Back to the 109

Well let's see the rims came in on Monday from Ok Offroading ( okoffroading.com). Brian and I took them down on Tuesday to get the new KM2's swapped onto the new rims. Lloyds Tire Service swapped them over and there was no charge! They balanced up much better than the others! One of them only needed 1 weight the others used 2, 1 on each side.
Brought them home and took em right from the truck to the axle! They went on easy and no clearance issues with the calipers!!!

I then put together the steering rods and put them on that evening. I was hoping to be able to drop the 109 on the ground that evening but ran out of daylight

Today I went out to run the wiring from the front to the back, you know, the one that runs thru the frame rail. I had run a fish through it last month for when the harness came in I'd be ready.
It took a bit to get the wiring figured out as it came without any info on what went where. So I sat around with my 3 wiring diagrams for Series 2 and 3 and 90/110 trying to figure out what went where. Finally I had sorted the frame rail bit from the rest.
I tied it to the fish and wrapped it with tape to keep it from catching on anything and pulled it into place carefully. But something was wrong (AGAIN!) No matter what I did it was too short! So I emailed the supplier(British Wiring)complete with pictures. They emailed back that they think that an 88 harness was sent instead of a 109 and they would check to see if they had a 109 instock

Does this stuff happen to everybody or just me?
So I put away all the wiring bits and installed the grab bumpers on the rear cross members. Then using My daughters fiance's engine hoist I picked up each end of the frame, removed the saw horses and lowered it to the ground! Yaayyy!!! I now have a rolling chassis

I removed the white hubcaps from the rear hubs and replaced them with the new ones I picked up from Rovah Farm.
I hope that tomorrow will bring me news of the wiring fix......
There is a busy weekend coming up I have to work on Sat for my friend and Sunday is the memorial for Kathy, that is going to be a tough, sad day.

galvanizer makes good!

I recieved a check today from Pacific Galvanizing in Oakland covering the full amount for the cost of repair from the body shop to fix my damaged bulkhead!

Hurray!!!

Sometimes

Life just doesn't seem fair.

I lost one of my best friends last night. Kathy Trissell. Due to colon cancer that she fought hard and valiantly for the last 3 years. Kathy was 53.
To her mother, Vivian and husband, Phil my heart aches with our loss!

Tyre woes---Wheely!

So When I bought my 88,Ignotus, in 2009 I got wind of a fellow selling some stuff in Nevada. I met him and got a good deal on his Series Rover stuff as he was moving into Rangies. One of the things he had was a set of 4, 16x8 rims for Series Rovers.

Well I dragged them home with all the rest of the stuff awaiting the time to put them to use. Now was the time!
I had to get one of them with a bad ding repaired, then all were blasted and powder coated.

On Thursday I dropped them off to get new tyres mounted. By early Friday they called to let me know the wheels were ready.
I drove down in my 93 Rangie LWB and picked them up. I was informed that two were really out of true(wobbled) and they should be on the back axle. One of these was the one I had had repaired. It must have taken quite the hit! It had weights on 1/3 of the inside rim.
So I brought them home and after installing the pads in the brake calipers I proceeded to mount them on the chassis. At this point I was excited to finally get a rolling chassis and be able to drop the motor in. I started with the left front and worked my way around the rear and ending at the right front.

I tightened the last lugnuts and gave the wheel a spin as I had on all the other 3 corners. But the wheel wouldn't turn. ?? I wondered quickly what had I done were the wheel bearings too tight? I looked on the inside and found that the rim was impinging on the caliper. :-(

My first thought was what did ROAM do wrong then I started to look closely as to what was going on. After all the other side worked out great!
After inspecting and measuring I figured out that 2 of my rims have a deeper offset. They would be fine on the back with the smaller calipers but not on the front with the larger size. Part of the delimma was that the one rim that would now fit the front was the one with all the weights on it! What's a boy to do!! I couldn't move it to the front it would probably shake the car apart!
I called Brian at Roam Offroad and asked his opinion as I knew he had studied making wheels for Rovers. We talked a bit and he let me know about a website that had wheels. OKoffroading, www.okoffroading.com We both called the page up on our computers and talked it over. Then we hung up and I was left with a decision as to what TF am I gonna do now? I looked at some other Rover parts suppliers but decided on getting a set of the OKoffroading XD rims. http://www.okoffroad.com/stuff-wheel-lr.htm A set of 4 sells for $450.00USD or around $112.00USD each. So I called to check on availability and Mark said they are being made right now and will be at the shop next week and then they will ship to me. Oh and something else influencing my decision is that they are made in the USA!
This will give me a chance to catch up on other things with the rebuild like painting the bulkhead and doing the steering rods, etc. Oh yeah the wiring harness is due in soon.
What to do with the nice looking wobbly rims? They would work on a drum brake vehicle but I don't think I can pass them on the way they are....sucks to have to toss em....