Tips & Tricks

Tips om P4 bromsar - bara på engelska

Att spraya metallic - bara på engelska

Att justera Zenith Stromberg förgasare - bara på engelska

Att installera en Delco växelströmsgenerator i en P6 - bara på engelska

Att installera en generator i en P6 - bara på engelska

Så renoverar du kolfiltret i en P6:a - bara på engelska

Silikon hjälp för elektriska antenner

Ett enkelt sätt att hindra P6:ans motorhuv från att skaka

Enklaste sättet att byta ratt - bara på engelska

Så gör du rent bromsskivor från rost - bara på engelska

Att få igång en koppling - bara på engelska

SD1:ans bränslepump

Att fixa nya P6-säten - bara på engelska

Att justera styrsnäckan på en P6 - bara på engelska

Om Holley förgasare på Rover V8 - bara på engelska

Så byter du hydralslangen till kopplingen - bara på engelska

En text om extrem förslitning av kamaxeln - bara på engelska

Ny träinredning till Landies och Rangies

Så byter du till en femväxlad manuell låda i P6B

Rotorarm till nöds för V8-an

Mobil har en bra sida om rekommenderade smörjoljor till Rover från 1966 och fram till nu

Blyfri bensin till gamla Rovers

Care should be taken when rebuilding the 3-bolt P4 master cylinder.
I dismantled mine (it leaked) and found the correct rear seal as per the manual but when I looked at the piston it was not correct. No wonder it leaked!
It appears there is a variation in the pistons in these cylinders. One has a ridge to support the seal and the other doesnt. If the piston has a ridge in the machined area of the piston the seal should have a short inside lip and a long outside lip. If the piston has a straight machined recess use the seal with a long inside seal and a short outside lip.
The Australian PBR kit K7390X has both seals included but the new main seals must use a new plastic backing washer (supplied) not the existing steel washer.
As with all brake work remember the 3C's Clean, Careful, Cautious. These systems are not hard to work on if you keep your eyes open.

Thanks to:
Jim Boffey

Before making a career change into the IT industry I was self-employed doing car repairs for a while and I can honestly say that one of the things I hated most was metallic-paint repair jobs. Even if you can get a near perfect finish, it never matches the other panels 100%. Aerosol cans are particularly nasty, FWIW here are a few tips I found helpful using metallic paint in cans:

1. Ambient temperature. The paint dries quicker in hot conditions and this can lead to discolouration.

2. Mix the paint well. Give the can a bloody good shaking for at least 5 minutes before using and continue to shake in between passes.

3. Distance and angle of spray. Keep can 90 degrees from the surface being sprayed at about 25-30 cms distance. Spray in passes in a grid pattern, left-right and up-down. Keep each pass under a max of 50 cms wide. This will ensure a better likelihood of an even coating and better colour consistency.

4. If doing a large area in one go have a few spare nozzles from old cans that have been cleaned in white spirit. Change nozzle as soon as you notice it starting to clog up to avoid it changing the spray pattern or spitting "blobs" of paint.

5. If a large area is being done weigh up the cost of dissapointment of a bodged job against either getting it done professionally or hiring a proper compressor and spray gun.

6. Use an old scrap panel or door to practice, practice, practice.

I did once try using T-Cut on some paint before the laquer to try and balance it, but the result was crap and I had to start over again. If it all goes wrong, don't try to salvage it, sand it down and start again. At the end of the day it's down to experience, so try, try again!

Peter Bennett, NHRCC Events Secretary

Can anybody tell me how to adjust the fuel mixture on the carburetors of a V8? I have no CO-analyser, only my ears, common sense and a balanser.

Stromberg carbs or more correctly Zenith Stromberg CD carbs can be fitted with 3 different type of mixture adjuster depending on the model year.

N.B - The most common type of problem with these carbs is a small hole in the rubber diaphragm. Replace these before thinking about altering the mixture. Replace every 2 years. They fail regularly and even a pin hole will result in rough running or a roadside breakdown.

1. Early carbs - adjusted by raising or lowering the jet via a big brass Hex screw in the bottom of the carb. This can be adjusted with the engine running. The latter carbs only have a sheet metal brass plug in the bottom DON'T TRY TO REMOVE THIS PLUG as it can't be replaced.

