Added another 120 trouble free miles down to Dad’s & back.
Suspension & brakes all working perfectly. It sticks like st1t to a blanket through the twisty bits and doesn’t knock your teeth out on the normal A & B roads.
On the motorway, its great, with 70 at about 3,200 rpm. If you drop it a cog, it will pick up to license loosing speeds quite quickly 🤐so nipping into the Audi/BMW/Tesla lane to pass traffic is quite fun!
It been a joy discovering the K-series nature, mild mannered and easy below 3,500 but get it above 4,000 and it’s a revy little monster!
The radio has been reinstated, so we have tunes as well but we’ll see how long the battery lasts as I suspect it needs replacing.
Anyway Spotty is all safely tucked away until next weekend when I really need to sort out the idle issue, 1500 when up to temp is to much!
Not much to update over the last couple of weeks and no photos either so apologies!
Took Spotty over to Dad’s last week and reeled the brakes. Nothing wrong with them or the peddle but wanted to flush more fluid to check there wasn’t more crud in the system after what came out before. After another 1/2 lt being pushed through it was still clear & clean so all good.
Checked the throttle cable and found that it was under tension at throttle closed so wound off a bit until there was just a touch of slack. Started her up and low and behold, the idle has dropped by 250 rpm so that was a little win! It’s still hunting on hot idle but at least it’s between 1000 & 1250 rpm not 1250 & 1500! More work to do on this issue but I still think it’s an air leak somewhere.
I also did a bit more reading through the paperwork in the file that came with her and, although it’s not anywhere near a complete history, one thing which has stood out is that there is no receipt for a Cam Belt change. At the age she is and the mileage she’s done I feel that its a good plan to address this pronto so she is booked in with Lane Ends Engineering in Prescot.
They come recommended by an local garage owner who runs a Rover ZS with a KV6 as his daily and having spoken to them I’m happy that they know the K16 engine very well. We have had a discussion about what she is being used for including the odd sprint & hillclimb and about anything that can be easily addressed while they have her to ensure that I should have a strong trouble free engine.
So while she is there they are also going to take the head off, check it & the liners are to spec, fit a new full gasket set, new head bolts, set do couple of mods on the cooling system, and fit a new water pump and cam belt. Part suppliers have been discussed & agreed (Gates, Victor Reinz etc) so were all good to go for the 11th June.
I would do this work myself if it was the Nissan engine. But I don’t know the Rover engine at all, apart from it’s reputation for overheating and blowing head gaskets. Add to that, work is mad busy so instead of taking time off work to do it myself and loose out on income, I find myself in the position of having enough work to easily fund someone with all the kit & knowledge to do it for me. Only time will tell if this is the right decision but fingers crossed.
Ford Type 9 5-speed Its ok, but ideally I’m looking to change the diff from a 3.92 to a 4.1 or find a 6-speed Westfield gearbox
Have you thought about the RX8 box at all? 5 speed is probably best if you're doing sprints/hillclimb.
Not allowed in my class, as it runs in S12 S12.8. Transmission 12.8.1. Road Cars – Series Production. (a) The gearbox and differential casing must be externally identifiable as that fitted to the original model or specified option and remain in their original position; (b) The method of gear selection must remain standard (sequential selection only where fitted as standard).
So I can either use the Westfield 6 speed type-9 (I think but need to double check the case, if I can find one) or change the crown wheel & pinion in the 7” Ford diff.
As the cambelt age was unknown and I’m sprinting Spotty she was booked in with Lanes End Engineering for a precautionary cambelt change, water pump, some cooling mods & a full top gasket set including head, inlet & exhaust gaskets etc.
i got to have a look at the engine with the head off and its was all good news! - bores still have cross hatching on - no sign of the liners having moved or dropped - small carbon deposit above the ring line which was removed - pistons all looked good - valve seats in good condition but valves re-lapped to clean them up - cams showing no wear - cambelt was a Gates so had been changed at some point in the previous 80K miles but worth the effort anyway - head gasket was original (not a good thing!) but wasn’t showing any signs of issues (a good ting!) - head was straight & level
it was all put back together and had a couple of hundred miles on it before I took it to Curborough Sprint Circuit and thrashed it!
