Practically Classics Forum

.....How I wish that a book which is almost 3" thick would spread far enough to go under the scanner! I'm confused as to what merit Solihull thought there was in overstating weights, and if Haynes had put together each decade's edition of Autodata I'd by now be doubting that the well-known industry standard work of reference was correct, but it's the weights from that source that are supplied to such bodies as VOSA and HMR&C, via Thatcham.

Oddly enough though, I'd somehow be more inclined to believe a bloke from the Midlands, especially if he wore a beige store coat and had a pencil sticking out from its top pocket. A flat cap would have me doubting the universal source of reference further still. Especially one with a little pigeon sh*t on the brim.
The only error I ever found in among the three editions that cover my past career was a typo in the capacity section of the Citroen A series engine pages which had a 2CV4 at 4,250cc.

They did it again, didn't they. Bugger!

Does anyone want an apparently useless lump of paper that weighs (genuinely, as checked on my bathroom scales) 1St & 4Lb?

JPB wrote:I'm confused as to what merit Solihull thought there was in overstating weights

Perhaps artificially inflating the towing capability?

I have made some progress - I found the engine number! It's a good example of how useful a digital camera is: I took a close-up of the back of the block/head, came indoors and put on the PC, zoomed in and saw a rivet and an "O". Feeling lucky, I then went out and sprayed the area with carburettor cleaner (I bought for the mower and rotavator) and a brush. Within a few minutes and a halogen light, I could make the rest of the numbers out and have put them on the V5.

I gather Swansea are a lot tougher these days - they seem to want the V5 from the donor vehicle, along with previous owner's photo id, full service history and a complete path back to the mine the iron ore was dug up! I suspect I may have problems, but hope they realise that it's a pretty old conversion!

I had a closer look underneath yesterday and, after finding the dog's ball, noticed that the gearbox cross member is bolted in place. One or two other things make me suspect that it isn't a August 1971 build - like the lack of syncro in 2nd gear (apparently the very last S2As had it - mine is registered a month before S3 production). The back cross member seems rather light, which makes me wonder if it was originally a lightweight (a misnomer I know!).

Apparently, with a few mods, the 300Tdi engine will fit - one thing it needs is a remote oil filter (or new engine mounting as the filter blocks the original one). I suspect the old gearbox won't cope with that much power - especially as I keep forgetting the lack of syncromesh! One of the lads at the garage recko9ns I should put a petrol engine in again. I wonder what Swansea would say about that!!

Have you had a look to see what a good used box that will fit without cutting the tunnel apart will cost? It may be worth your while getting a spare anyway if yours is tired then you have one to rebuild while the other is in use. Driving sensibly there is no reason for a standard box to die but if you are pulling lots of weight it may be worth thinking about an upgrade to an r380, "modern" transfer box, etc. The 300TDi is a much nicer engine than the 200 (in my opinion) and can be made to fit with some custom engine mounts / inner wing modification to clear the turbo. It is a very well documented conversion so you should be able to find some guides with no problems or I can dig through my mountain of LRO and find the series for you if you need.

The bolt-on gearbox crossmember implies that it's ex-military, but I don't think it suggests anything about the age.
Some (or all?) of them also had different looking rear crossmembers.

DVLA are much easier going about engine changes to older vehicles. When I updated mine from 2 1/4 diesel to 3.3 diesel (Perkins 4.203) the V5C just came straight back with the new details, no hassle at all.
I think you mentioned that the V5 identifies it as a Series 2a. I don't believe that's normal (my 1970 88" doesn't say so at all) so suspect that someone added that detail when applying for a new logbook.
(The cynic in me suspects there's a very obvious reason why they applied for a new one. Have you looked it up on www.motinfo.gov.uk?)

I confess that the back cross member is strange to my eye, so I guessed the possibility of a lightweight (I know little about them!). The older gearbox and cross member suggested ex-military and, having driven a RAF blue "P" reg S2A in 1975/6 (with early dash and late wings!), I know they used to register ex-forces vehicles with a current number (the P reg was bought in 75 to replace an earlier S2A) - I can't remember when that practice ended, I think it was when they started using "Q".

So far, apart from buying the car, I've spent about £600 and done under 20 miles! I don't think I can afford to use it at that rate!! I don't want to swap anything for a while - it's more a case of making it safe, legal and reliable(ish)at the moment and then seeing if I get enough use to justify the insurance cost! I hope it is viable - even with the quirks: I've always likes driving Land Rovers - even the 6-potter at 70 MPH and the early S2A that had a crack clear through the chassis - it shrunk when you accelerated!

It was one of the lads at the garage who said the 300 was a better engine and he's pretty well up in Land Rovers (he usually ends up swearing at them while his brother gets the nice easy ones and modern stuff). They had Rover 600D on the MOT bay this morning - it made me feel a lot better about the smoke from the Landy - that only smokes when I start it up: we couldn't see through the smoke when he revved the 600! I say lads - the younger one is 61/62!

It was actually a LR forum that minded me about the difficulty of registering an engine change - though it may have been a newer machine. I suspect a lot depends on who deals with it. I know that, had our local DVLA been open, it would have been relatively easy as there were a couple of sensible and helpful human beings there - I suspect there would be the odd awkward one too!

When I did the like forr like change in the Landy the dvla were no problem, whenI put the V8 in the TR they wanted a letter from a garage (would not accept a chartered engineer!!!), fortunatelly I got that for nothing from a freind who used to be a MOT tester.

When I first saw yours I thought it had a military rear X member and the removeable Gearbox member would also support this, could ahev been re-chassied or an original fitment, either way It's pretty par for the course.

As for the weights, manufacturers quote the lowest possible weights because this defines the mass used to measure emissions and fuel economy, the stated weight probably did not include any options such as heater, towbar, matts, locks etc

Kevin

Richard Moss wrote:

JPB wrote:I'm confused as to what merit Solihull thought there was in overstating weights

Perhaps artificially inflating the towing capability?

Back in the day (Series 1) Landrover picups were often used as towing / recovery vehicles, even though I believe this practice was stopped due to either GVW regs or more likely the load exceeded the safe working limit for loading the rear axle

Maybe you should think about having one of these instead:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rover-20 ... 3cd46d1ad5
This will please / horrify both our Volvo and Land Rover loving members

I think this one would be more your style Terry:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Morris-Minor- ... 232e19736e

I can't remember when I last saw something that spoilt two good vehicles so successfully!