Lightweight – a few jobs

I’m preparing the Lightweight for showing at Billing.  It’s the Lightweight Owners’ Club 21st birthday, and we’re hoping to be on the stand and take part in the club’s main arena display.  I have recently found an electrical fault; the batteries were not getting any charge at all from the generator.  The dash warning light was only illuminating dimly, which is why it was only spotted at the MoT the other day, with the engine running while indoors – we have only driven the vehicle in daylight, so couldn’t see the faint glow.

24V systems are very different to the standard 12V systems, and so I was a bit uncertain of how to proceed.  I had found a disconnected lead in the battery compartment (between the front seats), tucked under the other main leads, which had a terminal that was clearly meant to be connected to one of the main battery cable clamps, but as this cable was blue, I didn’t know if it was positive, earth, part of the radio system that the previous owner removed before we bought it or even an addition.  With a bit of guidance from a very helpful chap called Clive Elliott, who is the Lightweight Owners’ Club 24V specialist (and he really knows this stuff inside out), I found that this cable is actually the battery feed from the Generator Distribution Panel (the panel with the ammeter, in this case between the front seats on the front of the tub bulkead, but on earlier models in the dash).  The charging problem was, then, a very simple fix.

For those of you with 24V systems, the thick braided sheath going from the Generator Panel 9 box (inside the tub or underneath its floor, or on the bulkhead above the transmission tunnel on early SIIs) has three blue insulated cables that run to the Distribution Panel (the one with the ammeter or ammeters – Mk3 has two ammeters and is in the dash, Mk4 has one ammeter and is on the front side of the tub bulkhead between the seats).  One blue cable then comes out of the Distribution Panel box to the battery compartment (in this case through an armoured sheath on the right hand side lower face of the box and through the seat base next to the driver’s seat).  That cable must be connected to the battery positive lead clamp, the main cable of which runs only to the live side of the starter solenoid and on to the fuse box and dash.  Unlike 12V systems, the generator is not connected directly to the solenoid or fuse box – it goes through the Panel 9 box and then the Distribution Panel.

I have also replaced the mismatched front headlights with Wipac halogen units, using 24V H4 bulbs.  The mountings got a clean up while I was at it, and while removed, I sorted out the craking and flaking paint on the front of the wings – the respray carried out before our purchase is pretty reasonable, but some patches weren’t smoothed or even keyed before painting.  I also repainted the metal parts of the indicator and side light lenses green instead of black, and will do the same at the back tomorrow.  The headlight mountings, bumper and rear cross member will eventually be painted in NATO green too, but I don’t have enough paint at the moment for that.

I’ll be collecting a full set of suspension bushes tomorrow to try to cure the vehicle’s strong left lean.  I’m hoping that it is just failed bushes; the springs were less than a year old when we bought the car and I don’t recall it leaning quite as much at that point. If the suspension bolts were tightened before the evhicle was allowed to settle, then the bushes could have been pre-loaded and suffered as a result; it’s not uncommon for this to happen when people unfamiliar with the job fit new leaf springs.  The springs still look good, though they may have lost their camber if they are low quality pattern parts – I have no idea where they came from.

I did notice while the Lightweigh was on the MoT tester’s lift that the front spring bolt on the near side rear spring is off-centre in the chassis’ spring hanger – it’s about 1/2″ above the centre of the reinforced circle on the hanger.  I’ll be measuring the distance between the centreline of the bolt and the top of the chassis rail to compare to the other side, and if Land Rover have drilled the holes assymetrically, then I’ll refit the more cambered springs (normally driver’s side) to the left hand side of the vehicle to try to compensate; I don’t want to go through the same repair as I had to do on the front dumbiron of the 109 chassis, where a similar problem was causing a left lean and left steering pull, if swapping the springs from side to side will acheive the same result.  I’ll post an update when the work is done.