kws

After driving my "new" Mini for a bit, i forgot what torque was. And then i drove Tess again.

Yeah the previous gen mitsi triton was terrible for egr carbon in the intake. Used to be two cans of shumma intake cleaner, a can of brake clean and a couple hours labour to fix.

They can also use walnuts (?) to media blast the valves and inlet ports to clear the carbon. Quite common on VWs and BMWs.

For the first time this year, Tess finally made an appearance out of the garage. Since replacing the rack a couple of weeks ago, and getting the wrong tie rod ends from Repco, I've been waiting patiently (hah!) for a pair of new ends to come from the motherland via Rimmers. It seems no one else in NZ has a listing, let alone the ability to supply them. When getting a Warrant of Fitness inspection on a car, if it fails you have 28 days to return for a free recheck without having to do another full inspection at your cost. Yesterday was 28 days from the initial inspection where the car failed.... So on Tuesday, with one day left, the new tie rod ends hadn't arrived yet and I was out of time. When I removed the old rack the RH tie rod end was seized into the knuckle and unfortunately the boot got torn to bits removing the joint. Finding a universal boot locally was a pain in the ass. Repco had nothing, Supercheap Auto thought I wanted a boot liner for my car, BNT said they had them on the phone but somehow magically lost all of them 20 mins later when I went in.... but a huge thanks to Autolign in Petone who not only had a decent range in stock, but actually managed to sort me out one that fit perfect. I really didn't want to reuse these joints but with no other options it's all I had. They were good enough to pass the initial warrant check, so they would still be OK to pass the recheck. I just didn't want to use old and worn parts on my lovely new rack. Anyway, I reassembled the steering, did a quick spanner check, and began to refit the wheels. One thing I wanted to do when refitting them was to replace the wheel nuts with some spares I have. The current ones are all pretty rusty, and although the replacements are old and used, they're far less rusty. Original on the left. Interestingly they are actually different, with the original ones having a shorter hex, and a bigger domed cap. They all went on, got torqued up and Tess was on the ground once again A quick test drive shows that the alignment is slightly out and the steering wheel is off to the right by a couple of degrees. Everything else is working properly, as it should, but the steering rack doesn't feel as smooth as the old 30+ year old one. Hopefully it'll wear in and get better. Yesterday I drove Tess in and went for the recheck. A few minutes later, after checking the rack had been replaced, this ugly thing was stuck to my windscreen So that's a great success, the first warrant since 2013. Getting Rego (road tax) was a bit more of a pain. I swung home after getting the WOF, and swapped my plates over to the personalised plates I will be running and went to VTNZ for the rego Unfortunately there was a nationwide system outage for the rego label printers, meaning no one could sell me rego, take the cars rego off hold, or swap the plates over. Eventually I managed to get the post shop to sell me rego without printing the label. This meant I could use the car last night, and the worst I could be ticketed for would be "Failure to display licence label in the correct manner". Better than driving an unregistered car, but this did mean I had to swap back to the original plates again. I'll change to MEH another day. One of the other things I needed to do yesterday was to change my oil again. Back when I did the shifter bushes I also changed the 4+ year old oil with some nice, expensive VR1 10W40 as used in Effie. Unfortunately Tess didn't take too kindly to this thin oil, and started smoking heavily when getting up the revs. She blew a little smoke before the change, but this was like a Bond smoke screen. The oil that the previous owner had been using was a 20W50, so I thought something along those lines would be a good start. I ended up picking up some Penrite HPR30 20W60 with "full" Zinc. I drained out the 5L of expensive 50KM old engine flush oil, and filled up with the Penrite. I didn't change the filter, there was no point as it was barely used. The oil came out a little darker, but still golden. With the HPR30 in her, the smoke has lessened a lot, and the oil pressure is still very good. It's thicker than I usually prefer, but every engine is different and this is what Tess likes. It's also cheaper than VR1 which is good (not to mention coming in 5L and 1L bottles, which is great when a drain and fill takes 5.5L. Two bottles of 5L VR1 isn't cheap) Driving her last night was great. Sure, it was pissing down, but gosh it drives god. The Falken ZE912 tires seem to be working well in the wet and dry. Compared to the Supercats on Effie, it's like comparing apples and chewing gum. I can still over power the Falkens, especially when it comes on cam in second gear, but otherwise it was nice and grippy. The new shifter bushes make a huge change in shifter feel, with far less movement, and much more accuracy. The gearbox is still very noisy, and has a great trick of sometimes popping out of 3rd when you let the clutch out (uncommon though). I will try Ramon's recommendation of flushing with white spirit, and then using an engine oil with Molyslip and see what happens. Worst case, I have that spare box in the garage. So that's where we are now. The car is fully road legal and usable. I need to swap the tie rod ends and get an alignment, and the damn boot still leaks like a sieve. One step at a time, but now I get to put some Miles on her.

Ah ok, kinda makes sense i guess. Was hoping there was some leeway instead of just lapsing instantly. Thanks lads.

