Lazarus 2A Ambulance

Hello All,

The gear box is out. While it was hanging off the trailer crane I scrapped off a lot of gunk from the casing. It then received two rounds of degreasing and pressure cleaning.

The disconcerting thing was that well before I started to clean the gear box it was hanging at an angle and there was a stream of water flowing out of it for a couple of minutes.

Underneath all the build up of grease dirt and other detritus on both the engine and the gear box was a green and black based camouflage paint scheme! The whole body and the chassis are painted using the same scheme. I was surprised that the engine and gear box received the same paint job.

Well next challenge is lifting the body up and rolling away the chassis.

Kind regards
Lionel

Hi Lionel

If it helps, I used oven cleaner on Ernies gearbox and chassis, with a 2700psi petrol gernie. Worked a treat!. Just wear eye protection and thick rubber gloves.

Cheers Ian

Hello All,

I have been spending the cool time in the evenings - before the mozzies descend - by stripping off Lazarus' bulkhead.

It just has a tad of rust in it. The WD40 has its job cut out for it with the bolts and screws. Yes John, the bulkhead is positioned in the house yard where I spray the bolts and screws as I am walking past them to get to the paddock gate - where Lazarus is parked... in the paddock.

Does anyone have a spare cover for a 2A 1963 windscreen wiper motor as shown in the photo and a couple of the little arms that drive the wiper arms? New units are available via eBay and the internet; however, I would prefer to keep to original parts if possible.

Also, can the parcel shelf come off the 2A bulkhead by just removing the spot welds? The bottom of my Toyota powered 2A shorty has the bottom of the parcel shelf rusted out. It may be easier to just remove the parcel shelf and working on it off the car than trying to cut the rust out and put in new plates it in-situ.

Kind regards
Lionel

Lionel,

Hello from Brisbane.

I’m giving away a few bits left over from my truck’s ongoing renovation that might be of use to yours. Steering box stuff, shock absorbers etc.

They’re listed in the markets sub-section over at the SLOw site.

Cheers,

Neil

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Originally Posted by Lionelgee

Hello All,

I have been spending the cool time in the evenings - before the mozzies descend - by stripping off Lazarus' bulkhead.

It just has a tad of rust in it. The WD40 has its job cut out for it with the bolts and screws. Yes John, the bulkhead is positioned in the house yard where I spray the bolts and screws as I am walking past them to get to the paddock gate - where Lazarus is parked... in the paddock.

Does anyone have a spare cover for a 2A 1963 windscreen wiper motor as shown in the photo and a couple of the little arms that drive the wiper arms? New units are available via eBay and the internet; however, I would prefer to keep to original parts if possible.

Also, can the parcel shelf come off the 2A bulkhead by just removing the spot welds? The bottom of my Toyota powered 2A shorty has the bottom of the parcel shelf rusted out. It may be easier to just remove the parcel shelf and working on it off the car than trying to cut the rust out and put in new plates it in-situ.

Kind regards
Lionel

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Hi Lionel

I may still have Ernie's old ones at home. I'll have a look tonight. They motors were cooked and bits were missing, so I replaced them with new ones out of Whitworth's marine. If they are there you are welcome to them.

Ian

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Originally Posted by ezyrama

Hi Lionel

I may still have Ernie's old ones at home. I'll have a look tonight. They motors were cooked and bits were missing, so I replaced them with new ones out of Whitworth's marine. If they are there you are welcome to them.

Ian

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Hello Ian,

Thank you very much for the offer of your old windscreen wiper motors. Let me know if you found them?

Kind regards
Lionel

Hello All,

After doing some extensive research through old AULRO threads and other online sources; plus a book, I set about dismantling Lazarus' steering relay. With the amount of force reputed to be behind the spring inside the relay - it was done with a significant degree of trepidation.

This was not helped by all the bolt heads in the caps being round off so Imperial, Whitworth and Metric sockets and spanners did not fit. One bolt had to be persuaded with a small cold chisel and an engineer's hammer. Then filed down to two flat faces so I could get a grip of the remnants of the bolt head with a small shifting spanner. I kept two other bolts in the bottom cap while I was attempting to remove the stubborn sod of a bolt.

I wound up just using the shifting spanner with all the top cap bolt heads as they were even more butchered by previous owners.

I was very surprised when all the bottom cap bolts were off that there was not a stream of rusty water coming out. The relay had ceased. When Pop058 and I went to pick Lazarus up the whole steering system was ceased solid. Not a cigarette paper thickness of movement anywhere in the steering system. Anyway, nothing came out of the bottom of the relay.

