Thread: S2A bit and pieces.

Okay, still haven't installed the windscreen glass yet as it looks like I am going to perhaps have to polish the glass, but three batches of parts did arrive this week, so some progress has been made elsewhere.

Finished the gearbox install today and bolted in the seat box. I've got all of the parts now to complete the hubs and brakes except for some swivel hub bits. I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't thoroughly inspect the Railko bushes and the swivel pins. I thought they were OK, as I reported in a previous post, but after buffing off all of the surface rust they turned out to be a rather loose fit after all. So I now have a pair of Railko bushes, thrust washers and swivel pins on the way from England, along with a new fuel tank and at least a dozen other odds and ends.

Today and yesterday I dropped off a bunch of bits at the metal finishers for zinc plating. This includes the army front-guard-mount tool kit bracket set (which I had to modify slightly as I have a civilian bonnet which is wider), the brake/clutch master reservoir and mounting bracket, the bonnet catch assembly complete, the dashboard gauge housings and glass-retaining bezels and windscreen wiper drive assembly components. Unlike, say, hot-dip galv., zinc plating can be used on assembled components, such as the bonnet catch assembly. The guy at the metal shop didn't think the bonnet catch should present any problems and I am interested myself to see how that part pans out in particular. If I am lucky all of those bits will be ready for me before their Christmas closure, but if not it will then be late January. The latter would be kinda annoying as I won't be able to drive the vehicle for as long as I'm waiting for the the brake/clutch reservoir.

On Monday I had my brake drums machined. Two were bored 40 thou over. I was advised to run these as a "matched pair" on the front. The other two came up 25 thou and 55 thou over. Is there enough range of adjustment in the rear brake shoe mechanism to compensate for this much imbalance between drums or would I be better off looking for a new pair of drums for the rear sooner rather than later?

Finally (slightly long winded post), there is now only a handful of parts that I still need to source. One of these is the carburetor bell crank lever assembly. A photo of mine appears below. I've managed to figure out that this is the variant to suit a Zenith carburetor as there is no apparent or obvious way to make it link up to my Solex. If anyone out there has a Solex one laying around that they don't need send me a PM. Superfluous to my needs sitting around here are a genuine (used but straight) front bumper, two oil bath air cleaners (6cly-height), some door levers and my old fuel tank. I payed $100 for the bumper (but think I got ripped off) and one air cleaner is worth at least $15 but the rest can just go. If anyone in metro Adelaide is interested let me know. Would prefer to see the junk recycled rather than just throwing it out.

Perhaps worth pointing out that according to the workshop manual the reclamation limit for brake drums is 0.030" oversize!

Over this will probably work, but the linings should be ground to the actual radius of the drums for effective braking. If not done, you will probably be able to adjust the brakes to work, but the linings will only be touching on a small area, leading to rapid wear and frequent need for adjustment until they have worn to fit the drums. Until that point is reached, braking will be less effective.

John

Originally Posted by 68s2alwb

Okay, still haven't installed the windscreen glass yet as it looks like I am going to perhaps have to polish the glass, but three batches of parts did arrive this week, so some progress has been made elsewhere.

Finished the gearbox install today and bolted in the seat box. I've got all of the parts now to complete the hubs and brakes except for some swivel hub bits. I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't thoroughly inspect the Railko bushes and the swivel pins. I thought they were OK, as I reported in a previous post, but after buffing off all of the surface rust they turned out to be a rather loose fit after all. So I now have a pair of Railko bushes, thrust washers and swivel pins on the way from England, along with a new fuel tank and at least a dozen other odds and ends.

Today and yesterday I dropped off a bunch of bits at the metal finishers for zinc plating. This includes the army front-guard-mount tool kit bracket set (which I had to modify slightly as I have a civilian bonnet which is wider), the brake/clutch master reservoir and mounting bracket, the bonnet catch assembly complete, the dashboard gauge housings and glass-retaining bezels and windscreen wiper drive assembly components. Unlike, say, hot-dip galv., zinc plating can be used on assembled components, such as the bonnet catch assembly. The guy at the metal shop didn't think the bonnet catch should present any problems and I am interested myself to see how that part pans out in particular. If I am lucky all of those bits will be ready for me before their Christmas closure, but if not it will then be late January. The latter would be kinda annoying as I won't be able to drive the vehicle for as long as I'm waiting for the the brake/clutch reservoir.

