project Maestro, please.

[vulgalour]

It seems the threaded/not threaded bar wasn't a consistent choice throughout Maestro production having spoken to a few owners with the same engine/box set up.  The fact that five speed and four speed boxes have an identical looking but completely different fitting bar is very BL too.

 

@2110 if you do use that gear linkage it's from a car that did 40,000ish miles so it should be pretty good.  I was hoping to get access to a ramp to do it since I'm pretty sure the easiest way is to unscrew the gearknob and drop the lot out from under the car in one go.  That said, a lot of the slop is probably just in the worn out connecting rods on the car, it all adds up when each part is slightly worn out.  It is a weird rubbery-notchy-vague change on this car too, and except for the slightly baggier than usual feel, every manual Maestro I've driven has been like it.

[Noel Tidybeard]

3 hours ago, vulgalour said:

It is a weird rubbery-notchy-vague change on this car too, and except for the slightly baggier than usual feel, every manual Maestro I've driven has been like it.

ahh you've never driven an mg efi or an O/S-series montego then with the honda cogbox then

[EyesWeldedShut]

4 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

ahh you've never driven an mg efi or an O/S-series montego then with the honda cogbox then

Company car back in the day. Niiiice - bit different to the SD1 2600S that it was being tested as a replacement for  

p.s. had to nick that image from the owner's club site - there's not a lot out there about those. I guess pre-history as it was never on TikTok

[Noel Tidybeard]

austin rover may* have put the 2.0efi lump in some 1.3 bASe maestros

[grogee]

16 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

austin rover may* have put the 2.0efi lump in some 1.3 bASe maestros

This sounds plausible. I once learned of a Jaguar X351 fitted with the 2.2 PSA diesel, for testing purposes only. 

Ironically I think they could have got away with it: the chauffeur market clientele neither knows nor cares what's under the bonnet. 

[vulgalour]

On 14/11/2023 at 01:23, Noel Tidybeard said:

ahh you've never driven an mg efi or an O/S-series montego then with the honda cogbox then

I might have driven an S series Montego, whatever was in @Captain Slow's blue one... or did I drive that car?  I can't remember, it would have been a long time ago if I did.  Only S series Maestro I've driven was @skattrd's white auto which while a super car otherwise definitely put me off the idea of owning an auto Maestro the gear change in it was weirdly brutal.

[EyesWeldedShut]

21 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

austin rover may* have put the 2.0efi lump in some 1.3 bASe maestros

The Maestro's we had for trial were MG types (red seat belts, fancy pants alloys etc etc) but the Montegos that were supplied had steel wheels, normal seatbelts and so on. Neither felt as solid (stolid?) as the Old Dependables - SD1/P6/Triumph 2500 - but they were a heck of a lot faster :-).

Also pretty much the first manual transmission cars of that class that were sent out - most stuff bigger than a Metro was a badermatic (even Cavalier 1300)

[EyesWeldedShut]

Seeing as there Maestro lickers on this thread - Lazy Spot at lunchtime today was a base(ish) looking Maestro in a kind of matt green shade - H suffix I think - does anybody recall seeing that on Autoshite recently (maybe eBay tat thread) - I cannot find mention tho'

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Seeing as there Maestro lickers on this thread - Lazy Spot at lunchtime today was a base(ish) looking Maestro in a kind of matt green shade - H suffix I think - does anybody recall seeing that on Autoshite recently (maybe eBay tat thread) - I cannot find mention tho'

No pic or reg? Thought ex plod were eagle eyed

[EyesWeldedShut]

10 hours ago, High Jetter said:

No pic or reg? Thought ex plod were eagle eyed

That was then, this is now

But you did jog the brain cells and I recalled that I have one of those there modern camera dashcams fitted. Turns out I'd left it set to the trailer hook up camera (oops) so this is all you get :

Maestro, lady driver in matching top. Youngish. Blonde. Sunroof. H reg.
I'm bugged 'cos I've seen the car someplace recently on t'interweb .......

[JMotor]

51 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

That was then, this is now

But you did jog the brain cells and I recalled that I have one of those there modern camera dashcams fitted. Turns out I'd left it set to the trailer hook up camera (oops) so this is all you get :

Maestro, lady driver in matching top. Youngish. Blonde. Sunroof. H reg.
I'm bugged 'cos I've seen the car someplace recently on t'interweb .......

