Series 2a and a bit

**Mettalique** · 31st July 2021, 07:15 PM

Hi all, I’ve lurked on here for a number of years having bought a Defender new in 2013 then in 2017 bought a Series 2a 109 tray back to help me build a shed at our property at Mt Mee with a view to restore it later.
A bit over a year ago having built the shed and stored the 2, I started by going through it taking all the brakes and axles off, started to make a list etc. The general plan being to do a mechanical sympathetic restore without making a ‘prissy’ complete rebuild. When I was young my father restored vintage cars starting with a 1926 Morris Cowley, then a Buick Standard 1926 of course, then a rare 1926 (believe it or not) Auburn 4/44 then finished when he retired with a 1926 Hudson Super Six. The 1926 thing became a family joke a bit but it wasn’t as if he went looking for just that year car, they just turned up. But he pulled these cars right down to the chassis and made them like a shiny new pin, I rebuilt a Mini the same way from the age of 15 but as I’ve gotten older I’ve tended to appreciate the life a car has and once all the marks and knocks get sanded back, you lose that history. While I can fully understand the reasons for doing a full rebuild, it’s not what I wanted to do and so when I looked for a car, it had to be relatively decent to begin with.
5A320632-DA6D-4912-82AF-BC9FCE9F4139.jpg F7F8D717-DBE8-49A8-9CF0-278C848127C4.jpg
so this one came up after I’d looked at a few, one of which had large sections of chassis missing

. But this was a diesel which I preferred and although I’d prefer to have an earlier 2a with the headlights in the centre it was pretty good chassis wise. A mate and I climbed around it and realised it had almost no rust at all, just in the left footwell a little bit. The owner told me it was from western Qld and I do believe that. I think he said he got it from a deceased estate and that there was a spare petrol engine ‘out there’ (more on that later). He also told me he’d sorted the clutch…he didn’t… and that he’d done the wiring…yep a rats nest…. But it ran and I needed something that ran to do a job for a while.
I got it home and added the ladder rack to the back and the sides to the tray. We live on a steep block and I was building a shed but needed something to transport all the steel for the shed down to the site below our house.9D13C920-7BB7-43DE-9B13-D505B6297883.jpg I did terrible things to it.

But it carried all the steel for the shed down to site. Of course I had to adjust the clutch it wasn’t done properly….it still wasn’t right and later I found the rear main seal leaked and deposited itself all over the clutch. And the brakes were totally buggered. I’d looked at them shortly after I got it and knew they weren’t good but they’d do the job for the moment.
So I finished the shed.
543C6194-4D2F-49A6-A596-B57D8267D1B2.jpgParked the old girl in it. And left it there.
Roll on 18 months to COVID time and I started to pull it down to really see what it needed. Even at this stage I wasn’t aware of what I had here. Being a mechanic by trade, I’ve worked on these things but I wasn’t that familiar with the differences of the models. I knew the basic differences but it wasn’t until just very recently that I’ve realised that this is quite a late 2A. July 1971 to be exact. So it’s 50 years old this month. I was 11

.
I knew that and I knew I’d seen Series 3‘s older. Btw it’s a CKD. What I didn’t know until I started putting the brakes back together with new drums, they didn’t fit due to bigger studs (ok someone could’ve changed the hubs). But then I realised the front chassis bush was 1.5”. This apparently was only a Series 3 item, as were the uni joints being slightly larger. Then today I rechecked the chassis. It’s a Series 3. Pressed steel with a central seal weld.48FC012B-A8CF-44A3-A17C-A1463EE824DC.jpg 93DFD00F-AB10-4DEC-BDD2-99E6C252CFC3.jpg 2D1B5AEC-F195-4DC5-A5D9-0A0993DF410D.jpgplease excuse the photos being sideways I don’t seem to be able to correct this.
To sum this up. It’s a 2a on the plate and it’s a matching number on the left rear spring hanger. It doesn’t look like it’s been ground or changed, I can only assume it’s a factory match and they’d run out of chassis.
I also have a suspicion that this originally was a petrol engines car although I don’t know how to find that out. It does have quite a few things that are odd on it. Part of my life I was a vehicle inspector for RACQ and it was like a bit of detective work on some cars to work out what had happened to them.

