Ex. Army Series 3 GS 109 6 cyl 2.6ltr - Never Say Die

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Originally Posted by Dordie

I plan to do some work most nights so I can get her back on the road late this year. Still having trouble finding a good water pump which is a bit frustrating, but where there's a will, there's a way...

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I have been able to get NOS 6-cyl water pumps but the supply has dried up, I will ask again.

In the meantime Land Rover 2.6 Litre Water Pump 564197
Interesting that the body is aluminium because all I've seen have been cast iron.

The other option is to see if you can scrounge a secondhand one and fit a modified 4-cyl pump repair kit (you have to machine the impeller). I'm part way through repairing one but need to make some more tooling but life & a few other projects have got in the way.


Colin

I couldn’t believe the state of that water pump! At least you have all the bits, but obviously hard to work with a cracked casting. I had a contact for 6 pot parts who suggested $980 for a new water pump, which I thought was a bit steep despite being NLA, but he is MIA now so can’t pass on the details. It might be worthwhile contacting Peter Haylock at all 4 x Four in Kotara. I have found he sometimes has various rarer SIIa and SIII parts that are not openly listed for sale.

I won’t be doing a full resto...in fact my plans initially were similar to yours, but my vehicle in slightly worse condition (albeit with a functioning water pump). But I hate welding upside down, so I figured I’d invest a few months more time and do a full strip down and rebuild on the chassis and firewall. After just coming through a full resto on my SIIa I’m not keen on committing to all that body work, sanding (I’ve only just grown back my fingerprints) and painting again, so while I’ll refresh everything that needs it she’ll be keeping her patina. I plan on this one seeing a bit of fun (aka beach and off road work) anyway [emoji106]. Rolling bare chassis as of today, up onto the rotisserie this weekend. I do really need to start a build thread...but look forward to seeing your next instalment-

Cheers,

Matt

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Originally Posted by gromit

I have been able to get NOS 6-cyl water pumps but the supply has dried up, I will ask again.

In the meantime Land Rover 2.6 Litre Water Pump 564197
Interesting that the body is aluminium because all I've seen have been cast iron.

The other option is to see if you can scrounge a secondhand one and fit a modified 4-cyl pump repair kit (you have to machine the impeller). I'm part way through repairing one but need to make some more tooling but life & a few other projects have got in the way.


Colin

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Thanks for the tips Colin. Shame the alloy pump is sold out. I'm sure there's a few NOS pumps covered in dust sitting on a shelf somewhere..... they seem to be Land Rover unobtanium.

Dordie

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Originally Posted by drfish

I couldn’t believe the state of that water pump! At least you have all the bits, but obviously hard to work with a cracked casting. I had a contact for 6 pot parts who suggested $980 for a new water pump, which I thought was a bit steep despite being NLA, but he is MIA now so can’t pass on the details. It might be worthwhile contacting Peter Haylock at all 4 x Four in Kotara. I have found he sometimes has various rarer SIIa and SIII parts that are not openly listed for sale.

I won’t be doing a full resto...in fact my plans initially were similar to yours, but my vehicle in slightly worse condition (albeit with a functioning water pump). But I hate welding upside down, so I figured I’d invest a few months more time and do a full strip down and rebuild on the chassis and firewall. After just coming through a full resto on my SIIa I’m not keen on committing to all that body work, sanding (I’ve only just grown back my fingerprints) and painting again, so while I’ll refresh everything that needs it she’ll be keeping her patina. I plan on this one seeing a bit of fun (aka beach and off road work) anyway [emoji106]. Rolling bare chassis as of today, up onto the rotisserie this weekend. I do really need to start a build thread...but look forward to seeing your next instalment-

Cheers,

Matt

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1c8fadfea5.jpg

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Hi Matt,

Wow, $980 for a NOS pump is amazing and way outside my budget. I'm not surprised though.

I'm impressed with that level of stripdown. I think you're taking the right path. I'll be pulling my tub soon so I can prep the chassis and paint. I was going to paint the chassis black, but it left Army service in green, so I'll return it to this configuration. I painted a small test area and it's amazing what a lick of paint does to improve the look of the item.

Thanks for the tip to contact Peter in Kotara, I'll do that.

Anyhow, if I can't find a pump I was thinking of making an adaptor plate and fitting a pump from another model or make of vehicle, or going for an electric pump with a block off plate and outlet installed in place of the original water pump. Anyhow, will cross that bridge when I come to it. Still have a bit of time.