The later carbs fall into two types. Both adust the mixture by raising or lowering the needle in the piston. These carbs can only be adjusted (according to the book ) with the engine stopped.

2. Early "swing needle" type - a hex socket screw in the bottom of the carb damper (remove the dashpot oil filler cap/damper and you can see it hidden in the bottom below the oil) adjusted from the top using a special allen key and outer sleeve with a locking pip which prevents the piston turning - turning the allen key anti-clockwise weakens - clockwise enriches the mixture.

3. Later swing needle type - as above but allen key no longer fits and is replaced by a special tool to turn the jet adjuster - the end of the tool resembles the head of slot headed screw with the slot slightly offset from the tools shaft centre line.

I found the best alternator to use was a 63 amp. With built in regulator. This alternator fits onto the original Rover dynamo bracket with the addition of another leg welded or bolted in the correct place to pick up the back support bracket of the alternator.
First disconnect the battery
You must make sure that you bolt the alternator to the correct side of the Rover bracket at the front so as the pulley is in line for the drive belt. You will have to go to your local wrecking yard and buy an adjusting bracket that has a curve in it as the plastic one that is fitted to your Rover will not fit the alternator it is not long enough and needs to have a curve in it.
Before installing the alternator look at the back and familiarize yourself with the electrical connections. There are three in all, a 3/16 bolt off to one side with a nut on it, this is the 12volt supply terminal, around the out side edge you will see two spade terminals recessed into the body of the alternator these are marked R = for regulator and F = for field.

Once the alternator is in place and the drive belt on and adjusted the next step is to start the wiring, first you need to supply the alternator with 12 volts, this you connect to the 12volt supply terminal, the 3/16 bolt.
On automatics you can take this feed from the hot terminal of the starter motor solenoid as it is on the same side of the engine and not far from the alternator, you should use at least a #10 wire, If you run this wire behind the engine mount leg be sure it is well insulated and will not rub on the engine mount.
On the TC the feed can still be taken from the starter solenoid, except the solenoid is not mounted on the starter motor. Make a short jumper wire long enough to Connected from the 12 volt supply terminal on the Alternator to the spade connector marked 'F' on the alternator.

At this point with only these connections made the alternator will now charge and regulate itself. But the ignition warning light will not work.So if you are not bothered about a warning light or if it is charging or not, the job is finished.
If you want the ignition warning light to work, this is what you do. Down by the new alternator you will see the two wires that you removed from the dynamo generator when you removed it.
One has a large spade connector the other a small spade connector, take the wire with the large spade connector and fold it back on itself and tape it back out of the way, now take the small spade connector and plug it in to the terminal on the back of the alternator marked 'R' = relay. Now go up to your original Lucas relay unit and unplug the spade connector marked 'F'=Field and the spade connector marked 'W L'=warning light. Now you need to join these to wires together with a 10 ohm resister in parallel.
The best way to put this lot together is by using a plastic connector block, as you must make sure that none of these connections touch the body of the car ie. ground. Do not put the resister inside the car behind the dash as it will get warm during it's operation it needs to be under the hood where it has ventilation. Having made this connection your ignition warning light will now work i.e. when you turn on the ignition the ignition warning light will come on and when you start the engine and the alternator starts to charge it will go out. If it comes on while driving it means that your alternator has stopped charging.

Barry Lafbery
Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada

Q: Has anyone converted a 2000 TC dynamo/generator equipped electrical system to a single wire alternator system?
A: For a start all aternators require at least 2 wires to work - battery (B) and warning light (WL) - what I think you want to fit is an alternator with built in regulator - an ACR - these generally have 3 connections but apart from very early "battery sensing" types two of these terminals are internally connected and hence only require 2 connections to work.
Use a Lucas 38ACR or larger Lucas ACR alternator as this type of unit will accept your existing pulleys and bracket and fanbelt without problem - note these units come in left and right handed versions but it is possible to convert one to the other by undoing 3 screws and rotating the front casting.

Connections this type and other 3 wire alternators three connections:
1. 15 amp lucar spade - warning light
2. 2 off - 35 amp lucar spades connect 1 or both to the battery + terminal.

