1984 Rover SD1 Vitesse
Discussion
I couldn't handle it anymore, the amount of oil that was leaking from the sump was getting out of hand. I needed to replace the gasket.
In the constant battle against bodges that have been done in the past, the sump gasket was one of the few left.
I had been ignoring it since I got the car. A nice coating of oil on the whole underside of the car, and the need for a drip tray under where ever it parks. I did check where it was leaking from a while ago, and narrowed it down to the sump gasket, which someone had made a complete and utter mess of by over tightening the sump during refitting.
When a cork gasket is over tightened it doesn't just compress like a rubber gasket, but it actually flattens and squashes out. Obviously this is no good for sealing
So when I had the car up on the QuickJacks the other day doing the hand brake, I also decided to remove the sump and deal to it. I got a replacement gasket from Rimmers ages ago, but just needed time to do it.
I started by draining the sump, and then cracking off and loosening all the sump bolts (some of which weren't more than finger tight anyway). Most of them are straight forward, other than the two right in the back near the bell housing, which are hidden by the sump reinforcement plate, and the one on each side of the sump above the steering rack.
With this done, it was time to lift the engine. The manual calls for lifting it with a jack on the crank pulley, and undoing one engine mount. This is what I did, but in hindsight I would use an engine support bar from above the engine, and undo both engine mounts.
The reason for this, is that in my case, with my jack I needed a good stack of blocks on the jack to even touch the crank pulley, which made for some hairy moments. I used some blocks of wood and two of my spare low QuickJack rubber blocks. This was with my QuickJacks lowered to their first stop. At full height I had no hope.
And I disconnected the RH engine mount (the manual calls for the LH side but I'm not sure what difference it makes. I had more space to undo the mount on the RH side due to where the car is in the garage)
The other issues this caused for me, was that the engine could only be lifted so high, because the other engine mount was still connected, and the engine tilts over to that side. You couldn't undo both with just the jack under the engine, it would likely slip off the jack and it would be game over. I also had issues with the jack getting in the way of me rolling around under the car. It's not the end of the world, but I wouldn't do it this way again.
So with the engine lifted, slide under the car and remove all the bolts. Don't forget the two big bolts on the bell housing for the reinforcement plate. With all of them out, the sump should be able to be freed from the engine. Mine wasn't really stuck with anything so almost freed its self. Now with some wiggling and jiggling, the sump can be slid out from the back of the crossmember and down.
The remains of the sealant and gasket. Thankfully the inside of the engine looks really nice, just a fine golden coating on everything.
I did notice this crud stuck to the pickup through. Not sure what it was; not bearing/metal, maybe old sealant. I cleaned the pickup anyway.
With the pan on the bench you start to see what a state its in. Covered in oil, sludge and gross.
It was hard to get a photo, but there was some sludge in the bottom of the sump too. This is what sits in the pan even after the oil is drained.
Remains of gasket/goo, and some pine needles that caught a ride from my old house
The sump its self is actually in decent shape over all, considering how low the car was and the damage its done to the rest of the underside, but there are only minimal dents and scrapes on the sump.
Looks nice and black doesn't it? Well, guess what, that wasn't paint. After a thorough de-grease and clean
It had almost no paint left on it! It did have a lot of surface rust though, so I gave it a quick scuff and coated it in rust converter
Whilst that cured I cleaned and degreased the bolts, and then threw them into the ultrasonic with some Simple Green
Of course I wasn't just going to leave the sump purple with rust converter, but first I needed to address a serious issue I had
Because some muppet had went full ugga dugga on the sump bolts, it had massacred the poor little flange. There were serious gaps between the bolt holes, where it should be flat
Not only that, but the flange was twisted downwards, away from the sump. It's hard to get a photo of, with my technical straight edge, but you can see it slopes away from the RH side of the wood. It should be flat against it.
It was like this the whole way around. No wonder it pissed oil out
I first used a hammer and block to flatten down the bolt holes, so they were no longer raised above the rest of the flange. Normally you would use a large socket or the likes to fit around the hole, and bash it flat onto the socket so you don't flatten out the indents in the middle of the flange, but mine were almost flat anyway, so I proceeded with plank. You can see bashed bolt hole on the left of plank, and raised on the right.
With the holes flattened, I now had to bring the flange back up again. This was done with a rag and vice grips. Using many small little upwards tweaks along the flange, working in sections, I eventually managed to pull it back up and almost flat again
It's a lot better than it was
With the flange kind of usable again, the whole pan got a couple of coats of black Zinc paint
Now I must say, this work had happened over the course of a few days. I removed the sump on Monday with plans to refit it Tuesday morning. Unfortunately health issues have left me barely able to leave the couch the past few days, so it wasn't until Wednesday that I could even get around to painting the pan, and that took all available energy to do.
Anyone familiar with Rover V8 engines will now be experiencing the same concern I did, how long can the engine sit without a sump on until the oil pump drains and oil pressure is lost? I left the oil filter on, and didn't touch it, because it's not very old and removing it would be a 100% sure-fire way to drain the oil pump, but there are many stories of people draining the sump, leaving it an undefined period of time, and upon refilling finding they have no oil pressure and either damaging the engine, or having to prime the pump (which is a job in its self).
I couldn't leave it much longer, so today, Friday, I HAD to get the sump back on and filled with oil. Even after 3-4 days I was concerned about the oil pump.
So I downed a big bowl of Weet-bix, smashed half a bottle of water, took some pain killers and down into the garage I went.
There aren't many photos because it was hard enough to do the job its self, but I'll give you what I can. First was to clean all the mating surfaces and get them nice and clean. I used a wire brush on the pan, and a scraper and rags on the engine block.
Then I laid a bead of sealant on the pan, smoothed it out with my finger and laid the gasket onto the pan, using bolts to keep the gasket in place. Sealant was smeared on the top of the gasket also
I then made sure the engine was as high as possible (remember, it had been sitting on my jack, raised, since Monday), and I slid under the car with the sump.
Refitting was a prick. Part of it was not being able to get enough clearance to the power steering hoses/crossmember, so lifting the engine from the top with no engine mounts connected would help this. It was a very mess job trying to get the gasket and pan into place without the gasket getting stuck and tearing, or falling into the pan.
Eventually I got it into place, and popped a couple of bolts in to hold it in place. The easiest I found to do were the two big ones for the reinforcement plate at the rear, and a couple of small ones at the front.
This is where I lowered the engine down and reinstalled the engine mount bolts, so I could get the jack out of the way and give me better access with the engine secure.
With some fiddling (and having to fish the back of the gasket out of the pan and back onto the flange), I got all the bolts back in. Make sure you can see the gasket all the way around the pan, so you don't end up pinching it or missing a section.
The torque spec for this is 14NM, so I tightened the bolts up finger tight first, in a diagonal pattern, and then using a torque wrench I nipped them up to 14NM, still in a diagonal pattern. This feels like a lot of torque, and I'd hate to think how tight they had been to do the damage to the pan and gasket they had previously!
Finally the pan was on, sealed and tightened. The gasket had pushed out around the bolts a little, but nowhere near as bad as it had been.
I did need to remove the clutch slave cylinder to gain access to the bolts on the RH side rear of the sump. Unfortunately this indicated to me that mine is leaking brake fluid, and missing a bolt, so it's stuffed. Will need to order a new one.
With the pan on, I dropped just over 4L of oil into the pan, checked the level, and we were good to test the oil pump. With everything crossed, I disconnected the coil, and injector resistor pack (so the engine wouldn't start), reconnected the battery and turned the key. I cranked for about 20 seconds, and although the pressure light didn't go out (I wouldn't expect it to with my slow starter), I could see the pressure gauge raise slightly. Now for the moment of truth. I opened the garage door, reconnected the coil and injectors, and turned the key....
And the sweet sounds of my people filled my garage, oh and the oil pressure gauge shot up and the light went out. Thank fark, the oil pump is still primed!
So that's where I am now. I still need to replace the transmission mounts which have turned to jello from oil contamination, and back the car out for a thorough water blasting and degreasing, but unfortunately that will have to wait. The good thing is though, worry, stress and concern is no good for recovery, but now that I know Tess is OK, i don't have to worry about that and she can just chill down there with her bad self.
Oh, and it gives me time to source a new clutch slave cylinder, at considerable cost. Buying parts for the Mini has spoilt me, with ease of availability and low prices. Rover parts have neither of those.
In the constant battle against bodges that have been done in the past, the sump gasket was one of the few left.
I had been ignoring it since I got the car. A nice coating of oil on the whole underside of the car, and the need for a drip tray under where ever it parks. I did check where it was leaking from a while ago, and narrowed it down to the sump gasket, which someone had made a complete and utter mess of by over tightening the sump during refitting.
When a cork gasket is over tightened it doesn't just compress like a rubber gasket, but it actually flattens and squashes out. Obviously this is no good for sealing
So when I had the car up on the QuickJacks the other day doing the hand brake, I also decided to remove the sump and deal to it. I got a replacement gasket from Rimmers ages ago, but just needed time to do it.
I started by draining the sump, and then cracking off and loosening all the sump bolts (some of which weren't more than finger tight anyway). Most of them are straight forward, other than the two right in the back near the bell housing, which are hidden by the sump reinforcement plate, and the one on each side of the sump above the steering rack.
With this done, it was time to lift the engine. The manual calls for lifting it with a jack on the crank pulley, and undoing one engine mount. This is what I did, but in hindsight I would use an engine support bar from above the engine, and undo both engine mounts.
The reason for this, is that in my case, with my jack I needed a good stack of blocks on the jack to even touch the crank pulley, which made for some hairy moments. I used some blocks of wood and two of my spare low QuickJack rubber blocks. This was with my QuickJacks lowered to their first stop. At full height I had no hope.
And I disconnected the RH engine mount (the manual calls for the LH side but I'm not sure what difference it makes. I had more space to undo the mount on the RH side due to where the car is in the garage)
The other issues this caused for me, was that the engine could only be lifted so high, because the other engine mount was still connected, and the engine tilts over to that side. You couldn't undo both with just the jack under the engine, it would likely slip off the jack and it would be game over. I also had issues with the jack getting in the way of me rolling around under the car. It's not the end of the world, but I wouldn't do it this way again.
