75 P6 V8 - Bye, this car

[Junkman]

Do they actually work?

 

Of course not.

 

Hence you have to disassemble the caliper.

 

 

To assemble the caliper, you build it all up, add the spring, duck for cover as it explodes all over the garage, hunt down all the parts, build it all up, add the spring, duck for cover as it explodes all over the garage, hunt down all the parts... It's like trying to build a complicated Lego Technics model on a trampoline.

[danthecapriman]

Of course not.

Yeah. I could see that being the case. They have that look!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

The speedometer suddenly stopped working. I know what's wrong with it. There's a 90 degree angle drive coming off the gearbox, and they have a reputation for seizing up and then internally destroying themselves. I wasn't relishing this job, because of the access. To remove it requires getting under the car and then reaching round to the top of the gearbox. No thanks. 

 

That said, I read on some forum that there's an access hatch on the driver's side gearbox tunnel. I pulled my driver's side carpet out and found no access hatch. Whatever. They must have deleted it on the late cars. But this afternoon a thought struck me out of nowhere. Could that old forum post have been written about a left hand drive car? I darted outside and ripped my passenger side carpet out. 

 

Ah, fiddlesticks. There was an access hole all along. I'm dumb. 

 

 

Removing the angle drive proved me right. It had seized and then the gearbox had snapped the little input shaft clean off. One of the reasons for doing this now was because a guy on eBay was selling NOS drives and today I noticed he was down to his last one, so I hit the BIN button on that. Although, at £49, I still hesitated momentarily!

 

 

Still, what price CLASS?

[Junkman]

So, with one big long term fault taken care of, it's time to turn my attention to another

I'm scared.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

With that new angle drive on the way, I decided it would be fun to smash the old one open. I found a page on the internet in which a guy successfully repaired his with a 4mm Allen key ground down to the same profile as a speedometer cable. 

 

So I drilled a hole in the drive gear, which took ages. Then I did a little bit of Allen grinding.

 

 

Then I welded the remains of the Allen key into the drive gear hole, which left me with this:

 

 

This was re-assembled and bolted into the car, resulting in this:

 

 

It's rock solid too, no wobbly needle! 

 

Ah well. I will probably install the new one when it arrives anyway. This one failed because the input shaft (actually a small piece of speedo cable) snapped, but it snapped resulting in no damage to any other part of the speedometer. The Allen key is definitely not the weakest link anymore, so if it jams again I'm worried it'll take out the drive gear inside the gearbox. 

[Junkman]

so if it jams again I'm worried it'll take out the drive gear inside the gearbox.

Which in turn will shrapnel the governor, which would subsequently disintegrate, thus interrupt the oil feed to the

tailshaft bearing, which then would wear out in seconds, letting all the oil escape onto the driveshaft, from which

it would be distributed all over the rear brakes, while at the same time the output shaft would seize, leading to

an overstress on the forward clutches, which would consequently burn out, the sudden impact leading to the

torque converter to grenade, which would severely imbalance the engine, thus at least one conrod may be tempted

to think 'an engine block wall is not an obstacle for me'.

 

I think I should post this on the Classic Rover Forum...

[somewhatfoolish]

For the sake of a nail a kingdom was lost! 

[Squire_Dawson]

Whenever I have to disconnect the drive cable, if it looks dry I remove it and hang it up in a 'U' shape and drop a little oil in either end to prevent seizure. Though a man of your technical ability probably thought of that.

[SiC]

Which in turn will shrapnel the governor, which would subsequently disintegrate, thus interrupt the oil feed to the

tailshaft bearing, which then would wear out in seconds, letting all the oil escape onto the driveshaft, from which

it would be distributed all over the rear brakes, while at the same time the output shaft would seize, leading to

an overstress on the forward clutches, which would consequently burn out, the sudden impact leading to the

torque converter to grenade, which would severely imbalance the engine, thus at least one conrod may be tempted

to think 'an engine block wall is not an obstacle for me'.

 

I think I should post this on the Classic Rover Forum...

 

This sounds like from a man who has real world experience of such things.

[Guest Hooli]

Which in turn will shrapnel the governor, which would subsequently disintegrate, thus interrupt the oil feed to the

tailshaft bearing, which then would wear out in seconds, letting all the oil escape onto the driveshaft, from which

it would be distributed all over the rear brakes, while at the same time the output shaft would seize, leading to

an overstress on the forward clutches, which would consequently burn out, the sudden impact leading to the

torque converter to grenade, which would severely imbalance the engine, thus at least one conrod may be tempted

to think 'an engine block wall is not an obstacle for me'.

 

I think I should post this on the Classic Rover Forum...

 

You've done this before haven't you?

[Junkman]

No, I replaced the entire gearbox, because TEH FEARZ.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

V8 wheel next to a 2000 wheel. I keep one of the skinny 2000 wheels as a spacesaver spare. 

 

Rover P6 Wheel Comparison by Conrad Conelrad, on Flickr

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Next problem: as humid as a rainforest inside. Now, while the car's not entirely watertight, I have to take some of the blame for this one. A couple of weeks ago I was sitting at home during a furious rainstorm, and as the water lashed the house I remember thinking "I'm glad I'm not outside in this!"

 

The next morning I discovered I had left my passenger window wound down. The car was swampy. I tried to dry it out naturally, but in the freezing weather it just wasn't happening. Driving was miserable too - the car couldn't demist and there was enough water condensing on the windows to make them opaque. 

 

Enter the dehumidifier:

 

(about 5p an hour, if you're wondering)

 

Over three days it extracted precisely 500ml of water, which didn't feel like a lot. But the car was transformed. I can't even explain how much nicer the cabin is now. It doesn't mist so easily and I no longer feel like I need a Malaria vaccination before getting in. 

