Firming up the rear and blowing out a plug...

Well - the pictures and story are out of synch here - these are Pastor D's pictures from Walhalla and Rawson - but that was weeks ago now, and the completely stuffed suspension is now wonderfully solid again.

In fact - it feels as though the front ones are possibly a bit weak now!

Took the kids for a swim in the local lake last weekend - in the green beast.  Was a bit of a squash getting everything in (we normally go in the people mover), but we managed.

I'd been listening to what I thought was a tappet slowly loosening up, and was a bit surprised at how mush worse it was getting.  Anyhow, one refreshing paddle later (gloriously hot day, b----y freezing water), we were burbling home when I decided to unleash the horses on a long uphill.  A bit embarrassing really, I was trying to get past a Ute (Utility) - and after wellying up the hill at about 65 mph in second, I managed to squeeze past the Ute (Rover V8 gives wonderfully smooth and torquey shove-in-the-back, but it is no Ferrari) I bounced into top, more-or-less at the top of the hill and then there was a sudden bang from below the bonnet, a bit of a power loss and quite a lot of 'bad vibrations' from the drive train.

The Ute driver must have had a bit of a giggle when I pulled over to the hard shoulder.  Kids weren't so happy at the prospect of being stranded in the bush on a 29'C day...

Looking under the bonnet the problem was quickly apparent.  The rearmost right hand plug lead and plug were dangling free.

I realised that the loose tappet had in fact been a loosening plug - mustn't have been fully tightened last time it was put back in - so it had gradually worked its way loose and finally had succumbed to the laws of physics and shot out after the strenuous exertions of hurtling up hill at high engine speed in second gear.

The plug thread looked fine, so all I needed to do was screw it back in and we'd be on our way.  The only problem was that the plug, and the engine, were very, very hot.  And anyone who knows the P6B engine bay, will know that the right hand rear spark plug is impossible to reach without touching the engine - the access space is very tight.

Oh - and I didn't have a plug spanner.  Tried improvising with a plastic funnel and a squee-gee, with fairly predictable results.

S-o-o-o drove home fairly gently, sounding a bit like a badly tuned helicopter crossed with an unsilenced Harley, with fairly embarrassed kids.

Later, when the engine had cooled and I'd found a plug spanner, I put it back in.  That was a few weeks ago now, and there have been no ill side-effects, it seems.

Funny thing happened the other day - drove the P5 to work (still needs an Alternator recondition, so charging the battery every 3 days) and saw a similar car parked in the street near the office!

Had to take a photo, so here are the two of them, just on the very edge of the Melbourne City Business District (CBD.

The other car (the front one) is either a series II like mine, or a series III.  It has individual front seats (mine is a bench) - is also an automatic like mine.  It (like mine) is in original 'survivor' condition and fully registered for daily use.

Magic Carpets and Dirt Roads

So-ooo, Carbs back on the 3500 and it is running beautifully - burbling away at about 120kph (70mph) in a wooshy, shove-in-your-back kind of a way - but it does have a bit of a shake.  Don't know yet if it engine, transmission shaft (unlikely to be gearbox after the rebuild) or wheels.

The 3-litre has had its diff seal replaced (took less than an hour on the local friendly garage man's hoist), so my weekly crawling under-the-car-to-top-up-the-diff nightmare is over.  he showed me the seal afterwards - it was hardened to bakelite fragility, so hardly surprising it went.

Just took her out for an hour with my youngest daughter - great run, smooth as anything.  Don't think I've driven a 10-year-old car that runs as smoothly as the P5 - let alone a 45-year-old.

We went up into the hills and stopped for a coffee at the small town(?) of Sassafras (Dandenong ranges).

I know on paper the car is a slow old thing, but most of the time I find myself quite frustrated by the cars in front of me - so it can't be that bad.

I have driven her on dirt roads - and she copes with them well.  It isn't something I normally do though.  Rovers are tough cars and Australia's roads would have allowed them to prove it.  This road is just a side road in Sassafras.

Speaking of dirt roads though...

Perhaps I should rewind a bit.  Last weekend I went on 'camp' with about 30 other guys from Church. Mens camp, it was called - so minimal cerebral activity, plenty of carbs and protein and almost no vegetables (there was a tin of beetroot, but I don't think it got opened).

Anyhow, the 'camp' was up country in a small town called Rawson.  Plenty of 4-wheel drive opportunities and an on-site paintball complex.  Awesome.  Rawson is (sort of) between Mount Baw Baw (mountain resort) and Walhalla (remote but once thriving gold town) - look it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walhalla,_Victoria .

Managed to get the 3500 back from carburetor surgery just in time - which is good, as Rawson is about 2 hours from my house and not near a train station.  Picked up friend Allan and off we went.  Burble burble down the freeway.  It really is a magnificent car to drive.

