Defender 130: a long story
Trevor has finally got his 130 back on the road after a painstaking rebuild (and a few teething problems)
THE Land Rover 130 that I seem to have been building for ages is finally on the road. There were two false starts, which caused setbacks that took longer to deal with than really should have been the case.
The first of these was when I discovered that the battery was not being re-charged after starting the 3.5L diesel engine (which takes an awful lot of cranking power). I put this down to a faulty alternator and it would need to be removed from the engine for repair or replacement. This proved to be a tricky task due to the cramped location in the engine bay and with the complication that the vacuum pump – which provides vacuum for the servo-assisted brakes – is attached to the back of the alternator. I eventually opted to leave the vacuum pump in place at the engine, with the oil feed and return hoses still attached, by unscrewing it from the back of the alternator.
I duly took the alternator to a local automotive electrics specialist who initially said that the best option was for him to order a new alternator – and that he could supply an upgraded 100 AMP one, which was great news. After two weeks, I arrived to collect my new alternator, only to find it was a standard Land Rover item – not the special one needed for the Mazda SL35TI engine. He had heard “Land Rover” and not really listened to me telling him that it was a transplant engine.
Subsequently, the auto electrician tested my original alternator and found it to be working perfectly. However, he saw evidence that the fan belt had been slipping and diagnosed that as my problem. He went on to explain that there is a tremendous load on the belt, driving a hard-working alternator and a vacuum pump at the point.
The hunt for the correct replacement fan belt (one of the older “V” types) was far from straightforward, but Libby at Ellis Auto Parts in Carrickfergus came up trumps with the belt I needed.
The second setback was that I could not get my window wipers to work. Due to the design of the aftermarket bulkhead (roll on the day when a properly-engineered Land Rover bulkhead is readily available!), the wiper wheel boxes have a tendency to collapse against an edge in the bulkhead, if they are tightened up correctly. This meant that the spring core cable of the wiper system cannot travel freely within the wheel boxes.
The solution was to strip out the top of the dash again, fit new wiper wheel boxes and fit a custom spacer – to prevent the crushing from occurring again. I could just about now get them tightened up enough for them to function, without working loose – but they will need to be checked from time to time.
Now that the 130 is on the road as an extended High Capacity Pick UP (HCPU), it is proving to a very versatile and useful truck. I had a HCPU on the road for about one year, a long time ago, but had forgotten how good they are. In just over two weeks, the Land Rover has carried an amazing variety of loads and dealt with many jobs that have been waiting for it to be in service.
The ultimate plan for the 130 is to have a new Tipper body build on the back, but for now the HCPU body is working out just fine. If you don’t need your Land Rover to carry many passengers, a HCPU now gets my vote as the most useful Land Rover!