Lankytim’s general shite related ranting, Ft mystery 2CV and P4 shittery.

[artdjones]

On 27/11/2025 at 15:58, Lankytim said:

agree, the shape has aged really well indeed. I’ve always liked Princesses but they were always seen as a bit of a joke. When I had an Allegro I’d get all the regular Alleg-rot jibes and the occasional comment about how they “weren’t all that bad really” but this Princess has had nothing but compliments and people of a certain age drifting off to their childhood momentarily. It’s like all the bad BL wedge stereotypes of the time have been cancelled out by rose tinted nostalgia

I ran a 79 2.0HL auto for a year from 86-87, and scrapped it at 8 years old because the Borg Warner box started flaring between second and third. I couldn't afford a stripdown and rebuild, and being as it was an early O series engines car s/h auto boxes were still rare. Possibly a B Series box might have done, but I couldn't find anyone to confirm it.

I really rated it, especially the roadholding. You could throw it into a 90 degree bend and the front end would just grip. Great ride and interior space, too.

I drove a friend's 2.0 Cortina 4 Ghia quite a lot at the time and much preferred the wedge.

[Lankytim]

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and is enjoying New Year’s Eve!
 

A quick fleet update, the Princess finally has some new tyres, courtesy of a Honda Civic which had new tyres fitted for MOT only to then catastrophically fail on corrosion. I’ve fitted the fronts and will hopefully fit the rears in the next few days. The rears weren’t actually that bad but the fronts were badly perished but you can’t beat that 4x new tyres on your old clunker feeling.

The battery expired on the 2CV but a newish one was sourced from a crashed fiesta which had just been dragged out of a hedge by the local breakers. I spotted the Ssang Yong Musso someone was asking about the other week. It’s steadily getting flatter but it’s still there, just about.

The P4 is still… just sitting there. I really need to swap the cars around and use it for work for a month or so.  Still starts first time even in the freezing cold. 
 

I nearly forgot… The wedge is 45 years old today…. or tomorrow. My “know your car” app says 31/12/80 while the V5C says 1/1/81. Why there’s a difference I don’t know. 

[bangernomics]

https://www.tgsilencers.co.uk/
Google is your friend. Off Spotland road, small back street.

They are still doing the job on custom applications. Good flag re the name change, I only use them once every 10 years so mental note taken.

[Lankytim]

Another quick update, rear hoops fitted today and I took the opportunity to clean out the rear wheel wells. I’m pleased to say they’re still looking good shape, when the weather improves I’ll was a load of wax in there to keep things nice. Today however was bitterly cold with the odd hail shower to keep things fresh. Obv I smashed my knuckles on something which hurt to the max due to the low temperature but it’s another job ticked off the list.

[Lankytim]

Oh no! Whilst warming the Princess up for a countryside jaunt I felt the brake pedal suddenly descend to the floor. Balls. A quick check underneath revealed a leaking brake pipe. It’s the main one to the rear wheels and is in a very accessible place and looks easily repairable , certainly more convenient than a knackered master cylinder or rear wheel cylinder where I’d need to replace the brake shoes too. 
 

It’s been a while since I’ve made brake pipes and  I don’t have any of the equipment needed. Will a generic brake flaring tool do the job? What size pipe and fittings do I need? 

[Saabnut]

To flare the pepe on the car you will need a tool similar to this (chosen at random off ebay - not a recommendation as such)

Copper Brake Pipe Line Flaring Tool Professional In-situ 4.75 DIN Hand Held VAG | eBay UK

It is a while since I have done pipes as my friend who is a professional mechanic has a good tool that I borrow and he always brings it over and just does the job whilst he is here! I just make the tea.

[Lankytim]

59 minutes ago, Saabnut said:

To flare the pepe on the car you will need a tool similar to this (chosen at random off ebay - not a recommendation as such)

Copper Brake Pipe Line Flaring Tool Professional In-situ 4.75 DIN Hand Held VAG | eBay UK

It is a while since I have done pipes as my friend who is a professional mechanic has a good tool that I borrow and he always brings it over and just does the job whilst he is here! I just make the tea.

I’ve been looking at those on TEMU, they appear to be identical in design but a fair bit cheaper. Not sure if I want to wait for one to turn up from China only to find its shite. 
 

