Category Archives: 1983 Ninety

A 2017 Update

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Well as the blog hasn’t been updated in a while, I thought I would take some time and post an update.

Jordan

1966 Series 2:

The car was sold the tail end of 2016 as an unfinished project.  progress stalled on the car and never really got going again.

2006 Disco 3

The car is still going, recently had a handbrake module replaced.  Another repair carried out by land rover was to resolve a recall issue of oil in the brake system.  This had already been done once but the issue re occurred, so they eventually sorted it again.

Disco 2

Since selling the Series 2 Jordan has also purchased a Disco 2 4 ltr V8.  Initially it was sold as the previous owner had put diesel in the tank and tried to start it so some basic work was carried out the car is now taxed and tested and back on the road.

Ian

1983 Ninety

Following a change of job and moving away in May 2016 I don’t have day to day involvement with my car any more, but it is still going driven by my dad on a daily basis.

At the end of October 2016 we made a small addition to the car to allow us to sleep inside it while going to watch Wales Rally GB, this involved some support bars and sheets of marine ply.  Made for a very handy night out kept out of the elements, will post some photos of this later.

Other issues at the moment with the car is the Wipac LED side lights keep blowing fuses up to 15A so more investigation is required.

Nick

1986 110

No change on this yet the car is still as it was when picked up.

Disco 1

Still owned but currently not used.

2001 Disco 2

The car previously owned by Jordan is now mainly used for spare parts.

Disco 2

A TD5 Auto car which has some off road modifications such as tyres bumpers, LED light bar.

Kelsey & Pete

2006 90 TD5

Kelsey and Pete still use this car, recent additions of some 5 bar tread plate, apart from that the car is mostly used on road.

Tom

1993 90 300TDi

Following the rebuild not heard of any more issues with the car, still see it driving around.

Matthew

People are told, if you can’t say anything nice about a person, don’t say anything…

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Tom’s Car : Started

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Well last night we finally got round to starting work on changing Tom’s chassis.  This time round we are going to try and take the body off the car in one piece so that we haven’t got to worry about lining all the panels back up at the end of it.

To do this we have got 3 editions of Land Rover Monthly, which handily show the the process using a 2 post ramp to remove the body.  while we are reliant on human power we think it can be done.

So last night we carried out the following steps:

  • Removed the 10 M8 x 20 bolts from the rear of the tub to cross member tabs
  • Removed the 4 screws holding the filler neck to the tub
  • Removed the Gear lever
  • Removed handbrake cable
  • Removed front bumper

The next steps will be undoing the other connections between body and chassis such as fixing bolts electricals and ancillaries then looking to remove the wings and bonnet to make the body work removal easier.

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A long needed update

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Well things have been a bit manic recently so updates were last thing on the mind.

But alas here we are April 2015 and here is an update on how things are going.

Ian’s Car – 200tdi 90

Well 12 months since the rebuild finished, its MOT time again.  Car went in for its test Tuesday 7th April.  It failed 😦  The issues were headlights weren’t bright enough, the drivers door wouldn’t open from inside the car.

So all in all not too bad, but the worst item was down as an advisory but actually caused the end of the test.  A UJ in the rear prop had failed to the point where the tester wasn’t willing to carry out deceleration tests.  The prop was unbolted and the UJ’s purchased and replaced.  the prop then bolted back on and boy did it make a difference.

The door not opening was a case of adjustments on the mechanism for the handles just shortened them a bit and opening now much easier.

The headlights were the biggest concern.  As I have high performance bulbs fitted to the car when the tester said they didn’t register on the testing machine.  So reading around the subject points at a burnt out light switch causing poor performance.  The solution is to put a relay feed to the lights.  I purchased a Red Bison Boomslang from Paddockspares for £30 it was a bargain for the entire kit.  I had it fitted in no time and made a massive improvement, its a product I would recommend to anyone.

MOT Retest 18 April 1pm.  Result: Car passed

Jordan’s Series II

Well not much work has been done on the car since November, panels are now painted but not yet fitted to the car.  The accelerator has now been refitted and the car can be driven around.

