Yet another Rover.......

Finally got to do the road test today. The handling is soooooo much better than last time, and the car takes corners with a little grace, rather than lumbering through. The new brakes are fantastic, pulling up staight and quick. The power steering needs a bleed as it is groaning on roundabouts, and hissing. Now that there is some fluid in the system it will work a lot better. The only issue to resolve is that the engine has developed a nasty rattle from the drivers side bank, sounds like a stuck tappet. I took the car for a good hit out and gave it a good flogging in the hope that the tappet will pop free. No such luck :x looks like a top end rebuild is on the cards, but I will pop the covers to see if anything is loose under there (the way the last owner looked after the car anything is possible). While I am at it the engine mounts are a bit soft, and the gearbox mount is contaminated with oil. While the engine and gearbox is out I may as well strip and clean the engine bay, and rewire the rats nest....... :roll:

Looks like quite a bit of work for next time I get some leave (about mid year), but the car is at least drivable (just) until then and will be OK for short journeys. I have to go back to work in a few days (groan) I just wish I could hurry up and win Lotto soon! :LOL:

I will post the photos if the front tyres as soon as I take some. You will not believe that someone would let them get to the state that they are in.

Cheers

GUY :D
 
# Quote:"have managed through sheer bloodymindedness to make a ball joint separator that won't destroy the balljoints! This is very similar to the tool 601476, but operates on a single lever for twice the power. More photos when I can compress them a little more. Maybe tomorrow." Unquote#

Hello Guy, interesting project you are fighting with, and in that heat! sorry, can't wait any longer, could I persuade you to let us see a photo of your home made ball joint separator from different angles? thanks in advance! Chris Varming
 
quattro said:
Have you got a home made tool to remove bottom ball joints? :)
Click to expand...

Yes please tell us more with a few pics if possible. Im sure many here will be greatly interested.
 
quattro said:
Have you got a home made tool to remove bottom ball joints? :)
Click to expand...
If you're struggling to extract the joint from the strut as I was when I had my Yellow car on the road, I tried gripping the strut in the vice & using a slide hammer to pull the joint out & various other failed methods & in the end what I did was hacksaw the lip off the socket (the bit that holds the ball in) pull the ball out & then drill the socket in half & tap the two halves inwards with a chisel & they just fell out.

Regards Col
 
Basically that's how an engineering firm was going to do mine before I found someone with a home made copy of the proper tool
 
My tool is a modified commercially available one that I picked up at a sale for $5. It was the most useless thing in the world as the jaws were too narrow to go around the ball joint. 20 min with a file and a skinned knuckle later I ended up with what you can see in the photos. I have removed the bottom ball joints by popping out the retaining ring (makes the job SOOO much easier :roll: ) and getting a flat piece of steel about 1 inch thick and tapping two holes to take some ruddy great bolts with a hole in the middle for the ball joint nut. Another flat piece with a bigger hole sits against the outer rim of the housing. The tapped piece is then attached using the ball joint nut then the two outer bolts are done up slowly levering the joint out. I based it on the Rover tool part No 600962, but without the fancy collar.

I have bitten the bullet and have decided to put a new (secondhand rebuilt) engine into Pooh. I am going for a 3.9l (significantly cheaper than a 4.6) with stage 2 heads, medium performance cam, and a weber carb. This will give me around the 250hp mark with no trouble. The new gearbox is the trusty Toyota (almost a dirty word in my house) Supra 5 speed, and this will handle up to 400hp (or so I am assured).

I have been trawling the net and I have discovered that the Holden (Vauxhall in the UK) IRS diff is the same size (or close enough) internally to the Rover diff. The cunning plan is to insert the inner worky bits of the LSD Holden into the Rover diff! This will give the same (3.08:1) ratio as the standard diff yet with LSD and the ability to handle more power, once the input extension shaft is strengthened (ie remade). The S will end up with a LOT more power and I may as well start on the difficult bits early. Of course I could go the Jag route, but I like to keep it looking stock. Anyone have practical experience on how much power you can (reliably) put through the Rover diff without it exploding? :wink:

Still there will be a pause on proceedings as I am back to work on Monday ( :cry: ), and the chances to work on the old cars will vanish. Next serious work period will be in June when Dad is coming to "supervise" the work. There is an old post titled "Never trust your father" explaining why I am wary of my Dad "helping" around the cars.