 

 

Oh, and on Saturday it kept stalling and wouldn't accelerate. But this seems to have fixed itself. Then on Monday the electrics went haywire on the motorway, putting masses of voltage through everything, causing the wipers go absolutely hyper (even when switched off) and making my radio go pop. But then they went back to normal too. 

 

Except my Motorola LW/MW pushbutton radio, which, like I said, has gone pop. With no medium wave or long wave, how on earth am I going to listen to

 

 

?

[Guest Hooli]

That last pic looks like a still from lock stock.

[LC Torana]

Then on Monday the electrics went haywire on the motorway, putting masses of voltage through everything, causing the wipers go absolutely hyper (even when switched off) and making my radio go pop. But then they went back to normal too.

 

Snap.  I have this exact problem too.  But only after driving for two hours or more.  Must get a round tuit one of these days.  Amazing how bright the high-beams get with unregulated voltage.

[SiC]

Question.

 

Why do some P6s have spare tyres attached to their boot lid? Did Rover do this as a factory option (or standard?) back in the day, or a aftermarket addition?

 

Finally, why? Fashion or is there nowhere else to practically store a spare tyre?

 

To me it looks a bit out of place, but would happily be enlightened.

[Clanger]

The boot mounted spare was an option and can be fitted to all P6s.  Usually the full size spare lives in the boot, but for continental touring one could mount the spare on the boot lid, thus freeing up vital space for extra champagne, cigars and golf clubs.

 

http://roverp6.blogspot.com/2010/01/fitting-boot-mount-spare-continental.html

[Junkman]

It was called the 'Touring Package'.

It was an optional extra that comprised the following:

 

- Reinforced bootlid with aperture to install the spare wheel mounting kit

- Boot lid grab handle - in fact a Series 1 door handle

- Prop rod to keep the bootlid open when the spare wheel is attached to it

- Mounting kit for the spare wheel onto the bootlid

- Chromed diecast blanking plate with Rover emblem to be installed when the spare wheel was not mounted to the bootlid

 

Not a single Rover P6 V8 driver ever carried golf clubs.

He still had sex instead.

[Royale80]

I had the boot mounted spare on my L reg 3500S-another car I should have kept. Would light up the back tyres in second in the dry.

 

Back pads were easy to change-I just dropped the drive shafts.

 

Did have brake failure once on it-had to change the servo and master cylinder.

 

Steve

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Not only are they inboard disc brakes, they are also the most bonkers inboard disc brakes of all evah.

Rube Goldberg would have been delighted.

 

 

Celine DeDion did a song about P6 brake and suspension maintenance.

 

"Think twice".

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Question.

 

Why do some P6s have spare tyres attached to their boot lid? Did Rover do this as a factory option (or standard?) back in the day, or a aftermarket addition?

 

Finally, why? 

 

 

Because the owner wears corduroys.

 

Having driven both, I have to say I preferred the Triumph 2000 to these although no V8. The Mark 1 is a really pretty car with a lovely interior and that sweet old straight six. I think they were pretty advanced for the day without being over complex.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Celine DeDion did a song about P6 brake and suspension maintenance.

 

"Think twice".

 

 

P6 brake and suspension maintenance also inspired the film "Titanic" 

[Uncle Jimmy]

Respect due; the Rover P6 seems like it was designed by Douglas Bader, Alan Turing and the Bloke Donald Plesance played in The Great Escape. I'm glad I own a Swede.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

The 2000's (Triumph and Rover) were a massive leap forward and inspired cars like the big 6 cyl BMW's etc. They made cars like the Zodiac and big Austins/Wolseleleley's obsolete. 

[Junkman]

Having driven both, I have to say I preferred the Triumph 2000 to these

 

 

Ignore user button pressing finger hovering...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

 

 

I must have botched the servo rebuild. So I poked a stick inside, but it came back dry. Okay... let's try something more technological. Let's give my brand new servo a colonoscopy.

 

 

There is no brake fluid in there. It's bone dry, as it should be. Upon finding the servo borders closed, my migratory brake fluid hasn't stopped leaking, it's gone somewhere else instead.

 

 

I'm done. That's enough, I'm done. I'll fix some of the more egregious issues because there's no point trying to sell a super-broken car in the last half of December, but I'm done with it. Done. I don't have the energy, I don't have the money, and worst of all I don't even have the will anymore. 

[Skizzer]

Sympathy. They dialled down the tech in the SD1 for a reason, I think.

 

[Runs and hides from Junkman]

[phil_lihp]

Is it not just air settling out of the system?  I had this in the Hiace (yes, I know, practically the same vehicle).  The level dropped significantly in the reservoir over a couple of weeks following new brake lines being fitted, I noticed something was up when the pedal went almost to the floor.  I feared a leak but having topped it back up to the maximum marker several weeks ago, it's not lost a drop since.

[Squire_Dawson]

Is it being sucked into the engine perhaps?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

rvr-why1.jpg

 

 

I must have botched the servo rebuild. So I poked a stick inside, but it came back dry. Okay... let's try something more technological. Let's give my brand new servo a colonoscopy.

 

rvr-why2.jpg

 

There is no brake fluid in there. It's bone dry, as it should be. Upon finding the servo borders closed, my migratory brake fluid hasn't stopped leaking, it's gone somewhere else instead.

 

 

I'm done. That's enough, I'm done. I'll fix some of the more egregious issues because there's no point trying to sell a super-broken car in the last half of December, but I'm done with it. Done. I don't have the energy, I don't have the money, and worst of all I don't even have the will anymore. 

 

 

#oldbritishcrap

 

 

I genuinely do not believe cars like the P6 are worth the aggro.