Ruby Scoo’s epic build, ten years and counting...

henpecked · Post by **henpecked** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 7:59 pm

Reading post like these are, for me, like going to the national art gallery. Some of the stuff I see I have absolutely no understanding of how it was done, and I know that I would never be able to do it myself, but I just gape in awe at the obvious excellence of concept itself anfd then even more so at the implementation work.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 8:27 pm

I also found a cardboard template of the bolting sequence helpful in assembly:

"Shim holders/case guides" - used cable tie tails:

Such a good sight to see - especially after dropping a little retainer bolt back into the gearbox. That was a frightening moment!

Overnight I started self doubting about the choice of speedo drive - it could be 10 or 20km/h OVER actual speed, which would've been pretty annoying and I'd still have to rely solely on the GPS.

Loaded onto the motorcycle jack for fitment. I made a shaped block of wood to raise the gearbox further for the mating to the engine as Ruby Scoo was up on ramps.

From here it all came together rather quickly including interruptions - gearbox on shed floor in the morning, 10am start (warmer!), driving by 7pm - I was happy with that effort anyway:

I managed to get the drive shafts fitted without having to drop the ball joints and swing the hub out - you just have to get them on before you start to line up the box with the engine

Worked a treat and saved some time and some dodgy operations!

You can see the block of wood in this pic above.

.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 8:28 pm

Aaaannndddd DONE! Low range works and is very smooth in shifting, as is the rest of the box once it's warm:

The best bit? Well, the first drive and the test of the low range was great, but what made me really stoked was that the choice of speedo drive gear was SPOT ON!!

So in my application with 27 inch tyres and 4.111:1 diff ratio the 27 tooth speedo drive gear is spot on with indicated to actual speed. Very happy with this!

Cheers

Bennie

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 8:31 pm

Thanks henpecked! I used to shy away from gearboxes until I decided not to run an adaptor plate with my EJ conversion - I re-cased an L gearbox in EJ dual range cases. That's what got me started on gearboxes!

This box was initially built by another fella who does them pretty regularly. I wanted to keep the cost down on this rebuild and he'd already done the hard yards on some of the required mods - such as the modifying of the low range selector fork for the EJ application and the shaving of the crown wheel

Cheers

Bennie

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:55 am

So glad it's all worked so well, even the speedo mod!

Why is the LSD missing 2 bolts?

Post by **Bantum** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 11:02 am

Yeah I noticed that too :

What's up with the chamfer as well ?

Cheers, Bantum ...

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 12:05 pm

They're cast holes in the LSD but no threaded holes for a bolt...

The chamfer is to clear the low range! Need it regardless of L or EJ low range afaik.

Cheers

Bennie

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 8:32 pm

well done getting the speedo spot on mate. i miss mine being accurate.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 11:08 pm

tambox wrote:Yep, when playing with different casings/gears, that little plate with the detent holes often has to be re-drilled/extended.

Yeah, learnt that with this fix. It's a good thing to know too - and relatively simple to do.

tambox wrote:Got an oil feed for the low range??
Your teeth are getting marked (love quality photo's)

Yep. This low range came from a box that was worked from time to time. I decided on this set as it didn't make any noise, unlike the one I had in my current gearbox at the time...

Oil feeders are used when ever they're needed these days, so hopefully there's no further damage.

No worries on the quality photos - something I enjoy doing!

vincentvega wrote:well done getting the speedo spot on mate. i miss mine being accurate.

You've gone back to a manual yeah? You could do a diff ratio match if you're keen on sorting it out...

Cheers

Bennie

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:35 pm

If i ever have to open the box up i will look into sorting the speedo (and will be chasing you for advice!!)

coxy · Post by **coxy** » Sat Oct 24, 2015 5:17 pm

Nice work on the Gearbox Mods El Freddo possibly the only thing I would consider doing differently is not to use copper pipe for the oiul squirters as sooner or later it will vibration fracture because it is not supported.

