A Series 3 Question

[James Ham]

I think quite a few on here have owned Series 3s as well, which I haven't.  A chap in the office has bought a 1974 S3 and I'm wondering if the bolts will be UNF still, and what year did they go to metric?

And are the gearbox fixings still Whitworth and BSF?

Thanks,

James.

[diffwhine]

Yes and yes!

The metric change was either in 1980 or 1981 I think, but it didn't all change. Things like brake system went metric and the 5Mb engines had some metric fixings, but it wasn't a complete change until the One Ten came out.

[Craig T]

It will be much the same as your series 2 so yes, BSW / BSF on axles, gearbox and basically anything that hasn't changed design since the series one days.
The rest will (should) be UNF. I had a 1976 series 3 and that was UNF on everything except the aforementioned driveline bits.

Off course no telling what has changed over the years. I have since rebuilt that series 3 for the new owner and we used metric fastenings throughout simply for ease of purchasing them and the lower cost of metric fastenings.

They wheel studs off course went to M16 very early on. Have to wonder why they did that really and didn't just chose another UNF thread close by like 5/8" UNF.

Craig.

[James Ham]

Thanks both for the quick replies.  I shall pass that on.

[Mycroft]

The change was in mid-1980 I believe. I've been caught out by this on a couple of components as I've got a 1979 sIII and what gets advertised as sIII windscreen bolts and the like definitely doesn't fit a 70s sIII.

[w3526602]

Hi,

I think that the Factory Parts Book will tell you if and when fasteners changed their "loyalty".

602

[w3526602]

PS ...

I assume ALL S3 wheel nuts are metric, and ALL S2 wheel nuts are BSF. But was there a "choice" with later S2A?

Given the choice ALL S3 on any major rebuild. Getting four corners, at about £120 each, past Barbara, may be a different matter.   

602

[Wittsend]

Yes, and all RR wheel nuts too - M16, 27mm AF (1 and 1/16 inch AF in old money).
Standard fit to all Series2s on Chassis suffix H from March 1971 to end of 2A production.

Recently someone posted up the definitive Series 2 wheel nut size/thread table.



 

[NoBeardNoTopKnot]

Imperial is one of my pet-hates. There's so much that's good about our culture. It gives us soft-power. eg English is pretty much lingua franca. Imperial is not one of those good things.

Imperial measurement is actually dangerous in so many applications, lest we forget the  NASA disaster was down to this. I've seen too many life threatening issues down to imperial and metric confusion, namely threads and tolerances. This in my discipline. And,  I'm sure I don't know half.

The very least; we must run two sets of sockets to work well on an LR. Why? You would not believe the time, cost and hassle two systems create for me and my colleagues  in everyday life!

Worse, with no end in sight, the Americans are still at it. We don't get the blame, thus the only funny bit; they refuse to call it 'Imperial' -

Cue the Star-spangled Banner...

They call the whole mess 'American'.

But then they would.

[biloxi]

Didn't the Brits have an early go at metric threads?  They call the whole mess British Association (BA) But then they would.
.W.

[NoBeardNoTopKnot]

Brits have an early go at metric threads? 

Happy to be schooled. I had no idea BA thread was at root metric. Certainly pushing things to call it 'Brit'. And definitely a mess. Thankfully, not much is BA .

[Smokey 11a]

I think quite a few on here have owned Series 3s as well, which I haven't.  A chap in the office has bought a 1974 S3 and I'm wondering if the bolts will be UNF still, and what year did they go to metric?

And are the gearbox fixings still Whitworth and BSF?

Thanks,


James.

I was working in the Motor trade 1978 the cars and vans around that time had a mixture of Imperial, metric and Japanese sizes. Very confusing Imperial was still being used as some suppliers to the manufactures were still in the process of changing over to metric and we had to deal with both. The most common used sizes (Spanner) 7/16th 1/2 and 9/16. Metric 11, 13 and 15 mm. Japanese 9, 12 and 14 mm discounting whit-worth and others. It's a lot easier now.But nice to have a quality set of imperial and Metric from the days when Snap-on were actually a great quality tool. 

[w3526602]

Hi,

I think we can blame Napoleon for "Metric" ... a metre is a nice round fraction of the circumference of the Earth.

I think the YARD was based the length of a man's stride, which probably put Italians at a disadvantage ... long arms and short legs.

Us Brits drive on the left, probably based on armies marching on the left, so that swords could be drawn to defend against opposing armies on the other side of the road. Napolean (again) changed all that.

602