JayBoRovers 101

I'll finish the trip story a bit later but I've just been playing with the 101. I fixed the park lamp that wasn't working. Had to work out how to take apart the light fitting to get to the connections on the actual lamp unit. The workshop manual that came with the truck was really useful, with it's exploded diagram of the lamp unit:cool:.

Then I played with the winch, feeding out 60 metres of the cable! That is an impressive length! I loved the way the feed out would stop as soon as I released the tension on it. I also loved the fact I could ask SWMBO to give it some throttle to increase the feed out rate, until I worked out the first part of the choke travel is not choke but just increasing idle speed and a twist of the knob holds it in place:cool:. I'm loving this thing more every minute! So I cleaned the cable and wiped it off with WD40 and then reeled it all back on again. It wound both ways beautifully.

Then I went for a drive around my firebreak (5 acre block) to test the low range box and the diff lock. All worked superbly! Then I found a nice surprise. The rear vision side mirrors rotate back when confronted by a dense bush and fold themselves nicely into the side. When you're clear they simply "pop" back into the original alignment with a light touch. Brilliant for something from 1975 I thought.

Finally I checked out rolling up the canvas sides. I only got one up and then it started raining again:mad:. I was kinda thinking I was going to drive it around again with both sides rolled up to see how different it feels. Maybe I'll wait to summer:cool:.

Anyway, more later. (I think I've talked SWMBO into driving it later this arvo:angel:. I've never managed to get her near the S2a other than the test drive when I bought it).

Wow what an epic adventure! I'm glad you are still enjoying it :) The winch is an awesome piece of kit, the only thing to watch is the clutch, I have backed it off until it did not grip and re-tensioned so that it could pull the 101 up a moderate hill so hopefully playing it safe. The setting procedure is in the manual but I don't have a load cell :( Oh and sorry to disappoint but the wing mirror arms are brand new reproductions from of the 101 club. The originals used to let you know when you were doing over 65 Km/h by folding in on you :twisted:

Another instalment of the 101 trip then.
As had become our pattern, we set off from Eucla at around 7am intending to put some miles under the diff's before breakfast. About 70 kms later we stopped for fuel at Mundrabilla Roadhouse to fill up the LPG tank. We decided it was enough miles to have earned a breakfast so we had another great breakfast, with especially nice sausage. The coffee was unfortunately not in the same league and at $4 you'd think the sachet would at least be nice:(. On the whole though, the rest of the breakfast compensated for the poor coffee:).
I just had to take a photo of the clocks showing the time zones here though - just to prove I wasn't making it up.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/183.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/184.jpg
In case you can't read the little label under the clock at says "Central Western Time - Covers the area form Border Village to the East, through Eucla, Mundrabilla, Madura, Cocklebiddy & Caiguna to the West".

We headed off again, fat and happy and with the 101 now quenched and back running on LPG with no problems other than a lack of power. It was holding onto 80 kph without full throttle though and getting about 340 km out of each 97 lt fill-up, so no real complaints. It does miss and splutter for a few minutes when you first switch onto LPG, but seems to sort itself out now whereas before it just wouldn't clear.

I realised I had forgotten to check the engine oil that morning and knowing I had to put some in at Simons and again at Wudinna, I thought it prudent to stop at the next Roadhouse. This was Cocklebiddy and sure enough the oil was about 1/4 on the dip stick so using about 1/3 litre every 1,000 kms. The il I was carrying that James had left in there for me ran out so I headed in to the Roadhouse shop to see about getting another 5 litre pack. As I walked up towards the door, the dude in the shop came out to the door and rubs his hands together and says "How can I rob you today?":D I told him I needed some 20W50 oil and he grins broadly and points me to the drink fridges and assures me he'll have that somewhere in there. I notice they only stock 5 litre packs, so no options of cheaper quantities, as he says "that'll cost you a bomb ... a good 60 or 70 bucks!" As I open the fridge and remove a Castrol pack he rings it up and says "Oh look, it's only $55 - just saved you 10 or 15!":D I think he must be my wife's shopping adviser!:D

The roads were consistent ...
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/185.jpg

... but the sky was changing.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/186.jpg

We got to the Balladonia Roadhouse and stopped for more LPG.
This is where we got up close and personal with one of the giant road trains that roll through here. Makes the big 101 incredibly small!
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/187.jpg

Just a little longer!
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/188.jpg

But my bumper is higher!!!:cool:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...015/06/484.jpg

So we headed on and switched back to LPG. It wouldn't clear and run properly though. I persevered thinking that the now constantly rolling up and down reasonable hills might be causing issues due to the full throttle required. I switched back to petrol a few times and back to gas but it wouldn't come right. Especially annoying was the fact that I hadn't put any petrol in at Mundrabilla because it was very expensive and I figured the LPG would get us to Norseman about 200 km away. There wasn't enough petrol left for that though. We stopped a few times and played with the LPG settings but couldn't make a difference. So I ran on LPG down the hills and switched to petrol for the uphills. Reminds my of the rollscanardly - rolls down the hills and can hardly make it up the next one:D.

The sky definitely changed and we drove through two quite solid downpours.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/07/189.jpg

My arm got slightly damp from a fine "mist" rain coming through the gap between the door top and the roof, but I stayed substantially drier than if I'd been in my S2a!

