Thread: Clarkie's County Auto Conversion

I pulled the 3.5 and ZF from a rolled RRC i scored. the previous owner told me it was rebuilt about 20k ago. receipts have proven that and a check over of the engine confirmed it. I pulled the Input gear out of the transfer to check for wear to find it had none. So that went back together and the gearbox and transfer were left attached to the engine. No need to seperate them for the installation and no need to worry about oil leaks as it has none.





I pulled the rocker cover and Valley off to have a squiz... Mmmmm Nice and Clean....




A New valley cover gasket and manifold and Carbs were bolted back on.
I did nto know if i wanted to go SU or CD strombergs, but i knew the Strombergs worked on the county when i got it, so i opted for them.

Time for the engine out of the county to come out.



I'll use some of the items off it, but at this stage it will be sold or become land fill.....

I then had the fun task of cleaning 25 years of oil and dirt from the engine bay, the old engine had a leak and so did the power steering... so it was really bad...
Karcher and some killer degreaser fixed that problem.



the power steering box i'm scrapping and using a 4 bolt from a RRC

The new engine was dropped in place and all the mounts fitted up.


Make sure you use the county mounts... the transfer mounts on the RRC and disco are different.... i found out the hard way and had to look thru 2 years of Landy parts to find the originals....

Time to fire it up and see if it accually runs again.....
before i could do that, i had to modify the wiring and make the RRC distributor work. i'm running a RRC dizzy as i have a few spares and they are alot nicer than points... or the old County Electronic dizzy.
That took some time as the wiring had been modified some time ago for a after market dizzy. Then came the sorting out the LPG and fuel system. The LPG solenoid wiring was repaired and as was the fuel cut of solenoid. that in its self took me over 20 hours to neaten up the wiring and i'm still not finished...
I'm running the EFI exhaust manifolds and efi pipes to the 1st muffler, from there i will have a new exhaust fitted... i was going to put a set of extractors on it, but have opted out as the HP gain and note is not noticable ive been told. A good exhaust on the efi manifolds will perform and sound as good as any extractor system.

A V8 twin Falcon Thermo fan setup was put on the radiator and it was test fitted and then it came back out.

Then the power steering box was changed over. This is not easy, as the RRC and disco reservoir is on the LHS and the county is on the RHS, so i used the RRC pipe from the pump the the steering box and i used a cut hose disco pipe assembly from the steering box to the reservoir, then i bought some 5/8 hose to go from the reservoir to the power steering pump.

The Air conditioner is staying so i have to change the lines around to match the RRC compressor, this i will do later....

Radiator went back in and i test ran it.

Opps, best i fit an exhaust.... its loud....

Things i have found so far.

County gearbox cross member is not replacable with a RRC or Disco. It is unique to a county.....

Transfer case chassis mount on the drivers side is different to a RRC or disco.

if you use a EFI exhaust it has to be one that runs over the cross member, a Disco one will not fit.

The Transfer case shifter on the RRC fits in the county, but fowles on the center hump.... i have to soft this one out.

The Gearbox cross member is really close to the auto pan... i might have to modify the cross member.

And i have not even thought about the Auto shifter placement yet.
I am thinking about buying the Ashcroft auto console, but at $1000 landed.... i might not..


Other things i have done to the car, but dont have pix of...
Rear diff is a 130 Disc rear end, with ARB locker and Maxi axles.
New parker, indicator and stop lights. Oh and a defender reversing light.
I have a Bearmach swing away carrier, not yet fitted.


Things i need to do and not in order....
Connect the tail shafts
Replace the front diff, i'm going RRC at this stage due the availability of cheap CV's
Exhaust
Interior, shifter mount and center hump back in.
LPG, get it reconnected and working
plus stacks of little things...

I can then test drive it and see what else it needs......

Transfer will get the Crawler gears fitted, i just have to get it going 1st.... its $1500 i have sitting on my floor that needs to be finished off...

So anyway, i'll keep plodding along and if all goes well, it will be finshed before my trip in August....

Clarkie

Looking nice a neat Clarkie. I think when I finally get my rangie I might be needing your technical skills. I am looking for a house at the moment...perhaps I should move to to Mooroolbark?!

Angus

Clarkie, I'm liking this a lot and will follow with great interest!

I've encountered many of the same issues when fitting a 3.9/ZF/LT230 to a Series. Here were my solutions if they are any help.

Shifter next to transfer lever for some of that Er..... Erg..... Ergo.....Ergonom...... oh never mind.

Also the handbrake I changed to a Discovery unit and moved it from inbetween my legs.

Slunnie, interesting.....

my 1st thought was to have the shifter where the center console box is, but i like the cubby box, so then it was where your placing yours... i was thinking of a nice alloy box for it to sit in, or i might make a steel one...

But the location is about right as you dont want to lean far to shift gears...

But the B&M or Hurst shifters on a custom bracket would look fully Sick mate....