To convert a car fitted with a separate alternator control box (or a dynamo) to an ACR alternator simply mount the alternator connect together at the control box the main feed (thick brown wire) to battery to thick wire that goes to the alternator and connect this to one of the 35 amp spades.
Then connect the wire (WL) that connects the control box to the dahboard warning light to wire what was formerly the field (F) wire and connect this to the 15 amp spade on the alternator.
In addition I normally connect the remaining spade connector to battery (either at the battery termminal or the battery connection on the starter solenoid using heavy gauge wire).
Note that ACR units are very dependant on good well made connections and arcing will cause voltage spikes which will stop the the alternator charging.

Thanks to Andy MacFadyen

The charcoal canisters are there for escaping fumes from the carbs. They absorb the excess fuel vapors when the engine is turned off that escape from the carb(s). Ever wonder why your older cars smell up the garage with gas fumes after a drive and then sitting? That's the fuel vapors escaping from expansion of fuel going out the float vent.
Once the car is restarted, the excess fuel is then drawn back into the carbs where high idle creates a high vacuum.
The canisiters do double duty. It keeps fuel vapors from escaping into the atmosphere and helps provide a richer mixture needed when running cold. If the carbs were to flood, the canisters have a return line to the tank so they will not overflow into the atmosphere.
Actually, with no moving parts and a simple function, they are quite an ingenious item.
--
You can replace the charcoal in the canisters with stuff of comparable granularity [about 2mm.] obtained from a pet/hobby shop, normally sold for aquaria. Too fine and it would pack; too coarse and it would jam when poured in. Very fiddly and time consuming. You have to get the granules round the bend without going round the bend yourself!
On reflection, in future I'd drill a hole in the top or side and fit a plug for filling. I seem to recall there's a cautionary note in the workshop manual to not blast air into them. In case they explode, one presumes. They were obviously not designed to be maintained.

Den elektriska antennen fastar efter ett tag. Gör ren den och smörj med silicon så fastnar den inte.

Tipstack till: Ulf Ericsson

Så här fixar du det lätt!

Skallrar ofta lite under högre farter och det finns risk att den helt tappar greppet och flyger upp. Här får du ett tips för att enkelt fixa detta.

En bra sak med denna lösning är att du lätt kan ta bort och dölja tampen när du vill visa upp bilen lite snyggare.
Vilken typ av tamp du använder har ingen större betydelse, Dennis som kommit med tipset använder ett nylonsnöre. Avpassa snöret så att det precis slinker över gummit, sedan lossnar det inte av sig självt.

Denna lilla fingerplatta underlättar öppnandet av motorhuven avsevärt. Dennis har gjort den i aluminium och popnitat dit den

Bilderna föreställer en Rover 3500S, USA-varianten, från 1971. Den köptes i original av min far, Michael Brooks, våren 1971. Jag köpte bilen för två år sedan, då jag upptäckte att den fortfarande var körbar och fanns drygt sex mil från där jag bor.
Det är just denna bil som jag körde första gången och övningskörde i för körkortet när jag bara var 16 år, så det var verkligen spännande att få tillbaka den i familjen.
Enligt mätaren har bilen gått knappt 20 0000 mil och har nu genomgått en totalrenovering och är i toppenkondition. Den går ortroligt bra. Jag har en Bendz också, men Rovern är mycket trevligare, så Bendzen är till salu.

Dennis Brooks

Shifting a steering wheel has almost never presented a problem to me. The trick I learned is as follows:
Grab the wheel at 9 and 3 o'clock. Pull hard with one hand and push hard with the other and then wriggle with stretched arms. When necessary repeat at 12 and 6 o'clock.
When the wheel was fitted to the correct torque eg. off factory, this way of removing has but once failed me when some nutter torqued down the wheel far to much which is very dangerous, it can crack the boss unnoticed and up till the days of airbags on every car I have owned I fitted a Moto Lita 14" steering wheel. (About 20 is not exaggerated). Try it. Good luck.
Lex
I couldn't believe the brute force and swearing needed to shift a steering wheel off it's splines, and I was just glad that I followed a mates advice and left the retaining nut still a few turns on to stop. Then I use a steering wheel puller or a gear puller if the steering wheel isn't equipped with bolt holes. Never been able to just pull it off.
Gavin

Q
After 8 years storage my rotors are rusty. What is best way of cleaning off rust to become drivable with out dissassembly and having them turned down.

