A couple of little updates...
The replacement exhaust system arrived Monday, I rushed to fit it before the rain came. Both the downpipe and the rear box were remade to my patterns and as expected they now fit. Some of my hangers need re-positioning as they are a bit bent for some reason. I did just throw the system on so when I start up the car the rear box hits the boot floor where it's too close and needs some adjustment, it looks like the centre section rotated when I was fitting it and has pushed the up and over axle section down which in turn had pivoted the rear box up. It doesn't knock when driving it so as soon as I have resolved the other issues then I will pull it off and refit it properly. It also sounds better, so that leads me to believe that it's no longer blowing at the manifold joint, I think it needs a coating of carbon and soot on the inside just to soften the tone down a bit.
Before.....
After....
I have fitted a new fuel pump, has it made a difference? Well I don't know yet as I haven't been able to get the car up to speed because everyone seems to drive so damn slow around here. On the two occasions I went down the A331 I got stuck behind someone bumbling idiot in a Hyundai doing 60 and despite flashing headlights they wouldn't move.
After speaking to a friend who owns a Rover with a BW box the other thing I did was to check and adjust the kickdown cable so that the little crimped section is 1.5mm away from the cable outer. I don't know a huge amount about these boxes and if I am completely honest I don't really like autos but after adjusting the cable it has a made a huge difference to the way that the box performs. It now waits slightly longer to change out of first and at lower 'around town' speeds always feels like it's in the correct gear so I can pull away a bit better. As I understand it, the kickdown cable is not just a kickdown cable, it actually controls when the up changes happen and some other things so I just need to check the changes correspond with the correct road speed and throttle position as per the workshop manual and I can tick another thing off the list.
The next thing to do is a road test and see if we still have that fuelling problem which I think we do, if it's still there then I'll replace the diaphragms first before pulling the carbs just in case I have a pinhole.
I got all the dash lights working, the bulbs were blown, it seems that I need glasses because they look fine to me!
Looks like we are on the home straight with the last little problem to locate and fix.