So with the engine lifted, slide under the car and remove all the bolts. Don't forget the two big bolts on the bell housing for the reinforcement plate. With all of them out, the sump should be able to be freed from the engine. Mine wasn't really stuck with anything so almost freed its self. Now with some wiggling and jiggling, the sump can be slid out from the back of the crossmember and down.
The remains of the sealant and gasket. Thankfully the inside of the engine looks really nice, just a fine golden coating on everything.
I did notice this crud stuck to the pickup through. Not sure what it was; not bearing/metal, maybe old sealant. I cleaned the pickup anyway.
With the pan on the bench you start to see what a state its in. Covered in oil, sludge and gross.
It was hard to get a photo, but there was some sludge in the bottom of the sump too. This is what sits in the pan even after the oil is drained.
Remains of gasket/goo, and some pine needles that caught a ride from my old house
The sump its self is actually in decent shape over all, considering how low the car was and the damage its done to the rest of the underside, but there are only minimal dents and scrapes on the sump.
Looks nice and black doesn't it? Well, guess what, that wasn't paint. After a thorough de-grease and clean
It had almost no paint left on it! It did have a lot of surface rust though, so I gave it a quick scuff and coated it in rust converter
Whilst that cured I cleaned and degreased the bolts, and then threw them into the ultrasonic with some Simple Green
Of course I wasn't just going to leave the sump purple with rust converter, but first I needed to address a serious issue I had
Because some muppet had went full ugga dugga on the sump bolts, it had massacred the poor little flange. There were serious gaps between the bolt holes, where it should be flat
Not only that, but the flange was twisted downwards, away from the sump. It's hard to get a photo of, with my technical straight edge, but you can see it slopes away from the RH side of the wood. It should be flat against it.
It was like this the whole way around. No wonder it pissed oil out
I first used a hammer and block to flatten down the bolt holes, so they were no longer raised above the rest of the flange. Normally you would use a large socket or the likes to fit around the hole, and bash it flat onto the socket so you don't flatten out the indents in the middle of the flange, but mine were almost flat anyway, so I proceeded with plank. You can see bashed bolt hole on the left of plank, and raised on the right.
With the holes flattened, I now had to bring the flange back up again. This was done with a rag and vice grips. Using many small little upwards tweaks along the flange, working in sections, I eventually managed to pull it back up and almost flat again
It's a lot better than it was
With the flange kind of usable again, the whole pan got a couple of coats of black Zinc paint
Now I must say, this work had happened over the course of a few days. I removed the sump on Monday with plans to refit it Tuesday morning. Unfortunately health issues have left me barely able to leave the couch the past few days, so it wasn't until Wednesday that I could even get around to painting the pan, and that took all available energy to do.
Anyone familiar with Rover V8 engines will now be experiencing the same concern I did, how long can the engine sit without a sump on until the oil pump drains and oil pressure is lost? I left the oil filter on, and didn't touch it, because it's not very old and removing it would be a 100% sure-fire way to drain the oil pump, but there are many stories of people draining the sump, leaving it an undefined period of time, and upon refilling finding they have no oil pressure and either damaging the engine, or having to prime the pump (which is a job in its self).
I couldn't leave it much longer, so today, Friday, I HAD to get the sump back on and filled with oil. Even after 3-4 days I was concerned about the oil pump.
So I downed a big bowl of Weet-bix, smashed half a bottle of water, took some pain killers and down into the garage I went.
There aren't many photos because it was hard enough to do the job its self, but I'll give you what I can. First was to clean all the mating surfaces and get them nice and clean. I used a wire brush on the pan, and a scraper and rags on the engine block.
Then I laid a bead of sealant on the pan, smoothed it out with my finger and laid the gasket onto the pan, using bolts to keep the gasket in place. Sealant was smeared on the top of the gasket also
I then made sure the engine was as high as possible (remember, it had been sitting on my jack, raised, since Monday), and I slid under the car with the sump.
Refitting was a prick. Part of it was not being able to get enough clearance to the power steering hoses/crossmember, so lifting the engine from the top with no engine mounts connected would help this. It was a very mess job trying to get the gasket and pan into place without the gasket getting stuck and tearing, or falling into the pan.
Eventually I got it into place, and popped a couple of bolts in to hold it in place. The easiest I found to do were the two big ones for the reinforcement plate at the rear, and a couple of small ones at the front.
This is where I lowered the engine down and reinstalled the engine mount bolts, so I could get the jack out of the way and give me better access with the engine secure.
With some fiddling (and having to fish the back of the gasket out of the pan and back onto the flange), I got all the bolts back in. Make sure you can see the gasket all the way around the pan, so you don't end up pinching it or missing a section.
The torque spec for this is 14NM, so I tightened the bolts up finger tight first, in a diagonal pattern, and then using a torque wrench I nipped them up to 14NM, still in a diagonal pattern. This feels like a lot of torque, and I'd hate to think how tight they had been to do the damage to the pan and gasket they had previously!
Finally the pan was on, sealed and tightened. The gasket had pushed out around the bolts a little, but nowhere near as bad as it had been.
I did need to remove the clutch slave cylinder to gain access to the bolts on the RH side rear of the sump. Unfortunately this indicated to me that mine is leaking brake fluid, and missing a bolt, so it's stuffed. Will need to order a new one.
With the pan on, I dropped just over 4L of oil into the pan, checked the level, and we were good to test the oil pump. With everything crossed, I disconnected the coil, and injector resistor pack (so the engine wouldn't start), reconnected the battery and turned the key. I cranked for about 20 seconds, and although the pressure light didn't go out (I wouldn't expect it to with my slow starter), I could see the pressure gauge raise slightly. Now for the moment of truth. I opened the garage door, reconnected the coil and injectors, and turned the key....
And the sweet sounds of my people filled my garage, oh and the oil pressure gauge shot up and the light went out. Thank fark, the oil pump is still primed!
So that's where I am now. I still need to replace the transmission mounts which have turned to jello from oil contamination, and back the car out for a thorough water blasting and degreasing, but unfortunately that will have to wait. The good thing is though, worry, stress and concern is no good for recovery, but now that I know Tess is OK, i don't have to worry about that and she can just chill down there with her bad self.
Oh, and it gives me time to source a new clutch slave cylinder, at considerable cost. Buying parts for the Mini has spoilt me, with ease of availability and low prices. Rover parts have neither of those.
It's not a fun job is it! I ended up using a bottle jack as my trolley jack wouldn't reach either. Worth doing, and being able to clean and check the strainer is always good. Hopefully that cures your leak. I've currently got a massive leak from the front of my engine, looks oil filter related, which is a bugger as it's only been on there for a few months!
Someone really went to town with the yellow on your engine, I hadn't noticed that the cradle and even the block is yellow!
Joe
Someone really went to town with the yellow on your engine, I hadn't noticed that the cradle and even the block is yellow!
Joe
Nope, not a fun job at all.
And yes, yellow everywhere. So far i have counted, engine block, valve covers, inlet plenum, crossmember, wiring loom, rear brake backing plates, trailing arms, swaybar, and some other little bits. They also went nuts with silver paint on a brush in the engine bay. Horrible. Im slowly working my way through getting rid of it all. The yellow paint on the block is falling off, so hopefully the water blaster finishes most of that off.
And yes, yellow everywhere. So far i have counted, engine block, valve covers, inlet plenum, crossmember, wiring loom, rear brake backing plates, trailing arms, swaybar, and some other little bits. They also went nuts with silver paint on a brush in the engine bay. Horrible. Im slowly working my way through getting rid of it all. The yellow paint on the block is falling off, so hopefully the water blaster finishes most of that off.
Taking it easy doesn't mean not playing with cars, so since Tess was up on jacks I wanted to remove the front bumper and headlight to fix it.
There were a couple of reasons for this. First, the RH side headlight lens has only been held on by hopes and dreams for a while (completely loose at the bottom, flapping about, and barely stuck at the top), and since it's in good shape and not stone chipped, I'd hate for it to drop off and smash one day.
Another reason was that the RH headlight, for some reason, was sitting very low and was recessed. It should sit more of less flush with the corner light and bonnet, but this was way out, with gaps around it. It's always bothered me when looking at the front of the car, like a lazy eye, and I shuddered to know what horrors were causing it. Rust? Crash Damage? Bodges?!
Removal of the front bumper is easy, as long as the front spoiler is already off. If it isn't, the spoiler needs to come off first. You don't need to remove the under tray.
The bumper is secured with four bolts, two on either side which can be accessed from the underside. They are a 17mm nut/bolt through the front panel. The two longer ones go through the jacking point on each side, as per the right hole below.
If you had headlight washers that were connected too, you would have to unhook the hose for that, but since I do not, it wasn't an issue. With the bolts all removed, the bumper is still held in with sliders on the sides. These, like the rear bumper, just slide out when gently pulled. Be aware the bumper isn't that light, and will try to spin upside down when removed.
You also need to remove the "grille" trim that runs the width of the front. There are four screws along its length, and then it just comes free.
With the bumper off, you can see the other reason I wanted to remove it. I haven't removed it since I got the car, and I knew that since it spent some extra time in its life over in the land of rust, and I had previously had to grind back surface rust and treat/paint it lower on the front panel, there would be rust here too.
I was right. Thankfully its all just ugly flakey surface rust, nothing serious, but still needs to be dealt with. You can also see the notorious headlight brackets below the lights. These were barely coated by BL when fitted new, and rusted straight off the assembly line.
Removal of a headlight is a bit of a faff, but not too hard. Mainly a pain because you have to keep moving/opening/closing the bonnet to workaround the front hinging design. The two nuts under the headlight need to come off (be VERY careful as these are known to seize and break off if looked at wrong), and there are two long studs that go through the panel behind the light; the nut also needs to come off them
Unplug the headlight cables, and the light can be withdrawn. This leaves me with just the bracket to remove, which is held in with four screws
This bracket is actually in very good shape, with only surface rust. I wire brushed it down and coated it in rust converter.
Once dry, I covered in Zinc paint. Looks much better. I should have masked up the studs, but oh well.
