Pete-M Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lankytim Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I'm sure I remember reading that RADWELD or K seal or similar can't be used on Rover 800s and the like coz it clogs the heather matrix up, or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete-M Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I'm sure I remember reading that RADWELD or K seal or similar can't be used on Rover 800s and the like coz it clogs the heather matrix up, or something. Sure it couldn't be because nothing will seal a K series? Soz, Earl. Couldn't resist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 For some reason my smilies aren't working. But smiley face, anyway! I'm sure I read something about K-Seal or Radweld and DO NOT STICK IT UP A KV6, too. But I did it anyway. No ill effects thus far. I just thought fuck it. I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r.welfare Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Nah, it's OK for a K - it's the Honda 2.5/2.7 that the warning messages are for, due to the narrow cooling passages I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 Nah, it's OK for a K - it's the Honda 2.5/2.7 that the warning messages are for, due to the narrow cooling passages I believe. Yep, looking back you're absolutely right. Nice to see something negative about the Honda units... which I acknowledge are otherwise better in every single respect.... Except noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 Just been to Nan's place to see about exhuming the Audi from its resting place, it's so dusty and cobweb-by it looks like a barn find. Anyway. opened the door, all the interior lights came on. Good sign. Popped the bonnet, removed old EXIDE battery (a bit of a Luxo-style faff, this, buried right under the bulkhead) inserted new LION battery (shit brand, but cheap and who cares when there's a three year warranty). New battery is quite a bit longer than the old one, perhaps it's a battery for a diesel? Had to use the other set of mounting brackets. Anyway. Twisted the key and it fired right up. Bit of tappet clicking which settled down in a few seconds, generally sounds a bit rough after three months plus of cold oil. I reckon it'll sound much better after a run but I'll splash a bit of stolen oil in it for shits and giggles. Question is, what will Mr MOT gentleman have to say about it? I can't for the life of me remember whether it needed any jobs doing when I squirrelled it away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 Hilarity* ensued today, when my line manager and I extricated the Rover from the muddy field, using a tow-rope and one of our A-Class loan cars, and deposited it here....: ...Around the back of the valet bays, by (not in) the skip. This to me represents an enormous step forwards; a) it's not in a filthy, uninsured, insecure field any more, and it's within rolling distance of a four-point lift. When workshop traffic allows I'll get it airborne and pull the horrible malfunctioning slave cylinder off, and take it home because.... ....This arrived in my in-tray today; theoretically enough bits to convert the horrible old malfunctioning slave cylinder into a lovely new co-operating one. Tax expires at the end of Jan and the MOT lapsed on tuesday 17th, but insurance is still running until I cancel it. So to legitimately drive it home when it's all finished I'll need to throw a new MOT at it. That should be a laugh. I'm now back in the groove of driving the Audi. On Tuesday the ease at which it shrugged the MOT off, it just sat there looking smug as if to say "who teh fuck do you think you are, locking me away for six months and driving a stupid bloody Rover?" It reminded me how different the two cars are by character. The Audi is firm, tight as a drum, slightly scruff-of-the-neck in handling terms, oh, bollocks, it's just a much better car in every dimension except exhaust note. And it's probably that endless competence that drives me to keep the Rover on the road. It's more of a challenge, both to own and to drive. *May not actually be hilarious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Pelican Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Just spent a very happy time reading the whole threadTop save Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Split_Pin Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 This is a good read indeed. Glad you are persevering with it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M'coli Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 And it's probably that endless competence that drives me to keep the Rover on the road. It's more of a challenge, both to own and to drive. *May not actually be hilarious.Isn't that part of why we love these old cars though - because we have to drive them? You hear of such-and-such a car being called a "real driver's car" but what does that mean?does it mean that it gives you great feedback when you're pressing on, or does it mean that you need to be a real driver to get on with it? A lot of modern stuff is diluted by how competent it is. For example, if you go faster, the stereo gets louder - and so if an increase in speed is gradual your awareness of this is masked by the increased volume of the ICE until your Swansea pass is having convulsions in its plastic wallet! I still believe the best 3 days of driving that I've had in the last 18 months was learning how to drive the motorhome properly on its first big trip out - the highlight being the cross-country trip from Dorset to the A303 near Andover and keeping up with the regular traffic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Sterling Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Good on ya Earl-lad for perservering with these joke of cars. These blasted Rovers for all thier faults somehow just keep us coming back for more, despite breaking/failing at every given opportunity. I'll give you the KV6 sounds better than a Honda V6, the Honda does sound like a rough KV6, though its still not too bad. Its certainly given me the idea that maybe its time I should start my own thread on how I came to be by my current Sterling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warren t claim Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Its certainly given me the idea that maybe its time I should start my own thread on how I came to be by my current Sterling. What's stopping you? We're all ears! