1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

[MrF]

Small world, yes, the 101 is fixable after the 'incident'. The subsequent crash wrecked the 101 a bit & daughter cracked her knee cap when the dash collapsed into her, but happily she's 100% now & it was only me that got burnt and have some epic scars to scare people with at parties and its mostly healed/grew back now. Look how much room we had between the front of the seat and the front...

Original URL: http://gallery.pipandphil.com/Vehicles/4Wheels/Land%20Rover%20101FC/twisted_cab.jpg


I managed to pick up most of the 101 specific bits I wrecked so a bit of fettling and a power steering conversion and it'll be better than it was before but I promised myself I wouldn't start the re-restoration until both me and the barn workshop's ready as I'm sick of lying in the dirt fixing things while I have a ramp etc in the back of a van waiting. Yeah the value of them has gone insane suddenly and sadly they seem to have become a bit of a investment thing where people frantically try to make them as flawed as when they left the factory to increase the value, which isn't why I liked them in the first place. 4.6, overdrive, power steering and a decent cage for me as the originality died in that ditch that day

I like that GAZ and they are monsters off road also, sadly I've only got a 3.5T license so its a bit out my league, there's a guy up the road with a 5t SUMB that has a flathead petrol v8 in it on open pipes that he gargle's past my house with regular that's luring me to get one but I should probably focus on fixing what I have first. My 101 was used in its military service to prove the wide track rapier acompanying sankey trailer offroad at the military proving grounds before they accepted it into service and I have a few official pics of it doing its stuff offroad there in service pulling antenna masts around etc. I should probably get one one day and reunite them. Especially as all the restorers and experts say a wide track sankey is period incorrect for a 101 to tow and was never used with them by the military

[Slooby]

Ooofff!

That was the one thing that always troubled me about the 101; the proximity of one's knees to the dash to the front panel...says the man with a VW T25 transporter....Still want one though, and the rivet counters can do one, they are meant to be used!

The Gaz has been sold on now, sadly my mates right shoulder objected bitterly to the gear lever positioned in line with the back of the seat. It has been replaced with something almost as daft; a Morris MRA1, which is more in keeping with his main 4 wheel interests; vintage Morris of which he has more than a few...

As I passed my test in 1990 I have a licence to drive some stupidly big stuff with no experience necessary, but so far I think the biggest thing I've driven next to the JCB has been a Luton bodied Transit, although my old E39 BMW 530D Touring with a 18 foot tri-axle tiltbed Brian James trailer hauling my Impreza to events, stuffed full of camping gear, tools, spare wheels and beer with two passengers wasn't exactly light or small! Thinking about it, isn't a 101 plated to 3.5 tonnes GVW? I know that Bill and Alice (one of my 109's) both *cough* are, and that's before adding the 3.5 tonnes they can *cough* tow (must be C19 causing all that coughing...)

I thought the rapier trailer was always partnered with the 101, only laterly going behind the 127 when that took over Rapier tractor duty?

[MrF]

Yeah possibly I'm a little mixed up on how they were field deployed as mine wasn't used directly on rapier stuff but for developing the vampire towed trailers which were the infrerometer units built from a wide body sankey trailer & the vampire itself being built with a special radio body that is now telephone money to buy. Searching I see the rapier resupply trailer is a different beast again though I thought it was the same base unit.

Pic of it duly dragging a vampire pump up mast prototype at the chertsey UK proving grounds assigned to the MVEE before it went onto units in Holland and Germany before being defleeted.

Trailer_trials5.jpg

Sorry for the distraction to the others, we return you to glorious discussion and pictures of jcb 3cx's

[Slooby]

Here's the one of the Rapier's being used to move its owners Colchester Student (a tiddler of a lathe by comparison)



Bill being pressed into service moving my T25 and one of its owners Morris'



My 109 Alice next to Bill and another friends IIa 88 Fergie, Alice will be very similar to Bill when finished but a S111.1.20L rather than 12L



Another toy I will be relocating down to Kent soon:



Back on JCB's I took my son (he's two and a half) out to the far far field to collect logs in it earlier and despite the very boggy ground from all the rain we didn't get stuck. He thoroughly enjoyed himself

[Slooby]

It's been a while since I've posted on here, let alone an update on the 3CX...

