Rover Sports Register Forum

Hello All.

In the Manual for these post war P2's it mentions that [due to post war shortages] oversized spockets were made and fitted to compensate for the use of worn timing chains, [see manual page A25] Although my 47/12 doesn't have one of these, I do wonder what other dodgy/cleaver tricks they got up to, to keep production going!

On my '47 12 [first Reg. Mar. '48] Ive found that:

1] The push rods are all about the same length except for two. One is about, 0.125" shorter. The other about, 0.1" longer, than average [this is not due to wear of the case hardening etc, but presumably assembled like it]

2] The pulley wheel on the water pump, is reamed and has a key way cut though its centre, this bore is tapered by about 0.020" the wrong way [it is larger at the "nut end"] When looking inside the bore it seems to be due to poor machining originally, and not due to latter damage.

3] The rocker shaft assembly has odd spacers all over the place and is nothing like the diagram in the manual. Just looks like they made up as they went along!

4] I currently have some doubts about the original assembly of the oil pump too [see P2 list]

5] ?

6] ?

Does anyone have any others? Or am I just a suspicious, doubting Thomas!

Regards Rod Scarman 47/12t

I've heard there were lots of bodges and tricks used post war because of the shortage of material

The rocker shaft spacers were deliberately selected for correct thickness to ensure rocker pad centred on valve stem top.

I suppose post war shortages and material quality and lack of skilled labour must have had an effect on quality even at Rover.

Steel was short and even then not the best quality

Not just with Rover and post WW2 vehicles, I am a perfectionist when it comes to machining tolerances. My 1933 Alvis was nice to work on, but the near side front stub-axles shaft was oversize and had caused the bearing to fail also the brass kingpin bushes were reamed incorrectly causing incorrect camber on the same stub. Now my 1906 6hp Rover has moved on, I couldn't afford a teens Cleg Rover that I would have liked and have now bought a four jug 27hp 1915 Overland 83 from across the Pond, the enginering and design is definitly different - many produced, few survive probably says a lot. However, I can get all necessary blue prints, interestingly these give machining tolerances of +or- a thou on some parts but in reality can be, as they say, to the nearest half inch. Obviously there was a lack of skill and/or checks on the shop floor. I have had the odd surprise, nuts and bolts are a good very good fit, special steels have been used in certain applications, for instance valves spec says a 5% nickel steel head electrically welded to a carbon steel stem a bi-metal valve in use before 1915!

PS Jugs are bigger than pots. I am having to learn a different language to communicate with owners in the States.