1973 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[richarduk]

Thought I would start a new thread about my old girl, the "Soup Dragon", as I've started the remove the rust. And as it's raining and I have to work on her out side I'm sat at the PC copying previous posts I made on the PC forum when the p6roc was down. A bit of history on the cars ups and downs in there so worth while. So you'll see a flurry of what look like old posts and then I'll start to post about the anti rust campaign.

Apart from when the engine died all this work is done whilst still having MOT / TAX and using the car every day. Really helps to keep up the enthusiasm, a spin round the island just puts a big smile on my face, I think this is true for any classic you own.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:30 pm ]

Hi, nice to see this new forum. I'll try to keep this post up to date. First here is a cut'n'paste from a previous post.


My 1973 Rover P6 2000sc auto

Finally I feel my P6 is ready to show her face after her "unfortunate incident" on the M3 about five months ago. I brought the car back in June from eBay for a grand, she ran well but I could tell she needed a valve doing. But that was not a big job and the car was rust free. I know you here that a lot but this car really is rust free. The guy was selling her as he had had an accident at work and was unable to driver or work on her. The car came with a massive folder full of history, to much to describe but it must be the most complete history of a car I've seen. I even have the typed correspondence between Rover and the Barclays bank manager who brought her.

The "unfortunate incident"
So after about 300 miles of driving I though it was time to take the old girl on a trip up to the office at Henley-on-Thames. I work from home on the Isle of Wight. So its about about a ferry trip and a 160 mile round trip. She ran up the M3 no problem at around 80 mph all the way. She ran like a dream with no symptoms apart from the temp never going about the blue. I though this was the sender, may well have been but was a little odd. Then as I was coming into Henley I noticed a little noise from the engine when accelerating, I though she was pinking, maybe running a little hot. Then time to go home we have a nice run to the M3 via Reading and Bracknell. She's making that noise a bit more but not much. It sounded much like pinking so ignored it. Just as I come up the hill a few miles before the services BANG, SHUDDER and thud. The engine let go, loads of noise it was one hell of a racket. So I then pull in, what!!! No brakes too! Two pumps to get some peddle and then very poor braking. Well to shorten a long story, the big ends on the second pot had let go, when I stripped it down they were like tin foil! Also the brake master cylinder and remote servo was shot. Anyway as the regular forum readers will know I've been spending the last four months rebuilding her and here are the results.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:47 pm ]

Brake rebuild

Can you spot the new remote servo and brake pipes?

So there I was sitting on the M3 with a broken P6, no brakes, which meant the tow from the AA man would be interesting and a dead engine, which is another story. For now Iâ\u20ac\u2122ll talk about the brakes. â\u20ac\u0153 So what happened?â\u20ac\ufffe you asked. It was a little odd, she ran up to the office without a hitch but later that day in the office car park I had to pull her forward a little to allow someone to get out and thatâ\u20ac\u2122s when I found the brake were gone. Lucky it happened when I was not moving. I jumped out and had a good look, she still had all the brake fluid and there was no leaking that I could see. I jumped back in and pumped the brakes a little and they came back so I moved the car. With a little playing I found that the peddle would only go to the floor after a few minutes of not being used. So I decided that I could drive home ok, just take it easy and brake early. Sure was a bit naughty but I was 90 miles and a sea crossing from home and only had basic cover from the AA. As it turns out I could have upgraded for another £60 and got home from the office, I did not know this at the time and I knew it would cost me hundreds of pounds to get her home using a private low loader.

I made it to the M3 ok without incident when the engine started to struggle; she found it hard to get up the slight hill just after the Basingstoke junction. Then a few miles later bang! The car juddered and then big noise from the engine, itâ\u20ac\u2122s sounded very bad. To cut a long story short 4 hours later she was back home safe and sound thanks to the AA and wow it only cost £60 extra, would have been less if I had upgraded a few days earlier. If you have a classic and basic AA cover upgraded now! One break down and tow home and youâ\u20ac\u2122ll be paid back.