Out of curiosity, say my car which was last registered in 2013, and has been old hold until today, had its exemption expire and I didn’t renew it. What happens tomorrow, does it instantly get deregistered? If not, when does it lapse? Usually it’s 12 months from rego expiry, but it’s way passed that. Surely not 12 months from exemption expiry? i have renewed the hold, but curious to know how close to death I was.

lol great minds and all that

Not my thing at all. Have you considered removing the rest of the paint/bog and rusting the whole tailgate panel, if you're going to keep it that way? Would look better than the patchy half done look atm. Its a mean wagon though

It isn't a fun job, but it's one I needed to do. To get Tess on the road I needed to replace the steering rack. But first, let me wish everyone a Happy New Year! Tess (yes, the cars now have names. Tess the Vitesse and EFI, pronounced "Effie", the EFI) failed her WOF on a leaking power steering rack, and boy was it leaking badly. I suspect it was the original rack, and may have just failed either due to time, or from sitting for years. Either way, it needed to be fixed. My first thought was to get the rack reconditioned, as surely this would be more cost-effective and quicker than ordering a replacement rack... but how wrong I was. No one was too interested in actually doing the work, with the only workshop in Wellington able to do the work quoting about $600 to do it plus labour to remove/fit if needed, and the only other place I was recommended was in Auckland, which was "about $800", excluding me having to remove the rack and send it to them. Not only that, everyone was busy and being only days away from the big Christmas shutdown, there was no hope in me having it back before mid Jan or so. Eek. The next option was to source a used rack and fit that, but in the end I ruled this option out as it was probably just going to be money down the drain when that one eventually succumbed to its 30+ years of age and also starting leaking. The only option left to me then was to order one from the UK. The pricing wasn't great, but considering its a brand new unused rack (albeit made in 1986) that has been reconditioned with new seals, it's not a bad deal. Even better was the next day when I went to place the order, the rack was suddenly on sale at only 200 Pounds! Win! After much calculating we worked out that it was cheaper to buy the rack with a set of replacement standard Vitesse height shocks and springs than it was to buy the shocks at a later date... oh what a shame, so they got tacked onto the order. $400 of just shipping costs later, and the parts were on their way. I had a good laugh when the Fedex site said ETA for delivery was the 27th Dec.... 5 days after it was ordered, but I'll be damned if I didn't get a call from Fedex the morning of the 27th to say it had cleared customs and I needed to pay the Government to clip the ticket, and then it would be out for delivery. And there it was, later that day, 5 days after the order was placed in the UK, and two days after Christmas. One box full of springs, and the other with a steering rack, four shocks and some door window seals. Amazing. HUGE thanks to Rimmer Bros and Fedex for the great service. Yes, a BRAND NEW "Cam Gears" rack. Not used, and not an old used rack that has been reconditioned. Bling Bling. Like usual getting the car in the air is the standard low-car faff, but once up I whipped off the wheels and began poking around. Interestingly someone at some point has swapped the standard two hose 4 pot Vitesse calipers for single hose 4 pot calipers. The disks are standard Vitesse vented disks, so not performance loss, but an interesting change. Filthy as hell and covered in multiple layers of paint. They need a clean and probably a repaint. Be a good candidate for an XJS big brake upgrade. Braided Goodridge hoses to the calipers. Yes, the standard strut legs have been painted yellow also >_< That's enough poking around, let's get to the real work. Removing the rack. I got really stuck for ages trying to get the tie rod end to come free from the knuckle on the RH side. The typical way to remove these (and all taper fit ball joints) is to give the side of the item the ball joint goes through a few hard smacks with a hammer. This will usually shock the taper free and it will pop out. This happened on the LH side after a few whacks, but the right side just didn't want to pop. This is the offending article I suspect it was original, and was rusted in the knuckle. In the end I used a couple of Pickle Fork style ball joint separators to pop it. It didn't go without a fight though, and unfortunately it made a mess of the boot in the process. A win is a win though, this meant I could move on. The next step was to disconnect the oil hoses. I believe the correct thing to do is to remove the hoses from the rack, but I just couldn't get a spanner in there to undo them on the car, so I chose to disconnect them from the pump. This also allowed easier draining and cleanup of the fluid. One pipe in the back of the pump is a 5/8" hex and the other is just a standard hose clamp There aren't many photos of the next part of the process because it's a hell of a messy job. Even with barrier cream all up my arms it took ages to clean the grease and oil off me. The rack is held to the crossmember with four large 17mm bolts, the nuts of which are visible in the above photos on either side of the jacking bump on the crossmember. A spanner held on the bolt on top of the rack, and a rattlegun on the nut under the car and they were undone quickly. The one bolt at the back on the RH side cannot be removed with the pipes in place on the rack. I just pushed this up as far as it would go, using the pipes and hoses to hold it in place. Next is to disconnect the steering coupling from the spline on the rack. This was bit of a pain as mine had been there for many years, but a good soaking in WD40 helped. Completely remove the 1/2" nut and bolt (has to be completely removed as the bolt locks the spline in place) and then use a thick chisel driven into the split to open up the coupling and release the spline. There wasn't enough room to move the steering shaft to free it from the rack, so I had to push the rack forward to