Hand brake done!

Just came in after putting the hand brake back together, works fine now!

Hand brake cleaned

As the ouput shaft oil seal is leaking, the hand brake drum had been soaked with oil rendering it useless. I had ordered new brake shoes from the UK, but I ordered the wrong model and they don't fit :-( So I googled about alternative solutions and opted for burning of the oil with a propane torch. I think it worked quite well. After burning them I used a sandpaper so sand them down and they now look like new! We'll see about function when I have put it back together :-)

This is a pic of the hand brake assembly, less the drum. The propshaft attaches to the four bolts in the middle.

Besiktning (MOT) next

I have booked a time for besiktning (UK MOT) on the 18th of June, the first available date. I still have some small jobs to do before the inspection. The hand brake need cleaning as its filled with oil and doesnt work, and the i need to adjust the headlight beams. I think the winscreen washers are out too. Anyhow, I'll do a check all around to make sure it passes first time.

Put the headlights back in, light booster kit installed

The headlights was very hard to adjust due to an accumulation of mud in the bowls, so I took it all apart for a good cleaning and greasing (of the adjustment screws). I also a installed "light booster kit". The kit basically bypasses the original loom to get juice for the headlights directly from the battery, thus increasing the output. It's a good, easy way of improving the light on an old vehicle.

Engine started!!

I finally got the engine back together, and attempted a start. I had heard that this engine is very difficult to start after this type of work and indeed it was. Lots of pre-heat and after the third 15-second crank it sprang into life! It runs perfectly, what a joy to hear after all those hours of hard work :-)

New timing belt installed!

Today I installed the new timing belt, and then reinstalled the cover, the crank pulley and the waterpump. I put copper grease on all the bolts so that they will be as easy to remove next time as it was this time.

Today I had help, so this went along a little quicker ;-)

Got the torque wrench today!

Pretty speedy delivery for USPS, usually takes weeks. Looks fine, as described on Ebay :-)
Looks like it's ex-Army, suitable for my ex-MOD landy!

Bought a torque wrench

Today I bought a dial type torque from Ebay. This type of wrench is specified for tensioning the timing belt, and I want to get it right!

Starter rebuilt

In an earlier post I wrote that the starter tested OK, unfortunetly it wasn't. It turned out that the gear clutch (?) was worn out so I decided to replace it. When the shop took it apart they also found the solenoid to be in bad shape so that was replaced too. They also cleaned and lubricated it so now it should be as new.

Waiting for parts

Today I ordered all neccecary engine parts from LRSeries.

Found the problem!

I was finally able to remove the timing cover too inspect the timing belt. The good news is that there was no oil inside the cover so the oil seals seems to be OK.

After lining up the timing marks I could see that when the crank and pump pulleys is correct, the cam pulley is about two teeth early. My ecucated guess is that the belt slipped and this is what made the valves hit the pistons and bending the pushrods.