With that sorted it was time to look at the headlight. I completely removed the lens, and cleaned the dirt out that had built up in the housing. There are two types of housing, one where the lens is just stuck on, and the other that uses clips to hold the lens on and keep it sealed. My original lights don't have the clips, so I pinched a couple of clips from a spare light. Even the early lights like these have the areas for the clips to be fitted (three along the top, one on each side and three along the bottom), guess it was just cost cutting that meant they weren't fitted
Now, this is where it gets weird. This is the bracket under the light that bolts to the bracket that I painted above.
First, the black bracket has had the holes either badly slotted or rusted out. This allows for rearwards "adjustment" of the light.
And between the bracket riveted to the bottom of the light, and that above black bracket... was a stack of washers
So that pushes the light back even further. But WHY?!
I replaced the black bracket and fit to the light sans washers. I fit the light back to the car and already the fitment was better. You can also see I brushed back, treated and painted the surface rust on the front panel.
It does need adjustment though. I aimed to have it similar to the other light, which had the bottom front edge of the lens in line with the lower chrome of the side light, and the front of the lens level with the front of the side light.
To adjust the light there are four adjustment points. To adjust the vertical alignment, there are two nuts under the light. The bracket is slotted
Once you have that aligned, the two nuts on the back of the light that were removed to take the light out, are actually on the rear adjusters. These two studs also have a nut on the light side of the front panel, so the inside and outside nuts sandwich the panel between them. The outer nut is just a lock nut, the nut closest to the light is the adjustment. Wind it back or forward to set the forward distance of the top of the light. The bottom distance is already fixed in place by the lower bracket. Be aware these are NOT the light output adjusters to adjust the beam, they are the black knobs on the back of the light.
It took a bit of fiddling about to get those adjustments right, but so far I'm happy with how it's sitting. It's MUCH better than it was. It now sits flush with the corner light, and has minimal gaps. The bonnet isn't fully shut in the photos
Refit the grille strip, and then that bumper and away you go.
The only reason I can think of why the light was bodged like that was maybe the internal adjuster didn't work so they were just bodged into place to get it to line up. I inspected the adjusters when the light was off and they looked OK. One of the pivots was a bit loose so I tightened it up with a zip tie, but no obvious failures there (I have a spare where all the adjusters have been broken off and stuck together with blu-tack). I'll need to try aligning the beam soon, as with the light so drastically re-aligned, the beam is likely to be way out now.
There were a couple of reasons for this. First, the RH side headlight lens has only been held on by hopes and dreams for a while (completely loose at the bottom, flapping about, and barely stuck at the top), and since it's in good shape and not stone chipped, I'd hate for it to drop off and smash one day.
Another reason was that the RH headlight, for some reason, was sitting very low and was recessed. It should sit more of less flush with the corner light and bonnet, but this was way out, with gaps around it. It's always bothered me when looking at the front of the car, like a lazy eye, and I shuddered to know what horrors were causing it. Rust? Crash Damage? Bodges?!
Removal of the front bumper is easy, as long as the front spoiler is already off. If it isn't, the spoiler needs to come off first. You don't need to remove the under tray.
The bumper is secured with four bolts, two on either side which can be accessed from the underside. They are a 17mm nut/bolt through the front panel. The two longer ones go through the jacking point on each side, as per the right hole below.
If you had headlight washers that were connected too, you would have to unhook the hose for that, but since I do not, it wasn't an issue. With the bolts all removed, the bumper is still held in with sliders on the sides. These, like the rear bumper, just slide out when gently pulled. Be aware the bumper isn't that light, and will try to spin upside down when removed.
You also need to remove the "grille" trim that runs the width of the front. There are four screws along its length, and then it just comes free.
With the bumper off, you can see the other reason I wanted to remove it. I haven't removed it since I got the car, and I knew that since it spent some extra time in its life over in the land of rust, and I had previously had to grind back surface rust and treat/paint it lower on the front panel, there would be rust here too.
I was right. Thankfully its all just ugly flakey surface rust, nothing serious, but still needs to be dealt with. You can also see the notorious headlight brackets below the lights. These were barely coated by BL when fitted new, and rusted straight off the assembly line.
Removal of a headlight is a bit of a faff, but not too hard. Mainly a pain because you have to keep moving/opening/closing the bonnet to workaround the front hinging design. The two nuts under the headlight need to come off (be VERY careful as these are known to seize and break off if looked at wrong), and there are two long studs that go through the panel behind the light; the nut also needs to come off them
Unplug the headlight cables, and the light can be withdrawn. This leaves me with just the bracket to remove, which is held in with four screws
This bracket is actually in very good shape, with only surface rust. I wire brushed it down and coated it in rust converter.
Once dry, I covered in Zinc paint. Looks much better. I should have masked up the studs, but oh well.
With that sorted it was time to look at the headlight. I completely removed the lens, and cleaned the dirt out that had built up in the housing. There are two types of housing, one where the lens is just stuck on, and the other that uses clips to hold the lens on and keep it sealed. My original lights don't have the clips, so I pinched a couple of clips from a spare light. Even the early lights like these have the areas for the clips to be fitted (three along the top, one on each side and three along the bottom), guess it was just cost cutting that meant they weren't fitted
Now, this is where it gets weird. This is the bracket under the light that bolts to the bracket that I painted above.
First, the black bracket has had the holes either badly slotted or rusted out. This allows for rearwards "adjustment" of the light.
And between the bracket riveted to the bottom of the light, and that above black bracket... was a stack of washers
So that pushes the light back even further. But WHY?!
I replaced the black bracket and fit to the light sans washers. I fit the light back to the car and already the fitment was better. You can also see I brushed back, treated and painted the surface rust on the front panel.
It does need adjustment though. I aimed to have it similar to the other light, which had the bottom front edge of the lens in line with the lower chrome of the side light, and the front of the lens level with the front of the side light.
To adjust the light there are four adjustment points. To adjust the vertical alignment, there are two nuts under the light. The bracket is slotted
Once you have that aligned, the two nuts on the back of the light that were removed to take the light out, are actually on the rear adjusters. These two studs also have a nut on the light side of the front panel, so the inside and outside nuts sandwich the panel between them. The outer nut is just a lock nut, the nut closest to the light is the adjustment. Wind it back or forward to set the forward distance of the top of the light. The bottom distance is already fixed in place by the lower bracket. Be aware these are NOT the light output adjusters to adjust the beam, they are the black knobs on the back of the light.
It took a bit of fiddling about to get those adjustments right, but so far I'm happy with how it's sitting. It's MUCH better than it was. It now sits flush with the corner light, and has minimal gaps. The bonnet isn't fully shut in the photos
Refit the grille strip, and then that bumper and away you go.
The only reason I can think of why the light was bodged like that was maybe the internal adjuster didn't work so they were just bodged into place to get it to line up. I inspected the adjusters when the light was off and they looked OK. One of the pivots was a bit loose so I tightened it up with a zip tie, but no obvious failures there (I have a spare where all the adjusters have been broken off and stuck together with blu-tack). I'll need to try aligning the beam soon, as with the light so drastically re-aligned, the beam is likely to be way out now.
This is a great example of how much better cars are in terms of "design for manufacture" now. My Volvo has all the lamps in a single unit per side, that slides into a perfectly fitting space and then has a single slide in metal pin to hold the assembly in place. Same with most other cars. Must take 15 seconds per lamp to fit on the production line and looks perfect every time. BL had to piss about for minutes with each of these to achieve the shoddy fit they left the factory with.
Brilliant thread OP, and a superb car.
Brilliant thread OP, and a superb car.
dme123 said:
BL had to piss about for minutes with each of these to achieve the shoddy fit they left the factory with.
Hahaha, this sums up far too much of how BL did things.Unfortunately not all new cars abide by the laws of common sense. There are an awful lot out there where a simple bulb change requires front bumper removal.
Edited by KelvinatorNZ on Wednesday 25th July 11:26
Even Mercedes struggled to replace a sidelight bulb on my GL. I found this out when I eventually made a tool so I could do the job myself. The Mercedes technician hadn't rotated the fitting to lock it back into place.
Stupid to design something like that to be so inaccessible especially when certain countries - like France - expect owners to be able to replace broken bulbs by the roadside.
And even more stupid in the case of a 2011 GL to offer a light cluster that has LEDs and bulbs mixed together.
Anyway... Back to the SD1. [Rant Over]
Stupid to design something like that to be so inaccessible especially when certain countries - like France - expect owners to be able to replace broken bulbs by the roadside.
And even more stupid in the case of a 2011 GL to offer a light cluster that has LEDs and bulbs mixed together.
Anyway... Back to the SD1. [Rant Over]
Watchman said:
And even more stupid in the case of a 2011 GL to offer a light cluster that has LEDs and bulbs mixed together.
Still cant be as bad as the CLS tail lights, with their non-removable, non-socketed bulbs. All soldered to the circuit board, so the whole lot has to be changed.
KelvinatorNZ said:
Watchman said:
And even more stupid in the case of a 2011 GL to offer a light cluster that has LEDs and bulbs mixed together.
Still cant be as bad as the CLS tail lights, with their non-removable, non-socketed bulbs. All soldered to the circuit board, so the whole lot has to be changed.OK, last word of derailment on this subject from me but I tried to "rectify" Mercedes's mistake in putting bulbs into clusters alongside LEDs by using aftermarket LED "bulbs" but it is so sensitive to supposedly CANBUS friendly LEDs that is still complains (dashboard notifications). So far I've only managed to get away with the reg plate and reverse lights (as LEDs). Fog lights (rear), indicator repeaters (front light cluster), and sidelights (front) will have to remain as bulbs for now. The sidelights are particularly irritating because they are so yellow next to the HIDs.
Anyway, back to more important things... SD1 stuff.
With the major source of oil leaks under the car sorted, I needed to repair some collateral damage from the previous leaks. The transmission mounts had turned to jello and weren't doing a lot.
Now, first point I will say is don't try to be cheap and buy transmission mounts from random suppliers on eBay. Even though they were listed specifically for an SD1, and have "Rover SD1" on the packaging, they didn't fit without modification. The design of them means they might start to come apart quicker too, but hopefully the center poly bush will slow that down. They were about half the cost of Rimmers, but it wasn't worth it. Just buy them from a reputable supplier like Rimmers and just deal with the cost.
