Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Zelandeth]

Despite the best efforts of the weather swinging between pleasant and sunny and sideways rain/hail every 15 minutes, I did get some more bits and pieces ticked off at the weekend.

Oil change was slightly more eventful than I would have liked. Managed to get the filter housing misaligned slightly on the first go (it's really awkward and you really need four hands to get everything back together). We only caused a minor environmental catastrophe when I started the engine and it managed to pump out a few pints before I could stop it.

Nobody will ever know. They definitely can't follow the kitty litter trail of shame right to the scene of the disaster...

Second try though I managed to get the blasted thing sealed.



It's the last time I'll have that fight. I've ordered an adapter to allow me to use modern spin on filters instead of having to faff around with this nonsense. I'm all for originality, but there are some areas where we have honestly come up with better solutions to some problems since then. Will also mean I can buy filters from any supplier for a few quid rather than having to special order the elements in.

Thankfully the oil now all appears to be staying inside the engine. It's a mishmash of some 20W50 topped off with the contents of probably half a dozen mixed bottles in the garage I was sick of looking at. This fill will be sacrificial and changed again after a couple of hours run time anyway so I didn't want to waste a whole fill of quite expensive oil.

With the grey milkshake evicted from the sump I was happy to let the engine run longer. Including the long, anxious wait to see if the thermostat would open properly once the engine got up to temperature.



It's a big heavy lump of an engine so at fast idle that does take quite a while. It did though and the cooling system appears to be behaving itself. Previously opening the cap once the thermostat was open released a pretty spectacular geyser, whereas that now appears to be gone.

The weep from the thermostat housing appears to have miraculously self healed itself, though I'll change the gasket in due course just to be safe.

It's kicking back against the starter when starting warm, so I reckon the timing is way too advanced. Nothing too hard to deal with there, just need to dig out the timing light.

It looks like I need to add a carb kit to my shopping list.



I could just change the float bowl gasket, but I've had issues with the float sticking already and the car is running horribly rich, so it really wants going through properly anyway. Plus the ethanol will kill the existing diaphragm at some point anyway. I'll probably be shocked at the state of it and the fact that it was running the engine at all when I pull it apart. The degree to which SU carbs can be messed up and still work never ceases to astonish me, especially compared to how angry the tiniest bit of silt can make fixed jet carbs.

This example definitely has a deeper exhaust note than my previous one.



Doesn't sound half bad actually. Be interesting to see how much difference having things set up a bit better makes.

Sadly ran out of time before I could get to going through the valve clearances, but that's the first item on the to do list next time I get a free hour or two.

At least it *feels* as though I'm making some headway now after chasing my tail around in circles since before Christmas.

[mickthemaverick]

Looking and sounding good Zel, I can see it starring at some local shows this year!!

[Zelandeth]

Today I was busier so didn't get any time to do much of anything. I did wash the Trabant though.



Poor thing hadn't had a wash since like...June or thereabouts I think and was absolutely filthy.

When I say "I washed it" I of course mean I did all the work myself. I definitely didn't throw it at my local hand car wash. Nope. Definitely not.



Okay, fine I did. Yes, it was as filthy as the windscreen made it look.



Kind of embarrassing it's got this bad to be honest.

Really wants going over with the polisher at some point, but goodness only knows when I'll have time for that. I remember being quite surprised by how well the few panels I got to last time around came up. Probably be this time next year before I get to that! MOT is later in the week though, so figured blasting off at least most of the last year's worth of grime was probably worthwhile. I do need to have a crawl over it and just make sure there's nothing daft going to cause issues before the test.

[Zelandeth]

Couple of Rover bits arrived this morning.

Firstly was to resolve the very conspicuous empty space down here.



Which has now been sorted.



This is of course the factory tool kit.





Makes a bit of a mockery out of what comes with modern cars doesn't it. Not that there's much you CAN fix on them these days without having a spare Cray supercomputer in the boot...

Other item was a model correct clock.



The one in the car is from another model (I think I figured it was from a P5 eventually), and it's innards had melted. This one will need to be serviced, but hopefully I can get it going again. I *think* these can be relatively easily converted to negative earth just be isolating the mech from the case with some plastic stand offs. It's a similar design to used on the P6 - it's a conventional mechanical clock which is kept wound by a solenoid that goes clunk every few minutes. The one in my last P4 worked fine mechanically but the leads had dissolved off the ends of the solenoid coil. I probably could have fixed it, but it would have meant taking the whole mech apart and I wasn't brave enough to do that! Far too many tiny little gears that need to go back in the right places!

