The inheiritance. 1976 P6b

How time flies. Even when you're not having fun.

I dropped the diff (which turned out to be a bigger job than I thought). Then took the calipers into work. Some brake kits from Mark Gray, some head scratching and a few o rings left over and I have the calipers back together.

The passenger side was probably the worse in terms of crud buildup inside:



Everything needed a good soaking and scrub in brake cleaner and degreaser.


The passenger one was also a little bit harder to put back together as it's not the one in the exploded parts diagram, so I had to look back at photos to make sure I had the brake pad clips back the right way.




I think I got the bracket on top of the passenger "cup" around the right way. I'm also going to dremel clean the cover/cups tonight when I get home.




I gave the diff itself a good clean the other night and it dried in about 2 minutes in the 35 degree heat. I've got my brother in law around a bit lately so we're going to change the extension oil seal and change the diff oil while it's out.
 
ewokracing said:
The passenger one was also a little bit harder to put back together as it's not the one in the exploded parts diagram, so I had to look back at photos to make sure I had the brake pad clips back the right way.

Click to expand...

If you've put it back together the way it's shown in the above pic then both the pad slipper and the spring are incorrectly fitted.
 
I'm desperately trying to get Mr Brown back on the road before August because I don't want to have to say that a brake refurbishment took me a year. :evil:

I have learn though that a few things were missing or done right, and that I'm never doing the rear brakes again without a hoist.

I did have a bit of a win today though, my car was missing the large "depressed" washer and spacer that sits under the nose of the differential - where it bolts to the crossmember.

On the left is the washer that was on the car, it goes underneath. On the right is one we made at work. We welded two washers together. The difference between the two of them is .2mm. I'm sure it'll be fine.

We also turned down some steel and made up a spacer. It's just under 10mm long.

Hopefully I get time this week one night and I can put it all together.

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Note to self: do not do anything on the car that takes longer than 5 minutes. Just pay someone else to do it.


After a few false starts, I managed to get a day to myself. I got the pads in, driveshafts on and car back on 4 wheels for the first time since August!

things to fix:
- tailshaft bolts and nuts. I need 4 new nyloc nuts.
- need to connect the rear brake hose from the drivers side caliper to the body line. I think I need the nut and shakeproof washer.
- The fuel pump has a intermittent leak.
- fill and bleed brake system.
- run around and tighten all the bolts and nuts I have forgotten.
- I also need 4 of the locking washers on the driveshafts.

Are the bolts and nuts on the tailshaft of a V8 just a bolt and a nyloc nut, no washer?
 
ewokracing said:
Are the bolts and nuts on the tailshaft of a V8 just a bolt and a nyloc nut, no washer?
Click to expand...


If you mean the propshaft bolts, they don't have washers, just the bolts and nylocs.
 
Harvey - ta!

Rock - Yeah... most of the months under the car has been undoing other people's "workmanship"! :evil:
 
Stopped in at my local fastener supply this morning. I went to bolt the tailshaft back in last night and noticed that all four bolts were bent. I was already going there for for some locking nuts anyway. Still annoying though.

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unstable load said:
Someone's been giving that a bit of welly with not properly tightened bolts.
Click to expand...

They'd have to be very loose for that to happen. The only times I've seen it is when the prop has been removed and the prop bolts have been left in the diff flange. The bolts drop backwards towards the diff, and when the car gets moved around they foul on the pinion casing and bend.
 
harveyp6 said:
unstable load said:
Someone's been giving that a bit of welly with not properly tightened bolts.
Click to expand...

They'd have to be very loose for that to happen. The only times I've seen it is when the prop has been removed and the prop bolts have been left in the diff flange. The bolts drop backwards towards the diff, and when the car gets moved around they foul on the pinion casing and bend.
Click to expand...

Given some of the sloppy workmanship/parts missing from the "rear end", it could have been anything. One of the nylock nuts is missing completely.

I'm really glad that the Brake place that I left it with for a few months didn't touch it in the end, it's let me fix some of their earlier work from in the 90's.
 
So I finally had half a day to myself and decided that I need help. Enter a TVR Al and me asking if I can use his hoist. Reason being is that I have long hands and have spent many cold hours lying on a concrete floor trying to bleed the rear brakes without much luck. I wanted Mr Poo on the road before it had been 1 year since I said to myself "I think I'll do the rear brakes".

I got the car started yesterday but I noticed something. My car, like the other Nelson cars I suspect, has a round Bendix or Facet pump, that has a small circular wheel on the bottom. A few months ago when I was trying to fix a brake line leak, the pump started leaking at random. I must have pushed the small wheel in, which is on a slide, and it stopped the leak. Unbeknownst to me, I also must have closed the fuel circuit.

Cue a few hours of me checking fuel hoses and filters, before I got under the car to check the pump, gave the wheel slide a small tug, the pump changed note when I next turned the key and it coughed into life.