With the engine out for a rebuild I was able to strip the brakes down very easily. The calipers looked good and had new pads so I left them on, the rears had been replaced. The old MOTâ\u20ac\u2122s showed that she had failed on poor rear brakes.

Looking at where the master cylinder lives I could see the paint had been stripped, looks like thatâ\u20ac\u2122s been leaking. The problem is that where it mounts there are two skins to the body so any leak runs out into the engine bay and not on your foot so no early warning. Also after stripping down the remote servo it was clear it had been rebuild recently, something that later was obvious when I checked the cars history, sheâ\u20ac\u2122s got one hell of a folder full of receipts. A previous owner had brought a remote servo for rebuild and has fitted new rubbers. But had not checked the quality of the slave cylinder bore. It was pitted badly around where the air valve mounts, it seems this is a common fault and all newly rebuild remote servos are now sleeved with a chrome bore so stop this happening. When I dismantled the servo it had fluid in it so had been leaking into the air tank. This had been then drawn into the engine which explains why after just 300 miles from fitting a new exhaust valve she had blackened up.

So now I have a shopping list, master cylinder, remote servo, brake hoses for the front (they were cracked) and some new copper pipe. The old pipes were not bad but were on their way to being rusted. The rears were good as theyâ\u20ac\u2122ve been replaced when the calipers were done. The master cylinder I got new for £10 from Beaulieu auto jumble. The remote servo I got from Wins International, http://www.winscandco.co.uk they do Rover and Triumph spares, £150 after adding Vat and postage. Expensive but having a yearâ\u20ac\u2122s guarantee and the all important chrome sleeve itâ\u20ac\u2122s going to give me many years of service. There is a tip on the P6 forum about buying a universal remote servo and putting the air tank of the Rover servo on to the new slave cylinder of the new remote servo. Good idea if you are on a tight budget. But as I was renewing the whole lot I thought I should at least do it correctly once it its life.

Now the fitting, if you need a brake flaring tool here is a â\u20ac\u02dcdonâ\u20ac\u2122t buyâ\u20ac\u2122 recommendation.

Cheap £10 ones are no good, they just donâ\u20ac\u2122t grip the pipe correctly.

The slightly more expensive £30 ones work a treat, no slipping pipe there.

I also brought some pipe from the eBay shop â\u20ac\u02dcCAPITAL248â\u20ac\u2122 at £13 all in. This came with 25ft of pipe, 10 male and female UNF ends. This was enough to do the whole car.

I first used a bit of pipe to
practice flaring and to gauge how to get the best results. Then I started at the front of the car and worked my way back, replacing the pipe ends too, the better it looks the happier the MOT guy will be. When working on brakes you should always have a bucket of soapy water with you. Brake fluid is really bad stuff and it gets everywhere. So wash your tools and your hands each time you get fluid on them. Just one finger print of fluid on your paint work can cause it to strip off. Also wash the area down when done to make sure. The copper pipe was bendy enough to do it by hand, but be careful I tried to make a very sharp bend and the pipe flattened out. So I had to start again. Fortunately it was a short pipe from the master cylinder to the remote servo. As this is something Iâ\u20ac\u2122ll do very little I did not see the point of getting a pipe bending tool, if you do it a lot then would be worthwhile. I found a large socket to be a good guide to bend the pipe around. Itâ\u20ac\u2122s also important to try to follow the same path as the original pipe, if the new pipe runs too close to moving parts it will fail the MOT. I know this as I did the brake pipe on the axle of my old Mk3 Cortina many years ago and routed it too close to the top void bush, it failed the MOT. I had made the pipe too long and instead of shorting it I just put a loop in it, naughty boy. Once everything was back on I bled the system using a one man bleeding system, which is just a pipe with a one way valve on it. I donâ\u20ac\u2122t like the ones that pressurise the system from the spare where as many years ago I had one pop off the reservoir and spray fluid everywhere. Glad I had my bucket of soapy water that day could have been expensive.[/b]

