P4 90- too short axle ratio
Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2018 9:18 am
Hello, in addition to my Wolseley 14/56 from 1936 I like to buy a Rover P4 to tow my pre-war caravan even on longer distances and on the highway.
Yesterday I made a testdrive with a 1956 P4 90- the car was in quite good order and drove fantastic, but I was confused that from 33mls/h on the engine was to be heard working, from 45 mls/h it was heard to be working very hard- I could not imagine and even would not try to get the car driving more than 60mls/h without feeling of tortouring the engine.
I am used to that standard with my prewar cars and even heared about the short axle ratio with the P4 , but expected the Rover to drive about 50 mls/h with adequate silence.
The vendor offered me a 1:3,91 diff on top for free, but before buying the car I would like to know:
-are all 90s have a freewheel fitted (in the tested car it was not engaged and I even have not seen a knob under the dashboard)?
-will a 1:3,9 diff solve my problems
-will a 1:3,54 diff maybe the better option or does it make the car too lazy
-would bying a later gearbox with overdrive without changing the diff even an option
and at last a different question:
are there aftermarket chrome bezels to put around the instuments availiable? Would like to have a bit more blig-bling on the dashboard.
Regards from german baltic sea
Brian
Yesterday I made a testdrive with a 1956 P4 90- the car was in quite good order and drove fantastic, but I was confused that from 33mls/h on the engine was to be heard working, from 45 mls/h it was heard to be working very hard- I could not imagine and even would not try to get the car driving more than 60mls/h without feeling of tortouring the engine.
I am used to that standard with my prewar cars and even heared about the short axle ratio with the P4 , but expected the Rover to drive about 50 mls/h with adequate silence.
The vendor offered me a 1:3,91 diff on top for free, but before buying the car I would like to know:
-are all 90s have a freewheel fitted (in the tested car it was not engaged and I even have not seen a knob under the dashboard)?
-will a 1:3,9 diff solve my problems
-will a 1:3,54 diff maybe the better option or does it make the car too lazy
-would bying a later gearbox with overdrive without changing the diff even an option
and at last a different question:
are there aftermarket chrome bezels to put around the instuments availiable? Would like to have a bit more blig-bling on the dashboard.
Regards from german baltic sea
Brian