free it up. This is a great time to also check the rubber disk on the coupling for any splits or damage and replace if needed. Before the rack can be removed the engine needs to be lifted a few inches. I ummed and ahhed over this for ages, until I just bit the bullet and did what Haynes recommends. Use a jack, and a block of wood under the sump. Because I only needed clearance on the RH/Drivers side of the car, I removed both bolts on the RH side and removed only one bolt and loosened the other bolt on the LH side. This allowed the engine to sort of pivot on that bolt when it lifted, so when it was lowered again everything was easy to align back into place. Keep in mind that I don't run the standard radiator fan and shroud, so I didn't have to worry about moving or removing these before lifting, but may cause issues on standard cars. The engine is held with two 17mm bolts/nuts on each side To gain enough space to remove the rack I also had to remove that yellow brace you can see over the rack boot. This is bolted through the RH mountings for the sway bar The engine does have to come up quite high With the engine up, and the rack unbolted all that is needed to do is to wiggle and jiggle the rack out. The rack MUST be removed from the RH/Drivers side of the car, and to get it out meant that I had to rotate the rack upside down, so that the pinion pointed downwards. It also helped if I raised the LH side of the rack. Eventually it will come out and you will wonder what all that fuss was about. The original "Cam Gears" brand rack as used on the later SD1s. Apparently the best for road feel of the three brands used at various times (but all interchangeable) The hoses came through with the rack with no issues, so I see no advantage to removing them on the car other than gaining a little more space from being able to remove that one mounting bolt. The hoses are held onto the rack with two different sizes. One was a 17mm and the other was smaller, and I used a 9/16" spanner for it. They were easy to break free off the car, but the smaller pipe took some careful coaxing to spin in the nut. These hoses need to be transferred to the new rack, and MUST be kept clean from any dirt entering them. I ziptied a glove over the end to keep them clean upon refitting. Take note of how the pipes are run on the rack too as they need to be oriented correctly. Before refitting the new rack you need to center it. There is a port on the rack for checking the centering, and apparently locking it, although I didn't need to lock mine. its a 1/4" hex to remove this plastic plug It's hard to photograph, but there is a dimple in the rack that can be seen through this hole when the rack is centered. When it's not centered there is just solid, shiny metal that can be seen Not centered Almost centered (rack needs to go slightly to the right) Centered Apparently you can insert a bolt into here to lock it in place, but I didn't find this was needed, and I just used a mirror to check it was still centered when it was on the car before fitting the steering coupling, and again when the coupling was in place. Pipes were refitted and had a very quick clean. I ensured that the pipes and hoses weren't hard up against each other or the rack. Refitting is just the reverse of removal. Wiggle and jiggle the rack into place, being careful to route the hoses over the crossmember and under the sump, and to not damage any of the boots and threads. The rack comes with good protective covers on all the threads and splines which helps. Remember, like removal, turning the rack upside down helps to refit (but isn't good for taking photos). It'll eventually just fall into place, and then it's time to install that damn steering coupling again I had my lovely wife help this by holding the steering wheel straight whilst I wiggled it all into place. I needed to use a chisel again to open the coupling so the spline would slide in nicely. I also applied some copper grease to the spline, so that it wouldn't rust together again, and that helped to slide it together. Once that's in, drop the rack bolts through the crossmember. There is one bolt on mine that is longer than the others. This goes in the front RH side hole. It's obvious if you have put this in a different hole as it's a fair bit longer. Then start bolting it all back together. Check the hoses are in the right place, and then the engine can be lowered down again and bolted in place. This is good for space under the car, and not having to worry there is an engine above your head holding on by a jack and one bolt. Once everything was bolted back into place, I refit the hoses to the pump with a new hose clamp. This is where I would usually be fitting the tie rod ends but unfortunately that turned to rubbish. One of mine had a damaged boot from removal, and both were looking aged and generally a bit blegh. I didn't just spend hundreds on a new rack to fit old worn out parts back onto it, so I went to Repco and picked up the last two that they had in stock for an SD1. They are TRW JTE224. The TRW website lists them as the correct part for all SD1s including the Vitesse and the photo looks OK As does the technical info and measurements of them Unfortunately what was in both of the boxes isn't quite right. It doesn't look like the photo, or the old part, and more importantly the threads don't match up. The old one has a 12mm thread, the new one 10mm. Either this is a mistake and a bad batch, or the TRW part is wrong. I'm going to check tomorrow if any other stores have them in stock and if they can source me a pair to match up. If they can't, I will have to resort to ordering a new pair from Rimmers. In the meantime I have refilled the system (with the same ATF as I used in the EFI), loosened off the PS pump so it can be spun by hand and hand filled the rack. Once the level was stable, I tightened the belt and secured the pump and fired up the engine. I ran the rack lock to lock to bleed the air out, and refilled the pump until the level stopped dropping and then that was done. Now I'm at a halt until I can get a pair of tie rod ends. Once I have those, I can fit them, put the wheels back on and take it for an alignment. Then its WOF time!

abwagiuwrebvpaernbovenbl

Too many photos even for me

I need less posts here.