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Thu Jan 31, 2008 7:43 pm ]

A couple of weeks ago I took the old girl up to my office in Henley-on-Thames. It was a lovely trip without incident. Felt good to pass the point that she last broke down, glad got that monkey of my back. Whilst I was up there I popped into a friends, who incedently owns a 1973 auto P6 like mine called Hermione. He helped my get her back on the road, a new conrod, the old one was shot after the bigend went. Also gave some moral support on the phone when it was looking like an uphill struggle. Which is what these forums are all about. Thanks Kev He's misses also makes a cracking cuppa.

So here is the Soup Dragon and Hermione having a chat.
Its nice to see the two together.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Mon Feb 04, 2008 8:26 am ]

Fitted oil pressure gauge

Just fitted an oil pressure gauge to the Soup Dragon so I can keep an eye on her rebuilt engine. She's now showing 50psi at tick over and between 50psi and 60psi whilst driving which is exactly what the book says.

I brought a classic Smiths oil pressure gauge kit from eBay. Its old stock that had not been used. Looks about 20 or more years old judging by the box. But inside all is as new. I went for the capillary gauge instead of the electric gauge type as I was not sure what the drop in voltage whilst starting the car or at low tick over would do to the reading. I'm sure they are fine on modern cars but mine is 35 years old and the wiring is starting to show its age.

I had to buy a t-Piece so that I can retain the oil pressure light, I got it from Holden Vintage& Classic/ I also brought a new pipe. The one that came with the gauge was ok but was copper and I was worried I would fracture it when fitting. Now that its all fitted I'm sure I would have, quite a route it takes.

I've fitted the gauge next to the clock. Another option would be in the old speaker grill but on its own it would look odd. Anyway check out the pictures, you'll see.

The gauge from eBay.

The t-Piece and pipe, only came to £15 inc postage.

This is where it comes throw the baulk head up behind the dash where the speedo cable runs and across to the gauge.

And the finished article, the gloves were just holding it in place before I screwed it all in, want to get the correct placement.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:50 pm ]


Have to fix my horns, they are rather rusty and have stopped working. I tired to clean them up and oil them the best I could but its a little limited what I can do as they are sealed units. Also after hitting them with a hammer to see if that work I found later that the clock stopped working. Turns out hitting them with a hammer caused a short and blow a fuse!


Old horns.

So it was time to pop over to eBay to see what I can get, could not find any at the P6 spares people.

I found a nice new set that were not needed by the seller.

They were very easy to fit and although made in Japan worked perfectly and sound just right. And all for only £12 inc postage. Can't be bad. 8)

(The other one is fitted on the other side of the car)

Now if the weather holds out i'll do the oil change this weekend.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Sat Mar 29, 2008 6:04 pm ]

Just got my certificate from Heritage this morning. As the car was imported into Jersey in 1973 I was hoping that it may have been a 1972 car and the journey to Jersey would have taken a few months. But alas she rolled of the production line 11th September 1973 and dispatched to Saint Helier Garages LTD Jersey two days later on the 13th. So no free road tax. Mind you would have been a bit hard to justify why I should not have to pay even though the car is used every day on the roads.

Here is a picture of the certificate. Will go nice in a display when I take her to her first show.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:55 am ]

Time for another update.

Finally got round to doing the 1000 mile oil change on the new engine. I'm glad she's all run in now and running sweet.

Also had a problem that needed sorted that was from when I put the engine back in. The gear linkage was a little out and I was unable to select park. Only took a couple of turns, also the locking bolt on the bar was a little loose. Its all now set up right, odd how a little thing like that can improve the fee of a car.



Now the other job I needed to do, check over the steering. I noticed the other day that the inner edge of the front wheels was wearing a little more than. Classic sign of something warn on the steering, and there are a lot of candidates on the P6. I know its had most if not all of the ball joints done so was a little of a mystery. Well I think I've found it, the idler damper is leaking. This should also explain the heavy steering. I never expect it to be light but the P6 I had about 20 years ago was better, or is that my memory playing ticks on me.