As recommended by Land Rover I grabbed a bag to catch the spring. I selected a woven nylon pigeon grain seed bag and used two cable ties to secure it to the relay. The relay was held in a vice and I gingerly tapped the top of the steering relay shaft with a copper headed hammer. After a while the spring released and shot out into the waiting bag. Gee the spring sure does have some force stored up - I did not think the bag was going to hold up and I would have spring bouncing off the side wall of the shed. However, the bag held up fine. I had to use a drift to get the relay shaft out of the casing.

I took all the parts out of the bag and had a close look inside the relay.

There is a very strong thick coating of grease over everything. No sign of rust staining or pitting anywhere. Just a great layer of sticky smelly grease. Not a drop of oil. However, not enough grease to think the relay had been fully packed with grease instead of filled with oil. So all in all I am pretty happy about today's proceedings.

I wanted to disassemble the Lazarus' relay just to see what I had to work with. I am very happy that all I have to do is get a consumable parts kit for the relay. Plus of course a new set of bolts!

I prepared a thread about Series Steering Boxes and Steering Relays that is available under "Series Land Rovers" from this link. Series Steering Box and Steering Relay Rebuild Videos

I hope the link is of use to people. I attached some photographs of today's work.

All the large parts are going to be stored in a luggage-type vacuum bag. Along with the smaller parts that will be going into zip lock sandwich bags. The parts will stay stored like that until I am ready to reassemble everything again. That could be quite a while. The coating of grease will be staying on the parts.

Kind regards
Lionel

In case you don't already know it, the bolts are not standard - they have smaller than standard heads.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

In case you don't already know it, the bolts are not standard - they have smaller than standard heads.

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Hello John,

When your message came in I was just looking at my Australian Army Repair Parts Scale (1988).
The bolts are described as...

Bolt Machine BSF Steel Hex HD 1/4 in. by 0.600 in LG (R544337). In Group PC Title Steering Relay page 208.

I am not sure what HD and LG refer to?

Online a number of Land Rover suppliers identify the part number just as 544337

What size spanner or socket would be the correct fit?

It is now too hot and humid to work in the tin shed. I have retreated to inside the house and a pedestal fan.

Kind regards
Lionel

Hello John and All,

Too hot to do anything outside except duck out to check the approximate fit of spanner sizes and then come inside to the computer.

I did venture out and checked a number of other steering relays that are still in-situ in different chassis 2A and Series 3. I can confirm that Lazarus' bolt heads were all rounded off well and truly before I worked on them. As you may have guessed I also went on a hunt and managed to track down my set of "King Dick" Whitworth ring spanners and a no-name brand of Whitworth sockets.

This is what I found out about the Steering Relay Cap bolt they are just a smidgeon smaller than 11/32 AF and 1/8 Whitworth. With 8 mm being far too small. According to this Wrench Size And Conversion Table website accessed 22nd January 2020 from, Wrench Size And Conversion Table

I

Inches	Millimetres	Spanner
0.315	8	8 mm
0.344		11/32 AF; 1/8 Wworth
0.354	9	9 mm

As the Repair Scales describe the bolt as "Bolt Machine BSF Steel" Or correct me if I am wrong British Standard Fine. Where the website Convert,compare all Imperial tool,nut,bolt and spanner sizes to metric. states that Whitworth thread is coarser than a BSF of the same diameter, but the same spanners are used on both ranges,and are often marked with both Whitworth and BSF sizes,. My Whitworth set of spanners and sockets has its smallest size at 1/8 of an inch - however this is still too big. Kevin C Bacon does not show anything smaller on his conversion table than 1/8 Whitworth.

No wonder they went to Metric! I was born in 1962. I was never taught the Imperial system at school.

To find something smaller than the 1/8 Whitworth but bigger than 8 mm is a 2 BA spanner...

0.315 inches = 8mm
0.324 inches = 2 BA
0.344 inches = 11/32 AF and 1/8 Whitworth (Sourced from Convert,compare all Imperial tool,nut,bolt and spanner sizes to metric.)

Exactly half way smaller between 0.344 inches (too big) and 0.315 inches (too small) is 0.3295‬ inches. According to the chart - the closest spanner size to this is 0.324 inches or a 2 BA

While this may work on paper or in the electrons does this mean that the Series 2A and Series 3 Steering Relay End Cap Bolts fit a 2 BA spanner?
I am not optimistic about the 2 BA spanner fitting somehow!

Kind regards
Lionel