A
Assuming they're not badly pitted
Unbolt and hang the front calipers
Wire brush the rust to remove the loose stuff
Spray them with brake disc cleaner
Put everything back together

The brake pads will do a good job of cleaning up the discs. For very light surface rust just drive off and let the pads clean it up.

Best way to go about it without removing the rotors is with coarse sandpaper.

Q
Okay, everybody
Near as I can tell, the new but dormant for several months clutch on my SD1 is stuck to the flywheel. Please contribute a variety of yarns and sage advice about freeing clutches. I don't want to hear anyone suggest that I drop the trans and do it the right way. My psyche isn't up to it, right now.
Come on, now, everybody participate . . .
Glen Wilson


A
Select a gear then tow the car slowly and drop the clutch.
Worked for me.
Rob Connolly

Start the engine and (with some help) push the car fast enough to pull the stick into second gear. You may hear the gearbox complain just a bit. Once in gear, push the clutch pedal in and accellerate and decellerate while holding the clutch in. You'll probably need a short stretch of road, but the disc should free up without much trouble.
This method has always worked for me. The flywheel and pressure plate probably just rusted a bit, and sort of "glued" themselves to the disc.
Duane Kennard

Have you thought of towing and working the clutch as you pass through the lovely Pennsylvania countryside? How about putting the car in gear, setting the brakes and barring the engine over by hand. With the engine running, set the brakes and shift into gear? Of course, you could also simply pull the engine . . .
Merle K Peirce

Frozen clutch in Denmark usually means a rusted together lump of immovable parts after a winter in the garage. Problem is easily solved though, just get the car to a straight road and run it for a couple of miles, on a high way without much traffic. The vibrations and the heat change will freee the most "frozen" clutch within a couple of minutes.
Willdo Tek

This way you avoid a frozen clutch!
If you have a manual transmission keep the clutch depressed using a wood block to hold the pedal down This will avoid the clutch plate "freezing" to the flywheel.
Patrick

Bensinpumpen till SD1 3500 EFi kan lätt hittas i Sverige, antingen ny eller på skroten. På Rover har de nr. 0580 464 014. På t.ex. BMW 320i -85 har den nr. 0580 464 013. Det enda som skiljer är el-kabelanslutningarna: flatstift på Rover och kabelsko med muttrar på BMW. Mycket lätt att modifiera. På "bildelsbasen.se" är det bara att välja vart man ska åka för att köpa den.

Tipstack till: Fredrik Wallerius

Dennis Brooks in Canada is a professional upholsterer - and a Roverfan.

This is what Dennis says about the P6 seats:
The Rover seats are basic construction as far as the coverings are concerned. You will find that often leather seats are really only leather faced, so the replacement panel of leather is quite small. My P6B has a good quality vinyl that is still on the market today - even a good grain match.
There are only two metal fabric tension bars used on a P6 seat unit and they are no problem to fasten in place. So although it takes time to remove and refit upholstery it is not a hard process.

As my 2000 project nears roadworthiness, I've noticed something strange. When the steering wheel is at center, there is little free play (a couple of degrees) and the wheel moves smoothly when the front end is off the ground. However, at extreme lock one way or another, I've noticed a large amount of play in the wheel (30-45 degrees) where it doesn't feel like the wheel has anything going on on the other end. Being familiar with rack and pinion steering only (the 2000 being the first car I've driven that uses a different system) I'm worried. Is this a sign of impending doom, or is this normal? It doesn't get in the way of normal driving, just in tight parking lots. Speaking of steering and suspension, is there any hope of taking this car in for a 4-wheel alignment at a major garage chain, or is this something that only a Rover specialist would know how to do?
Tomas

This is perfectly normal. The steering gear is setup with nearly zero play in the center position. When turned to maximum lock you will get a fair amount of play. This is because of the way the steering gear internals are machined. In part this is because the greatest wear occurs in the straight-ahead position. (If you drive 600 000 miles or more you'll have steering with no play anywhere.
If you want to adjust it, jack the front wheels off the ground and then adjust the box until you have minimum play center, but no stiffness or binding when turning the wheel. It's possible to get it working really smooth this way.

