Good evening.
My son (15 years old) has an ex military 109 24V. We've done a lot to it as a father and son project and we are now approaching the day when it goes on the road.
When we received it on the back of a wagon nearly two years ago, the horn, indicators, brake lights and windscreen wiper motor all worked. They don't now!
I've checked the fuses throughout and we asked a friend to take a look. It still doesn't work and am wondering whether we've missed something really obvious? Can anyone advise?
Thanks in advance.
George H

 

We have been able to sort out the horn and windscreen wiper motor. Someone had disconnected them from the fuse board!
We are now getting a professional to sort out the other items.
Many thanks,
George

 

Good that you figured it out. Sounds like a great project.

 

Thank you for your encouragement. I hope the following helps others on this forum:

1. Indicators. The main issue that we found was that the earth wasn't made between the earth point behind the instrument panel and the battery earth/chassis. When we linked the panel earth to the chassis then the indicators started to work correctly.
2. Brake Lights. We discovered that the brake pedal switch under the bonnet which is mounted in front of the brake pedal was seized. We dismantled the switch, worked oil into the plunger and it now works perfectly. Adjusted so that the brake lights glow when the pedal starts to depress.
3. Headlights (low Beam). We discovered that a bullet connector behind the instrument panel had pulled out when we had worked on it earlier.
4. Fan inoperable. The wires that connected the indicator relay/hazard relay and main light were exposed behind the tray which lays over the loom. We found some heavy duty cables which looked decidedly cooked. The tray was removed and we discovered that the cables had welded themselves together! The root problem is that the fuse board beneath the steering column was found to have been rewired to bypass the fan fuse! The fan had seized which then burnt out and caused serious damage to the circuit and any wires in proximity.

We have now run the land Rover all over the place locally and had a lot of fun with it.

However, on the way back from a local village we started to smell oil coming into the cab!
As we stopped, oil vapour came up through holes around the gearbox which is exactly where the problem lies (we believe).
Thankfully, there is no whining but things must have got very hot.
Interestingly, it seems to be coming from the top of the gearbox and does not look like a serious leak.
Next thing is probably to check the oil levels and go from there.
All irritating but there we are.

Second issue is that the massive 24V generator under the bonnet lets the batteries run down.
There is a faint glow on the charge light and so we're hoping that the generator doesn't need replacing!
Cannot wait to sort that one out!!!

That's it for now.
George

 

Interesting developments this evening:

1. We couldn't remove the side gearbox square nut. It was solid. I suspect that the problem has been there for some years. I'm tempted to remove the drain plug and empty the entire gearbox of oil and measure the volume. There is a placard in the cab which clearly says DO NOT OVERFILL THE GEARBOX! If they couldn't remove the side plug and didn't measure the volume going in then we have a possible explanation. The Military Land Rover Series 3 (L.W.B) user handbook says that the gearbox oil volume should be 1.5 Litres. Let's see what volume comes out!

2. Page 124 of the same handbook says that if there has been a loose or broken connection between the generator and the battery circuit whilst running then the rectifier units will be destroyed. Given the wiring issues mentioned above, we suspect that this might be the fault. However, we are going to check the brushes first.

That's it for now.