'75 Land Rover S3 88" ongoing project... V8 and rollcage!

In goes the locking ring



Turn it over, pop the springs in the casing and drop the plastic cage in, and twist to engage with the locking ring



Re-assemble the spider gears and drop the pins in



Then drop the drive gear in with new shim and the end plate can be fitted





Turn it over and re-assemble the CROWNwheel side









The the ARB centre is ready to refit in the diff casing, except I'm waiting for some new air line fittings first

That must weigh .... a lot!

John

It does weigh a lot, but is easily moved about

So I bought some steel from my local fabricators and set about making a gantry to lift the cage high enough to drop it down onto the Landy





And finished the sockets and guides for the front hoop legs to locate into







Last job before doing the big lift was to unbolt the roof to fold the windscreen down and replace the original scratched screens with new laminated screens



With a bit of shuffling the little Landy was extracted from the garage where it's been stuck for the last 3-4 years, the gantry crane lifted up and the cage hoisted in the air





With a little help it was lowered down and guided through the front wings to the sockets on the rock sliders







Apart from the first lift finding out I couldn't get it high enough hence the wheels under the base of the gantry, it went smoothly without any issues.

A huge leap forwards in getting the little V8 Landy ready for the road this year

reminds me of killdozer !!

www.damninteresting.com/the-wrath-of-the-killdozer/

Looks the part now! Took a bit of effort to knock the front hoop feet into the sockets but the holes were almost perfectly lined up only needing the reamer pushing through to clean them out ready for the bolts.

I made a bracket to hold the header tank off the wing whilst spacing it far enough away that it allows the bonnet stay to drop down fully



The front lights are all fused, relayed and then there's a junction box to allow tidy joining of the light unit wiring to the wiring loom on the wings instead of the birds nests of excess wiring through Lucas bullet connectors!





I've bought some new inner wing mud guards, trimmed them to fit around the modified inner wings, epoxy primed them and covered them in stonechip





And fitted





Eventually I'll make some infill pieces to seal them up to the inner wings better

That thing looks so right! Are you sure you don't want to put that oil cooler on out on the front bumper, JDM-style, for extra scene points?

You know you want to have it on a separate battery... for the time when you put a winch in the rear crossmember too... not that I'm putting ideas in your head..

Pretty much all normal split charges will melt trying to replenish the winch battery whilst you're winching under load and hence demanding a vast draw... on my two I am using a Sterling Power Pro Split R 120A OV drop Alternator Splitter. It's an intelligent device that'll prioritise the main battery for charging but when under stress from winching if it gets too much it will only draw up to its maximum and not catch fire, anyway, it explains its isolating deal betterer on its website. Usually around £100 on ebay. Greatly recommended - though I imagine you know about them already?

sterling-power.com/products/volt-drop-alternator-splitting-system-pro-split-r

When I get round to the rear winch it'll definitely need a second battery fitting. For now with just a front winch I'll run as is or if I get time I can mount a second battery in the back? Not seen those split chargers before, I'll have a read later, link saved

In a perfect world I'd have liked to let the little Landy evolve as and when I needed to upgrade, not go in a huge leap to a respectable if not pricey spec of twin air lockers, full cage, front and rear winches etc. However going by some of the stuff I've done in the past I think I've got a good base spec there now that can be tweaked as and when.

I've seen washer tubes zip tied to the wipers and pour water over the screen which could work well in a real claggy muddy environment. If the standard washers prove inadequate then I'll upgrade. Didn't know some of the trucks had washers on the arms?

The main battery has a spare set of leads off it to an accessible point with an Anderson plug already attached. The winch just happens to have it's power cable run to the same place with an Anderson plug too! There isn't anything stopping me from strapping another batter down in the back and attaching it via Anderson plugs which was plan A before looking into wiring up a split charge system. I'm still on leisure batteries which may not be hugely ideal for a vehicle with winches!

I'm going back to my local offroad site at the end of the month (subject to the world not ending) and last year my 109 with only a few recovery straps and open diffs managed to do over half of the site without getting stuck hard. I'll work myself up gently to full hardcore winch challenge style offroading! Little series Landy's are lighter which should aid in easy recoveries anyway....

But most importantly, I had some more deliveries today





The new reproduction stage1 stub axles have arrived. I have all the parts to pull the front axle apart and rebuild it with 24 spline shafts for my ARB air locker and CV joints