restoration The 110.

[minn200]

[h=2]Wheel Alignment.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Fri, November 18, 2016 16:38:31

After feeling sorry for myself for a while after realising that I was going to have to make some structural alterations to the passenger foot well so the 200tdi's exhaust does not hit it constantly I wandered back outside to have a look at the motor that seems to be the project destined to last for ever.

 

The steering is sort of half replaced so I took a closer look at what was left to do. As I was hunkered down I recalled that the front wheels needed setting up straight before I would be able to do a great deal. This would save me having to take off/adjust the track rod ends later on in the rebuild.

Now I do not own any fancy wheel alignment equipment but what I do own is a long length of rope. I tied this around the rear axle then ran it down the side from wheel to wheel which showed me which way to adjust it.

 

With the first side done and wedged into position I made short work of the other. Afterwards I did a quick double check and great stuff they are both nice, straight and in line now.

 

Then I set the steering box to its centre position and started to fit on the new drop arm. I was advised to do a bit of a mod here so the drop arm is a Discovery one and the new front steering bar I bought did not have any fittings for the steering damper.

 

A quick search on the internet showed that although opinions are split on whether a damper is needed or not it does make the drive a bit better when hitting pot holes etc.

Looks like a trip will be needed to exchange some parts that have already been bought but there was a niggling at the back of my mind to check the spares shed out.

A quick rummage through a shelf full of junk and a heavy duty front steering bar that came as part of a job lot of stuff was soon found complete with a damper mount already welded on!

 

A quick rub down, removal of the old tired track rod ends then a coat of black paint and shiny new ends is problem solved for me.

 

I do still need to pick up a Discovery 1 steering Damper to fit but the parts I have to return to Paddocks will more than cover the cost of that!

All in all it has been a productive day on the old boy.

[minn200]

[h=2]Doors & Dampers.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Thu, November 24, 2016 23:18:33

Unfortunately The 110 is not my only project, you see Wifey did insist that we bought a house now so we could hopefully grow old and grey in it as the years go by. The thing is that she does insist on putting her own mark upon this new home we shall spend out autumn years in so there is now a "list" of improvements that need to be done.

She is one in a million though and is in no great rush to get it all done particularly quickly. That said would not want to impose upon her good nature and just focus upon my own toys all of the time so this afternoon I set to taking down the last pair of 1970's dark brown and shiny doors off of the living room and study.

I wish I had taken a picture of them in situ but I forgot if I am honest and trust me here you are not missing anything at all. These types of cheap formica doors were all of the rage with their highly modern smooth mass produced surfaces. The ones in this house have been here since the place was first built.

 

It didn't take long to get to get them down and in all fairness it was no time at all before the replacements were up in place. As always it took longer to sort out the catches and door furniture than the time to hang the actual doors but the overall effect is quite pleasing, even if I do say so myself.

 

It is nice to keep doing these little jobs putting our own stamp on the new home.

 

That done along with a hearty dinner in my belly and I sat down to chill out for the evening. Yea that lasted all of thirty minutes. I am not one to sit around just looking at the TV so I pondered what to do next.

Well I have had some shiny sun shine bright LED lights fitted under the car port so I could work on The 110 these long dark evenings.

Best try them out then eh!

 

If you recall I was about half way through sorting the steering out on the Land Rover so why not get on with getting it finished? I had popped out at lunchtime to pick up the steering damper so best get on with it eh!

I grabbed the front steering bar, fitted it then attached the damper. I had to go back around all of the front end including the replacement steering box to make sure I had tightened all of the bolts and fitted all of the split pins. Would not want any nasty surprises once we get the old bugger back on the road.

 

The only drawback I can see at the moment with working outside in the evening in Winter is that it is damned chilly to say the least!

Best dig out that thick old babygrow of mine eh!

