Land Rover shock mount relocate, Rocky Mountain helper spring install

Well, it has been a while that I have been driving my 109 with the ROAM disc brake conversion. I did have the shock interference issue with the brake caliper banjo bolt. The problem is the bolt hits the shock in a turn and can damage the shock or cause the bolt to unscrew. It only happens with thicker aftermarket shocks, not the stock ones. I have the procomp 9000 model shocks.
Here is a pic of the damage on my LH shock;

So I have been waiting for ROAM to make good and give me new shock mounts like they did to other customers, BUT they went out of business and even though the owner tried, Timm failed to deliver.
Just telling it like it is Timm.
Next comes the news that the Timm Cooper disc brake conversion is being manufactured by a new business Forbyn Bros.  www.forbynbros.com  The owner Greg Forbyn posted up on the Guns and Rovers forum so I got in contact with him. He designed new shock mounts and sold me a set $60+ $20 shipping. They arrived on Tuesday. I was concerned with the small(to me) welds and the shape of the plate(1/2") holding up to the cycling of the shocks over time. I told him so and he assured me they would be OK.
    I am a skeptic by nature so when I got mine I took them to my welder Daren and he looked at them and agreed with Greg, should be fine, then to assuage my fears he added another bead over the orginal one.
    I don't have a pic of the orginal welds but here is the new ones once I cleaned them up and put rust converter on them;

Then I put 2 coats of the Duplicolor truck bed liner'

Once it dried for 2 days I tackled the job. Replace the shock mounts and add a helper spring which Jeremy at Rocky Mountain recommended. The hardest part was trying to figure out how to jack up my front end on my uneven rocky drive. I eventually figured out how to get the front up with wood blocks and jack stands.

I was able to put a bottle jack under the swivel housing and undo the spring U-bolts. The axle didn't stay located over the pin and caused some rough going on reinstalling.
Here's what I put on on each side;

I freaked out a little bit when I held the helper spring up to the spring pack as it didn't conform to the shape. I finally just put it on and tightened the pin bolt and the spring flattened and went on fine. I really had to jack up the axle to get the new longer pin in. The pin turns by itself in the spring pack and I had to use a vise grips to hold it while both undoing and putting in the new one.

Once the pin was in I lowered the axle, that is when it gave me problems. The pin and the locating hole in the axle did not line up, the hole was aft of the pin. I couldn't just push it forward, it wouldn't budge, not even with a prybar. So what I did was hook my 1 ton come-a-long to the lifting eye on my winch and pulled the axle forward. Worked a treat! Had to do it on both sides.

Below is the new and the old shock mounts.

Here's some finished pictures;

Land Rover 88 roof

   I have an extra 88 roof, just a regular hard top. I am working on turning it into a roof top sleeper of some sort. So to that end I put insulation and liner in it over the last few days. I used the same stuff as my 109. Insulation from Harbor Supply,  www.lobucrod.com and sliver gray #6501 liner from Perfect Fit, www.perfectfit.com  For glue I used 3M 77 spray adhesive.

First pic is the insulation,

Second one shows the liner,

I don't know if you can see at the rear I put a piece of aluminum that I formed to fit the door opening. This will give me a flat edge to provide a seal when the top is down.

     I have to decide on how I want it to open, side or end lift or a full lift. Then source struts and have some sides made. This will all sit on some plywood on top of the roof rack I made. Then there is the issue of getting up and down into the tent....
    Right now I am thinking of an end lift with a ladder up the side of the rear of the 109. This would interfer with any type of awning I want to put up over the rear door/kitchen area. A full lift would be nice for the headroom and like a front lift could be accessed by simply going up the bonnet.
   Time will tell as I sus it out.

Land Rover 19J water pump remove, replace

   After the radiator replacement I was bummed that it didn't fix the overheating issue. So I just hesitated to change something else figuring that the whole thing is a losing cause. I'm probably right but .....

   Wanting to have a running car I set about to get some issues on my 88 fixed up. I started with the steering issue. It jumps over when you hit a bump, like the steering is too tight and sudden jarring lets the input move things. Since I replaced the swivel balls before starting the 109 project and it haden't been right since I knew it was something I did. So I set about to redo the preload on the swivel pins. I did the right then the left. On the left, one of the steering arm bolts stripped out and I had to wait for a replacement. When it came it turned out to be a right and not a left, So I had to wait again. Eventually it came via www.Pangolin4x4.com
   Once that was done I found that the brakes were not working so well after sitting for a year+. So I bled and adjusted them. That is when I found out that the wheel will rotate forward but not backward. So I ordered all new wheel cylinders.

    In the meantine while waiting to do that job I removed and replaced the waterpump on the 109. Fairly straightforward. Drain the radiator, loosen the top, bottom and bypass hoses. Loosen the alt and remove the fan belt. Pull the top hose off and loosen the 3 bolts holding the thermostat housing.

Remove the thermostat housing and then the thermostat.

The next 2 pics show the condition of the housing and the size and location of the bypass(small hole) and the heater hose(large hole). The next pic shows the new waterpump, I was interested to see the vane shape and determine the coolant flow.

Once the thermostat housing was removed I checked the head outlet.

Then it was off with the fan and pulley, followed by the 7 bolts holding the waterpump. Here's the old pump.

Not so bad should work fine, I'll keep it for a spare. Some wear on the face of the pump where the vanes slide.
    I took some pics of the interior of the coolant passages to look for wear or blockages.

Not seeing anything obvious I cleaned it up and using new gaskets put it all together. Then a test run to check for leaks.

It started up with loud clanking and soon thru a fanbelt pulley bolt I had forgotten to tighten them.....tsk...tsk...tsk! Lucky the fan didin't come off!

I have yet to take it for a run up a hill, mainly cause I don't think the old pump was bad now that I see it. Also because life sometimes gets in the way.

Today I started replacing the wheel cylinders on the 88. But that's for another page.