Is that @Stinkwheel's other half's car?

Looks bloody similar if it is.

[Stinkwheel]

1 hour ago, JMotor said:

Is that @Stinkwheel's other half's car?

Looks bloody similar if it is.

Id say that is 100% the other half s car. She will be very happy with you stating her as young-ish but she isnt exactly blonde. More light brown and a little distinguished grey these days, im sure she wont mind me saying that.  Couple of identifying features like the yellow door handle and bottom half of doors painted dark grey.

Im about to do a hell of a lot of work on it this weekend, new rear stub axles, wheel bearings, rear brakes, handbrake cables etc.

Its a tough old thing,  nearly 300, 000 miles. And its a DLX so 2 litre perkins diesel misery*

[grogee]

2 hours ago, Stinkwheel said:

rear brakes

Have you got new slave cylinders to go on? If needed they seem to be relatively plentiful on the bay for not much £. 

From memory the standard hex headed bolt that holds the cylinder to backplate is a bit obscured so I changed mine to stainless Allen headed bolts. 

Next spring I plan to remove the rear beam entirely for a media blast then repaint and probably new bushes too. 

[Stinkwheel]

2 minutes ago, grogee said:

Have you got new slave cylinders to go on? If needed they seem to be relatively plentiful on the bay for not much £. 

From memory the standard hex headed bolt that holds the cylinder to backplate is a bit obscured so I changed mine to stainless Allen headed bolts. 

Next spring I plan to remove the rear beam entirely for a media blast then repaint and probably new bushes too. 

Actually i have, I decided to have all the parts possibly required in stock/to hand as it were to tackle this. Purely because some parts seem to be so damn difficult to locate whereas other are really plentiful.

Rear wheel bearings for non van seem to be horribly rare now and very expensive in some cases. I got new old stock kits for about 40 quid each but new SKF kits come in at 140 each would you believe!!!

I was on the look out for a couple of spare rear drums but they are not totally required so i'll leave the 80 quid each expense for now i think.

[grogee]

18 hours ago, Stinkwheel said:

some parts seem to be so damn difficult to locate whereas other are really plentiful

Yeah. Welcome to Maestro ownership! A lot of parts are NLA including most body/repair panels. But sometimes there's a glut of stock in various mechanical parts. At the moment the bay is listing a few outer CV joints, I stocked up with a pair for £20. I have hoarded a load more spares simply because you've got to grab them when they're available. 

I've never come across a car needing a brake drum, it should be fine especially if you file off any 'lip' on the inside edge. 

Good luck with the refurb, from memory it is a relatively painless job. Make sure the handbrake cable is the correct length - I put a slightly longer one on RHS (possibly van spec?) and the wheel rim cut through it... oops. 

[MJK 24]

On 15/11/2023 at 13:57, grogee said:

This sounds plausible. I once learned of a Jaguar X351 fitted with the 2.2 PSA diesel, for testing purposes only. 

Ironically I think they could have got away with it: the chauffeur market clientele neither knows nor cares what's under the bonnet. 

The Audi A8 has been available with the four pot 2.0 TDI on the continent for over a decade.

We got the Mercedes S Class in the UK with the 2.1 four pot diesel for a while, too.

[vulgalour]

Let's go back to that time I did the valve adjustment on the Maestro, got Covid, and then decided to redo the valve adjustment properly in the snow while I was recovering.  Fun times.

 

 

[Stinkwheel]

On the Maestro front, as some of you may have seen elesewhere, the green diesel had advisories on the MOT for 'lower suspension arm corroded but not unduly weakened' or similar wording.

These seem to be somewhat impossible to find, even rimmers dont list/have them.

Can anyone point me towards even a used pair that can be refurbished maybe? All leads appreciated.

[grogee]

9 hours ago, Stinkwheel said:

On the Maestro front, as some of you may have seen elesewhere, the green diesel had advisories on the MOT for 'lower suspension arm corroded but not unduly weakened' or similar wording.

These seem to be somewhat impossible to find, even rimmers dont list/have them.