 

nickysmith.me

[minn200]

[h=2]Stats & Pumps.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sat, November 26, 2016 18:26:57

My youngest was at work. Wifey was out Christmas shopping with her friend for the day, so what does a chap do when the day that lays before him is his own to do with as he pleases? Well what he does is go and grab his friend who's Mrs was out shopping with mine and head off to look at boys stuff all morning!

We hit an Army surplus store then headed off to get the bugs for my Dragon looking at all the other impressive reptiles while we were there of course and to top it off we headed to KFC to have a fat git bucket meal for one as lunch!

 

We were home soon enough though so my attention was soon attracted back to the 110. There are a pile of parts kicking about so in the continued fashion of working from the front backwards I dug out some of the easier parts to fit to the engine.

First up was the thermostat change over. It has been known in the past that anytime I touch the bolts on a thermostat housing, they tend to just snap off leaving half the stud behind.

 

Today though was a good day! They all came lose with a satisfying crack! I soon had them out and the thermostat looked a little past its best.

 

While this was off I took out the Discovery temperature thermostat then cleaned up the whole area scraping off the area to give a good surface to mate up too.

 

 

It is nice when you line up and look at the new and old bits you are about to fit...

 

Or is that just me?

Everything soon dropped back into place so job one was finished.

 

Next up was the old fuel pump. I don't know what was going there before I bought the engine but an old style series engine fuel pump was loosely bolted into place. Off that came and I quickly fitted a shiny new 200tdi one. I found the easiest way to do this believe it or not was to stand on top of the bumper with one foot on the front wheel reaching in with the spanner and socket from above.

 

Now seemed like a good time to start to reattach all of the wiring to the engine so I steadily worked my way through them adding the odd new end here and there to tally things up nicely.

 

I have come across one problem though. You see I meticulously put tape onto each wire and wrote on it where that wire went to so as to save confusion much much later on when I came to refit them all. Well there is just one left over on the nearside that still does indeed have its hand written label on it but the problem is that it has got more than a little mucky. I cannot know read what it says so feel free to have a look at the picture and see if you can decipher it.

 

I will be needing an alternator plug for the loom as well because the old one disintegrated when I took it off of the old engine.

 

As I sat back warming myself with a well earned brew I decided I may as well hook up a battery and see if the old unit would turn over.

So I removed the seat then opened up the battery box, in dropped the battery and I pushed the keys into the ignition. At this point I thought how disappointed I would be if nothing happened here. It would mean that I had done something wrong with the wiring or the starter was past it's best.

With a shrug of my shoulders to myself I turned the key around.

To my immense delight the engine turned over without hesitation, what a sound! I don't think I have ever been so pleased to here an engine not starting before!

 

This feels like a huge milestone to me. I have had this motors guts out and replaced them with the spec I wanted and blow me it seems to be working! I am so much closer to the end of this project than the beginning it is starting to feel like it may be finished sometime soon...

 

nickysmith.me

[minn200]

[h=2]Fuel Lines & Fiddling.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sat, December 03, 2016 12:54:51

December has arrived. That means, in my house anyway, all of the decorations that have lain boxed up in a dusty loft for eleven months of the year now see the light of day once more. What that means for me is a great deal of work putting up decorations, hanging lights on trees and this year it comes with the new experience of putting lights up on the outside of the house.

The only problem with hanging lights up on the outside of your home is the fact that you have to get right up the outside wall balancing on a ladder whilst holding onto the long length of dormant lighting simultaneously hammering in the wall clips to keep it all in place.

 

Ten years ago this would not of bothered me but these days I am not overly keen on balancing on one foot on the top rung reaching as far as I can with a hammer wondering why I don't have two pairs of hands because that would make the job so much easier. My daughter asked "Are you scared of heights Dad?" to which I answered "The heights don't bother me kid, it's the falling from them that does"

Funny how as you get older you realise you would much rather not do some of the things you used to do without thinking. I recall running up and down the same extended ladder cleaning windows on three storey Victorian houses in the wind without batting an eyelid. You literally could not pay me enough to do that now!

