Rover 827 update.... Front suspension fiddling, pattern part phun!!

[Marina door handles]

33 minutes ago, mercedade said:

I've actually got two filler necks - I should probably let one of them go - although is it the breather that's knackered on yours, or the actual neck? I need to see what's up with my two as they're both spares. Let me work out a price, as I'd like to see yours stay on the road.

The issue is mostly that I made the neck/breather out of  a Subaru neck (the original was rusted beyond repair with massive holes in it), I think my creative urge sover took my actual fabricating skills! I don't think its really breathing properly because filling it is virtually impossible at  a petrol station and it burps fuel if you get to eager filling from a fuel can. 

Ideally I just need a filler neck in solid condition/breather that does the job properly, doesn't need to be show winning in appearance! 

If you are willing to let one go I am happy to hand over cold hard cash for it or possibly swap it for a knackered very broken Reliant Scimitar (only needs a new rear axle and an engine rebuild!).

 

 

[mercedade]

Btw. did you manage to access the Rover docs on dropbox @Marina door handles?

[Marina door handles]

56 minutes ago, mercedade said:

Btw. did you manage to access the Rover docs on dropbox @Marina door handles?

Err no, I wasn't aware of this? 

[mercedade]

14 hours ago, mercedade said:

Right @Marina door handles, I think I've done Dropbox correctly. But let me know if you can't see these docs.

I've got a few more kicking around, including the Rave system.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/cw04zcm5chvtapmb3h529/ACbGXqdhDJAFHrccAjoWH9k?rlkey=ezzkvrdt3cai905kh79tcedn2&st=8k3v6yh1&dl=0

 

Here @Marina door handles

[Marina door handles]

Thanks!

[Marina door handles]

For 827 and possibly Honda Legend 2.7 V6 owners out there here are your LED blinks for the PGM-FI system...

 

 

 

 

[Marina door handles]

I have been getting very bored of filling the Rover from fuel cans, so I decided that maybe I could modify the current fuel filler to make it work properly. 

My suspicion is a breather issue, I think my fabrication may have been a bit clumsy causing restrictions. So I have pulled it off the car and have made a change....

That right angle bend seems like an obvious issue...

So I chopped it out and replaced it with a bit of bendy rubber...

Just ignore the mystery toothbrush, that is for smoothing my eye brows....

Since then, I have cleaned and painted it and re sealed any welding pin holes with chemical metal.

I just need to put it back on the car and test it......

 

[Marina door handles]

This has progressed some what, I offered it back up to the car and realised that when you attach the main hose to the filler neck the  positioning flattens out what should be a curve in the hose. This may also be a filling issue so I  decided to get radical.

Not the happiest shape...

Its flatter than it looks in the picture..

I chopped the end of the filler off, splayed out the remaining end and the played around with re positioning the end so the hose would curve properly. 

Once I was happy with the position I tacked and tested the fitment.

Yes it looks horrible!

Then welded up the re positioned end.....

I then smothered it in chemical metal to fill the pin holes and re fitted it to the car.

Today I actually tested it at an actual petrol station. I couldn't remember the last time I had put some fuel in (the gauge is still useless) so on the way back from work I ducked into a petrol station and decided to actually try putting fuel in like a normal person...

Well.... It actually worked, mostly, the fuel went in, it didn't click off like it did previously which is great. What wasn't so good was a small puddle it left behind after taking most of thirty litres of Super....

So all I need to do now is find the leak, oh and fix the fuel gauge but this is definitely heading in the right direction!  

[Marina door handles]

After failing to drive the Longship to Rustival due to the fuel leak. I rolled my sleeves up and got back on with fixing the Rover again.

I had already traced the leak the afternoon before Rustival but  my attempts to fix it in situ failed, it was my freshly re jigged neck that was piddling petrol through some weld pin holes. I ended up removing the filler neck to carry out the repair. I cleaned off the chemical metal that I had applied and then re sealed the filler neck with Isopon fuel tank sealer. This time the fix succeeded. 

So with this in mind I felt it was time for a mini road trip so today we took the 800 all the way from Audlem in Cheshire to........ Loton park which is just outside of Shrewsbury, a whopping 40 whole miles!  

Had a jolly time watching VSCC hill climbing...

Even the spectator car park was pretty interesting.

