Paint your Wagon

[Wheeledbeast]

I think you are right, the IIB arrangement makes much more sense With all the special castings that the IIA has it must have been a quite expensive thing to make.( and it is a right pain to assemble )

Given my running problems last time I went out I decided to strip and clean the carb. I don’t know much about SU carbs, but it was fairly obvious. I was surprised to find it had no real “jets” like you find in a Solex or motorcycle carbs. It seems to rely totally on the mixture needle. Any way I cleaned it out and filled it with oil.

It had a homemade filter on it which I decided to junk and replace with my own design/ bodge . I made a flat plate that matched the inlet ports on the carb. Then I found a bit of steel tube. (One of those disposable welding cylinders, the kind that say do not pierce or burn ). It was a pretty good fit with a domestic rain gutter elbow to start with, but I turned down the outside to make a very tight fit on the inside of the elbow. This was welded to the back plate to make the top hat in the picture.

Then I have used a couple of other rain gutter elbows and some rain gutter to make a breather pipe. I have suck a boy racer stile(cheep ) foam filter on the end of the pipe. The inlet ends by the gear box for now. I was thinking that a later point I could make it into a kind of snorkel at the back of the cab.( The cross sectional area of the pipe is at least 2 ½ times the size of the carb in let, so I do not think this will cause any restrictions in air flow )

Pipe work/Carb in place.

Lastly I put the “colour tune” on to try and tune the carb (without the inlet pipe work in place). I had got the Screw that moves the needle surround backed all the way off (lean mixture), the throttle butterfly all the way closed. The mixture still seemed to be rich. I backed off the large air bleed screw as much as I could (without taking it out), but I was not able to get a decent blue flame. The mixture still seemed to be too rich. Anybody got any ideas what I need to do to get it better

[Wheeledbeast]

I have been trying to get a new rear panel. I had waited a week for it and it became apparent it would not arrive in time for the MOT. So I made an emergency bodge out of some ¼ inch plywood.

Does not look too bad, I am actually starting to like it .

[DasLandRoverMan]

You might consider redoing it in 3mm ally or similar, but yeah, looks fine, and as the back end doesn't have another bit of tin over the top of it to trap grot then it can surely be considered a successful improvement over the original?

[Wheeledbeast]

there is a bent aluminium plate on order to re cover the back, but it was /is not ready in time for the MOT . I will look better once it is finished

[Wheeledbeast]

I will look better once it is finished

....ER no i will not i think i meant It will look better once finished

Took the FC out for a long-ish road run to see how we got on (15 miles or so). I need to adjust the lock stops on the steering as on full lock the tyres are catching on something, probably the springs. The electric fan seems to be working better and does actually go off and on while you are are driving (rather than being permanently on ). Reached speeds in excess of 55mph and 4000 revs . Oddly the engine seems to be much happier at very high revs not at all like a normal Land rover engine The bad news is that when I got back I found the exhaust manifold was red hot ( as in literally glowing red ). So hot in fact that the floor in the crew compartment was starting to smoulder . Something will need to be done about that, but I am not sure what just yet
I suppose I could hose down the floor before long journeys

[Wheeledbeast]

I have reset the ignition timing 10 degrees before TDC static. I have taken the exhaust off to have a look. I looked and what I saw was not much . The manifold gasket was blowing a little, but other than that I did not find any problems I have ordered new gaskets (It is three separate two port gaskets rather than one big one). I am going to have a look at the tappets while the exhaust is off, and, well after all that fingers crossed we will have cured the day glow exhaust problem.

[Wheeledbeast]

So far so good. I have adjusted the exhaust tappets, but did not find anything particularly wrong with them. I have fitted new manifold gaskets and re fitted the exhaust.



so far there are no leaks and the cab is much quieter, but everything still seems to get very hot. The water temperature is fine and the exhaust is no longer pink, but the bonnet engine cover is still warm, and it is hard work to hold your hand near to the dizzy because of the heat . Any ideas Is this normal
I have been using the starting handle from the ¾ ton to turn the engine over. This is fine for repair work, but it is much too short to be used to start the engine. I think you would end up with either a broken radiator or a broken hand .
I would be interested in photos of the inside bonnet/ engine cover area on other people’s trucks. Is there a seal to keep the hot air out of the cab How does the engine cover fasten down Any advice appreciated.

[Wheeledbeast]

Here is my latest modification. The problem I have been having is the excessive heat caused by the exhaust. The Engine cover gets too hot to handle (literally ). The cab becomes very warm. I am also a bit concerned about the heat around the dizzy .
I have made a heat shield from a piece of aluminum I found at the side of the road. I have no idea what it is from, but I do know FreeLanders have something very similar under their petrol tanks, so this is probably a common thing on modern cars. I fitted three L shaped support brackets to the exhaust manifold studs. One to the center 9/16” stud and one to each of the ½” studs at the end of the manifold. I have then bent and trimmed the aluminum to suit. I may have to consider another support bracket off the manifold to exhaust pipe union, I am not sure yet.


Went out for a test drive last night and all seemed good. The heat shield stayed secure and the heat in the cab has been reduced considerably. The engine cover is pleasantly warm to the touch, rather than taking the skin off your hand, which is an improvement . But….
…..Guess what doesn’t work. The petrol tank sender unit . Foolishly I tested the unit by wiggling the arm up and down with an empty tank. This made the fuel gauge move and I assumed all was well. It turns out that the hinge is too tight to move under gravity so the gauge reads full all the time .
Initially I noticed a miss fire at full throttle (this tended to coincide with going uphill, but I was not smart enough to work that out at the time ). Then going up a particularly steep and twisty hill it gave up the ghost. So a short evening drive turned into a pleasant if long evening walk .
Despite the fact that I only been doing short journeys I seem to have racked up 90 odd miles very quickly. ( Also sounds like the fuel economy is rather poor ).

[Wheeledbeast]

One step forwards one step back . I am looking at converting the IIA forward control to LPG. The first step is to fit an LPG mixer plate ( choke) on the front of the carb. The plate is only around ¾ of an inch thick, but I only had half an inch clearance between the chassis and the air filter assembly I built in august .

I cut up the old top had and welded it on to the end of a length of box section. I closed off the other end of the box and cut appropriate holes in it to mount to the carb and the new LPG mixer. The cross section of the Box is larger than the area of the carb inlet, which is also larger than the LPG Mixer. The area of the top hat is bigger than both, although there is a slight reduction where the box meets the top hat. ( still much larger than the carb though. I hope this will all be okay

After cutting lots of paper gaskets I assembled it all. Looks quite pro for something made out of scrap and drain pipe . The final position of the breather has yet to be decided, it might turn into a high level snorkel behind the cab. I have also made a bracket that fits to the gear selector cover to hold the pipe still.

. After a short run every thing seems fine and works just like normal.

[Wheeledbeast]

Trial fit of a Land rover Series 3 Fuel tank in the back if the forward control.


Looks like it is going to work. I will need to fab a new fuel filler and also re-rout the rear electrics, but it seems that this will be the leased hassle option.