Pete's 101

[puma130tc]

After a fair amount of encouragement, Sitec being the guilty party, I have decided that maybe I should try and share some of the build of my 101 on here.
My only reservation is, time is always my enemy, so I hope I don't neglect this, once started.

My 101, is an Australian 101, I purchased almost two years ago.
I've had a Land Rover fascination since a child. Blame my father for that, eventually this became my line of employment.

the 101 thing started from a magazine article i read probably 20 years ogo and was then enhanced after a ride around 93 VDW REME Ashchurch when i was 17 Yrs old. There was a hanger full on 101's there...

Anyway, some friends and I took one to wales on a few occasions, even made the pages of LRO magazine once. It offered a new challenge from the tdi air lockered 8274 winch equipped 90's we usually took.

So the eventual aim is a hard top camper along the lines of the radio bodied version or poss even the Vampire. A pop top roof section contained within the roof line.

Diesel is a must, I enjoy travelling around this fabulous country.

So Here is what it looked like when I drove it home.

[puma130tc]

As it turns out, the history of my 101 is a little interesting, a friend of mine has photo's of it when it was in service, in Adelaide, a little over 4000 Km on the clock.
A camel trekking company used it for a while, then it had a ten year rest, then I got it. Almost two years ago.

I drove it for a few weeks over Christmas, had a lot of fun, which had to end some time.

Here It is in the workshop early Saturday morning.

[puma130tc]

At various points over the weekend..

[puma130tc]

Finally Monday Morning- Was a hard yet enjoyable weekend.

[spongie]

Good effort

[Sitec]

Brilliant!!! I see the Bar Grips were the first things to go!! Frightening tyres they are!! That would have been a very busy weekend, and something that's going to have to happen to mine before too long! Keep up the good work, and Im now glued to this thread!! :)

[stuee]

Awesome. So is this going to be another truck powered 101 or going something a little smaller? I think I've got a good idea what will be going in seeing as who you've been hanging around with :p

[Sitec]

Awesome. So is this going to be another truck powered 101 or going something a little smaller? I think I've got a good idea what will be going in seeing as who you've been hanging around with :p

Ha, yes.. That conversation was had, but Pete's selected engine was already 'in stock' I believe, and should work well. Watch this space! :)

[JayBoRover]

Mammoth effort Pete! I'm really looking forward to following your thread on the rebuild so I really hope you find the time to update it occasionally:cool:. I've learnt a lot from following Stuee's thread. By the time I've followed a few more I might get brave enough to attack mine (after I've rebuilt and sold off a couple of Series 1's!).

[The ho har's]

Oh goody another 101 thread to follow :)

[67hardtop]

Finally Monday Morning- Was a hard yet enjoyable weekend.


GO Pete :D:D:D:D


Cheers Rod:wasntme:

[puma130tc]

So...
I then had the chassis shot blasted, may have used up all my favors with my local blasting place, the under seal was rather resilient, is somewhere near the comment made when i collected it.

This revealed a few issues, a few sections of rust, both front chassis caps and both rear sides, behind the over riders, one side, far worse than the other.
Also, a slight distortion to the off side chassis rail, which i knew about when purchased.
i believe this to have occurred prior to it's release to the civilian market.

The picture should show the worst of the rusted sections removed from the rear crossmember.

[puma130tc]

the cross member with section removed

[puma130tc]

Some of the repairs to the rear cross member.

[puma130tc]

The inside of the removed section.

[puma130tc]

Its replacement

[puma130tc]

The new section in place.

[puma130tc]

All the repairs completed and painted mounted on a spit I knocked up, to make my life a little easier.

[puma130tc]

The repaired rear section all painted up.

[puma130tc]

The front sections repaired, I added a few extra holes as well as slightly enlarging some existing ones to aid the draining of the chassis in the future, which I think caused some of the rust in the first place.

[puma130tc]

Next I began work on the axles, this was to include disc brakes and ARB air lockers.
The disc brake conversion I have covered in another thread on here, 101 disc brakes. So I won't go into any detail here.

[Sitec]

It's only when ya c all the pics like these that it puts into perspective how much you've done!! Not sure if I have the energy to do the same to mine!!!

[puma130tc]

It has been nearly two years and whilst I've had a few breaks from it, it still has a long way to go.
However, a lot of the major headaches seem to be sorted.

I should really put up, what my intended engine, gearbox etc are and how that's all going.
I think that's probably my next lot of pics, so I reckon I'll explain as I go.

