• Welcome to my Series III Restoration Site
  • Fairey Overdrive Overhaul
  • Fitting Forward Facing Rear Seats & Belts
  • Fitting a Defender Heater

Welcome to my Series III Restoration Site

This site is dedicated to my eternal fiddling and tweaking of my 1972 Series III 109 inch Land Rover.

I bought it in February 1992 and immediately set about a few repairs and a bit of tidying up and all these years later I’m still working on it! After years of minor rebuilds, in 2004 the discovery of some major corrosion led to a full ground-up rebuild. As this started, the specification started to creep, and many new features were incorporated in order to make it a highly useable combination of daily driver, family vehicle, expedition vehicle and general utility.  This multi purpose use leads to many compromises and is why the vehicle still continues to evolve after the rebuild as new ideas or new frustrations reveal themselves.

I have aquired two more vehicles (the Range Rover and the Lightweight), which also have their own jobs.  They are not subject to the level of work or alteration that the 109 has been,  so they have their own smaller, more generalised blog sections.  The “how to” guides on popular repairs or modifications to all three vehicles are included in the FAQ section.

Please note, I am not a trader in vehicles or parts, and am not a garage providing repair services. This site is to offer inspiration, technical information and ideas to other Land Rover enthusiasts, helping others learn from my experiences over twenty years, both positive and negative.  I write about what has and hasn’t worked for me – I cannot promise that the same ideas will work for your vehicle.

Head Gasket Failure

It never rains, but it pours.  After just a week of driving about with the gear box behaving nicely, the engine coolant started pressurising.  Even after allowing the engine to cool or having left it several days unused, the coolant expansion tank remained pressurised unless the cap was removed.  There was no contamination of oil or coolant, and the oil loss was not greater than normal (about a pint for every 1,000 miles), but it seemed to be losing just a little coolant. [Continue reading]

109 Engine Mounting

109 engine mount (1)

The combination of the 200Tdi engine on Defender mountings and the axle upgrade lead to an unforeseen clash, literally.  Under heavy braking, the front UJ of the front prop shaft was hitting the right hand side engine mounting.  This came about … [Continue reading]

Anniversary Present to Kick of Restoration

The Range Rover was taken off the road and installed in the garage witht he plan to start its rebuild, but that start has been deferred because of "reality" - other more pressing issues keep getting in the way.  The long term plan is to have it back … [Continue reading]

Gear Box OK

The gear box is now working correctly, and not before time.  It has been a very severe source of frustration!  The main shaft splines are a bit worn, and i suspect the overdrive coupling's corresponding splines are also similarly affected, giving a … [Continue reading]

Gear Box, Again

109 gear box repair 2013 (1)

I stripped and rebuilt the gear box with new bearings for the main shaft and the back of the lay shaft - they all looked fine, but the main shaft rear bearing (the big one) had a small amount more play than its new replacement.  I refitted the old … [Continue reading]