Gosh thats a lot of scrolling.

Replacement steering rack arrived from the UK yesterday, crazy fast shipping via FedEx. When they said delivery target was the 27th Dec i laughed. Somehow they made it, even with Customs taking their cut. Now i need to work out how im going to change the rack out. I suspect my single garage at home is too narrow to withdraw a rack from the side of the car.

I had some time off from work today, so I finally got around to servicing my auto transmission. Hey, here's a car I haven't worked on in a while. Cant let the Vitesse have all the fun now can we? I purchased all the parts to service my auto a while ago, including the fluid, but have put it off. Rimmers doesn't have a lot of the parts available anymore, but because Rover used a standard old GM auto, I was able to order parts for a GM TH-180 (Turbo-Hydramatic 180) which was used in heaps of different cars, even the old Commodores. I ordered the gaskets from a place in the states called Makco but there are heaps of places that can supply these parts. In regards to which oil to use, there is HEAPS of discussion on it, but I chose to use a Semi-Synthetic Dexron compatible Penrite "Multi-Vehicle' ATF-MHP. This meets the requirements for the fluid type, but has the added advantage of being a semi-synthetic. I didn't want to go for a full synthetic because I'm not flushing the trans so would be mixing synthetic oil with whatever is already in there. Not keen. Obviously the first step in this game is the first step in most games.... jack the car up. Thankfully the EFI is at standard height and doesn't need any special work to get it in the air. Once in the air it was obvious why she smoked like crazy when sitting for a few days. The trans was leaking badly onto the RH exhaust pipe. The oil, as oil does, had travelled everywhere on the underside of the car. Makes a good rust preventative though I guess. Looking around I could see oil traces coming from two main places; the dipstick tube seal and the inhibitor switch. Both are common areas to leak from, so I pre-ordered the seals required to try to fix them. It also appeared to be leaking from the oil pan gasket itself. No surprise really as most of the bolts at the rear of the pan were barely finger tight. I know the torque setting is low on these, but that's just being silly. I'm not sure when the trans was last serviced, but it had been worked on at some point in the past. The GM trans of this era doesn't have a drain plug in the pan, so the only way to drain the trans is to make a mess. This was my first time working on an auto without a drain plug, so I wasn't so sure what I was in for. I loosened off all the 1/2" pan bolts, more so on the side that the exhaust wasn't hard up against, with the rear ones looser than the front ones so that the pan would drop at the rear. After breaking the sealant seal on the pan, it all started to dribble out, and most of it ended up in the drain pan I had placed under it. When that stopped dripping I removed the rest of the bolts whilst supporting the pan with my other hand, and when it came free I just tipped it straight into the drain pan. No mess, no fuss. It probably did help though that the oil level was low.... It should have drained about 2.8L, but only 2L came out. The fluid color was dark, but still had a definite redness to it. It didn't smell burnt, and no worrying chunks or anything were found in the pan. I was under the impression that most auto pans had magnets in them to collect the metal particles in the oil. There was no magnet in my pan, and the bottom of the pan and filter were covered in a fine layer of sludge. I thoroughly cleaned the pan, making sure there were no traces of oil, sludge or old gasket. With the pan off I could see the valve body and filter. It all looked pretty clean in there, and although I don't really know much about what I was looking at, it all looked like I feel it should The old filter got removed. This is held in place with three 1/2" bolts and then it just comes free. Apparently they can be cleaned and reused, as they are just a mesh filter, but a new one was cheap enough that it wasnt worth cleaning. I picked up a replacement gasket for the filter too. There was some confusion when ordering the gasket for the filter, as the parts book and Rimmers show a different style gasket to the one supplied by Makco. I ended up ordering both so I could replace it with similar to what came off. This is what the book shows And the gasket that came off (and what Makco supplied) I refit the square type, just to stick with what was already working before. Next up was to remove the dipstick tube and replace the seal. There were two different kinds of seal that I came across, so once again I ordered both. It turns out that the type used on the SD1 GM180 was the Top-Hat style Interestingly, the one removed from the car was smooth inside and out, whilst the replacement was ribbed inside and out. I used a thin smear of sealant on the end of the dipstick tube where it fits into the seal just to ensure it doesn't leak. Getting the dipstick tube in and out is a job that I wouldn't wish on anyone. It is a damn nightmare of a thing. This is what I have named the "Bitch Bolt" It's the only bolt holding the tube in place, but it's almost impossible to work with. It's a 9/16" head, but you cannot get a ratchet on it, and can only barely get a spanner on it to turn it 1/8th of a turn at a time. Getting it out wasn't the worst thing in the world, but getting it back in was terrible and took far too long and used up my daily quota for swearing. I even enlisted the help of my lovely wife as no matter what I did I just couldn't get the bolt hole in the block to line up with the bracket on the tube. We got there in the end, but my god what a shit of a job. One other tip I will say, is that a 14mm ratchet spanner is very close in size to a 9/16" spanner... this makes tightening the long bolt up a lot quicker, but no less painful. After that fiasco I cleaned the old gasket off and refit the pan with a new cork gasket which I installed with a thin smear of sealant on both sides and torqued all the bolts up to their super low setting of 9NM. The inhibitor switch was the last part to get some special treatment. This was easier to work with, but was soaked in oil. A while ago when I was bored I reconditioned a spare switch I had. The GM180 switches are NLA now, so I couldn't get a new one. They are common for wearing out and either not allowing starting when in park, or the reverse lights not working. My reverse lights don't work, so I hoped that reconditioning and replacing my switch might fix this (sadly it didn't, so I need to look elsewhere). This is the GM180 switch. Nothing fancy. Mine was sealed, and the clips broken. I used a sharp blade to open the two halves The contacts weren't looking good Its a fairly simple device. On the bottom housing there are three contact sets. Park, Reverse and Neutral. Sprung pins in the moving insert bridge the terminals when the selector is moved Both the contacts and the pins had heavy wear, and were badly oxidized. I cleaned up the terminals with some fine sandpaper Half and half I got a bit more fancy for the pins. I carefully removed them and spun them up in a drill and used some fine sandpaper to clean them Everything got a good helping of dielectric grease and reassembled. I used a thin bead of superglue to re-assemble the switch. The replacement switch does everything it should, except the reverse lights still don't work. Oh well, at least I know it should be a reliable starter. One of the biggest reasons for me to do all this work (other than to fix the leaks) was to have a known quantity of oil in the pan. Since getting the car I haven't been able to get a clear reading on the dip stick, even after adding oil to the trans. Obviously now I know it was low, but since I know how much oil went in, I can monitor it correctly. I poured in 2.1L, and then as per the instructions I started the engine up and ran it through the gears three times. With the engine running, and in Park, I checked the oil level. It needed to be above the triangle on the back of the dipstick. It's hard to see but the oil level is below the Min mark, but is above the triangle on the rear of the dipstick. This is good. The new fluid was a lovely rich cherry red I took her for a drive to warm the fluids up, and burn off the oil and brake clean from the exhaust (boy does it smoke), and upon my return I once again cycled the gears and with the engine running I checked the fluid level. Now it should read between the two Min-Max marks; to which it was a little low, so I added another couple of hundred ml of oil which brings it to bang on. I'm not 100% certain this will fix all the leaks from the trans; they are well-known for leaking from new and being impossible to fix due to bad design, but hopefully this slows it down and reduces how much oil is ending up on the pipe. This also allows me to correctly monitor the oil level now. So how did the test drive go? Well, the trans is quieter, smoother and shifts better. It was already pretty good by 1980s standards in my opinion, but now it shifts like a trans made some time in the late 90s. Smooth and almost unnoticeable shifting. Now to put more rego on, and take for more hoons before its WOF expires again next month.

