Getting back on the road

Dermot Harvey in N.Y.!! How the heck is he?? Back in the pre-internet days he was basically the only source for P6 stuff in the states (he advertised in Hemmings magazine). I've been to his place in the Hudson Valley twice - but not in a long time......
 
stevevanderveer said:
Dermot Harvey in N.Y.!! How the heck is he?? Back in the pre-internet days he was basically the only source for P6 stuff in the states (he advertised in Hemmings magazine). I've been to his place in the Hudson Valley twice - but not in a long time......
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He's doing well Steve! they moved a couple of years back. Same town different house (with a view of the Hudson no less!)
 
After getting the front end sorted I could feel the backend was a little squirrelly. It had also developed a quack when reversing out of the garage on cold mornings. I had a diff mount on the shelf from a random eBay haul a while ago. And sure enough if I rocked the car sideways I could see things moving on the top of the left hand diff mount. ‘Bugger’ I thought. I bet the one I have is for the other two. Oh well, find a spacer and make do I guess.

Taking the old mount out was easy, it fell apart as if was removed, so well past it’s sell by date. I pulled the new mount out of its bag. Imagine my surprise when I found I’d bought a NOS genuine metalastic mount! Popped it back in and with some ingenuity to balance spanner’s while under inside the boot I was able to refit it.

It must’ve been bad for a good while, the transmission snatch is gone, along with the angry duck in the boot and the rather odd saggy bottom feel in heavy cornering.

It’s amazing how you accept wear until you fix it. Then, wow, it feels like a new car. Of course my antics at speed probably hastened it’s end, but we
ll worth the east fix.
 

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Well, it took three years. But the right hand diff output seal finally died and joined its partner in the bin! After putting it off for 3 (possibly 4 if honest!) months I finally not the bullet and turned up a new thrust collar using the drawings I made first time around.
using the drawings I made first time around in steel. After the first time it was easy taking the diff side plate off. Remove bolts holding half axle to disc and output flange, disconnect the clevis pin for the hand brake linkage, and remove calliper pivot bolt. Once those are out of the way, drain the oil and unbolt the four bolts holding the diff side housing. Withdraw the outputs assembly.

I tried for way too long the first time to press off the screen of thrust collar and ended up turning it off on the lathe. This time I just went straight to the lathe and turned the old collar down until it was paper thin. Then it just fell off.

Next, press the output shaft out of the bearing (I replaced the bearing along with the seal). Then the bearing out of the housing.

A quick clean of the parts before I pressed on the new bearing, flip the housing over and tap in the new seal. I’m pleased to report the new bearing from Wins is a sealed Timkens job. I don’t want to do this job again for a while! Now the bearing and seal are in place I pressed the shaft into the bearing (while supporting the inner race so as not to damage it). Followed by the new thrust collar. The Rover manual states that you should see ‘at least’ 2 tons of resistance while pressing the collar in place. I’m pretty sure it was well above that! Reassuring that I’ve got the dimensions right. Finally, reassemble to car, for new pads (the old ones were VERY well lubricated with hypoid oil). Followed by snuggling up the pads by manually operating the handbrake lever on the calliper. When I finally had the car on the ground the handbrake was still high. I decided to try my luck with a test drive. Sure enough within a couple of miles the callipers had fully adjusted.

I had forgotten just how good the P6 brakes are! Almost a match for my 2008 Saab. It’s scary how a slowly deteriorating setup can fool you into thinking it was ok. It still felt better than most 60’s brake systems, now it feels decidedly modern.

Here’s my write up four years ago on the other side.

Getting back on the road
 

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Some good stuff going on here! I had the same issue with my left side diff hanger rubber - well sagged to the point it was obvious underneath. The rights side was almost as good as new, but a new one went in anyway.
 
After waiting a year I’ve finally found time to fit my adjustable spring seats and stiffer springs. With a lot of advice from @cobraboy i was able to find a good starting point for front springs, as I mentioned before I made some adjustable stings seats for the front. I used the threaded sleeves welded to domes for the front and machined new spring seats to make them adjustable. For the rears I went down a different route from Cobraboy and found 8x1000lbs springs that would fit into the existing spring seats. This meant I could keep Kobus front and rear with the new springs.
All I say is wow! Pitch and roll are very well controlled. Ride is firmer, but still compliant. Another plus is the car is quieter. I guess the new insulators I printed from TPU helped, biggest noise is wind noise now. I still need to do alignment, it’s not quite perfect. But I’m very happy with the results.