Still the lights are up and it will be at least a month before I have to climb the ladder again to take them down again, or I could just leave them up until next year...

 

Progress is being made again on The 110. This week has seen me still focusing on the 200tdi lump I popped in earlier. I decided to have a stab at re-piping the fuel lines and it is here that I must admit that I got it completely wrong.

It looked good with all bases covered but there was just one snag, I had not run in the from and returning to the fuel tank. This may have caused the odd running issue so I posted my bad pipe work online with a big help attached to it and quickly got a large number of responses. I seemed to keep getting this relatively simple task tangled up in my head so I popped around to have a look at a friends motor and as soon as I saw underneath the bonnet I had a "Of course you tool" moment.

It was a tad dark and cold when I got home so the following morning I rearranged the spaghetti pipework and it all now proudly sits where it is supposed to.

 

I could not find a diagram to easily explain it so I have tried to make one up. Feel free to tell me I have got it wrong!

 

As I stood with my wolly hat on drinking a brew convincing myself that it was not quite as chilly as my body was trying to tell me I was getting I thought I may as well tackle plumbing the the meagre heater once again. Lets face it some heat is better than no heat at all! I knew I did not have the correct 200tdi pipework but what I did have was a tub full of old pipework, so I dug that out and soon mackled together a system that would work. Its not the prettiest looking set up and I no doubt will return to it in the future to redo the whole system but for now it is functional and lets face it, you don't look under the bonnet when you are driving along. That and this old beast is not going to be winning any beauty contests any time soon.

 

The only thing left to do really on this engine is to change the cambelt over. Now I have never done this before and there have been offers of help that I will happily accept as not to bugger up the lump before I begin using it.

First up though was to remove the water pump and those swine bolts that like to snap off inside the engine.

Lessons have been learnt in the past of trying to force rusted bolts then ending up weeping quietly in the corner before having to drill out and re-tap the threads, so caution was the buzzword of the day.

 

Nearly all of the bolts cracked off and out easily enough but there was of course the two that did not want to move, at all. Off I toddled into the garage to get the long bars and with more force put onto the bolt heads than I ever wanted to use they started to move slowly. I then kept gently moving them back and forward clearing their threads of the rusty crud that was helping to keep them in situ.

Patience was the name of the game even when I started to get a little bored with this game but I was rewarded ten minutes later with every bolt having come cleanly out of the water pump! A rarity indeed!

 

I did put all of the different length bolts in a piece of cardboard so as to recall where they all go back into so as not to repeat the transfer bolt mix up!

 

The ease of teh bolts coming out and the fact there is no play at all in the water I have just removed leads me to think it could not have been on the engine for too long before the whole lump was removed. I will still replace it with the shiny new one I have bought though just to be on the safe side.

 

It really is nice to be on the service and put back together side of things now. It feels like the project is running towards getting an MOT which should only be a few months away...

 

nickysmith.me

[minn200]

[h=2]Leaps & Bounds.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sat, December 03, 2016 20:29:46

Sometimes I am amazed by the kindness of strangers. Now this may sound stupid but I have, along with my ever suffering Wife, for a great number of years tried to make someone smile everyday. That person can be someone I know but more often than not it's a stranger. Sounds daft eh but a kind act or daft joke normally aimed at myself can make a huge difference to a persons day. I work on the proviso that you don't know other peoples stories so have no idea on what they can be going through, good or bad.

 

Turns out it's not only us that do this. A couple of days ago I put out a request for help on teaching me how to change the cambelt in the 200tdi engine. This is something I had never done before, I had read up on the do's and don'ts which seemed pretty straight forward but really wanted someone around when this was put into practice so I did not bugger the engine up before I had it out for an actual drive.

There were a couple of offers for which I was thankful but after my last blog post went out a chap called James contacted me again to say he had some time straight away if I wanted to get stuck into it!

Now until we met today James was a complete stranger so to say this was a kind offer is probably an understatement but you have to love the fact that there is still this sort of generosity out there.