The cooling mods work with the engine running noticeable cooler on the gauge. i can’t tell you what temp difference its made in degrees, as I didn’t checked before the work, but the gauge is stead at approx 40% instead of 50%. It takes about 5 minutes of gentle driving or 10 minutes at idle to warm up but i can live with that.
At Curborough it performed better than the driver, reving up to 7,500 rpm without any issues. The better front brakes are now more than man enough for the job but I need to change the rear cylinders to the larger 22mm ones to change the balance back closer to standard.
The only issue looking at the in-car go pro footage was the driver hitting the coward pedal way to early everywhere! This is good news as now I know that is the problem I should be able to shave lumps of time off the next visit there in August and at the next outing at Three Sisters in a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, after the ‘Old Chap” commented about the lack of a working window on his side, I’ve diagnosed the fault as a failed motor. Luckily, I have a spare in the door I have to build up so winner, winner!
The girls had a ballet show today which meant dropping them off at 8:00 am and then I had 6 hrs to myself in the garage!
The ambitious target was to resolve one of the biggest issues with Spotty (apart from the paintwork). The N/S door had dropped badly and it’s window lift motor was not working either. The drop isn’t going to be a quick fix so I had acquired a spare door carcass in the same colour from a mate in the Club on the agreement that I repair mine as an exchange. As a bonus, it still had the lift motor in place but everything else had been stripped off it.
1) remove the door card - this has seen better days and has been warped badly by water ingress. The covering of foam, vinyl & carpet was removed in tact and will be reused over the new card.
2) cut a new door card - using the old one as a rough pattern I deleted some of the original holes as the originals are cut for manual & electric windows. Once cut, it was test fitted to the door and then put to one side as I need new fixing plugs which then get covered by the vinyl.
3) remove the plastic liner from the door - Reliant used gaffer tape instead of the sticky stuff used these days so again it came off in one piece & will be reused.
4) remove the door from the hinges - undoing the 6 M10 nylon nuts and disconnecting the electric mirror & window motors and the door came away without to much of an issue. This means the door can be stripped and the parts transferred to the new carcass on the bench. It also confirmed that the issue with the drop was caused by damage to the fibreglass around the bottom hinge but repairing it is possible.
5) remove the window lift motor - this also necessitates the removal of the window glass and the forward framework, which is known for rusting badly. The main frame had 2 areas of minor rust damage which has been rubbed back & sprayed in primer. The small section of channel that sits under the forward fixed glass is beyond repair so i need to check my stock of spares for a replacement or make a new one. The window lift motor was tested on the bench and works, but very slowly so I will clean & service the mechanism and check with Craig if he wants it installed in the door he’s getting back or not.
6) Remove the door handle and lock - the catch mechanism on both doors were working freely so I just needed to swap the handles over to retain the locks
7) Install the door handle & lock in the new carcass having cleaned & greased all moving parts
8) Re-Install the window lift motor in the new carcass having cleaned & greased all moving parts
9) Hang the new door carcass on the hinges using new M10 nylon nuts & washers with the original reinforcing plates and check for alignment. Amazingly the door shut with a nice thunk and is all lined up correctly on the first go! I was so shocked I took a video!
At this point I had about 1 hour to tidy up, put Spotty back in her nice cool garage, and get myself presentable to go and watch the Girls in their show, but all in all a good day!
I’m racing next Sunday so on Saturday I’ll have to finish putting the rest of the windows back in and the door card back together or the Scrutineers wont be happy and may not let me play. The joys of running in a standard class.
So one week on and racing tomorrow so no pressure!