Takes about 8 minutes to fill the petrol tank though because I have to fill at the slowest possible speed - otherwise the filler just cuts out (why IS that?) .

Anyhow, the last 30-odd km runs north from the highway and is an engaging, sweeping, two-way road with an indifferent (but sealed) surface.  Green Lightening took it in her stride and delivered us both, smiling and happy, in good time to settle in to our luxury(?) accommodation. [Hey - this is a budget church do, right?  4 to a room and about 5 on the sofas in the common room.]

I didn't stop to take pictures of the route - was having way too much fun driving - but here is the car at rest - having arrived.  Weather forecast was not great - cold and damp - but spirits were high.

The next day we had quite a bit of free time.  Those of a particular nature went paint-balling.  Others went off to do a bit of tame 4-wheel driving on the bush tracks.  Some went to Walhalla for a look around.  I wasn't sure what to do (other than NOT paint-balling) so I took myself to Walhalla (15 mins on even windier roads - great fun) and had a look round.  The shock of having to drink instant coffee at breakfast had been significant, so I consoled myself with the real thing.  Took a few photos - and here are some of them:

It was unfolding to be just a really peaceful day with me doing things I like doing and having a great chill.   It was literally a Godsent break from the ups and downs of work etc.

 Soon got bored of  being peaceful and unstressed, so had a bit of a look at the map and decided to drive to Mount Baw Baw, which is about 30 km the other direction from Rawson, on a dirt road.

Now this is a logging track, so there is plenty of room for two large semi-trailer trucks to pass each other - but is still a dirt road.  And 28 km long.  In my typically philosophical and patient manner, I decided to take it quickly to iron out the bumps.

Pictures in sequence are of a burnt out swathe of forest about half way there (from the big fires last year), then where I turned round at Mt Baw Baw because it said I had to put chains on, and another shot of the burnt forest.

So 50-odd km on dirt roads at between 40 and 100kph.  in a 35-year-old car?  But it IS a Rover - what could possibly go wrong?

 Well nothing, surely...

Not exactly.  Couldn't really tell on the dirt, but once I was back on the sealed road, it became really obvious that I no longer had functioning rear shock-absorbers.

And I have no-one to blame but myself.  Curiously, whereas before the car used to do a sort of hip-shrug when I braked at speed, now it doesn't.  This and one or two other things about the way it cornered unevenly, lends me to think that in fact one of my shock absorbers may have already been either gone, or on the way there.

Left and right bends are now consistent.  Trouble is, they are consistent in a rather floaty kind of way.  And speed bumps set up a trampolining motion like you would not believe.  Have a very reasonable quote to fit a 'good' pair of second hand shocks, but currently no money as a result of the battery-alternator-gearbox-radiator and carburetor expenditure over the past 5 weeks.

On Sunday - with a bit more free time, Pastor D and friend L and I drove to Walhalla again, with L providing a useful ballast to compensate for my undamped springs.  Dave had heroically risen at about 6 am and driven the 60 km round trip to bring back a coffee plunger and real coffee - so a trip in Green Lightening was the least I could do in return. L has a vast store of local knowledge which made the return to Walhalla really interesting.  Beautiful spot and a really interesting history - I'll definitely go back.

Quick reference note for the non-car nerds amongst you - Rover classified it's various post war generations of car in sequence as P1, P2, P3 etc, where 'P' stood for 'Post War' and the number was the sequence of appearance. 

Here in succession are the P2, P3 and P4 (I used to have a P4 in the late 80s / early 90s)

   

My black car is a P5 (the 5th model since the war) and my dark green car is a P6.  Leyland bought Rover during the gestation of the planned P8, which morphed into the SD1 - not quite so logical, I guess... 

There is a fair bit to do to both cars - in summary:

• P6 rear shockers
  
• P6 Heater unit needs reconditioning so it is not on all the time
• P6 Plastic tabs that are siliconed over the vents to stop knees cooking need to be removed (once the heater unit has been fixed)
  
• P6 Aircon needs regassing (once the heater unit has been fixed - no point in having the aircon and the heater on at the same time)
  
• P6 Need to identify the shake/wobble and fix
• P5 needs a new Alternator (the battery is fine, but the alternator is stuffed
• P5 Wipers need fixing (may be related) they only go half way up the screen
• P5 gearbox needs a recon (if poss, I will replace the BW DG with a BW type 35 or 65 (easier to maintain and keep leaks to a minimum - and likley to cost abut $1,500 less to do)
• P5 A whole heap of paint / bodywork (dented driver's door) and upholstery - all of which can wait (at least she photographs well!)
  
