I have an early Series 1 and nearly all the mechanical parts are from later
model vehicles (except for the after market diff. and alternator), so is it
still a Landy? - it certainly wouldn't qualify for concourse even if it was in
better condition!
(LWB offset rims, Ser 2a engine with some Ser III bits, Ser IIa radiator, Ser
IIa gearbox and transfer case, Ser II front axle housing and axles, Ser III
salisbury rear axles in Ser I housing, Ser IIa lwb 6 cylinder brakes including
master, drums and cylinders, ser II steering (oops - after market steering
wheel, etc. etc)
As far as possible I try to use genuine Land Rover parts so that the vehicle can
feel comfortable with them - I can't imagine how a British vehicle is going to
be happy with a French or German engine for example - such proposals are asking
for difficulty as it is highly unlikely the parts will be happy (a challenge for
the TD4 Freelander I'm sure - maybe its only a problem with older vehicles - now
that there's a 'Common market' newer vehicles are probably much happier with the
mixing)
The stage 1 Landy in Australia had a (Japanese) Isuzu engine as an option, the
vehicle recognised the engine as foreign but recognised the LT95 gearbox and
front diff. as slightly foreign as they came from the Range Rover (close
brother)- the first bit that was 'genuine' to the traditional LandRover was the
10 spline inner axle on the front - this is where all the 'conflict' was
manifested, so not unexpectedly, this was the common failure point. The same
reason is why Ser gear boxes often fail behind Chev engines or if you also
replace the gear box the diff. fails - its the meeting of the two 'races' at a
single point of contact.
The only way to manage this properly is to introduce the parts slowly to allow
acclimatisation or change the whole lot - although this can then cause problems
with the body work - Disco was an 'immitation Japanese vehicle' built by the
British but it used the tried and true British aluminium panels - the vehicle
identified the Japanese/British conflict at the panel interface - the door
frames (perceived as Japanese) and the door skins (perceived as British) were
unhappy in contact so corosion develloped - same theory applies to that 'failed'
Italian diesel they tried to put in Rangies a few years ago
The best way to fit, for example a Chev. motor into a Series Landy, is to carry
the motor around in the tray until they become acclimatised, if the Landy really
doesn't like it it will dump the motor out or the tray will fall off or
someting, otherwise eventually it will acclimitis.
Another technique is the Terri-Anne technique - confuse the Landy for quite a
while so that it forgets who/what it really is, and then you can do almost
anything with it - of course this can be very dangerous because if you convince
it it is a Toyota it may just rust before your eyes!
Here ends the lesson on the Clarke theory of vehicle modification
Richard C
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Apr 05 2001 - 01:16:22 EDT