1967 Land Rover series IIA

If it's of any use I have a genuine 2/2a workshop manual you can have,its oily/dirty but useable pm me an address if you want it

She is, she loves it

It's the windows that are part of the belief / rumour that there could be some sort if royal connection to it.
The turbo is still fitted, no evidence or history of snapped half shafts and the transfer box isn't stuck in 4WD, so we all good there

No bother mate it might as well be used I've sent it royal mail 2nd class hope you get it OK

To be honest, freewheel hubs or removing the front propshaft make absolutely zero difference to the economy with a Tdi conversion.

Provided you're not doing racing changes the driveline holds up pretty well, although they will find any weaknesses in there pretty quickly.

It doesn't have freewheeling hubs up front, although not fitted when we bought it, the front propshaft was sitting inside it. So first job after a good poke around it as you do when another car arrives, was to buy the correct nuts and bolts to fit the propshaft. Also ordered at the same time was a new rear view mirror ( there was no sign of one, although the bolt holes were there ). Needed a new rubber gaiter for the prop as well, the old one was split two thirds of the way round.
A few days later, new rubber gaiter fitted, propshaft fitted and ready to go. Until we spotted the steady drip, drip, drip from the front pinion seal!
So, new seal ordered along with a seal puller ( because I didn't have one and it was a new tool to buy, lol ).
A few days later, propshaft removed, old pinion seal removed. New seal fitted, prop refitted and front diff topped up with oil. No leaks this time. Maybe this is why the front prop had been removed? Who knows.
Anyhoo, jobs done, ready to go for a drive.
Mrs Rebel gets in, starts up, reverses off the drive and after I jump ( well, climb ) into the passenger seat, we head off............

Now, the idea was, go and fill up with diesel then a little run for the hell of it. As most of you will know, old Land Rovers are a bit, well, agricultural to say the least. That was to be expected.
It's noisy, again to be expected
It rattles, squeaks and is very bouncy. Expected or not, this can all be taken care of through time. So we're all good then, err, no, not quite!
In total, we managed a brief drive round the block, mainly due to a spongy brake pedal and very stiff steering. Not to mention an all round inability to actually drive it safely at anything over 20mph ( if that ).
The stiff steering wasn't because Mrs Rebel wasn't used to '60s keep fit steering as opposed to modern power steering. It was due to a seized steering relay - more on that later.
Feeling unstable at anything over 20mph or there abouts - after a very close and lengthy look and poke about underneath - proved to be caused by the fact that all the suspension appears to be the original parts from 1967, one interesting item that I hadn't noticed before was this,





The first pic shows the difference in height between the two rear leaf springs. The second pic shows the original and correct spring hanger in the foreground and the non original and incorrect two lengths of flat steel bar used as a spring hanger in the back ground. Another parts order was placed, consisting of,
4 shock absorbers
1 rear spring hanger
2 steering arms
4 tie rod ends
1 steering damper and steering damper to chassis bracket
1 steering relay
2 swivel oil seals
I still need to investigate the spongy brake pedal fully, my current thinking is that one or more wheel cylinders are leaking, if that proves to be the cause of the spongy pedal, I'll just change all four, better safe than sorry, then at least I'll know they're all ok.
Oh, and the side windscreen wiper doesn't work either.
So, just one or two jobs to do then!
Overall though, it's solid has had some money and time spent on it. One of the previous owners has taken the time to paint it, inside and out. Complete the engine conversion and get it running. Whether they've run out of money, time or enthusiasm when it came to the suspension isn't known, but, it doesn't seem to be a lot of work to make it a better drive than it is now and with the 200 TDI engine, it should be able to keep up with modern traffic as well.

Looks a nice tidy base that.

I loved my '66 2A and had it best part of 10 years. But it had to go as a) it was not really ideal for the daily Manchester commute I'd started doing and b) when the landlord of the pub whose car park I was allowed to use started muttering about the number of spaces I was starting to take up.

I tried to tell him that it actually brought customers in. Mainly so they could come over and take the wee out of me being under it, instead of having a pint with them!

+1 for checking that the relay has some oil and replacing track rod ends and checking the swivels.
On the brakes does it have the bigger front drums from a lwb (11") ? If not I'd be looking at getting some. We bought a flea bay special whole front axle from a Lwb and rebuilt it on the bench then swapped it over. With a servo and twin circuit brake cylinder it stops pretty well. (Will lock all 4 wheels in a panic !).
The Land Rover forums have some good info but I found them a bit rough and ready at times- that's why I lurk over here.
Just be warned that a woman in a series is a man magnet apparently - my wife reports back a lot more friendly interest than I get.....
Good luck
James

As can be seen below, the workshop manual arrived yesterday nice and safe.
thanks again