• One more for the P6 - when I am brave enough I need to look under the lambskin seat covers to see what needs fixing - but I am not yet - still recovering from lifting the covers on the P5
• Oh - and if I can rip out whatever stops the petrol going in at a normal flow speed, I will do that too - my old P6 in the UK was sometimes a bit awkward, but never this bad

D took a heap more pictures in Wallhalla (the sun was shining on Sunday) so expect these in the next posting

Bronchial Carboritis

So-o-o, just when I thought the alternator, battery, gearbox and radiator would be just about it, the car stops working again ☹.

I had an early morning osteopath appointment (oddly enough, my osteopath is technically the heir to some ruined Castle in England’s N East, but that is another story altogether – and one he himself has little interest in).

I drove the P6 (Green Lightening) the 4 minutes and 50 seconds it takes to get there – which with the warm-up period I gave it meant that it was almost warm when I switched it off.  It also seemed to be misfiring a bit, but it is 20 years since I drive a V8 regularly – and I thought it might just be a damp weather misfire.

When I came to restart it, it was still rough – almost got home when the Osteo’s assistant rang me to tell me I had left something there, so I turned round and went back – by the time I got there, the misfire was serious and she would not idle.

Picked up my stuff, got back in car, tried to start – but she would not fire at all.  The wonderful new battery and reconditioned alternator seemed to be doing their job beautifully – spinning the lump as fast as anything – but absolutely NOT firing.

I had meetings that morning, so had to leave the car, walk home, collect bag and catch the train to the city.  Came back mid afternoon, renewed my acquaintance with the trusty RACV recovery service and dumped the car at the family garage we use.  Initial suspicions were of bad petrol, but this turned out to be wrong.  The cabs are squirting way too much fuel into the chambers for them to cope with once the engine is warm.

The carb man is busy, so it will be at least a week.  Good job I don’t grind my teeth.

Paul (at the garage) was kind enough to let me hoist up the P5 to check the diff oil level, before I pressed it into service to get me to the airport the next day.  It was over full.  Arg.  Seems that because I have to jack up the car from the side to fill the diff at home – and because subsequently I am filling the diff at a fairly serious list to the starboard, the level is all wrong.  Could actually be that I bust the seal by over filling it.  Arg again.        

Remember, the battery and alternator on the P5 also seem to be terminally rooted, so starting to get to the airport was a bit of an adventure.  I am currently on the plane returning home and don’t yet know if it will start to get me home.  Thankful that the starting-handle works very efficiently.  I’ll let you know what happens.

(Several hours later) It did start (phew!) and I managed to pick up the kids as I was supposed to, so domestic harmony has ben preserved.

I wil get the electrics and diff leak fixed, it is just a question of funds...

Iron Fist in a Green Velvet Glove

Well - I picked up 'Green Lightening' (named by my 9-year-old) from the transmission shop on Friday (3 days ago)

All (and I do mean all) is forgiven.  What a great ride.

Turns out I have the Borg-Warner type 65 gearbox, instead of the more common type 35 - which is a good thing.

She just wooshes along, emitting a fairly throaty V8 growl from its twin pipes.  Noticed a slightly disturbing lack of response from the brakes when I started out today - but only once - I'll check the level shortly.  Also had to top up the power steering by a small amount (the manual says to check it every 1,000 miles anyway).

Second gear is a real stormer, good for at least 70 mph (112kph) which dispatches hills, slower cars and pretty much anything with disdain and aplomb.  I love it.

Now I have to work out the heating (possibly stuck in the on position) and the aircon (which at least needs regassing) and I will have a very usable car.  I had forgotten how little room there is for passenger's legs in the back, especially when the driver is a well-proportioned 6'4".

Can't be many 4-door 2-seater grand tourers can there?  Only the Brits eh?

A new life for the Marina

Well, I did say I was thinking of replacing the Marina with a car with working air conditioning - and I said it had to be a Leyland product to preserve the integrity of the title of this blog.  Well pat me on the back, I nearly managed.  Introducing my new 1974 Rover 3500.  (The aircon is all there, but needs regassing)

Consequently the time has come for the trusty Marina to move on.   My previously mentioned experience of driving the Marina (vinyl seats and all) in 48'C+ for several hours will be etched on my memory for some time yet.

I have sold the her to a lady in Sydney whose first car was one, and wants something to complement her Mini. 

The online advert pictures came up well, so I have included a few here.

So - my 'new' car - had "to keep me both looking and feeling cool through out the next few months.  It also really needed to be a Leyland - given that the Rover P5 was made a few years before Leyland subsumed Rover.  After all, I can't go renaming my blog just like that - what would all you avid readers do if I undertook such an impulsive rebranding exercise?"

Exactly.

After quite an exercise of analysing what I wanted / needed and could afford, followed by a lengthy search and a bit of analysis of current prices, the impact of the recession etc, I settled on a Rover 3500 P6.  Bought it sight unseen too, with the aid of pictures and a large slice of trust.