Carburettor CFM=3D


Engine Engine_cid_x_Max_rpm
3456

Therefore 215_x_6000 =3D 373.2 cfm
3456

So far the 390 cfm Holley is close enough.

These figures equate to a volumetric efficiency of 100%. Since the VE of a standard Rover V8 is about 75% the Holley 390 is more than adequate. In fact ideally suited.
The Holley 4160 has a fixed metering plate equivalent to a secondary jet of .53.which is too lean.
The Holley 4150 has a secondary metering block,where you can change the jets if needed.

There are a number of variables which have to be taken into consideration, such as Single or Dual plane inlet manifolds, compression ratio, even your height above sea level.
The Holley is a very basic, simple carburettor. I wish every carb had the same facilities for fine tuning.
The settings which I have found that work well with a Rover V8 are: - Primary-.52 Secondary-.54 Power valve 7.5 Hg and .28 squirter obviously these need fine tuning according to your own applications.
From what I`ve read Hardcastle is only reading from other books not from personal experience, I might be wrong but I dont think so . . .
I have 25 years experience as a motor mechanic,specialising in rover V8`s I have owned P4,P5,P6 and 27 SD1`s including one twin turbo fuel injected SD1(very quick).
Basically a Holley is very simple but if you dont know what your doing leave it to someone who does.
And remember if it aint broke dont fix it!

Jim Allen

Q.
I need to replace the flexible (plastic) brake line that connects to the clutch slave cylinder. It leaks at the connector. Any help?


A.
Any industrial supply store that does hydraulics can supply suitable replacement.
It's a straightforward nylon tube. Get the counterman to look for size to match the ID and wall of the existing hose away from the fitting and a pressure rating of 1200+ lbs working.
To install, remove the old tube from the metal fittings WITHOUT putting lengthwise scratches on. Clean up the metal stubs.
Mark the tubing for the length you want pushed on to the stub with a feltpen. Heat the nylon in, at most, boiling water, then push the tubing onto the stub.
Done.
The essential part is that the tubing be undersized compared to the metal stub.
Thanks to:
Vern Klukas

This was written by a man named Jim Allen (jimallen@onlinecol.com) and seems to be an excellent and authoritative description of the cam wear problem in our stock 3.5 liter Rover V8s. It's worth reading.

Jim writes:
For about 4 years, while I worked at a Rover dealership ('87-93), we had a cam wear problem on 3.5L engines. It dated back a ways (prior to the USA intro), according to many sources, and was common on any engine with the "detox" or "low lift" cams (the NAS '87-88 3.5L had the low lift cams). To a lesser degree, the other 3.5Ls were affected as well. A lot of cams were warranteed on 3.5L Rover engines from '87 until the last of those vehicles went out of warranty.

Most engines affected
We discovered the problem while repairing a rash of intake manifold coolant leaks. The bad lobes were often readily visible. After that we started checking when the engine was down. The earliest cam failure I saw was at 1,100 miles but I have torn apart about 50 NAS 3.5L engines in my career and only a handful did not show abnormal wear.
The 3.9, 4.0, 4.2 and 4.6L engines seem immune to the problem to a large degree, due to better designs and manufacturing. In the course of doing an article on cams a few years back, I queried 8 cam manufacturers, including some in the UK, about the problem. I was told it was due to two situations; the small diameter of the cam (which leaves less surface area when the profile is ground) and poor heat treating. Lack of maintenance, internal coolant leaks or subgrade oil made the problem worse. The surface area problem was solved by using more of the material in the blank when the cam was ground and the heat treating was improved.

Check with dial indicator
As to checking, the bad lobes can be identified visually but if you don't know what to look for by experience, you will only spot it when it gets very bad. The best method with an assembled engine is via a dial indicator. You will need to remove the rocker arms to do this, as the lifters will bleed down via valve spring pressure and give inaccurate readings. You can use the pushrods to measure from. Put the cam on the center of the heel to zero the dial and then rotate the engine to the peak lift point and record the results. Test each lobe a couple of times until you can dublicate the results exactly each time. Since the hardening is little more than .010-012" thick, if the readings vary more than that, lobe to lobe, you are into the soft stuff somewhere. Also, you can compare the reading to the lift specs in the manuals. If you have a cam out, you can mike the lobes, compareing differences between the lobes or to a new cam of the same grind.

