My '72 P6 V8 is back in use on UK roads and once again wearing its silver on black 'K' plates!

Shortly before the Ides of March my starter motor gave up the ghost, and I had to have it refurbished. Here's a big shout to Bradley at Unit Exchange in Borehamwood, who got the refurbed starter back to me in less than 48hrs, having done an excellent job. It ought to last another half century now!
 
Turns out my Ignition Switch was the culprit. Oh well, I'm telling myself that getting the starter refurbished would've needed doing at some point anyway!
Just waved goodbye to the bad blue money pit as it got transported away to my most favoured mechanic for me to issue another salvo from the cash cannon.
Quite a lot of things need attending to, and a fair few of those are beyond my capabilities without the use of a proper car lift, so I'm entrusting it to a professional. I'll report again when I get her back, and have been told just how bad everything had got!
Here's a sad pic of RWT363K back in her natural habitat – the back of the recovery truck!

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At least its just the switch. Now with the switch and motor restored you should be good for another 50 years :)
 
Sorry to see that. I'm looking at what I can sell (car parts first) to finance needed repair work on my P6 - before resorting to body parts. I would expect those wheels of yours could finance future work - if you could ever part with them !
 
eggbert68b said:
I would expect those wheels of yours could finance future work - if you could ever part with them !
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I'd sell my own arms and legs before I'd part with my Magstars! Here's hoping my upcoming and doubtless hefty repair bill won't necessitate my parting with any vital organs! Doubt anybody would want 'em anyway, as I dare say I've well and truly poisoned myself with plenty of toxins over the years! ;)
 
Toxins? What does he mean?
"Pass the Dutchie 'pon the left hand side (I say)
Pass the Dutchie 'pon the left hand side
It a go bun (give me the music, make me jump and prance)
It a go dung, ya know? (Give me the music, make me rockin' at the dance)"
;)
 
I got my car back from my mechanic today. He fixed a fair few things.
Turns out the starter issue was down to a bad earth at the 6R4 relay up on the inner wing! The earth wire disappears into the loom, and emerges again a short distance away to attach to the top terminal of two on top of the brake fluid level sensor. That connector was loose and both it and the spade were mucky and green. New connection crimped on, a quick gleam up with some Emery paper, and the issue is banished. Shame none of the three AA guys I had called out had thought of checking that. Oh well, at least I have the peace of mind of knowing that the starter motor is once more in tip top condition, and that I have a good working spare relay.
The brake warning light that I had been ignoring (blushes with shame) thinking there was a wiring fault turns out to have been working properly, trying to tell me the front pads were worn down to the wear indicator wires. Doh! Good thing I gave the car in for a service, I wasn't far from the backing plates of the front pads! The front wheel bearings were also loose and needed re-packing and tightening to spec.
The fluid level sensor needed the contacts cleaning up, and the old cork float didn't float any more. A nice bottle of plonk provided a new cork, and some liquid comfort for the man with the spanners.
I finally have a wiper delay that functions! Yay! It had never worked in my ownership, and I had never gotten around to investigating the issue. The electrical contacts inside were all furred up with corrosion, and it had been wired up incorrectly to boot. A new piece of foam (actually it looks like a piece of a red Scotchbrite pad!) was also required. I should've done that years ago. All that frustrating having to reach up to turn the wipers on and off again whenever the rain was only slight.
The passenger side wiper blade didn't sweep the whole screen, much to the dissatisfaction of my trusty co-pilot. She'll be pleased to see where I'm taking her in the next inevitable downpour. I had fitted a replacement blade and crimped it too tightly to allow the rubber blade move. Now sorted.
The gear lever had become quite recalcitrant, and reverse was ever harder to select. Now I can engage all the gears smoothly again, snickety-snick, after the lever and remote both got a good clean up and re-adjustment. The handbrake got adjusted back to functionality at the same time, by tightening the cable.
Underneath, the prop shaft needed two new UJs. The diff extension seal was replaced, and a quick peek showed the bearing behind it to be in fine fettle. The front diff mounting bush was very knackered, so a new poly one from Winns International was fitted. At last the grinding noises from my drivetrain are now banished. Much better.
Money well spent, as the drive is a whole lot more pleasant. I can whole-heartedly recommend Graham Ransley at Brooklands Motorcraft. Knows his way around these cars, and how to keep them in proper order. Well worth driving the extra distance to his new premises in Hertfordshire, a little further from me than he used to be.
Thanks again, Graham! Great job as ever! :thumb:
 
On mine I found that the nearside diff hanger mount was in bad shape - sagging with the central steel tube pulling through, while the offside was almost like new. Easy to check from above by removing the small covers in the boot and comparing the heights.
 
Haven't posted any pics of my Blue Meanie on the back of a recovery truck for ... all of three months!
The clutch went yesterday. It had been protesting for a while. I know I shouldn't keep banging off rapid fire shifts under full power, but it is so much fun. Until things come apart again... Sigh. Time to load the money cannon again.