From a bit of googling and talking to people that style of flare tool seems to be the best, especially for flaring pipes on the car. Certainly better than the type that looks like this. 
 

 

[Angrydicky]

Great work on the Princess! I've not long done the front brakes on my T reg Princess and it's just standard 3/16" pipe and M10 x 1 fittings.

Personally I'd just replace the whole pipe if it was me. I used to have one of the brake flaring tools you posted above and it was fairly shit, the only advantage being it can flare pipes in situ although it won't be easy to flare the original steel pipe with it.

A 25ft roll of pipe is relatively cheap. I bought a Sykes-Pickavant vice mounted flaring tool from @ruffgeezer ages ago, despite being a very old and well used tool it still produces fantastic flares every time and was a lot cheaper than a new one.

[Lankytim]

The TEMU fairy was kind and the flaring tool along with the pipe and fittings were delivered this week.  I excitedly set about removing the old pipe before creating and installing  its replacement. 
 

Everything came apart easily and I found the tool easy to use. The pipe was soon made up and manipulated to fit underneath the Princess. Before long I was bleeding the brakes with lots of old gunk and degraded brake fluid removed. Very satisfying! 

The other brake pipes were inspected and found to be in good condition but will benefit from a bit of rust proofing. 

The Princess is now leak free and back in action,  to celebrate I fitted a new set of points and a condenser to the P4. Not bad for a quick couple of hours spannering before work. 

[Lankytim]

A quick round up of shite related activities (it’s just the Princess really) 

A few weeks ago I topped up the O/S Hydragas fluid as since I’d had the Princess it had looked a little low. A few pumps on the “Liquid levers” Hydragas gizmo had things at an even keel. I always find pumping up Hydragas suspended cars a little nerve racking. Years ago I ended up with an Allegro on the deck due to a faulty low loss connector but no such issues this time around.

After moving the Princess around on the drive a bit to settle things out I stood back to admire my work only to notice to my horror a puddle of liquid forming under the OSF of the car. What was it?? The suspension wasn’t going down so It wasn’t suspension fluid. An inspection showed the red liquid was ATF which was spraying from the steering rack. One of the steel pipes on the rack had rusted through and was liberally rust proofing the underside of the car.  Very annoying but better it goes at home than on the M6 or something.

The pipe wasn’t removable in situ so the rack was taken off and the errant pipe taken to a local classic hydraulic specialist who made up a new pipe the following day. With everything refitted the rack was leak free and after all the air was finally purged from the system worked perfectly again. While the rack was off I took the opportunity to replace the O/S rack gaiter as it looked pretty tired, the N/S being replaced a few months ago when it split.

Fast forward to yesterday and I took the Princess on a 20 Mile jaunt to a friends house, the longest trip yet attempted in the old crock. A few weird noises from the drivers front wheel on the way home  warranted further investigation. The stone guard behind the disk had decided  move and start rubbing against the disk as it rotated. The captive nut used to mount the guard decided to part company and as the stone guard was already quite rusty and distorted I decided to remove it altogether. A quick test drive showed the dreadful noise had gone. I’m not sure if these stone guards are worth replacing but I’ll keep an eye out. 

 

[Lankytim]

So this week this happened. The lock had been a bit stiff for a while and eventually fell to bits. Anybody have a spare kicking about? I think Metros and other from that era will fit. Possibly even Maestros and similar? 

[Lankytim]

Ignore me… I had a go at fixing the existing lock. After hunting around on the drive for missing components I set about cleaning and lubricating  the slider things and springs. The parts need to go together in order so the key will actually operate the lock but was fairly straightforward, matching the shape of the key to the sliding pin things.  One spring was found to be faulty and was jamming the lock and making withdrawal of the key impossible, presumably the source of the issue which caused the lock to fall apart in the first place. With this remedied the lock was reassembled (after fishing a few random parts out of the door)

These cars are pretty simple and the task of reassembling the door was done and dusted in 10 minutes and I now have a locking door again! 

[High Jetter]

They're pretty simples. Hence, easy to jog.

[Lankytim]

13 hours ago, High Jetter said:

They're pretty simples. Hence, easy to jog.

They are! Plus it’s a nice job that can be undertaken on the dining room table in comfort rather than outside in the pissing rain. I’d never taken one of these locks apart before so assumed it was knackered but they’re actually mega simple. It got me thinking though, could these locks be “reprogrammed” by moving the sliding parts around to fit a different key? I’ve had BL cars with a different key for every lock, it would be nice to take the locks apart and rebuild them to suit a single key. 

