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1971 Series IIa 88" Overhaul

I left the tank soaking with the citric acid solution for a couple of days. It didn't look like it was doing anything as there was no bubbles or frothing like I expected and peering into the filler neck I could still see through the liquid to the bottom. Things looked pretty much the same. So I drained and rinsed it. The rinsing was the key as it washed off the layer of corrosion leaving bare metal. Well mostly bare metel. There's still a few spots of "stuff" in there but good enough. It worked really well actually and I'll be trying this method again in the future. Before and after:
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I dried out the tank and sloshed some motor oil around inside to temporarily hold back the rust. I should probably do a liner kit or at least the tea idea but I'm not going to. I'll run it as-is and try to keep the tank full.
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The real surprise in all this was the sending unit. It looked awful when I first removed it and was frozen solid. I used it to plug its hole in the tank when doing the acid wash, thinking that I really couldn't wreck it any more than it was and would obviously be needing a replacement. It looked markedly better upon removal from the acid bath and amazingly was mechanically free. Huh. I pried off the cover and washed it out good with baking soda, dried it off with compressed air, and crimped it back together. I put an ohmmeter on it and it works! Far out man! šŸ˜†
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So with the tank pretty much settled I finished up on my home-built dizzy clamp. I'd done a bit more poking around for a replacement but came to the realization that a new one is scarce and far away and I'd have to find a used one. That sounded like more work than finishing up my pieces so I went at it. Two hours of saw and file work with a touch of welding and she's done. It's not my best work but it looks alright and a tad more sturdy than the original I think. I should have welded the bolt head to the clamp but too late now...
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So I'll button up the tank fittings and install the distributor tonight. Tomorrow I'll do some scrounging for a piece of suitable sheet metal and fab up a new front tank outrigger as the old one is shot. It doesn't look too tricky - just a couple of bends and three holes.
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All looking very impressive. Never seen citric acid used in that way before, it is remarkably effective. I'll have to keep that one in mind.
Love the basket made from "oil resistant jointing" hopefully it puts up more of a fight than the material originally used by Land Rover. Though in fairness to them they never described them as gaskets. Theirr description was typically "joint washer"
 
Neil said:
All looking very impressive. Never seen citric acid used in that way before, it is remarkably effective. I'll have to keep that one in mind.
Love the basket made from "oil resistant jointing" hopefully it puts up more of a fight than the material originally used by Land Rover. Though in fairness to them they never described them as gaskets. Theirr description was typically "joint washer"
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Ah yes... "Joint washer". I noticed that all the literature I've read refers to the paper seal between two surfaces as such. I've always know them to be gaskets. Just another UK vs. North America difference in jargon I suppose. Funny how many differences there are considering that we both supposedly speak English. šŸ¤£
 
No, no, no we call them gaskets as well. It is just that Land Rover didn't. Presumably so they can have a get out clause when people complain about leaks.
"Well sir, we never described it as a gasket, we refer to it as a joint washer and you should not infer that it's purpose is to prevent the outward migration of any fluid."
Some of the gaskets joint washers Land Rover used are so thin both in terms of CSA and thickness of material that I don't know why they ever bothered fitting them in the first place.
Reminds me of a friend building an engine, many years ago, and rather than use any gaskets he lapped all the joint faces, including the cylinder head/block
 
Neil said:
No, no, no we call them gaskets as well. It is just that Land Rover didn't. Presumably so they can have a get out clause when people complain about leaks.
"Well sir, we never described it as a gasket, we refer to it as a joint washer and you should not infer that it's purpose is to prevent the outward migration of any fluid."
Some of the gaskets joint washers Land Rover used are so thin both in terms of CSA and thickness of material that I don't know why they ever bothered fitting them in the first place.
Reminds me of a friend building an engine, many years ago, and rather than use any gaskets he lapped all the joint faces, including the cylinder head/block
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Haha! That's pretty funny. So it's a Land Rover thing then. Interesting. It sounds rather Britpart'esqe if I do say so myself. Maybe they knew early on that they'd be selling us out to a devil in a Blue-Box! šŸ˜
 
SeriesG said:
Things looked pretty much the same. So I drained and rinsed it.
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Yeah, that's the gotcha moment.
First time I did citric dip I was massively disappointed and just tossed the parts on some old rags...which rolled over and the rags wiped just a bit to clear the surface gunk.
Picked them up, a proper wipe then a rinse off. Then I was citric hooked!
It doesn't actually cause material loss either, as even though it's an acid, it doesn't work by 'eating' off the surface, whatever it may be, but chemically reacts with the rust.

Chelation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
If you need some toilet reading.
The upshot is you almost can't leave things in for too long, so you don't need to worry and set timers or whatever. Just dump in and go do whatever for a weekend or so then see what's gone on.

Nice bonus it revived your tank sender too!
 
SWBFreeLoader said:
Yeah, that's the gotcha moment.
First time I did citric dip I was massively disappointed and just tossed the parts on some old rags...which rolled over and the rags wiped just a bit to clear the surface gunk.
Picked them up, a proper wipe then a rinse off. Then I was citric hooked!
It doesn't actually cause material loss either, as even though it's an acid, it doesn't work by 'eating' off the surface, whatever it may be, but chemically reacts with the rust.

Chelation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
If you need some toilet reading.
The upshot is you almost can't leave things in for too long, so you don't need to worry and set timers or whatever. Just dump in and go do whatever for a weekend or so then see what's gone on.