This is what I have though. Two main spool mounts, and this little poly bush for the center bolt
Whats a sure-fire sign your transmission mounts are poked? When you go over a bump and the transmission tries to launch its self into space through the shifter hole! Every time I would take a large bump in Tess the whole shifter (and thus the transmission) would jump up a good couple of inches. Not really a good thing.
Since I had a serious leak under the car it has been coating everything in oil for a long time. Rubber doesn't like oil; or well, it might like it too much. It soaks the oil up and softens the rubber to the point that is has the consistency of jello. Its soft, squishy and doesn't support a large lump of metal too well.
The other issue was that the bolt on the far right in the above photo has a bush on it, which I suspect limits any vertical movement of the transmission. This bush had also suffered from the oil contamination. There wasn't much bush left
To replace the bushes you must remove the crossmember the bushes are on. First crack off the 1/2" nuts on the bushes (it's easier when the crossmember isn't flopping around) and remove the center large bolt. Be aware there should be a washer that sits between the trans and the nut and will drop off freely. Don't lose it.
Then support the transmission on a jack. I purchased a bottle jack for this job, as its compact, can take a lot of weight and has a good height. This was much easier than trying to get my trolley jack in there.
I took the weight off the mounts, and then undid the two bolts on either side of the mount. One bolt on each side was already loose too. They are 1/2" but a 13mm ratchet spanner is a life saver here.
Completely remove the nuts from the two mounts. One mount of mine actually unscrewed from the transmission instead of the nut coming off. This is fine, just remove it with the crossmember.
The other mount was well stuck on the transmission. Don't bother trying to grip it to twist it out, that aint going to work. Get a hammer and chisel, scrape some rubber away until you get a clean shot at the steel disc that is screwed into the transmission, and use the chisel to tap it around until it comes free. Then you can spin the mount out by hand.
Old mount vs new. The old ones are seriously swollen
This is the one that came out with the crossmember. The crossmember is absolutely thick in grease, dirt and pine needles.
The layers of the mount rubber werent attached anymore. It was just a lump of soft jello
This is the remains of the center bushing
Its meant to look like this
I gave the crossmember and bolts a thorough degrease and clean
And then you screw the new rubber spool mounts into the transmission. I smothered the stud in copper grease, as well as the mating face, so that it wouldn't corrode to the transmission. Now this is where it went a bit wrong. I needed to chop the stud on these down, or they just wouldn't screw in fully. I think they were bottoming out. I don't think this should be needed on proper mounts.
I gave the area of the trans around the mounts a quick clean, and then refit the mounts. The two spool mounts screw into the transmission first, as tight as by hand can be, and then the crossmember goes on. Due to the added height of the new mounts vs the old ones, you may need to raise the transmission a little higher to get the crossmember bolts into place. Remember the plate on each side the bolts go through, and refit them. Once again, the 13mm ratchet spanner was the tool of choice here. The exhaust blocked a ratchet from getting in there.
Now, that center bolt. I couldn't quite work how what the deal was until now. Remove the jack from the transmission first. Fit it like this from the underside of crossmember;
Bolt - large washer - bushing (large section under crossmember) - nut ~ insert through crossmember but don't screw in. Now slip the other washer on top of the nut, wind the nut down to the bush and screw the bolt into the transmission. I wasn't sure how tight to do this bolt, so I tightened it until there was compression on the bush, pulling the trans down towards the crossmember, and then wound the nut up and tightening it against the transmission.
The results are impressive to say the least. On a quick test drive I took it over a large bump in the road that I knew would usually cause a huge jump in the transmission, and this time it stayed solid as a rock. The shifter is even more direct; obviously moving the shifter was moving the whole rear of the transmission too. Huge improvement.
I do wish there was an off the shelf poly version of the two spool mounts, but in my travels I never found one. Not even for a TVR, which uses the same transmission.
I ended that batch of work by degreasing and water blasting the underside of the car. It's not perfect under there, but its a lot better. I also "accidentally" blasted a lot of the yellow paint off the swaybar and crossmember... leaving a white instead. not sure which is worse tbh.
Parts Used
CRC454A – Gearbox Mounting Rubber x2
CRC581A - Rubber Buffer, Center of Rear Bracket (this is standard rubber, uprated poly version available via eBay)
Please note these parts are specific to my car and may vary. Please check before ordering.
Now, first point I will say is don't try to be cheap and buy transmission mounts from random suppliers on eBay. Even though they were listed specifically for an SD1, and have "Rover SD1" on the packaging, they didn't fit without modification. The design of them means they might start to come apart quicker too, but hopefully the center poly bush will slow that down. They were about half the cost of Rimmers, but it wasn't worth it. Just buy them from a reputable supplier like Rimmers and just deal with the cost.
This is what I have though. Two main spool mounts, and this little poly bush for the center bolt
Whats a sure-fire sign your transmission mounts are poked? When you go over a bump and the transmission tries to launch its self into space through the shifter hole! Every time I would take a large bump in Tess the whole shifter (and thus the transmission) would jump up a good couple of inches. Not really a good thing.
Since I had a serious leak under the car it has been coating everything in oil for a long time. Rubber doesn't like oil; or well, it might like it too much. It soaks the oil up and softens the rubber to the point that is has the consistency of jello. Its soft, squishy and doesn't support a large lump of metal too well.
The other issue was that the bolt on the far right in the above photo has a bush on it, which I suspect limits any vertical movement of the transmission. This bush had also suffered from the oil contamination. There wasn't much bush left
To replace the bushes you must remove the crossmember the bushes are on. First crack off the 1/2" nuts on the bushes (it's easier when the crossmember isn't flopping around) and remove the center large bolt. Be aware there should be a washer that sits between the trans and the nut and will drop off freely. Don't lose it.
Then support the transmission on a jack. I purchased a bottle jack for this job, as its compact, can take a lot of weight and has a good height. This was much easier than trying to get my trolley jack in there.
I took the weight off the mounts, and then undid the two bolts on either side of the mount. One bolt on each side was already loose too. They are 1/2" but a 13mm ratchet spanner is a life saver here.
Completely remove the nuts from the two mounts. One mount of mine actually unscrewed from the transmission instead of the nut coming off. This is fine, just remove it with the crossmember.
The other mount was well stuck on the transmission. Don't bother trying to grip it to twist it out, that aint going to work. Get a hammer and chisel, scrape some rubber away until you get a clean shot at the steel disc that is screwed into the transmission, and use the chisel to tap it around until it comes free. Then you can spin the mount out by hand.
Old mount vs new. The old ones are seriously swollen
This is the one that came out with the crossmember. The crossmember is absolutely thick in grease, dirt and pine needles.
The layers of the mount rubber werent attached anymore. It was just a lump of soft jello
This is the remains of the center bushing
Its meant to look like this
I gave the crossmember and bolts a thorough degrease and clean
And then you screw the new rubber spool mounts into the transmission. I smothered the stud in copper grease, as well as the mating face, so that it wouldn't corrode to the transmission. Now this is where it went a bit wrong. I needed to chop the stud on these down, or they just wouldn't screw in fully. I think they were bottoming out. I don't think this should be needed on proper mounts.
I gave the area of the trans around the mounts a quick clean, and then refit the mounts. The two spool mounts screw into the transmission first, as tight as by hand can be, and then the crossmember goes on. Due to the added height of the new mounts vs the old ones, you may need to raise the transmission a little higher to get the crossmember bolts into place. Remember the plate on each side the bolts go through, and refit them. Once again, the 13mm ratchet spanner was the tool of choice here. The exhaust blocked a ratchet from getting in there.
Now, that center bolt. I couldn't quite work how what the deal was until now. Remove the jack from the transmission first. Fit it like this from the underside of crossmember;
Bolt - large washer - bushing (large section under crossmember) - nut ~ insert through crossmember but don't screw in. Now slip the other washer on top of the nut, wind the nut down to the bush and screw the bolt into the transmission. I wasn't sure how tight to do this bolt, so I tightened it until there was compression on the bush, pulling the trans down towards the crossmember, and then wound the nut up and tightening it against the transmission.
The results are impressive to say the least. On a quick test drive I took it over a large bump in the road that I knew would usually cause a huge jump in the transmission, and this time it stayed solid as a rock. The shifter is even more direct; obviously moving the shifter was moving the whole rear of the transmission too. Huge improvement.
I do wish there was an off the shelf poly version of the two spool mounts, but in my travels I never found one. Not even for a TVR, which uses the same transmission.
I ended that batch of work by degreasing and water blasting the underside of the car. It's not perfect under there, but its a lot better. I also "accidentally" blasted a lot of the yellow paint off the swaybar and crossmember... leaving a white instead. not sure which is worse tbh.
Parts Used
CRC454A – Gearbox Mounting Rubber x2
CRC581A - Rubber Buffer, Center of Rear Bracket (this is standard rubber, uprated poly version available via eBay)
Please note these parts are specific to my car and may vary. Please check before ordering.
I got deja vu reading you doing the headlight brackets!
Yours looked in the same nick as the NOS ones I got from Rimmers, and much nicer than the ones that crumbled off my car, I couldn't believe how bad the factory coating was. The washer arrangement on your brackets was very odd too! as far as those brackets are concerned two of the holes are square, and two are slots. They're really hard to find in decent nick though. As far as the adjustment I've never come across such a range of movement! I spent hours getting mine right. It also doesn't help that you have to shut to bonnet to get a proper look, so many trips to pop it open again.
So that's what the trans mounts are suppose to look like! Both of my side ones look like your RH one, absolutely nothing left.
Joe
Yours looked in the same nick as the NOS ones I got from Rimmers, and much nicer than the ones that crumbled off my car, I couldn't believe how bad the factory coating was. The washer arrangement on your brackets was very odd too! as far as those brackets are concerned two of the holes are square, and two are slots. They're really hard to find in decent nick though. As far as the adjustment I've never come across such a range of movement! I spent hours getting mine right. It also doesn't help that you have to shut to bonnet to get a proper look, so many trips to pop it open again.
So that's what the trans mounts are suppose to look like! Both of my side ones look like your RH one, absolutely nothing left.
Joe
Edited by 1275 GT on Monday 30th July 18:47
A great read. Many thanks for posting!
Sadly my only SD1 V8 experience was crashing into the back of one, as a passenger. The driver lost it on a deceptive right hander and skidded up the bank. Unfortunately it then fell back into our path.