Assuming it's the same anyway, may well open the case to find it's totally different internally.

[Zelandeth]

Oil filter adapter is now here. That will go on when the oil is next changed.



Got a few other things on order as well.

[] A proper set of HT leads which should actually reach properly and are a less garish colour. I would really like to go back to the proper original style ones as they are so much tidier - but it's like £200 for all the bits I need. Not just the leads themselves, but I also need the distributor cap, the wire end fittings, the spark plug caps, the pipe the leads are routed through AND the correct ignition coil. So for now we're just going with "tidier leads that are made to fit."

I just can't justify that for something that's purely to satisfy my OCD. So that ain't happening right now. They need changing though - the king lead in particular is way too short so can near enough be plucked like a guitar string, and I have already knocked it off at least twice.

Similarly I'd like to go back to the proper double ended fuel pump to reinstate the reserve function - but they're nearly £400! So again, nope! I'll wait until a secondhand one turns up somewhere down the line and rebuild it. Or modify the plumbing and just fit two standalone pumps. I suspect the fact that they're shared with the S2 and S3 Land Rovers is why they're so bloody expensive. I do need to find out where the feed for the reserve pump even is as it's not present inside the car. I'm *hoping* it's just been capped off at the tank and isn't just floating around under the car...the main pump at least is a proper SU one rather than some random Amazon special that I'd trust about as far as I can throw it. Annoyingly altering the plumbing is actually something of a major operation on this car due to the complete absence of rubber hoses. Everything is metal or nylon and joined by proper flare fittings.

[] Carb overhaul kit. Not gone for the full *rebuild* kit as I doubt I'll need it. Just a gasket set and replacements for the usual suspects. I don't think there's any excessive wear on it from what I've seen. A good clean, new gaskets and new needle and seat are probably all we need.

[] New fan belt. Old one looks pretty tired so just makes sense to change it before the car goes back into service. Being left at the side of the road by something so daft would really hack me off!

[] Finally, a replacement for the missing starting handle. Not so much for actually starting the car (definitely not until I've got the timing set right again!), but more for making turning the engine over while adjusting the valve clearances etc less of a faff.

We are now working against the clock to some extent. I would like to take this to an event at the end of May. However that means that I need to have it up, running and reliable enough that I trust it enough to drive to Birmingham by the end of May! Ideally by just jamming it on the motorway and heading up the M1/M6 as it's soooo much less of a faff than the A5/A45 way while less terrifying to break down on, takes absolutely foreeeeeeever...

It feels like that's a long way off...but I know full well that with how limited my time is at the moment that it'll be here before I know it. Especially as I really want at least a couple of weeks worth of day to day varied use under the wheels for shakedown purposes before I actually take it any distance. I'm kinda of sceptical that I'll be ready in time. Assuming my current health issues don't scupper the whole plan entirely anyway in which case the health of the car becomes a bit of a moot point.

[Zelandeth]

MOT day again for the Trabant.



Third time in my ownership. Think I can probably count on one hand the number of cars I've had long enough to test three times! It's also the second MOT it hasn't legally needed.

Result: Fail.

However a very easy fail. Apparently the brake light switch has at some point died. We did test by bridging the contacts to confirm it was indeed the switch rather than a wiring issue and the lights worked fine then. Aside from that, a clean sheet.

I'm absolutely happy with that result. Yes it's a fail, but it's a trivially easy fail to resolve. Switch is less than £10 and should take all of five minutes to swap over. I *think* it's the same switch that's used on Beetles of the same era which I would try if I was in need of an urgent fix. I don't mind waiting a week for the part to arrive from Trabantwelt though and know for a fact that will be a drop in replacement which definitely will fit.

Good demonstration of why exempt vehicles getting a test is still a good idea. I check all the other lights reasonably frequently, but the brake lights are more of a faff without a helper so I tend to rely on checking the reflection when backing into the driveway - which only really works when it's dark and I'm not out after dark all that often these days. Sounds like he's quite looking forward to seeing the Rover. Not sure the lift will be though - It's probably nearly as heavy as the Volvo!