10) cut & fit the new window rubber - Car Builder Solutions supplied and fitted in the same manner as the original with pop rivets but also with a bead of translucent silicone on the underside of the outside lip
11) Add the fir tree fixings to the new door card and glue on the original vinyl/carpet - plenty of pegs to make sure the spray adhesive stuck
12) fit the front window glass & frame - I found a serviceable one in my stock in the unit so the original frame will be repaired, re sprayed & stowed away for another day. This is just a case of shutting the door and packing the frame up to the get the right gap at the window frame before adding the washers and nuts to hold it securely in place. The bottom of the front window guide is normally held in place by 2 bolts through a bracket but mine was held in place by 2 more pop rivets.
13) fit the main window - this just slides into place with the channels on the bottom of the glass having already been cleaned & re-greased. Once engaged with the rollers the rearmost channel that’s hidden inside the door can be adjusted to fit to the glass. A few tests with the lift motor and some minor adjustments and all good.
14) Adjust the locking mechanism - as I have used the locking mechanism that came in the new door but swapped the handle to retain the lock barrel, I had hoped that I wouldn’t need to make any adjustments but no! This was the single longest step in the process and took nearly 2 hrs of small changes to the different rod lengths before the door would perform all the actions correctly!
15) Refit the original plastic to the door and the door card
16) fit the new door card, arm rest & latch release cover
All done! Given a quick wash and Spotty is ready to go for 3 Sisters tomorrow!
Quick update on yesterday’s sprinting exploits. Spotty performed faultlessly and the driver is starting to get a handle on it!
3 Sisters Circuit near Wigan is a tight & twisty circuit used for mainly for Karts & Bikes, and is 15 minutes from home. There are several different versions run but we were running circuit 2. Having said its the closest track to me, I’ve never actually completed a lap there!
Longton & District were the organisers and managed 1 practice & 3 timed runs before lunch all in the dry. After lunch the rain came down so very few improved in T4 and most declined further runs although someone got 12 timed runs!
A good event for me so will be on the list of circuits to do for next year.
Run 64ft Split Time P1 3.36 33.66 62.36 T1 3.17 33.61. 61.83, T2 3.03. 33.08. 60.00, T3 3.02. 32.58. 59.19, T4 3.34. 34.80. 64.13 - wet!
16th out of 24 on scratch & 15th out of 24 on handicap.
I need to look at the in car video, but I think a 56 is possible so I’ve got to a way to go yet, but I still had a huge smile on my face at the end despite the wet pack up! TTFN
After a good day at 3 Sisters the next event was the RSSOC ScimFest at Curborough Sprint Circuit near Lichfield. The event is a must not miss for any Reliant owner, with practice runs on Thursday & Friday, an Autotest & more practice runs on Saturday and the Sprint on Sunday. This was also going to be the last competitive event for Dad so a big family turnout was a must.
I did one of the Saturday afternoon 1 hr tests and played with a few settings mainly on tyre pressure & damping, getting down from a 79.75 to a 75.81 over 6 runs. No issues and Spotty was running beautifully. Sunday was a different matter.
Run 64ft. Split Time P1. 2.97. 50.01. 76.53 P2. 2.95. 50.57 77.04 During P2, I heard a clunk from the near side front exiting the mole hill and the run went to pieces after that! T1 3.01. Fail - spun at flagpole and recovered to the pits T2 2.95. 51.81 78.41
Not great at all. The car was twitchy and unpredictable, especially on turn in after P2 but I didn’t really have time for a thorough check to see what was going on with the Front N/S. everything felt tight with it sat on the floor. Driving home there was a vibration at 70 ish and the sharpness of the steering wasn’t there.
Work as then got busy so Spotty has sat in the garage for the last month. Until today!
I roller her out of the garage & jacked up the O/S first, wheel off and checked over the suspension which was all ok. To add a bit more clearance for the shock to the alternator pulley I re-shimmed the top wishbone, moving it forward about 3.5 mm. One side done.
Again, jacked up the N/S and as soon as the wheel cleared the ground it was obvious that there was a problem with the location of the bottom ball joint. Wheel off and it was easy to see the issue!
