1984 Rover SD1 2600S

Good luck with the MOT!

So..... How did it go?

Awesome news! Not much to do then and you'll be back on the road!

Right after a bit of peeing around it's got an MOT. Yay! Pretty much a year to the day since I took it off the road.
The bearing wasn't too bad in the end once I popped the half shaft out. I cut the old bearing off with the grinder then got the garage next door to press the new one on.
Because it came out easy I presumed it'd go in alright with a couple of gentle taps. Aye right! I tried to wind it in using the mounting bolts but just ended up bending the mounting plate on the end of the half shaft!
I took it out and while giving it a good battering trying to flatten out the bent plate I was looking at the bearing thinking, hmm that outer bit of the bearing wasn't on the half shaft when I took it out.
Sure enough the outer bit of the bearing was still in the axle tube. What a flange. I've got to say this greasy stuff isn't as entertaining as the welding and battering bit of metal around. I eventually got the old bit of bearing out and it went in no bother.

Next up take it to bits againm, paint it, put it together again thne maybe drive it somewhere.
It seems to be running pretty badly. It fires up fine but runs as if there's no choke. It's always done this as the autochoke part of the carbs is disconnected but cleared after a couple of minutes. It doesn't seem to clear now and I don't know why. I've no doubt a good blast up the road will do it no end of good after sittting for so long.

Here it is lurking in the carpark.

SD1 by cort16, on Flickr


In other news I've been using the 740 a fair bit as it's fast and extremely nice to drive (given it's done 271,000 miles).
Part of the deal with the car was I had to give the wheels back. I'd obviously not done anything about this so last week set about finding some by going on gumtree and typing in "bmw wheels". Some 17" ones popped up near my work with decent tyres so I went off to look at them. They seemed fine so I handed over 140 quid and headed down the road.
I turns out they're quite rare racing dymanics (so I'm told) and I think they look better than the old 18's and come with 2x goodyear and 2x continentals with 5mm tread.


740_1 by cort16, on Flickr

The front brake discs on it are totally shagged so I bought new discs and pads for it.
I managed to change one side but it took me 3 hours as all the wheel buts and calipers bolts where on unbelievably tight. I had a breaker bar on one of the calliper bolts and was on the bar with my feet off the ground and it still wouldn't go until I wobbled up and down on it. Even then it just squeaked then I had to spend 10 minutes working the bolt off.
I went to do the other side and everything came off easily other than one bolt on the caliper. It wouldn't come off and the breaker bar slipped rounding it. Great.
I got a loan of those jaggy sockets for rounded bolts so a few of days after changing the wheels I decided to have another go at the bolt but when I went to get the locking wheel nut I couldn't find it, nor could I remember putting it back in the car after changing the wheels.

Like a total dimwit I'd left the locking nut in the wheel and had subsequently driven 50-60 miles in the car and it was obviously no longer in one of the wheels. I took a massive huff and went off to do something car related. A few hours later I was walking down the lane to my lockup staring and the ground and cursing the universe for my stupidity when I spotted the locking nut just lieing on the ground all innocent like! How lucky was that!

I still couldn't get that caliper bolt of though so I've bought a new bolt from BMW and it's getting its head cut off. That'll teach it.

Thats cool. Its going to be years till i get to that stage!

Wow he looks really good. So chuffed to see him looking shiny again!

More progress today as I got most of the bits bolted back on. I just need to bolt on the front spoiler and finish and fit the JDM type arches to it. The arches I've got are for an MR2 and the rear ones are pretty much a pefect fit (ish) but I had to cut and re-shape the front ones to fit the wider profile of the arches. My biggest problem is the interior (mainly the door cards), which seem to be uncleanable. I might end up re-painting them with vinyl paint or something if I can't make any progress. In the mean time I've got my eyes on ebay for a couple of replacements.


together by cort16, on Flickr

what a nice looking car, I love the wheels on it.

Great job!

Looking good! Brilliant work so far.