[Zelandeth]

Got a little bit of time today to tinker with cars.

First up was doing something about this disaster area.



About time she saw the light of day again!



With the car out of the garage for a bit I'm going to try to tackle at least a bit of the disaster area - get the compressor into the corner it will live in anyway so I don't need to climb over it to get in/out of the door will be an improvement. Think we're going to hire in a small skip over the Mayday holiday weekend and make a bit of a concerted effort to thin out the rubbish in there then as well and re-pack things that are in long term storage awaiting us moving into plastic storage boxes which stack more efficiently than the car sized mound of imploded cardboard currently at the far end. Also far more resistant to any water ingress which has been known to be an issue when we get exceptionally heavy rain as our driveway really doesn't (and has never had) any decent drainage.

Aside from checking oil and putting air in the tyres that's as far as we got. The battery hasn't survived the winter of being left stone flat because I forgot to disconnect it (again). I keep saying I'll get a socket installed for a battery tender but it keeps not happening. It did apparently take a charge, and will sit at a healthy enough looking voltage off load, but collapses immediately as soon as you try to pull any load whatsoever above a couple of amps. There is an isolator switch in play, but the one thing it doesn't disconnect is the clock - and over the course of a few months that's enough.

A replacement is on the way. Hopefully here in the next day or so - I'd usually have just grabbed on from Halfords as their price for the battery I use is within a couple of quid of anywhere else, but they didn't have any in stock. I've made my life easy here by just using a U1R battery as used by a plethora of lawn tractors etc. They fit in the same footprint as the original battery, are usually easy to find, and are about a quarter of the price.

I need to double check my records, but I'm pretty sure the oil was changed very shortly before she was last parked up so it will likely just be left well alone unless it actually looks dirty once the engine is run. Currently showing as over full, but that will be because the oil cooler has drained down while parked, sure it will be right on the money once it's run.

Moving on to the Rover.

The next item on my to do list was to set the valve clearances properly. Exhaust first as they can be done cold. Which given the proximity of the exhaust manifold I am eternally grateful for!



They were all a bit on the loose side aside from no 5 which was spot on, but not horrifically so. A new gasket went on as well. The old one wasn't leaking but was obviously past its best and very well squashed.

Turning the engine over to get the right valves open is far easier now that the last missing bit of the toolkit turned up this morning.



Important safety tip. Don't leave it there and forget about it. The very linear bruise on my right shin from me walking into it ten minutes later is an example of why. It is indeed more painful than the Volvos tow bar to walk in to.

I didn't have time to get the engine fully up to temperature and do the inlet side today, but dipped into a couple of other things.

The frankly absurd amount of free play in the steering definitely needed to be addressed. You had this amount of dead travel before hitting any semblance of resistance beforehand, never mind the wheels actually starting to move.



It really was more of a general suggestion of where you wanted the car to go rather than a control. There's a reason it's done about a mile and a half since it arrived here! This was it! The steering in these cars is always pretty vague, but this was taking it to extremes. I've driven knackered farm machinery with more precise steering than this!

I both tweaked the adjustment on the box a little and topped up the oil in it. I suspect I may have over compensated a bit with the adjustment, but I'll double check the procedure in the manual shortly.



Confirming that I could get the adjuster locknut to crack off was my main mission there really as I remember that on my previous P4 being so tight that I simply couldn't shift it. Getting the excess free play taken up now though will make tracking down any slop elsewhere in the system far easier now though.

It has also moved for the first time since before Christmas.



Mainly so I could sweep up the remaining cat litter from the oil filter housing incident last week that I couldn't get at with the car in the way.

This has highlighted that the brakes - or at least the offside rear brake - are binding quite substantially. Also the handbrake control actually does nothing. It's just the one that's dragging that's making it seem like it's working.

Speaking of the hand brake - that very prominent looking brake light on the dash, with the lens that focuses it riiiight at your eyeballs, yes it is as bright as it looks in the photos.



It literally projects a beam onto the head lining if your head isn't in the way.



That shadow is the horn ring.

Also swapped out the wrong clock...



For the correct one...



It still doesn't work but at least matches the rest of the instrumentation so there's not a mismatch bugging my OCD.