[Homestar]

Great work! Looking forward to seeing the engine stuff...:)

[Sitec]

Dropped in to see Pete today, while he was briefly in work, and wow!!! Love his work. Axles looking great. Can't wait to c it on its wheels! :)

[puma130tc]

So..

Next I guess, I should detail my power plant choice etc.
I've always loved the V8 engine the 101 came with, but my eventual aim is to build my 101 into a tourer, with hard roof, most conveniences, the a ability to still off road, sensibly.
Diesel is therefore a must, preferably something from the Land Rover stable, old school, like the 101, ideally something with a fair amount of grunt.
This left only one option for me, an engine I first spent time with in the uk many years ago.
Isuzu 4bd1t, I've seen and driven a few in more recent times that go really nicely, with sensible mods.
The plan was to use the factory turbo engine and gear box, with an adaptor to an Lt 230 transfer case, global roamer overdrive, standard diff ratios and already purchased, 315/75/16 tyres.
The transfer case will start off with 122:1 gear set, giving the option to go up or down a ratio, if my calculation prove to be less than perfect.

Some friends of mine tried this engine into a 101 years ago, in the uk, the only major drama being the turbo which collided with the passenger seat, last I saw that one, the conversion didn't get any further because of this.
Just another little challenge....

Having knocked up an adaptor to bolt the transfer case to the rear of the Isuzu box(more credit to a great friend of mine here, can't, once again, begin to tell how much time it soaked up) I made a frame to suspend the entire engine and gear box assembly into the 101 chassis, allowing adjustments to be made to its hanging stance to enable the creation of the engine/gear box mounts.

Here is a pic of it all hanging on the frame.

[Homestar]

I'll be watching with interest Pete - I want to put a 4BD1T into mine at some stage too. :)

[puma130tc]

To be honest Gavin, it's created a few headaches, but, I think I've sorted most of them now and whilst there is still a fair bit to do, it's looking like it'll work out ok.
Fingers crossed it performs as well as I'm hoping!

The major problems;
The factory truck air con compressor was to close to the passenger chassis rail, I re-made the engine bracket for this and positioned it lower, still plenty of clearance over axle.
None of the factory manifolds work well, especially with an even larger turbo.
I got a fabricated one from KLR, which I modified slightly, to allow my compressor housing to clear. This manifold positions the turbo rear wards enough to clear the seat panels on the passenger side.

Anyway, continuing on with the story so far, I've forgotten how much I've done, even though there seems to be so much left to do.

Having balanced the engine and trans assembly into the chassis and shuffled it around somewhat, checking and double checking measurements, I finally had it in position.

The rear face of the handbrake drum where the rear prop bolts up is approximately 40mm rear wards of it original position, which also moves the front one back by the same amount, I was conscious of trying to eliminate the legendary front prop rumble.
When making the adaptor to fit up the transfer box, we canted it round by ten degrees, the pumas run with the transfer case like this and I figured it would be helpful, allowing me to position the engine more to the drivers side but leave the transfer outputs on their original line and also slightly lower, I did also mount the the entire thing slightly tail down by a few degrees, not really enough to notice, but every bit helps.

I'll put some pics up now.

The passenger side gearbox mount, I initially removed every bracket from the chassis, thinking they would be unusable and to enable better cleaning of the main rails of the chassis.
However, the two original gearbox mountings were re welded into the same position on the chassis rails.

[puma130tc]

The transfer case at this point was a bare case, made life a lot easier, I had it on and off several times before we got the adaptor finished off.

The drivers side gearbox mount, unfitted.

[puma130tc]

Drivers gearbox mount fitted, looking rearwards

[puma130tc]

Drivers side engine mount, I retained the factory Isuzu engine mounts and brackets, the passenger one was moved rear wards by 20 or 30 mm on my new air on mounting bracket.

[puma130tc]

Passenger side mount

[puma130tc]

New air compressor mount, bolts to various points inc original engine mount brackets points, the the original engine mount bracket bolts to this. Plate is 10mm

[Homestar]

Great work Pete, looks like a lot more work than I anticipated, but I think the results will be well worth it. Next time I'm over that way, I'd love to drop by and look at it all first hand if you don't mind?

[puma130tc]

Yeh, no worries, so long as I'm around, any time is good.
I'll try and give you a call at some stage, was ages ago, I said I would, must apologise for that!