress I make at work.
I started jazzing another twin steer truck this week, this time a DAF, and it looked like a nightmare to begin with, but it’s coming up surprisingly well so far, and while it’s still got a long way to go, I can already see that it’s going to surpass everyone’s expectations.

Sold a Manitou that I did up last year, apparently it yielded a good price.

Sold a brand new tandem boat trailer that was stashed down the back of the yard, no cleaning or detailing required, just a check over, tyre pressures adjusted and modified the electrical plug to fit the new buyers vehicle. Amazing what can be done in a few moments with a grinder. Wouldn’t fit in a million years then zap zap zap, take that bit off, then grind off that whole section and trim down that, then click, it fits like a bought one, beautiful. The buyer couldn’t believe it. No mucking around, just get it done and oorroo, good luck with it, hope it gives you good service. No clue what he paid for it, I wasn’t interested in knowing as I was just happy to see it gone.

Sold a twin steer Iveco last week, again yielding a good price, after doing that up over a couple of months last year, then parking it down the back of the yard for a few more months, which was annoying as I poured a lot of hours into it and it bugs me to do a full vehicle and bring it up like new, only to leave it to weather again. You can’t restore anything and then park it up for ages as the UV and other factors degenerate it and spoil a lot of your good work, nevertheless, I got the heads up that a bloke loved what he saw in the detailed photographs and I had to find the time to go over it again, just in case he was fair dinkum.

Gave it a bit of attention between other jobs but on Wednesday I got told the bloke was dead set and would be arriving on Friday to pick it up. That gave me 2 days to pull finger and get it ready, phew, mission time.

Then the brakes decided to play funny buggers and give me grief, but a new valve appeared to have sorted that.

Friday morning arrived and the darn brake problem resurfaced, though not in quite the same fashion, so I decided to replace the other valves to ensure the new owner wouldn’t have any issues.

He flew up from Sydney with his wife and patiently waited while I swapped out the valving and did my final checks, like wheel nuts  etc, and away he went. We had a few calls back and forth as he drove back to Sydney, just to make sure he wasn’t having any issues and yeah, he had a pleasant, trouble free drive home.

He’s a very happy man. He can’t believe how well that truck presented and performed. As long as he’s happy and that he gets a good run out of it, that’s all you can hope for.

I have to admit, that one came up pretty nice, apparently it looked better than when it was new, according to my employers. They showed me photos of when they bought it and yeah, it was a plain jane alright.

I’m pretty lucky really, in that my employer gives me a free rein to do whatever I want. I don’t have any actual duties, I just do as I please. That said, I’m flat out all day every day because everything I see needs work.

If it rains I might repair a couple of old air over hydraulic jacks, or fix something else up. We don’t buy many parts as I try to restore or repair as many things as I possibly can.

Occasionally a couple of the drivers jump in and give me a hand. They’re kind of drawn into it because they can see the progress being made and can’t help getting involved in it, which is good. Their trucks and equipment are sweet, I always jump to fix any issues they have, immediately. They’re clearly taking pride in their equipment now.

It’s hard yakka maintaining a diverse fleet by yourself, but it keeps you busy, that’s for sure.

I enjoy hearing the jokes and laughter of the drivers, as it indicates to me that morale is high and means that at least I’m having a positive effect and my labours are appreciated.

Oh yeah, I removed the overhead roof console in the 109. I’m going to remove the drivers side sun visor too.
I don’t need any visor as the Hyundai seats have me sitting up pretty high, so that I have to crouch down or lean over onto the console to see the traffic lights sometimes.

Will be transferring the rego over to Qld in the next few weeks.

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Plans...

I’ve been flat out at work so nothing has been done other than to make plans.

The general idea is to have the 34ADM Weber carburettor rebuilt. I’m looking for a top notch carby rebuilder to wave their wand back over it. Given that it was blueprinted last time, I’m hoping the freshen up will only require minor tweaks.

The Scorcher distributor will be removed and shipped back to Scorcher for a freshen up too.

Crow Cams are now selling their own brand of roller rockers so I’m eyeing off a set of those.
I can’t for the life of me remember what became of the Crow Cams guide plates and screw in studs I had on it when I initially rebuilt the engine.

Anyway, once they’re purchased and fitted it’ll mean this engine has a Crow Cam, Crow roller rockers, Crow lifters, Crow pushrods, Crow screw in studs and Crow guide plates. Anyone would think I’m a fan of the Crow Cams brand and they’d be right. They’ve been toiling for many many years and I used to work just around the corner from their factory way back when I was a young bloke, and I always got on well with them so I don’t mind supporting them.
None of the gear I’ve ever bought from them has failed me. Wish the same could be said for some of the big nane brands I’ve tried and been let down by, but alas, that’s motor racing.

The wheels on the 109 keep catching my eye and I had a fleeting thought about having a set of custom aluminium wheels made for it. Not spoked wheels or anything fancy, just a flat billet center, a bit like a Centerline drag mag.

If I got anyone to spin them up it’d be Dragway Wheels, for I’ve had several sets of wheels made by them since I was a young bloke and they have always made nice wheels for me.

The priority is to get the engine running sweet again, then worry about nonsense like custom wheels.

I know one thing, if this corona virus scam results in me being isolated for a time, I’ll spend that time going over the 109, doing as much as I can.

While I’m time poor, I still find time to research bits and pieces.

Oh yeah, I want a new pair of fuel caps too.

I still can’t get the passenger side cap off, it just keeps spinning so I think I’ll have to destroy it to get it off.

Hurry up corona scam, get us all locked down so I can work on my own vehicles for a change.

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I got a chance to drive the 109 today and it went ok.

Nothing to report about it really, other than seeing the passenger of a newer type Land Rover, a Discovery I think, taking pictures of the 109 as I was waiting at a set of traffic lights.

Had a good day at the gun club and did quite well, surprising myself.
The gun is bedding in beyond my expectations.

Had another eye problem develop on Monday and yet another on Tuesday, but thankfully they’re not within my central vision area, so I can still see quite well.

This weekend is reserved for going through crates of parts in search for the numerous bits and pieces I need to sort the ignition system out.