Not sure when I'll next have the opportunity to get more than half an hour to actually get stuck into anything but it felt good to actually tick a couple of things off the list and learn a bit more about what's working and what isn't with the brakes. Think pulling the offside rear wheel is probably the next thing I need to do there. I want to grease the springs up anyway and that will be far easier with the wheel out the way anyhow.

If it was as simple as the hardware being assembled incorrectly in the drums I'd be very happy. Apparently the way they go together is a bit strange so it's easy to get it wrong so that things fit but the brakes won't work properly, so that's not an uncommon thing to come across. Not sure if I'll be that lucky!

Does feel like the car is getting closer to the road now at least.

[Zelandeth]

Spent five minutes on the carb yesterday afternoon. The fuel leak (or at least about 95% of it) was actually coming from the union between the fuel inlet and the float bowl housing. There's a fibre washer in there which had degraded. Replacing it seems to have mostly sealed it.

Second carb job was to stop the car doing an impression of a diesel of the same era in terms of emissions. Kind of as I expected the adjustments were all over the shop as always seems to be the case with an SU - I don't know why they seem to confuse people so much. Just going back to square one and setting it up by ear seems to have got it running a lot cleaner and idling smoother. I'll need to actually give it some throttle under load to get all the soot and gunk out of the exhaust before I'll know for sure, but it seems better. It will need another tweak once the air cleaner is back on anyway as that will richen the mixture up a touch.

Had a look at the timing - again by ear as I can't actually see a timing mark on the crank pulley. I backed it off just a hair and will see if that helps stop it kicking back against the starter when starting with a warm engine. It seems that was pretty much where it wanted to be though. The book figure for a 110 is 6°BTDC.

I even remembered to tighten the distributor clamp back up this time...I've definitely never forgotten to do that and ended up with my timing 45° out a quarter of a mile down the road when it moved. Nope. Definitely wasn't me.

Quick and easy job done before lunch today.

Before:



After:



I'd really like to go back to the factory HT leads setup at some point, but this is a vast improvement for now. No more day glow red, the king lead actually reaches the coil and the rest of the leads don't keep trying to make friends with the exhaust manifold. Tidied up the LT leads between the distributor and coil as well while I was there. They were about half a mile too long and made of several leads joined together with spade connectors before. Now cut to length properly and loom wrapped.

The battery that I was hoping would turn up for TPA yesterday finally arrived late on this afternoon. So much for paying for next day delivery.

That was quickly chucked into place. Excuse the horrible glare from the sun.



I also installed an actual matched set of nuts/bolts/washers for the terminals this time...there was definitely evidence of me having used what I had on hand when I hooked this up originally - most likely in a rush - just using whatever random collection of fasteners I had to hand. Uh huh.



One bolt that is actually bigger than the hole in the post so was threaded into it and one roofing bolt. Kwality with a K there you idiot.

It's nonsense like this which really makes me want to go through this car end to end with a microscope because god only knows what other nonsense I did to initially get things running thinking "I'll come back to that..." Before promptly forgetting all about it because it worked. I'm absolutely sure that there's plenty more of this sort of nonsense waiting for me.

How grumpy was she about sitting then? Started literally first compression stroke it sounded like and immediately idled absolutely perfectly.



The cleaning and new grease I put on the handbrake pivot has apparently remained grease like as that isn't sticky feeling like it usually used to be after sitting for a while. Did a quick run just round the block to make sure the brakes were behaving properly before making a run out just a couple of miles.



I really don't remember Peugeot Partners seeming that big...



I need to double check my front tyre pressure as I'm sure she never used to feel quite that wayward in a straight line - or maybe it's just been so long that I've forgotten. I also need to clean the windscreen as it's really dusty.

In fact let's upgrade that to just "clean everything" because she's been being used as a garage shelf/workbench for the last year.





She does feel a little sluggish to me off the mark - but she is running on ancient fuel and I have just generally got used to the Trabant which is surprisingly nippy up to 30/40 because of the gearing. In the same breath, 50 in TPA *sounds* a lot more relaxed than 50 does in the Trabant. Ride is surprisingly good within the limits of 10" wheels and little weight - from the brief drive I did in REV (another Model 70 belonging to a friend) I get the feeling that the dampers on TPA are set quite a bit softer (they are adjustable). I imagine being an older design that the sidewalls on the Camac BN-313 tyres probably are a lot softer too which probably helps. Didn't see any evidence of perishing on those when I looked yesterday - guessing being in a garage with pretty stable environmental conditions and no UV has helped there - worth checking now given they were fitted in 2018 if I remember right.

