1959 Land-Rover Series 2. Seating, and distractions…

I’m already running 15 psi, which is a jump up from the 10psi stock. I’m more than happy with the way it goes now, and as this pump is only temporary, I’ll dial it back a bit on the fuelling to kill the smoke. When the original pump comes back from Diesel Bob with his patent tweaks, then I’ll play with boost levels if I need to. 😃

Got the wheel off last night…

With it out of the way (and it was covered in soot from the exhaust, yuk), I could see the back of the wheel cylinder. Hmmm… that might be the root cause of the issue:



No idea how I could have missed that. A 1/4 turn to nip it up and it’s all sorted. 

Then I, obviously, had to clean up all the mess. The twice contaminated brake shoes were, I felt, beyond any worthwhile efforts to clean up, so I took a rumble through the stores and found a replacement set (I did both sides). 





The nice big hole in the side of the tailpipe shows that the whole exhaust is on its last legs. 

I also dialled back the boost pin to its original position. That’s cut a lot of the smoke down without noticeably harming the performance, but it’s still smokier than I’m comfortable with, so I think someone has been playing with the fuel screw. I will do my best to get the original pump and injectors off to be reconditioned in the next day or so in order to get back to a known good base point. Regardless, the swap has been totally worthwhile as it’s definitely confirmed the issues with the original pump. 

Next little job I’ve been putting off for a bit, but that needs doing now that the nights are drawing in, is to sort the headlights. I have Wipac Crystal units on here. They’ve been brilliant. I originally fitted them in 2003, and they were a huge improvement over the basic halogen units I had before. However, 18 years of service has seen them go very cloudy. I did give them a sand and polish 18 months or so ago, which restored them briefly, but they’re looking tired again so I bought a pair of replacements earlier this year. 

New next to old:



So, a few minutes work with a screwdriver saw them swapped and lighting levels restored. 👍

i reckon an italian tune up down the A2 would sort out the rest of the particulate issues

p.s the void where the governor pin sits (that you freed up) what normally lubricates it? is it air in there, or fuel ?

Oh my

One and two done. Pictures to follow. 

Door seals aren’t like conventional push on ones like you’d find on most vehicles (although very late Series 3s and 90/110s do have them), oh no, each door has six individual rubber mouldings, each with a steel inner stiffener, and each needing at least five pop rivets to hold them in place. Despite having spent a significant amount of money on a full set of genuine seals, each and every one needs trimming both ends to make them fit properly. The best part of two days it’s taken me to get them all on. You can’t fit the ones to the bulkhead without taking the doors off either, which is a pain in the posterior. 

Anyway, it’s done, and as I had the riveter handy, and I had to loosen off the side panel to hardtop joint to adjust one of the end finisher/seal holding bits, it seemed like a good idea to drill out the five rivets that had sprung along the join between the hardtop frame and the top skin and replace them with some suitable sealed pop rivets. I did buy a proper aircraft type rivet squeezer to set the original type semi-tubular rivets, but couldn’t find a reasonably priced source of the rivets, and sealed pop ones are probably better anyway. I used some Captain Tolley’s along the visible crack in the seal afterwards, so with luck I’ll have at least stemmed the flow of the water ingress even if I’ve not cured it. 

Last job job of the weekend was to swap the basic manual controller for the night heater for one that can be triggered remotely. That was a simple plug and play, and means that I can set it off when I get up for work and things should be nice and toasty by the time I’m ready to leave for work. 

Onwards and upwards. Going to be away for a few days (in the Land-Rover), so fingers crossed it behaves. Catch up when I get back. 😀

Likely not the only reason.
On leaf sprung utility cars the LWB cab was larger and had more internal room.
This is highlighted by the need for a filler plate to go in the gap between the rear bulkhead and a truck cab if you have one fitted.

With the 90 they wanted to have the larger cab space of the LWB models and also the same size load space as the SWB.
This stretched the body length some to get everything in.

Also noticable with the fact that SWB sides are interchangeable with a LWB and 110 Station wagon but not on a 90

What are your thoughts on replacing with the modern type of push on seal? I've just done that with the rear door on my Series 3 which is replacing a tailgate. Managed to get it on without having to grind off the lip, so reversible if needs be.

My logic is that a one-piece seal should work better, and was cheaper (in fact free!). But wondered if you had come across downsides (I'm a relative newbie to Series ownership, although not to leaky Land Rovers...)?

That's a good point about configurations, hadn't considered taking the hardtop off.

The seal I used had quite a wide channel, but even so needed teasing open slightly to fit. Hopefully the body lip will keep the seal in place, but I'm wary of whether the U channel will provide a path for water to track along in.

I can see what you mean about originality, and everything I've done/will do will be either reversible, or actually bringing it closer to original - although not that I'm thinking of selling.

I'm very envious of yours as unfortunately mine is the opposite of what I'd prefer, as it's been both under and over restored - over restored cosmetically, but under restored mechanically. Gradually working through the oily bits...