[High Jetter]

8 minutes ago, Lankytim said:

It got me thinking though, could these locks be “reprogrammed” by moving the sliding parts around to fit a different key?

In theory, yes. It would take some buggeringaboutabit to get it right though, methinks.

[Lankytim]

So the Scénic has been resurrected and put back into use. The plan is to run it for a couple of months and probably send it to CarTakeBack or something. It’s returned to the road due to an ongoing family issue that means there’s going to be a lot of motorway munching which I don’t fancy doing in a P4 or a Princess (although I’m sure they’re both up to it) 

In the mean time I’ll look for a replacement, maybe a largish estate car for family duties that’s capable of towing circa 2t for shite collection duties, I’ve been looking at Freelander 2s as a sorted one seems to tick a lot of boxes.

The Scénic had been stored on the in-laws drive and its resurrection didn’t go without issue. The battery had gone so flat the doors couldn’t be unlocked on the key card and the emergency key lock was on the passenger door, which was against a wall. Wheel skates were brought into action and with a jump pack the Scénic burst into life first time. 

[Lankytim]

Another quickie. After A bit of a wait for the discs to get skimmed the Princess is all back together and now has awesome brakes, even by modern standards they’re good! 
 

The P4 also had some minor fettling- the tow ball was finally fitted after an appropriate spacer was made up after it was liberated from the scrap metal bin at work. It nicely fills the space cut out of the rear bumper by some lunatic years ago. So. It’s got a new clutch and a towbar. These things are too old to have a maximum towing capacity rating in the conventional sense and they’re basically a 2WD Landrover. Surely it could pull a car transporter? Maybe not…

[LightBulbFun]

3 minutes ago, Lankytim said:

These things are too old to have a maximum towing capacity rating in the conventional sense and they’re basically a 2WD Landrover. Surely it could pull a car transporter? Maybe not…

I dont see why not! but ill Tag @Saabnut, running about with a Rover P4 as a Tow vehicle, feels like something he would of done back when everything was in Black and White

[Mr Pastry]

On 30/03/2026 at 11:59, Lankytim said:

It got me thinking though, could these locks be “reprogrammed” by moving the sliding parts around to fit a different key?

Yes you can, but what we used to do was insert the chosen key, whereon the slidey bits would stick out.  File them flush with barrel, job jobbed. 

[lesapandre]

2 hours ago, Lankytim said:

Another quickie. After A bit of a wait for the discs to get skimmed the Princess is all back together and now has awesome brakes, even by modern standards they’re good! 
 

The P4 also had some minor fettling- the tow ball was finally fitted after an appropriate spacer was made up after it was liberated from the scrap metal bin at work. It nicely fills the space cut out of the rear bumper by some lunatic years ago. So. It’s got a new clutch and a towbar. These things are too old to have a maximum towing capacity rating in the conventional sense and they’re basically a 2WD Landrover. Surely it could pull a car transporter? Maybe not…

Back in the 50's and 60's these heavier and larger more powerful older cars were very popular with caravanners because of their towing abilities.

There is a P4 at time 10.30  in this charming clip  and you get the idea of what was used to tow big old caravans. 

[captain_70s]

2 hours ago, Lankytim said:

These things are too old to have a maximum towing capacity rating in the conventional sense and they’re basically a 2WD Landrover. Surely it could pull a car transporter? Maybe not...

The rules are surprisingly simple!

I reckon you could argue a legal tow weight if it listed in the owner's manual or factory workshop manuals...

[Saabnut]

The argument is that a P4 does not have a VIN plate, it has a chassis plate. Back in the day the rule was you could tow up to the kerb weight (whick you could get from the handbook or your local weighbridge) and you could do 40mph on a single carriageway road and 60 on a dual or motorway. If the trailer weighed more than the kerb weight then it was 40mph max everywhere. Then it became 50 on all roads including motorways if you were below kerb weight and displayed a 50 sticker (which is why you sometimes see a 50 sticker on old caravans and trailers) and 40 if the trailer was over. 
The rover P4 especially the later 6 cylinder cars make excellent period tow cars. 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Back in the 50's and 60's these heavier and larger more powerful older cars were very popular with caravanners because of their towing abilities.

