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11 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

What do the brakes need?

Front brakes are what need attention (thankfully!). You're absolutely right, the rears are inboard.

Front flexi's
New front calipers (knackered seals - could rebuild, but if you factor in new pistons, the cost difference isn't that big)
Possibly new front discs (as I'm hoping it's a warped disc causing the slight braking wobble)
And associated hardware - slider pins, pad fitting kit etc.

It shouln't* be a particularly taxing job, I just really need to find time to do it. At some point soon I'll swap the cars over and bring it down here, at which point your offer would be very much appreciated, perhaps of an evening or two?

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7 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Front brakes are what need attention (thankfully!). You're absolutely right, the rears are inboard.

Front flexi's
New front calipers (knackered seals - could rebuild, but if you factor in new pistons, the cost difference isn't that big)
Possibly new front discs (as I'm hoping it's a warped disc causing the slight braking wobble)
And associated hardware - slider pins, pad fitting kit etc.

It shouln't* be a particularly taxing job, I just really need to find time to do it. At some point soon I'll swap the cars over and bring it down here, at which point your offer would be very much appreciated, perhaps of an evening or two?

My work pattern is Tuesday-saturday so I should be around most Mondays. I don’t have a hose clamp or much in the way of imperial spanners/sockets but I do have a brake bleeder, copper grease and silicone calliper slider lube.

If you have new callipers, flexis, pads and discs it shouldn’t be too difficult a job!

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44 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

Also if you’re worried about becoming immobile it may work out easier if I come up to you. I’m happy either way

Unfortunately I don't really have space here to do anything without getting in other people's way - I just have a parking space, not a driveway as such. 

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On 5/5/2021 at 6:14 PM, Crackers said:

 I'm probably going to whack polybushes all over it as it should be easier and the price difference is negligible. 

Do not fit polybushes.  They will firm the handling  but will also creak and squeek like a mother Hubbard. They tend to make the ride a bit crap too due to the lack of give that was engineered into the originals.  ( the lack of give can also put extra stress on the rest of the suspension set up, some people have experienced  suspension mounting braket failures  after fitting  polybushes)   OE spec new  manucfactured ones are the best (wins, mgbd parts or, winstanleys should have them)  I had a set  I intended to fit and got as far as putting them on the front, for all of a week before I fitted OE rubbers.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Smol update. 

Brought the P6 home this evening in preparation for the Amberley AS gathering this weekend as the forecast for the coming days is good, and also the Road Meets Rail event at the Bluebell Railway on Sunday. 

Despite multiple weeks parked up it started eagerly and settled down to a smooth idle very quickly. 

In a strange case of Britishness it has decided it no longer wants to have a wobble under braking, it now pulls up smoothly and without vibration unless you really leather the brakes. Weird. 

There's also a classic car breakfast club in 2 weekends time at Goodwood which I've entered the P6 for, so hopefully they accept it. 

Following that it's going to get the front end work done by a garage as the quotes I've had have not been as eye watering as I thought they might. 

Anyway, have a picture. Still shiny. 

IMG_20210714_203710_961.thumb.jpg.fc989636a5e7651bb7c1f245ccdf1897.jpg

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  • Crackers changed the title to Operation BROWN CAR (Rover P6 3500S): Daily(ish) Driving
1 minute ago, High Jetter said:

Brilliant, quite a big update. Je t'aime in my head, for the car, obs

That's just because of my talent* for using a vast number of words to describe something very tiny. 

2 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

Hey! I did rail maintenance with them last summer. Bonfires were fantastic.

Nice! I do like it down there. A very pretty railway and always an enjoyable day out. A few of my mates are regular volunteers there.

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13 minutes ago, Crackers said:

In a strange case of Britishness it has decided it no longer wants to have a wobble under braking, it now pulls up smoothly and without vibration unless you really leather the brakes. Weird. 

Brake pad build up on the disc from sitting with the pads slightly against them? My MGB does that. A good spirited drive usually cleans the discs off. 

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2 minutes ago, SiC said:

Brake pad build up on the disc from sitting with the pads slightly against them? My MGB does that. A good spirited drive usually cleans the discs off. 

Yeah I was wondering that. Perhaps the slightly sticky brake caliper is causing one of the pads to sit slightly on the disc depending what angle the wheel is at when parked up. Interesting thought - I should whip the front wheels off and check the runout on the discs at some point. 

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22 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

One day, probably some time after the year 2050, the Bluebell might be able to reconstruct the line to Ardingly. Then Horsted Keynes will be a proper junction station.

2050? Optimistic. I have walked most of the Ardingly branch and it's, erm... Well... Yes... 

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Just ordered one of those Gliptone leather conditioner sets, to have a go at the seats as the leather is a bit* careworn.