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At the very least it give others a grand view of your motor travelling down the streets !

But I hope the clutch repair work is only short term !
 
So do I, @eggbert68b, my dear fellow. If you saw what the whole other side of my car looks like at the moment you wouldn't wish that sight upon anybody!
Hopefully my favoured man-who-can will be attending to the body and paintwork after he sorts the transmission trouble.
Have you gone for the pricey NOS fuse box option for your whip, or are you going to roll up your sleeves and fit two rows of bladed fuses?
 
To be honest Al, I can see myself heading down the '' I'll clean up and deox the contacts, fit proper length fuses and give it a once over route'' and then of course run the risk of it happening again, or worse when I least need it, such as when the boss may be driving the car...

I can see myself getting into a right mess installing a replacement fuse box, even with the really detailed descriptions offered on here.

Not wanting to go off topic, I've received some good guidance from forum members here about fuse box options and also removing the major culprits from potential trouble (headlight fuses), by fitting relays to the light system. Much appreciated there, and certainly, the whiff of smoke from the glovebox when driving at night is a sobering experience indeed.

Is the NOS fusebox a failure waiting to happen, or is it time that has stretched the plastic and metal contacts to preempt hotspots and potential fire...

Decisions ...
 
The man with the spanners says I can have it back on the morrow, and that the trouble was solely hydraulic. New master and slave installed. Both (!) had suffered serious degeneration of the rubber seals inside, after a mere four years of service. I'm pleased it was neither the clutch pressure plate nor the throwout bearing that had failed, which were the notional component failures I had misdiagnosed.
 
Now that you mention this, i also had a half-clutch-hydraulics failure last Sunday, when i took my TC for a drive in the mountains. It seems as though the clutch master piston could not return fully home, so i lost enough clutch travel to not allow for a clean disengagement. I returned home by adjusting the clutch pedal higher up than normal, but i am surprised that the seals have failed after very little use, in fact since the car was retired from everyday use. I have yet to remove to clutch master cylinder, but it seems inevitable that i will need new seals.
 
Hmmm Tow truck guy needs a lesson in how to tie a car onto his truck....Through the wheel spokes isn't good. It can crack bend and distort the wheels. not allowed at all out here in the Antipodes...
M
 
@Demetris Sorry to hear you've also had clutch master trouble of late. My mechanic opted to fit replacement slave and master, rather than fitting new seals to the ones that had gone bad, because they were so cheap. Both cylinders for 87 quid.
 
@mikecoombs I can't really see the tow straps damaging the really beefy 'spokes' of my Magstar wheels. Doesn't seem to have done any harm, anyway. The tow guy did however deform the front valance a bit with the winch cable, but a judiciously aimed thump put that straight again!
 
I paid a visit to East Grinstead earlier in the week and bought a stainless exhaust rear section from Wins. Nice to meet the friendly, knowledgeable and helpful Geoff, having bought many bits'n'pieces from him over the years. Even nicer is that my car is now considerably quieter at idle than it had been of late. I hadn't realised my rearmost mild steel exhaust can had rotted through in two places back and front, despite the tell-tale sooty marks. Having had that fault pointed out to me I couldn't leave it blowing. For a moment I thought the new piece wouldn't fit, until Geoff kindly pointed out on the telephone that the 'donut' shape on the end of the middle section just needed a sharp tap and could then be removed. Doh!
I also picked up a serviceable rear valance to replace mine, once I've prepped it for fresh paint. I'll elaborate on my recent panel-mangling misadventure in due course, once I've had it all made good again. Watch this space, as they say!
 
Shortly before Christmas last year my P6 suddenly ceased to provide forward motion. I lost traction on a slippery smooth manhole cover in very wet weather. Then something went 'Bang!', very loudly, and there was a smell like gunpowder. An awful gnashing metallic noise came from the tunnel, and my heart sank because it really sounded as if it was coming from the gearbox.
My poor folorn P6 languished for some months while I waited for my most favoured mechanic to be able to come to my rescue. He has now schlepped it away, along with a spare V8 diff that I've had in storage for quite some years, knowing I'd need it one day. Once we had the car loaded onto his trailer, he crawled underneath and observed that the prop turns, so the gearbox is okay. Phew! Small mercies.
I await photos of whatever carnage he discovers in the failed unit, and will share here when I get them. In the meantime, what do you guys reckon was the point of failure? Snapped output shaft, snapped input shaft, or some other small component inside the (mysterious to me) diff?
I'm going to guess input shaft, but my mechanic (who knows vastly more about these cars than I do) tends towards an output shaft, as by that point the torque has been multiplied by the diff gearing. He's probably right. So what do you guys reckon?
No pic of the Blue Meanie on a trailer this time, 'coz they're becoming far too frequent, and I still haven't had the drivers side panels repaired after my self-inflicted mishap back in May of last year.
 
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