It was be put on a covered truck and shipped down to me from Brisbane. So - still a Leyland car AND a Rover to boot. Saves car club fees :-)

I managed to drop the Marina off and collect the P6 on the same day, so was quite pleased with that.

Unfortunately, the P6 had no petrol, so I stopped to fill it up.  Takes a long time too, because of the shape of the filler neck and the shape of ULP nozzles.

Then the car wouldn't start - flat battery.  Called RACV and they told me the battery was flat.  Ah well.  Waited an hour for the battery man who fitted the new battery and then told me the alternator stuffed.

Ah well, again.  The drive home was great, and other than battery, completely incedent free.  I deposited the car at the garage for its roadworthy (like a UK MOT test, but it is a state government responsibility, so it has to be done when a car moves interstate) - and also asked them to fix the alternator.

On Friday, I took it for inspection - she passed and I was able to register her.  Phew!

On Sunday (we were busy on Saturday) I went for a blast in the hills.  Was awesome, although towards the end I noticed a bit of a shriek (when I turned off the stereo) and wondered if the fan belt was slipping.

It has been almost 20 years since I let my old 3500S go and I was not going to let a bit of a shriek spoil my multi-faceted trip down memory lane.

Perhaps I should have...

I drove the car to work on Monday and as I got to the centre of the city, I started having some problems with the automatic transmission.  I was having to pull it right back to 2nd and sometimes 1st just to get the car to move away from the lights - oh and the shrieking was getting worse.

It was raining and I wanted to check out what was happening, so I parked in the multi-story.  I was locking the car (parked on a slight slope) when I noticed the steadily expanding puddle of automatic transmission fluid seeping its way towards the car next to me...

I took a deep breath, decided there was nothing I could immediately do about it and went into the office, nervously trying to calculate the parking fee if I had to leave it there overnight.

I rang the nice transmission people at Fluiddrive in Box Hill (they had been recommended by the Rover club) and agreed with them to bring the car in.  WOrked for an hour or so and then went back to the car, checked the transmission fluid level (which oddly enough looked fine) and set off for Box Hill.

I did loose transmission twice, but once I'd given it a rest, it came back.  Frank, form Fluiddrive shot out of his office like a sprinter when I drove in - but that was because they had just finished a P6 V8 this morning, and he thought the car was coming back.  Encouraged by the fact that he actually recognised the model by ear, I explained the problem.

He hoisted the car up and confirmed I had a serious leak - then suggested we should take the car out to see what else might be amiss.  He also commented on the fact that the car had had the engine rebuilt. (Even more encouraging.)

About 8 minutes later, amidst clouds of toffee-smelling smoke, he gently informed me that the problem was more serious than a simple gasket leak.

We waited a while and limped back (another 2 stops).

A day later, the transmission is out and stripped.  The problem seems to have been water.  The transmission fluid is cooled by a heat exchanger that sits in the main radiator.  It seems that this has corroded, and because the water in the radiator is at a higher pressure than the transmission fluid, water enters the gearbox and subsequently corrodes everything within reach.

So not just a $1,500 gearbox overhaul, but a $300 to $400 radiator rebuild as well :-(

Not quite how I envisaged my first week with the car - but wear and tear should be expected in something this age (1974 - so 35 years old).

With the battery, alternator reconditioning, gearbox overhaul and radiator rebuild, we are looking at an outlay of about $2,500 (Australian) since I picked the car up.  If we add purchase, transporting the car form Brisbane (about 2,000km) and registration costs, I have hit $6,800 already!!!!

Cheap for a great car, but a fair bit more than I planned for, or prepared my better half for.  I guess I'll be catching the train to work for a few months to redress the balance.  Ah well once more.

On a very slightly more uplifting note, it seems that the rapid differential leak on the other Rover (the P5 only needs about $20 in parts and a bit of labour to fix. 

Here is a picture of the diff.  The shiny nut is the filler nut - topping it up is an exercise in fighting claustrophobia AND extreme gymnastics.  I'll be glad when I can get it fixed finally.  (Just need to find the time to drop it off.)

Burbling through the Winter

I know I call this blog "Living with Leyland", but arguably I shouldn't, because I'm not really using the Marina while I ponder its future - and my Rover was built in 1963, 4 years before Leyland subsumed the Rover Motor Co.

But why would I change the title now - when so many devotees of my blog have become comfortable with it?  (This is known as self-deprecating dead-pan humour, just in case the slightly derisory tone and raised eyebrow do not translate too well to text)

Well - I knew Rover started as a bicycle manufacturer in the late 1800's, but here's something I did not know, (courtesy of Wikepedia):

Starley's Rover (bicycle) is usually described by historians as the first recognisably modern bicycle. The words for "bicycle" in Polish (Rower) and Belarusian (Rovar, Ро́вар) are derived from the name of this company.

