Brown Rover GF148 - progress.

WarrenL

WarrenL

Active Member
Well gents, after the trials and tribulations documented in other threads (once again, thanks to everybody here for the indispensable), Brown Rover was taken for its warrant of fitness today.

And failed.

But thankfully it was only on one count - a leaking rear caliper. I guess that's not bad at all after 8 years of sitting in the garage. I now have 28 days to jack up the rear end and fix the caliper before the "recheck" period runs out. Might as well do the other one while I'm there, and replace the pads. I don't want to go back under there for a while.
 
The trouble is I'm all Rovered out at the moment - at least as far as repairs are concerned. I was hoping to just enjoy driving the old girl around for a while. But never mind, I'll summon some motivation and get cracking in the next week or two.

Of course, it could have been so much worse.
 
Once again, an update is overdue, but I claim a horribly busy time at work (scheduled to continue until Feb 7th) and a brand new daughter as excuses.

A few weeks ago I crawled under the rear end of Brown Rover and dismantled the rear brakes. The discs were taken in for machining and, once the seal kits arrived from Scott's Old Auto Rubber, the calipers were dropped off to my tame mechanic (who I may have mentioned before in connection with my calipers). Having taken them apart, John called me with concerns about the state of the pistons. They were very much borderline in terms of pitting, but I decided that I never want to pull Brown Rover's rear brakes out again, so I'm now waiting on new pistons to arrive from the Old Country. I did try to short circuit the process by inquiring at the local Land Rover dealer, but while they'll sell you just about anything, they do so at an extortionate, heart-stopping price. I figured that to wait an extra couple of weeks was worth the huge saving gained by buying the mechanical repair kits from, in this case, Dr Mark Whitton at 20 quid a side.

As soon as they're here they'll go to John and we'll be underway again. While I'm at it I'm renewing the hoses and pads and anything else that looks even slightly dodgy. And so the saga continues...
 
Finally, some progress! I picked up my rebuilt calipers from John the mechanic on Saturday, and spent half of Sunday figuring out how they fit back into the car. Three months is long enough to forget the details, regardless of how many photos you've taken.

Today I pick up my new pads, and this weekend I'll pop them in, then replace the rotors and half-shafts. At that point, provided everything works like it should, I'll be warrant-of-fitness ready, three months after my first failed attempt.

John has done a wonderful job of my calipers. With the seal kits from Scott's Old Auto Rubber and the piston kit from Mark Whitton, they're totally rebuilt, and look like brand new clamped up under the car. I'll try to get a photo at some point.

Regards to all.
 
Hello Warren,

It is such a good feeling when you get a positive result... :D

Look forward to seeing the pics.

Ron.
 
Hi Ron. It'll be even nicer to have the car driveable! This has been dragging on for far too long, but then I've had other things preventing me from paying much attention to the Rover (such as my daughter). But once again, I can see the end in sight. Fingers crossed!
 
Brown Rover GF148 - GOOD NEWS!!!

After all the trials and tribulations of the last three months (in fact, at least the last year and a half) I finally have good news!

Brown Rover, GF148, has just passed its warrant of fitness check more than 8 years off the road!

My immense gratitude to all those on the forum who have supplied utterly invaluable advice. I'd especially like to single out SydneyRover P6B, Chris York and KiwiRover for thanks. There are others too - I'd have to troll through my threads to find everybody's names but you will know who you are.

Brown Rover has taken much time and a lot of money to get to this point, but the time and money involved would have been far greater had it not been for this forum.

Of course there is much I still wish to do on the old girl, but time and money are two things I don't have much of right now so I'm going to simply enjoy the fact that I can take her out on the road and enjoy the view from behind the wheel.
 
congratulations , here in ireland if the vehicle is more than 30 years old there is no nct check , nobody checks the car , just insure and tax(cheap) and drive, of course they realise that most owners of classics are enthusiasts and maintain them and im sure that they dont figure large in accidents and it does make running one much easier ,the p6 is currently very frozen up outside , i guess you will be rovering in your summer now , good luck!rich
 
Yes, indeed it is summer here, although it didn't feel like it today, with the odd fall of rain and a cool easterly coming in off the ocean. With luck it'll improve for a bit of tootling about in the Rover. It was one of this year's goals to get the old bus back on the road in legal fashion, and I've made it with just days to spare. Whether I can actually afford to run it is another question altogether...

Hmmm, no WOF for the over 30s. I wonder if that would just be asking for trouble around here. Goodness knows what old pieces of shite people would hit the roads in. How is it that it works for the Irish?
 
I reckon it's a pretty safe bet, any car that makes it to over 30 years old in this climate is almost certainly enthusiast owned, and thus looked after pretty well.
 
Good point! I for one am not happy to drive my Rover when it isn't up to scratch - the prospect of stacking it is just too terrible to even contemplate.
 
I've just topped up Brown Rover's tank for the second time since resurrection, giving me the opportunity of a fill-to-fill mileage calculation.

Most of the driving has been light-hopping around the city, with a single 50 mile return jaunt down the motorway to a neighbouring town a few weeks back. Over the course of the tank my bog standard 3500 with twin SUs, a Pertronix unit, 185-section tyres and the nasty old Type 35 slush box has averaged 18.6 mpg. I will admit to the odd foot plant away from the lights just to hear the V8 roar, but mostly I'm fairly light on the pedal. How's it looking?
 
To me that's fair for the usage you describe, a general urban fuel mileage? If your mixture is a bit on the rich side I wouldn't be surprised though.
 
Sounds a little thirsty maybe an emission analyser and or a rolling road as discussed :LOL: with the price of combustible juice the check would pay for itself in the first year. Be intersting to see what the hight way figures turn out to be when ever you do the holiday thing in the brown beast.

Graeme
 
Hello Warren,

Sounds pretty much what would be expected to me, given the majority of the distance covered was city running.

In 1990 when I was working on the north side of the harbour, each leg of the 17 mile journey would typically take me 45 to 50 minutes. Fuel consumption was usually never more than 17mpg, with a worst of 13mpg.. :shock: Yet that same year without changing needles or mixture settings, on a return run to Melbourne with the Rover loaded with Rover parts a best of 27.8mpg was delivered following consistent 60 to 70mph (100 - 110kph) highway running.

Ron.
 
The mixture etc should be spot on - remember that the old girl was treated to a carburettor overhaul and full tune-up before recommencing "regular" use.

I recall years ago getting around 23mpg on longer trips involving mixed driving, and more like 15 around town. Therefore 18.6 seems like an improvement. The proof of the pudding will, of course, be apparent after I get in a decent open road blast, but I'm not sure when that'll be. And I wonder what difference the desired ZF gearbox conversion could make?
 
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