Anyhow there you have it. How many of these are out there?
I’ll post some more photos on what I’ve been doing to it next time.

**JDNSW** · 31st July 2021, 07:30 PM

Put the chassis number into Calvin Clifton Scientific Text Services, the Netherlands

Will tell you what it started life as.

The 16mm wheel studs were standard on late Series 2a, although no exact changeover date is specified.

I thought the pressed chassis was introduced with the Series 3, but it would be perfectly in line with Rover practice for it not have been a clean break, and even more so with Australian built ones - with increasing Australian content it is quite feasible that the first lot of S3 kits to arrive was in fact completed as 2a simply because they did not have all the bits needed for the changes in local production. Or Rover Australia may have had to use Series 3 chassis to complete production of S2as because of loss or damage to a shipment, or just because of a screwup.

Alternatively it is possible that it is a replacement chassis fitted early in its life, perhaps because of accident damage. In all of these cases the number would have been stamped on the chassis in Australia.

**Mettalique** · 1st August 2021, 05:02 AM

Yes I didn’t think of a major accident reason but it could be. The studs and the Uni joints can of course be changed although it seems unlikely they’d do everything just because.
thanks John

**Xtreme** · 1st August 2021, 05:28 AM

Whatever it is made up from, it looks like you've landed a good one there and with your mechanical experience will give you many more years of service.
Impressed with your shed also.

**Mettalique** · 2nd August 2021, 06:11 PM

So yes looked up the Dutch website and it was a petrol. I’d like to find a bit more of its history sometime.

So going back to the strip down. Removed all the brakes. Two wheels had wet brakes one from brake fluid, one from gear oil. I sort of knew this as I’d checked them before but this time I just stripped it all down. There was a mix of bonded and riveted shoes which has set the tone for this car.
5259DE6B-786B-4A83-A6DB-835A2C508E48.jpg C9E00DEF-59DE-4893-A896-D740B406C5E9.jpg
Whoever owned it was a bit of a backyarder. A lot of half done jobs and things that really should not have been put back together. I wanted to check all the bearings and so pulled the axles out as well.
55880E76-D8FB-46F2-A647-F33ED7999791.jpg The inner bearings were completely goneC05C4BE1-4661-4355-B345-7060F7339177.jpg and the signs were they’d been put back in like that so not sure how long they’d been running.
So I made a list. I decided to replace all the brakes…everything. Drums, shoes, springs, cylinders, the lot. Drum brakes can be inconsistent with their performance and I didn’t want something that was a guess about sizes of drums etc. the other thing is that Land Rover brakes are very cheap compared to modern cars so I gave it a 50th birthday present.
I replaced both inner front axle bearings. You have to remove the shrink ring holding the inner race to the axle. The best way to do that is use a old chisel and cut it spreading it slightly and then it can be knocked off. Then press the inner ring off. Putting it back together the shrink ring need to be heated a bit then it will just drop on.DA8C8544-24BB-421E-B598-6ECBA7E40E48.jpgthis picture is before I put the shrink ring on.
I only needed to replace one hub bearing set, one of the rears was quite rough. This must have been very noisy on the road.
.8E945138-1830-4581-8D0D-8D184BEA5040.jpg The swivel hubs got cleaned up and greased, put back together.3940E778-74E7-4E9C-AD40-1ED369E625FD.jpg
About this point I removed the gearbox and engine, knowing the rear main seal was leaking and checked the clutch. Oil all over it…

but I sort of expected this. So new clutch and rear main seal and sump gasket. That was a tricky job. I know you can actually do this in the car but I’m at an age where lying under an car for too long is not what I’d call a fun exercise. So it got done on the bench.
50DD6B1C-2A0F-4B83-B32F-F8E38CDCC8D5.jpg
The Handbrake shoes got replaced and everything cleaned and lubed on the adjustment mechanism. A few times in the past I’ve come across some of these with either the wheel brake adjustment or the handbrake adjustment seized solid….a pet hate of mine….so it’s much easier to do it out of the car.
This also looks like it’s had a reco gearbox at some stage OR they painted it all when they dropped the diesel in.
Just like the farmers axe

Next came spring bushes. Currently halfway through this. Still struggling with the left chassis bush. As a matter of course, I’m replacing all the spring bolts as well, most are fairly worn anyhow.

