Photos later; really nice day, persuaded 'Er Indoors to s*d off on her scooter for a couple of hours, hoiked a large lump out of the engine bay, cut some un-needed steel off bits, welded up some really needed steel in two places, primed, filled, topcoated, rebuilt and all back in again. Well happy with how it all went! I just need a longer M12 bolt for one piece, tighten that up and I can start properly putting it all into working order.
Rover 75 Connie SE (stored) MG ZTT 160 (for sale) Rover 75 Connie Tourer (dog hauler and general shifter) Toyota Starlet Sportif Auto (town car) Maestro 700 van (under build)
Right, add some visuals.... Big lump out..... Lots of cutting and welding on this bit.. All hot glued together and happy Holes in the inner wing all welded up and tidied... As a comparison, how it was originally.... Gearbox mount snuggled up at home - just needs a longer bolt at the moment... That crossmember is bolted very solidly to the shell in several places so it ain't going anywhere in a hurry. Next job will be to drop it to the ground and see if the softer front suspension allows movement and that the driveshaft angles sit right. By eyeball, they look pretty good now...
Rover 75 Connie SE (stored) MG ZTT 160 (for sale) Rover 75 Connie Tourer (dog hauler and general shifter) Toyota Starlet Sportif Auto (town car) Maestro 700 van (under build)
It's a good job plans are fluid.....after being told categorically that MEMS3 cannot run without an immobiliser, and me working on retro-ing the engine to a dizzy to accomodate MEMS1.9, someone has popped up who CAN de-immo MEMS3 and build the loom....... Hmmmm......
Rover 75 Connie SE (stored) MG ZTT 160 (for sale) Rover 75 Connie Tourer (dog hauler and general shifter) Toyota Starlet Sportif Auto (town car) Maestro 700 van (under build)
I found a necessary bolt for the lower engine mount, just after I ordered some from Ebay......FFS. Nowt done this month so far because of my Mum being old and ill and me working a lot, also its either cold or wet....
Rover 75 Connie SE (stored) MG ZTT 160 (for sale) Rover 75 Connie Tourer (dog hauler and general shifter) Toyota Starlet Sportif Auto (town car) Maestro 700 van (under build)
A quick update, no pics sadly. To take my mind off a very irrascible woman stuck in hospital and creating merry hell with all and sundry, I did a bit today. Wazzed off the last (seized) bolt from the old sump engine mount after several attempts to persuade it off failed. No problem now. Had a good read through various literature about MEMS3 and found I had a MEMS2 manifold, which was why half the sensors were AWOL..... new manifold found and ordered. Swapped the manicat exhaust taken from my Rover 75 and used as a mock-up and fitted the R200 exhaust properly, which will allow me to run a downpipe that fits! Then had a sort through the various driveshafts, measuring the distance between gearbox and inner hub face - 28" one side, 19" the other. Hmmm, they look like they'll fit. No they won't, the outer cv's are different. Somewhere deep in the recesses of my grey matter, I recalled that despite the outer parts being different, the actual bearings inside are one of two sizes, so I battered the outers off one Maestro van driveshaft and off the Rover 200 shaft, and lo and behold, they slipped together perfectly! And they were 28" long! RESULT!. Going to wait for the CV kits to turn up before I go any furher....
Rover 75 Connie SE (stored) MG ZTT 160 (for sale) Rover 75 Connie Tourer (dog hauler and general shifter) Toyota Starlet Sportif Auto (town car) Maestro 700 van (under build)
The manifold arrived in double-quick time and was swapped with the M2 version - I now have no spare plugs on the manifold! YES!! Still awaiting CV kits, exhaust downpipe and gasket. weather fallen apart (again) so not doing much again.
Rover 75 Connie SE (stored) MG ZTT 160 (for sale) Rover 75 Connie Tourer (dog hauler and general shifter) Toyota Starlet Sportif Auto (town car) Maestro 700 van (under build)
The manifold arrived in double-quick time and was swapped with the M2 version - I now have no spare plugs on the manifold! YES!! Still awaiting CV kits, exhaust downpipe and gasket. weather fallen apart (again) so not doing much again.
Not surprised - quite bitter out there today - sun tried & failed then 10 minutes later it was snowing - Had switch the heater back on in the workshop and here's you braving it outside!
The combined arrival of the postie and Hermes courier gave me some work today on this. The CV boots turned up, as did the stake nuts, downpipe and gasket. Seeing as Mum was going for a biopsy on what was wrong, I needed a distraction so got on with modding the driveshafts and building them up. No pics of the batteration but here is the short shaft, all Rover 200/Maestro'd up ready to fit....
