design - Land Rover section

 

Green Rover rebuild photos

 

These are pictures taken during the Green Rover's engine, transmission and power steering conversion. This page represents a quick pictorial overview. I have written a page describing the engine swap in detail and one describing the power steering conversion in detail.

All the fabrication work was done by Timm Cooper, then of Medford Oregon.  The transmission to transfer case adapter was designed and fabricated by Timm Cooper. I did a lot of wrench turning, the hydraulic line fabrication and the rewiring.... Oh, and a lot of parts cleaning.

 

Empty bay ready for modification

Stripped and ready for the swap

The front body clip, engine and transmission have been removed. The battery box and engine mounts were removed soon after this picture was taken. Pay attention to the shape of the bell housing cutout in the bulkhead. The right half (picture left) of the bell housing cutout will be removed, moved over 7.6 cm (3 inches) to the right (picture left) and rewelded. A flat steel patch was welded between sections. This widened the bell housing cutout in the bulkhead to allow the engine to be centered in the frame.

 

Engine front

Engine Mounted

Notice the new location of the right side bell housing cutout in the bulkhead. Moving the side of the cutout 10 cm to the right brought the edge of the cutout to the edge of the Kodiak heater mounting flange. The heater and the inside ducting remained in their original positions. The engine is 2.5cm (1 inch) to the left of being centered in the frame.

 

Engine diagonal view

Side of engine

The radiator cross member has been moved forward 2.5cm (1 inch) to provide clearance between the mechanical fan and the radiator. The lower tank of the radiator will fit behind the cross member between the frame rails. The cross member front tabs were shortened and the mounting holes were redrilled one inch rearward so that the radiator bulkhead would remain in its stock location. The cross member seen in front of the radiator cross member is the rear mount for the Mercury winch.

Note the exhaust manifold. It is the left side exhaust manifold from an early sixties V8 Ford Falcon. This manifold type was mounted on both sides. The bottom tilts inwards away from the frame.

 


Left mounting bracket

The frame mounts were modified and moved forward. Stock Land Rover engine mounts were used. New steel brackets were fabricated on the engine side of the Rover mount.  Note: In real life the engine Mounts Timm installed were not up to real life use.  A set of the stronger diesel 2.25 engine mounts never lasteed more than hale a year and I finally paid another company to build new rame mounts and install a set of  Ford small block mounts designed for desert racing Broncos.

Power steering pump and mount

A Saginaw "canned ham" type steering pump was used because it is believed to be more reliable than the Ford steering pump. This one came off a 1980 International Scout. This pump was commonly used on GM cars. The bracket was modified from an early Ford small block power steering pump.

 

 

Alternator Bracket

A high amp Delco alternator was used since The Green Rover was already wired for a Delco. The Alternator was mounted as high as possible on the engine to keep it above water while wading. The top mounting bracket is a GM V8 alternator top bracket. The lower bracket was fabricated from scratch.

 

Borg Warner T-18 transmission

This T-18 gearbox has the rear output shaft reworked to fit the Land Rover output gear and transfer case. This is a key part of Timm Cooper's T-18 to LR transfer case conversion. The large gear is the Granny first gear. With the stock series 4.7 ring and pinion the first gear provides a 70:1 low range rock crawling ratio. The T-18 transmission is available in both close ratio and with a granny first. It does not have syncro in first gear. The T-19 is the all syncro version of this gearbox. The T-18 and 19 gearboxes were widely used and highly regarded as a strong trouble free light truck transmission.

 

 

Mounted in place

Here you can see the reworked T-18 gearbox sandwiched between a stock Ford bell housing and the stock Land Rover transfer case. There is a thin metal adapter plate between the gearbox and the transfer case allowing them to be bolted together.

The Transfer case is in it's stock front to rear location but was moved to the right when the engine was centered in the frame. The steel transfer case mounts attached to the transfer case were modified for the difference in location. The stock LR rubber mounts and frame mounts remained unmodified. There is a bell crank that mounts inside the right frame rail that pulls the lever on the emergency brake. This bell crank had to be modified for the new lateral location of the emergency brake.

 

Clutch slave cylinder

The stock Series II clutch slave cylinder was used. A mounting bracket was fabricated out of the original mounting bracket. The Ford throw out bearing release lever was modified to fit the stock Land Rover slave cylinder rod.

 

Power steering

A Saginaw power steering box from a 1980 International Scout was used.

 

Power steering box mounted into place

The power steering box is mounted on the outside of the frame rail. Note the front of the box is right behind the radiator bulkhead. The box is placed so that the bottom is forward of the axle housing and the suspension stops. The stock mounting tab for the front brake was cut off for clearance. There is an unused hole at the bottom of the tab that is the correct size for mounting the flex hose connection. It has the advantage of providing additional slack in the brake line to handle increased articulation.

The Scout pitman arm was shortened to work on the Rover. The stock length provides approximately 2-1/2 turns lock to lock. The arm was shortened and a new hole was drilled at 8-1/2 inches then reamed out to fit the Land Rover tie rod end. This provides just under 4 turns lock to lock. This is just slightly faster than D110 power steering.

A new larger diameter drag link was fabricated using the ends of the original link. This provided an increase in arm strength.

 

Mounting plate for steering box

The mounting plate is made of 3/8ths inch thick steel. Grade 8 nuts were welded to the back. Clearance holes were drilled in the frame then the plate was welded to the frame. A 3/8ths inch steel strap was welded to the frame bottom below the side bracket for additional strength.

 

Steering column bracket

The steering column was unbolted from the box and reused. The worm gear was cut off the bottom of the Land Rover steering shaft and the end of a GM steering column was welded to the bottom of the Rover shaft. When I asked about strength of the weld I was shown where the original stock Land Rover steering shaft was composed of three steel parts welded together from the factory.

A special bushing was machined to support the bottom of the shaft in the bottom of the Land Rover steering column. A mount was fabricated out of a steel plate to mount the lower column to the bulkhead. The top of the flange on the old steering box mount was cut off for clearance.

 

Collapsible GM steering shaft

A collapsible GM steering shaft with a 'U' joint at each end connects the steering box to the steering column.

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