 

He turned up in short time along with a great deal of tools then ran through what he was doing as the cambelt was slowly exposed behind the cover. First out was a pully to remove the wheel.

 

Then the cover was whipped off.

 

The tensioner was next off as was the other wheel (forget the name, it's late and I am tired) leaving the cambelt just dropping out. Some cleaner was applied then all of the timing lined up.

 

A locking pin was popped into place before most of that (yep I am getting tired and forgetful here) and soon enough the new cambelt was put into place. A couple of rotations and a check later, all was sitting well and where it should be

 

A couple of brews later along with some very good guidance on the transfer box linkage issues I am having and James was off!

I then set to getting the cover back into place along with the new water pump fitted.

First up was cleaning the two mating surfaces off. I spent a bit of time here making sure all of the surfaces were flat and free of any old gaskets and contaminants. That done I popped on a bit of instant gasket around to help hold the new gasket in place.

 

Then I cleaned each and every bolt back to a muck free condition and liberally applied some copper slip before putting them back into the holes that they came from through the cover. Once all were set into place neatly through the gasket I ran around them all a few times gently tightening them all up.

Then out came the new water pump (seeing as the old one was in such good condition I have cleaned it up and kept it as a spare) and that along with its replacement gasket were soon set into place.

 

I do still need to check that I have tightened up the came pulley bolt enough so I have marked this down on my to do list so I don't forget.

Due to the act of kindness from someone who started the day as a stranger I am now so much further on than I thought I would be for a few weeks. Looks like I may have found the hoses I needed for the oil cooler from another friend as well so I may just have this motor running within a week or so!

Is it me or are things starting to get exciting all of a sudden...

 

 

nickysmith.me

[DanTheMan131]

Great progress, well done!

[minn200]

Getting there slowly chap!

[Johnc61]

Getting there slowly chap!

 

Yes, as you said, you're keeping us all smiling as we follow your pictures and story. We're not all next to you and 110 but we are all with you and your restoration

[minn200]

Awww thanks John I am hoping it will be back on the road pretty soon then the conversion to Overlander will begin!

[Johnc61]

............ then the conversion to Overlander will begin!

 

Ooooh! :wow: Overlander conversion. Another awesome level. Can't wait :-D

[minn200]

:-D Yep thats the plan!

[minn200]

[h=2]Belts & Bolts[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sun, December 11, 2016 19:54:23

Well I have had a busy couple of shifts on the 110 over the last 24 hours and I have surprised myself at how many loose ends I have managed to get tied up.

It was all nearly scuppered early on last night when the rain started to fall heavily. Now in the last house it would have been game over but with the car port covering most of the land rover and the shiny new garage roof keeping all of the water at bay outside where it belonged, I was happy as a pig in the proverbial pottering about with the dark winter nights being held at bay!

 

I have been sitting here for the last few minutes since finishing the first paragraph trying to remember exactly what I have done in what order but I am giving up with that! I will just pop in what I do recall as there has been quite a bit!

Firstly I put jubilee clips on the pipes I fitted last week, I had bought a large box off of the internet of the mixed sized ones and they have been a godsend, then it was onto getting the alternator and power steering belts.

I changed a couple of the bracket bolts over so they actually tightened up then after a ten minute mild panic hunting for the belts I knew I had bought in the garage then the spares shed, the belts finally turned up in the back of the 110 where I had put them so they would not get lost.

It took a mere couple of minutes to pop the into place and getting them tensioned up.

 

The top along with the bottom coolant hose were then fitted but the water pump bypass hose was a no go because I had bought the wrong one. I am off of work tomorrow so I will nip out and get the right one then.

I had bought a pair of intercooler pipe hoses thinking they would be long enough but after messing around with them fitting new O rings it turned out that they were exactly the same length as the ones I have already fitted.

 

Hmm what to do because I would really like to have a stab at getting the engine running this week and without these pipes I would quickly end up with all of the engine oil coating the garage and driveway, I don't think Wifey would be too impressed with that and cleaning up could take a while...