Great looking and sounding cars though, that still look great today. Enjoy!
Sadly my only SD1 V8 experience was crashing into the back of one, as a passenger. The driver lost it on a deceptive right hander and skidded up the bank. Unfortunately it then fell back into our path.
Great looking and sounding cars though, that still look great today. Enjoy!
It was finally time to reassemble the front end of the car, since I didn't need the under tray off anymore.
To replace the sump gasket I needed to remove the under tray, which requires removal of a few different parts to get there. She doesn't look quite the same without it!
Before refitting everything I chose to remove and relocate the air filter. Previously it was located up behind the front panel, in front of the radiator and required the front spoiler and under tray to be removed to change it. Since every time I take the fibreglass front spoiler off it risks more and more damage (its pretty fragile from all the hits it took when lowered), I want to limit how often it comes off. You can just spot the air filter on the right in this photo, with the zip ties supporting it
Sadly it won't be getting as much fresh, cold air as it was, but I think I'll live with that just to help keep my spoiler in one piece. Previous testing with Effie shows that Intake Air Temps dont increase too much over ambient anyway.
The front of the Vitesse needs some care taken during reassembly, as everything needs to go together in a very specific order. The bumper MUST go on before the under tray, as you cannot get to the rear, outer nuts of the bumper mounts with the under tray in place. Ask me how I know... >_< I had to loosen off each side so I could tighten the bumper bolts
Using my [patent pending] "single-hand-bucket-support-o-matic" to hold the tray in place. It's a very awkward thing to lift by yourself
BUT, before the bumper could go on I wanted to do a small mod to the front panel. The front deep chin spoiler is usually held on with self tapping screws. Unfortunately mine were all stuffed at some point, one side had no screw at the front, and the other side was this random coarse thread screw into a random hole.
Due to it being such a coarse thread it never tightened properly. I had a bright idea the other day to get a Rivnut gun from Supercheap, and use a Rivnut on each side instead. A Rivnut (or Rivet Nut) is a metal insert that you use a tool to crush into place, that has an internal thread. This allows you to screw a bolt into thin metal without tapping it with a thread.
This awesome GIF from Aliexpress, of all places, shows how they work
First I drilled the hole out to the correct size (7mm in this case), wound the nut onto the tool, popped it into the hole and crushed it. The crushing, or squeezing action both holds it to the metal, and also because the insert is serrated, stops it rotating when the bolt is tightened.
This one has an M5 thread, so I used an M5 bolt in it
You can see a green o-ring behind the head of the bolt. This was a misguided attempt to create some padding against the fibreglass, but the o-ring just broke and fell out when tightened. I might try a fibre washer next time. Rinse and repeat for the other one
There isn't a lot of space to tighten the bolt with the bumper and spoiler on, but a 1/4" extension and socket worked perfect. Bumper went on first, then the under tray and then front spoiler.
She looks so much better all back together again. So pretty.
As a quick follow-up on fixing the headlight; I checked the alignment and its the weirdest thing, despite being completely relocated, the alignment was perfect. It'll get tested shortly on a beam setter when I take her for a WOF.
The WOF just expired, which highlights the fact that the car has now been back on the road for 6 months, in which time I covered 1000 Miles. Not many, but more than it had for the past few years combined. There have been some issues, but I'm quickly getting on top of them all.
I think she has earned a clean and polish this week. I haven't washed any of the cars since moving here..... oops.
To replace the sump gasket I needed to remove the under tray, which requires removal of a few different parts to get there. She doesn't look quite the same without it!
Before refitting everything I chose to remove and relocate the air filter. Previously it was located up behind the front panel, in front of the radiator and required the front spoiler and under tray to be removed to change it. Since every time I take the fibreglass front spoiler off it risks more and more damage (its pretty fragile from all the hits it took when lowered), I want to limit how often it comes off. You can just spot the air filter on the right in this photo, with the zip ties supporting it
Sadly it won't be getting as much fresh, cold air as it was, but I think I'll live with that just to help keep my spoiler in one piece. Previous testing with Effie shows that Intake Air Temps dont increase too much over ambient anyway.
The front of the Vitesse needs some care taken during reassembly, as everything needs to go together in a very specific order. The bumper MUST go on before the under tray, as you cannot get to the rear, outer nuts of the bumper mounts with the under tray in place. Ask me how I know... >_< I had to loosen off each side so I could tighten the bumper bolts
Using my [patent pending] "single-hand-bucket-support-o-matic" to hold the tray in place. It's a very awkward thing to lift by yourself
BUT, before the bumper could go on I wanted to do a small mod to the front panel. The front deep chin spoiler is usually held on with self tapping screws. Unfortunately mine were all stuffed at some point, one side had no screw at the front, and the other side was this random coarse thread screw into a random hole.
Due to it being such a coarse thread it never tightened properly. I had a bright idea the other day to get a Rivnut gun from Supercheap, and use a Rivnut on each side instead. A Rivnut (or Rivet Nut) is a metal insert that you use a tool to crush into place, that has an internal thread. This allows you to screw a bolt into thin metal without tapping it with a thread.
This awesome GIF from Aliexpress, of all places, shows how they work
First I drilled the hole out to the correct size (7mm in this case), wound the nut onto the tool, popped it into the hole and crushed it. The crushing, or squeezing action both holds it to the metal, and also because the insert is serrated, stops it rotating when the bolt is tightened.
This one has an M5 thread, so I used an M5 bolt in it
You can see a green o-ring behind the head of the bolt. This was a misguided attempt to create some padding against the fibreglass, but the o-ring just broke and fell out when tightened. I might try a fibre washer next time. Rinse and repeat for the other one
There isn't a lot of space to tighten the bolt with the bumper and spoiler on, but a 1/4" extension and socket worked perfect. Bumper went on first, then the under tray and then front spoiler.
She looks so much better all back together again. So pretty.
As a quick follow-up on fixing the headlight; I checked the alignment and its the weirdest thing, despite being completely relocated, the alignment was perfect. It'll get tested shortly on a beam setter when I take her for a WOF.
The WOF just expired, which highlights the fact that the car has now been back on the road for 6 months, in which time I covered 1000 Miles. Not many, but more than it had for the past few years combined. There have been some issues, but I'm quickly getting on top of them all.
I think she has earned a clean and polish this week. I haven't washed any of the cars since moving here..... oops.
I've been kinda bad, and lazy. I haven't washed Tess since before I put her in storage when I moved, in April, and she is FILTHY.
I'm a bit weird too, because I like seeing cars that are clearly used and dirty (not dirty from sitting neglected under a tree, but obvious signs of spirited use) so having mud all up the sides of Tess hasn't really been too much of an issue, but since working on her recently I ended up with clean patches and hand prints in places from brushing against the car. Not a great look
Because she is finally holding her oil, and running well.... oh and because she is booked in for a Warrant inspection this week, I felt I needed to clean her and get her looking presentable again.
I was going to polish and wax her but couldn't be bothered today, so I only gave her a good wash, and clay barred the bonnet. The reason for the clay bar there, was due to my stupidity when painting my calipers in my old garage, and not having enough room, so I ended up with a fine mist of red overspray on the bonnet. Most of it came off with a previous wash, but there has always been a slight pink haze to the bonnet when its clean, so I used a clay bar to remove it, which it did successfully. Unfortunately this has highlighted the fact that the rest of the car now needs another clay, as the paint isn't as smooth as it should be.
On the flip side though, I forgot how much gloss her paint has when clean!
After the photo I went over all the black trim with 303 Aerospace, which is a trim protectant (also happens to black and shine the trim too) and shined the tires. It's a shame there isn't a show, she looks amazing! At least with her own garage space I should be able to keep her cleaner easier, than living outside like she was.
So with that clean done, I needed to quickly address an issue that presented itself recently. The windscreen wash button isn't working, so I have no washer jets.
This is a Warrant of Fitness issue and would cause a failure. I know the motor is good, as is the jet, and since I was getting nothing from the system I knew it had to be the switch.
The Rover way of firing the washer jets is to turn the whole end of the wiper stalk into a button, so when it's pressed toward the column it activates the washers.
Lots of other British cars of the time use the same/similar stalks and have the same operation, including the Mini.
To delve into why mine didn't work, I removed the column shrouds. Just a screw top and bottom, and the bottom drops off. The top needs the dimmer removed, which is done via pulling the knob off and removing the large hex nut on the outside of the shroud.
A quick fiddle around and I found my culprit. I think this should be connected to something
But where? With limited space on the column to get my noggin in for a look, I dug into my spares and found an old Series 1 switch. It works the same but is upside down due to S1 cars having the indicator and wiper stalks swapped to S2 (S2 has indicators on left). Someone has previously chopped the loom for this switch, so no idea if it was any good. Either way, it wasnt good for my car, so destructive investigation it was
You can see the black wire on the left in the above photo. It disappears into the depths of the switch. With some uh, percussive persuasion (and a drill, since the housing is riveted together), I found where it goes. The wire is literally flattened out, and jammed between the stalk shaft and housing, to ground the switch when the button is pressed. Typical Lucas design.
Now I had three options. Replace the stalk with another; extend the "wash" wires and use a random dodgy button to trigger them; or fix the switch.
I checked my stocks, and the only switches I had were either wrong, or the one correct one I had actually had the same broken wire. So option 1 was out.
I could easily extend the wires and put a random button somewhere, but that just isn't my style. Option 2 was out before it was even really considered.
Option 3 was to fix what I had. Let's get 'er done.
So now I knew what I was looking for, I removed the switch from the car. two 1/4" hex head screws, and a round clip thing with metal prongs. I used a small pick to lever up the prongs and slip the clip off
The connector for the switch is buried way up under the dash on the RH side. You need the drivers glovebox out to get to it. Remove the switch from the column, and just jiggle the wires from it until you can feel where they go under the dash, and then unplug it.
With the switch out, I knew I needed to remove the stalk from the body. First I marked the stalk position to the body, so I could align it easily. I carefully placed the stalk into soft jaws in my vice, and using some small taps from a dead blow hammer, out it popped
This exposed the badly corroded remains of the wire. The wire on this is weird, it's a mesh instead of straight strands. Maybe Lucas knew it was going to move every time you moved the stalk, so thought it might last longer. I stripped the broken wire back
There was corrosion inside the insulation on it, so I cleaned it as well as I could, and then fed it through the housing, smeared some copper grease on the wire and stalk splines, and pulled the stalk into the housing, making sure it jammed the wire into the splines and was lined up correctly. Obviously I couldn't just assemble it by hand, so it went back into the soft jaws, upside down now, and a couple of light taps on the back of the housing slid the stalk back into place.
