THE ROVER SD1 FORUM

yonexsp · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:06 pm Post subject: Another sad SD1 Tale

This from a friend of mine in Seattle who found a local seller of an SD1, it's like watching veterans of WW1 falling by the side:

"A while ago I received a call from a guy who wanted to sell his SD1. I drove all the way out into the North Woods to see it. As he raised the garage I couldn't believe my eyes. Here was a beautiful gloss black one with black leather interior, sun roof and 5 speed with only 85K miles on it. The interior was nearly flawless. He had tons of spares including an extra LT77. I decided to go home and sell mine as soon as possible and buy this one since it would solve many of my problems for not much additional investment. The car hadn't moved in about 6 years. Just as I was leaving I thought that I should glance in the rear hatch area so I lifted the hatch.......guess what I found! Two rats' nests and one dead rat!
He wanted to fire it up for me so he hooked up the battery charger and the power wasn't even on for thirty seconds and I could smell potential electrical fires brewing in both the engine compartment and interior. I told him to quickly pull the charger off to save the car. Rats had chewed through the wiring in most of the car. Another sad tale of SD1's"

JayDeeVDP · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:24 pm Post subject: re-wire?

What's the feasibility of re-wiring an SD1?

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Lifelong SD1 fan - 1983 Rover 3500 Vanden Plas

ramon alban · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:11 pm Post subject:

Hello Jay, over time I stripped two complete wiring looms from SD1 Efi's - sold one on ebay kept one just in case of such an eventuality - ie, rewiring.

Having said that, rewiring from scratch would be a triumph of time over complexity because there are so many different types of connector.

And in both cases one would still need the book that Carl Heinlien produced showing every single connector and wire prior to creating his home-built Vitesse, CTH 1.

Ramon

Chris P · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:04 am Post subject: Re: Another sad SD1 Tale

yonexsp wrote:

garage I couldn't believe my eyes. Here was a beautiful gloss black one with black leather interior, sun roof and 5 speed with only 85K miles on it. The interior was nearly flawless. He had tons of spares

If that's a NADA 1980 car, then it would be interesting to find it's
history. Black is not a colour listed as an option, and strangely
neither was leather! The sunroof was an option on NADA cars, of
the dozen or so I've seen pictures of I don't think any had it.

Having rummaged around the wiring of the SD1, it would be a big
task to re-wire it. Partly as Ramon says all the different connectors,
and partly the fact that the wiring goes in some pretty inaccessible
places, so would need an almost complete strip out of the interior
to do. Then it's probably a task that would take a lot of time, rather
than being expensive to do in parts or getting someone to do it. It's
also something that could be done by a north American enthusiast
as it wouldn't require the shipping of Rimmers parts from Blighty.

Any more information on that black SD1? Not that I'm interested
Wink

yonexsp · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:26 am Post subject:

I have asked John for some more details about the car. Perhaps get the email address of the seller, get him to take some photos.

Ken./

Punx0r · SD1 Regular Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 252

If the pesky rodents have only been in the boot area then that should simplify a rewire immensly!

GrimV8 · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:52 am Post subject:

I've used these guys for Rover P6 looms among others over the years. Not sure about SD1. Worth an email Wink

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Have had V8s all my life and can't grow up- Is that wrong?