Hope the photos help and I will continue to update when there is more progress.

Cheers

GUY :D
 

Attachments

  • 100_1709.JPG
    100_1709.JPG
    45.8 KB · Views: 753
  • 100_1710.JPG
    100_1710.JPG
    35.1 KB · Views: 753
  • 100_1711.JPG
    100_1711.JPG
    40.4 KB · Views: 754
The actual diff in the P6 is pretty well bomb proof. Not so the input and output shafts. The long input shaft that goes down the nose extension is easy enough to re-manufacture in real metal instead of twisto-gum and if you're short of time Classeparts have suitable ones on the shelf. The output shafts are more difficult as they would require either a very large (aka expensive) billet of parent material to machine from the solid or a rather tricky weld between the shaft and the driveshaft flange. An alternative route would be to copy Simon Owen's (sowen) efforts on here with a Jag LSD PowerTrak diff mounted into the Rover's standard de dion. I'd personally think that is a better route than messing with the internals of the Rover diff.

Chris
 
I have returned. :p

After abandoning Pooh in the car park at work for 6 weeks, I was quite chuffed that it started after a litre of electricity was poured into the battery. I have since changed said battery for one that does not leak electricity when it is left for more than 24hrs. :? The drive home was interesting as the chuffing noises were getting louder, and the speed slower as we got closer to home. Terminal head gasket failure, damn. :cry:

I have decided to rebuild the engine in the car, the new engine is to be put in the blue car, and have spent a large fortune (all the banks money fortunately, credit cards are wonderful things) on new stage two heads , fast road cam, timing chain, tappets, gaskets, seals, bearings and.....a new windscreen. The screen in the car was a little marginal, but not too bad. The very understanding policeman agreed to let me take the car home, but told me that a split from the top to the bottom was a "VERY BAD THING". Only three weeks to wait for the new screen to arrive from Sydney (a screen for a P6 not being exactly common in Darwin). :roll:

The upshot is that I now have 4 weeks leave (Hooray!), and can spend the time replacing the entire rear suspension, the engine, most of the wiring and the windscreen of the car before taking it to the local testing station so that I can give the government MORE of my money to be allowed to drive my car! The gearbox is holding up well and will be changed for the Supra box at the end of the year, I just dont have time right now.

Work commences tomorrow, and I will be posting photos as I remember to take them, watch this space..........

Cheers

GUY :p
 
Busy day, understanding wife.

New rear end completed and ready to go into Pooh, just have to take the old back end out, and have the brakes rebuilt.

New springs are 20mm shorter than standard and 30% stiffer. I will see how the stance is once they have settled. More tomorrow.

Cheers

GUY :p
 

Attachments

  • 100_1769.JPG
    100_1769.JPG
    56.4 KB · Views: 1,098
  • 100_1770.JPG
    100_1770.JPG
    66.6 KB · Views: 1,098
As promised....... more.

Spent an enjoyable morning buying a new car (Ford Mondeo XR5 Turbo), and the afternoon tearing Pooh to bits. As you can see from the photos, the underside is very grotty and needs a pressure clean and resealing. I will be hooking in on Tuesday (One more day of work :( ) then into the last cleaning bits. The photos don't show it very well but the rear brakes are almost new, so they will be swapped over onto the new diff and re-installed with new pads and discs.

I never realised how heavy the Rover diff is until I dropped it on my foot. Rotten things weigh a ton. :roll:

Cheers

GUY :p
 

Attachments

  • 100_1775.JPG
    100_1775.JPG
    49.7 KB · Views: 1,074
  • 100_1776.JPG
    100_1776.JPG
    45.3 KB · Views: 1,075
  • 100_1777.JPG
    100_1777.JPG
    49.4 KB · Views: 1,076
I'm pleased you've revived this thread I love your style you certainly dont do things by half, that's how I would do it funds permitting but sadly they're not & I like your sense of humour, very entertaining reading keep up the good work

Regards Colin
 
Looking good

Guy Engelsman said:
I never realised how heavy the Rover diff is until I dropped it on my foot. Rotten things weigh a ton. :roll:
Click to expand...

