First thing that had to be addressed, was the battery. I've been using it the past winter airing up the winter tires for the car and the bikes.... It was flat. So, I just hooked up the booster cables between the car and RUR 487. Then I jumped behind the wheel and gave the keys a turn, there was nothing from the engine and I saw smoke coming from the left side of the motor. DAMN!!! I removed the cables quickly and saw that I crossed the wires on the Land Rover side. Within 20-30 seconds I fried the alternator and killed 2 cells in the battery. Thoroughly pleased with myself, I left RUR 487 alone for a week!
I've been in the trucking
industry for nearly 20 years and to make such a stupid mistake, like they
say, Shit Happens! So I had to turn this experience into something
positive. To the internet I went, and searched for alternative alternators
for Lucus products. Finally, searching a Triumph home page, this guy changed
his Lucus alternator for a Bosch unit. Then the search continued till I found
a site that claimed that some Ford products used this particular 55Amp Bosch
alternator.
Out to the wreckers and the search began. Going through the
Ford cars, there were many variations of Bosch alternators, different
Amp ratings , electrical connections and bolt patterns. But the search did
pay-off, I found on the mid 1980's Ford Escorts ,they did us the Bosch
55Amp alternator, that is a direct bolt on to the Land Rover 2.25 motor.
Besides having the same bolt pattern, it also has the same electrical plug,
therefore not requiring any modifications. The gods must have been on my
side that day, as I was lucky enough to find a rebuilt alternator from a
recently crashed car.
Within a half hour of getting home from the wreckers, I had
the alternator installed and the belts tightened. This time I just used the
battery from the car to start RUR 487, and it started !! Boy did it
ever sound good to finally hear it running.
Within a week , I bought
a used battery from the local Volvo dealer - with a warranty-. At this point
I encounter a new problem, the motor wouldn't keep running. When the key was
in the start position, everything was well, but when I released the key and
it moved into the run position, the engine would die.
It turned out to be that the rear portion of the key barrel
was worn out and it was quickly replaced with a new unit. Once it was
replaced, RUR 487 starts and runs like a kitten.
To the right you will see a few pictures of RUR 487 for the first time in 17 months, driven out of the garage - under its own power -.
Finally the Land Rover was running and mobile. So, my attention moved back to getting it ready for painting. There was some more sanding required , welding and replacing parts.
The first thing that I was not pleased with , was the rear floor. It was corroded in a few placed and beaten to shit. I did decide at first to simply lay a piece of 5 bar aluminium on the floor, covering the existing floor. But that really covered my problem, not fixing it. So, I opted to replace the floor. Once again my friend at the metal works firm was able to get a piece of 2 mm aluminium cut to the exact dimensions of the floor. It fit so perfectly, once riveted into place a thick bead of body sealant was applied the length of the joints. Working, with the floor support beams, I had to removed 20 plus years of mud, sand, grime before repainted them . Then, Before installing the support beams, I gave them a generous coating of Asphalt Undercoating. You can see to the right, that the upper parts of the rear tub were also treated to 5 bar aluminium.