A replacement steering rack from Rimmers has been ordered. Brand new, but reconditioned to replace any seals that have perished from age. Also ordered a suspension kit, with new shocks all around (as mine are very soft and I was told it wont pass the next warrant) and standard Vitesse height springs. Now to wait for shipping, hope it gets through customs OK, and then fit it.

Upon returning home after the WOF check, I felt it was time to sort the bucket of porridge shifting. When the car was in for its WOF check I had a quick poke around under the car and confirmed my suspicions that there are no shifter bushes in place. There is a lot of oil all over the gearbox, and the rubber bushes just gave up and crumbled away. Obviously I couldn't do anything about it at the time, so as soon as I got home I got stuck in. First issue, was how do I get my jack under the car? My usual trick is to just drive up on a few bits of wood and then the low profile jack clears the spoiler, but the Vitesse spoiler is just so low that even that didn't work. I ended up driving onto bits of wood, then jacking the car from the side lifting point (sill behind the front wheel), putting MORE wood under the wheel, and then the jack would clear the front spoiler. Phew. Of course I popped a couple of axle stands under the car, and then had a poke around. Before I start on the shifter bushings I had to have a quick look at the steering rack issue I failed the WOF for. I was shown that the rubber boot was full of oil and sure enough, I gave it a squeeze and more oil poured out. I snipped the Zip-Tie and had a closer look. There was a lot of oil on the innards too, so I gave it all a wipe down, and then fired the car up. I swung the steering lock to lock a couple of times, and then had a look to see how bad the leak was. Yep, she's leaking alright. Anyway, nothing else I can do to that, so I reinstalled the old boot with a new zip-tie and moved onto the bushes. Look mum, no hands bushes (excuse the blurry photos, it was really hard to fit myself and a camera under the car) Oh look, is that the remains of a bush?! Yup, wasn't doing much. You can see that underside of the remote has actually been rubbing on the drive shaft. Not ideal I purchased the replacement Poly bushes from eBay and they arrived the other day. SuperPro SPF0355K. Listed for a Triumph but work perfect. This job wasnt anywhere near as hard as I was expecting. I read some horror stories about not being able to access the top bolts, but using a 3/4" ratchet, a really long extension and a 1/2" socket it was a doddle. The bushes come in two halves, and you need to reuse the existing metal sleeve from the old bush With some wiggling and bashing of knuckles I managed to sort it. The trick I found, was to do one bush at a time (one bush = two halves, a metal sleeve, bolt and washer) and leave the bolts in the others until it's their turn. I started with the hardest to access which is top RH side, doing it mostly by feel. Once the sleeve was in both halves of the bush I slipped the bolt in and spun it a few threads so it wouldn't come out. DO NOT tighten fully though, you need the remote to move so you can get the other bushes in. I did the same to the top LH bush, and then moved onto the lower side ones. These were actually a bit harder to do. With one side in I needed to use a small pry bar to give me enough space between the bracket and trans for the other bush, and then it was just a case of wiggling and strategically tightening the bolts to align all the bushes. If you have trouble getting the side bolts into place, I found that tightening the top bolts can help align it all. New bushes in place. This lifts the whole remote up, and leaves little to no movement in the remote. I should probably find out where that leak is coming from. I swear it appears that some of it is coming from the fill plug. I haven't driven the car more than just out of the garage, because I also did an engine oil and filter change (and im 1L low on oil and haven't bought more yet) but already the shifter feels so much more direct. There is still a little movement in side to side in gear, but I believe there is an adjustment for that. It's not a major. Just as a reminder of how bad the shifter was And this is what its like now Huge improvement, well worth the money and effort to install the bushes. Now to top the oil up and work out what to do about the steering rack.

The Vitesse had its longest drive in a long time today, to see if it would pass a WOF. Well unfortunately it didn't pass the Warrant of Fitness test, but for a car that has been off the road for about 4 years, and done bugger all mileage in that time, I think failing the WOF on one item isn't too bad. What did it fail on? The steering rack. Unfortunately its filling up the LH rack boot with oil, so it's leaking passed the seals. This means an instant failure, and not just a quick degrease, clean and pass. I'm looking into my options now. It's a toss-up between taking the car in and getting a pro to rebuild it; removing the rack and having it rebuilt; rebuilding the rack myself, or just replacing the whole rack with a reconditioned one from Rimmers. Either way its a pain to get the rack out, and I'll need to make sure I order the right parts if im going to rebuild it (as there are a couple of different brands of rack). Of course it wouldn't be my SD1 if it didn't mark its territory.... Thankfully just a dribble from the overflow. I suspect it needs a new cap. The trip in for the check was OK, although the shaking from the steering got a bit tiring. It was a 50km round trip, and since getting the Vitesse I have clocked over 100km total and its running like clockwork. After failing the WOF check I shot over to get some new tyres fitted. I went for a set of Falken Ziex ZE912 in the standard 205/60R15 size. Other than looking better and having a decent compound, they completely eliminated the shaking from the old flat spotted tyres. Driving back home afterwards was complete bliss. I got one of the old tyres put onto the spare wheel, as it turns out the spare was even older than the 15+ year old tyres on the car! The tech changing the tyres said I should give the old spare to a museum It turns out that the spare and one of the tyres on the car also had a tube fitted. Yes, a tube. I honestly didn't think they still did tubes in passenger car tyres, and apparently they shouldnt.... but hey, it's all sorted now, and im back to completely tubeless. Getting with the times eh. So that's where I'm at. I need to replace the shifter remote bushes are they are literally completely gone and then fix/replace the steering rack. I have 28 days to get it rechecked, or it has to have a complete new WOF check, so I best make a call shortly.

