Rover Sports Register Forum

Good morning all,

Now the evenings are drawing in and the weather is less conjucive to driving a tourer I am gathering the knowledge to remove the clutch and steering box of my1936 tourer.
The steering box will go to Callum at c.barrow engineering to remove the play out of the steering.
As for the clutch, do I need any special tools to remove it and I assume it can be done with the engine in situ, are there any recommendations for clutch rebuilders?
I have a lift so access from below is not a problem and whilst things are dismantled I will also have a look at the freewheel, reverse does not engage when activated, that might be quite an interesting thing to do..
Any tips on the above are most welcome.

Will

Hi Willem,

A few thoughts that may be useful:

Gearbox and clutch - the gearbox will need to be removed from inside the car so the carpets, tunnel cover and front seats need to come out first. Then the pedals so the metal floor plate can be removed. Also the corresponding plate on the near side. It may also be necessary to remove some of the wooden floor panels to get access to the various nuts and bolts for the gearchange remote and rear gearbox mounting. The prop shaft also needs unbolting at the flange on the rear of gearbox. I think you can get to this with the centre tunnel left in place but you will want to roll the car back and forth to access the nuts and split pins. However, I have a feeling that the tunnel may need to come out so the prop can be moved out the way to allow the box to be withdrawn backwards, which may require handbrake removal. My apologies for being a bit vague but the last time I did this with TL 6200 was 1976 when my Father owned it. As I recall my brother and I completed the job in less than two days on the driveway. It can’t have been too complicated as we didn’t have a workshop manual in those days.
I took the engine and box out together when I restored it in 2015, which in some ways was easier but not necessary just for a clutch.

The speedo drive, clutch cable, Earth strap possibly and freewheel also need disconnecting. The latter feeds through the box and has a small bolt up sleeve on the cable, which must be removed to take the cable out. At this point you should have clear access around the bell housing to remove the starter motor and bell housing bolts. It will be necessary to support the rear of the engine and probably raise a little with a jack to allow the box to be separated from the engine and pulled backwards before struggling out the car with it!

There are two types of clutch and release bearing used on these models so make sure you have correct one to replace. You won’t know for sure which you have until you get to this point as it may or may not have been updated at an earlier time. My 36 Tourer had the later clutch assembly whereas my 37 Saloon had the earlier type. I think Meteor Spares do both sorts by exchange. There are many bolts holding the pressure plate onto the flywheel and several locating pegs. Loosen in rotation so the pressure stays even and remove.

Reassembly is the reverse of removal but you need to make a dolly of some sort to position and hold the clutch plate centrally or the gearbox input shaft won’t align easily. The release bearing must be checked. If it’s the later type these have large circlips holding them together, facilitating dismantling and re-greasing or even ball bearing replacement. The release bearing is lubricated on the shaft via oilways in the input shaft so worth checking these are clear and blocking one off if necessary to reduce oil flow if contamination is a problem. This is covered in the RSR manual.

I think that the freewheel won’t operate in reverse so the issue you have may be correct working. I’m not knowledgable on this as I rarely use mine.


Steering box - best removed while you have the floor plates out for the gearbox. The steering wheel needs to come off, which requires removing the horn and dip switch assembly. Take pictures of wiring as you dissemble so all goes back right. Once that bit is out the way you should be able to access through the hole the small bolt that holds the advance ring plate to the top of the tube. Then the steering wheel can be unclamped and removed. At the bottom of the steering box the horn/dip wiring can be disconnected at the small terminal box mounted on the chassis nearby and the advance/retard mechanism removed from the bottom of the tube. The drop arm/ball joint can be removed so the steering is free from the rods etc. There is a mounting bracket at the dashboard end of the column and two bolts near the actual box - one through the chassis and the other through to the bracket with the half moon slot, allowing adjustment of the steering column angle although I doubt anyone has ever done this! At this point the box and column can be removed, possibly through the car but probably from beneath. Once out the wiring can be withdrawn from inside the advance operating tube then the tube itself by undoing the four bolts at the bottom and withdrawing from that end. I believe there is a cork seal there that usually fails, resulting in the oil loss from the box so worth replacing at this point I should think.

I’d be really interested to know how you get on as I have got to take the steering box out of my car and get it looked at. I don’t have a lift though so I’m hoping it’s possible without one.

I hope that helps. It’s a very long time since I removed a gearbox through the car so I’m happy to stand corrected if I’ve missed anything and I’ve only removed and refitted a steering box as part of a full strip down of my cars when there was little bodywork in the way.

Good luck

Tony.