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted January 26, 2012 Author Share Posted January 26, 2012 I had quite a productive day at work today. I blitzed through the five or so fairly involved warranty claims I had to process and won myself a bit of spare time in the latter part of the afternoon. There wasn't a lot of workshop traffic today so I had a chance to nick a bay and haul the Rover inside for a look-see. It's opportunities like this that remind me that, if I wasn't paid as badly as a child chimney-sweep from Victorian Britain, mine would actually be quite a cushy job, Note the pool of fluid on the floor. This is of concern. I had the engine running while my very much esteemed colleague and I manhandled the barge into the bay, so we had some power assistance for steering. I've been aware of a seep from the power steering since I've had it but it needs to be made a priority pretty soon, it's losing fluid almost as quickly as the clutch was. Having the car up on the lift reminded me just how spoiled you are when you have the chance to work on your car in a proper workshop. I peered up at the slave cylinder, noting that access was going to be a bit challenging, but nowhere near as much of a cunt as it would have been trying to get to it with the car up on axle stands. There it is. SOAKED with clutch fluid and generally a bit fucked. Removal is dead simple, but access is a joke; with a 10mm socket on either of the two mounting bolts you have only about 4cm of actual winding moment available for spannering. Each bolt took about five minutes of ratchetting, three teeth at a time. The RAVE manual I use (my bible) suggests removing the hydraulic feed from the Slave cylinder before unbolting it from the housing, but that would have been a bastard. I chose to take advantage of the coiled section of the hydraulic line and use it as a flexi-hose, I was able to thread the Slave Cylinder from all the surrounding gubbins with the hydraulic lines still attached. I then unbolted it from the line, capped the pipe with a handy bit of Mercedes that I found on the bench, stuck a rubber glove over it to make doubly sure that no dirt gets into the line, and hey presto. A swarfega session later and the offending article is bagged up and sitting on my desk. Next step is to strip it down, fundamentally clean it and, depending on a number of factors, either rebuild it using the new bits that Rimmer Bros sent me, or throw it away in a fit of rage and vow never to even contemplate Rover ownership again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 Got the slave cylinder stripped down. Oh deary me. In this scanning electron microscope image you can see that the bore wall features much pitting and unpleasantness (actually looks about 23% worse in the photo due to loose clutch fluid looking like extra damage). Realistically, it's proper Ronnied and should never go back on a car. So I'm going to put it back on the car. I can justify this act of wanton inevitabilty by the fact that a new slave cylinder is £80+ from Rimmers, (where it's out of stock anyway) and a second hand unit from a scrappy can't be trusted anyway. Meanwhile, a seal kit is £4. If the kit only lasts a few months then I've got two years worth of seal kits for the price of a new slave cylinder, and I've established that the job itself seems to be nice 'n easy. Except:- This is the actual piston. It too has bits of corrosion and pitting; again it ought to be replaced, and it will. But not this month. It's going back on, but with a new seal. The old, horrible, slack, slightly split seal is on the left. The new, pristine, virginal seal is much tighter, and this is causing me consternation. Every source on the internet seems to agree that the seal has to be stretched over the ends of the piston and then seat where the piston is at its narrowest. I see no evidence that the piston comes into separate pieces; if it did I could just slip the seal on and get on with my life. I suddenly got The Fear when I tried stretching it for the first time, and immediately rushed in here to get a feeling for how wrong I was doing it. The game recommences tomorrow. Also, clutch fluid is fucking horrible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tayne Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Heat the seal, cool the piston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Bo11ox Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 It should stretch on fine, but if youre really worried, put the seal in some hot water to soften the rubber beforehand. Make sure you put it on the piston the right way round! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 Hmm. Heat it. Good idea. I suppose the clue was in Kettle series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted February 15, 2012 Author Share Posted February 15, 2012 And you were right, an' all. It stretched over all the knobbly bits, I just had to man up a bit and go at it maximum attack like, Since this photo was taken I have visually inspected it to ensure it's properly seated. Verdict:- It'll probably be alright. Before reassembly I decided to see if I could spruce up the inside of the cylinder bore a bit. I raided the bathroom for the mingingest toothbrush I could find, made sure it was free of too much Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Toothpaste, and gave it a good tooing and froing. It ended up like that; a damn sight nicer than it was yesterday night. Must be the baking soda. Bung it all back together, lubricating it with a splat of DOT4, AKA my least favourite fluid In The World, and bingo. We're a bit busy at work at the mo, the workshop is teeming with actual retail customers. But the moment a ramp becomes free I'll bolt this motherfucker back on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 There seems to be a lot of 800 love in the air in here at the moment, so I'll treat* you all to an update of my 800 running thread. About a fortnight ago, myself and our most hirsuite technician, an animal we call The Bear (who's a shit-hot spannerer and accepts payment in beer) finally got around to tackling the slave-pedal reinstallation, which was really quite an easy procedure. The tricky bit came in bleeding the system, which seemed to take