First, the wing-mounted mirrors are too loose. At slower speeds they're fine, but any faster and they blow down, no matter how tightly adjusted. The bracket holding them onto the arm moves a little, but it's the adjustment 'ball-joint' where things are too lose. The original mirrors were the smaller round ones, and so I think I'll find a good set of those. The vehicle will look more 'period', as well.
Secondly, the Jeager water temperature gauge markings only go to 100, and at speed the coolant is clearly hotter than that. If the needle is still moving linearly, it is indicating approx. 110, but has moved into the oil pressure side of the gauge face.
Third: the engine is leaking oil, which is no surprise, but it's leaking it most from the seal around the fuel pump. I think a different seal is needed there.
Noises: transmission/differential growls a little when taking one's foot off the accelerator, as if it doesn't like being reverse-loaded, but doesn't do this all the time, and most often when at faster speeds. A gradual slowing seems to help prevent this.
At one point, when going quickly, there was an alarming "thack thack thack" sound that suddenly sprang up from the general area of the transmission tunnel/right front wheel, and so I pulled over. When the vehicle moved forwards again, to see if I could pinpoint the location, the noise was gone, and was gone no matter what I did after that. Perhaps the front tire had picked up a stone?
The clutch makes a quiet whirring sound when pedal is pressed, as if the bearing is unhappy. After a while, the sound goes away, and so perhaps it's a lubrication issue? I'll have to check the oil level in the gearbox....
On a more positive note, steering is quite light, and the vehicle tracks very nicely, with only the faintest of wandering due to road camber. Nice to drive, suspension is nowhere near as harsh as I had been lead to believe, even on rough roads, and the vehicle corners well for it's weight and size of it's tire contact patchs. I do still need to learn the knack of not crunching the gears! Probably just need to drive the Land Rover a lot more. : )
Below: note mirrors.
Enjoying the sun....
Hello, thanks to your blog I started to do the restoration myself of my Land Rover Series II 1961. Also register a blog very similar to yours.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much and congratulations on the excellent work.
Glad the blog is useful, and congratulations on your project. I think you'll enjoy it a lot. If you are in Mexico (I think I saw that on the licence plate), I know of an owner there and if you like I will ask if you can contact him. It would perhaps be useful to help you find parts perhaps without paying too much for shipping, etc...
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