Thread: '70 IIA Wagon questions

Originally Posted by JayBoRover

So the donor car is becoming interesting? The guy I bought it from definitely thought it was a 1970, and it was advertised as such. No problem though.

Like many Landrovers of that age, it has had significant modifications through the years!

I removed the steering wheel today so I can see if it'll go on my DeeDee. The main activity for the day was trying to fit my better 7.50R16 tyres to as many of the 272309 wheels as I have. I did discover that under the paint of another wheel was the correct part number so I now have 3 of the 272309 wheels correct for the S2a and 6 of the 231601 correct for a S1, although only three are date stamped to be correct for my early 1950 S1.

Note that the distinction between wheels is not the age but short or long wheelbase (although at the time of your S1 there was no lwb). Also, the 272309 was optional for S2a swb.

..........

So, onto some of your observations:
The extra gauge in the dash is a smiths combination oil pressure and water temperature gauge.

This is actually the gauge that was an optional extra on this model (standard on diesels, at least in Australia) - but not in that location except in Australian military 2a Landrovers. Normally installed in a small panel to the right of the instrument panel.

Funnily enough there is a water temperature gauge also fitted to the extra dash panel nearer the steering column. I assume this is the standard one and the smiths one is an aftermarket later addition.

This is an addition as well. Landrovers up to 1967 had no temperature gauge fitted as standard (always thought this was a serious shortcoming). Also, the extra panel is steel - the optional Landrover one is aluminium, and pressed to match the main instrument panel. I am guessing that the temperature only gauge was added later after the capillary failed on the combined gauge - and the single gauge was a lot cheaper.

The other main gauge seems to have been "fettled" as well. Should the fuel gauge be at the bottom even with the "FUEL" text at the upper right section?

No. The fuel gauge and main beam warning light have been swapped in position, and the fuel gauge is not out of a Landrover - colour is wrong.

... and yes, I also thought it funny for the speedo to go to 100mph in an old Land Rover! I was going to make a comment about it in my yesterday's post.

Again, the speedo is definitely not out of a Landrover - all Landrover Series speedos were simple white on black with a white pointer. I would guess that both the speedo and fuel gauge are replacements sourced from a wrecker, and probably came from some other contemporary English car which also used Smiths instruments with a similar layout.

While poking around under the bonnet I cleaned up this label:
I assume this means it was originally delivered in Perth.

Yes

To wrap up, you noticed the oil breather pipe.
I haven't seen one of these before. Does this allow the crankcase to breath independently of the rocker cover breather? The breather pipe does a big arc of the motor and then down the passengers side to hang down the crankcase beside the sump. I don't think it has any sort of cover over the end, but might have something inside it. I'll get to that one day.

It originally had a small oiled wire air cleaner on the top of the oil filler, similar to the one on top of the rocker cover. Between the two, they allow crankcase ventilation, helped by the draught from the fan. This setup was replaced in the mid sixties (in Australia) by a positive crankcase ventilation system, that saw the roacker cover fitting venting into the elbow on top of the carburetter, and the filler pipe fitted with an airtight cap, with a tee off it to a positive crankcase ventilation valve next to the carburetter connected below the throttle valve. And no, I have never seen anything like yours either - I would guess the engine had developed so much blowby that it was chucking oil out the filler vent, and the owner added this contraption to stop it getting all over the distributor etc.

.......

Cheers
John B

Looking over any old Landrover is always quite interesting, just working out what changes have been made. The usual pattern is that when it was new, it would have had well thought out extras (such as the combined gauge here) but as the vehicle aged, it often gets fixed with whatever is to hand (such as the speedo and fuel gauge, mismatched wheels etc).

John

G'day JayBoRover

I agree with JD again on this,the combined Smiths gauge would have been the genuine LR optional extra of the time, the gauge is a manual one with a capillary water temp and a live line oil guage,(usually1/8 brass tube) so when the capillary tube failed (they are repairable) the cheapest replacement was the electric 1/2 scale Smiths that would have been current stock,also used as a Landrover accessory,the other gauges in the instrument panel look to be Morris Major/Austin Lancer or possibly from a Rover Sedan P5/P6 (I will check with a Rover Car restorer during the week)

That oil breather is a doozie,as that is where you fill the crankcase,by removing the filler/breather but in your case you would have to remove the tubing to refill it,if it is like my motor was in my 2a when I removed my pistons the oil rings were broken into 32 pieces,it didn't smoke out of the exhaust but the fumes from the oil breather would choke you

If you have 3 x 272309 rims you only need 1 more because you could get away using a 231601 as a spare until you located the right rim


Hope that is of help


cheers

Thanks for your great input UncleHo & JDNSW. Your explanations and reasoning behind your thoughts are really appreciated.
It seems at the moment that I have done well to get that beautiful steering wheel but everything else is ... well ... will take some work to sort out what's useable.

