Richard Hall’s Norfolk Garage
Our man explains why he loves old Land Rovers
he selectable four-wheel drive system on Series Land Rovers is delightfully simple, but a long way from foolproof in operation. These vehicles really do not like being driven on tarmac with 4WD selected: having the front and rear axles locked together puts enormous strain on the driveshafts and differentials, and in the end something will let go. So when a late Series III turned up at the workshop with the yellow knob firmly in the down position I had a few words of advice to offer its novice owner. He had been greenlaning for the first time the previous weekend and had simply forgotten to disengage four-wheel drive on reaching civilisation again.
Fortunately no damage seemed to have been done to the vehicle, but it was only a couple of weeks before I had a fine example of what can happen. The young owner of a very tidy, original Series IIA had been having trouble with the four-wheel drive selector mechanism, and had ended up having to drive it for some distance with 4WD engaged. This sometimes happens when four-wheel drive and/or low ratio have not been used for some time. The selector rods become corroded where they emerge from the front of the transfer box and stick, preventing the ingenious spring-loaded mechanism from doing its stuff. In these circumstances the safest option is to remove the front propshaft as a temporary measure. But this owner decided to chance it, and after a few miles there was a loud bang from the back axle followed by some very strange noises, so the vehicle came into the workshop on a recovery truck.
A quick look underneath revealed several bumps and a couple of small holes in the back of the axle casing, and on removing the differential unit it was not hard to see the cause. One of the planet gears inside the differential had broken into four pieces, and the smallest piece had become wedged between the crownwheel and the differential casing. Although repairable, it was going to be easier to substitute an unbroken differential unit. I had a dig round the
Tdark corners of the workshop and came up with a 4.7 ratio differential of 1960 vintage, salvaged from a scrapped trailer but in good condition apart from needing a new pinion seal.
I welded up the holes in the axle casing and gave the area a good smear of heavy duty epoxy to make sure there would be no leaks. Differential back in, followed by halfshafts (noting as I did so that someone had recently had the hubs off and forgotten to bend over the locking tabs after refitting the hub nuts), I could then turn my attention to the four wheel drive selector mechanism.
The selector rods are ‘protected’ by a pressed steel cover which is decidedly less than water-tight, which explains how they can become rusted. It is just about possible to access this area without removing the drivers’ side floor, but as the reverse gear detent gate seemed faulty I decided to pull the floors and transmission tunnel out.
After cleaning up the ends of the rods, greasing them and working them back and forth a few times, I had the selector mechanism working as Land Rover intended. But the reverse gear issue turned out to be slightly more involved: I was expecting to find a broken spring on the hinged flap that prevents reverse from being selected instead of first, but the hinged flap on this vehicle was missing altogether. A scrap gearbox donated the necessary parts.
Once the floors were back in, the last job was to find out why the vehicle was only running on two cylinders. Pulling each plug lead in turn revealed cylinders two and four were making no contribution. The usual cause of this is burnt exhaust valves, caused by running on unleaded fuel without an additive, but not this time: the compression tester registered a nice healthy 150psi. The plugs looked fine, but they were of a make that has given me a couple of unexplained failures in the past. I changed them for a new set of reliable Champions, punched the starter button and the old two and a quarter engine burst into life and settled down to a smooth, happy idle.
The test drive was uneventful: the engine pulled remarkably well, the rear axle was quiet and everything seemed to work as it should. The owner was very pleased to have his Land Rover back with a bill of about half the size he had been expecting, but then I pointed out that the bushes on all four springs were absolutely shot and the springs themselves in poor condition. On a Land Rover of this age, as I explained, there is always something that needs doing. I suspect it will not be too long before I see this vehicle again.