They weigh nothing compared to the jaguar differential, took two of us to lift it off the workbench :shock: , less said about fitting the better :wink:

Simon
 
Wise man say "factory specify torque settings for a reason"

The back end of Pooh is now out and the brakes swapped over. Not photos today as the battery is flat (my wife taking to many photos of my young son :roll: ), but will charge overnight and photo tomorrow.

The Rover gods were not happy today. They required a large blood sacrifice before they would allow the diff to come free. I was working on my back (I do my best work lying down :wink: ), and I bashed my knuckles on something sharp (?). I was working away when I became aware of something dripping onto my face, I thought that it was brake fluid, or more likely sweat. It was about ooh....2 litres of my blood that had run down my arm and onto my face! Awful mess, but after that the diff literally fell out, which brings me to the quote of the day.

I wondered why the diff rattled about so much, turns out that actually torquing the bolts up helps, along with the propshaft, ALL the suspension etc. I am starting to curse the last ham fisted monkey that worked on this car. I cannot believe that the bolts were finger tight on the prop shaft! Really! Other bolts that are required to be done up to 20-30 ftlbs are so tight that I have to resort to my 3 foot breaker bar to get them loose! But enough of that. :twisted:

Plans have changed, again, and I now have a rebuilt 3.9l engine with hot heads, cam etc on the way. For the cost of rebuilding the 3.5, I can have a hot (about 220-230 hp) 3.9 with room to expand ( ie go nuts in the pursuit of horsepower!!!). It will be in Darwin some time this century (hopefully friday), and just needs the front end and clutch assembly swapped over. I can't wait, but the old engine has to come out, the engine bay needs a clean and paint and the wiring needs sorting. My Dad is coming to visit and he will be put to work when he arrives!

My finger is leaking red all over the keyboard again so I will post more when more is done tomorrow.

Cheers

GUY :p
 
Guy,
I keep a roll of 1 inch masking tape close by for those sacrifices. Sometimes the very demanding Sikorsky Gods demand same from me and I find that keeps me able to serve them with my sweat and the minimising of flow does not seem to irk them much.
I do fear the day that I have to appease the Rover Gods on time off having given my donation at work too, though......
 
Not a lot done today, just the painting of the back end and the rust holes in the doors.

I discovered why the car was a bit (sorry VERY) prone to wandering at the back end, see the photo! :roll:

I hope to have the whole back end refitted by tomorrow afternoon, and the car back on it's wheels so that I can rip out the old engine.

More soon

Cheers

GUY :p
 

Attachments

  • 100_1779.JPG
    100_1779.JPG
    31.5 KB · Views: 916
  • 100_1781.JPG
    100_1781.JPG
    49.7 KB · Views: 916
  • 100_1782.JPG
    100_1782.JPG
    57.3 KB · Views: 916
Actually I think they are meant to be like that. It's called a voided bush! Intended to promote quietness over precision. Fords are particularely prone to them over here.

Chris
 
Chris

The bush is actually able to rotate 180 degrees within the rubber bit! I can actually push the rubber almost all the way out with my fingers, really nasty. As you can see I am going for the blue polybush option, as it seems to work well on my other cars. I think that particular bush was on the point of voiding itself rather spectacularly, luck to catch it in time really. :shock:

Replaced the rear diff bushes today, but it turns out that I have torn a ligament in my hand which makes holding a spanner a little difficult (not to mention a cup of tea :LOL: ). This has slowed me down and I am hoping with the aid of a handfull of pain killers I will be able to get the car mostly done tomorrow. My wife (bless her) is also swinging spanners under my (Expert? Enthusiastic?) tuition. She wants the car done so that I can start on her Triumph :roll:

The other bad thing about the injury is that I can't type with two hands, it has taken me forever to get this far with one hand so I will post some more photos when I am done.

Cheers

GUY :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top