Series IIa Questions

Hi All,

I've just bought a Series IIA. It needs a bit of TLC and elbow grease.

It needs a patch welding just behind the rear spring mounting of the front drivers side and just behind the clutch and brake cylinders, new lights, a new brake pipe the reservoir to the brake cylinder and a general tidy up in the wiring dept.

I have a couple of questions re: some of the above...

1, What sort of plating do I need to patch the hole in the chassis and bulkhead? e.g thickness of material, type? where can I get such 'metal'? 2, How do I tell if the wiring is negative earth or positive earth? (what's the difference?)

TIA

rk

Reply to
rk
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Chassis :- 1.6mm. Bulkhead 0.6mm approx. As you only want small bits try local engineering or welding works for offcuts. Shouldn't cost much, but you might have to do a bit of looking.

Have a look at the battery. Locate which lead goes to the chassis or engine block. This is the earth lead. The positive terminal post on the battery is the bigger of the two posts, so if the earth lead goes to this it is positive earth, if the earth lead goes to the smaller one, it is negative earth. If it is as it came from the factory (not at all likely on a vehicle this age) the change coincided with the change to toggle switches on the dash and key start for petrol engines and the wiper motor in the dash. JD

Reply to
JD

Raiding the skips at various local engineers has always worked for me. In the past ive alway known people who worked there who have let me in, but theres also a lot of places round here that leave the skips outside the gates one night every week or two for them to be collected.

All the ones ive seen have had a plate on saying 'warning negative earth' or similar. usually stuck near the battery or on the top of the radiator panel. I presume its possible that theres a positive earth notice on +ve earth models?

Reply to
Tom Woods

The late Ser 2a were negative earth whilst the early ones were positive. Late models carried the plate warning of negative earth - early ones carried nowt.

However

Many +ve Ser 2a have been converted to a negative earth and do not bear the manufacturers' plate (mine don't for a start!)

So - if the vehicle has the plate then it is most likely if -ve earth, if not - follow the previous advice and check the earth strap. If the vehicle has an alternator rather than a dynamo then it is most likely negative earth too.

If yours turns out to be a +ve earth then consider changing it to -ve - it'll allow you to fit a radio/CD/tape player that you can listen to whilst parked :-))

Reply to
Graeme

Thanks for the info so.

Unfortunatley, it didn't have a battery fitted. I attached the battery out of my usual car and started it. Metal braided strap to engine block to negative, the other to the positive. It started first time! The battery was on for a while, with no burning smell of fried electrics. Is this a good indicator that its a negative earth??

thanks

rk

Reply to
rk

It does sound fairly promising! Does it have an alternator on or is it still a dynamo? I think mine came as positive earth when my mate had it before me (well what wiring there was), yet I have the negative earth warning plates.

Reply to
Tom Woods

I think it has a dynamo, big black cylinder to the front right hand side of the engine (looking from the front).

is it difficult to put an alternator on? if so what sort of alternator?

thanks

rk

Reply to
rk

Sounds like a dynamo.

Not very hard. Helps if you understand electrical circuits or have a helper who does, but can be done successfully without this. I think it has been covered here before, so a search would give you a few pointers. The easiest to fit alternator would be one off a Series 3 with the same engine. You would need the mounting bracket as well. JD

Reply to
JD

Steady on!! That's much too thin!!! I use at least 1mm on bulkhead repairs, and 2-3mm plate on the chassis.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Warner

If my memory is correct (not as good as it was) the figures I gave are the original thicknesses (except for the pillar on the bulkhead). As you have found, distortion problems are less with thicker plate, but depending on the location of the repair, too great a change in thickness is likely to result in a stress concentration and consequent cracking. But increasing to

2mm on the chassis should not be a problem, and most parts of the bulkhead that tend to need replacing are not highly stressed. JD
Reply to
JD

On or around Wed, 21 Apr 2004 21:25:18 +1000, JD enlightened us thusly:

ISTR the chassis is 14 gauge originally, which is about 2mm. I plated a hole on the back of mine with 2mm, the local MOT bod looked at it and said "bloody hell, why didn't you use summat a bit thicker?" so I said "that's as thick as the original chassis was when it was new, and it's certainly not that thick now.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

Thanks for the correction on thickness - but I stand by my comments on using too thick a patch - this is a prime way of starting cracks. JD

Reply to
JD

On or around Thu, 22 Apr 2004 06:36:49 +1000, JD enlightened us thusly:

and pointless, since the chassis is already thinner than spec, being as it's rotted enough to make holes...

Reply to
Austin Shackles

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