Barney - a 1958 Series II

Lightweights have no seat back, per se, just a 50mm slab of foam covered in vinyl screwed to the bulkhead.
Mine seems roomy enough & surprisingly comfy: for comparison how far btwn centre of steering wheel (horn button) & top of cushion on your Series II (just for interest). This is a Series3 , I wasn't aware of different length columns.

http://goingbush.com/AULRO/lwtseat.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Homestar

Depending on where you live, welding steering components is legal but there are hoops to jump through. If your state runs to the requirements of the VSB's then VSB 11 allows welding of the steering shaft but it needs to be done by a certified Engineer, non destructively tested, and the process written up including welding process, settings, etc, so not something you can do at home, but doable if you wanted to go to the effort.

Victoria never used to allow this but they adopted the VSB's so it's legal now if those conditions are met and it had an Engineers report signed off too.

I'm going through all of this at the moment.

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would it not be easier to make a new steering shaft ?

Probably not - the worm on the business end is not a simple turning job, and the whole thing is heat treated.

I have an idea though that the late Series 1 steering assembly is somewhat shorter but otherwise identical, so that might be worth investigating.

The other thing that might be worth looking at is an aftermarket steering wheel.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by goingbush

would it not be easier to make a new steering shaft ?

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As John said, the worm would be very difficult to machine particularly to the tolerances required. The spline on the top wouldn’t be much fun to make either I wouldn’t think.

It’s been many months since I seen the shaft but my thoughts at that time was to take an existing shaft with worm on the bottom end, shorten it and cut new splines at the top. I know there are places around that can cut splines.

More recently I’ve done the full swing and come to agree with an earlier poster, just learn to live with it and you will become accustomed to it...

Run the tape measure over my 1963 2A and the 1971 model.
The 63 has the shorter steering column by a significant amount.
Here are a couple of pics.


Cheers, Mick.

Added another pic that shows the dish in the wheel on a later 2A
Obviously the earlier models have more room behind the wheel.

Not a good comparison - you need to take account of the different mounting of the wheel. While the actual column may be different, the key distance is to the plane of the wheel rim. The earlier wheel clamps onto the spline and hence has a longer section of the hub on the spline than the later wheel which fits on a taper with a nut on the end.

After a long hiatus, I’ve done a bit more

Rivet-mania.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Land-Rove...4AE9D79-XL.jpg



If ever there was a reason for cat murder, I reckon I’d get off with this...

https://photos.smugmug.com/Land-Rove...1BDA408-XL.jpg



looking like I’m getting close, except I ripped out all that dodgy wiring we put in. Going to start again. Blinkers are ex-Harley Davidson, finally found something you can use a HD for...


https://photos.smugmug.com/Land-Rove...7CF97DC-XL.jpg



https://photos.smugmug.com/Land-Rove...174095B-XL.jpg

Believe it or not I’m still going...

grandson was driving it around the paddock for about an hour today, stinking hot day.

Temperature gauge was about 90. Is this too hot? I thought I’d heard it should sit at 75-80 degrees.


https://youtu.be/U7sm-Y9idYI

First question would be "How accurate is the gauge?". I seem to remember the thermostat is 75, so the actual operating e temperature would be above that I would not think 90 was too high on a hot day driving slowly, but I would check fan belt tension.