For no reason at all - that makes me feel obscurely proud.  Must be hard to market a luxury car in Poland that is called 'Bicycle' though.  Perhaps that is why the marque is effectively dormant now...

So anyway, as an avid reader of my blog since its inception, you will be aware that I bought the Rover in late February 2009 (6 months ago) with less than 45,000 mikes on the clock (44,667 to be precise).  I have driven over 5,000 miles in it since (8,000 km) and it has almost got to 50,000 miles.  Basically, this means it has probably traveled more miles in the last 6 months than it did in the previous 10 (possibly 20) years.

I have carried out a number of bits of 'renovation' work - and improvements to the state of engine tune (some conventional, others not) have meant that it now runs beautifully smoothly - and surprisingly economically for such a big, heavy car.  I had thought I was getting 23 mpg - but i think this might have been due to a calculation error.  Over the last 3 tanks, I have consistently managed 19.5 mpg (which is about 14.5 l/100km) on premium unleaded.

The old automatic gearbox (a Borg Warner DG) still leaks about a litre of fluid every 600 miles and the electrics remain a little eccentric - but on the whole ownership and driving has been rewarding and fun.

The diff ran more-or-less dry last weekend so had to crawl underneath to top it up.  I guess when I finally stump up the small fortune required to recondition the gearbox, I'll also get the diff seals redone.

It is a lovely, relaxing car to tour in, but the boot is 2/3 full of tools, cans of oil and other fluids, so there is not a lot of practical luggage space left.  Perhaps a boot rack would set it off nicely...?

Most weekends I try to get out into the Dandenong ranges with either of the kids or the whole family, if possible.  Tourist traffic and the winding, hilly roads tend to mean that the best speeds are between 30 and 55 mph (50 and 90 kph) - which is a great sweet spot for the particular transmission and engine combination of this model.

I think the age of the suspension and the fact that it runs on light truck radials (instead of the original crossplies) means that it rides a bit more harshly than it otherwise might - but still, it is a comfortable and solid car on the road.

It s also surprisingly practical to commute in - as long as the temperatures stay below 30'C.  My run to work is a 40-mile round trip in to the centre of the city in a range of road conditions - up to 70 mph (100kph-ish) if I take the tollway option - or suburban and urban stop-start if I don't.  Usually I choose the stop-start - so I'm pretty pleased with the 19.5 mpg.

I replaced the wipers this weekend - so now a bit more of the screen is smeared during rain.  Maybe there is an adjuster I can work on - it shouldn't be this bad!

I think before the summer gets here, I should probably replace the Marina with a car that has working airconditioning.

So - my 'new' car - has to keep me both looking and feeling cool through out the next few months.  It also really needed to be a Leyland - given that the Rover P5 was made a few years before Leyland subsumed Rover.  After all, I can't go renaming my blog just like that - what would all you avid readers do if I undertook such an impulsive rebranding exercise?

Finding anything with working airconditioning that fits my very modest budget, will certainly be a challenge.

Anyway - it's Sunday, so am off to Church.  More later.

Marina in a Marina...

An old school friend of my sister-in-law turned up at her house for a visit the other day. So two old school chums from the '70s get back together 10,000 miles from their Alma Mater. We all popped round too - they don't live too far away - and this particular chum also knew my wife

Chum's name is Marina - and yes, I could not resist, and good sport that she is, she gladly humoured me. Here she is - Marina in the Marina.

Depending on how long she is here, we might visit a Marina (boats n sea n stuff) - then I can get Marina, in the Marina, at a marina.

Hmm.

There is possibly a streak of insanity emerging here, but then, what sane person would willingly own and drive a Leyland Marina in the 'naughties?

Still can't decide whether to spend the $800 -ish to recondition the steering rack and fix the back brake - although not having the $800 in the first place is a fairly limiting factor...

I also think I've cured the oil leak onto the exhaust pipe by ignoring it, - I've checked the levels and all seems good.

I'll check again this weekend...

Thanks Marina :)

Pyjamas in the Tailpipe

Funny one this. I'd been moaning to the redoubtable Edward that the Rover exhaust was very noisy - principally because the previous owner had fitted a tail pipe from a 3.5 litre P5, which has two exit pipes on the rear muffler.

The 3 litre P5 should have a single exit pipe, and run very quietly (silently according to the contemporary test reports).

Incidentally, despite the new plugs, plug caps and leads, there was still a bit of a misfire too - probably carburetor-related.