Nice bonus it revived your tank sender too!
Click to expand...
Yeah it works really good - I'm sold. I'm going back to the local sausage shop and picking up another couple of kilos. I've got a Rubbermaid tub already set up and I'm going to do my hubs and brake drums next. Thanks for turning me on to this method - it's much appreciated! šŸ˜€
 
I'm getting excited as things are really starting to come together. A big box of parts showed up today from LR Centre including Mintex/Delphi brake kits, real Girling flex hoses, OEM wheel bearing kits, spindle seal rings, a brake servo rebuilt kit, and a shiney new made-in-china Britpart master cylinder. I told my wife that was the last big order from UK: I might have stretched the truth on that a bit...
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The Mintex shoes and Delphi cylinders "look" alright as does the chinese master cylinder. I'm sure they'll work out fine for the immediate future at least. The "OEM" grade wheel bearing kits are quite good actually: NTN bearings from Japan and real Corteco seals - nice. Of course the Girling brake hoses look excellent.
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So I went at removing the old master cylinder and servo system. The original master was rusted hard to the servo and once apart justified my fears: I need a new servo - its knackered. I knew that'd be the way of it but wasted the time and money buying a "rebuild kit" for it anyway. Why do we ignore our gut feelings? Almost always they prove correct. šŸ™„ I cleaned up and painted the clutch pedal assembly so tomorrow I should be able to put that together at least.
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So yeah, I've made another semi-major parts order (sorry babe!) and a new servo is on the way along with a pair of genuine Britpart swivel seals and some other odds and ends. I bought inner front axle bearings and seals too but hope to put off installing them until later. I guess we'll see what things look like once I'm in there.
 
Once the clutch pedal assembly was painted and lubed I loosely bolted up the new clutch master cylinder to it, applied some Dum-dum caulk to the base, and fastened it in place on the bulkhead. I then hooked up the hard line with its adapter fitting. All good so far.
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Then I went on to attempt to install the new clutch slave flex line and was stymied: each parts supply house I'd referenced said that the late Series IIa clutch slave flex line was equivalent to the front brake flex line of the same year - not so in this case. Length and end seal style was the same but the thread was different: 7/16UNF on the original and 3/8UNF on the replacement. Alrighty then, re-use the original it is. I'll try to source the correct new part soon.
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SeriesG said:
Once the clutch pedal assembly was painted and lubed I loosely bolted up the new clutch master cylinder to it, applied some Dum-dum caulk to the base, and fastened it in place on the bulkhead. I then hooked up the hard line with its adapter fitting. All good so far.
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Then I went on to attempt to install the new clutch slave flex line and was stymied: each parts supply house I'd referenced said that the late Series IIa clutch slave flex line was equivalent to the front brake flex line of the same year - not so in this case. Length and end seal style was the same but the thread was different: 7/16UNF on the original and 3/8UNF on the replacement. Alrighty then, re-use the original it is. I'll try to source the correct new part soon.
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I feel your pain, having opened several large containers full of worms when I started looking into the work done by the previous owner of mine. Like you I pretty much knew what I was going to find but you try to convince yourself that it won't be the case.
As ever though, lovely work on your project.
 
Neil said:
I feel your pain, having opened several large containers full of worms when I started looking into the work done by the previous owner of mine. Like you I pretty much knew what I was going to find but you try to convince yourself that it won't be the case.
As ever though, lovely work on your project.
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Thanks Neil, it's nice to know I'm not the only one who finds oddball OEM glitches or strange previous-owner repairs. It's not a big deal really but it is a bit of a pain in the a$$ budget-wise. I'm building a rather large box of new parts that didn't fit where they were supposed to! šŸ˜
 
SeriesG said:
Once the clutch pedal assembly was painted and lubed I loosely bolted up the new clutch master cylinder to it, applied some Dum-dum caulk to the base, and fastened it in place on the bulkhead. I then hooked up the hard line with its adapter fitting. All good so far.
View attachment 530259
View attachment 530260
Then I went on to attempt to install the new clutch slave flex line and was stymied: each parts supply house I'd referenced said that the late Series IIa clutch slave flex line was equivalent to the front brake flex line of the same year - not so in this case. Length and end seal style was the same but the thread was different: 7/16UNF on the original and 3/8UNF on the replacement. Alrighty then, re-use the original it is. I'll try to source the correct new part soon.
View attachment 530261
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Just a quick note on the clutch. Don't be surprised if it's a bitch to bleed properly. I had to take several goes at mine before I got all the air out. The problem is the pipe is a large bore and it has a couple of sharp bends in it that trap air very easily. I even contemplated pumping the fluid up from the bleed nipple on the slave cylinder to try and over come the trapped air.
 
Guitar Mick said:
Just a quick note on the clutch. Don't be surprised if it's a bitch to bleed properly. I had to take several goes at mine before I got all the air out. The problem is the pipe is a large bore and it has a couple of sharp bends in it that trap air very easily. I even contemplated pumping the fluid up from the bleed nipple on the slave cylinder to try and over come the trapped air.
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Thanks for the heads up. My son just picked up a vacuum brake bleeding kit - maybe I could put it to use bleeding this clutch system...
 
SWBFreeLoader said:
Put the new one straight into the slave cylinder, avoiding using the adaptor part.
Should be just fine (don't forget your copper washer!).
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That's a fine idea, thanks! Perhaps I can find a step-down adapter for the other end. I might even have one in my box of brake line extras.
 
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