Not a great photo, but the bottom ball joint has dropped out of its location in the bottom wishbone. These press in and are normally the coil spring keeps the tension on the ball joint keeping it in place. However, I run much shorter springs and a stiffer anti roll bar so I think that Spotty lifted the unloaded front N/S at the molehill and it allowed the ball joint dropped out. The clunk was the ball joint failing to relocate as the N/S reloaded.
I’ve relocated the ball joint and re-shimmed the top wishbone but I need to make some retaining tabs to retain the ball join in place, fixing the tabs across the bottom face of the ball joint onto the lower wishbones.
I don’t think I’ll have time to do it before the next event at Ty Croes next weekend but I’ll look at the solution and see if i can get it something put to togeather.
Today also saw the rear brake cylinders swapped to a larger bore to balance the vented disc setup at the front.
The bonus find was that the brakes have obviously been renewed by the previous owner. I’ve got a couple of branded hoses on the shelf to fit over the winter but no time today.
While the rear wheels were off was to make the rear shock adjusters a little easier to see so they can altered between runs. So I cleaned them off and gave them a dressing over with some white primer.
Final job was a little race car tarting
A brief run around the local twisty bits showed that the pin sharp handling was back and that the brake improvement is also very noticeable. Quick check under the N/S wishbone confirmed the ball joint was still in place so all good to go.
It’s been a while so time for an update. Spotty gave me a great return to sprinting last year and the mojo has definitely been recovered.
Having finished up with a Weekend Double header at Ty Croes on Anglesey in October, she was tucked away in the warm dry garage for the winter and plans were made for some fettling and upgrades before the start of the new season. I’m competing in both the Classic Marques Sports Car Club (CM) and the Reliant Sabre & Scimitar Owners Club (SSSC) championships, but as both run the same calendar I run in both championships at the same event.
The season so far looks like this: Shelshey Walsh - 6th & 7th May Loton Park - 13th & 14th May Aintree - 27th May Harewood - 3rd & 4th June Three Sisters - 23rd July Curborough - 20th August Ty Croes - 30th September & 1st October
The list of ‘improvements’ required has also grown a bit! 1) replacement of the badly worn ignition barrel with NOS 2) re-pin the door locks to the new barrel keys 3) replace the brake servo 4) replacement of upper & lower front ball joints with upgraded ones 5) diff upgrade to Blackline LSD 6) replacement of the Rover ECU with Emerald ECU & MAP sensor
The replacement of the badly worn ignition barrel has found its way to the top of the list today as Spotty has decided to sulk following her winter hibernation on the day that the MOT was booked! The MOT man has ‘requested’ I rebook the MOT after they couldn’t start the car because the key wouldn’t turn. TBF it took me 10 minutes to get it to turn and then another 10 after he took it out and tried again! A new barrel has been ordered from Queensbury Road Garage who had a NOS one on the shelf so that will hopefully be fitted at the weekend.
Once that has arrived with it’s 2 new keys i will drop off my 2 spare door handles, along with one of the new keys, to Karlock for them to re-pin the barrels to the new key. then it will be stripping the existing handles out of the doors and replacing them so that the same key operates the doors and ignition again. Strictly speaking this isn’t really necessary, but it already annoys me that the boot lock and petrol cap have a separate keys to the doors and ignition so it’s getting done.
The spare brake servo is already on the shelf and replacing this will cure the rear brakes sticking on and hopefully the hunting at idle, which I’m now convinced is due to un-metered air entering the inlet manifold via the servo.
The final job before the MOT rebook will be the replacement of the upper & lower ball joints with new ones from ScimSharp. These come with grease nipples rather than the sealed for life ones originally used. While fitting these I will also fit a retaining strap under the lower ball joints to prevent them dropping out of the wishbone, as happened at Curborough last year.
No. 5 & 6 are the mods which hopefully will unlock a bit more performance!
The LSD has already been purchased and fitted into a spare 7” open diff casing that I had on the shelf. This involves a bit of machining work to remove about 2.0 mm out of the diff case to allow the new diff to fit (it’s the same as with the Quaife ones) so the job was given to Warrington Transmission. They have stripped the spare case, machined it, fitted the new LSD & new seals already. I need to drop the open diff in it’s carrier out, cut the inboard trilobite CV joint off the drive shafts, fit the Lobro CV joints in their place, fit the new flanged output shafts to the diff and fill it with fluid (which is much easier on the floor) before fitting back up in the car and bolting up the driveshafts.