I've been a bit distracted by life (read divorce) and efforts to try to get my ex-wife to move out of the house so I can get it tidy enough to market which includes moving all my big stuff out and down here to Kent.

To that end I had another bout of Man Maths after looking into fitting a towbar to the brother-in-laws 2011 VW Transporter T32...turns out that as a 2011 model it has a variety of interesting electronics all of which mean that while the mechanical parts to fit a Westfalia removable swan neck towbar are relatively sanely priced (£250) the electrics aren't...to the tune of £450 worth of bits On top of that you have to have the main body control module re-coded to understand that the towbar is fitted. Essentially it costs the best part of £850 to fit a towbar doing most of it bar the coding yourself even then the towing capacity is 2.5 tonnes...cue Man Maths and enter another project:



1995 P38 2.5 DSE, yes it's got issues, but they're not as terrible as people would have you believe, I'm replacing all the air springs as one had popped, and have rebuilt the air suspension distribution system, currently have the front in pieces still replacing a wheel bearing, a split CV gaiter and split track rod and drag link ball joint gaiters I'm also trying to get the NSF swivel off to replace the bottom ball joint, that is proving quite tricky. On top of that I'm giving the engine and gearbox (215k miles) a good service including refreshing the turbo seeing as the parts were only £25 and it was leaking a fair bit of oil past the seals

Getting the wheel bearing out did require some creativity and a couple of tools:



But In the end the whole job of replacing the bearing took about 3 hours, not bad considering I only had a 10 tonne hydraulic gear puller instead of a proper press, but a bead of weld around the inside of the outer race did the job of shrinking it enough to get it moving.

Meanwhile, the JCB has been a little busy moving soil about in our orchard where we were putting in a new fence 'in' the hedge to keep the chickens from being killed by dogs getting in from the playing field on the other side (we've had two die from the ordeal of being jumped on). That working in and around trees led to me cracking the windscreen, which is tiresome.

More tiresome however is that this weekend we decided to start moving a very large mound of soil, and after a sterling days service yesterday today we've had our first hydraulic casualty: the return hose (I think) from boom ram has started to leak.



Rather than risk a big failure and oil everywhere I've parked it up and am trying to find out what it's likely to cost to replace, and whether we have a hydraulic hose place more local to us that out North Kent and Sheppy way where they all seem to be :/

[essexpete]

Tim one of the larger Kent towns must have a hydraulic shop. Where are you near?

[Slooby]

I'm in East Peckham which is next door to Paddock Wood (where there is a mobile chap, not paying for a callout!) and 10 minutes from Tonbridge, everything seems to be out Sittingbourne and Ashford way though.

Although these chaps might be able to do something: http://www.alltypehose.co.uk/products.html and aren't too far to send my dad out to with the hose now it's off and vaguely clean

[MrF]

Good to see you still cracking on, I keep looking at P38's but with the v8 as a donor to give up its engine for the 101, the 3.5 RR I had previous to the 90 was a good all round tow vehicle but it died of chassis/inner body rot and donated its organs for other things.

There's these up the road from Alltype as a second option, though I've never used either. http://www.bowmarthose.co.uk/id13.html

[Slooby]

Cheers for that Phil

Yeah P38's are still pretty damn good value and they very rarely rot which is staggering considering just how badly the Disco 2 does around the back end. This could come back to bite me but the air suspension is nothing like as expensive or complex to run through as the internet would have you believe; I bought four new OE Dunlop Air Springs, and the complete rebuild kit for the compressor and solenoid distribution system for much less than a basic coil conversion kit. If you're curious you can follow my antics here: https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/ ... ts.371050/ where much like I've done with the JCB I'm documenting everything I'm fiddling with

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get the hose replaced and then the JCB out moving piles of earth again.

Actually, that reminds me; the pin that locks the Extradig arm which had been stuck in the out position for ages has gone into the lock position (completely flush with the boss) and I haven't got a clue how to pull it out again short of welding a handle onto the exposed end, the underside of the arm doesn't provide any access to the pin either. Any thoughts?

[Slooby]

Hose sourced from a place pretty much the next village over from us https://www.controltechltd.co.uk/ Wasn't the cheapest at £50, but it was the least hassle. Now fitted and the JCB is back in service