Another familiar job; A pair of upgraded rubber gaskets to replace the leaking cork ones. I did this job on the EFI a while ago, so I wont go into too much depth here, but once again I had an oil leak from the Rocker Cover gaskets. The passenger's side gasket was leaking quite badly. Strangely it wasn't leaking out of the gap between the cover and head, it was leaking out of the screw, straight down onto the exhaust manifold. It was quite a substantial leak, as you could watch it seeping out when the engine was running. So, lets begin. Take one super low Vitesse with extra low front spoiler, and try to get it into the garage without ripping the spoiler off. Needed some planks to get it over the bump, but it wasn't too much of an issue. Then take one yellow monstrosity And rip it to bits. I'm getting good at this, it took about 5 minutes to have the plenum top off, including finding my hex socket. The trumpets look good, with minimal oil. With the plenum top off, four screws and off comes the rocker cover. Pleasingly the valve-train looks in great shape, very little browning and no sludge at all. Heck, it even looks cleaner than the EFI did. The cork gaskets were in better shape than the EFI ones, but still not great. It was clear though why the oil was leaking through the screw. The gasket had pulled away from the hole so it had direct access to the oil, nothing to stop it leaking out. There was also clear signs of leaking through the gasket at the rear of the head Since the cover was off, and no one ever seems to do it, I serviced the breather. There is a tiny little hole in the middle that usually gets blocked. Mine was blocked, and took a lot of brake clean and poking with various bits of thin wire to clear it. I carefully wiggled and jiggled the new rubber gasket and cover into place and tightened it down. It pays to make sure none of the gasket is pinched, and that the metal collets the screw goes through hasn't fallen out. The other gasket was in similar condition, except for a tear in the back of the gasket The other side was fitted with a new rubber gasket and that was that job done. Easy. But I wasn't finished yet, I had to do something about that horrible yellow plenum. It just sticks out too much and doesn't fit the look of the sleek, gorgeous Vitesse. I had two spare plenum tops. One was painted in a battleship grey but the paint wasn't in good condition, and the other was bare aluminium with red lines in the top. In order to make the transition as easy as possible, I swapped as much as I could from the old plenum to the replacement. I swapped the throttle linkage, throttle pot, and over-run valve. I also thoroughly cleaned the plenum; cleaning out the breather passage, and throttle body. Speaking of over-run valves, I capped it off the other day and unlike the EFI I noticed no difference. I wondered why, and found out today. These are the two valves from the plenums. The one on the left is from the Vitesse, and the right one is from the spare plenum. The one on the Vitesse has been "adjusted" to completely closed and will not open on deceleration. I'm not sure that the one on the right is correctly adjusted, but you can see the gaps between the coils of the spring. The one in the EFI was correctly adjusted when I refitted it, so obviously that's the reason why blocking it off had different effects between the two cars. I fit the closed off valve back into the Vitesse. With a thin smear of sealant on the plenum mounting face, I fit the replacement plenum top Much better. I did find one thing out, if you have the hose clamp for this hose in the wrong position, it will act as a throttle stop, and when you fire the car up to test, it'll hold the throttle open a crack and rev straight up to 3100rpm. Sounds awesome, but not so good for an idle speed. This is the correct position. Rover didn't think very hard when they designed the placement of this clamp. Terrible access. The red stripes don't fit the Vitesse so much, so I may paint them a different colour in the future, but for now its a huge improvement over the yellow. A couple of interesting observations, firstly the old setup must have had a huge intake/vacuum leak as it needed a lot more idle screw to idle normally, and the engine now pulls like a freight train. Its much smoother, idles better, pulls harder and runs nicer. I'm very happy with it; I didn't expect any improvement in its running. WOF day is two days away, so now that it's not pouring its oil everywhere I might almost be ready for it. Eek. Goes hard for what it is and all that.

