Thread: 1968 Land Rover Series IIA

I thought I’d put a bit of an update on my old girl and the latest thrilling instalments. Since getting her back on the road last June I feel I have had my fair share of mechanical woes but the good thing (always look on the positives!) is that all the bits I have fixed have not failed… so I’m just working through the bits that I thought might not require care and attention.. Since January I have done the following:

Replaced the engine mounts – one of which had split completely.

Replaced the fan – one of the blades snapped off, slicing the inner wing but thankfully not damaging the radiator.

Had the carburettor fully rebuilt. I could see that fuel was leaking from the inlet pipe and found the thread stripped. I tried to bodge it together but in taking off the carburettor I must have disturbed something and it soon became apparent the whole thing needed an overhaul.. I used CSC Carby in Burwood, NSW. What a great service! They arranged the courier to collect from my work and returned within 24 hours.

Serviced it, including oil change and new spark plugs plus lead, distributor cap and points – plan is to change the distributor to an electronic version so I don’t have to mess around with points again.

Bought bench seats for the back – only short wheel base ones but that’s all I needed.

Replaced the bearing in the steering column – now my steering wheel doesn’t feel like it’s about to fall off which is nice.

And now the current and most annoying item – replacement of the clutch. Just before Easter I was on my way into work and suddenly lost drive. I got myself recovered and dropped off back at my place (the bloody recovery guy put it in my neighbours parking space / car port… and it’s been sat there ever since – do you think I should talk to her.. I left her a note…).. back from my Easter break I set to sorting it out on Monday. What a pain it is. I started off with removing the floor, then the seat box, then the steering wheel followed by disconnecting the prop-shafts and gearbox mounts. When I got to disconnecting the adaptor plate from the gearbox (it has a Holden six cylinder engine fitted) I found just 3 loose bolts holding it together and the adaptor was found to be cracked. Reading up it seems that clutch alignment with these conversions is a common issue.. anyway some pictures.



Our free trip back home courtesy of the NRMA roadside assistance..

Floor etc. removed – what a hideous job, there are so many bolts / screws holding down the floor though at least they were all new so removal was pretty easy.

One very broken clutch plate…

Cracked adaptor plate.. and the ‘new’ one I got hold of..


So I’m back at work now and won’t be able to resume work on the Old Girl until Saturday. I have had the flywheel skimmed and bought a new clutch plate so I think I have everything needed to try and put it back together. I have checked the alignment of the replacement adaptor plate and it looks to be correct… I am not looking forward to lifting the gearbox back in – I took it out on my own but suspect getting it back in won’t be quite so easy. I am also taking the opportunity to try a replacement gearbox that I picked up from eBay a couple of months ago. It was only $50 and having inspected the gears it looks good… the gearbox it replaces was very noisy with a couple of other issues so I’m hoping for an improvement (and maybe even a speedo that works). I guess I will road test it before refitting all the floor..

Ah the joys of Land Rover ownership… I think it generally does pretty well. I use it every day driving to work which is about 30 miles and considering that’s battling through the start/stop Sydney traffic I don’t think it does a bad job. It has been a little disappointing with the latest clutch issue but I’m sure it will be worth the aggravation.

Cheers guys!

It looks a treat, glad to hear it's mobile again