Also because I am a twat I also ordered some "wax pull-up reviver" thinking it sounds like a useful thing to pull the oils in the leather up to the surface.
Only £7.50 later did I actually read the product description to fine that "wax pull-up" is actually a type of leather, not a method of restoration.

Eejit.

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The steering wheel centre cap plopped out and landed in my lap on the way home from work, I think it had got a bit warm and whatever goop the previous owner had used to hold it in had returned to a liquid state and given up. 

I've fixed* this with two layers of gaffer tape around the inner ring of the disc which should add enough to the diameter to act like an o-ring to hold it in place. 

IMG_20210716_163326.thumb.jpg.529b461b04521ce24077de310bdb0c9f.jpg

*because I'm too cheap to spend £8 on a new centre cap of course

 

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Long post incoming. So as mentioned in the News 24 thread, the dreaded clutch judder resurfaced yesterday after a blast up the A27. This afternoon I wedged myself under the car for a look around, primarily to see if there was anything obviously wrong with the hydraulics and also to see where the various oily drips on the floor were coming from.

It's a bit of a bitch to see underneath this car without it up in the air, so quite a lot of finger poking and camera fiddling was required.

First let's have a gander at the tiny coolant leak that drips off the front valance - this is literally a single drip a day at most, but it looks bad as it's visible right under the nose of the car, and will eventually rot the valance.
I've tweaked both rad hose clips but they were tight AF and didn't go any further. Cleaned off the trail of dried coolant on top of the valance, and will reassess later - I stuck the camera in the tiny gap and the only hint I can see of a potential leak is this:

image.thumb.png.93bc41504cbf99343a8a5760e6067951.png

Top left of that photo, bit of white chalky stuff inside the lowest row of radiator elements. Will be a bugger if that's the leak, as that means the rad needs removing, and this rad was only put in a couple of years ago.

Next thing was to mop up some oil from various locations. First one was the front crossmember - looks like there's a small drip from the front of the engine which is running down and dripping off the crossmember. Hopefully this isn't the sump bolts as there's literally no access whatsoever to tighten them as far I can see. Will keep driving it and assess again later.

Next up, why is there oil dripping off the bottom of the starter motor (visible just below the wiring in the pic below)? Yeah, I'm not sure either. Possibly running off the back/side of the sump and dropping down but hard to tell without the car in the air.

Clutch wise: The slave cylinder looks virtually new, which it should be as it went in a couple of years ago with the LT77 conversion. Nothing appears to be leaking (although some engine oil had splashed over it, I've wiped it off and will look again in a few days) however the hydraulic line from the master to slave is a clear pipe with a last bit of copper whacked on the end. I don't like this at all and have a feeling this could be contributing to the judder, and here's why.
The slave cylinder and hydraulic line runs within a few inches of the exhaust downpipe.

image.thumb.png.d12397b17227cc90dd4cdfda6b562843.png

That's the downpipe, out of focus at the bottom of the photo. Now, a penny for your thoughts on this: The judder only seems to come in after either a motorway blast (where the engine's revving harder and getting the exhausts bloody hot), or if the car is switched off once hot, left to sit for a while (30 mins to a few hours, let's say) which means there's no airflow over the exhausts. Could it be that the radiant heat is permeating into that horrible clear hose and boiling the fluid, thus causing the slave cylinder to become ineffective, therefore causing the pronounced clutch judder when pulling away from standstill?

I'm tempted to swap in a length of racey braided hose, give the system a serious bleeding, and see if anything changes. Failing that, it can only be a failed slave (fair enough, easy job) or a crapped out clutch (in which case I'll sit in the corner and cry instead).

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As a test, go for a spirited drive/motorway to get it hot and a problem. Then spray water around there and go for a drive to see if the problem goes?

If the fluid has boiled off then the fluid in there is no good anyway. Short term fix might be to replace the fluid, which will bleed the system too if it has boiled over. 

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On 7/16/2021 at 4:35 PM, Crackers said:

The steering wheel centre cap plopped out and landed in my lap on the way home from work, I think it had got a bit warm and whatever goop the previous owner had used to hold it in had returned to a liquid state and given up. 

I've fixed* this with two layers of gaffer tape around the inner ring of the disc which should add enough to the diameter to act like an o-ring to hold it in place. 

IMG_20210716_163326.thumb.jpg.529b461b04521ce24077de310bdb0c9f.jpg

*because I'm too cheap to spend £8 on a new centre cap of course

 

True Autoshite style 👍11/10

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If it is boiling off, another potential solution could be to have a high temperature brake fluid. Not sure if this is high enough still, but may just be enough to get away with it, especially with an exhaust wrap around that area. 

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/engine-oils-and-fluids/brake-clutch-fluid/millers-oils-racing-brake-fluid-300-plus---500ml-417830.html

Just may require you change the clutch fluid more often than you usually would too. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

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