aaaages. But hey-ho, it's back on, working and I can change gear and everything, as confirmed on a quick lap of the industrial estate. Next came the quandary of getting it home. MOT, Tax and Insurance all expired in February, by which time the Rover was scheduled to be tucked up in bed. This left the car marooned at work (where it broke), a 25 mile drive home. Sure, I could chance it on an illicit midnight run on a ne'er patrolled rural route, but I'm an upstanding citizen etc. etc. This righteousness extends to me not being able to nick a set of the works trade plates, either, which is what a lot of folk would probably do. Alas, If I got caught trying that I'd most certainly end up with my arse reamed so totally I'd be able to shit phone boxes. I pondered my dilemma, while eating this Tiger Bread Bacon Bagguette, served slightly colder than ideal (Thanks, Billy The Fridge, purveyor of lukewarm snacks to the undiscerning). My solution was one that lead to this happenning a week and a half later: A deeply uninteresting photo, of course, but it signifies the Rover waiting for its MOT. My solution was to book the car in for a test at the MOT shack a few doors down, which meant that I could legitimately drive my untaxed car to and fro of a pre-booked MOT appointment. I set up a portion of Dayinsure for £23, so one way or another I could get the old girl safely home. I bunged it in for the exam, reassured that I'd at least get a nice handy worklist of the myriad faults that need to be put right. Imagine my disappointment when the worst thing they could find was a chronically ineffectual handbrake cable that only just scraped through. There's a little play in the front balljoints, but that's standard equipment on an old 800. I was amazed; the car had just sat there in sunshine and snow since the clutch slave went phut, it's a fair old relief that the only thing I need to do before its next period of use is to sort that handbrake out. Oh and finishing the cambelt job would be great. I could legitimately drive it home, then. I began gently, eyes on the gauges, ears on all the peculiar background noises you hear that may or may not herald something sinister. Everything, though, went fine. I ended up cruising at a para-legal velocity (e.g the exact same speed as all the A4s and 318ds'). It felt great; a world apart from the every-day normalness of my Audi. Worse, obviously. But more interesting, certainly (see drive-alikes thread). My cars. Yesterday. hauserplenty 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted May 21, 2012 Author Share Posted May 21, 2012 Not wanting to tits this place up with another thread, I thought I'd sully my Own thread in order to tell you good people about this limited time offer. I'm moving house, and have been forced to go through my archive of old crap to see if I can't fight it into some kind of manageable size. I try to cull it on a regular basis, deleting duplicates, that kind of thing. It's never pretty. What you see pictured above is a box of displaced material from my "research library". There are several dozen bits in there, mostly Ford, several nice Ford RS brochures of the early '90s and more besides ranging from Unimog to Fairline boats. There's nothing of outrageous rarity value in here. Except:- This was a 1994 Ford marketing release for the Escort / Cosworth, celebrating their win at the Monte Carlo Rally that year, and coming complete with a period-style sticker emblazoned with Ford Escort 1ST 1994, Monte Carlo Rally. All you MK 4/5 Escort fans must be absolutely gagging for a sticker like this; I could sell it on eBay tomorrow* for several thousand pounds with no doubt whatsoever. And I'm giving it away. The only catch is: You want the sticker, you have to take all the other stuff with it. First person to call at Ma and Pa Roadworks' place secures this lovely* item. Steady, now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Dare I ask where they be located? (yarr). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 Dare I ask where they be located? (yarr). Not in your locality, I'm afraid. 'less you fancy a trip to the seaside. Frinton-On-Sea. It's in Essex, though it doesn't like to admit it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trigger Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Oh! tempting! especially the RS stuff. Your local enough but not sure when I'd be able to collect them as Frinton is a bit of a poxy place to get to from Ipswich, I was only in Little Clacton on Sunday too. If not i MIGHT be in Colchester at the weekend so i MIGHT be able to collect them from your work?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Why do these things never come up anywhere near me etc etc... Oh!!1! I'd love to have them if they're still looking for a home - I'm only in Clacton so can collect whenever it's convenient for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 Gosh. Two potential homes for my spare cack! Trigger: As it happens, I'm actually at work on Saturday morning, so that could work well. But; Woody: I presume to be at home this week this evening, tomorrow evening and on thursday. Evening. Looks like it's odds on you "winning" this particular windfall. U HAZ PEE EMM. Trig; over to you if Woody can't make it here first. (N.B. I take no responsibility for disappointment experienced on reciept of chod) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 YHM! (Sorry Trig...) Do I get to see the mighty Rovaaaaaaaa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 YHM! (Sorry Trig...) Do I get to see the mighty Rovaaaaaaaa? Alas, the Rover is under lock and key at my Grandparents house. I hereby give you permission to knock on random Frinton doors until you find it! If you look in the right places on the drive, you may well see genuine Rover clutch fluid stains, though.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trigger Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Boo! as it happens I'm off work now until next Wednesday so i could have got them sooner but Woody is closer so it will very easier for him. Thank you anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Cheers Trig, I'm happy to loan them for scanning if you wish (assuming there's anything of actual interest!) But I'll send the boys round if you nick the sticker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now