As a temp measure I sliced into the old pipes and extended them with metal pipe for now so I can at least get the engine fired up and will once again be able to move the motor about.

 

What now then? As I was still protected from the weather along with my new under car port lights creating a false daytime I decided that I may as well dig out the new radiator and get that lot fitted.

Out came the old one still in its frame along with the cooler and after a little more rummaging around I found the shiny new one too!

 

It literally took ten minutes to switch them over and drop the whole caged lot into place with the pipework plumbed in.

 

It's amazing how these little jobs take next to no time but make a huge difference!

That was enough for the evening because I was getting a bit cold and tired...the things that my shiny dry well lit work area could not help me with.

 

The following afternoon though I was in the mood for a little more titillating after all there were quite a few little jobs that needed finishing the majority of which were centred around the transfer and gearbox.

I had to dig out the transfer box linkage out from where it had become trapped somehow between the transfer and gearbox. It again was surprisingly easy...surely my luck could not hold here?

 

 

Then I swapped some of the bolts holding the transfer box onto the gearbox around as they had been put in in the wrong places...literally took minutes.

 

After a quick clean up I remembered that the handbrake cable would need to be attached and with the way things are going it should not be an issue.

Yep this is where it started to get a bit more challenging. Firstly I had fitted a Discovery transfer box to a Defender so the handbrake cable mounting was different. Ha! No problem there because I had the foresight to remove the one from the 1:6 ratio transfer box I removed.

With a slightly smug grin I removed the Disco one and it became very obvious that two of the bolts went into different places. Humph, I am on a roll at the moment so I would not be out off here. Now don't get me wrong I wanted to cry a couple of times as I tried to modify the defender bracket but after destroying three different drill bits, and I am also pretty sure I have broken my drill, the old bracket now sat proudly in place all adjusted up with the handbrake working.

 

After sitting back with a brew in hand I wondered at the speed that the whole project seems to be coming together all of a sudden. There seemed to be months when all I seemed to be doing was constantly working on the old boy but seemingly getting nowhere but in what amounts to a couple of days the whole thing seems to be accelerating at a crazy pace towards completion. All of these little jobs are ticking the big jobs off of the to do list which is getting smaller and smaller by the day and it feels great!

 

So I will be picking up the bypass hose tomorrow which will leave the exhaust to try and get fitted, the clutch needs bleeding then my friends it will be time to to get this beast started..

 

nickysmith.me

[Gordon_M]

I think the amount of time you are not now spending on the Disco may be a factor...

[minn200]

I could not agree more!

[minn200]

[h=2]Bypass & Bleeding[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Mon, December 12, 2016 16:26:00

Are there any other Males, especially Dads, out there that have any idea what Christmas presents have been bought for their daughters? I have to admit I don't have a clue before hand but as I informed my youngest daughter last night when she brought this up that I personally vet each and every gift when it is unwrapped on the big day,.

If I am honest it doesn't stop with my daughters either, it runs out to our friends and family who when tell me "thanks for the present, it was just what I wanted!" I tend to reply "That's great, I am really pleased that you like it. What did I buy you?"

Some would say that I this is really bad not having a clue what has been bought and leaving all of the festive cheer for my ever suffering Wife to sort out, but not really it is for the best.

I am rubbish at buying gifts and even worse at wrapping them!

Luckily the girls are now older and tend to (Always without fail) wrap their Mothers gifts from me vetting them as they go and handing back with receipts in bags the ones I need to change along with a list of what I should change them too. Then they look at me for about two seconds, take the bags back off of me and just put their hands out for my debit card usually muttering "Just give it all here, I will sort it tomorrow."

You see it's not for a lack of trying...I am just a little bit rubbish at the whole thing! I did buy a few extra gifts for my Wife today and they are currently sat in hiding waiting for my youngest to get home to tell me how well I have done but one thing is for sure, if the crowds (more like mobs) I saw out today were like that on a Monday I do not want to be anywhere near any sort of store until about February!