Also spotted some unexpected antler wearing critters in the parking area....

It wasn't all good, because I forgot the Rover sits pretty low compared to my normal dailys I managed to knock the front splitter/spoiler thing off on a divet in the parking area.  I had also forgotten my cable ties but thankfully Mrs MDH had some yarn on her (actual hand spun, that she had spun by err you know hand) and rescued the situation with some cunning knots......

Yep she cheated by turning the car upside down...

looking a bit deeper it appears that this part has seen some action and this was possibly the final straw, so I shall have to either remove it or try and repair and secure it better than it had been done previously.

Other technical issues I still need to sort are the fuel gauge, the issue is it some times works but quite often it likes to pretend the tank is empty and its quite odd!

I believe it needs a new O2 sensor or two.

Finally and possibly most importantly new dampers are high on the list. I have managed to source some fronts but rears (which are handed) are proving trickier..

Thats all for now......

 

 

[Marina door handles]

New damper time (yep time to stop playing with the Jag for the mo) and re focus on the Viking... 

The front suspension bottoms out and it feels like the damping has pretty much gone.. The two issues may not be related but you have to start some were, so first of all get the car airbourne and get the spring and dampers out..

Ta da...

It all looks a bit grizzly but I think the springs are okay. Having said that it wasn't all plain sailing, the passenger side one had a stuck nut on the top mount. I ordered a top mount (found 2 NOS units for sale on Ebay, none any were else). Good job I did as I couldn't get the nut off the top mount without some unintended butchery! 

Next issue my spring compressors just will not fit between the tight coils...

Errr, oh well, I definitely wont be finishing the job this weekend, I will have to take these into work and see if they have a spring compressor that will be fit with tight coils...

I am rather keen to get this old bus back on the road...

 

[Marina door handles]

Probably about time this was updated...

I tried to sort the suspension struts at work but it turns out that someone has thrown out the correct size spring compressors.... So off to ebay I went and I purchased something that looked right for not too many pennies...

The Vevor (yes I have never heard of them either) spring compressor kit arrived and found to be a good fit, its a nice substantial thing so I put it to work but just to make things a little safer and not put my life totally in the hands of a mystery Chinese made tool I went full belt and braces...

Once I had the spring compressed I added one of my old ones across the top (not possible before they were compressed).

This worked well so I put the struts back in the car and then found the battery was a bit dead.

XK8 to the rescue!  Next thing to sort, I am replacing the front anti roll bar links but one of the bolts connecting it to the arms snapped. The car is now over the pit for access to the underneath so I can weld a nut and try and wind it out.....

That should be Sunday's job......

 

[Marina door handles]

Well this did not go to plan....

I did get the car over the pit and attempted to weld a nut onto the remains of the broken bolt, this just did not work. So I decided that for access the best cause of action was to remove the arm and work on it,  on the bench.

 

So I got busy stripped out the lower, arm and got it on the bench. I tried to weld a nut on again but it was not budging, so I attempted to drill it out with a reverse drill bit but again it was properly seized in so finally I decided to drill it out completely and order a thread repair/helicoil kit. 

On Wednesday I then realised I needed access over the pit, so I had a bit of a deadline to shift the Rover as I was scheduled to go and see Smith and Sniff live in Derby, so I raced around chucking the suspension back together, couldn't find the ball joint nut but figured its under tension, I will be moving the car at walking pace. What could possibly go wrong....

Well it was fine reversing off the pit, got on to the road, started turning the car around and crunch! The nose dropped and the passenger wheel gained some very trendy camber, much lowness and I lost drive, Oh shit!

I rushed around in a panic, found that if I got the big jack under the rear jacking point I could get the car just high enough to get a small jack under one of the front ones.

I got the car off the ground, removed the wheel and found that not only had the bottom ball joint popped out but the drive shaft was hanging out of the gearbox and the gaiter on the inner joint was ripped through. After much flailing around I realised that I needed to detach the front shock/spring tower to drop the bottom arm low enough to get the drive shaft popped back in and the ball joint back in the hole.... All this whilst various vehicles squeezed past (I live on a narrow lane this was less than ideal).

I managed to find a suitable nut to secure the ball joint this time around and eventually nursed the car back onto the drive. It was all a bit too stressful to take pics and I managed to really yoink my back whilst sorting everything out but at least I made it to Derby on time!

