fitting overdrive

Shame you wasted your money on the hnj tool. The ones I made are the same and free to loan.

yes, sorry, never really been comfortable borrowing stuff, much rather have my own kit, don't agree that it is a waste of money though.

Plus there is no guarantee the overdrive will be any good or fail after a few weeks, I may take it out and put it in the s3 or get another for the s3.

I did give the matter some thought and decided getting my own would be best.

Not keen on lending stuff out either, we all have our hang ups

I see where you are coming from Joe, I made them a) because I can and b) to help folks and put something back in to the forum where we all have had so much help. Treasure the tool, I am still using tools I bought over 50 years ago and yes it is a ****er when they don't come back when lent out.

yes I have loaned some stuff over the years and people lost it or moved and conveniently forgot to return it etc.


ok the unit is on, these are the sites I used for reference if anyone as equally mechanically challenged as I am fancies having a go.

nicks site, good in depth write up, pay particular attention to what he says about pulling it back once fitted to get the two difficult nuts on

Fairey Overdrive Fitting ? Nick's Land Rover - Series III rebuild and restoration

this other one, not as detailed but the best one to read first as it isn't as heavy

Fitting a Fairey Overdrive to a Series 3 Land Rover

I am sure they have probably been posted before.

Anyway, thanks to the ****tus thickus that fiddled with it before and didn't see the need to fit a pto gasket or any instant gasket, that also put the lock tab washer back on even though he had broken off the locking tab. Consequently the castellated nut was easy to undo. Could have been anyone in its history I suppose, the po could have been as blissfully unaware as I was.

from what I could see of my gearbox it looked to be fairly good, no obvious missing teeth or anything.

On fitting the od to the box, the last half inch was a pain, I checked to see if any of the washer tabs could be stopping it going on all the way, didn't seem so. Got it on all the way in the end by sticking it in first - transfer box in neutral - then with one hand on the back of the od pushing and the other on the starter button pressing intermittently it slotted in after a few goes.

Would have been slightly easier to get it all the way on with a second person but not much.

just got to sort the linkage out now. None of the hardware shops round here even knew what a clevis pin was never mind stocking them.

So I might just use a couple of nuts and bolts till the ones I have ordered arrive.

Managed to free the pivot bolt from the linkage and gave it a good greasing.

ready for road test tomorrow

one last dumb question if I may, in which of these photos is the overdrive engaged please?

the one where the rod is pulled out of the casing or pushed in?

Lever forward is engaged so shaft backwards.

thx

will give it a test down the a316 first thing tomorrow when its quiet. there are some good straight bits

must remember to stick the oil in too

well that went well, didn't notice any change in gearbox noise when the od was engaged, so looks like a good un, despite me taking so long to get round to fitting it, iirc I bought it off someone in the s1 club in 2008/9

not overly comfortable with the position of the lever, knocked the main gear lever out of fourth once when I changed into od which was a tad embarrassing luckily the road was empty.

the other thing that is going to annoy me is having to take out the middle seat panel to check the oil. The panel on an s1 - well mine anyway - isn't hinged like the drivers seat so you can fill up easily or the passenger seat for the stowaway box, do people modify the middle panel so it hinges or just not bother to screw it down?

I found I did not need to check it that often , give it a couple of months checking it regular if it's not leaking extend the check. How many miles do you do in it.

not many at the mo, just potter around in it but plan to make trips to the coast in it this summer, c50 miles each way, the main reason for fitting the drive.

My daughter has her eye on it for her daily drive start of next year assuming she passes first time etc.


If I ever have to do the clutch or something major to the box - like add synchro - I may go for the Ashcroft transfer box and stick the od in the s3

next major job will be to swap the existing heater which is more like a cab heater into the tub and put a heater with demisters in the front, swap the indicator to a self canceller, and put properly mounted belts in.

this is the thing that annoys me the most, because of the shape of the s1 gear lever, the od lever has to be positioned the opposite way round from normal, i.e. with the angled section pointing towards the passenger.

if you have it in the position it is supposed to be in it is very easy to knock the car out of fourth when you move the od lever forward. The trouble is the handle is then slightly out of reach, whilst one may not have to put it in and out of od that often I can see it is going to annoy me, short tempered git that I am .

I guess an option would be to swap out the gear lever for the later series 3 one.

I may get the s3 back on the road this summer as the eldest has suddenly got serious about learning to drive - probably figuring I would be the one filling the tank and he would save on bus fares - so if both he and my daughter are driving by the end of the year the s3 would have to become an active member of the fleet.

so I may just transfer the od to the s3 and look at an Ashcroft box for the s1.

someone in the s1 club gave me a good tip, turn the lever upside down so the knob is on the other end and its perfect

Nice one bit of out of the box thinking.

yes, its one of those things that is so good you wish you could have thought of it yourself

this cheeky little chappie arrived yesterday, bought it on the bay for £420 toro overdrive. did a bit of research on it before buying, found a few articles but nothing recent, apparently you are royally stuffed if you need parts, save getting them specially made.

Plus side is they are a essentially a fairey with a few extra pairs of bollocks, much better built and robust so apparently never fail if looked after. Holds around twice as much oil as the fairey and has cooling fins so less prone to overheating.

Looks ok to me - like I know what I am looking at - going to stick it on the s3.

S3 seems to have had an overdrive before so again I don't need to cut a hole in the tunnel. Seems like whoever took the old one off left the bolts in place for the selector mechanism support bracket but not the nuts! Looking at the s3 box, it doesn't have a dipstick like the s1 does and I am guessing from the amount of crud on it the oil hasn't been checked for years. Toro overdrive doesn't have a dipstick either so I am hoping there is a fill level marker inside when I take the cover off.

Strange there's a place on the casting you'd expect a fill plug to go

blue beasty said:

Strange there's a place on the casting you'd expect a fill plug to go

Click to expand...

yes that's what I thought when I got it, would be more or less where the one on the fairey is too

divie said:

Just tap the nut ! Yes it does work but tighten to 85 lbs ? That is why so many come loose and why I made tools for folk to borrow.

Click to expand...

I thought they are meant to be loose!
I have never found a tight one- just a pain to get the lock tabs lined up.

ok might fit the toro overdrive to the s3 this weekend, got some of the rocol asp this time, do you dollop it on or just brush a bit on?

used lm grease on the other one and put tons of it on

well I used plenty of paste

fitting this one is more of a pig than a fairey.

Its much heavier and bigger so harder to offer into place, second pair of hands would have helped or a crane to support it.

there are 3 nuts that are hard to get on c.f. two on the fairey because of the casing design.

having a lady with long slender fingers would be an asset to get the two bottom nuts on much more fiddly than the fairey was

two on the bottom and one on the side, you really need to do all 3 up a bit at a time, easy to forget the one on the side. if you don't do them gradually, the others stop the overdrive from going home. You can't get a socket on any of the nuts because of the casing so it takes quite a bit longer to do them all up a quarter of a turn at once.

can't see any form of level marker for the oil so I just did it to where I thought it would be ok, holds a lot of oil too.

when taking the back off the gearbox the castellated nut wasn't even finger tight thanks to whoever took the old od off not bothering to bend the tab washer in. all the studs came off, managed to get the nuts off them bar one which I am leaving in a diesel bath overnight.

can't remember where I put my pack of clips for the clevis pins and reversed over my tube of blue hylomar which left a nice pattern on the drive