So we went from looking like being early to Norseman to being quite late. Lost maybe 2 hours in the 200 km section. We filled up at Norseman, had a good steak dinner and decided to push for home rather than stay in Norseman as per Plan A. I figured if we were to have any issues I'd rather have time to deal with it. If we had issues the next day we would be pushed for time. Both my Bro and I still felt good so we prepared to take kips and swap places every once in a while.

So we made it to Southern Cross for a coffee stop and more fuel and then on to my Bro's place just short of Perth around 5am. A quick chat and I headed on to home on my own, arriving at 6:08am. A long day but I felt okay - in fact I had got some good kips in the passenger seat and didn't even sleep that day. I relaxed a fair bit before getting out and exploring the 101 - the first real chance to have a look at what I'd bought:eek:.

So that was the trip across. I have all the fuel receipts here so I'll put together a post on the costs and distance tomorrow night.
Ciao

Incredible journey nothing like that here in the UK

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JayBoRover

... until I worked out the first part of the choke travel is not choke but just increasing idle speed and a twist of the knob holds it in place:cool:.

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It is exactly the same operation on my Rover P6 V8 car :D

It is a very useful feature when you want to warm the engine quickly without going for a drive. From memory mine used to run at 1200rpm with no fuel enrichment,

Cheers Charlie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JayBoRover

It was holding onto 80 kph without full throttle though and getting about 340 km out of each 97 lt fill-up, so no real complaints.

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You need to have a look at that fuel consumption as it seems awfully high even for a 101. Around town I get 270km for a fill of 75 litres and on the road as you were I get around 350km from the 75 litres depending on headwinds and speed but I tend to sit at the same speed as you did.

How old is your LPG system - mine is very old - about 24yo and does not have the pressure limiting valve that newer systems have. If I go past the first click on the LPG filler nozzle and put too much gas in the tank, I get the symptoms you describe and have to switch back and forth to petrol until the tank pressure reduces and then all is good.

Garry

Hiya Garry. Yep, the LPG consumption is certainly not good, but it is running quite poorly:(. James (the previous owner) did suggest that he thought it might be running a bit rich on LPG but my Bro and I couldn't figure things out properly while we were running for home and it was waaay beyond just being a bit rich. It is also probably significant that heading West across the Nullabor is almost always a very strong headwind, and it was no different this time.

The LPG vapouriser is brand new (OMVL R90e), the 116 lt tank is about 3 years old and there's a Lambda control box thingy with a sensor in the header from one bank. The issue we had with the tank between Mundrabilla and Norseman ran like poo from full to about 1/3 tank, so I'm pretty sure pressure isn't the issue. I'm sure it will all get sorted once I get it licensed and can get it to a tuner that has the test gear and knowledge to do the job properly.

I was actually a bit suspect of the fuel cutoff solenoid. When it was playing up for the first few minutes only, I thought maybe the time elapsed allowed for some fuel to be freezing when the LPG hit it at the carbs. When the petrol finally ran out it would clear and the LPG would run fine. I thought maybe if the petrol solenoid was not always closing properly that maybe a little petrol was still coming into the mix beyond the initial period. But I also tried keeping my foot flat to boards when the petrol ran out on switch-over to make sure both carbs were completely empty before switching the LPG on but it didn't really make any difference.

I'm going to stop guessing it and leave it for a pro:angel:.

So I have to fit some wheel arch flares to my 101 as the tyres stick out beyond the body by bout 40mm. I have 5 lengths of rubber about 5mm thick and 60mm wide, with each length long enough to do each wheel arch.

The question is how to mount it. The wheel arches have some panels that have folded flat edges, 10 to 20mm of flat edge, but others have the outer panel just end with no folded edge. I could easily enough rivet some aluminium angle to the panels with no edge and use 20mm aluminium flat bar to sandwich 20mm of the rubber between and then leave 40mm of the rubber overhanging the tyres. Anyone see any problems with that? How have others done it? (Mick Marsh? I noticed yours doesn't have any signs of rivets/screws/bolts on the outside of the body panels).

Aussie 101s had thick rubber on the front wheel arches as standard and I have never had to play around with these so I am not sure how they are connected - will have a look tomorrow if needed. I will need to widen mine as they do not cover my muddies.

On the back I used 4" wide rubber from Clark Rubber - it is just pop rivetted to the inner guard with 1/2" wide aluminium strip to stop the rivet heads pulling through the rubber. Was pretty easy to do. Be aware that as the top side panels fold down flat against the body, with the rubber flares in place the panel cannot do this so pick rubber that is flexible enough to take the panel pushing against it and not deforming or cracking.

You will also need to move the mudflaps both front and rear out a bit to cover the wires.

Garry

Thanks Garry,
I hadn't thought about the top side panels folding down over the flares:eek:. Hopefully the fairly thin rubber I have is flexible enough to simply collapse and then pop out again afterwards. It only needs to look good for the pit inspection;).

I'll have to have a look tomorrow at what you mean by rivetting the rubber to the inner guard at the rear. The body panel that creates the horizontal line of the wheel arch above the wheel has no folded edge to rivet to (same at the front) and I'm not sure what you mean by inner guard. But then the front wheel arch has the same issue so it would be interesting to see what you can find regards to how the front ones are fixed - especially if you need to have a look anyway to make yours wider.

I think Mick's 101 is an ADF one too so my hope that he might chime in to tell me how he fitted his is dwindling - it was probably already fitted when he got it.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/08/1101.jpg

Cheers
John B