Next I plugged it back in under the dash, before reassembly, to make sure it worked. Sure enough, my freshly cleaned paint and windscreen got a blast of washer fluid
It was just a matter of routing the wires again, reinstalling the stalk onto the column, reinstalling the column shrouds and away we go. Now we should be 100% ready for Wednesday. Hopefully she passes the WOF; she should, since she is significantly better than the last inspection.
I'm a bit weird too, because I like seeing cars that are clearly used and dirty (not dirty from sitting neglected under a tree, but obvious signs of spirited use) so having mud all up the sides of Tess hasn't really been too much of an issue, but since working on her recently I ended up with clean patches and hand prints in places from brushing against the car. Not a great look
Because she is finally holding her oil, and running well.... oh and because she is booked in for a Warrant inspection this week, I felt I needed to clean her and get her looking presentable again.
I was going to polish and wax her but couldn't be bothered today, so I only gave her a good wash, and clay barred the bonnet. The reason for the clay bar there, was due to my stupidity when painting my calipers in my old garage, and not having enough room, so I ended up with a fine mist of red overspray on the bonnet. Most of it came off with a previous wash, but there has always been a slight pink haze to the bonnet when its clean, so I used a clay bar to remove it, which it did successfully. Unfortunately this has highlighted the fact that the rest of the car now needs another clay, as the paint isn't as smooth as it should be.
On the flip side though, I forgot how much gloss her paint has when clean!
After the photo I went over all the black trim with 303 Aerospace, which is a trim protectant (also happens to black and shine the trim too) and shined the tires. It's a shame there isn't a show, she looks amazing! At least with her own garage space I should be able to keep her cleaner easier, than living outside like she was.
So with that clean done, I needed to quickly address an issue that presented itself recently. The windscreen wash button isn't working, so I have no washer jets.
This is a Warrant of Fitness issue and would cause a failure. I know the motor is good, as is the jet, and since I was getting nothing from the system I knew it had to be the switch.
The Rover way of firing the washer jets is to turn the whole end of the wiper stalk into a button, so when it's pressed toward the column it activates the washers.
Lots of other British cars of the time use the same/similar stalks and have the same operation, including the Mini.
To delve into why mine didn't work, I removed the column shrouds. Just a screw top and bottom, and the bottom drops off. The top needs the dimmer removed, which is done via pulling the knob off and removing the large hex nut on the outside of the shroud.
A quick fiddle around and I found my culprit. I think this should be connected to something
But where? With limited space on the column to get my noggin in for a look, I dug into my spares and found an old Series 1 switch. It works the same but is upside down due to S1 cars having the indicator and wiper stalks swapped to S2 (S2 has indicators on left). Someone has previously chopped the loom for this switch, so no idea if it was any good. Either way, it wasnt good for my car, so destructive investigation it was
You can see the black wire on the left in the above photo. It disappears into the depths of the switch. With some uh, percussive persuasion (and a drill, since the housing is riveted together), I found where it goes. The wire is literally flattened out, and jammed between the stalk shaft and housing, to ground the switch when the button is pressed. Typical Lucas design.
Now I had three options. Replace the stalk with another; extend the "wash" wires and use a random dodgy button to trigger them; or fix the switch.
I checked my stocks, and the only switches I had were either wrong, or the one correct one I had actually had the same broken wire. So option 1 was out.
I could easily extend the wires and put a random button somewhere, but that just isn't my style. Option 2 was out before it was even really considered.
Option 3 was to fix what I had. Let's get 'er done.
So now I knew what I was looking for, I removed the switch from the car. two 1/4" hex head screws, and a round clip thing with metal prongs. I used a small pick to lever up the prongs and slip the clip off
The connector for the switch is buried way up under the dash on the RH side. You need the drivers glovebox out to get to it. Remove the switch from the column, and just jiggle the wires from it until you can feel where they go under the dash, and then unplug it.
With the switch out, I knew I needed to remove the stalk from the body. First I marked the stalk position to the body, so I could align it easily. I carefully placed the stalk into soft jaws in my vice, and using some small taps from a dead blow hammer, out it popped
This exposed the badly corroded remains of the wire. The wire on this is weird, it's a mesh instead of straight strands. Maybe Lucas knew it was going to move every time you moved the stalk, so thought it might last longer. I stripped the broken wire back
There was corrosion inside the insulation on it, so I cleaned it as well as I could, and then fed it through the housing, smeared some copper grease on the wire and stalk splines, and pulled the stalk into the housing, making sure it jammed the wire into the splines and was lined up correctly. Obviously I couldn't just assemble it by hand, so it went back into the soft jaws, upside down now, and a couple of light taps on the back of the housing slid the stalk back into place.
Next I plugged it back in under the dash, before reassembly, to make sure it worked. Sure enough, my freshly cleaned paint and windscreen got a blast of washer fluid
It was just a matter of routing the wires again, reinstalling the stalk onto the column, reinstalling the column shrouds and away we go. Now we should be 100% ready for Wednesday. Hopefully she passes the WOF; she should, since she is significantly better than the last inspection.
Tess has been a bit grumpy recently, and it was probably my own silly fault, but now I have to fix it.
I took Tess for a WOF inspection the other day, which she passed, of course. I did need to clean the reflector on one of the tail lights as it was completely obscured by dust, but that was as easy as blasting the inside of the light out with compressed air through the bulb holes.
It was pretty bad, I don't blame them for failing it
For comparison, the RH side with the nice clear reflector (I'd say the light was replaced at some point. it's too, clean.)
The result isn't perfect, but the reflector is actually visible now. Not sure how critical a LH side rear reflector is, but hey.
Moving along; I was a bit silly with the WOF. I didn't have the money for a tank of gas (not 60L of 98oct at these prices), so I chose to take it for the WOF with somewhere in the vicinity of 1/8 of a tank. Maybe 1/4 at the most. The fuel gauge is a bit of a joke, it consistently reads about 1/4 low so on the lower end of the dial it's anyone's guess what's in the tank.
The WOF was fine, but driving the car shortly after that (a celebratory WOF passed hoon) it developed an annoying stutter/hesitation when quickly pressing the throttle. If you rolled the throttle on it would rev out and drive fine, but if you jabbed the throttle too quick, like when rev matching or changing gear spiritedly, it would fall flat on its face for a bit, possibly pop out the exhaust and then come back to life and rev fine.
I tried adding some more gas to the tank, but obviously I had made her mad. This gave me a huge sinking feeling.... the car had been sitting for years before I got her, was the tank full of rust? Had rust blocked the filter?
The first step for me was to see if the fuel pump might have been mad. Its been making weird noises since I got the car. When you first turn the key and the pump primes, 1/4 of the time it would make a normal buzzing sound, but often it would just make a series of clicking noises. It still seemed to work, but you had to prime the system twice when cold or the car was hard to start. One prime, lots of cranking. Two primes, instant start.
The Rover SD1 EFI system runs a big resistor on the power feed for the fuel pump, which drops the voltage so the pump runs quieter with less output. These pumps are basically the same as the infamous Bosch "070" pump as used on fabulous machines such as the V12 Jaaag XJS, and the VL Commodore "tsutsutsu" turbo. Good for something like 300-400hp apparently, so obviously not stressed on the old 190hp RV8.
Because my car is running an aftermarket LinkECU, but has the standard loom adapted, I had no idea if it was still running the resistor or not. In Effie I bypassed it when the Speeduino was fitted.
The resistor lives up at the base of the LH A pillar, next to the glove box. Remove the glove box and it should be bolted into an oval cut out. I had already removed the bolt in this photo.
Some wiggling with the bolt out and it will come out
I made a quick bypass out of some genuine Lucas wire, and two spade terminals
Unplug the resistor, plug the bypass in
The good news was that the fuel pump made lovely buzzing noises all every time now, and you only needed the prime the system once and the car would fire into life without issue. The bad news, was that the hesitation was still there.
The next step here was to check the fuel filter. The SD1 has a particulate filter in the fuel tank, on the outlet pipe (more on that later), and a fine EFI filter in the engine bay. I replaced the EFI filter when I got Tess, so anything in it would have been since then. I removed the filter and drained it backwards, from the inlet, into a clean jar.
It looks like someone poured fine glitter in my fuel. It wasn't rusty, it was silver, and ferrous. I swirled a magnet around in the jar and this is what came out (looks kinda brown here, but in person it was shiny silver)
Well that's good and bad I guess. No rust means the it may not have sucked up rust, but metal filings mean the fuel pump is probably poked.
I cut the end off the filter and opened it up to check. Nothing else in it, just more fine glitter on the paper. Nice to see the Ryco filter has a plastic cage to stop the paper being crushed.
The clicking noise made me wonder, and the glitter confirmed it, the fuel pump wasn't a happy chappy.
Thankfully I have a spare, original fuel pump. I wasn't sure how good it was, but it did come alive when 12v was shoved into it.
Before replacing the pump there was one other quick check to do, remove the fuel level sender and check the inside of the tank.
There is an access hole in the bump behind the rear seats, on the LH side. It has a large rubber plug in it covering the sender and wiring
Mine was covered in crud, but that soon loosened when I got the hammer out to remove the retaining ring. The retaining ring has three tabs sticking up from it. I used a screwdriver and hammer to tap it around anti-clockwise with the tabs. There are three cutouts in the retainer, that will line up with three bumps on the tank housing, and when lined up you can remove the retainer
I gave the area a quick vacuum so that crud didn't end up in the tank.
With the retainer out, and the connections off, the sender can be lifted out, being careful of the float
So, with bated breath I shone a light into the tank and had a look. Well I'll be. Nothing but clean metal, even on the sides of the tank that I could see. There was some sediment at the bottom of the tank, but nothing major. Unfortunately the particulate filter was in the tank.... but no longer attached to the outlet, so useless. This is a common occurrence with SD1s.