There is a P4 at time 10.30  in this charming clip  and you get the idea of what was used to tow big old caravans. 

I bet that's a slow watch 😀

[Lankytim]

15 hours ago, Saabnut said:

The argument is that a P4 does not have a VIN plate, it has a chassis plate. Back in the day the rule was you could tow up to the kerb weight (whick you could get from the handbook or your local weighbridge) and you could do 40mph on a single carriageway road and 60 on a dual or motorway. If the trailer weighed more than the kerb weight then it was 40mph max everywhere. Then it became 50 on all roads including motorways if you were below kerb weight and displayed a 50 sticker (which is why you sometimes see a 50 sticker on old caravans and trailers) and 40 if the trailer was over. 
The rover P4 especially the later 6 cylinder cars make excellent period tow cars. 

I think it weighs 1500kgs, so it could pull a smallish car on a transporter. The tow bar itself doesn’t look massively sturdy though, it’s just a piece of angle iron bolted onto the rear bumper mounts on the chassis. 

[Lankytim]

Time for another update. Over the last month or so messages have been exchanged, a plan hatched, numbers crunched and a deal done. Hence, a few days ago this appeared outside LT acres. 

It is of course, @Weird Car’s Daimler. The Princess is going to her after shes sorted a few things out and moved home. In the meantime it’s enjoying some time in storage to free up some space to work on the Daimler and try and fix it’s maladies, the biggest one being the misbehaving auto box. 
 

 

First of all, this this thing is BIG. It’s been a while since I’ve been up close to an XJ and I’d assumed they’d be smaller in real life, like all big old cars, they’re the size and weight of a modern fiesta aren’t they? Nope. It’s an absolute whopper 

The bonnet release cable to the drivers side bonnet catch was broken, meaning a screwdriver is needed to manually pop the catch open but it was also found that the bonnet hinge on the passenger side is pulling out of the bonnet, a previous welded repair being evident. Apparently this is really common on these old barges. There’s a special technique to closing the bonnet otherwise it goes out of square. It seems like a bit of a design fault, the springs that hold the bonnet open acting on a particularly weak part of the bonnet meaning it eventually fails through fatigue and things go wonky, this wonkyness maybe meant that the bonnet was hard to open hastening the demise of the bonnet cable. 

 

Of course, I couldn’t resist a quick spin before I got stuck in. A 10 minute blast showed the box did indeed not want to go out of 1st, although it seemed attempt a change, even getting into second on one occasion. I was “giving it some beans” trying to feel the kickdown position with the throttle wide open. While doing this there was a “TWANG”, the pedal went to the floor and the engine slowly dropped to idle speed. I coasted to a conveniently located industrial estate and I parked up…. Quickly recalling the broken bonnet cable and the screwdriver I’d left in the garage at home. Bugger.

Mrs LT was fortunately local and came to the rescue within 30 mins with a screwdriver and some cable ties. The bonnet was soon open and the throttle cable tied at 4K RPM, making the 1 mile drive home quite interesting.

It was a day or so before I could shuffle the cars around and get the Daimler into a position to work on properly 

After removing the ancient looking throttle cable a replacement was ordered. As I stood holding the old broken cable I had a brainwave. The inner cable was removed, cut to size and threaded into the old outer cable of the broken bonnet release cable. After some adjustment the bonnet release catch is now back in action. Brill! 

As soon as the throttle cable turns up I’ll get it fitted and start investigating this gearbox. It looks like a new box so who knows what the issue is. 

[Weird Car]

42 minutes ago, Lankytim said:

Time for another update. Over the last month or so messages have been exchanged, a plan hatched, numbers crunched and a deal done. Hence, a few days ago this appeared outside LT acres. 

It is of course, @Weird Car’s Daimler. The Princess is going to her after shes sorted a few things out and moved home. In the meantime it’s enjoying some time in storage to free up some space to work on the Daimler and try and fix it’s maladies, the biggest one being the misbehaving auto box. 
 