Now, I'd measured the gearbox to hub and the long shaft, but still needed to be sure it would fit. I whipped off the front o/s wheel and looked at the easiest way to get the shaft in - unbolt the shock absorber assembly and hoike it out of the way. So that is what I did. The shaft slid into the gearbox but no amount of persuasion would get it to snap into the diff, so I pulled it out, took off the spring ring and tried again. It slid in lovely, so I loosely reassembled the suspension with the drive hub in place. Once that was done, a jack under the suspension arm and some 'bouncing' settled the suspension to about right position (it moves lovely now) and I has a look to see how much 'slide' is in the driveshaft at the inner end. About 3/4", so not far off what I was expecting. It won't be bottoming out on the drive unit any time. I then took it all apart, nipped the spring ring up and it all popped back in without any problems, bolt up the suspension properly, put on the stake nut (but loose until its on the deck again), lift it again, bounce it about and try spinning it. Lovely!
I needed to access the grinder to strip off some rust from the n/s splines but got distracted by the shiney new exhaust, so I slipped that into place instead and looked at what needs doing. It needs to go over the crossmember so will need some fettling, but nowt serious. Hopefully by next week I will have two driveshafts and an vestigal exhaust fitted.
Rover 75 Connie SE (stored) MG ZTT 160 (for sale) Rover 75 Connie Tourer (dog hauler and general shifter) Toyota Starlet Sportif Auto (town car) Maestro 700 van (under build)
Nearside shaft wouldn't fit. The hub was 4mm out with the shaft solid to the gearbox so cue much swearing. Also the bottom ball joint was knackered and the track end felt a bit crusty, so off to the Bay or E's I went and ordered some spares. It still left me with a too long driveshaft.
Options:
1) Move the engine 20mm to the offside - no, not fannying around with that again
2) Rebuild the PG1 short shaft - no, too short to start with and the R200 inner joint is a sealed unit
3) Buy a shortened shaft from a specialist - OK, but see above for a major stumbling block......
4) Sort it out myself.
It then dawned on me I'd been here before with a mate who built a kit car in the 90's and needed the rear driveshafts shortening. He started with a Pinto lump and ended up with a Cossie V6 running silly Bhp and they hadn't let go yet, despite more than a few Emergency Starts. So, one quick phone call later to refresh my memory and the shaft was in the vice ready for work - well, measuring up, anyway. 25mm o/d - I found a supplier of seamless steel pipe and bought a piece 35mm o/d x 25mm i/d with a 5mm wall. Once that arrived, the fun started.....
I'd worked out a -20mm shaft reduction would give me enough end play to work, so after inspecting the shaft and sliding the damper out of the way, I cut it in the smoothest and straightest place, leaving room for welding. It still needed tidying to get a smooth fit into the pipe, then I started stepping the end, very, very carefully.
The idea was to cut a 20mm deep step exactly halfway across the diameter, then slide them into the pipe, weld the ends then pin the joint 'just in case'. After a couple of hours of noise and setting fire to myself, I had achieved most of what I set out to do, but time was pressing so the final hot glueing and pinning will be later this week.
The original shaft Cut and stepped In its new home and waiting the hot stick. The sleeve is 80mm long; 20mm to cover the step and 30mm either side for support, then a notch cut in the end to help weld location. It should do the job.
Rover 75 Connie SE (stored) MG ZTT 160 (for sale) Rover 75 Connie Tourer (dog hauler and general shifter) Toyota Starlet Sportif Auto (town car) Maestro 700 van (under build)
It's certainly been an 'interesting time' as the curse says. A combination of workload, my ill health and then my Mum's passing away has stopped most progress, but all the same I managed to get some bits and pieces done, mainly to act as a distraction from what else was going on. The short driveshaft got well and truly welded and pinned together over an afternoon, with the new joint covers and the Maestro outer CV being fitted. Okay, now the tricky bit. Did it fit? Well, after installing a new bottom joint and track rod end, it was knocked into the gearbox and all refitted. About 15mm 'play' at the end once installed so yes, IT FITS! The offside will need a new bottom joint and trackrod end, but that can wait a while. Whilst sipping a cuppa and feeling pleased with myself, I started mulling about the vacuum line to the servo. The diesel has a 1M+ hard plastic line right across to the servo pump, which wasn't needed. Happily, the K series vacuum line, with the application of boiling water, straightened out enough to be a direct fit, so that happened! The only other thing of note, was the tyres were looking rather crusty, split and generally shagged out, so a quick call to my local friendly tyre place had four new ones fitted for a reasonable price; the first two to go were the 'good ones'.....he wasn't impressed! One of the 'bad ones' - rock hard and falling apart... And to cap it all off, I walk in to find Barley the Dog showing his appreciation...
Rover 75 Connie SE (stored) MG ZTT 160 (for sale) Rover 75 Connie Tourer (dog hauler and general shifter) Toyota Starlet Sportif Auto (town car) Maestro 700 van (under build)
