It started!!

For the first time in 10 months, the 109 started! We found a replacement carburetor on Craigslist--a great guy down near Puyallup that used to run a carb shop until the 80s when there just weren't that many left on the road. He has about 600 carbs in his garage for sale.

He charged us $40 but warned that it probably needed a good cleaning, a new float and a rebuild kit. Gord'n installed it just to see what would happen and it worked "as is!"

Not without a bit hitch however--the automatic choke is not working. So tomorrow (just 3 days before we plan to drive the 109 to Portland) he will rebuild the carb and hopefull find/install a manual choke.

Carburetor issues

One of the final issues to address was the wonky throttle linkage that was on the truck. It looked like that Mousetrap game once you have it all assembled--lots of moving parts, cables stretched at weird angles, etc. We used a Lokar universal throttle linkage.





So, we have the cool linkage, but if the engine won't catch and stay running, it means nothing. Now the search begins to find a carburetor to replace ours--preferably a very simple, basic carb.

The Hood is On!

I don't know why this seems significant, but the hood is back on.



I think Limestone and silver looks good together.


Since the core support has been modified to fit the new 4 core radiator, we can no longer use the hood latch so we found a set of military latches in England. Note the grease build up on the hood from sitting in the shop for the last 10 months.

Electrical Work

Although this picture (which shows the "almost final" product) makes it look like a mess, the new wiring in the 109 is beautifully done.







A closer view reveals a new auxiliary 4 circuit fuse box mounted on the right hand footwell. In the upper right corner, the red you see is a power post since the starter was getting overwhelmed with power leads.





A closer shot of the new fuse box.

Exmoor Middle Row Seat Surprises

First, the worst surprise--three seats were damaged. One with a razor cut and two with abraded or popped seams.

Second, the middle row seat bottoms needed woodserts to be bolted to the frames. We tried lag bolts first on one seat, but they just pulled out.

Third, the middle row seatbacks were at an odd/uncomfortable angle--vertical to slightly forward. In the picture below, the near and middle seat backs show how they sit upright. The far seat back is resting on the "Oh Sh*t" bar (what we call the combo front seat back rest bar and middle row grab bar).

This shot shows how close the new seat bottom and back sit to the rear 3 man bench seat--about 1/4 inch gap.










This shot shows how far the seat back is leaning forward at its most upright position--see how the line of the seatback is not parallel to the vertical line on the 3 man bench seat?











The solution was to cut off the tabs shown on the far left and far right in the picture below and reposition them lower and at a different angle.







Here is the result. Now all three seatbacks are slightly reclined. We may end up swapping the 3 man bench seats in the rear for 2 man or individual jump seats and converting the middle row to be able to fully recline.

One month later....

Turns out, I was focused on the wrong car show. All this time, we were aiming for the All British Field Meet in Portland, OR over Labor Day weekend......!

Installed new, proper Land Rover seat belt anchors. In the picture below the smaller holes in the rubber mat are the new anchor points. The old anchor points have been covered with washers. If our reconditioned heater and lower dash plenum does not do the job in keeping us warm, those holes will come in handy to run water lines to an auxiliary heater mounted under the middle seat of the middle row.

A new, hinged and lockable toolbox cover was installed. Previously, we had a cutout section of rear tub as a loose lid.

Right hand side inner wing detail showing the cancerous sound deadening foam, the shock, new brake lines and the sway bar linkage.

Left hand side inner wing detail

Gord'n created a new transmission tunnel to accomodate the new position of the gear shift and transfer case controls. The R380 shift tower sits higher than the Series III tower so he had to create a pedestal so the rubber gaiter would fit. Here is a top view:

And a side view:

Our new 110 speedometer installed in our dash. Gord'n also installed a new speedo cable and converted the method of attaching it to the transmission. We no longer have to mess with those three little screws. Instead, he installed what I think is a Range Rover clip mechanism--the cable is held in place with a U-shaped spring clip that is pushed into place.