So now some research on the best option. At least the weather is good and the nights are longer, I can get these jobs done without freezing my nuts off.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:05 am ]

Time to do the steering damper, its getting worse and the steering wheel seems to be needing more and more right turn to go straight.

So whilst on a trip up to Henley and the office I stop by the very helpful Kev's place, the owner of 'Hermione', the brown 2000 Auto. Kev's place is a nice stop on the way home for a cuppa and a chat about old rovers. He's been a great help in getting the Soup Dragon on the road and staying there. And to that end Kev disappears into he's shed and returns with a nice second hand damper all painted up and wrapped in protective plastic. Ace, just the ticket to get the dragon on the straight and narrow.

Its Sunday and the rain has gone so its time to start, I'm not expecting too much hassle, again Kev has helped out with a lend of he's joint splitter. I should get my own at some point.

So here is what needs to be done...



First I do the easy joint, the joint to the steering control arm (the one under the wing).
With the split pin removed and some WD40 and a quick rub over with a wire brush its ready to be unbolted.



Following Kev's advice I split the joint from under the wing, with the car jacked up there is plenty of room to get in there without needing to remove the wheel. The steering needed a little moving about to get the splitter in there but once there it was east to get my ratchet on it.
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/ff355/RichardEricCollins/WorkDoneOnCar/steering_damper
[url=http://s539.photobucket.com/albums/ff355/RichardEricCollins/WorkDoneOnCar/steering_damper/?action=view&current=streeing_rod_joint_splittin.jpg][img]http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/ff355/RichardEricCollins/WorkDoneOnCar/steering_damper/th_streeing_rod_joint_splittin.jpg[/url]


Now to do the more awkward joint. There is just enough room if you remove the bracket that holds the throttle linkage and turn the steering full lock. As you can see the bracket that holds the throttle linkage restricts access to the joint to the track control arm.


There are two bolts that face us to remove but this still leaves a small bracket that's bolted to the damper. So I remove two of the four bolts that hold the damper on so the whole lot can be removed as one. I leave the front two on for now as I still need it secure to help when I split the joint to the steering control arm.

Here it is removed...



With the bolt removed I realise that its still too tight to get the splitter in so I unbolt the last two bolts holding the damper in and remove the mounting bracket giving me some movement to make more room.


As you can see with the splitter in place there is plenty of room but I had to use a spanner as the ratchet was too close to the live wire to the starter motor.


And here are the two together showing how warn and leaking the old one was. It had no resistance to it and although when off I could not feel any play when it was mounted you could easily see the play in the joint. So that's a word of warning, a warn one when out of the car is hard to detect ware. So if your not as lucky as me and can get one from a reliable source best to get a recon one.



The refitting was much easier. One of the bolts that holds the damper onto the mounting bracket is awkward so I fitted the damper to the bracket before putting it back on the car, not forgetting the bracket for the throttle linkage! The three bolts that hold the mounting bracket were put in and done them up but I left them loose until the joints where in as the bit of play helped to get the joints in. When all fitted it put in NEW split pins.



Going for a small drive the steering was much better, still a little heavy when parking but the front tyres are looking old and need replacing. When driving its a lot better, the steering wheel is now centre and she holds a true line much better. A good job done.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Mon May 12, 2008 11:55 am ]

Time for an update, been a couple of weeks since the work on the steering, not changed the front tyres yet, got a biding rear brake to fix first.

I've order up some new pads and started the job of dropping down the diff. I'm expecting the cailliper in question, the near side one, to have either the handbrake linkage to be seized or something more serious causing it to bind. It does not bind too much but enough for you to feel it dragging and for it to over heat the brake. Odd thing it does not do it all the time and once cooled down will be ok for a while. When it does bind the wheel is hard to turn by hand so does need doing.

Here is what inboard disks look like.