Then it needs only to be a car shop.

 

After that little swaray (I'm sure I have spelt that wrong) venturing into the great retail world I decided that seeing as I am on such a roll with The 110 I may as well have a stab at a few of the little jabs that are outstanding.

I had nipped into Paddocks on my way around earlier so the water pump bypass hose along with the top intercooler hose were just itching for fitting.

 

The bypass hose was soon out of it's packet and into place along with a couple of shiny new Jubilee clips.

 

The intercooler hose though would need extending and seeing as I had just spent what was left of my bank account on Wifey for Christmas I was going to have to be a little creative here.

Off to the spares shed I pottered with the beginnings of an idea forming at the back of my mind if the part was still in there. After a minute of moving things around, I really need to tidy up in there, I found a shiny new V8 exhaust down pipe that was exactly the right width! Now this had been part of a job lot bought a long time back which I had already made my money back on so chopping it up was not going to be an issue.

In my nice dry garage I measured out the length that I needed, chopped it off and fitted it in no time!

 

The bottom hose is on back order so that will be done later in the week. I decided that as I was already in my dirty work clobber I may as well bleed the clutch. The old fluid was really dark so who knows how long it had been sitting in there!

I have a non return bleed pipe that cost me about two pounds a lifetime ago which still works wonders when you are doing this sort of job alone.

Again it all went really smoothly with me getting the correct pressure build up nicely on the clutch pedal very easily and quickly.

 

Another few jobs down then. Feels like the reality of driving the bugger is actually an option now in the not to distant future. I did realise whilst stood back looking at it (as you do) that I still need to plumb up the power steering pipes before I fire it up as well.

Not a problem as I have those pipes but not today, I need to do the whole Dad breakdown and recovery thing for my eldest daughter who managed to crash her motorbike once again today. Thankfully she is ok but as for the bike, well, that remains to be seen.

 

nickysmith.me

 

[Zuffen]

Be aware exhaust pipe as an intercooler pipe may have or build up rust inside and the rust flakes and may go through the turbo and into the engine.

 

Not a good look.

 

As a short term fix it will work but I would replace it with the correct pipe or use Alloy tube.

[minn200]

Will do Just getting the bugger up and running!

[minn200]

[h=2]Pipes & Plumbing.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Wed, December 14, 2016 12:50:51

Right I need to go to work soon add to that I am full of cold again this is going to be a hard and fast update and not in a fun way!

 

I started with the power steering. I stood wondering what pipe went where but it was pretty obvious once all of the bts were out as they would only go so far lining up with the correct holes just begging to be plumbed in!

 

Once done I cable tied the fluid reservoir in an upright position and promptly filled up as much of it as I could with power steering fluid. I will bleed it properly once the engine is running.

 

With all of that done quite easily I decided to set up and support, with cable ties of course, the coolant system and expansion tank. Again literally took minutes.

 

And when I stood back looking at the magnificence of my complete creation it brings rather a large smile to my face!

 

That left just one more thing I wanted to tackle today...the exhaust. Well the down pipe from the manifold. I bought one of those James Parkin (I think that's what the name was anyway) Discovery 200tdi to Defender conversion kits. It hit the footwell.

So I had to modify the footwell. Well I need to modify it, all I did today was cut piece of the footwell out so the exhaust wouldn't keep knocking as I hopefully drive around.

 

It wont take long to fabricate an extra piece of metal to slot in there. I did have to modify a 17mm spanner to fit in on the back bolt of the exhaust (I just cut a spare spanner down in length) so it wouldn't foul on the engine block.

It was soon all in place though.

 

Next up will be fitting the exhaust in place and making up some brackets to keep it there. I need to pick up some engine oil and do a quick change before I try to fire it up and I think I have some EP90 kicking around somewhere so the rest of the fluids can be sorted out at the same time.