Here’s photos of the installed front setup, the new rear spring next to the original and the final ride height (1.5” lower at the front and 1” lower at the rear).
 

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This is quite a difference, and i have not doubts on how good the car will be on track days. However, just looking at the springs side by side, are you sure that you are not going to miss that suspension travel?
The result on the printed insulators sounds interesting! Do you reckon that it is the material that made such a difference?
 
Demetris said:
This is quite a difference, and i have not doubts on how good the car will be on track days. However, just looking at the springs side by side, are you sure that you are not going to miss that suspension travel?
The result on the printed insulators sounds interesting! Do you reckon that it is the material that made such a difference?
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I’ve only lost about an inch of rear suspension travel and 1.5” of front travel with this setup. I did test drives yesterday at speed and over speed bumps. It felt pretty good to be honest.

The printed insulators are from a TPU. To be honest I’m not sure why it’s quieter, I was fully expecting it to have more road noise, but I’ll take this for sure.
 
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Managed to get about 100 miles on the car since the latest work. Handling much improved. Still playing with damper settings, but generally pretty good.

Major squeak at the moment from the right hand side. Printed extra elastomer insulators to go between spring and spring seats that sit against the bulkhead. Some improvement, but more so when I sprayed some silicon lube into the domed threaded collar. Which suggests that I have a bit of rubbing against the rubber dome in there. I'm still using the original rubber domes and not the poly domes that I have waiting on the shelf. I wonder if they will need to be replaced next? In the mean time I will probably open up the dome and add some red rubber grease. See if that helps.

One huge plus is that I can easily disengage the front springs by winding back the collars on the threaded sleeve. Just use a trolley jack on the front cross member let the wheels droop, wind them back and out it comes! what a huge pleasure compared to the standard springs!
 
You need to fit a 4 into 1 straight thru exhaust with a side exit under the driver door, you won't hear any squeaks then.
 
Changing the ride height can have some undesirable side effects, like changing toe-in, but as long as you get the ride and handling you are after, very well done, a lot of clever work. A lot of 928 owners lower them (adjustable spring perches) mostly for the look, but they dont ride or steer as well as factory height. Good luck keeping the adjuster threads clean.
 
jp928 said:
Changing the ride height can have some undesirable side effects, like changing toe-in, but as long as you get the ride and handling you are after, very well done, a lot of clever work. A lot of 928 owners lower them (adjustable spring perches) mostly for the look, but they dont ride or steer as well as factory height. Good luck keeping the adjuster threads clean.
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Toe has already been adjusted. Camber needs a slight tweak.

Threads are copper grease coated in an attempt to keep them somewhat clean under there. Ride is pretty good, firm but still compliant. Rear rate might need to be changed. Normal ratio is 110% spring frequency at back vs front. Currently it’s 115% and you can feel it a little on high speed humps. Handling and road holding is much better as you’d expect.
 
Been driving Beryl as much as I can between heatwaves and daily thunderstorms. I had a good friend drive her for a second opinion on the mods. He co owns Domeniks European car repair. A shop that maintains and prepares classic Italian cars both for road and race use. He suggested a little more negative camber (I remeasured it and found I have -0.3° on each side) Santo suggested -1.25° But I shimmed to just -0.8° this morning. After checking camber I had to reset rod in of course and went for 1/16” of toe in. Car feels more alive still now, turn in is more immediate, you can rotate with the throttle now without under steer showing up. It did show a little play in the steering box. About 1/8th of a turn on the adjuster screw seems to have sorted that without creating any noticeable drag in the steering. It’s coming along nicely now I have to say.

Incidently, I found it tough to loosen the steering box side of the toe link on my car (lhd remember, so box and carbs are close there). In a moment of frustration I took the angle grinder to a 15/16” open ended spanner. Relief! Now I can easily loosen and tighten both track rod ends when adjusting.
 
I’ve entered Beryl into the preservation class at Fall Finale at Lime Rock Park in Oct. she’ll be able to stretch her legs on the track in a safe group of fast road cars. With that and racing Mungo the Mini (co owned with a friend - we built him from a bare shell) I’ll have a fun weekend planned.
 
I also had trouble with the track rod lock nut - I turned a ring spanner into flare nut spanner by cutting a slot just big enough to clear the rod, and its relatively easy now.
 
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