The callipers are on the top with a big plate that holds the diff in place in the way.


There are three bolts to be removed from the diff before removing the plate, you need to do this because if you unbolt the plate from the car first its hard to get a good purchase on the bolts to undo them, the diff moves about far too much. Once these bolts are done you can remove the stabiliser rod and the two long bolts that attach the plate to the bodywork, the nuts to these are accessed from the boot under two plates.


Also you need to release the brake pipe from its bracket so that the pipe is not stretched. Just need to loosen of the bolt, not the pipe though!


Once this is done the diff can be lowered down on a jack, the jack can be removed once lowered down, the half shafts will keep it in place.


You may be able to see in this picture that the callipers look like they've been reconditioned, up close they look in very good condition. So thats a nice surprise so I remove the pads, there are two bolts that hold the outer pads in place and two bolts on the front and read edge of the brake that holds in a plate that in turn holds in the inner pads.

With the pads removed I spot the 1st problem, could be the cause, the piston on the problem calliper is 180 degrees out. The pistons on these brakes wind in and out for adjusting back the handbrake auto adjuster. To do this is an L shapped plate on the end, this should be pointing up to the body of the car, on the problem calliper its pointing down. The other problem is that the flex pipes are not very good condition, I've ordered two new ones. There are two on the back, one from the body to the offside calliper on the diff and then another to the nearside calliper.

With the old pads out its obvious the nearside ones have over heated and both sides are not in a very good shape, this could have been to do with the time being off the road and the disks rusting up then driving the car to clean them up. I expected this and had always planned to change the pads once the disks were clean.




Looking at the new and old together they don't look too warn.


Now with the pads out I check all the handbrake linkage over, every thing is moving fine and the callipers are free to move on their pivot pins. Also the pistons wind back easily, did with my hands there are in such good nick.

I put in the new pads and put it all back together, whilst doing this I took the chance to paint up the plate.



Time for a test drive, I drive for about ten mins and then return home, no noise from the rear and does feel good. But when I jack her up the near side rear is still binding, not as bad as before but enough for me not to be happy. So I jump on the net and post to the p6roc forum and ask the oracle. I get an answer back quickly, it seems the 2nd problem I found, the old brake flex pipes could be the cause. Seems because there are two to the nearside, one via the offside it is common for the pipes to create a kind of 'one way' valve when they get old. This sounds a good candidate but will not know till next Saturday and they are replaced. There isn't anything else it can be!
All in all was a good Sunday spent working on the P6 coming in doors to a roast and scrap heap challenge.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:25 pm ]


Well the Soup Dragon is really ill at the moment. The sprocket on the cam shaft came off, although the engine was ticking over it caused some damage. Mainly the timing chain and the sprocket it self.

It may not be obvious in this picture but there are a lot of hair line cracks around the bolt holes. This could have what allowed the bolts to work loose.



Its taken all day to rebuild the front of the engine as I had to strip it all down to remove and replace the top chain, it was bent, and to inspect the lower chain, that is ok. All so had to remove the sump to retrieve the chain adjusted from the top chain, also to clean out the shavings of aluminium where the sprocket had rotated about free in the rocker cover.



Did give me the chance to replace the old bolts holding the water pump on, when I first rebuild the engine they did not feel too good when I was doing them up. So I've got some new ones that are also slightly longer, so they are less lightly to strip out the thread.

Here is the new sprocket donated by a friend from the P6 owners club Kev. Would have been hard to find one without he's help.


I've made sure that this time I've also used some lock tight as well as the lock washer. Although its got to come off again as after trying to start her i've found that No1 and 4 cylinder have no compression, so that will be a couple of valves bent. Will give me a chance to sort out a stripped thread on the exhaust manifold, at the moment its got a nut and bolt on there. I have the kit to repair it just its a bit tight. With the head off I can do that easily.

Till next time, ttfn.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:52 pm ]

So this lunchtime I popped out and took the head off, only took an hour. To help me I used a leg from the garden table to prop the bonnet up much higher than the proper bonnet stay will do. Helps to get more light and space in there.