I'll take some photos when it's on the hoist. I've got a mental checklist but I'll put it here so I can check it:

- have a new windscreen, I need to get some small bits and pieces to fit it
- brake rotor tabs (rear)
- tighten the brake rotor bolts (rear)
- tighten the tailshaft bolts
- affix the new club plates (it's no longer on full registration and I had to drill out the pop rivets holding the plates on)
- find all the little nuts and washers that held the rear number plate plinth on
- change the oil and oil filter
- fix the tension on the handbrake.
- bleed the rear brakes

I also noticed that one of the charcoal canisters was full of fuel and was leaking out of the bottom (it must have flooded when I was cranking and trouble shooting). I just want to double check this.
 
Disaster!

Went off to TVR Al's for some brake bleeding. All went pear shaped.
On the way over I could hear a grinding noise whenever I braked, coming from somewhere in the front. We got the car up on the hoist to check, took both front wheels off and it was coming from the drivers side. Took the two bolts off to check the brake and we successfully broke the brake hard line. Cue brake fluid everywhere. On a wednesday night at 8.30pm. doh!

We also had massive issues trying to bleed the rear brakes. When we pumped the pedal, sometimes fluid would come out, sometimes not. In the end we bodged the front brake line, put the rear bleeder nipple in tight and I limped it to a brake place on the Friday.

Yesterday I rung to check and see how they were going, they said that I'd put the passenger left caliper back together wrong (I don't think I did, I think that the lever slipped when they took it apart to check). Cut a long story short, they couldn't bleed the rear brakes any better than Al and I did, but they did flush a whole lot of nasty old brake fluid out of the front lines. Unfortnately they broke the cable off one of the rear pad indicators and did something to the drivers front window so it is stuck in the down position. Double Doh. I also have little or no brakes unless I give the pedal a few pumps.

Has anyone else had brakes that just won't bleed at all from the rear? Are there two wires in the rear pad cable? (I was thinking I might just cut and splice them).
 
Gee Geoff, it doesn't rain but it pours :shock:

I'd say you will have to backtrack in order to ascertain where the blockage is within the line feeding the rear calipers. You could disconnect the line at the junction mid way along the transmission tunnel, see if it flows any better from there. If so, then you will have narrowed down the location relatively speaking. Reconnect there then disconnect the flexible line where it comes off the main line and check there.

That brake place sounds like one to avoid given that they break things, very apt :shock:

The pad wires are paired, as they form a circuit. The driver's window not winding up is likely down to the mechanism or more precisely, the spring. They may well have wound it down too far, forcing it by being careless, so the spring has broken, or it could have just being at the point of failure for a time and that was the final straw. Either way, you'll need to pull the door frame out to change the mechanism as it cannot be removed in situ.

Ron.
 
SydneyRoverP6B said:
They may well have wound it down too far, forcing it by being careless, so the spring has broken
Click to expand...

Obviously don't do much work on old cars where everything should be handled with the possibility of something breaking!
 
So I found someone who isn't a chain store or a hack and what a revelation!

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it actually drives nicely now!

I had the rear calipers checked over, apparently one seal in the kits was incorrect, (Im still sure I rebuilt them the right way contrary to the above mentioned blokes that broke stuff), the joins in the lines were redone, the drivers door mechanism was fixed so you don't have to slam it shut anymore, the tailshaft bolts were the wrong size (my fault, I cut down new ones but got my measurements slightly off), the broken wire for the brake pad was fixed, the list of faults fixed is about an A4 page or more long. :)

I'll be going back for a new windscreen, the two top strut ball joints, exhaust manifold leaks (time for headers maybe?) and a few other things as soon as my credit card recovers. :eek:
 
Top stuff Geoff :)

Just on a side note, that is a different spot for the choke knob that I have not seen before. With that air conditioning unit, which appears to have been the most prevalent with Australian Rovers, the knob on all others that I can recall, is down next to the fuel reserve knob.

Ron.
 
Yep, you are right Ron, I've only seen one other like mine and it had the same aircon unit and the same rear windscreen demister switch.

Apparently mine is an "early" knob and was prone to breaking, but I think it's actually the later one as the early ones are like little hooks?

Either way it needs adjusting as the mechanism is loose under the dash.
 
Either in this thread, or somewhere else on the forum, I mentioned a few months ago that another brown late p6b was for sale in rural Victoria, near where I have relatives living.

I was tempted as it appeared to be an exact twin of my car - Brown, off white/tan vinyl roof, sheepskin interior, air con. I've seen yet another car in exact same spec/colour (also for sale!) in Victoria closer to home. I suspect that this was a "runout" dealer promotion by the main Rover/Leyland dealership here in the city. (Regent Motors Pty. Ltd.)

The car in Rural Vic that was for sale came with a 3500S "parts car", no photos of it were in the ad. I have just verbally agreed to buy it. Watch this space as I figure out how to get it home!
 
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