AndyW

Filling and bleeding these systems is always difficult as there are several high points that trap air, particularly the top hose. On mine I separate a join in the hoses and alloy pipes between thermostat and top radiator, and use a funnel to slowly fill the system there. Then run the engine with the cap off the expansion bottle to burp any air out. The mod we’ve found for quicker warm up and better operation of the thermostat, is to remove the 20mm hose into the top centre of the rad, and route the hose from bottom of the coolant bottle into the bottom hose before the water pump. One other thing that looks odd in your diagram is that the turbo has a 20mm hose in from the thermostat but only a 6mm air bleed hose out back to the coolant bottle. I can’t see how that would circulate enough water through the turbo for cooling, so might be adding to your under bonnet temps. I’m away at the moment, but when back at the weekend I’ll look at my manuals and see how Rover plumbed the turbo. Andy

Hi Dean, where did your cable break? When mine went a couple of years ago it was where the inner cable enters the pedal box, as it’s at an angle to the outer cable where it exits the box and frays. I made an approx 30 deg angled spacer to hold the ferrule of the outer cable at the right angle to the pedal box wall. The clutch cable now goes downward toward the steering column rather than straight out. Sorry I haven’t got a picture of the spacer itself but this photo shows the straight line path it makes the cable go. I lubricated the inner cable with bike chain ptfe spray when I reassembled it, and also put some exhaust wrap around the cable where it goes under the exhaust headers to prevent it overheating and drying out. I’ve not had any problems with the clutch cable since then. But like yours my clutch is still very heavy. I’ve not found a solution to that although I’m told a longer clutch fork can help. Cheers Andy

On my Superspec I reinforced the seat mounting bolts through the floor pan with 40x40 4mm square steel washers from B&Q.

My Superspec wiring nest was like that. I bit the bullet last year, removed the dash and scuttle and rewired the whole lot. A week or two’s work but I now understand the wiring and everything is on separate circuits with fuses and relays.

Glad it made an improvement to your car as well.

Yes please Peter. One for me.

It can go anywhere between the radiator and the water pump, although the closer to the pump the better to minimise the amount of water in the warm-up loop. My car had a U hose from the water pump to a long alloy pipe coming from the bottom front of the radiator. The U hose had a wear mark from rubbing on the exhaust manifold, so I replaced it with two 90 bends and put the Tee piece between them.

Afraid I can’t make this weekend. Maybe next time.

I think I used 17mm ID hose for the pipe work as that fitted nicely onto the metal water rail, and also goes nicely over a 15mm copper plumbing tee for the joint under the bottle. I also replaced all my previous mish-mash of different sized hoses to the top and bottom of the rad with 32mm silicon hoses and alloy pipes. Avoids having to use reducers to match everything up.

Hi Dean, It looks like we've all done it in a similar way. I couldn't find a T piece with the right size of spout, so I used a 32/32/25 mm alloy tee (from ASH). I inserted this in the bottom hose before the waterpump. On the 25mm outlet I put a 25>19 mm silicon hose reducer, which connects to some 17mm heater hose with a plastic joiner. This goes to a T piece under the expansion bottle with a short length up to the bottle, and another length round to the end of the water rail by the distributor. As my water rail was in good condition I left it on, as it also holds the dipstick tube. Andy

Hi Peter, many thanks for the offer, but I'll defer that one for now. Since I cleaned up the front calipers and sliders, and replaced the seized rear drum cylinders, the overall braking balance is vastly improved, and I'm not seeing the front lockup now. So maybe I've fixed it. I'll drive it for a bit and see how it feels before I get into checking disc runout.

Solved the issue with the lack of wear on the rear brake shoes. 3 of the 4 pistons were seized in the cylinders so I had no rear braking effort at all! Surprised to find that my local motor factor had some Sierra drum brake cylinders on the shelf, so a quick replacement and that’s fixed. Now to get back to investigating the front disc lockup.

Have to admit that I found the shoe adjuster on that wheel looked to have jammed. The ratchet teeth on the cam were filled with something like paint (not rust) which was stopping it moving. Cleaned it up and it now moves ok, so maybe I’ve rectified that issue. All four wheels have their own brake pipe from the master cylinder, so the locking wheel isn’t shared. Is there an easy way to check disc run out as I don’t have a gauge? I can check the thickness at various places round the rim, although the discs and pads have only done 6k miles so shouldn’t really be worn.

I’ve now fully stripped and checked over my brakes - removed and cleaned the front callipers and pads, removed rear drums and shoes, cleaned and reset the adjuster mechanisms, put copper grease on all contact points, and changed the brake fluid and bled the system. The discs and drums were not rusty or scored, the pads and shoes were all in good condition with plenty of material left, and all the brake cylinder seals looked good with no leaks, although I didn’t check that the cylinders were free to move. All the brake pipes, unions and rubber hoses also looked good. A test drive afterwards showed there was little or no improvement to my original issue. The left front brake still locks under medium-heavy braking. Oddly the brake shoes on the right rear had hardly any wear at all as they still had sanding marks on the surfaces presumably from when the last owner fitted them. So it looks as if the right rear brake has not been working much (or at all?). Would this have any affect on the diagonally opposite front brake? Any other ideas I can check?.