Thread: Introducing DaOot

^^what he said

We took the roof off today so we can get DaOot under the house to fix her up.

I'll be ordering some parts during the week & hopefully start on the fix up next weekend

Hi Daoot, meet your lost sister Fairy, she is a bad girl with her skirts hitched high and her underthings showing



and has been known to get her top off and play in the dirt



but we have been working hard to get her into line.
I was a complete novice when I started with someone else's half finished project, and generally muddled my way through most things with a good dose of common sense, the Haynes workshop manual, the parts catalogue that you can download from www.landrovers.com.au (fantastic for identifying what goes where) and the helpful tips on this forum.
Fairy has had a tough life, a heart transplant means that all her power problems are holden ones; but she has also had many experiences just like DaOot. If you are doing tie rods ends it's not too hard, but I strongly recommend getting the $20 tool from Repco or supercheap that uses a screw mechanism to force the tapered bit of the tie rod end out of the steering linkages - it makes the job so much easier. Suspension bushes are a nightmare, there have been a few links on here about homemade thingys from bolts and nuts to force the bushes out but honestly, I gave up because they weren't too bad. There are two camps on suspension, but I found that pulling the springs apart, cleaning rust out and greasing with copper based anti-binding grease really improved the ride. I did my gearbox rear seal without removing the box, just the drive shafts and handbrake drum. A good tip to get the seal out was to drill a small hole in the face of the seal and use a panelbeaters slide hammer (screwed into the hole) to pull the seal out. I bought a special socket for removing the drive shaft bolts (there is not enough room for a normal socket) from one of the overseas dealers (Paddocks I think) that made all drive shaft work so much easier.
If your youngster will be driving it, consider a PBR brake booster from Hydroboost.com.au - really makes a difference to stopping times. Wheel cylinders and shoes are not too bad to do, I bought cylinders and lines (and tie rod ends) from England, much cheaper for the same parts. Check your brake lines, they can be pretty rusted. 4 wheel drives (landrover.com.au) do replacement lines at a very reasonable price.

Anyway, that's enough from me, enjoy your journey into Series landrovers

Peter

Thanks very much for the information happydad59.

Nice to meet Fairy too.

It's always good to hear other's experiences.

Especially for noobs like me.

Reading the manual is good but you don't always get the little tips and tricks that can make life a lot easier. :-)

We made a start on the rear end of DaOot on the weekend.

Dropped the tanks in about 10 minutes which was a nice surprise.

We were even able to leave the fuel line hooked up

3 of the 4 spring bolts came undone with no problems while one of them had rusted to the inner tube in the bush which required a visit from Mr Grinder.

I had no chance of getting 2 of the bushes out so I took them to the local guy & he pressed out & in the new bushes....except one

It seems that one of the spring eye has been expanded somewhat by the PO on the passenger side ( wondered why the bush fell out) so I need some advice on the best remedy for this.

I dropped into a suspension shop that has facilties to do the repair & the guy mentioned that the springs may be after market.

He said there's a much thicker spring in the pack that shouldn't be there.

Here's a photo of the one on the right.




If they have to pull the pack apart to repair should I get the other pack pulled down & cleaned as well?

Is there a "standard" type spring that could be inserted into the pack to replace the one with the swollen eye

Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated.

My Series III rear springs have different thickness leaves. I think it's to do with the available size of springsteel nowadays.
A spring shop should be able to heat the eye & re-set it to the correct size.

Check post #138 http://www.aulro.com/afvb/other-powe...es-3-a-14.html



Colin

Thanks mate.

I do remember reading that thread now that you've mentioned it :-)

I just got an email from the guy I dropped in to see this morning.

Got to say I'm very impressed.

He's rung around to see if anyone had them on the shelf, got prices for second hand and parabolics and then quoted me $100 to have the eye repaired.

I'm pretty happy with that :-)

I guess I'll see how the repaired set come back to decide if I pull apart the other pack to tidy it up.

I'm just a bit concerned I won't get them apart easily, or not be able to get them back together easily.

Do you just bend the bits shaped sort of like this ] out of the way to get the springs out?

Originally Posted by Cannon

I'm just a bit concerned I won't get them apart easily, or not be able to get them back together easily.

Do you just bend the bits shaped sort of like this ] out of the way to get the springs out?

Yes but you really need an oxy set to heat the 'clips' up before you bend them back. Otherwise when you bend them back again later they may break.


Colin