1970 Rover 3500 - EMF

Did a few more little jobs over the weekend which have made a big difference to the way the car drives.

Firstly, prompted by Rockdemons post on changing the airvalve on the brake servo I did a bit of research into how it works. The brakes have been a bit wooden since I did the engine rebuild a couple of years ago (I rebuilt the master cylinder whilst the heads were off) and I was sure they didn't used to be like that. Anyway a bit of reading up in the Haynes book of lies suggested that the air valve cover only clips on (ie easy to remove for investigation) and underneath there's a rubber seal which opens the servo to atmospheric pressure. This was full of dirt and dust which I'm sure has prevented it from sealing once the brakes were released, meaning there was always some pressure acting on the servo membrane.

Anyway, I cleaned it out and the brakes are much better - more sensitive to light pressure on the pedal and easier to modulate.

Time taken - 10 minutes reading and 15 minutes to do the job and test. Time spent with crap brakes, 2 years!

Buoyed by my success with the brakes I turned to the distributor. It's been running a bit flat since I got it back from the paint shop and just driving round hasn't really improved it. So, I cleaned up the contacts inside the distributor cap and had a look at the points. I've never played around with points before, thinking that I'd muck up the timing by touching them, but I took them off and filed the surface down, refitted them and turned the engine over. It started straight away and performed very well on the test drive.

Time taken, 15 minutes.

So about 45 minutes of effort have made a big difference. :D No pictures this time though as Jane had the camera with her.
 
testrider said:
I've never played around with points before, thinking that I'd muck up the timing by touching them, but I took them off and filed the surface down, refitted them and turned the engine over. It started straight away and performed very well on the test drive.
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Time to invest in electronic ignition then because it won't be long before the points need that doing again. Sometimes the only way to learn is to have a go and see what happens. Everything is reversible provided you don't go mad and if you've managed a top end rebuild then adjusting points is easy (as you've now found out :D ).

It's funny how long we live with those little niggles for :roll: and how much better our cars are for the sake of the odd hour or so on the simple stuff.

....now then, I must get those headlamp relays fitted before the nights get dark again..... :roll:

Dave
 
You could do what i did and try freeing up the advance on the dizzy and have the newish rotor arm fall to pieces in your hand....? (Car now awaiting new rotor arm!)

Rich
 
Rich has sort of hit on a little tip.

If you do replace service components (cap, rotor, points, condensor) that were working ok, it's worth keeping at least one set as a backup, especially with the current trend for new stuff to fail early on.

Everybody used to laugh at me for keeping old dizzy caps and rotors :LOL:
 
Everybody used to laugh at me for keeping old dizzy caps and rotors :LOL:
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I did keep the old one - it sort of runs with that, but it was taken out because it caused rubbish running ( Red one from Simon BBC - has nice black arc-marks along it!)

Rich
 
I keep a set of points and a condenser in both cars just in case the electronic ignition module packs up.

Dave
 
I have some spares in mine too, but was never sure what to do with them until now. It's almost as enlightening as learning to weld!

I may well change to electronic ignition at some point over winter - it won't be for a while though as all my money is now in a bank account in Derby and I'm officially poor!
 
testrider said:
I have some spares in mine too, but was never sure what to do with them until now. It's almost as enlightening as learning to weld!

I may well change ot electronic ignition at some point over winter - it won't be for a while though as all my money is now in a bank account in Derby and I'm officially poor!
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Ditto :shock:
 
A small update keeping up the mini theme of sorting out minor niggles with simple fixes, this time the permanently lit ignition light. It's been on since April when I rebuilt the front end after stripping off the wiring loom to paint the engine bay. The ammeter has always worked correctly showing charge immediately after start up and the voltage across the battery was 14.5V so I was pretty sure that the charge circuit was fine and that the problem lay in the warning lamp circuit.

It wasn't until last week when I noticed that the ignition light flickered as I went over a big bump that it got me wondering if there was a short on the back of the dash. I took the instrument cover off and the light went out, so I loosened the dash assembly and pulled it forwards slightly and cured the problem completely - result!

In a bizarre yin and yang, pleasure/pain balance realignment I lost one of my wheel centre caps the next day :(
 
Good to hear your ignition light is sorted now :D

I always do a quick functional check of anything electrical related after I've been working around the wiring looms. It's so easy to disturb something just enough to induce bizarre fault symptoms. I finally got round to fitting relays into the main beam wiring of my car over the weekend and after I'd put it all back together noticed the foglights weren't working. I'd pulled one of the bullet connectors out just by lifting the lighting loom out of the way :? .

Always best to check.

testrider said:
In a bizarre yin and yang, pleasure/pain balance realignment I lost one of my wheel centre caps the next day :(
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Bugger! :(

Dave
 
Thanks Dave. Just noticed that the choke on warning light now works again too. I think the back of the dash panel was earthing though the dash top mounts.