Here is the block with no head, she's looking sorry for her self here.



And here is one of the two bent valves, wow its really bent. That's the inlet valve, the exhaust on the rear cylinder is bent too but only very slightly.





Time to order some bits up then, but I need to pull the value out first, looking into the port it looks like the valve guide maybe damaged. I can here my wallet doing a runner down the road.........

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:22 pm ]

So today I have mostly been doing the rear brake hoses that were shot and causing the near side calliper to bind a little. I can't test the results until the head is back on the engine, just waiting for two more new valves, I have the other bits but whilst regrinding in the valves I found one of the other exhaust valve was very slightly bent.

Handy tool of the day, my pipe spanner,

I've had this for years. One of the few tools I still have from when I was 18 and had a Mk3 Cortina GT. Very handy to getting old pipes off.

Here are the new hoses for the rear brakes and some new bleed nipples just in case.



Again to do this job you need to drop the diff down but instead of completely removed the mounting plate I just undid the three bolts that hold the diff to it. Who said P6 rear brakes were hard? They are easy.



Once all the bits were replaced, including the little copper pipe I blend the system. Peddle feels very hard now, which is good, just can't test as the engine is in half.

And here is a pick of the old removed bits.....


Job well done I think, just hope I've done up the diff better than I did the sprocket on the cam. :roll:

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:09 pm ]

She's fixed . No pictures this time, sorry. Just wanted to get my head down (and her head on) and get it running again. She fired up first time, just a little bit rattly.

Its taken about three days to prep the head, the biggest hold up was finding somewhere with a bench press to push the damaged valve guide in.

So now in the cold light of day can I say what happened and how? Yup and I still can't believe it but it can only have been all my fault, the two bolts loosened off that hold the timing sprocket to the camshaft. The result was three bent valves (and another that was suspect) and a damaged valve guide.

The thing I'm really kicking my self for is that the weekend before she did sound a little tappy when I was just checking over the fluid levels. If I had taken the rocker cover off I would have found it tightened the bolts up and that would have been that. O well you live and learn. I did not check the head over as I thought to my self that a little extra clearances in the valves can't be a bad thing. As we know now it was not the valves but the sprocket rattling about. So if you hear a little tapping noise from your top end check it out, may not be the valve clearances!

I've ended up replacing four valves, to start with when I took the head off it was clear that two of the valves, no1 inlet and no4 exhaust were bent. Later when I went to reseat them I found exhaust on no2 was bent and no3 exhaust was also a little suspect. no1 exhaust was good and was new only 2000 miles ago. So she now has a full set of exhaust valves.

Another lesson I've learnt and you can take from reading this is that valve guides don't like being hit that hard. I heated the head up a little and chilled the valve guide expecting to tap it in, got it 50% of the way before it broke up. So always use a bench press unless you know for sure yours are not brittle like mine.

Also after stripping the head looks like I was heading from problems anyway. The clearances on the valves were far too small and the engine was running rich. This showed up with the pistons having lots of carbon on
them and the valves also being coked up. I've got the head set up better this time but now it seems a little too loose so I'll have to re measure them and check. I need to ask on the p6roc about what people think about too much play on the valves. In a few miles it may all bed in and close up a bit though.

Anyway, got (paying) work to do, till next time........

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:39 am ]

Now the engine is running again I can turn my attention to the jobs that were pushed back when the timing gear though that falling off was a good idea. Its been told not to do it again......

I knew she was running a little rich but did not realise how much till I was forced to removed the head. So I set about servicing the carburettor, I have a colour tune in the post so will be tuning that at the weekend. The valve clearances still need doing, so it'll need checking again.

So here is how I rebuilt the carb. On the surface it seemed find but once I took it apart a few bits did show up as worn, and now its back together it felt much better.