Due to the design of the tank, the only access hole is the sender hole which is too small for an adult hand, and the tank is very deep in this area, so there is no way to reach the filter and reattach it.
Stoked, the tank is all good. I wasnt looking forward to paying the $600+freight+GST for one from Rimmers, which would still need to be cleaned and internally coated.
The terminals on the sender were all badly corroded, so they got a quick clean up, but I also found the reason for the sender reading 1/4 low.... the float had fuel in it! Not much, but enough it wouldn't be floating on the top anymore. Strangely, there are no signs of any holes or gaps in the seams, so no idea how it got in there.
I drilled a tiny hole with the smallest bit that would fit in my drill, and drained the fuel
The next day when I was sure it was empty and dry, I used my little soldering iron to melt plastic back over the hole and seal it
I did test the sender when it was out, and it seemed to read accurately based on where I positioned the arm, except no matter what, it wouldn't go over 3/4. I suspect an issue with the fuel gauge or maybe the sender itself, but as long as the rest of the scale is accurate now, I'm not bothered.
With the terminals cleaned, and the float emptied and sealed, I refit the sender with a new gasket ring. I used copious amounts of red rubber grease to lubricate the seal, so the retaining ring wouldn't catch it. Screwdriver and hammer once again employed to knock the retaining ring clockwise to lock it in place.
Back to the fuel pump, which is the main course in this buffet of goodness.
Replacing the fuel pump is a pretty straightforward process, I just wish I didn't add another 20L or so to the tank, as the fuel pump is inline under the car and gravity fed from the tank. It lives tucked up in front of the tank, covered by steel plates and in a little rubber/foam housing. It should be bolted to a crossmember that goes across the trans tunnel, but my crossmember was cut off so the stupid exhaust would fit.
I had previously noted that the high pressure hose on the outlet of the pump was looking a bit worse for wear, so wanted to do this job anyway, this just sped it up. I purchased some spare 8mm hose for the pressure side, and some new hose for the inlet side, which is low pressure, so doesn't need to be special EFI hose.
Since the in tank filter was no good, I wanted to fit an inline filter before the pump. This is also a common mod with SD1s, to try to trap rust before it kills the pump. It may not have been rust that went into my pump, but something chewed it up. This filter may have saved the pump, but oh well.
The standard hose from the tank to pump is 12mm ID. Finding a filter on the shelf with an inlet/outlet of 12mm or 1/2" is damn near impossible here (You can order them online, such as the WIX 33299, but I needed it quicker than that), so I had to look for an alternative. I ended up buying 7/16"/11.1mm fuel hose from Repco and picking up a Ryco Z153K filter. It has a 10mm inlet/outlet.
To remove the pump I found it easiest to remove the whole crossmember and bracket assembly first, and leave the pump hanging by the hoses. I don't have any photos of this because it's a pain taking photos under the car, and the next step got pretty messy.
Something had been living on the bracket I suspect
Being gravity fed, as soon as you remove the feed to the pump the fuel tank is going to drain, quickly. I removed the hose from the pump and directed the end into an empty fuel can. I drained the tank until the fuel started to sputter from the hose, as the little baffle sump in the tank filled and drained. This allowed me to remove the hose from tank and fit a piece of new hose that I had plugged with a wheel stud
I then removed the outlet hose of the pump from the hard line
Moving to the bench it was time to replace the pump and hoses. The outlet hose was worse than expected. It's a miracle it wasn't obviously leaking (although there has always been a strong fuel smell in the vicinity of the fuel pump, but no obvious wetness). Sorry for the average photos.
Here is the replacement standard pump, in the housing
The only place to fit the pre filter is just before the pump, as the rest of the hose is covered by the brackets with minimal free space
Pinched the connections from the old pump and swapped to replacement, with some modification as old pump wasnt original (it's actually a proper Bosch 070, or maybe a "copy") and uses screw terminals not spade terminals the standard one does. Nice new hose (and not the s
tty fake R9 hose)
I pre-assembled it on the brackets to see how it all fit, but you can't actually fit it to the car like this, you need to do the reverse of removal; hang the pump from its hoses and then fit the brackets
Then it was just a case of refitting it all. Once the pump was back in place, I directed the hose in the engine bay (inlet for EFI filter) into a bottle, reconnected the fuel pump connector and turned the key. It took a couple of primes to get all the air out, and fill the pre-filter, but then it shot a nice stream of fuel into the bottle. I did this twice to make sure there was no more glitter or dirt in the lines, and fit the new fuel filter.
A quick test to fill and prime the filter, and then proceed to spray pressurised fuel all over the engine..... oops. I replaced all the hose clamps on the fuel filter with proper EFI clamps, as the hoses were still good, but I hadn't got a good seal on one of the clamps. Repositioned and tightened, and she was all sealed up.
The replacement pump is nice and quiet, and makes a smoother whirring sound than the old 070, even with the resistor bypass in place.
I took Tess for a quick drive to see how she was. I was a little peeved off, the hesitation was still there.
I returned home, swapped back to the fuel pump relay, which quieted the pump down further, but it still makes a nice soft whirring sound, but the issue remained, even to the point where stabbing the throttle at idle caused the engine to stall. I tried to restart but it wouldn't immediately start, so I decided to have a quick look at the spark plugs.
I removed a plug and sure enough it was as black as night. Very rich and fouled.
I whipped out all 8 of the plugs, and they were all the same. I cleaned then all with a wire brush and brake clean, and regapped them from the 0.9 they were (I lowered the gap when fitted at recommendation of others), to 1.1. I figure a bigger gap might help have a bigger spark to blast through the carbon on the plugs.
Unfortunately I had a whoopsy removing one, and broke it >_< Thankfully I have spares, so I popped a replacement in
I had to shoot out and pick the wife up from the train, so took Tess to see if tweaking the plugs had changed anything. The car started fine with the clean plugs, but still hesitated. I picked her up and just as we got home she asked if I had given it a good blow out. No, not really, so we went the really long way home... with a decent italian tuneup. The car now revs happily and freely, no matter how quick you jab the throttle. Despite taking care in the wet conditions, because traction, I still put the hammer down and blew them cobwebs out.
I can't be sure what fixed it exactly, but the fuel pump was not in a happy place, and the spark gap may have been too small. I also suspect one or more injector is weeping/leaking, so that wont be helping. The fuel gauge does read much more accurately now too, which is awesome.
The lesson here? If you don't have a pre-pump filter, and your fuel pump is already sad, don't run your 30+ year old car low on fuel. It might just be the straw that breaks everything.
As a side note, don't worry, Le Mini Snicket is still here. I moved it outside the other day and then it proceeded to rain. This was a good test of the new window seals i fitted, as the interior was dry, with no signs of leaks. Success. I'm just getting the money together to take it for the registration inspection, and then we will see where we are.
I took Tess for a WOF inspection the other day, which she passed, of course. I did need to clean the reflector on one of the tail lights as it was completely obscured by dust, but that was as easy as blasting the inside of the light out with compressed air through the bulb holes.
It was pretty bad, I don't blame them for failing it
For comparison, the RH side with the nice clear reflector (I'd say the light was replaced at some point. it's too, clean.)
The result isn't perfect, but the reflector is actually visible now. Not sure how critical a LH side rear reflector is, but hey.
Moving along; I was a bit silly with the WOF. I didn't have the money for a tank of gas (not 60L of 98oct at these prices), so I chose to take it for the WOF with somewhere in the vicinity of 1/8 of a tank. Maybe 1/4 at the most. The fuel gauge is a bit of a joke, it consistently reads about 1/4 low so on the lower end of the dial it's anyone's guess what's in the tank.
The WOF was fine, but driving the car shortly after that (a celebratory WOF passed hoon) it developed an annoying stutter/hesitation when quickly pressing the throttle. If you rolled the throttle on it would rev out and drive fine, but if you jabbed the throttle too quick, like when rev matching or changing gear spiritedly, it would fall flat on its face for a bit, possibly pop out the exhaust and then come back to life and rev fine.
I tried adding some more gas to the tank, but obviously I had made her mad. This gave me a huge sinking feeling.... the car had been sitting for years before I got her, was the tank full of rust? Had rust blocked the filter?
The first step for me was to see if the fuel pump might have been mad. Its been making weird noises since I got the car. When you first turn the key and the pump primes, 1/4 of the time it would make a normal buzzing sound, but often it would just make a series of clicking noises. It still seemed to work, but you had to prime the system twice when cold or the car was hard to start. One prime, lots of cranking. Two primes, instant start.
The Rover SD1 EFI system runs a big resistor on the power feed for the fuel pump, which drops the voltage so the pump runs quieter with less output. These pumps are basically the same as the infamous Bosch "070" pump as used on fabulous machines such as the V12 Jaaag XJS, and the VL Commodore "tsutsutsu" turbo. Good for something like 300-400hp apparently, so obviously not stressed on the old 190hp RV8.
Because my car is running an aftermarket LinkECU, but has the standard loom adapted, I had no idea if it was still running the resistor or not. In Effie I bypassed it when the Speeduino was fitted.
The resistor lives up at the base of the LH A pillar, next to the glove box. Remove the glove box and it should be bolted into an oval cut out. I had already removed the bolt in this photo.
Some wiggling with the bolt out and it will come out
I made a quick bypass out of some genuine Lucas wire, and two spade terminals
Unplug the resistor, plug the bypass in
The good news was that the fuel pump made lovely buzzing noises all every time now, and you only needed the prime the system once and the car would fire into life without issue. The bad news, was that the hesitation was still there.
The next step here was to check the fuel filter. The SD1 has a particulate filter in the fuel tank, on the outlet pipe (more on that later), and a fine EFI filter in the engine bay. I replaced the EFI filter when I got Tess, so anything in it would have been since then. I removed the filter and drained it backwards, from the inlet, into a clean jar.
It looks like someone poured fine glitter in my fuel. It wasn't rusty, it was silver, and ferrous. I swirled a magnet around in the jar and this is what came out (looks kinda brown here, but in person it was shiny silver)
Well that's good and bad I guess. No rust means the it may not have sucked up rust, but metal filings mean the fuel pump is probably poked.
I cut the end off the filter and opened it up to check. Nothing else in it, just more fine glitter on the paper. Nice to see the Ryco filter has a plastic cage to stop the paper being crushed.