That's going to be it for a few days folks as the retail madness of Christmas kicks in at work, I don't think I will have much time to be doing much of anything apart from work then sleep for a few days!

 

nickysmith.me

[minn200]

[h=2]Set Up & Smoke.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Mon, December 19, 2016 21:27:27

What an eventful day!

I literally just popped out under the car port for a bit of a potter on The 110. As always I quickly ended up in my own little world tinkering here and pottering there.

First off I had to attach some ends to and ground the two Earth wires that were on the engine onto the chassis after a few good minutes sanded back the underseal to get to clean metal.

 

Then I figured I may as well top up all of the oils in the gearbox as well as the transfer box. Four litres or so later that was done up and put to bed so I got to looking at engine itself. I really wanted to start it but I knew I probably should change the engine old fist but I have to admit that after all this time getting the lump into place impatience was getting the better of me.

"Sod it" I thought to myself and headed off to get a can of diesel. WHen I got back without anything but excitement in my mind I filled up the fuel filter and using the lift pump primed up the fuel system as best I could.

There were three old batteries in the garage that were ok when I put them in there but I had topped them all up last week.

With a grin on my face I hooked up the first one then with excited anticipation I turned the key...the engine turned over twice before the battery died.

Hmmph. Right not to be phased I grabbed the second one. Same thing, two turn overs before the starter ground to a halt.

OK then it must be third time lucky.

Nope, dead from the outset.

 

I was beginning to suspect that my very old battery charger might just have given up the ghost. A quick conversation with a neighbour and I had a boost pack in my possession. This was duly hooked up and left for a few minutes to force some charge in.

Then with bated breath I clambered once more across the two seats, sat down and turned the key around.

 

The engine fired up instantly into life and I learnt two things...

 

1) You really should change the years old oil in any engine before you try to start it.

2) Make sure you have fitted the full exhaust system as well as replacing all floor panels so the inside of the cab does not instantly fill up with thick black smoke leaving you fumbling for the keys in the ignition to switch the engine off.

 

So GOOD NEWS!! The engine runs!! It's alive!!! I have no idea if it drives yet because I could not see my hand in front of my eyes when it was running so a quick oil change along with fitting the exhaust and floor pans back into place should put that right.

 

Those dreams of heading out onto the open road could well soon become a reality...

 

nickysmith.me

[Zuffen]

Nothing feels as good as when the beast springs into life after radical surgery.

 

Well done.

[minn200]

This is so very true!

[minn200]

[h=2]Welding & Wind Offs.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Tue, December 20, 2016 18:27:24

After yesterdays success I would quite like a repeat performance of hearing the engine running once more but without the rather excessive black smoke that was like smoking a couple of thousand cigarettes at once.

The first order of business was to get the exhaust fitted. The rear and mid sections were no problem at all of course but the front had to be cut shut and welded up once more to make it fit onto the 200tdi Disco engine.

 

That done I started to drain the old thick black oil out of the engine. Whilst that was happily dripping out the oil filter grabbed my attention. This had to come off and I had my trusty oil filter grips to use. It did not want to budge.

I managed to crush the bottom of it then dent the middle but still no movement.

Time to take a breather. I lay there under the 110 resting up my arms for a while before putting the grips towards the top of the filter and with all of my might twisting hard it finally budged a few millimeters.

That came with the feeling of relief so I gripped hard and twisted again. It moved more easily this time, finally coming loose and dribbling as much oil out of it's housing as seemed to be coming out of the sump.

 

I left the whole thing to drain for twenty minutes or so before refitting the new filter then topping the engine up with new oil.

Tomorrows plan is to tidy up the floor well then start to refit the seats and floors themselves.

Then I can start it up properly and run it up to temperature seeing if we have any issues with what has been refitted...

 

nickysmith.me

[minn200]

[h=2]Excitement & Expense.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sat, December 24, 2016 18:04:56

It's amazing how quickly things end up coming together in the end. After spending as much time as I could on The 110 recently it has got to the point where I am easily putting things back together surging head long towards getting an MOT put on it.