Bad timing!
As to checking timing chains, I tested the cam timing of about 30 vehicles in the course of my Rover dealership work. Any time I had the front cover off and had a few extra minutes, I checked with a degree wheel.
I was curious as to why one engine could be a rip-snorter and the next a dog. I found that only five or six of the engines I tested were at, or close enough to, the factory spec. About a third were advanced a few degrees (up to about 4 degrees- making them the rip-sporters) and the rest were retarded (the dogs) to varying amounts (up to 8 freaking degrees). Going farther, I checked to find where the errors came from and found that every cam I checked was dead on and the end result was that the timing gears were the cause. The keyways were machined incorrectly. After that, I did not trust the factory timing gear. The few (maybe two) I replaced under warranty (no, they would not replace the units for timing errors unless the engine was grossly effected), I checked for accuracy and swapped sets with the parts dept to get a good set. If the customer was buying, I installed a Cloyes True Roller set.
I know of one customer who could feel the difference, seat of the pants!

Hope this helps
Jim Allen

Steve Feeser tillverkar trädetaljer till instrumentpaneler för Range Rover och Land Rover Discovery. Han skeppar iväg cirka 2000 till kunder över hela jorden varje månad.
Det finns satser för Range Rover årsmodellerna 1996 till 1999 och för Discovery får årsmodelellerna 1997 till 1999.
Satserna innehåller 20 delar och passar till det trä som fabriken monterat i bilarna.
Du kan få mer information via telefon: 800 327-4874 eller skicka epost Steve Feeser - och glöm då inte påpeka att du fick tag på honom via RCoS Webbsida!

Det går utmärkt att sätta in en femväxlad manuell SD1-växellåda i en P6B. Detta byte gör P6:an avsevärt trevligare att köra.

Ett litet tips för alla med V8-motorn. Om fördelardosans rotorarm går sönder och du inte får tag i en ny direkt, går det tillfälligt att använda rotorarmen från en 2-liters Nissan Bluebird. Med hjälp av en sådan kan du i alla fall ta dig hem eller till en butik där du kan köpa en ny "riktig" rotorarm.
Tom Willis

Ja - sannolikt!
Det er stort sett selve ventilsetet i topplokket som er det kritiske ved overgang til blyfri bensin da disse ofte er laget i støpejern (gjutjarn) I støpejernstopplokk er oftest ventilsetene bare maskinert inn i topplokket. Selve ventilene er også kritiske noen ganger. Disse er i det minste alltid av stål, men i noen motorer er legeringen ikke god nok, og disse må også skiftes ved overgang til blyfri bensin.

Noen gamle motorer fra 50 - 60 og 70 tallet kan gå på blyfri bensin allerede i standard skick. Dette er stort sett sportsmotorer eller high performance utgavene av standardbiler (Rover 2000 TC ?). Noen motorer fra Alfa Romeo og Porsche er eksempler på dette. Disse motorene har allerede fra fabrikken en veldig høy material kvalitet på de nevnte deler.

De dårligste motorene som gir størst problem ved overgang til blyfri bensin er motorene med topplokk i støpejern fordi ventilsetene oftest er maskinert rett inn i topplokket. Dette er tilfelle med motorene som satt i bl.a. Austin Allegro, og de minste Roverne som ble laget helt inn på 90 tallet!

Det er altså blyet i bensinen som smører disse delene så det ikke skjer en såkalt "valveseat resession" Dette dreier seg om tap av metall fra disse delene, ventilene graver seg ned i setene, eller disse brenner i stykker.

Mange steder (i Tyskland) kan man kjøpe tilsatts til bensinen som skal erstatte blyet. Dette blir dyrt i lengden, og er heller ikke godt nok hevdes det fra flere hold.

Det er kun under stor belastning at ventilene og setene blir så varme at de kan skades av blyfri bensin. Hvis man kjører forsiktig, kan man kjøre også gamle motorer på blyfri. Man skal altså ikke kjøre lengre strekk med mye gass (motorveikjøring) eller trekke campingvogner!