**ian4002000** · 5th August 2021, 05:26 PM

Next came spring bushes. Currently halfway through this. Still struggling with the left chassis bush. As a matter of course, I’m replacing all the spring bolts as well, most are fairly worn anyhow.[/QUOTE]

I found my cheapo hammer drill had a chisel tip , it made it a lot faster to get the chassis bushes out

Ian
Bittern

**Mettalique** · 5th August 2021, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by ian4002000

Next came spring bushes. Currently halfway through this. Still struggling with the left chassis bush. As a matter of course, I’m replacing all the spring bolts as well, most are fairly worn anyhow.

I found my cheapo hammer drill had a chisel tip , it made it a lot faster to get the chassis bushes out

Ian
Bittern[/QUOTE]

Oh I got them out ok and the RHS went back in with only a small struggle but the left side has only gotten halfway. I’ve run out of decent bolts to press it in…M12 is too small and breaks, can’t but 9/16”UNF booker rod so I’ve bought some 1/2” HT threaded rod and some decent nuts. Tried all the lube etc. I even linished this one off a bit.
But I’m a patient lunatic…

**Mettalique** · 8th August 2021, 03:04 PM

99A99BF4-9C20-4404-BA9B-2BB2EE57CDA2.jpg I’ve really struggled with the left side chassis bush. Used all I could think of to wind it in. No I didn’t freeze them but I should have although the amount of time may not have been adequate to get it in. I even linished the bush a bit to help and lubed it up with Lanolin. Didn’t have any copper slip. Broke a few booker rods but in all honesty I didn’t think they would be strong enough. I gave up for a week or so….and my wife had the usual list of stuff

… and then I ordered some 9/16” UNF threaded rod, but it was unavailable so I had to opt for 1/2” UNF with some larger nuts…really😀… they looked like U Bolt nuts actually.
7931680C-42A8-421E-8E94-8D7AEE3B7958.jpg But the 1/2” worked. Even though I’ll need some counseling now it took only about 3hrs to wind the bush in the remaining 44mm.
BE61F58E-16AA-4E86-A883-A16E1D5B7A78.jpg 2DDA7DD6-CD9B-4773-BAC3-B760952CB5FE.jpg So now I can crack on with the next step.

**Mettalique** · 13th August 2021, 05:40 PM

IMG_2484.jpg
Decided today to remove the guards for better access. Luckily not corroded like some I’ve seen

**Mettalique** · 22nd August 2021, 01:42 PM

Removed all the front and cleaned the engine area and up around the steering box etc.

All pretty good so removed the pedal boxes. I had a master cylinder for the brakes so changed that and took everything apart and greased what needed to be greased.

But the clutch is stuck. Looks like the pin is seized in the box, I drove out the locator pin no problem just like the brake but it wouldn’t budge. Currently soaking it.
Replaced the front uni on the forward tail shaft. Only one that had any play.

Obviously needed doing.
I found a couple of cracks in the firewall behind the throttle linkage. Looks like someone has brazed these up in the past which means I won’t be able to mig them. They also added a couple more bolts to hold it all on the RHS. I’ll have to think about that one.

Then I tackled the only rust in the car. LF floor and up under the door stay tube. I’m guessing this is common coz I see panels for sale. But I don’t need something quite so big. Does anyone know the sheet metal thickness, I’m not really up with the sizes but looks like 1mm. Not really a big job just a bit fiddly.

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