Spotty only has 114bhp so this upgrade is not about leaving 11’s and tyre smoke everywhere but the LSD should give small wins at the start and at every acceleration zone, so I’m looking forward to comparing the times to the open diff ones and to comparing the ‘feel’ to how the viscous LSD that is fitted to the SST. The final mod on the table may be one for later in the year. After a visit to Emerald HQ and speaking to the team there, I was please to find out that the ECU I have already is a direct plug and play! Well, almost! The rover ecu uses the same plug and pin out as the emerald however the rover MEMS ECU has an internal MAP sensor where as the Emerald utilises an external one. So in theory it should be a case of fitting the MAP sensor (already on the shelf) and pinning the required terminals into the existing plug, before plugging in the Emerald loaded with a base map and away we go!
The reason for this upgrade is that the version of MEMS ECU that Spotty has is not re-mappable where as the Emerald is. The guys i have talked to (and that make their living from building & mapping race and rally engines) think that with better mapping, I should be seeing an extra 10-15 bhp and a bigger gain in torque. Now that may not seem like its worth the effort, especially as CM & SSSC are power/weight handicap championships so extra power will hurt my handicap, but 10% more power & even more torque in a car as light as Spotty is has got to be worth it. If you then consider that future upgrades (freer flowing exhaust & CAT )can be maximised with tweeks to the mapping, then I think it’s worth a look.
Anyway, enough waffle for now and thanks for reading.
Life just keep getting in the way of fun! After a busy couple of weeks working on everything except the car i managed to get a day to my self today and cracked on.
The replacement ignition barrel from Queensbury Road Garage arrived with the obligatory pack of Haribos. Loosened off the steering wheel nut & removed the steering wheel, stripped off the column shroud, unplugged the light switch connector. Next I removed the ignition switch from the back of the old barrel and then used the multi-tool to cut through the 2 retaining bolts.
Once the old barrel was off it became apparent why the steering lock wasn’t working. The PO was very proud of the improved feel of the steering that he had made when he removed the rubber universal joint and replaced it with a standard UJ. Unfortunately this was 5mm shorter than the original and caused the steering lock to be misaligned and the steering wheel to rub on the shroud. In short he f’ed it up.
Short of re-introducing the original rubber UJ (not available in time), the only way to address the steering lock was to move the top tub down the column until the slot in the column was aligning with the hole in the tube again so I slackened off the upper & lower clamps repositioned it and re-clamped. With the tube correctly positioned the new barrel was bolted up but with the snap off bolts still in tact. As a bonus, the indicator self cancelling (which was not working when I purchased the car) was also found to be a result of the column mis-alignment. The column effectively being shorted had meant that the self cancelling key had become disengaged from the signal collar so I simply pushed it back into place.
Once the mechanicals where all working again, I moved on to the column shroud and trimmed the rear of it by the required amount so that the lock barrel, indicator and wiper stalks all ended up more or less central to their original cut-outs. Plug in the lights switch connector, screw the shroud in place, refit the steering wheel and bingo - steering lock working - key turning without hesitation - indicators self cancelling - no squeaky steering wheel
I did a quick inspection of the likely MOT issues lead to a change in priority for the front upper & lower ball joints. The O/S ones were ok but the N/S lower ball joint had a split boot, no play but still needs to be done. I’ve always worked on the premise that if one side is getting done you should do the other as they will likely have done the same work and have a similar failure point so wheels loosened, front up in the air and wheels off. The new ones were on the shelf from another specialist supplier ScimSharp.
The car uses a bolt in top ball joint with the mounting holes set off centre in the inboard/outboard plan. For track use its a quick win to flip the standard top ball joint to increase the negative camber but the new top ball joints come with a slotted fixing so I can now adjust the amount of negative camber I want. They also come with grease nipples for easy maintenance. Win-Win. The lower ball joints are push in with an interference fit in the lower wishbone and also come with grease nipples.