 

First of all, this this thing is BIG. It’s been a while since I’ve been up close to an XJ and I’d assumed they’d be smaller in real life, like all big old cars, they’re the size and weight of a modern fiesta aren’t they? Nope. It’s an absolute whopper 

The bonnet release cable to the drivers side bonnet catch was broken, meaning a screwdriver is needed to manually pop the catch open but it was also found that the bonnet hinge on the passenger side is pulling out of the bonnet, a previous welded repair being evident. Apparently this is really common on these old barges. There’s a special technique to closing the bonnet otherwise it goes out of square. It seems like a bit of a design fault, the springs that hold the bonnet open acting on a particularly weak part of the bonnet meaning it eventually fails through fatigue and things go wonky, this wonkyness maybe meant that the bonnet was hard to open hastening the demise of the bonnet cable. 

 

Of course, I couldn’t resist a quick spin before I got stuck in. A 10 minute blast showed the box did indeed not want to go out of 1st, although it seemed attempt a change, even getting into second on one occasion. I was “giving it some beans” trying to feel the kickdown position with the throttle wide open. While doing this there was a “TWANG”, the pedal went to the floor and the engine slowly dropped to idle speed. I coasted to a conveniently located industrial estate and I parked up…. Quickly recalling the broken bonnet cable and the screwdriver I’d left in the garage at home. Bugger.

Mrs LT was fortunately local and came to the rescue within 30 mins with a screwdriver and some cable ties. The bonnet was soon open and the throttle cable tied at 4K RPM, making the 1 mile drive home quite interesting.

It was a day or so before I could shuffle the cars around and get the Daimler into a position to work on properly 

After removing the ancient looking throttle cable a replacement was ordered. As I stood holding the old broken cable I had a brainwave. The inner cable was removed, cut to size and threaded into the old outer cable of the broken bonnet release cable. After some adjustment the bonnet release catch is now back in action. Brill! 

As soon as the throttle cable turns up I’ll get it fitted and start investigating this gearbox. It looks like a new box so who knows what the issue is. 

So glad it’s staying in the fold and super excited to keep up with your progress on it 

 

@Jessi and I are really looking forward to having the Princess too

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Weird Car said:

 

@Jessi and I are really looking forward to having the Princess too

Keep that to yourselves! 😀 Can't remember the colour name. Bonnet's not sitting flush, tho

[Lankytim]

The Scénic has been a bit of a pain recently, the parking brake often refusing to release. This culminated in it gluing itself to My Dads driveway. The fault can be in a multitude of places, the switch, the parking brake unit or the wiring which has a habit of corroding when the scuttle drains get blocked and the floor pan gets flooded, knackering multi plugs in the loom. 

Removing the electronic parking brake switch I was able to access the micro switches that  apply and release the parking brake. By manually operating one of them the brake would release. It seemed the plastic rod operating the switch had worn away a little with use, a hot screwdriver has used to re profile the rod and after a period of trial and error things seem to be working again. To celebrate the Scénic was treated to a driveway valet. Lovely! 

 

Onto the Daimler. Starting the engine today to check the gearbox oil level resulted in a strong smell of petrol and a rapidly growing puddle of fuel appearing under the engine. Bugger. Fortunately this turned out to be little more than a stuck float valve which was quickly fixed. With the engine warmed up the box oil level was found to be way over the maximum.

 

Just over a litre of oil was removed to bring it back to maximum. I won’t know if this has had any effect on the errant gearbox until I take it on a proper test drive. Running the car in gear with the rear wheels off the ground shows the box now changes up into top but not until the car is doing an indicated 60 mph. Way too fast. A gearbox specialist thinks it’s the governor but we’ll see. It may just be changing because the fluid is nice and hot. 
 

Finally Princess news. We took the wedge on a nice trip out to visit friends, a 60 mile mix of A roads and motorway, the furthest I’ve taken it in one go. The old thing didn’t miss a beat and is quite happy wafting along at 70. Bliss! I’ll be so sad to see It go but I know she’s going to a great home. I’ve every confidence you could get in it and drive it anywhere. Supremely comfortable too. The perfect classic? 
 

[Lankytim]

Took the underused P4 out for a spin and a wash. It looks alright but could do with a good mopping again. I’m toying with the idea of selling it, £2250 if anyone’s interested. 

[calebaaront]

On 05/05/2026 at 12:55, Lankytim said:

Took the underused P4 out for a spin and a wash. It looks alright but could do with a good mopping again. I’m toying with the idea of selling it, £2250 if anyone’s interested. 

Why do I have to be poor? I’d love to drive another P4 back to Portsmouth from Stoke On Trent 😆