Hopefully this works. Let me know if the photos are borked again. It rained heavily the other day, for the first time since getting the Vitesse…. and it leaked. Damn. I’ve been spoilt by the EFI being water tight since I sealed the tail lights, but the Vitesse got caught outside in a downpour and ended up with a swimming pool in the boot. A bit of poking and prodding and I noticed that there was water inside the tailgate glass seal, between the metal and seal. There was also some minor rust where it was wet, showing it had been leaking there for a while. I started off by removing as much rust as I could from under the seal, and then using rust converter to slow it down so I can deal with it properly at a later date. I suspected that the water may have entered the seal higher up, and travelled down. Inspecting the seal showed some old gunk in the top corners of seal, possibly old sealant that has broken down, which has pushed the seal away from the metal. I carefully removed as much of the old gunk as I could and taped off the area. I noted that when blowing compressed air at the seal to clean it out there was a section of seal down the side that wasn’t stuck down I carefully used a small scraper and some Sikaflex and filled the gaps in (the seal was later cleaned of excess sealant) The issue was present on the other side too I had also been told the washer jet could be a source of water ingress, so I used a thin smear to sealant on the gasket for that Whilst I waited for that to dry I decided to open Pandora’s box. The rust bubble under the windscreen. I wasnt expecting good things. Just looking at it was bad enough, all the paint was bubbling and crunchy. A couple of pokes with a screwdriver showed that all wasnt lost, there was good metal there So I hit it with the wire cup on my grinder until I got good metal Now, I’m not silly, I do realise that what I can see is probably just the tip of the rust-berg, but its all I can do without removing the screen. This will hopefully slow it down until once again, I can afford to replace the windscreen and have the metal fixed. I slammed on some rust converter to get anything I didn’t, and tried to get it in under the trim and into the hole Once that was dry I used a very thin skim of Sikaflex to seal the hole Whilst this dried I moved onto some other things that bothered me, like the ECU that was just chilling out in the passenger’s foot well I don’t know exactly how the previous owner had the Link secured, but my plan was to use the original ECU mounting plate I found in the spares, to mount it in the factory location. With the Link removed, this is the clusterfeck of wiring that was left The relays were just zip tied to their original bracket, instead of being nicely secured to it. I straightened the mounting tangs, and fit the relays into their correct home Then I set about fitting the Link to the plate. Link ECUs are a bit of a pain, as unless they changed it in later models, they have no real mounting brackets on them. It’s a box with no holes, no tabs, nothing. Because of this, I used two original mounting holes and a couple of zip ties to stick it in place Since that was kinda working, I drilled another pair of holes and used some more zip ties. Nice and secure. This arrangement allows me to access the connector with the inspection plate removed Offered up into place I found some screw in my stash to secure it, and tucked all the wiring away This allowed me to refit the glove box. Finally, the car is kinda complete Moving back to the rust patch, the Sikaflex was dry now, so I masked off and hit it with some etch primer And whilst that dried, off to fix another issue I went. This time it was the coolant warning light that wasn’t working. When I got the car I noticed that both of the expansion tank sensor connectors and the one on the radiator were disconnected, yet the light wasnt lit, so obviously it was missing a bulb. A quick removal of the binnacle cover, and sure enough, a familiar sight. Seems I’m two for two on my SD1s both having the coolant bulb removed. I reconnected the connectors in the engine bay Whacked a spare bulb in And guess what, the system works. Light on for ignition check And turns off a couple of seconds later, as it should This car seems to be a bit hit and miss with its coolant level since I got it. It seems to be steady at the correct level now, though time will tell. At least having the light working means I can keep an eye on it easier. The binnacle cover is a bit rough. Not sure what I will do with this, it’s not TOO warped but the vinyl is shrinking and pulling away, and it’s missing two of the mounting pegs Anyway, the primer was dry, so on went a couple of light coats of gloss black paint. It’s not an amazing job, and I didn’t bog it up or anything, but it should slow the rust from spreading. When I machine polish the car I might be able to knock down the harsh edges of the new paint and blend it in a bit nicer. Hopefully it’ll rain in a couple of days so I can see if my leak fix worked or not, but until then it should have some time to cure. The next job will be replacing the valve cover gaskets, which will be in the next couple of days so it’s done before the WOF. When I do that I’ll be swapping to one of my spare plenums, to get rid of that yellow monstrosity.

