The inheiritance. 1976 P6b

Calcutta

I've been to Calcutta and I've actually stood where the legendary "black hole" was (the old Jail), but that ain't got nothing on a p6b engine bay when you are trying to find a lost nut and washer!

I gave up and am looking at front and rear shocks instead. :LOL:
 
Re: Calcutta

ewokracing said:
I've been to Calcutta and I've actually stood where the legendary "black hole" was (the old Jail), but that ain't got nothing on a p6b engine bay when you are trying to find a lost nut and washer!

I gave up and am looking at front and rear shocks instead. :LOL:
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It's ethier behind the lights or trapped under the front pully, just out of reach so you have to jack it up get under it and flick it out with a coat hanger of narrow screw driver. Always very anoying. Seems to happen a lot with the 4 pots too! :roll:
 
Re: Calcutta

ewokracing said:
I've been to Calcutta and I've actually stood where the legendary "black hole" was (the old Jail), but that ain't got nothing on a p6b engine bay when you are trying to find a lost nut and washer!
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You should have seen the "nowhere land" between the front subframe and bulkhead in an ADO16. :shock:
 
I tried for about, 40 minutes. I had a look around the lights wiring, nup, had a strontium magnet that I ran all around the engine bay, still no luck. I've got a feeling that its dropped between the radiator and fan shroud. Oh well. I might borrow a magnet on a stick from one of the guys at work or grab mine from my brother - it has a little LED at the end, brilliant!
 
Re: The inheiritance. 1978 P6B

I hear you guys. Aircraft manufacturers have some crafty holes where stuff invariably falls into before applying escape and evasion techniques. Universally known as "Hell holes" in the trade.
 
Re: The inheiritance. 1978 P6B

Found them both last night, but it was way too hot to stay outside in the sun for too long.

I'm helping a friend put a gearbox in a car that's a part of a challenge on another car forum, so it looks like Saturday or Sunday will be the earliest that the alternator will be back in.
 
Re: The inheiritance. 1978 P6B

29 degrees C yesterday at work. Girls in short shorts everywhere. I love Australia at times.

Mind you, we're also having major floods at the moment.

I am officially carless for a few days at home so my gameplan for the weekend is:

- get the alternator on
- faff about with the K&N filters
- organise the guy to do the SU tuning
- sort out the last little bits that I need off Ian, as I just found a little plastic packet with more bushes, screws etc. It looks like carb linkages and other bits.

I also have the Rover parts book ordered in for me, I just can't get over to the other side of the city where it is! :LOL: (unless I want a 3 hour one way public transport trip)

I have also booked the car in with a brake place for next week Tuesday. I had them rebuild the brake calipers on another project of mine and they were good to deal with. I explained over the phone about the rear inboard brakes etc and they're old blokes so they've seen Rovers before. I'm just wary of auto workshops these days as they seem to do what they want to do, rather than what you've asked them to do. (at least in Melbourne anyway). I'm guestimating that all four discs, calipers, lines etc will need machining or replacing, along with the wheel bearings. I'm also on the hunt for a proper old school tailshaft place to have the joints checked out.
 
Re: The inheiritance. 1978 P6B

Hello Geoff,

The rear disks can get pretty groovy like an old record, but the fronts tend to last a considerable time, over 234,000 miles (378,000km) on mine and no machining has ever been necessary. By comparison modern cars and their disks (or rotors) are removed and replaced almost as often as changing pads.

You may well find that the rear calipers have already been resleeved in the past, whilst the fronts by their different design will never need resleeving. In their case the pistons are the items that pit and corrode and require replacement.

If they do pull off your front disks they should fit new bearings while they are at it, but the rears being far removed from the disks should not require any attention. The rear bearings are massive by modern standards and usually never need replacement unless the hubs have been submerged or have encountered an unspecified misadventure. In any case unless new collapsible spacers (these will have to come from England) are being fitted when the rear hubs are dismantled, the job will need doing again in a short space of time as the bearings will rapidly wear without the correct preload.

As far as the tailshaft goes,..you could try a Land/Range Rover specialist, if you know or can have a good one recommended?

Ron.
 
Aussie lateral thinking. Kinda

unstable: I'm in Melbourne, Australia, though I prefer to get out of here on a regular basis!

Ron: Ok, I'm 99% sure that the car has only done around 100K kilometers or a tad over, I'd definitely say that it hasn't done 200K, as that would mean that it'd done a touch over 6,000 kays a year and I'm sure it hasn't. Maybe. Silly odometer not working hasn't helped! I do know that in the last few years it barely got driven at all.

landrover/rangie specialist: good idea, I'll look into it. There's "The Healey Factory" here in Melbourne and they do lots of service work and restorations on classic cars, apparently they charge like a wounded bull though. (Much like the Classic Throttle shop does up in Sydney).

In other news, Ron, can you get MMS/picture messages? I have good news!
 
thread question

What type (pitch/size) is the thread on the elbows that is used to hold the transmission dipstick on one side (and on my car, unused on the other)?