Just a quick question on the use of the S1 (SW wheels on the 109" S2a. I'm assuming there is a possibility that the difference in offsets could be a problem if using the S1 wheels on the front (steering interference?) of the 109 and/or the weight potential of the 109 is what forced the change to wider wheels. Could I get away with using the SWB wheels at the back of the S2a for a few weeks if I do not load up the rear with any significant weight? (The donor S2a had a SWB wheel at one rear corner when I picked it up, so I know it doesn't interfere with anything, but it might have only been on there while being stored/dumped in the paddock).

Cheers
John B

G'day John B

Yes, you could do that without problems,mine had 1 x SWB on the right front and one on the left rear all with different treads AND it was a driver
probably was a case of going to the wreckers and asking for a couple of landrover wheels with good tyres, "yeah! Mate,over there on that dunnga,$30 each OK, well landrover wheels are landrover aint they"
remember that they look basically the same since 1949 and the rims bolt on even to the new ones

And with differing offsets, you would often get comments like,Yeah,I had a Landrover once, handled like a bag of S******,got rid of it and bought a T or N great trucks-----all my mates have them.




cheers

The narrower wheels have frequently been used on lwb Landrovers (as in the example you have), with minimal oroblems. The major concern is that tyre manufacturers do not approve fitting 7.50 tyres to the narrower wheels, although it has been done often enough. But strictly speaking, it is a roadworthiness issue. The change in offset will cause no problems at the back, and the only problem at the front is that you may have to adjust the steering stops to prevent rubbing on the springs on full lock - but you may need to do this anyway when changing from the Sunraysia wheels.

John

I started some serious work on my donor S2a today. I had previously removed the wheels, drag link and steering wheel in preparation for those migrating to my DeeDee S2a. It turned out the steering wheel doesn't work with the steering shaft fitted to DeeDee but does go straight onto the S1 that was missing a steering wheel, so that all turned out okay. Unfortunately it means I still require a steering wheel for DeeDee. I'll have to figure out exactly what is different about the setup on DeeDee so I know what to look/ask for.

Anyway, in the process of stripping the donor car of major rusted items I came across an official looking piece of paper wrapped in a plastic bag. Upon opening it I discovered a notice from the "Police Department" dated 1972 for a vehicle licence renewal. As well as providing the details of the owner at that time, it also details the identification of the Land Rover. Given the previous discussion in this thread about the year of my donor it was great to see the year identified as well as the engine and chassis numbers.

So the Police notice is for a 1964, Land Rover, Grey and White, Petrol, 4 cylinder, Eng No. 251188784F, Chassis No. 25308816. All this seems to agree with what I have, other than I have not yet been able to locate the Chassis or Engine numbers.

Now the flip side: The person I bought the donor from gave me the data plate that he said had been removed from the bulkhead. This shows the Vehicle No. as 25308881B. Bugger! So now I'm back to trying to confirm the actual engine and chassis I have.

Can anyone tell me where to be looking for the engine number? I have had a bit of a look in the location I have seen engine numbers on S1's, just in front of the exhaust manifold, but can't see anything there. There is a reasonable amount of crud about though, so I'll give it a clean tomorrow.

I'll include some photo's in an update tomorrow.
Cheers
John B

The engine no. is where you suspect it is, give it a rub with some emery cloth.

The chassis no. should be on the LH rear spring hanger - failing that check all of the spring hangers,

Cheers Charlie

Originally Posted by JayBoRover

Now the flip side: The person I bought the donor from gave me the data plate that he said had been removed from the bulkhead. This shows the Vehicle No. as 25308881B. Bugger! So now I'm back to trying to confirm the actual engine and chassis I have.

Can anyone tell me where to be looking for the engine number? I have had a bit of a look in the location I have seen engine numbers on S1's, just in front of the exhaust manifold, but can't see anything there. There is a reasonable amount of crud about though, so I'll give it a clean tomorrow.

I'll include some photo's in an update tomorrow.
Cheers
John B

Originally Posted by chazza

The engine no. is where you suspect it is, give it a rub with some emery cloth.

The chassis no. should be on the LH rear spring hanger - failing that check all of the spring hangers,

Cheers Charlie

People swapped those data plates around quite indiscriminately.

The real proof is on the item.

The engine number is where Chazza said.



just slightly under the horizontal plane of the manifold. Those 2 bolts you see ^^^ are at the front of the manifold.