The main reasons for this is we have been busy working on Jordan’s Discovery 2, which since november has had a number of coolant hoses as it has been loosing coolant and the pressure build up has popped them.  We have now replaced the suspected cause of the coolant loss and so far so good.

Nick’s Discovery

It has been plodding along as normal.  We had a bit of fun while jet washing it ready for MOT when the jet wash smashed the sun roof.  so that has been replaced and the alpine windows have been taken out and covered over.

Matthews Series.

As Matthew has decided he isn’t friends with 2 / 3 of us working on Land Rovers there will be no further updates about his car as we dont see him any more.

New Cars:

Yes we have been joined by two more land rovers that we can enjoy working on.

Daisy The Defender is a 2006 TD5 90, owned by some friends we have had a little bit of work to do on the car already including replacing a failed fuel pump and then adding some new bits such as chequer plate wing tops and a new bumper.  With being such a new car there shouldnt be that much to do on it for now.

Tom’s 300tdi 90, this is going to be our next big project, Toms car is in need of a new chassis, due to the amount of rust it has, we could go down the route of repair pieces but Tom fancies doing a chassis, so one has been ordered so big project ahead for the summer.  There should be plenty of updates on this one.

November Update

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Well after being quiet for a while since we updated the site so here is where we are up to at the moment.  Pictures of the cars will follow soon.

Car 1 –

The last update showed the van sides and roof bolted in place.  Since then we have fixed the inner sills and seat box in place, offered up the floor panels for a fit.

We have also replaced the carb that was originally on the car as when it ran there was a terrible misfire, we now put this down to an assumption the rotor arm moved one direction where it actually went the other so the ignition was only right on 2 cylinders.

With the running sorted we have actually had a short drive around and the engine seems to run very nicely indeed.  Hopefully will add a video to show this soon.

The bonnet has now been rubbed down and ready to paint, with the wings to follow.

Car 2 –

Not much has happened for now with the car still gently running it in driving most days.  We ventured on a 2 hour drive out to Betws-Y-Coed to watch the Cambrian rally in the middle of October, on the way home the car cut out with a diesel leak, eventually we got it home.

On the Sunday after the cause turned out to be the Fuel lift pump, as we revved the engine a mist was seen coming out the bulkhead side.  This was replaced and has run fine since.

We also fitted a pair of Wipac 100w 8″ spot lamps on the front for helping with night time driving on the dark lanes in the area,

That was until today, where got in it this morning and it wouldn’t turn over. Not sure what the issue is at present but will be looking in to it.

Car 4 –

Well progress on this car has moved on a bit now.  Body panels have been repaired painted and refitted, the rear electrics have been fitted.  A set of standard lamps had been fitted but as the owner turned 21 our birthday present to him was a set of wipac LED lamps for front and back.  The issue this has now caused is the need to change from a 2 pin flasher relay to a 4 pin set up.

The hope is to have the car rebuilt and in for MOT by the end of November.

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Car 4 : Update on rebuild

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Well this is a quick update on progress of car 4’s rebuild, there has been so much done to be documented fully.

Front axles rebuilt fully

Chassis rubbed down, repaired & painted

Front & Rear springs replaced with parabolic springs & new shocks fitted

Bulkhead – stripped, repaired, primed, painted, rebuilt & refitted

Front Grill panel – stripped, repaired, primed, painted and refitted

Engine – refurbished, refitted and running.

New exhaust system fitted

Wings & bonnet have been rubbed down primed, painted and fitted

Hopefully we will get a more detailed update with photos soon.

UPDATE:

Over the weekend we did enough work that the engine now fires up using the key and the car has had a short drive around the garden to give it a little test and move around under the car port.

Most of the front electricals have been sorted now.  Side, Dipped, Main and indicator lamps all work, along with the horn.  so left to wire is the washer pump and heater motor.  A rear chassis loom has also been made and will be plugged in tonight and tested for the rear lights.  The next big step is getting the panels all lined up before they get painted and any holes than need drilling can be put in.