Edward rang me and pointed out that the internal plumbing of the rear muffler/silencer box was simply 'one pipe in and two out' - so if we blocked off one of the pipes, I might (effectively) end up with a more-or-less standard system. "Try it with a rag first, to see how it runs, then if it is ok, we can simply weld in a metal disk to block the pipe." He suggested the right-hand pipe for some reason and said something cryptic about the old Rover engines liking a bit of 'back pressure'.

Always ready to fight the dark forces of automotive truculence with unexpected weaponry, I packed a once-faithful (and appropriately empty) pyjama leg into the right hand tail pipe - packed it in as hard as I could, then cut off the excess.

After starting, the car did indeed run quietly. And very smoothly. I took it up the street and back with no signs of trouble.

This was 10 days ago. The pyjama leg is still as well packed in as ever after over 300 miles - so no pressure is forcing it out. The engine is now as quiet as it probably was when new - thanks to the new plugs, leads, etc - and the exhaust is really quiet too - even my wife commented - and she rarely shows more than a passing indifference (understandable really - once she shows any interest, I start talking cars...)

But there are two more surprises. When I got the car, it was doing woefully worse than its original 17 mpg (imperial) or about 16 l/100km. I could tell. I was too scared to even measure the consumption, I just knew it was horrific.

However, after the various improvements (valve resetting, plugs, leads and the pyjama leg) I felt more confident.

You see, the remaining misfire all but disappeared (first surprise), and the old girl now pulls happily and cleanly from about 15 mph in top gear, so driving has become more relaxed. The engine is 'quantums' smoother and quieter - and I seemed to be filling up less.

SO I measured over about 250 miles (400km) of a lot of freeway and some urban driving - my normal stuff (see pic). I was very pleasantly surprised (second surprise). My 1.7 tonne, 120 hp Rover and I were returning a bit under 23 mpg (still imperial) or 13 l/100kmh, by my calculations.

All things considered, pretty good. A case of my pyjamas helping to save the planet. I know it isn't VW Golf diesel territory, but then I am helping the planet by not causing yet another unnecessary new car to be manufactured - which, by all accounts, puts me way ahead of the Golf owner!

And anyway, I don't drive as far as he does...

Speaking of saving the planet - here is a Rover P4 (actually about the same age as my P5) awaiting some resuscitative surgery from Edward before being recommissioned. I like these cars - used to have one in the UK. This one is nothing to do with me - but I thought I'd show you a picture

Happy Motoring!

Too Many Sparks

There was always a bit of a misfire on the Rover, but never anything to worry about. Just the odd hiccup now and then, and a strange inclination to hesitate if I suddenly asked for more speed whilst cruising above 50 mph.

Then all of a sudden I had a major misfire. The old girl still went, but managed at the same time to convey the strong impression that it was all too much effort...

Lifting the bonnet whilst the engine was running allowed me to see the very strong spark bouncing between the plug cap and the rocker cover - at least the problem was easy to see. I called my new friend Mark - local P5 guru and he suggested that the Bakelite plug cap was probably cracked.

So I limped the car over to his place - and he produced a spare one - we (he) fitted it - and off I went. The car ran beautifully for about 11 1/2 minutes - and then started the same tricks again. A quick look 'under the hood' revealed that the same plug cap was sparking to the rocker cover again.

Sheesh!

As it was, I was on the way to see Edward, who had done the top-end fettle (valves etc) because there also seemed to be a leak from the rocker cover gasket. Got there, and Edward happily fixed the leak (the gasket has slipped slightly inside during fitting) and also provided a replacement plug cap.

About 2 km up the road, it all started again - same misfire, same plug cap. Conclusion that we all came to was that the original Bakelite was perhaps not really standing the test of time - and that it was probably best for the car to replace the leads, caps and plugs with modern ones - silicone, rubber, stainless lead cores and multi-point spark plugs.

The redoubtable Edward cheerfully obliged.

The plugs came a few days later than the leads - but just the leads and plug caps made an enormous difference. Very smooth, quieter and much better low-speed puling power than ever I can remember.

Then came the plugs (each has 4 points to spark from instead of just one) and I had high hopes. They were realised - at least for a while. Even smoother 'cleaner' power. Then, to my surprise, the misfire partly returned. Generally, the engine is running at least 50% better, when either at a steady speed or under hard acceleration, but when I 'part' accelerate, either at low revs or up hill, I sometimes get a misfire.

The improvements in spark technology seem to mean that the misfire is not threatening to rip the gearbox and engine off their respective mounts (as it seemed before), but it is still significant. And frustrating. And a bit of a mystery. Perhaps I have dirty fuel - who knows. I'll experience it for a few more days and then have another chat with Edward - to see if we can work it out. Ho-hum.

Still continuing to to top up the transmission fluid on a weekly basis.

