Rover800.Info

Quite a few owners here have them and the different offset makes the Jeep look more aggressive! They also feel more robust than the original Jeep items (the beads on the rims look stronger and the wheels feel heavier). I'll be trying them out tonight on the regular "end of week dune bashing session".

Looks a different car now

I actually got round to washing and polishing it this weekend, as well as replacing the lower control arm bushes (front suspension) with polybushes. That would have been a quick job if some previous "mechanic" had not fitted one bush the wrong way around and left it only 2/3 installed - I love spending 2 hours undoing someone else's bodge before completing a 30 minute job!

Joe's got some new arms for his to go on. Looks straight forward.

We started on swapping a steering UJ earlier. Funny setup with not having CV joints.

Bottom arms are easier than top arms but still not too difficult. The worst thing on mine is the seemingly random use of metric vs imperial bolts/nuts and the occasional use of Torx head bolts (T50, T55 and T60). Something else that I found when working on it was that the bottom bolt for the track bar had come loose and that had made the whole front end feel vague on the road. Worth checking if you ever have dodgy feeling steering or "death wobble" whilst driving.

Have you got workshop manuals for the ZJ and XJ? I've got the electronic ZJ one if you need it, plus parts lists for both.

I have a haynes for each, that's all.

We did his arms and put the shaft back earlier. Rushed to let him get off due to getting stick from her indoors.

He went to town and got half way home then a tensioner seized and stopped the belt moving. Most likely after off roading last week.

So I went and dragged him back here and took him home. Going well with his.

Chris, I can send you the electronic version of the genuine Jeep workshop manual and the parts manual. Let me know if you'd like them.

That would be good, thanks?

Via email?

I've recently found a service called "We transfer" which is free and handy for sending larger files - I'll do it tomorrow and you will get a notification by email when it's done. I'd do it now but it would take a while and it's well past my bed time!

No rush mate, I'm off to work soon anyway.

Should be ready when you get back, then.

I bought one of Marko's Speedview units at Christmas because the speedo on my Jeep reads about 11% too fast.

Having checked out the wiring diagrams, I decided that the easiest way to run the wiring down to the Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) would be to drop it down through the transmission tunnel near the autobox shifter. For ease of access I decided to remove the centre console and then drilled a hole down through the transmission cover plate between the autobox shifter and the transfer box shifter. I pushed a wire through there to connect to the vehicle speed sensor output wire and used insulating tape to protect it from chafing (not shown).


I spliced my newly fitted wire into the VSS output, insulated it, taped it up and then used cable ties to secure it to the existing loom above the transmission, out of the way of the linkages and driveshafts.


Back inside, I removed the lower trim panel was removed (crosshead screws marked with yellow dots)


I placed the display unit on top of the dash and ran its connector lead down the gap between the dash and A-pillar and then through a convenient gap into the space below the dash.



The power leads were connected to the back of the cigarette lighter. The ignition was switched on and the display illuminated nicely.



I took a quick test drive to check that the system worked - and it did. My standard speedo over reads by 11% but interestingly enough, the Speedview unit appears to read correctly (ie. 80 on the speedo = 72 on the Speedview and 71-72 on the satnav) - I'll cross-check it with the satnav when I get a chance. That tells me that the error is in the instrument or the Powertrain Control Module (ECU) that processes the VSS output rather than the sensor. The installation will be finished off in the next day or two because I ran out of time to secure the display unit to the dash or to fit the display screen to my windscreen. Pictures to follow.

All in all, it was reasonably straightforward and took a couple of hours - half of that time was spent on working out what to do, rather than doing it. I'm happy!

I should add that fitting a Speedview to an 800 should be easy enough because there is a very handy Vehicle Speed Signsl pickup on the back of the speedo and the +12v and earth could be picked up from the instrument wiring, too.

I checked the accuracy with my satnav on the way to work today and it was within 1km/h up to about 80km/h then about 1km/h fast up to 100 and 2km/h fast above that.

We had a "failure to proceed" on friday. Whilst about 2/3 of the way through a GPS navigation exercise, I came up to the crest of a dune to find that the water pump had blown. The bearing had failed and wrecked the seal and the whole thing was shaking itself to pieces. We stopped, noted the GPS co-ordinates and decided to leave the car there overnight, continuing as passengers in friends cars. We went back this morning in a 2-car "convoy" (never less than 2 cars on a desert drive), armed with a new water pump which I bought this morning. About one hour after arriving at the site we were on our way!

The really frustrating thing was that I fitted that water pump just 4,000km ago. Possibly faulty bearings, maybe an overtightened drive belt.

Repairs underway


Gratuitous photo from thursday

That's a bugger.

I can only imagine how remote it must be out there. I wouldn't want to get stuck in one car in an average situation let alone there.