Thread: Stuee's 101 Rebuild

I have not looked at my 101 yet. but it is earthed in the battery box . most likely what Garry described.

Does the 24V model not earth through the chassis then? If it only earths through the capping I cant see an effective earth to the chassis if all panels are painted properly etc

Why does it need to earth to the chassis - just about all electrical connections in the 101 are through the body - basically nothing on the chassis. Engine - starter and alternator is to the body and to prevent static to the radios there are earthing straps everywhere.

Remember you are restoring your vehicle to a much higher standard to what the original vehicle was built. You have painted everything and put sealer between panels etc - originally the thing was just assembled and then painted.

Garry

Originally Posted by stuee

If it only earths through the capping I cant see an effective earth to the chassis if all panels are painted properly etc

You can do either path, as long as it is a clean connection at every point where earth straps connect,

Cheers Charlie

Stuee, you have a blank canvass. You're not doing a restoration to original. You can make improvements.
If it was me, I'd earth the battery to the motor. The alternator and starter motor are earthed to the motor. You can then earth the chassis and body to the motor.
My second choice would be to earth it to the chassis and make sure the motor is well earthed to the chassis.
Your choice.

Love reading the progress of your build.

My preferred method (on a 101) is to run the main earth cable to one of the bellhousing bolts, then another cable from there onto the chassis.

90% of the time you get electrical contact through the fixings holding everything together, so even with everything painted properly and assembled to avoid corrosion between parts, everything should still work.

If you want to be really anal then place a few earth posts around the vehicle and link them back to the main earth point with some suitably weighted wire.
You should never have electrical problems again.

Thanks for the feedback all. My main earth will be to the chassis, both the parts manual and workshop manual show both the 12 and 24v models with earth leads to the chassis (part PRC1154), and metal p-clips to also earth the body in two locations before the bolt to the chassis. Any electrical parts on my build will either be earthed directly to the chassis or to a body part that has a dedicated earth cable attached to a bare metal section of that part. I'm still trying to figure out how the factory earth lead from the battery to chassis was wired and retained. I will most likely just drill and bolt on a couple of p-clamps.

The stater motor itself also has a dedicated earth lead to the chassis in both models it appears (Part 589471). I have read on the UK forum that many owners no longer have this cable and the starter has been earthing through the body straps for sometime.

Ill take on board the feedback to earth to the engine directly as well, there should be no problem running an additional cable to help with this.

I do see in the parts manual the 24V models have an earth from the shunt box to the gearbox which potentially is helping out a lot.

Through disassembly of what bodywork I had left assembled on the 101 it shows all panels being painted prior to riveting/bolting together (with the obligatory NATO green brushed on afterwards). This is why I find it surprising that there is only an earth to the bulkhead capping, as I don't necessarily agree there will be a good earth through the normal cab fixings, although the amount of rust accelerated due to dissimilar metals on the 101 may be a good argument for it.

I fitted the seats today, this will help clear some space inside where I was keeping them and also make it much more comfortable to do the wiring in the cab.

Painting the seat boxes and rails. I didn't spend a huge amount of time making sure these were perfect as in the next few years Ill probably pull the seats out and replace them with defender or series 3 items.


The joints between the seat rails/box and the aluminium cabs were real rust traps with the different types of metals so to try and help I've put some seam sealer between the two items and have also used galvanised washers either side.


Seats finally fitted. It wasn't as straightforward as you might think. Some seat bolts required 2 people to fit up and even then it was a fiddly job, and I also had to clean the lower seatbelt mounting thread in the freshly galvanised cab rails. Ideally I should have cleaned all threads before assembling the body but didn't think to do this so had a very awkward time re-tapping the threads.