Choke and Reserve Petrol Removal

A

andrew_oc42

New Member
Hey all! Just wondering if your able to remove the Choke and reserve petrol "switches" from the dash, rather then from the Carburetter and rear of the vehicle? Which i'm assuming goes directly to the reserve tank!

Situation is i'm currently rebuilding a 73 P6 with parts from another P6 from 76! The 73 has a gas conversion and the reserve petrol tank has been removed off it So I don't require the reserve petrol tank.. but I may want to install it at a later date hence why I don't want to cut the cable from the dash!

Thanks Andrew.
 
Hi Andrew.
The reserve cable only goes to a 2 way tap/valve in the engine bay,there is no seperate reserve tank. This tap is normally on the lower rear driver side of the engine bay. However on some export cars the tap is located at the rear of the car,but same thing,disconnect the cable from the tap and withdraw it from the dash! The reserve fuel is drawn from a lower pick up point in the main tank,hence the tap/valve!
Disconnect the cable from this tap/valve,and then you can remove it from the dash by taking off the speaker cover to access the locknut holding it in place.this leaves you the hole in the dash to fit your gas switchover gear.You can easily refit the reserve cable whenever you want to if you ever take the gas out of the car.
Dave
 
At the same time, I'd use a bit of wire and wire the reserve tap in the main position. It might be a potential source of fuel leak after you have forgotten that you have a reserve switch.

Eric
 
Yeah in the end I took the cable out from the tap! It is right under the fuel tank and was easily removed, thanks. On my 76 P6 bolted onto the fuel tank is another tank? Or something.. I thought this would of been the reserve fuel tank. It isn't on my 73P6 hence why I thought the option was removed. If it isnt for the reserve fuel.. whats it for then?

Thanks, Andy
 
This answer links through to the answer I put up on your enquiry about the heater fan lever.

What you have described is the supplementary tank fitted to LHD NADA 3500S from 1969 through to late 1970. It is actually not a fuel tank as such but a receptical for the petrol fumes piped back from the engine on US emission control cars.

I've never heard of this being fitted to a non NADA! Not even factory parts bin cars at the end of production!

Without seeing it or hearing more detail i'd be inclined to think that the car you have is either a factory prototype cleared out and and registered in '76, or its a full monte NADA reimported and converted to RHD.

I think it's time you shared with us its chassis number!

It sounds far too interesting to use as a parts bin!

Chris
 
I was thinking about your parts car over the weekend. There was a batch of very special Parts Bin cars produced for Europe (where Rover were starting to be in trouble against BMW) close to the end of P6 production. These had every conceivable extra fitted, including many NADA items which were never listed for the UK. An example would be front door elasticated map pockets. Many of these cars failed to sell and were brought back to the factory and convertyed to RHD and sold into the UK. P6's are extremely easy to convert between LHD and RHD, all you need are a couple of steering boxes, an instrument cluster and a pair of shin bins. Everything else is interchangeable. The give away that this is what has happened will be the position of the fuse box. LHD cars as built have it in the RH shin bin area, RHD cars in the LH shin bin area. Conversions generally didn't bother moving it, so you might well find it on the drivers side on yours.

The one thing that really throws me is that NADA supplementary vent tank. I wasn't aware that any of these were ever fitted after the end of NADA production in 1970! You might also find that it has an electric fuel pump and a reserve/main tank changeover fitted underneath on the off side near the rear axle instead of the usual position (and mechanical pump) close to the front bulkhead. That would confirm a deep raid of the NADA parts bin. I guess it must be possible that some European countries were getting ahead of the UK in emissions legislation in '76. Switzerland springs to mind. But even so the appearance of this particular bit of kit so long after the end of NADA production is astonishing.

There are three people on here who should be able to shed some more light on this - Rudiger, the club archivist, Ian Wilson of Rover-Classics fame who is a bit of a NADA expert, and Nick Dunning who has spent many happy hours with his head in the production records. I've PM'd them to get them to have a look!

Regards

Chris
 
You can tell this parts car has got me really intrigued can't you!

Final thought before contributions from others. There was one late model P6 with US style emission control. But it was made in New Zealand!! A final batch of around 1,000 cars were shipped out after the end of normal P6 assembly in the UK for assembly at the New Zealand plant during '77 and '78 with some being registered into '79. These were sold in both New Zealand and Australia where production of the P6 had already ceased but the SD1 was not yet on stream. They were fairly unusual in a number of ways - most if not all had locally sourced A/C, the colours were new and they had a new style of seat covering amongst others.

I wonder, then, if this is a factory trial run to make sure they'd put all the right bits in the CKD box?

Chris
 
Hi Chris, Sorry I have been away the past few days!

Ill get some VIN / Engine Numbers aswell as photos up in the next few days for you! Mind you currently it looks a bit shabby due to me ripping it to pieces for the 73 in which im rebuilding.

I'm also considering keeping it and "doing it up" so to speak. I'm trying to keep the 73 all original (less aircon etc...) and then have a "fun car" which would be th 76 rover. If all the information you say is true then it may be worth doing it this way! :D

Cheers mate, Will get photos as soon as its daylight and I can find a camera!

Andy
 
Andrew's other thread confirms this car has aftermarket A/C - so I reckon it's a cert that it is a factory prototype for the last New Zealand CKD batch. Over to Nick Dunning for a bit of research in the Rover archives!

Chris
 
While we are talking about choke and petrol reserve switches, I have always found it awkward pulling out the choke which is located to the right of the speaker console in my left hand drive car. I intend to swap the position of these handles when I install the new radio equipment, putting the choke cable in a more convenient location.

Dick West
 
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