I had forgotten how comfortable that seat I fitted was though. Oh, and how fluffing much the doors rattle! The rollers on mine don't either, which has been on the to do list since they were still attached to KPL (the first Model 70 I had which donated the drive line and various other bits to TPA - and has now also been restored!). Maybe this year I'll actually get around to seeing if I can come up with a solution to that. Probably not!

Will give all the basics a check over again tomorrow after today's test run and see about actually getting a bit of use on the car while the Trabant is waiting on parts.

She is officially back out of hibernation though which is nice.



The plus side of having two tiny cars is that I can cheat and cram them both and the Volvo in here while I try to deal with the garage a bit.

[Zelandeth]

Heard something go "tink" onto the ground when I pulled the box of gloves I'd stuffed in there out of the driver's door pocket in the Rover this afternoon.

Turned out to be what I initially thought was a 2p coin - but on closer inspection wasn't a 2p at all.



Have to wonder if that's been forgotten in there for a few decades or if someone just kept it with the car as a bit of set dressing. It will be relocated to the glove box, but will remain with the car going forward.

[Zelandeth]

The new brake light switch turned up for the Trabant on Friday afternoon so I got that installed this afternoon.

Predictably this was a trivially simple job - finding a 24mm spanner took longer than the actual job.

Isn't access just awful?



No, access is brilliant and it never ceases to surprise me how much I actually enjoy doing little bits and pieces like this on this car as it is genuinely pleasant to work on.

We now have properly working brake lights again. They are a good deal brighter than the camera makes them look.



I did spot a couple of drips of fuel from the carb when I was sitting in front of the car though which I needed to investigate. Initially I thought the float bowl might have been overflowing, but it didn't seem to be coming from the bowl vents which struck me as a little odd. Then I touched the fuel line itself.



Ah. That's sub optimal.

My usual rule is that any fuel lines I find are replaced with Cohline hoses which are fully ethanol safe on sight. This one got missed however simply because I didn't have any 6mm line in stock. Because I never wrote it down I promptly forgot about it.

Sure enough this is R9 rated according to the text printed on it, but the whole thing is shot. I've temporarily stuck an offcut of random fuel hose I had laying around to replace the bit that's actually failed, but the whole lot will be changed when the new hose arrives on Tuesday or Wednesday. The hose clips will be changed at the same time, and that screen filter will be ditched. There's already a pretty fine screen in the fuel valve, and if we've got all new line between that and the carb having an additional one is just redundant and an additional potential leak point.

I do wonder how long that's been leaking. It was just very gently seeping down the side of the carb before I moved that line. Thing is that because I turn the fuel supply off whenever the engine is stopped I likely wouldn't have ever seen more than the odd drip - and that's mostly going to evaporate pretty quick. I've never been aware of any smell of fuel though, and it really can't have been that obvious or the MOT tester would have picked up on it. Goes to show you can't be too careful though of things that are pretty well hidden from view. You really can't see any of this from above or below without pulling things off.

Don't forget about old fuel lines folks. Also buy good stuff from the likes of Glencoe - the so called fuel hose they sell these days in the places like Halfords is absolute junk and will be disintegrating in next to no time. I'd also trust anything from Amazon or eBay about as far as I can throw it as their is a ludicrous amount of counterfeit material on those platforms now. Yes Cohline stuff is expensive - but it's fit and forget and is far cheaper than having your car burn to the ground. Absolute bargain in my book. It's also so much more pleasant to work with than cheap hose as it's actually compliant so will go around corners.

I'll be taking it in to get it retested for the dead brake lights, but it won't be going any further than that until the fuel line has been changed in its entirety. I like mentioning stuff like this to my tester as between the two of us we're likely to remember to check things we've previously had issues with next year.

Other job I did was to pull the float bowl lid on the Rover's carb and replace the gasket for that, which was absolutely wrecked and I'm pretty sure if where the weeping issue we had there was coming from. I didn't get any further than that as I was both running out of time and was absolutely getting eaten alive by midges so was well and truly ready to beat a hasty retreat inside by then. I've never known anything like that in direct sunlight. They were just absolutely everywhere.