From start to finish it took a little over an our, quite pleased with that. The nut at the bottom front of the carb is a bit of a pain to get at but once loose came off by hand. I left the air box on as it's easier to remove when the carb is out and it does not get in the way when you remove the carb from the engine.....


Quite a bit of room there, turbo anyone.

Now with the carb off it was time to get started.


I got a service kit and a replacement needle, can't remember where I got it from now, need to look at the receipts.

It was just a simple job off unbolting it all, cleaning it, then putting it back together with the new bits. Sounds a simplification but it is an easy job.

The old spindle was very warn.


And here is the end result.



Once it was back on I warm the car up and reset the tick over. Next job will be to set the mixture.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:28 pm ]

I've spent the morning setting the valve clearances on the Rover. A hard job made a bit harder by me dropping some washers into the engine, fortunately its an easy job to drop the sump off on these, possibly one of the easiest there is??? After seeing the muck in the sub another poster found in he's roots engine I would suggest any P6 4pot owner to drop thier sump off and clean it out. Should only take an hour or so.

Not only does it have shims, a hard job at the best of times, the bolts that hold the cam shaft in place also hold the head on. There is a 'tool', I use the word sparingly, to help. Its just a set of big spacers, you still have to still unbolt the head but then bolt it back up using the spacers. You do this one cam bearing cap at a time. I don't have this tool but as I had only just put the head on I took the risk of unbolting the head, removing the cam shaft, and then bolting the head back down whilst I mess about measuring shims.




I now have all the shims set up, they are still a little loose, inlets at 11 to 12 thou instead of 8 to 10 and exhaust at 15 or 16. So only 2 thou out at the most. The engine is much quieter now. And a run over to my sisters proved no damage had been done to the head gasket.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:47 pm ]

Time for an update, been a while, mainly because the old girl has been running a treat. It's nice to be doing jobs that make her better than fighting to keep her on the road, I think she's given up trying to enforce her retirement.

I've fixed my previous posts now, the pictures are using photo bucket now, was on my own website but I blow my monthly traffic allowance and it got shut down.

Now for the update. I noticed a few weeks ago that the front pads were low and she did always seem a bit lazy on the breaks. They were good and able to stop the car but lacked that sharpness that I like. So I order up some pads from eBay, £12. And set about fitting them.

As you can see the old ones were low, I have no idea how long they been on the car but its a good guess a while as before I got here she had not done that many miles.





Tip 1: Do one side at a time, that way you have a reference if you forget where everything goes, this is very true on cars with drum brakes.


And now with the new ones fitted, i'm a little worried about the condition of the pistons, so I'll check again in a week, may need changing.

Tip 2: It can be hard to push the pistons back, so first release the blead nipple. This also helps to stop the fluid coming out of the reservoir on the master cylinder and destroying your paint work. Also leave the old pads in, this way you'll get a more even push on the cylinder.

Tip 3: Always have a bucket of soapy water when working on brakes, so if the fluid goes somewhere you can clean it of ASAP. Also when done remove your gloves and put some new ones one. I've in the past on other cars come out a day later to find I've made a nice finger print size mark on the paint work where the glove had a bit of fluid on it.

The brakes feel better and more they bed in it they get sharper but the peddle feels a bit spongy so next weekend I'll pop the wheels of and check it over.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:38 pm ]

Well guess I spoke too soon about the old girl behaving her self, only a few hours after my last post on the way home from dog agility the alternator light came on! Grrrrr.

So after a few posts on the p6roc forum I order a service kit from J.C.R Supplies via eBay, the next day the bits where here and time to rebuilt it.


The broken alternator, in the dog house....



And with the cover removed you may see that it all looks rather old.


Here are all the new parts ready to be fitted, just as a side note I went to a Lucas main dealer, they did not have a clue what I was on about when I asked for a service / repair kit. They wanted to sell me the parts sepratly, not much help as I did not know what they were called or what I would need. This kit on eBay only cost £15 including postage! Perfect.