So now I need a new gaiter for the drive shaft as well as a helicoil kit and a decent new ball joint nut, I think I got off lightly the car isn't damaged it just puts things back a bit.

 

 

 

[Marina door handles]

My back has calmed down a bit so that means its time to get back on the projects, including the Rover.

Admittedly I haven't done much but I have braved the weather, jacked it back up and started on the front suspension.  Firstly I got the hub nut off as the drive haft needs to come out, then wrestled the lower suspension arms off the car again.

The biggest victim of "the incident".....

 

Eased the drive shaft out and although it doesn't sound like much, that was enough for today! 

I might be able to get my ball joint press out tool on the lower ball joint in situ, as I really want to replace that but don't want to start removing too many more parts....

Most of the rest of the suspension...

This will keep me busy for a while I suspect!

 

[Marina door handles]

Its slowly coming back together, I am not exactly rushing this, not much point with the salt covered roads at the moment and the Rovers appalling lack of heated seats! But I though i had better crack on with it for when things warm up slightly...

Starting with the anti roll bar issue, I was going to go down the helicoil route, I drilled out the remains of the old bolt but found the metal in the arm was way too hard to tap with my kit. I decided the next best option was to see if the bolt would go all the way through, it would so I cleaned out the hole properly, ordered a longer bolt and fitted a spacer to make sure a nut would fit on the end. I t feels like a bit of a cheat but it should work.

Spacer welded in place for convenience and the drop link test bolted in...

Next I attempted to push out the old and rather knackered ball joint whilst the steering knuckle was still on the car to minimise issues but I just couldn't get enough leverage..

So I disconnected the track rod and un bolted the top arm from the inner arch, I then dragged it into the warm and absolutely mullered the old ball joint.

But as you can see it succumbed to pressure and came out..

New one in....

0

I also removed the bearings off the end of the drive shaft, so I can fit a new gaiter (re fit the bearing).

To be continued...

 

[Marina door handles]

Yesterdays instalment was actually just after the official eat yourself silly, whilst watching old war films and wondering why is a man doing the Queen's speech day? .

On New Years eve I got back on it for some more frost bite and discomfort....

Firstly I cleaned off the remains of the gaitor on the gearbox end of the drive shaft....

I reinstalled the drive shaft, I figured that as it was right in the middle of everything probably best it do that bit first.

Next up re fit  the lower arms  and remembering to disconnect the anti roll bar from the other side so it wouldn't get in the way of the arm and make lining up the bolt holes m ore awkward than needed.

Then re fit the upper arm knuckle combo, then fit the lower fork for the shock absorber and the track rod. I might see if I can get a new track rod as there is a bit too much play in the end for my liking..

 

Its nearly all back together, just in time for snow and salt on the roads! It probably wont be going any were for at least a week or two unless the weather changes dramatically.

[Marina door handles]

The final part I needed to get the Longship back on the road is a new track rod end. I found one on Autodoc, I went cheap mainly as it was available.

Can you see the issue?

Just look a tad closer....

Yep no flats to get a spanner on to actually secure the thing properly! Its too cheap to send back so I might grind some flat areas and give it a go, t'is a bit crap though even for a pattern part! 

[Marina door handles]

Bit of an update - I did take power tools to the new track rod and managed to create some flats to get a spanner on....

I then tried to remove the old track rod and couldn't get the retaining nut on the inner tie rod to free off Not ideal I then took another look at the castellated nut on the business end (ball joint) of the track rod,.

Now the main reason why I am replacing the track rod was that I couldn't get the nut tight on the ball joint, the ball joint just turned in sympathy when the nut got about halfway up. But I thought, why not try it again? This time I rather firmly smacked the top of the track rod into the steering knuckle with a lump hammer (got nothing to lose really) and try again and this time I actually managed to get the nut all the way on, I even got a cotter pin in place, so I will call that good and keep the pattern part for emergency use.

Final job for today was doing the hub nut back up to a whopping 415NM! Yep I double checked that figure and then peen'ed the nut (I think that's the right term). All that is left to get the Rover on the road is re fit the battery, move the car to a better position, get it back up in the air so I can get the anti roll bar to sit evenly on its mounts then, tighten it up and in theory it will be ready to go.