openinverter forum

Hi all, new member here today.

Im currently in the middle of a total nut and bolt resto of a 1981 Land Rover series 3, 109 LWB.

Ive a new chassis arriving any day, and so I can start the rebuild.

Ive been scouring various forums, youtube etc and here is my current "plan".

Leaf motor/inverter, with adapter plate to connect a propshaft. That prop drives a divorced LT230 transfer box, which in turn drives all 4 wheels.

To improve range and reduce stress on front axle, I plan to fit a 2wd/4wd selector the LT230, in conjunction with free wheeling hubs. So 95% of time it will run RWD.

I was thinking of a resolve controller, but Im learning more about the Zombie VCU, and has me interested to say the least. In fact Im talking to someone that can provide most of this kit.

Ratios will be 1.6 in the transfer box, standard 4.7 in axles. I think this will work.

Not sure yet on battery size, but prob around 40kwh. More if I can afford it!

The areas still unsure about:

1. Brakes. My LR has non-servo 11inch drums all round. Many seem to keep them as the regen helps massively.

2. Heating - this I am not sure at all about yet.

3. Display - need to understand options for displaying battery %, range, drive status (n, d, r) etc.

4. Steering..i have no power assisted steering at present. Do I need this, not sure.

Im a little anxious about the setup of ev stuff, but confident enough to give it a go.

Thats me, so thx for the add, and hopefully I can learn a lot here, and contribute as I go.

Welcome to the forums! I do love to hear about Land Rover builds. I have a Land Rover 110 in the conversion queue at the moment, but it’s a year or so off. Needs a lot of chassis welding first.

Never knew the LT230 could be converted to be 2wd/4wd selectable before I googled it after reading your post! Although it’s an open diff in it’s default form so I don’t think it will put too much stress on axles.

The only Land Rover conversions I have seen with Leaf motors keep the gearbox as well for extra reduction. Might be worth seeing if you can get more reduction in the axles possibly, with no gearbox you are effectively in 4th gear at all times.

With regards to your unsures:

Leaf motor is roughly equivalent to a 300 TDI in power output. So a good indicator would be if the 200/300TDI engine swaps into Series have upgraded their brakes as well. Regen can help but there will be times it is not available.
PTC heater replacing the original heater matrix would be the easy option for heating. As least to defrost the windows. Heating mats for the seats are an efficient way to heat yourself as well.
There are tons of options for displays, some of the things like drive status could be done with push buttons or physical switches. If you end up using SIMPBMS that has support for a nextion display which is really easy for showing state of charge etc
I guess that one is more personal preference, potentially you might end up with a little more weight in the front than the old block. Adding a 12v power steering pump isn’t too hard though. Not sure what's involved in adding power steering to the Series in terms of steering box though.

Looking forward to seeing how it goes though!

Looking forward to this build Have been watching Synchro Gearboxes' doing an older LR conversion based on the Leaf too and see they seem to do some nice stuff for the LT230 also, even the divorced setup.

currently working on 2 leaf powered Landrover a series 1 and a IIa

both keeping the gearbox for now. fitting the full leaf stack! Simple, clean quick. Not a lot of custom fab work

Zombie is good choice, very adaptable and new features and parts added often.

Resolve makes a simple full system if you use the leaf pack


leaf directly to a lt230 has been done it’s what https://cleanclassics.co.uk/ dose for their conversion.

I'm currently working (still...) on my S2a project car and still not convinced to do an EV conversion or not....