Bloody (literally) but unbowed I could now think about removal of the last few heavy bits, namely the suspension. Even to my somewhat chastened eye it didn‘t look too daunting being held in place by relatively few bolts. Granted they had been there for a very long time smack in the firing line in bad weather but how long can so few bolts take?. Silly silly!
For those unfamiliar with the finer points of late P6 anatomy the bits the rear springs sit on are fixed at their front ends to a hefty cross member. Sadly the fixing points are inside the member approached via small apertures which appeared to be designed to prevent any known spanner getting a serious grip on the nuts.
The shell was by now up on Fred‘s highest axle stands so access was no excuse but I just couldn't move these things at all. The first day on this job I spent four hours on my back and moved three nuts. A definite low point. No point in struggling with the impossible though, if the rear end won‘t come out in bits then it will have to come out in one go, or on closer examination two goes because the trailing arms (see I‘m learning) will come adrift at the rear letting the springs out as they come so the differential and drive can be separated. Hooray! a high at last.
A worm‘s eye view of the rear suspension on a Rover P6 showing the De-Dion Tube. To quote the Rover sales brochure ”The De Dion suspension developed by Rover engineers shares with the beam axle the advantage that the rear wheels always remain parallel but not the disadvantage of excessive unsprung weight. It also gives the advantage of independent rear suspension without wheel misalignment and consequent heavy tyre scrub. Above: The suspension layout on the base unit.
Disconnecting the fuel pipes from the sender unit was a bit of a shambles since both sheared in short order, but realising the futility of undoing old unions I settled for cutting the brake pipes so the whole diff, brake, de-Dion, driveshaft, hub assembly looked pretty isolated. I then put my shiny new trolley jack under to support the lot and unbolted everything in sight. Terrific, the whole thing descended gracefully to the ground and wheeled gently out onto the garage floor. A job done without injury or damage! Must be a first.
Well actually, not entirely without damage. Harry Johnson was kind enough to offer the advice never to jack up the rear end on the de Dion for fear of splitting the gaiter, sadly the day after I did it!
Don‘t things go better when you‘re the right way up and you can see what you‘re doing? There were an awful lot of bolts involved in reducing the big lump to manageable little lumps but those which didn‘t respond to Plus Gas and effort yielded readily to the new angle grinder and were soon tucked away for future attention. And so to the front suspension. I should have known it couldn‘t last.
You get a super view of the front struts with the wings off and it was obvious that splitting three ball joints gets a strut off in one lump complete with hub etc. So, off to your editor‘s to borrow a splitter and with the stirring advice to ”fit it like this, screw it up tight and then hit it" ringing in the ears I set to. Now, to be fair, it worked all right on the near side. The splitter only just seemed to fit but a moderate squeeze and a judicious clout seemed to do the trick. Three split and success all round. Not so good on the off side! For a start the splitter struggled to bridge the joint unless I left the nut off. Never mind, just get on with it.
The little joint gave without too much grief but the bottom one wouldn‘t play for a long time. Much pressure was needed together with a totally unreasonable degree of violence. It was the big b****r at the top which really caused the grief. It would not move. The splitter was only just about square on the job and despite more and more pressure and some almighty welly nothing moved until with a mighty bang the splitter shot off the joint and, at about 200 miles an hour, hit me in the knee.
My next door neighbour who was in her garden just by my garage rushed in because she mistook my scream of rage for one of anguish and was sure the car had fallen on me (everyone in our lane has been waiting for that to happen). (And me, Ed.!) She subsequently awarded me 8 out of 10 for the scream, 9 out of ten for the expletives and 10 out of 10 for the dance! (performed on one leg).
I returned to the job some time later in a spirit of sheer malice and removed the joint so effectively that I now need a set of ball joints to replace the mangled units still in the strut. I‘m sure they‘re still available but Lord knows how I‘m going to get the old ones out. Still not to worry, I‘ve now got about as much off as I reckon is necessary and the almost bare shell awaits repair.
Finally I expect many of you more experienced chaps are thinking ”No mention at any stage of draining any oil. Bet he didn‘t do it!" Well he did! Engine gearbox and back axle, and all at an early stage. It‘s just that I misjudged the total volume of oil compared with the volume of the container and it all went on the floor anyway!