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One year of knackered rover ownership


Enri-3000

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About one year ago I finally decided it would be wise to purchase a fairly poor example of a rover p6 as a first car, here are my findings:E6F6E406-D064-4826-8FA4-430C36A280DC.thumb.jpeg.af168bec7afa8a934304f22fc33a7799.jpeg

After negotiating a deal on the car from a chap in Edinburgh I decided to drive the car back home to the Leeds area. In hindsight I probably should have held out for a better example, despite it being fairly non-rusty there was quite a bit wrong with the car such as ineffective brakes, rough running and various electrical gremlins.

After getting the car back home I performed the usual servicing jobs and fitted an electronic ignition which seemed to sort out much of the rough running. After putting two and two together with where all the brake fluid was disappearing I got a refurbished servo fitted which made an enormous difference. (I don’t have any photos of this earlier work because I am rubbish and forgot to take any).

After getting the car back up and running after it’s winter hibernation I enjoyed a brown trouser moment when my braking disappeared whilst simultaneously having a front brake start binding. After limping the car back home I found the culprit:D9A40432-E441-4AFF-88E9-3265BB6889AC.thumb.jpeg.2241edc50ecc1f4defe805430655098f.jpeg

I made some new brake lines and refurbished the front callipers which returned the stopping power to its former glory.784401AC-CCAB-4315-8CA5-6D13C69CBFA5.thumb.jpeg.ff78e55e74e1541c40df49ea645ed21e.jpeg5F9BF163-676D-4758-9728-C43A26C7D4C7.thumb.jpeg.4fced11f70b5b48cb503ab8c6ce4b28b.jpeg88A710FB-316B-44FA-9839-AABEF7F64291.thumb.jpeg.5b5b92f152cee14fded506f2ca1aff28.jpeg

More recently I had a minor win in fixing the bizarre vacuum operated wiper delay unit on the car. There was a small piece of sponge which was meant to push on a bit of rubber and act like a valve. The sponge had just dropped to bits and therefore part of a washing up sponge had to be sacrificed for the greater good.CCA3A447-F184-4664-8D86-104272024F87.thumb.jpeg.6e833bcac5a1b870ce0ed75159693a4e.jpeg

My most recent job has been tackling the problem of the car running rich. This required removing the carbs and inlet manifold together which took an incredibly long time as a previous owner had used copious amounts of silicone sealer between the head and the inlet manifold. After much hitting with a hammer the two parts finally came free and I was able to get the carburettors serviced. Whilst I was on here I also got the starter motor sent off to be sorted as it wasn’t working particularly well.6C22EDC3-E8E3-4605-B5DA-8BC4065CA53C.thumb.jpeg.8371ee86e33650bae5de0be96b746edd.jpeg

This bring me about up to date on the car. My next tasks are painting a few body panels in the hope of making it look half decent, get the gearbox out to tackle the gear linkage bushings, locate and sort an oil leak and maybe even change the big end bearings.

In summary it’s been a lot of fun but I really should have got the v8… I hope this has been interesting to someone, I will post updates of any progress I make going forward.

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Nice work! If I ever get the rest of my wipers working I might tap you up for the info on fixing the funny vacuum thingy.

People all seem to want the V8s, but I'm pretty sure the fours are better cars all-round, as the engine the platform was designed to take in the first place. I'd certainly not want anything any thirstier...

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I sometimes wonder what happened to my 2200TC. (SDW11N). I was the second owner, it was in really nice condition but I stupidly traded it in for a Porsche 928. I did see it for sale a few years later with a dealer in the Midlands and contemplated buying it back.  It doesn't appear to have been on the road since 2006.

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17 hours ago, barrett said:

Nice work! If I ever get the rest of my wipers working I might tap you up for the info on fixing the funny vacuum thingy.

People all seem to want the V8s, but I'm pretty sure the fours are better cars all-round, as the engine the platform was designed to take in the first place. I'd certainly not want anything any thirstier...

Other way round in my book.. The first one I drove, and the only one I owned, was a V8 and with that as a benchmark, the fours are just.. missing something, despite being good enough in their own right. 

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Thanks for the kind words everyone, I gave the car a good long drive out today and apart from a small brown trousers moment where I lost all throttle input on the middle of a roundabout the car seemed to be running well. After crawling the car into a position of safety I discovered a bracket that supported the throttle spindle had all but fallen off and needed nipping back up.

I’ve got some time off work so will hopefully get round to sanding some of the body panels and see how I go.

In regards to the wiper delay system I think you can diagnose if the problem is with the delay unit or a split vacuum hose by removing the vacuum hose from the delay unit and putting your finger over the hole. 8ADAD408-1237-4557-8C9D-70FF8A2F2279.thumb.jpeg.298f999123f1070495799350be8541c7.jpegIf you press in the little plunger thing and it springs back straight away then the sponge in the top of the unit has probably disintegrated. If it returns very slowly then the vacuum hose is probably split somewhere. Hope this helps! 

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