The Marina is much as it was - no misfires, but an oil leak from either engine or gearbox that means oil drips on to the exhaust pipe under the cabin, so once warm, there is a bit of a burnt oil smell. This may fix itself once the gearbox mounting rubbers are replaced - or it may get worse.

Watch this space.

Half of me wants to get rid of of the green beast and get something just a tad more glam, but the other half does not -and anyway - who'd buy it?

I drove to work in it last week and just as I switched the engine off in the carpark, there was a loud metallic PING. A quick check revealed that the rhs chrome wheel arch trim had pinged out and was now gracefully sitting 6 inches away from the bodywork at the top, but still attached by screws at the bottom. So I pulled it off. Never really liked those things anyway.

More later - bye for now - by the way, if you want to comment or say "hi" please do.

Conrad

Dealing with Decay - a day in the life of...

Ho Hum

So, the trusty Marina now has working wipers and the dash panel lights are working again (I found a replacement second hand switch for a mere $35 - even managed to fit it myself).

Unfortunately I now know it will cost me the best part of $800 to have the steering rack removed and reconditioned (read re-bushed) and to get the brakes fixed. This will put the total expenditure on the car so far at about $2,500 - which is almost 3 x what it is worth - with all the work and new bits done so far. Most of the expense is in the labour required to remove the steering box - something a competent home mechanic could do quite easily - but I am not one of those...

Causing me to think very seriously about the logic of continuing with it - but then, the flip side is that I have a reasonable and reliable car - all for about $2,500 - and I KNOW which bits won't go wrong any more, because I will have replaced:

* tyres
* Windscreen
* Window winders
* dash-light switch
* fuel cap
* rear axle/diff
* steering rack seals
* gearbox mounts
* clutch and brake fluid
* windscreen wipers
* bent wheel

And I have bought it a substantial steering wheel cover

All I need to do now is fix the heater and it will be hard to fault. Well, for a 35-year old Marina, anyway.

If I try to think of it as an MGB with a more practical body, it becomes quite desirable in a pea-green, goat-in-sheep's-clothing kind of way. (Pic of MGB in exotic location to compare with a pic of Marina at our local exotic play park...)

They are, coincidentally, both the result of an Italian body design clothing British componentry...

Beauty is, after all, in the eyes of the beholder.

Then there is the Rover. The heater works and the steering rack is fine. I have spent well over $1,500 on it since buying it - mainly on replacing the windscreen, front and rear window rubbers and having the top-end tuned twice.

Here it is being an every day commuter car. Well, sitting in a car park between commutes - I don't yet know how to photograph myself driving without getting a speeding ticket.

b-u-u-t, it still has the automatic gearbox in need of a $5,000 overhaul and a slightly worrying intermittent misfire. Plus the electrics are quite obstinate from time-to-time. Mind you, my previous experience of elderly Rovers is that they will continue to function quite well despite a myriad of ills, so I feel as long as I keep the fluids topped up, things should be more-or less ok.

Oh - AND it needs a new driver's door and a fairly serious respray to about 7 body panels. Only yesterday the swivelling switch/catch for the driver's-side quarter-light window 'exploded' (it has a spring in it) in protest at being used.

How about this - to check the auto gearbox fluid levels, you have to lift the carpet off the transmission tunnel, remove a very perished rubber bung from the tunnel just under the parcel shelf, and use the short dipstick to check the level whilst the car is idling, in gear (low) with the handbrake on!!

The gearbox fluid is a special one, and a sort of watery blood colour. The dipstick is very shiny, which makes it quite hard to see where the level is.

Filling it up is quite awkward, because of the limited space between the parcel shelf and the transmission tunnel. Is slightly tiresome having to do it at least once a week...

The leak is inconsistent, and sometimes the box practically empties in 2 days. All a teensy bit irritating.

And then there is actually driving it. 45 years ago, relatively few British cars were sold with automatic gearboxes. The dear old Rover has TWO gear levers.

So how does it work? For normal driving, you select 'D'. Nothing odd about that, except the selector goes P-N-D-L-R (where 'L'= Low gear), in stead of the now ubiquitous P-R-N-D-2-1 - in other words, 'R' is in a different place. You can not select second gear manually.

As you pull away, the car starts (by default) in second gear, only briefly selecting first if you completely mash the pedal to the floor, and (also by default) the upchange to 3rd occurs at about 30kph. You can stretch this out by stepping much harder on the pedal, or really get it to hang on by mashing again.

OR... you can use the other gear lever, which is like an indicator stalk next to the main gearlever. Once flicked, the car starts in first, holds it for a while, jumps to second, holds it for much longer and then jumps to 3rd at about 70 kph. Generally if you are going up hill, it holds the gears for longer anyway. This second lever is called (I think) the 'kick-down switch', but I might be wrong about that, because I think the last centimetre of accelerator pedal travel is also called the kick-down switch. Hmmm.