[Zelandeth]

That's that sorted for another year.



Fuel hose arrived this morning as well so that was the next item on the to do list. New line run from the tank to carb. All three or four feet of it.



This is the state of what came out.



Replaced this with the proper stuff.



It's pricey compared to random junk off eBay, but a whole lot cheaper than a car fire and means I only need to do the job once. If you find that it IS being sold as cheap as random unbranded line, it's fake and shouldn't be trusted beyond a get-you-home type fix.

Earliest job I used this stuff for was in 2019 and that line still looks brand new.

You can still see the shiny bits hiding on the Trabant just about if you look close enough.



Of course though no good deed ever goes unpunished.



The inner core of the bonnet release cable has pulled through the ferrule into the cabin. In fairness it's been gradually getting worse for months. Irked I forgot to order a replacement along with the brake light switch.

However...you may remember a year or so back I put a new engine in this car. As the carburettor was switched for a Mikuni at the same time I had to change the throttle and choke cables. Now I'm me...so of course they didn't go in the bin. Those cables were perfectly serviceable and I knew full well could be really useful when I least expected to need them, so they were hung on the wall in the garage.



Turns out the choke cable is identical to the bonnet release cable. Which honestly doesn't surprise me on this car. Why have two different cables on the bill of materials when two identical ones will do. Only difference is the knob that's screwed on the one end.

That should do just fine.



I'm pretty sure the bonnet release cable on the car isn't an OEM cable anyway purely because it uses an oddball fastener size whereas basically everything on the car is usually one of four sizes.

That will do.





will make a point of ordering a spare next time I'm getting parts in though.

Surprise surprise this all took about an hour, including figuring out how to get the bonnet open when the cable decided to disintegrate.

While I had the 6mm fuel line out I also replaced the bit of line between the PCV housing and the air intake on TPA as that's been slowly turning more and more to solid plastic for several years now. Something I inevitably found myself cursing every time I came to remove the air cleaner as it was nigh on impossible to get off the stub. Hopefully that won't be a problem going forward. You don't need to remove it very often but it's just an annoyance when you do.

[Zelandeth]

Despite the day being absolutely DETERMINED otherwise I did manage to get a bit of time this afternoon on cars.

The Rover has now had the valve clearances set properly. Intakes were a mixed bag of tight and loose which honestly didn't surprise me. Sounds a lot happier. Even if my fingers weren't - doing adjustments on an engine that's fully up to temperature is so much fun.



Quite a milestone has been achieved in that all of the bits of engine are now back in the engine bay rather than the boot.





Only thing I found that I'd forgotten was the bracket for the return spring on the carb. Which is no big deal given that said spring is currently MIA anyway. Honestly the return spring on the linkage does a fine job anyway. It's primarily there to ensure that if the linkage slips that the throttle plate will still return to the idle position. The one that was on there when the car arrived was far too strong and made the pedal really heavy to the point it was really hard to have any fine control over it. I'll chuck the bracket back on (it's about five minutes work) next time I'm in the area and keep my eyes out for a suitable spring.

We then went out and drove around our neighbourhood (so never more than a couple of hundred yards from home!) for about half an hour probably driving the neighbours mad with conspicuous straight six noises.

Findings.

[] Engine is definitely running far more smoothly.

[] Coolant temperature stayed right where it should be. Even once we were done I could remove the radiator cap without there being any noticeable pressure there. Previously this would have resulted in a foamy brown geyser if the engine had been idling for about ten minutes, never mind under load.

[] Steering is waaaaaaay better. It's still vague, but it's vague rather than "absolutely terrifying" as we started out with. I reckon the wheel alignment could maybe do with a slight tweak to improve the self centring a bit, but it's entirely driveable now. It was legitimately alarming as it was.

[] Brakes definitely need attention. There is definitely something not right. They do stop the car, and pretty evenly even. There is just way too much travel in the pedal and the rears are dragging. Handbrake is also totally absent. That's the next major thing on my to do list.

[] Centre glove box lid needs a latch. It really, really needs a latch. Or me to find the bit of cardboard which used to wedge it in place.