The material spec I would use to make those Oil squirter tubes from would be what is known as Bundy Tube this is a special seamless steel tube normally used as the correct application for Fuel Lines and available in the same sizes as the copper tube.

Yes especially in the Northern Hemisphere they tend to make Brake Lines from Copper tube which is actually illegal in Australia for good reason but proper Bundy Tube in Australia is also available with a copper coating not just the usual Nickel plating for rust prevention (That is why in Salt Laden Road environments they tend toward copper tube for brake lines).

So I would use Bundy tube for the next gearbox Mod and silver solder the fittings rather than normal solder as it is much stronger and has better vibration resistence unlike normal soldered joints.

So Plaudits for what you have achieved but try Bundy Tube and Silver solder to make it even more bullet proof for the next build.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:31 pm

vincentvega wrote:If i ever have to open the box up i will look into sorting the speedo (and will be chasing you for advice!!)

It was really pot luck mate! But you can call one me and we'll see what we can come up with

coxy wrote:Nice work on the Gearbox Mods El Freddo possibly the only thing I would consider doing differently is not to use copper pipe for the oiul squirters as sooner or later it will vibration fracture because it is not supported.

The material spec I would use to make those Oil squirter tubes from would be what is known as Bundy Tube this is a special seamless steel tube normally used as the correct application for Fuel Lines and available in the same sizes as the copper tube...

...So I would use Bundy tube for the next gearbox Mod and silver solder the fittings rather than normal solder as it is much stronger and has better vibration resistence unlike normal soldered joints.

Thanks Coxy, knowing your expertise it means a lot. And thanks for the tips on the bundy tube, I'll get onto that for sure next time the box is open (maybe 4.44:1 diff ratio swap?

)

Ruby Scoo is now being geared up for a trip this weekend - new cb radio fitted, AC ducting sorted and blower fan cleaned out of the half ton of leaves so I should finally have some decent AC action going on after about 10 years of ownership of this L!
I'm also hoping that this trip is a good one as it's a new area that's an unknown for us

Cheers

Bennie

coxy · Post by **coxy** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 9:09 am

What no AC Bennie have the window winders fallen off and never been replaced in the last ten years or something.

When it comes to in car cooling the three best things ever invented came out of the UK

Land Rover tropical roof is number one

Land Rover lift up vent panel below the windscreen is number two

Number three made it's appearance in Mini Panel vans and has since been stolen by all and sundry and added to their rally cars and Off road racers and is of course the humble Roof vent awesome for keeping cool and more important positive pressure inside the cabin so no dust comes in, Unless of course you spin out from tyring too hard and end up in your own dust cloud.;

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 5:26 pm

Nah mate I've got power windows but have to put a bung in the door cards.

I've got AC but it's not real flash. We're about to investigate the interior fan's voltage and see if we can hook up a "turbo" wire setting to spin that fan better. It could also be the fan is old as it's always been on when I've been driving...

And less than 1000k km for the golden 500!

Cheers

Bennie

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 1:24 am

While I was over in WA Ruby Scoo managed this little milestone:

And we were about here where it happened:

Trip report is being written up and will be dropped on the forum once it's complete

Teaser pics for you:

Link will be added in here too.

Cheers

Bennie

Nubaru · Post by **Nubaru** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 8:15 am

inspirational !

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 8:38 am

Can't wait

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 9:50 am

Looks like a couple of pics didnt work.

The Pinnacles are awesome, I've got a good one of my brother's car there but unfortunately its a Honda lol

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 1:20 pm

NachaLuva wrote:Looks like a couple of pics didnt work.

I'll have to look into that. They've only just been uploaded so there shouldn't be an issue and they worked for me last night. Seems a lot of my old images have been dropped here and there too

I need another night (a few free hours) to get this TR done - dunno when that's going to happen

Cheers

Bennie

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 3:39 pm

Looking forward to the TR