So 2 jobs off the list, which now looks like this: 1) re-pin the door locks to the new barrel keys 2) replace the brake servo 3) diff upgrade to Blackline LSD 4) replacement of the Rover ECU with Emerald ECU & MAP sensor
No photos today, but hopefully the car is now in condition to pass an MOT this week and then it’s the double header a Shelshey Walsh at the weekend. TTFN
Very quick update following an MOT fail for emissions (CO), a weep from O/S rear brake flexi hose (i hadn’t picked it up as it was very slight & only visible under full pressure in my defence) and the new ball joint has popped out 😳
The brake servo had been the suspected source of the ‘extra air’ and the brakes sticking on since Anglesey but life etc etc. I think it has been causing the euc to be confused, over fuelling and hence the higher CO emissions. So the brake servo was elevated up the list and was swapped for a good spare from a mate in RSSOC. The other one will be sent away for overhauling & sit on the shelf for the next project when I get to that one!
Both rear flexi hoses changed for new Goodridge stainless ones to match the fronts, which involved a quick trip to Graham Walkers in Chester who had them in stock.
The ball joint is the one that dropped out at Curborough at the end of last summer and I think it had worn the wishbone so the interference fit was no longer interfering! A typical motorsport solution was deployed involving removing said wishbone and welding the bledy ball joint in place. It will now never come out again but I have spares of all the suspension, so another set will be prepared, strengthened and then fitted with poly bushes to sit on the shelf for when the ball joint gives up in oh 20-30 years time.
I’ve also dropped off the spare door handles & locks (Rover SD1 in case your interested which parts bin Reliant chose) to the auto-locksmith who has the wafers (pins) to change them to the new key so that in progress too.
Only problem now is that the MOT Test Station I use locally has no availability for a retest prior to next week, which would mean missing the Shelshey double header this weekend, so it’s booked in for a fresh one in Liverpool on Friday.🤦♂️
On a plus note the jobs list now looks like this: 1) diff upgrade to Blackline LSD 2) replacement of the Rover ECU with Emerald ECU & MAP sensor 3) replace door handles with new
After the successful MOT the first event of the season was a double header at Shelshey Walsh, the world’s oldest motorsport venue still to run events on it’s original course. This is not somewhere I have been before and it’s definitely a case of ticking a box as we’ll see later.
I drive Spotty to every even so it was an early start and a 2 hr drive to arrive to a cold damp pit under ever darkening skies. Thankfully the pit boxes are covered and everything was unpacked and stowed away in time for scrutineering. With the car checked and the sticker issued, it was time for a coffee and bacon sandwich. Charlie (my Niece) & Duncan (brother-in-law) were duel driving Charlie’s yellow Sabre and were in the pit box next to us. They had brought Evie (my other Niece) along as pit-crew, so it was a bit of a family get together.
Charlie’s Sabre is also a Mk2 K-series but is only putting out 104 Bhp, the difference being the bigger throttle body on Spotty.
The practice run was a very slow route finder in the dry and showed that the hill doesn’t suit Spotty at all.
The start is uphill, so a first gear start and, with a damp greasy track and no LSD yet, I’m feathering the throttle to stop it spinning up tooooo much. Change to second just before the limiter and she’s immediately off cam and slow to get back on it again. Through a couple of left kinks, still up hill holding second before a lift for the sharp left at lower esses and a sharp right through upper esses, then bury the throttle & straight to the line. The hill is definitely one for a car with bags of torque rather than a high reving low powered one
After the first and only practice run the heavens opened and it became akin to driving up a river!
The 1st timed run was very wet and the second merely wet but I made it up safely on both runs, getting better each time but still struggling to find a way of keeping on cam and the correct braking point for lower esses.
Times for the day P1 68.09 T1 53.87 T2 51.27
A 30 minute drive to the over night accommodation was a Shepherd's Hut near Ludlow and an evening meal with more family.