I just need to get two little screws so that I can use these threads for some brackets. I have used two metric screws but the drivers side one is a little loose so I think I have used the wrong kind of screw/bolt.
 
Re: The inheiritance. 1978 P6B

Thanks Harvey.

It is freakin hot outside and I'm a ranga, so I'm staying out of the sun for a bit until late afternoon, then I'll attempt to finish off the alternator job.

I've got to ring someone about getting the SU's looked at now that I have kinda sorted out the air filters.

Assuming that with the two K&N's fitted, the engine will be lean, can I make a journey to the brake place with the choke slightly out to run it a bit richer?
 
Nipples - we all like nipples... right?

Had a think while I whacked my head into the bonnet for the umpteenth time. Are there any grease nipples in the suspension or steering on the p6b's? I haven't quite got my head around the DeDion rear end yet and the oil filled tube thingy, is there a way of checking on that as well? (ie is there a top up point on it?)
 
Re: Aussie lateral thinking. Kinda

ewokracing said:
landrover/rangie specialist: good idea, I'll look into it. There's "The Healey Factory" here in Melbourne and they do lots of service work and restorations on classic cars, apparently they charge like a wounded bull though. (Much like the Classic Throttle shop does up in Sydney).
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That they do, and alas even they are not always 100% spot on with their work quality - although are very good at rectifying anything you're not happy with without issue.

Other Landie/Range Rover specialists i can recommend are Ritters in Burwood (although they went to the same school of charging), Pickards in Abbotsford who also do a lot of Rover/MG stuff etc, oh and the Toorak Tractor Company in Braeside if you want cheap cheap but with that hint of dodgyness :). Alas none of them overly great for where you are location wise though and sorry i don't really know anywhere out to the North/West as am never really out that way unless going to the airport.

For parts I always stick with British Car Components in North Melbourne as my first choice if they can get what i need.
 
Cool, thanks Al.

My dad has always hankered after a TR4a (he claims he has no interest in cars anymore, but every now and then he'll e-mail me a link for something for sale, like a 2 door Pontiac or something random) and we went and checked out the Healey Factory a few times for cars. I think the eye watering price of a few of them put him off.

Brit Car components is just around the corner (sort of) from my uncle's workshop. If I had of know they existed, I could have gotten some stuff there during the week. Oh well!

I've got the alternator on and sorted, it's reading 12.7 volts at idle across the battery and it jumps to 14.1 volts at idle with the choke out. Is that acceptable? I would have thought that 13.8volts at idle with no choke would be spot on. Hmmmm.

Car seems to go a lot better now, still seems like it's towing a 6x4 trailer with bricks in it (ie kinda sluggish) but going by what I've read on here, I need to get the SU's looked at asap.
 
Re: The inheiritance. 1978 P6B

ewokracing wrote,...
I've got the alternator on and sorted, it's reading 12.7 volts at idle across the battery and it jumps to 14.1 volts at idle with the choke out. Is that acceptable? I would have thought that 13.8volts at idle with no choke would be spot on. Hmmmm.

Car seems to go a lot better now, still seems like it's towing a 6x4 trailer with bricks in it (ie kinda sluggish) but going by what I've read on here, I need to get the SU's looked at asap.
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Hello Geoff,

The voltage is dependent upon the time that the engine has been running. That is to say, if the engine has only been running for a few minutes then the alternator is likely charging the battery to cover the current supplied for starting, thus the voltage will be lower than would be the case if the engine had been running for a time with the system in equilibrium. Engine idle speed and thus alternator rpm will also influence the voltage measured. Had the engine only just been started? What is the normal hot idling speed?

I know from the Rovers that I have driven, the performance tends to be fairly sedate especially in top gear until approx 50mph (80kph) is reached, then it becomes much better. In second gear, same applies until approx 2000rpm is reached. I imagine it has to do with the duration of the camshaft and the retarded camshaft timing due to the poor time keeping of the OEM timing set.

Ron.
 
Re: The inheiritance. 1978 P6B

Ron:

yep, had just started the car after it had been sitting for a bit. Charged the battery yesterday on a charger (non trickle).
Idle speed when warm is around 750rpm.
I think I'll keep an eye on it over the next few days. The test will be when I drive with headlights on. That killed the state of play last time as the alternator was only pumping out around 11 volts so I had to keep topping up the battery at the end of each day.

What do I do about the filters until I get the SU's tuned? little bit of choke to get to the brake shop?
 
Re: The inheiritance. 1978 P6B

ewokracing wrote,...
What do I do about the filters until I get the SU's tuned? little bit of choke to get to the brake shop?
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You may find that you need to use the choke if the engine hesitates, but by and large all should be ok for the distance involved.

With the K & N's and no canister, the engine will have a much improved air supply path, so when the time comes to set up the SU's, a change of needles to BAK will see a marked performance improvement. If you rebuild the carbs at the same time with a new seal kit, then even better.. :)

Ron.
 
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