Thread: My 88" Series 3

Bit of an update:

Chassis is off getting sandblasted, should be done any day now. I'm quite looking forward to this as it's the "first part" of the rebuild

These bastard things had to come of the chassis before blasting:





I also sent the radiator off for cleaning/testing, picked that up the other day, they even painted it! Looks really good:





I've spent the last few evenings stripping the axles, as I said earlier the springs are a bit beyond help, so some parabolics have been ordered:





Few pictures of the front axle being disassembled:








Swivel balls are a looking a bit sad:





And the bottom swivel bearings are no better:





One of the things that's interesting about pulling the car down is the automotive archaeology, the front axle tube seals are "Repco" branded...





The rear diff came out with a bit of a surprise:





The worrying thing is that I've only found one bolt head....

The old wheels were dropped off at the local tyre shop so the tyres could be moved to their new homes, quite happy how they came up





I've got a couple of repairs to do to the chassis, then the inevitable painting and cleaning, and finally some reassembly!

Cheers,

So, I have a question for the brains trust. I'm considering not refitting the free wheeling hubs. I don't really see the car getting a lot of use, and would prefer to have everything lubricated when possible. In saying that, I already have the hubs.... Service kit is $78 and 2 weeks away, (from ARB ).

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

From my experience over fifty years using Seriers Landrovers, some with, some without free wheel hubs, I consider that the advantages and disadvantages are as follows.

Advantages:-
Allows low range to be used as a 'creeper' gear on hard surfaces, for example when backing or hooking up trailers.
Allows you to ignore a worn spline on the front prop shaft by not spinning it at high speed. Similarly, front prop shaft worn U-Joints can be repaired 'later'.

Disadvantages:-
Some (most?) free wheel hubs are weak compared to fixed drive flanges.
Most free wheel hubs are more likely to leak oil out and water in.
If fitted and disengaged for long periods they will result in loss of lubrication to the upper swivel pin and bush, and eventually likely corrosion to the upper parts of the differential that end up never getting oil on them. Pinion seal is more likely to fail.
If four wheel drive is engaged while moving with the hubs disengaged, damage to the transfer case is possible.

Tests I have carried out over the years show no perceptible improvement in fuel economy or performance.

My 2a has free wheeling hubs, but they are rarely disengaged.

John

I've had 2 series land rovers with free wheeling hubs - one broke, and on the other vehicle it was broken when I bought it.

As per Johns post, I also found that the second vehcile had lots of damage from no lubrication of the diff, axles and swivels as the hubs had never been engaged.

Get some drive hubs and ditch the free wheeling hubs IMO.

Looks like the consensus is "nope", so they will stay off. Thanks for the input fellas.

Made some blanking plates up for the axle tubes this afternoon, so I can send the axles off for sand blasting:








(The shiny nuts under the normal diff carrier nuts are to protect the studs).

The Chassis was supposed to be finished today, but the sand blaster ran out of time, so I'll drop the axle tubes off tomorrow morning and see if he can do them at the same time

Cheers,

I'm very keen to see the result, I'm very close to the sandblasting the chassis stage as well.




Peter.

You've nearly caught up to me OneOff! (And that chassis looks pretty solid!).

Picked the chassis and axle tubes up this afternoon:





There is a bit more daylight coming through in places than I would like!














And the front spring mount's have those special oval holes, what for the knocking when going over the bumps:





This is the main piece I'm worried about fixing, (without the chassis looking like patchwork when everything is back together). There was quite a bit of rust hiding behind the tow hitch plate:





Managed to get the axle tubes painted. I wanted to try out the KBS rust seal paint. Not so easy to deal with, (I sprayed it), it really likes to make little bubbles in the finish, specially if you apply it too thick, or too fast.

Before:








And painted, with the KBS rust seal. Tin says "satin", I would hate to see their version of gloss!








I left the bungs and vents in just to seal their respective holes, they will be removed, cleaned and/or replaced in the future.

Cheers,

You are doing some awesome work there Tim.
Looks a million bucks.
In the intended use,I don't think I would bother with the free wheeling hubs either.
If you ever have to do those chassis bushes again,the last set I did was find a big old nut and weld it in the centre,tacking heavily both sides.Allows you to put a drift in there and lay into it with a FBH.PS,brake fluid works really well in that instance as a free up agent,same with nuts and bolts where paint damage isn't an issue.
ENJOY
Andrew