The car is set to upchange at very low revs - because it was always meant to be a sedate and gentlemanly motor car - also the engine, whilst it can rev a bit, is probably best when it doesn't.

Having said that, the overall gearing is extremely low, with the engine revving (I calculate) at 3,000 revs at 62 mph (100 kph), which,by modern standards is quite a high engine speed for the actual road speed. Although it is revving quite fast, it is very smooth and does not feel like it will break - even at an indicated 85mph (about 137kph) it just seems to keep going (4,200 rpm)

Then there's the lights. Apart from the fact that they are quite moody about whether or not they will come on, there are THREE separate switches for the lights. None of your all-in-one column switches here.

• Switch 1 - a dashboard toggle switch that turns on the light system (sidelights only if nothing else is switched on)
• Switch 2 - a single action indicator-type switch (on or off) that turns on the headlights. This is on the right of the column, behind the indicator switch
  
• Switch 3 - a floor-mounted foot-operated dip switch to the left of the brake pedal which turns on main-beam
• Switch 4 (did I say 3 switches? tut) is headlamp flasher, which you get by pulling the indicator stalk backwards (I'd had the car 2 months before I accidentally discovered this blissfully logical device)
• Switch 5 sits under the instrument binnacle and turns on the spotlights.

Switches 2, 3 and 5 only work if switch 1 in 'on'.

So - you think you are ready to drive it? Don't forget - no power steering (1.7 tonne car) and you need to fill up the gearbox first :)

Rover 3-Litre. A blend of value and expense

I'm told by someone who knows these things that all Ferrari leak. I wasn't expecting the Rover to though. The window rubbers on the front and rear screens were totally shot, with the result that in a heavy downpour, anyone sitting anywhere on the back seat would get very wet hair, and the driver would need to keep the water from running onto the instrument binnacle by holding various cloths against the top of the screen.

Kind of funny looking back, but a bit impractical when heading into Melbourne's wet season. So I took myself off to Scot's Old Auto Rubber and got a front and rear seal for less than $200. All going well I thought, casually asking Scott if I just called up the 24 hour windscreen people to fix it in. After all, 'tis what I had done for the Marina...

Scott's reaction was fairly extreme - an emphatic "NO". Now Scott has years of Rover experience, including P5's, so I listened carefully. He explained that windscreen rubbers on a Rover P5 is a specialist job, and there was only one person in Melbourne who would be able to do the job properly. Pete.

I rang Pete. Eventually he was able to squeeze me in - unfortunately I had called during the Melbourne Grand Prix build-up, one of his busiest times.

The Rover screens were fitted by hand, usually by two blokes (one on either side of the production line). P5s were largely hand built. The windscreen rubbers are screwed in! Each of the many self-tapping screws holds a plate. There are lugs on the plate that hold the stainless steel window trim.

The plates are not all the same, and not necessarily used uniformly by each of the two car assembly chaps. Given that 45 years of movement, vibration and so-on has happened since the car was built, it is quite important to get each screw and each plate back in the same hole and position.

It took Pete (who knew exactly what he was doing) half a day to take the two screens out. This is the pile of disintegrated rubber...

You can also see a sheet of cardboard on the table with each screw and plate attached in the 'in-screen' positions, so that each could be returned to the right place.

and a day and a half to put them back - a week later...

Bear in mind that the production process meant that the self-tapping screws were screwed in after the body shell had been painted, so once the screen rubbers start to let water in, it can eat away at raw, unprotected metal as it works round the screw-threads. Normally (Pete tells me) on a P5, once the screen is removed, the metal supporting it tends to disintegrate straight away, leaving nothing to put the screen back into. The result is some awkward and expensive bodywork reconstruction.

Mine, bless it, was not like this with only surface rust at both ends - which I scrubbed back, rust-converted and then primered and painted for the new rubbers.

Pete took away the screens and rubbers to give them the necessary week to adapt to each other.

I started the scrubbing and painting job. The end result was very satisfying, if you don't count the various points of over-spray. In the end, I also bought a new screen as the original had a few chips and was also 'toughened' rather than laminated.

Now that it is done, it is great to be able to drive in the rain without worrying about leaks.

Next challenge is to try and work out the adjustment on the windscreen wipers - because they are no longer doing the greatest of jobs. Overall, I spent $1,100, on the rubbers, new screen and Pete's labour. The fact that the car has always been garaged saved me thousands in body repairs, which I am very pleased about.

Had my car been one of those leaking Ferraris, I might have been shelling out $15,000 just for the screen - but a more earthy comparison is the trusty old (not hand-built) Leyland Marina. New screen, second hand rubber (which I cleaned up) and fitting - all for $210.

I still think, for what it is, the Rover is great value...