No overnight rain so the hill was dryer than Saturday but still pretty green. It would catch quiet a few out throughout the day and when you get it wrong at Shelshey, especially at the esses, it can bite!
Practice went well but I was still struggling with coming off cam at the first gear change, finding a braking point for lower esses and now (as it was now dry) coming off cam between the lower & upper esses.
On the timed runs I made a complete hash of T1, bogging down out of upper esses and having to grab first to get back on cam and accelerate to the finish and on T2 I connected up the first half much better and so went for third up the straight before lower esses and immediately bogged down again.
P1 47.09 T1 47.70 T2 47.85
It’s never a good feeling when you go better in practice than the timed runs but at least Spotty was in one piece, well mostly!
After the first timed run i noticed a spot of oil on the floor in my pit so I had a good clean up but couldn’t see the source. After T2 the oil was back so that means further investigation was needed as dropping oil on a motorsport venue is definitely not acceptable.
Having made it back from Shelshey on Sunday, the Bank Holiday Monday was spent tracking down the source of the oil leak.
It was coming from the cam timing cover so the easiest corse of action with Spotty is to get as much out of the way as possible so: - bonnet off - front suspension cross-member and shocks off - cam timing covers off - clean off oil
i then ran the engine a couple of times before the following happened!
So the oil was wicking along the crank and then being flung everywhere by the crank pulley!
Consulting Rimmer Bros website lead to a lot of frustration as I realised that you can no longer buy a crank oil seal on it’s own for a few quid, as they now only sell them as part of a new oil pump at nearly £300! Then hours spent at looking at multiple oil pumps lead to the realisation that none of the available ones look exactly like the one on Spotty! So Tuesday I rang Rimmer’s and had an even more frustrating conversation which started with ‘what vehicle is it for?’ 😳 Apparently they can’t even work from engine numbers, only from the vehicle and they don’t recognise non-Rover vehicles!😳
Back to the website and re-looking at the pumps led to an educated guess and the ordering of an oil pump, oil pump gasket and a replacement bolt for one that was absent. Given that the cam belt had been contaminated with the oil I also ordered a Gates Cam Timing Belt kit. Unfortunately the parts were not going to arrive in time to get the work done before the double header booked at Loton Park the following weekend so I emailed to withdraw.
Instead I decided to take the Old Man to Loton to spectate as it’s his first season not competing and it’s only 40 mins from his. He had a great day meeting up with all the compiles and his old mates. It also reconfirmed that I needed to get on with fixing Spotty.
With all the bits arriving this week I spent yesterday putting it all back together. - timed up and cam lock in place - bottom pulley off (good excuse to buy a Makita Rattle Gun!) - cam belt & tensioner off - camshaft pulley off - drained the oil from the sump - oil filter off - oil pump off
With the pump off it was clear what had caused the issue as there was a corrosion mark on the crank nose where the seal sat. I also decided to replace the damping type bottom pulley as the rubber had gone hard and was cracked. Re-assembly as follows:
- Cleaned up the crank nose - cleaned up the oil pump mounting face - fitted the new oil pump gasket - fitted the new oil pump - fitted the camshaft pulley - fitted the cam belt & tensioner - fitted an new alloy bottom pulley - fitted the alternator belt - fitted the sump plug - fitted the new oil filter - added 4 lts of 5w40 fully synthetic oil
At this point I pulled the plug leads and turned it over until the oil pressure warning light went out to prove the new pump was primed and oil was circulating. Once that was proved, the plug leads were reconnected and the moment of truth…. She fired straight up! I left her running to get her up to temperature while i checked for any visible leaks or issues.
Good news, no leaks or issues, so I knocked her off and refitted the cam timing covers, followed by the front suspension cross member & dampers. Final checks included another 0.5 lts of oil to bring the level up to the top mark on the dip stick and refitting the bonnet.
Once back together, I put her back in the garage with a cardboard sheet underneath to catch any evidence. Thankfully, a check this afternoon shows that everything is good so all is on target for Aintree on the coming Saturday.