Yes, the AP box ran on engine oil. It gave a lot of problems, can't remember much detail, but I suspect that running in the engine oil was a significant factor. The control valve mechanism relies on tight tolerances, at odds with unfiltered engine oil. Expected lifespan, around 50,000 miles between rebuilds. Fine for the Motability Mini and Metro doing 3k/pa.I seem to remember the AP box ran on the engine oil didn't it? I do remember there being a lot of problems with them, our boss always tried to talk anyone out of buying this option and thankfully we didn't see many. Problem cars were shunted off to the local automatic specialists.
We had one guy who specialised in these, and could remove and strip one in less than a day, and once replacement parts arrived (3-day emergency order in those days) could have it back up and running same day.
One day he had a Metro with a reported 'funny noise'. What the owner had failed to tell us was that it would frequently put itself into forward gear. With the car in the bay, and ticking over, to listen to the noise, there was a strange clunk as it engaged forward gear, and another louder clunk as it parked itself under the workbench. Within a few minutes a notice was applied to the wall above, "No vehicles beyond this point".
I seem to remember the E6 would tickover at less than 500rpm.Very interesting about the SD1 Rover. I never knew it had been fitted to that model anywhere. The Wiki page on BMC (Australia) makes for an interesting read and then search for Leyland P76 - I'm interested in the Australian V8 Supercars and have been, just incidentally, aware of the P76 for some time. It used that 2.6 E series as well as the Rover V8.
Just remembered, the E6 in 2.2 and 2.6 was used in the South African Marina. I imagine corners were quite frightening above 20mph.
Love the pic, thanks.
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