HECter

[wrinklearthur]

A hot lead.

I have known of the existence of this ex Hydro 86" series 1 for over 10 years, as it was then owned by a friend 'John', he was in turn was influenced by me owning at the time another '55 86".
Sadly at the time when I again felt that need to become a part of a Land Rover's dossier, I contacted John to be told that he had swapped the 86" along with a 80" for a Range Rover, so that's where the story stopped for about three years.

A phone call from 'Garth' about these two Land Rovers came without warning, "Are you interested in a couple of early Land Rovers?" He said that he must get rid of them as he didn't have time to work on them. This phone call came about just before the 'Fred' foray into Victoria, http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread.php?p=1786275 .
I didn't breath a word of this opportunity to anyone including SWMBO, in fear of loosing the chance to acquire a couple of historical vehicles.

After carrying a empty bag for the time I was away, I arrived home to make the phone call and was told by 'Garth' if I can get rid of them from his place then I can have them!!!! .
'Garth' added that there were four new 6.00 x 16 bar treads and a brand new replacement rear cross member for sale as well, I nearly broke down and cried.

[123rover50]

Well.... Good one Arthur. Go for it. Dont forget to post some pics when you get them home.

Keith

[The ho har's]

Arthur, you are the lucky one

Mrs hh

[wrinklearthur]

There has been slight hiccup with a missing posting, I reviewed it and then forget to submit.

Now to tell the story of the naming of 'HECter'.

The Deal.

'Fred' dragged 'AlexH''s and my newly acquired car trailer down the Southern outlet to Grove, in anticipation of a collection of goodies.
The 86" was sitting in the ground with grass up to the skirts, 'Garth' then took me over to a spot under the tree's and there was the dismantled 80".
The deal being done, two trips were decided on to bring the pair to their new home.

Before I set to and load the 86", I had a good look around inside and there were the tell tale signs of the Land Rover once being owned by 'the Hydro Electric Commission of Tasmania', the logo was the initials H.E.C. in white.
A name for this latest Land rover would be good as the yard at my place would be very confusing if I couldn't identify each one, then a play with words using HEC suggested the name Hector, but HECtor didn't look right so 'HECter' came to be.

Away we went with 'Fred' through all the back roads to Hobart, as 'Fred' is still prone to getting hot and with the happy face of HECter smiling at me in the review mirror.
After arriving home I looked at 'HECter', now I thought, what is stopping him from going? 'Garth' told me he had never had the 86" running.
'HECter' has a original style motor a spread bore 2 litre with a Holden carby adapted, a good fuel tank, a working fuel pump, dipped the oil and it was the cleanest oil I have ever seen in a petrol engine.

The fuel tank had 20 litres pored in, the radiator was filled up with coolant mix, a good battery was found for the job and the engine was spun over.
No start, that probably explains why this Land Rover had sat around for so long.

There was petrol, air and compression, so must be something to do with the timing I thought. So I grabbed a sparkplug wrench and a long screw driver and set to check the timing.
Pulling the plugs to find that the gaps were enormous, lucky me had a brand new set of the same value left over from another job, I put a new plug back in number one cylinder and looked for a crank handle in the shed, couldn't find one at all after looking high and low for half an hour, so in despair I went back to HECter and found one in the back!!!

Turned the motor over until I felt the number one cylinder on compression and popped the screw driver down number four spark plug hole to rock the crankshaft onto top dead centre, happy that TDC was right I retard wound the vernier adjustment onto 0° and tried the gap of the points to see how close to opening they were, the body of the distributor was around too far by about 25°, moving the distributor to where the points just sparked across their gap I locked the body off and reset the vernier adjustment back to about the 4° BTC position.
Had a look at the leads they were on 180° out as well !! that sorted, I tried the starter, HECter started for the first time in maybe over ten year and after the smoke cleared he was purring like a kitten, I back him off the trailer to his new home.
.

[123rover50]

Good story Arthur.


Where are the photos??????

Keith

[The ho har's]

Good story Arthur.


Where are the photos??????

Keith

I have a photo of Arthur and us in Tassie





sorry you want other photos

Mrs hh

[Pedro_The_Swift]

my apologies for posting here--
but I clapped when it started!!!

[The ho har's]

my apologies for posting here--
but I clapped when it started!!!

Post anytime you want pedro

Mrs hh

[123rover50]

I have a photo of Arthur and us in Tassie





Mrs hh

That,l do for a start. I havnt been to Tassie.

[wrinklearthur]

Been outside fixing 'Fred' and came inside to a real racket on here, the picture magpies are clamouring for a feed of pictures.
I'll look in my bag of goodies and see if I can satisfy their voracious appetites.