Lilly is a 1964 series 2a long wheel base Landrover with various series 3 panels fitted. She was powered by a Perkins 4203 (3.3litre) diesel engine when I first acquired her but is otherwise fairly standard. The engine gave it plenty of pulling power but it didn't rev' very high, giving it a top road speed of 53.5 miles per hour according to my hand held G.P.S. (satellite navigation system). Which is not a problem around town, but it did get a bit boring on a long journey. So it had to go !
The strength of the engine also tended to be a bit hard on gearboxes (4 in 1999). In the end instead of buying second-hand ones I bit the bullet in April 2000 and forked out nearly £500 on a reconditioned one from a "reputable" company, it lasted about 7 months before loosing first gear. But by February 2001 the rest of it was still going strong.
One of the main reasons I run such an old Landry instead of a more modern and presumably more reliable one (apart from the cost of buying it in the first place) is that I hate wearing seatbelts and Lilly is just old enough to be exempt from them. (The free road tax is just a bonus).
March 2001 and the gear box gave up the ghost again. It jammed up on me about 50 miles from home not allowing me to move at all in any thing other than third and fourth gear. Anyway we got it home, took the gear box out (again) and stripped it down to try to find out what was wrong with it this time.
The new shaft was installed, the box reassembled and dropped back into Lilly. How long it would last this time remained to be seen. All I could do was keep my fingers crossed while I saved up for another planned engine swap, this time for a Ford Transit 2.5 DI. (faster, quieter & more reliable ..................... I hope )
On my way to a Landrover Club meeting the other day Lilly lost power and started to belch out large amounts of grey/white smoke from the exhaust pipe (the nice shiny new exhaust that had just been fitted a few days earlier after ripping it off at Paddock Wood off road site on Easter Sunday). Anyway; enough about exhausts, and back to the problem at hand. After the meeting I limped home : Being a petrol head at heart and a new comer to diesel engines I suspected the injectors as it felt like it was running on only three pots so I whipped them out and had them checked, bad news, they were fine. So next step I removed the rocker cover to see if anything was amiss under there. Coffee arrived at this point, and as I was leaning on the wing drinking and smoking I noticed that the gap on one of the inlet valves was so large I could easily get my finger in. The gap was about 3/4" instead of the 0.008" that it should have been, so I adjusted it refitted the cover and started the engine with fingers crossed. It ran fine, in fact it seems better than it was before. So what started as an expectedly expensive repair turned out to be a simple adjustment. Bang goes a good excuse for getting that new engine.
Lilly passed her MOT on 19th June, needing only two small patches of welding on the chassis, both front wheel bearings replacing and a new wiper blade. Not bad on a vehicle that is 37 years old this year and gets the abuse that Lilly gets.
I have benefited from somebody else's misfortune. My boss at work had the cam belt go on one of the company transits, He had it repaired and prepared for the MOT while it was in the workshop. The van was parked on the street overnight and was gone the next morning, it was found a few miles away with the cab burned out and was written off by the insurance company. So after a few phone calls and a very small amount of cash changing hands, I am now the proud owner of a 2.5di engine with less than 80,000 miles on it. Now all I have to do is buy the adapter kit and get my hands dirty (again). Watch this space :-
OK. It's now the back end of August and the new engine is in !!!!
After a few serious days of stripping down, the new engine is now sitting nicely in the engine bay, new engine mounts welded in and the gearbox rebuilt yet again. The gearbox had to be rebuilt due to the fact that nobody makes a kit to fit the Ford di to the 6 cylinder gearbox (Lilly started her life as a 2600cc 6 cylinder petrol), so a 4 cylinder bell housing had to be fitted. At this point in time Lilly is still un-drivable as she still has no seats, floor, radiator, exhaust etc. etc. etc. The list seems endless at the moment, but I'm sure it will all come together in the next couple of weekends.
Its Friday night, its 8pm, and its running
All day yesterday and all day today I've been under, over, and inside Lilly, and it's done, It's running. No water leaks. AND it started second turn of the key, I was well impressed. Still some work to do, seats, floor, transmission tunnel and front bumper to fit and It will be finished. Unfortunately I won't have chance to get back to it till Monday as I am working all weekend so weather permitting I'll be driving her for the first time in a month on Monday.
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Ok, it's now Monday night and I have just driven Lilly for the first time with the new engine, and it's wonderful !!!!!!!! It's quieter and faster than before, and the steering's lighter than it was (not as much weight on the front end) In fact it's like driving a different car. I clocked the speed at 73mph with the G.P.S. on a local stretch of duel carriageway. So it would seem I have achieved my goal of a cruising speed of 60-65mph.
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The Back springs started to feel and look a bit saggy a few months ago. So I have taken the bull by the horns and bought One Ton springs and shackle plates, the result is a quite spectacular lift of the back end
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Just waiting now for some to tell me that I've got the shackle plates upside-down
Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear
The gearbox started making very unfunny noises the other day, I dropped the oil from the main box and it came out looking like silver hammerite paint, and much worse : lots of bits of bearing cage came out with oil. The strange thing is its now running as smooth and quiet as ever (the calm before the storm ?). I must have got something wrong when I put it together. I have a replacement lined up so I'm running it till it goes Bang big time. While I was under there draining the oil I also noticed the front prop had a lot of play in the splines, and I do mean a LOT, so that's another thing to change.
On a lighter note this month I have treated Lilly to a set of black and silver pressed aluminium number plates to suit her age.
Well .......... I moved back to Yorkshire last month and Lilly made it all the way despite the gearbox making a LOT of noise on the way, (I still haven't done anything with it since last November). So I have got another gearbox from a breakers yard in Bradford and I am going to change it AGAIN. probably next week end, it must be done soon as she is due for the MOT shortly so she must be drivable if only to get to the test station. So it looks like I'm going to be up to my elbows in gearbox oil again for a day or two.
After much soul searching Lilly has been sold, mainly because I felt it was time to move on to something else but partly for financial reasons,.
The main thing on my mind was to build another Landrover, maybe a lightweight on a coil sprung chassis, but as usual things haven't got off to as good start as I planned.
This is probably due to the fact that I bought a Suzuki SJ413 as a temporary runabout, a bad move I think ; as I just love driving it and have already spent over £800 on it, with 3 inch suspension lift and a set of 5 slightly oversize tyres. No pictures as yet but there is a new page under construction so watch this space and I'll have some info and pictures up shortly
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