The clicking noise made me wonder, and the glitter confirmed it, the fuel pump wasn't a happy chappy.
Thankfully I have a spare, original fuel pump. I wasn't sure how good it was, but it did come alive when 12v was shoved into it.
Before replacing the pump there was one other quick check to do, remove the fuel level sender and check the inside of the tank.
There is an access hole in the bump behind the rear seats, on the LH side. It has a large rubber plug in it covering the sender and wiring
Mine was covered in crud, but that soon loosened when I got the hammer out to remove the retaining ring. The retaining ring has three tabs sticking up from it. I used a screwdriver and hammer to tap it around anti-clockwise with the tabs. There are three cutouts in the retainer, that will line up with three bumps on the tank housing, and when lined up you can remove the retainer
I gave the area a quick vacuum so that crud didn't end up in the tank.
With the retainer out, and the connections off, the sender can be lifted out, being careful of the float
So, with bated breath I shone a light into the tank and had a look. Well I'll be. Nothing but clean metal, even on the sides of the tank that I could see. There was some sediment at the bottom of the tank, but nothing major. Unfortunately the particulate filter was in the tank.... but no longer attached to the outlet, so useless. This is a common occurrence with SD1s.
Due to the design of the tank, the only access hole is the sender hole which is too small for an adult hand, and the tank is very deep in this area, so there is no way to reach the filter and reattach it.
Stoked, the tank is all good. I wasnt looking forward to paying the $600+freight+GST for one from Rimmers, which would still need to be cleaned and internally coated.
The terminals on the sender were all badly corroded, so they got a quick clean up, but I also found the reason for the sender reading 1/4 low.... the float had fuel in it! Not much, but enough it wouldn't be floating on the top anymore. Strangely, there are no signs of any holes or gaps in the seams, so no idea how it got in there.
I drilled a tiny hole with the smallest bit that would fit in my drill, and drained the fuel
The next day when I was sure it was empty and dry, I used my little soldering iron to melt plastic back over the hole and seal it
I did test the sender when it was out, and it seemed to read accurately based on where I positioned the arm, except no matter what, it wouldn't go over 3/4. I suspect an issue with the fuel gauge or maybe the sender itself, but as long as the rest of the scale is accurate now, I'm not bothered.
With the terminals cleaned, and the float emptied and sealed, I refit the sender with a new gasket ring. I used copious amounts of red rubber grease to lubricate the seal, so the retaining ring wouldn't catch it. Screwdriver and hammer once again employed to knock the retaining ring clockwise to lock it in place.
Back to the fuel pump, which is the main course in this buffet of goodness.
Replacing the fuel pump is a pretty straightforward process, I just wish I didn't add another 20L or so to the tank, as the fuel pump is inline under the car and gravity fed from the tank. It lives tucked up in front of the tank, covered by steel plates and in a little rubber/foam housing. It should be bolted to a crossmember that goes across the trans tunnel, but my crossmember was cut off so the stupid exhaust would fit.
I had previously noted that the high pressure hose on the outlet of the pump was looking a bit worse for wear, so wanted to do this job anyway, this just sped it up. I purchased some spare 8mm hose for the pressure side, and some new hose for the inlet side, which is low pressure, so doesn't need to be special EFI hose.
Since the in tank filter was no good, I wanted to fit an inline filter before the pump. This is also a common mod with SD1s, to try to trap rust before it kills the pump. It may not have been rust that went into my pump, but something chewed it up. This filter may have saved the pump, but oh well.
The standard hose from the tank to pump is 12mm ID. Finding a filter on the shelf with an inlet/outlet of 12mm or 1/2" is damn near impossible here (You can order them online, such as the WIX 33299, but I needed it quicker than that), so I had to look for an alternative. I ended up buying 7/16"/11.1mm fuel hose from Repco and picking up a Ryco Z153K filter. It has a 10mm inlet/outlet.
To remove the pump I found it easiest to remove the whole crossmember and bracket assembly first, and leave the pump hanging by the hoses. I don't have any photos of this because it's a pain taking photos under the car, and the next step got pretty messy.
Something had been living on the bracket I suspect
Being gravity fed, as soon as you remove the feed to the pump the fuel tank is going to drain, quickly. I removed the hose from the pump and directed the end into an empty fuel can. I drained the tank until the fuel started to sputter from the hose, as the little baffle sump in the tank filled and drained. This allowed me to remove the hose from tank and fit a piece of new hose that I had plugged with a wheel stud
I then removed the outlet hose of the pump from the hard line
Moving to the bench it was time to replace the pump and hoses. The outlet hose was worse than expected. It's a miracle it wasn't obviously leaking (although there has always been a strong fuel smell in the vicinity of the fuel pump, but no obvious wetness). Sorry for the average photos.
Here is the replacement standard pump, in the housing
The only place to fit the pre filter is just before the pump, as the rest of the hose is covered by the brackets with minimal free space
Pinched the connections from the old pump and swapped to replacement, with some modification as old pump wasnt original (it's actually a proper Bosch 070, or maybe a "copy") and uses screw terminals not spade terminals the standard one does. Nice new hose (and not the s
tty fake R9 hose)I pre-assembled it on the brackets to see how it all fit, but you can't actually fit it to the car like this, you need to do the reverse of removal; hang the pump from its hoses and then fit the brackets
Then it was just a case of refitting it all. Once the pump was back in place, I directed the hose in the engine bay (inlet for EFI filter) into a bottle, reconnected the fuel pump connector and turned the key. It took a couple of primes to get all the air out, and fill the pre-filter, but then it shot a nice stream of fuel into the bottle. I did this twice to make sure there was no more glitter or dirt in the lines, and fit the new fuel filter.
A quick test to fill and prime the filter, and then proceed to spray pressurised fuel all over the engine..... oops. I replaced all the hose clamps on the fuel filter with proper EFI clamps, as the hoses were still good, but I hadn't got a good seal on one of the clamps. Repositioned and tightened, and she was all sealed up.
The replacement pump is nice and quiet, and makes a smoother whirring sound than the old 070, even with the resistor bypass in place.
I took Tess for a quick drive to see how she was. I was a little peeved off, the hesitation was still there.
I returned home, swapped back to the fuel pump relay, which quieted the pump down further, but it still makes a nice soft whirring sound, but the issue remained, even to the point where stabbing the throttle at idle caused the engine to stall. I tried to restart but it wouldn't immediately start, so I decided to have a quick look at the spark plugs.
I removed a plug and sure enough it was as black as night. Very rich and fouled.
I whipped out all 8 of the plugs, and they were all the same. I cleaned then all with a wire brush and brake clean, and regapped them from the 0.9 they were (I lowered the gap when fitted at recommendation of others), to 1.1. I figure a bigger gap might help have a bigger spark to blast through the carbon on the plugs.
Unfortunately I had a whoopsy removing one, and broke it >_< Thankfully I have spares, so I popped a replacement in
I had to shoot out and pick the wife up from the train, so took Tess to see if tweaking the plugs had changed anything. The car started fine with the clean plugs, but still hesitated. I picked her up and just as we got home she asked if I had given it a good blow out. No, not really, so we went the really long way home... with a decent italian tuneup. The car now revs happily and freely, no matter how quick you jab the throttle. Despite taking care in the wet conditions, because traction, I still put the hammer down and blew them cobwebs out.
I can't be sure what fixed it exactly, but the fuel pump was not in a happy place, and the spark gap may have been too small. I also suspect one or more injector is weeping/leaking, so that wont be helping. The fuel gauge does read much more accurately now too, which is awesome.
The lesson here? If you don't have a pre-pump filter, and your fuel pump is already sad, don't run your 30+ year old car low on fuel. It might just be the straw that breaks everything.
As a side note, don't worry, Le Mini Snicket is still here. I moved it outside the other day and then it proceeded to rain. This was a good test of the new window seals i fitted, as the interior was dry, with no signs of leaks. Success. I'm just getting the money together to take it for the registration inspection, and then we will see where we are.
Very interesting to see the issues that develop, I wasn't aware of the resistor for the fuel pump either! I actually had an almost identical issue with mine not running as nicely as I'd have liked, my issues were dealt with with a new fuel filter, some injector cleaner, and cleaning all the crap off the spark plugs!
Joe
Joe
This was my car!
I was the last owner in the UK and sold it on in 1995. It's survived well and looks pretty much the same. All the chrome and stainless trim was etched and painted black, mirrors, door handles, bumper and bonnet trims were black as well. The front bumper had the overriders and the wheels were highly polished. There was no badge on the bonnet too. It had standard exhaust manifolds with a very loud Rovertec system that finished with a 3" tailpipe. The car was running a factory ECU with the cold start injector and a K&N filter. I used to swap the rear end for a 3.9:1 axle from a 2.0 SD1, it would run 13s with no drama!
The box section trailing arms were one of the many upgrades you could buy.
The brakes were all police spec parts, the four pot calipers have the one connection instead of two as standard on the EFI cars and the rear cylinders are bigger too.
Shame you didn't get to look at the heads, It was running the biggest valves that would fit and it was very well ported so it went quite well.
Before it moved from the UK, the registration was B268 KPA.
I bought most of my parts from MRA in Nottingham as I didn't live too far away.
Great work on getting back on the road, really made my day seeing this.
Dave
I was the last owner in the UK and sold it on in 1995. It's survived well and looks pretty much the same. All the chrome and stainless trim was etched and painted black, mirrors, door handles, bumper and bonnet trims were black as well. The front bumper had the overriders and the wheels were highly polished. There was no badge on the bonnet too. It had standard exhaust manifolds with a very loud Rovertec system that finished with a 3" tailpipe. The car was running a factory ECU with the cold start injector and a K&N filter. I used to swap the rear end for a 3.9:1 axle from a 2.0 SD1, it would run 13s with no drama!
The box section trailing arms were one of the many upgrades you could buy.
The brakes were all police spec parts, the four pot calipers have the one connection instead of two as standard on the EFI cars and the rear cylinders are bigger too.
Shame you didn't get to look at the heads, It was running the biggest valves that would fit and it was very well ported so it went quite well.
Before it moved from the UK, the registration was B268 KPA.
I bought most of my parts from MRA in Nottingham as I didn't live too far away.
Great work on getting back on the road, really made my day seeing this.
Dave
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