Can anyone point me towards even a used pair that can be refurbished maybe? All leads appreciated.

Yep NLA and I haven't seen any on the bay despite regular scouring. You could try asking here: https://maestro.org.uk/ 

It's a bit of a weird forum but sometimes comes up trumps. 

[High Jetter]

15 hours ago, Stinkwheel said:

On the Maestro front, as some of you may have seen elesewhere, the green diesel had advisories on the MOT for 'lower suspension arm corroded but not unduly weakened' or similar wording.

These seem to be somewhat impossible to find, even rimmers dont list/have them.

Can anyone point me towards even a used pair that can be refurbished maybe? All leads appreciated.

Refurb what you have? Obs, less convenient.

[Stinkwheel]

12 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Refurb what you have? Obs, less convenient.

That’s was the next option to be fair, as you say, would have been nice to have a spare set to either refurb or put on whilst returning, trying to find them appears to be actually impossible 

[SilverMachine]

seems odd that there unobtainium, are they not shared with any other austin rover? obviously the montego, but what about the 200 series rovers some of them still had 8v engines?

[grogee]

On 24/11/2023 at 08:20, Stinkwheel said:

On the Maestro front, as some of you may have seen elesewhere, the green diesel had advisories on the MOT for 'lower suspension arm corroded but not unduly weakened' or similar wording.

These seem to be somewhat impossible to find, even rimmers dont list/have them.

Can anyone point me towards even a used pair that can be refurbished maybe? All leads appreciated.

Found one... Not cheap, and also in Spain. I have bought stuff from the seller before, they are polite and efficient plus stuff didn't get stuck in customs but presumably that's a lottery. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256308895291?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Zy7gjjvpR06&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=2Z40wC2iSsq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

AFAIK Maestro and Montego front (and rear) suspension is identical aside from spring / shock rates, someone may be along shortly to correct me though. 

[Stinkwheel]

On 25/11/2023 at 15:10, grogee said:

Found one... Not cheap, and also in Spain. I have bought stuff from the seller before, they are polite and efficient plus stuff didn't get stuck in customs but presumably that's a lottery. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256308895291?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Zy7gjjvpR06&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=2Z40wC2iSsq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

AFAIK Maestro and Montego front (and rear) suspension is identical aside from spring / shock rates, someone may be along shortly to correct me though. 

Oh blimey, thought that Brit cars would get me away from sourcing stuff from abroad. It seems not. A serious look at rest of car is needed before i decide to start importing stuff

[Stinkwheel]

On 25/11/2023 at 12:02, SilverMachine said:

seems odd that there unobtainium, are they not shared with any other austin rover? obviously the montego, but what about the 200 series rovers some of them still had 8v engines?

not that i can see, Maestro/Montego seem to be the same, but nothing else. I think the extra long and then re-started production run has used up all the stock of spares (well thats my theory anyway)

[SilverMachine]

On 29/11/2023 at 08:12, Stinkwheel said:

not that i can see, Maestro/Montego seem to be the same, but nothing else. I think the extra long and then re-started production run has used up all the stock of spares (well thats my theory anyway)

should that not mean they made more spares wherever else outside the uk they were produced?

[JMotor]

I agree with @Stinkwheel

Only as the Rodacar Maestros were CKD's from Rover.  Then Parkway/Apple using up more stuff to convert LHD Maestros to RHD. 

This lot bought up the remaining stock from the club (who originally bought the stock from Parkway/T.E.T)https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/theminipartsshop?_pgn=2. Might be worth a look for the odd part?

I'd also give the arms a check. They look to be quite thick steel, quick wire brush and paint might see them right?

I'm also trying to get another Maestro for spares. Heard nothing back yet.

[SilverMachine]

theres always the option of having an engineering company make some nice new ones out of tubes, they could use the old ones to make a jig so they would work correctly! theres companies in the us that do kits to replace pressed suspension arms with tubular ones so why shouldnt there be here?

[vulgalour]

... and even if you do get the unit cost down, you've then got the challenge of getting any amount of money out of the Yorkshire-style grip of your average Maestro owner.

[Rocket88]

You do see a lot of this era of Rover still in ( of all places) northern France. 
Might be worth a trawl through Le Bon Coinne