I'd be interested to see how you wired in the headlamp relay if you were planning to do a write up?

At least I'll have three spare wheel caps for next time - it's just as cheap to buy four.
 
Paul

I'm working on a write up for the headlamp relays. Very easy to do and I used a pair of 30A modern relays to switch both inner and outer main beams on from a single feed on both sides. Longest part was making up the wires :roll: I also put a new battery in for winter as the battery in the car was only just cranking the engine after sitting outside in the cold all day last winter. I've put a 600A Bosch Silver HSB075 from Halfords in. £113 and fits very well in the battery box. Engine spins over much quicker now :D

Dave
 
Paul, how did your reversing light finish up ?, brilliant idea and looks really neat,I am tempted to try as well, is it bright enough to reverse with ?
 
It's not really progressed much further than in the previous pictures. I have cut a section of lens out of an old indictator unit taken off my Volvo and that helps scatter the light a bit, but I really need to get round to making some reflectors for the inside. They should boost the light output slightly and prevent light from the number plate lamps seeping out of the reversing light hole. Also I think the cut out need to be a touch higher to let more light out.

Another thing I experimented with was trying to get a lens to fit flush exactly in the cut out rather than under the glass, but I couldn't get the heat right to allow the plastic lens to curve and fit in the metal suround without burning. Could be a job for the Christmas holidays.

I did buy some frosting spray to try to hide the bulbs, but it's quite white rather than the silver etch finish that I was expecting so I'm not sure if I'll use it.

There's a moderate amount of light to see with in the dark but you don't get a beam as such. I wasn't really bothered about using the lamp to see with, it's more of a warning lamp to other road users that I'm reversing. Also, because it's an automatic you always have the brakes lights on when reversing so any beam would be swamped by red brake lights anyway.
 
Another small update of what I've been up to recently. After I wrote the previous post about frosting the number plate lamp glass I actually fitted it to the car and it looks a lot better than I expected so I've left it on for the time being. No photos yet though as the weather is awful here.

I also noticed on Sunday that the odometer had stopped working and I remember Dave3066 had done some repair work on his speedo last year so I read back throug his post. The fault was the same - the spring clip had worn through and become detached from the eccentric drive that pushes the number wheels round. My spare speedo in the loft had the part I needed so the repair was fairly simple. However, what I didn't realise at the time was that I didn't need to remove the speedo needle or the mechanism from the dial and I've not got it back on the spindle in the same place so it now under reads a bit instead of over reading like before.

Are there any tips for getting it back on right other than 'don't take it off' or 'trail and error'?
 
testrider said:
However, what I didn't realise at the time was that I didn't need to remove the speedo needle or the mechanism from the dial and I've not got it back on the spindle in the same place so it now under reads a bit instead of over reading like before.
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I'm glad I couldn't figure out how to get the needle off mine then.....

Paul

My spare clip wore through again fairly soon after I swapped them over and I had to resort to covering the clip with glue to hold it in place. As always happens, the temporary repair is holding for longer than what should've been a more permanent one :roll:

Dave
 
Dave3066 said:
testrider said:
However, what I didn't realise at the time was that I didn't need to remove the speedo needle or the mechanism from the dial and I've not got it back on the spindle in the same place so it now under reads a bit instead of over reading like before.
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I'm glad I couldn't figure out how to get the needle off mine then.....
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Brute force and ignorance was all it took!

I'll drive it off the rev counter for a while and see if it sorts itself out.
 
I have just finished reading this entire thread, & all I can say is, WOW! the car looks absolutely gorgeous & the amount of time & effort put into it , simply awesome. I take my hat off to you. EMF will now last a whole lot longer & rust will no longer be a worry. I agree with your attitude of driving the car & enjoying it, rather than cosseting it purely for show purposes. That's what it's all about.

Dave
 
Thanks Dave, glad you like it and have enjoyed reading about what I've been up to. There are still a few jobs to sort out, but they'll be delayed for a while until I've got the 2000TC that I've just bought sorted out and ready for use as a daily driver.

A quick update on the speedo. After pulling the needle off when I didn't need to I've now managed to calibrate it by trial and error to be fairly accurate - more so than it was before so it wasn't all in vain.
 
Seeing as the sun was out I thought it was high time EMF came back home from my mother-in-laws garage where it had been hiding from the winter. It never ceases to put a smile on my face when I drive it and after a few miles to get the fluid circulated and the brakes scrubbed off it was as good as ever.

With the MOT looming and talk on other threads about wiring tests I need to find out why the brake light doesn't come on when the handbrake is applied and I think there may be a rattle from a front balljoint to find too, but otherwise I think it's good to go.
 
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