Preferably before it gives me yet another heart attack by dropping open as I release the clutch.

I need to make a tweak to the arm which limits how far it can drop to stop it hitting the gear lever when in 1st or 3rd. There wouldn't originally have been a cover here as that's where the radio was, but I actually quite like the idea of being able to completely hide a modern double DIN stereo with properly integrated navigation etc behind that door. Seems a nice balance of quality of life improvement while being able to completely hide it away when not in use like something in Lady Penelope's Rolls Royce.

Feels like decent progress now. It's astonishing how much less death defying walking pace feels when the steering works properly and the throttle isn't simply an (inconsistent) on/off switch.

[mickthemaverick]

Sounding sweet Zel!! Won't be long now!!

[Zelandeth]

Sounding sweet Zel!! Won't be long now!!

Hoping I can keep the enthusiasm going and get stuck into the brakes sooner than later. It's tantalisingly close to being legitimately driveable now. A thousand things to do, but an ever increasing percentage of those are things I can tinker with when the car is in use - and honestly I've found that using a car regularly is generally the best way to make it reliable.

I do need to go through the car end to end to make sure that there aren't loose bolts on critical things as there's a lot of evidence of this being a restoration that got to about 90% then was chucked back together to be sold.

The single biggest item on the "once it's proven itself" list will probably be a new pair of springs for the rear end. As is pretty standard for P4s those on this one have sagged badly so have very little spring to them any more. Thankfully they are readily available and not ruinously expensive. Will transform the car though once changed. Oh, and probably a set of tyres in the not too distant future - these are already perishing! Won't be buying Hankooks again that's for sure. These were newly fitted only a couple of months before I got the car.

[Zelandeth]

Look what turned up to visit yesterday evening.



Last seen departing in August 2022 to a new owner. Said new owner has done a lot of great work getting her back up and running. The car is now back in regular use. Has definitely landed with the right person as they absolutely love the car. They'd always pictured themselves with a higher spec car rather than a humble 14RE but they have very much fallen for it.

Only had a quick run out in the car, but the thing which surprised me the most (aside from the ride which honestly isn't a surprise!) is how incredibly quiet it is at speed. They are such comfortable old things.

I remember thinking that it must have had a replacement instrument panel at some point as the general wear and tear on the car didn't add up to the 150K it was showing on the clock - and having now ridden in it under normal driving I continue to believe that. Even knowing that they do wear their miles well, I really don't believe it's a 150K mile car.

This was very much an impromptu visit, but we're hoping to have a better get together at some point in the future where I'll grab some better up to date photos etc.

I do believe I might have found something responsible for the god awful clonking noise coming from the offside front of the Rover.



Yes, the entire upper bush of the drop link being missing miiiight have something to do with it.

The one on the nearside is all there but has about 1/4" of free play everywhere.



New set of drop links has been ordered. I could in theory change just the bushings, assuming I can get things to come apart, but a whole set is pretty inexpensive so just time to change them I think.

Discovered while I was in the area that a whole bunch of the bolts holding the spring seat into the lower arm were basically finger tight. Yep. I stand by my previous comment that I need to go through this car end to end to find nonsense like that before something critical falls off.

Also have ascertained that the reserve fuel pickup line is plugged - albeit not very well.



I'll need to get in there with some non-decomposing fuel line and clamps at least.

I am hiiiiighly suspicious of that loose looking bolt in the background as well. I didn't notice that in person and am not sure what it's supposed to be holding in place...it obviously needs checking out properly.

I had planned to dig into the rear brakes today however need to try to un-seize the adjusters first so I can back the shoes off enough so the drums will come off... currently they're binding tightly so nothing obviously wants to move - however the adjusters are very disinterested in moving at the moment. They've been doused liberally in Plus gas and left to think about what they've done. I'll revisit the matter in the near future with a longer spanner and large hammer to hopefully persuade them to play ball.

Also on the subject of brakes, the light on the dash was very erratic in its operation I had found. I'm sure that this wire just being stuffed into the connector rather than you know...being connected...might have something to do with that.



The fact that I'd played exactly the same game with my previous P4 also gave me a bit of a head start. That wire was just floating around in the engine bay when I got the car. With the terminal remade reliable operation was restored.



Tiny item on the to do list, but they all count at the end of the day.