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Originally Posted by Dordie

I was going to paint the chassis black, but it left Army service in green, so I'll return it to this configuration. I painted a small test area and it's amazing what a lick of paint does to improve the look of the item.

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I think that they were supplied by LRA with a black chassis but the army re-painted the vehicles multiple times in service with olive drab.
This meant that parts of the chassis are green over black.

My IIa came from someone who was ex-army. He told me that if the 'top brass' were visiting then all the vehicles were repainted. This explains the multiple layers of paint peeling off the bodywork.

Problem is do your restore to 'as supplied' or 'as it ended up in service' ??

Colin

I have just purchased a ex army 1979 109 GS with the 6 cylinder petrol, not original engine though, your doing a great job, I have started pulling apart as it has been sitting for 9 yrs, still turns over by crank, Thanks for all your pics an tips, now gives me more insight to the 6. Carry on the good work.
Clive

Well, it's been too long between posts - for which I apologise. I have been pretty busy over the past couple of months though to really give Regie a hoof along.

So, over the October long weekend, I rebuilt the front swivels. A while ago I had bought a NOS kit for both sides on Ebay, with quallity Japanese bearings, pivots, gaskets etc etc.

I installed ll new bushings, bearings, gaskets etc to both sides. Fortunately Regie's swivels are like new.

A pretty straight forward job and very satisfying. Didn't really need to replace the Railko bushings and housings on one side, but thought 'what the hell' and did it anyway.

I also rebuilt the brakes, installing a new master cylinder and new slave cylinders. I painted the drums with caliper paint and they came up a treat.

Getting the brake shoes in was a bit of a pain, until I realised that on the front, I had the springs in the wrong holes and on the rear, that the shoes are not symmetrical. Once I figured this out, it was super easy.

I also rebuilt the steering box. New gaskets and seals installed as the box showed signs of leaking oil.

No new balls or cups required + all other componants in excellent condition and in spec.

Pretty straight forward job until I dropped one of the bearings.

Cleaned my whole workshop and looked every where for it.

Was resigned to ordering some, when I found it on the shelf under my bench. Magic. Buttoned up the steering box and another job done.

It was nice to get another box of parts reassembled, ready for installation back into Regie + I had a nice clean workshop again.

I cleaned up the relay housing of surface rust, treated it with rust converter, painted it with gal paint and a dose of camo green to finish it off.

I rebuilt the relay, installing new seals and a NOS Land Rover spring. The old spring was out of spec.

I used my vice to compress the spring, then used cable ties to hold it.

I felt like I was handling dynamite, but once I overcame that, it was fairly straight forward. Took a few goes to get it right.

Not the funnest job, but necessary.

The case of the relay was painted black and reinstalled into a sea of grease that I slathered around the chassis housing.

Tick - another job done and another box of parts cleared.

Well, after a lonnnng search, I finally found a NOS water pump to suit a viscous fan for a Land Rover Series 6 cylinder.

I actually found it by accident and to say I was chuffed, was an absolute understatement.

I was with-in a hair of installing a blanking plate and using a Davies-Craig electric pump and an electric fan.

I also lashed out and had the original radiator re-cored. The radiator shop did a lovely job.

So, I had a new NOS waterpump, gasket, new LR fan, fan clutch, fan belt, thermostat, rebuilt radiator, new radiator cap, TBA (teddy Bear's A-hole) and o-ring + I had made 3 studs to fix the thermostat housing to the head. The housing was a 2nd hand replacement as my original one was pretty roached.

The previous owner had damaged the original pump, fan, fan clutch, pulley and a few other bits. Fortunately I managed to obtain the correct bolts as they're different lengths and replacements for all of these parts.

Anyhow, I flushed the block a few times and tried to install the new water pump. Well, there was no way that the little brass TBA would fit. So, I left it out and fit the thick o'ring only. I installed all of the other components and filled with water to test for leaks.

Yep, sure enough, it was leaking from the o ring housed between the pump and the head.

Choice words said about the design skills of the Land Rover engineers.

A cup of tea later and thought that maybe I would just plug the pipe under the head and put a plug in my shiny new water pump. Then I had a revelation. Maybe I could just put in a thicker o ring or washer?

Hunted around the shed and found a new water heater hose. Sliced about 7mm off and slathered it in gasket goo.

Installed this pipe to the pump and reinstalled the pump. Wunderba - no leak. Ran the engine until hot and no leaks. Chuffed. Drained the water and refilled with the correct coolant. Looks sweet and subsequent testing has shown the water temperature and oil temperature to be spot on. Phew.