Car 2 : Lighting Upgrade Part 2

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Well after the dashboard lighting was improved with LED’s after some issues with the Britpart lamp kit I fitted during the rebuild which included the plastic housings melting on the stop tail lights!

A few weeks ago i purchased Wipac LED lights for the outside of the car, 2 front side lights, 2 stop / tail lights and indicators front and back.  The kit also came with a flasher relay designed for the lower power consumption of the LED’s

The main issue with the lamps were the wiring connections that were for 300tdi + cars so I also purchased adapters to bullet connections.  Also the mounting points were 2 screws on the horizontal centre line of the light.

So I had to drill the body work for the mounting holes then removed the old lights and bolted the new ones in place and connected them up.  

There is one fault with the LED indicators that they only work if wired backwards, they work fine with indicators but the hazard switch currently isn’t working so thats something to look at.

Car 2 : Suspension Change

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Well after running the car for a few weeks we noticed that the steering wasn’t as good as before the rebuild and we had put it down to castor issues after fitting 2 inch lift springs.

So we purchased a set of AllMakes springs that were standard height and today we got around to fitting them.  We lifted the back of the car letting the axle droop a little then compressed the springs and got them out.  We could slip the new ones back in without the spring compressors so bolted the retaining plates back in and the back was done.

The fronts were slightly harder, we had to remove the bottom nut of the shock absorber compressed the springs and then the shock we had just enough time to pull it out before the shock extended again.  a bit longer and a bit of a harder job but we got it done, in the space of a couple of hours we had all the springs done and it bolted back down again.

This improved the issues we had with steering massively the car now feels pretty much as it did before the rebuild which is great news.

Also while working today we topped up the oil a bit more after the running in and also re bled the brakes.

Car 2 : 6 Weeks on

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Well car 2 has been on the road for 6 weeks now, with no major mechanical issues to report there are just some minor things we are wanting to look at.

Air Filter

We have recently taken out the air filter housing finished making little changes to the feed pipe and painted.  we went with a spray version of ht Gentian blue the car is painted in and we are happy with the finish.

Thermostat

The car is currently without a thermostat, with it fitted the temp gauge goes very high and was causing concern to us.  The thermostat was taken out and tested on the cooker and opened fine, so we think we need to refit and find out how to bleed the 200TDI cooling system.

Steering

We have some concerns over the steering, we are getting a bit of movement while driving along and your never sure about how much steering to put in when going round corners.

We have spoken to the company that provided the suspension kit and discussed the issues, and the outcome was, the movement while driving might be a side effect of the 50mm lift on the coil springs, making the panhard rod be changing the alignment of the front and rear axles so the car is essentially crabbing along the road.

The vague steering might be caused by the castor of the front axles being out with the lift.

So we are currently looking at the solutions,

Option 1 : fit castor correction arms and adjustable pan hard rod – approx cost £420 allows to keep the new TF201 kit intact

Option 2 : fit standard height springs that should solve the castor and pan hard rod issues – approx cost £80 means working to change the springs all round.

Will update the blog when choices are made.

 

Car 4 : Start of Rebuild

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Well since the beginning of April the car ran out of tax so it was decided to undergo a restoration rebuild like the other cars we have been working on.

Over a couple of days the car was stripped down to a bare chassis, as the build had been planned for a couple of weeks some parts had been ordered so work could begin.

Strip down didnt take too long. The previos owner had a strange obsession with “denso tape” a horrible sticky material based tape. Every not and bolt and bracket was covered in it… initially this was thought to be a nightmare… but in practise, it made stripping down very easy as once removed, it had preserved the nuts and bolts very well… no rusty bolts!
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Before strip down… the car was fully road worthy… driven into the garage on friday night.
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First step was axle removal… very easy with a 9 inch grinder. All springs, bolts and shackle plates being replaced anyway.
Next step… bodywork.
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Next stage was engine removal… with the assistance on the engine crane thus was an easy job. The owner of the series 2 however did find an interesting way to lower the engine down onto the pallet.
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A good weekends work. By sunday night we had a bare chassis.
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