The Rover SD1s have a drain hole in the front foot wells (used when painting the car in the factory) and its plugged with a welded in "paint tin lid" of steel. These are notorious for rusting out and sure enough one of mine in the Vitesse is rusted and hanging on by a thread. Is this grounds for a WOF failure? Its a non-structural part. This isnt my car but the plugged hole can be seen in this photo, on the right above the hoist arm. Picture that with rust holes in it. I have a replacement and will get it welded in, but not before the WOF check this week.

Shit, if im lucky the Vitesse might have passed a WOF the day before. Will try and remember this month.

In the quest to get the Vitesse ready for its Warrant inspection next week, I had to remedy something else I noticed wasn't working well. When I first got the car, the first thing (other than not starting) that I noticed didn't work was the headlight switch. Park light setting worked, but no lights on the headlight setting, so I was moving a car full of stuff, that I couldn't risk stalling, down the road with no lights. I found if you wiggle and jiggle the switch you could get the headlights to work, but that's not really good enough to pass a WOF inspection, so I had to fix it. Not to mention it's also a pain not being able to rely on the headlights to work. I have spare switches (and they are even still available new thanks to being used on the MGB), but what fun is swapping parts when you can recondition them and keep them going for the future? To remove the switch, first remove the lower shroud on the steering column. There is one Phillips screw in the underside then it carefully wiggles free. The top doesn't need to be unscrewed or removed. Turns out mine must have had a run-in with a rather angry steering wheel boss kit (not the current one, but I noticed the car came with a spare, now I know why) in the past as it's missing a nice arc of plastic The switch is now accessible, and should just pop out if you're careful. There are two metal spring clips. If they don't just pop out you may need to use a small flat blade to push them inwards. It turns out there must be two different types of switch. The one on the car has the little bulb picture the opposite way around to the spare I have, as well as the little picture being recessed into the plastic, not just screen printed on it. Another reason to rebuild the original one. Disassembly is fairly simple. I used a flat blade to pop the sides apart. There are clips along the whole length but a gap in the middle for the screwdriver. It's a VERY simple switch, with not much to go wrong. My switch was packed with old, hard grease that was covering all the contacts including the sliding contact There was a lot of wear on the sliding contact also, so I cleaned it up and gave it a quick sand down. I also cleaned and sanded the contacts in the switch base. Reassembly is the reverse, just make sure everything lines up nicely and make sure you have the base the correct way up in regards to the top half. I smothered the contacts and any moving parts in dielectric grease just to keep it fresh, and flipped the sliding contact around so it would wear the other side instead. Some water on a rag got any human filth off the switch without wearing out the white paint further. Before refitting I connected the switch up and made sure everything worked as it should. Sure enough the headlights came on every single time. And that is how you rebuild a Lucas headlight switch.

According to my records i have 7 Vanden Plas EFI, 16 Single Plenum Vitesse and 3 Twin Plenum Vitesse in NZ. There are no doubt more hidden away in garages that i havent spotted, and some of these cars have since been scrapped or taken off the road. Not many of them are on the road and being used regularly.