With that in mind I decided that I was getting a little fed up with falling through the gaps where the floor should be whilst clambering over two seats that moved around more than my teenage daughter.

So the first point of call was to get those seats secured for now. They will be coming out again once the motor is on the road to soundproof it better but for now I am happy to keep it nice and functional, just how it was originally designed.

 

I soon made short work of popping the main tunnel and floor pans back into place. These for now are just resting there incase I need a little better access to the gearbox or transfer box whilst getting the final set ups sorted out.

A freshly charged battery was grabbed from the garage, fitted and secured into the recently welded up battery box.

The exhaust was now fitted so with no fear of being gassed once again I climbed into the drivers seat and turned the key in the ignition to be met by the 200tdi engine bursting into more or less instantaneous life. This was accompanied by the usual grin from me but now was the moment of truth seeing if everything I had refitted would work making the car once again move under it's own steam.

 

I dipped the clutch pedal that gave enough satisfying resistance then gently tried to engage reverse gear. It slotted perfectly and smoothly into place. I let the clutch pedal up a little and was soon met by the biting point. I grinned like a nut case once again and let the clutch gently start to bite and the whole 110 began to move slowly backwards along the drive.

To say I was preoccupied in my amazement that I had actually put everything back together correctly would be an understatement and only just in time did I realise that I was about to reverse into the fence that The 110 had been tightly parked up against! In fact I am not sure how I managed to move the fifteen back that I did without bumping into the fence already.

This though gave me the opportunity to see if it would move forward as well as backwards so I selected first gear and smoothly drove forwards with no issues.

 

I soon had it all the way up and off of the driveway as far from the house as I could to let it tick over warming itself through for the first time in years just incase something went bang or caught fire.

 

 

To say I was happy is an understatement. My creation has proved itself by moving at least fifty feet under it's own steam! Yes it smelt a little burning oily but I just put this down to it being sitting around for years along with the odd spillage here and there when I changed all of the fluids before firing it up.

Nothing to worry about.

Well nothing for about five minutes until I noticed the alarming amount of oil that was dripping out of the Turbo itself...

I literally hopped back into the drivers seat, drove it over the hump of the driveway then killed the ignition letting gravity on my downhill driveway pull The 110 back into it's semi dry working spot under the car port.

 

I felt really disappointed. Talk about one step forwards then two steps back. Add to that I am skint and it will take me several months to save up for a replacement turbo I could have cried a little. I was literally ready to throw in the towel proper then, just sell the whole damned thing and buy myself a facelift Discovery 2 instead because at least then I would have something I could use straight away.

 

Time for a cup of tea then.

 

Twenty minutes out had seen me take a few deep breaths, go back to this expense peice of scrap I owned and refit the drivers side wing. I wanted to offer up most of the front end because the radiators seemed to be sitting a little high for the bonnet. I was right there too. I need to adjust the mounting brackets lowering them by about 30mm so that the bonnet will actually close.

 

I also had to trim the outer brackets off of the radiator cage as well as these were fouling the wings.

 

I popped the front grill back into place so I did not have a repeat of the whole sticking a ratchet through the radiator performance.

All in all though things are still heading in the right direction. There is still other work to be completed while I save for a turbo but I was hoping to have it on the road in about a month. Hey ho things can always be worse eh.

 

Christmas time is once again upon us! It seems to come around quicker and quicker each year. My home seems to resemble Santa's grotto more as each passes but I don't mind that at all.

I would just like to Wish all of you out there a very Merry Christmas! May you all have the best one you can and remember it's not about what you get given but trying to enjoy time with Family and close friends, then congratulating yourself at the end of the day when they have all left without you killing them...

 

Merry Christmas All

 

 

nickysmith.me

[Johnc61]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family. Have a great time! :drive:

[minn200]

And a Merry Christmas to you and yours too John