On Monday I had my brake drums machined. Two were bored 40 thou over. I was advised to run these as a "matched pair" on the front. The other two came up 25 thou and 55 thou over. Is there enough range of adjustment in the rear brake shoe mechanism to compensate for this much imbalance between drums or would I be better off looking for a new pair of drums for the rear sooner rather than later?

Finally (slightly long winded post), there is now only a handful of parts that I still need to source. One of these is the carburetor bell crank lever assembly. A photo of mine appears below. I've managed to figure out that this is the variant to suit a Zenith carburetor as there is no apparent or obvious way to make it link up to my Solex. If anyone out there has a Solex one laying around that they don't need send me a PM. Superfluous to my needs sitting around here are a genuine (used but straight) front bumper, two oil bath air cleaners (6cly-height), some door levers and my old fuel tank. I payed $100 for the bumper (but think I got ripped off) and one air cleaner is worth at least $15 but the rest can just go. If anyone in metro Adelaide is interested let me know. Would prefer to see the junk recycled rather than just throwing it out. hi what date solex do you require jim

hi what date solex do you want jim

Hmmm, just went into the shed to check the fit of a new shoe to the largest (55 over) drum. Picture of the fit appears below. Doesn't look like much wear would be required before the full surface of the shoe mates flat with the inner surface of the drum. Maybe the Land Rover company just wanted to sell drums!

Originally Posted by russellrovers

hi what date solex do you want jim

Hi mate, not sure so I've attached a photo. I'm not sure that the throttle lever attached to the carb as well as the bit dangling from it are the right parts either.

Cheers

Ugh... English engineering. While sitting here waiting for my Railko bushes and swivel pins to arrive via the post I figured that I'd at least be able to finally finish off the rear brakes and hubs. Well, no.

On the rear hub bearing sleeves the "distance piece" is supposed to be tight interference fit, requiring being split with a cold chisel for removal. Well, not my left hand one. It can be removed, though not particularly easily, by twisting and sliding it off with a tight hand grip. This distance piece doubles as the insert for the inner bearing oil seal. As it is now if assembled it would just spin with the hub and most likely allow packing grease and diff fluid to escape between itself and the hub bearing sleeve.

I of course didn't entirely trust the distance piece fit on the other side, but there was no way that I could grip it tightly enough to test without scoring the surface for the bearing oil seal, so I just tried busting it off with a view for replacement. It didn't budge so I've added a suitable cold chisel to my shopping list along with a pair of replacement distance pieces. When I get my new pieces I think I will fit them with Loctite locking compound just for peace of mind.

Is this a common failure? After many kilometers of driving do these distance pieces finally loose their grip on the hub sleeve and start spinning with the hub? If not I wonder if it is my distance piece or the hub bearing sleeve that is potentially out of spec.

Anyway, I at least managed to get my rear brake shoes assembled onto the cleaned-up backing plates. I managed to source decent quality Mintex brand shoes for the rear, but am stuck with Bearmach for the front. I removed the latter from their box to inspect and one of the press-fit pins that ride on the snail wheel shoe adjuster fell out of its freaking shoe! Arrgh. I thought of sending these back as a defect but now I think that I'll just weld the pins put instead. Aftermarket junk!

Hmm.... I wonder if the distance piece working itself loose could be a consequence of the hub nuts being locked up too tightly with insufficient end float. The workshop manual specifies that the hub end float "must be in the range of 0.004 to 0.006 inches". If the bearing started to seize and the inner race started to rotate with the hub the friction of the inner race rubbing against the distance piece might be sufficient to eventually crack it loose.

No comments/opinions?

I bought my cold chisel this morning and removed the remaining distance pieces. On the front wheel bearing sleeves they were a very tight fit and didn't budge until I had split them right through with the chisel.
The distance piece on the remaining rear hub bearing sleeve however, like the other, wasn't in the end a tight fit at all. It only took one blow with the hammer on chisel to crack it loose and then I could slip it off, thoroughly unsplit, by hand.

I won't know for sure until the replacement distance pieces turn up, but if the new pieces are still a loose fit to the rear hub bearing sleeves then I guess I'll be up for a pair of replacement sleeves.