These alternators come apart quite easily, the bolt was hard though. You need to be careful not to stick anything into it when trying to lock it in position, don't want to damage the coils of wire, else will need a new one!
My solution is shown here, allowed me to apply a lot of force without putting any pressure on sensitive areas.


You will need a puller to remove outer casing and then the bearing from the shaft. You can get a good one from Halfords. The bearing at the other end where all the wires are was more awkward and I found my joint splitter worked better. Here you can see the bearing at the pulley end, it has a big clip holding it and a big washer in place, the came out easily with a screwdriver wedged under it.


And here is the new bearing fitted.


The hardest job is the soldering, also the wires from the coils are not colour coded so I used a magic marker to mark them so I put them back in the right place.

Once fitted back on the car all worked and there was a marked improvement. The indicators no longer slowed down at tick over which they had done for sometime, which I put down to being old. Guess the alternator was on the way for a while.

The only question is what next? Well I saved my self £70 doing it my self and as Harvey on the p6roc said I've possibly got more new bits than a recon would have. Also it was very rewarding! Now that is a result. 8)

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Sat Oct 25, 2008 3:24 pm ]

Well I finally got round to fixing the leaking boot on the De Dion tube on the rear suspension. On the rover P6 there rear wheels had a telescopic tube connecting the two rear wheels so that they are kept level with the ground. It works like an independent suspension but is less complicated.

So to mine and its leak.
I popped the car up on ramps, I always jack a car up on them and face them in opposite directions. This gives good height and I feel a good safe platform to work on the car with. I always give the car a good shake before getting under it. After this picture was taken I also jacked the body up a bit and put on axle stands to give me some more room.



As you can see here its leaking, and from what I've been told, if it's leaking then the oil seals will need replacing.


So I ordered up the boot, and two oil seals + gaskets.


I put the jack under the tube and undid the bolts, slowly, was not sure what was going to happen. Turns out not much. With the bolts undone and the jack taking the weight I gave it a tap to split then dropped that end down. Before unbolting mark the two half's as these bolt up in one location and so marking them will make it easier to relocate and align the bolt holes.


Now with it off it's time to strip it down. When you remove these make sure you have an oil tray under when they bolt on as if it's leaking as bad as mine it will poor oil out.


The seal is a little awkward to get out because of this flange, it's pushed onto the end and looks hard to get off and if damaged even harder to replace. As it turns out using a flat nosed screw driver I managed to lever it out without damaging the flange. The other end just has a big washer holding it in that falls out when tour turn it upside down.


Before retracting the inner tube there is this odd clip, you need to remove it or you'll damage the lining that the inner tubes side on.


Of cause I painted it up before fitting the oil seals.


And with it all back together it's looking ready for fitting.



And here it is where it belongs. I'll paint the rest of the suspension soon, can't do it now as I need the car, the exhaust on my bike has crumbled away, just before the MOT, so that was cancelled. And to top it four of the exhaust studs snapped off. So this will be taking my time up over the next few weeks.

 

[richarduk]

Re: 1973 Rover P6 2000sc on the Isle of Wight

[Wed Dec 31, 2008 5:20 pm ]

It's MOT time again and whilst doing a check over I found the front offside top ball joint had some bad play in it, so a phone call to Wins International Ltd 01342 836060 and £38.81 later and I'm ready to change it. Only took a day in the post.

Here is the old one ready to come off.


Taking the split pin out and removing the nut I put the splitter in place, as with my old one you may have to push the rubber boot about to get it in.


With the joint split I remove the three bolts. The joint is also a very tight fit in the whole, it's this more than the nuts that hold it in place. So to remove you'll need a big hammer, a big chisel and some patients.


After a lot of banging the old one came off. It's in a bit of a mess, no wonder it had a load of play in it.


And here is the new one fitted. You'll need a big socket or pipe to put over the end so that you can knock it in, takes a lot off banging to get in so make sure you hammer the casing and not the joint. Also don't use the three bolts to wind it in, they are not that big and I bet you'll strip them out if you try.