Dear Rover Engineers

[slowmo]

This is the first of my notes of appreciation to the engineers who designed the Rover.

I want to thank you for allowing my birth defect to finally come in handy. You see, I have an extra arm sticking out of the middle of my forehead. It has two elbows and the fingers are as tiny as a gecko. Without this birth defect I wouldn't have been able to attach my speedometer cable at the transmission.

In fact, I am quite certain no person without this defect would be able to get those three tiny little screws (with super tiny little lock washers) located on the locking plate without dropping each screw 97 times. And each time I imagine the lock washer would dart in one direction and the screw would land just out of reach. I suppose someone would then have to shimmy on their back out from under the truck, shine a flashlight to find the screw and the washer, and then shimmy back under the truck on their back again. After 97 times I suppose many people would be cussing profusely.

Honestly. You could have used a nurled nut like they use on every single other vehicle ever made. In fact, if you had done it that way anyone could attach the speedometer cable without even looking! But then, I would not have found a use for my extra, tiny little, forehead, arm, with gecko fingers to reach up and get those screws right in, first time, without dropping any of them once.

So, thank you, Rover engineers.

[SafeAirOne]

A) A glob of Vaseline x3 is extremely helpful in that situation

B) Try replacing the ignition switch on a SIII in-situ sometime--makes the speedo cable seem like a walk in the park!

[bensdad]

Too funny. Yes that has to be the most frustrating thing. I had the very same problem and spoke about it here and one of our forum geniuses suggested replacing the screws with the same sized hex bolts and it was simple from there on. You might try that good luck.
Can your third arm at least hold a beer?

[slowmo]

The gecko sized fingers on my extra tiny little forehead arm with two elbows cannot hold a beer, but it can open beers. So another advantage is I can hold a beer in a normal hand, open it with my gecko had, and scratch my fanny...ALL the same time.

After replacing the cable, my slowdometer still indicates that I am going somewhere between 5 MPH and 7032 MPH. My neighbor passed me when he was dragging out his trash bin so I can conclude that he either is one fast neighbor, or I will never know how slow I am going in the truck.

[TravelinLight]

I use an app on my phone which uses the GPS to determine speed. So far it has worked pretty well. My speedometer works ok, reads maybe 5 under.

[mearstrae]

You'd think Rover Engineers would get better after some odd decades of practice, but NO. The new Rovers are as quirky and hard to fathom as the old ones.

'99 Disco II
'95 R.R.C. Lwb (Gone...)
'76 Series III Hybrid 109
'70 Rover 3500S

[bensdad]

And Slowmo, don't forget the matches

[slowmo]

Dear Rover Engineers,
You also had some very good designs. Yesterday I sheared a half shaft. It was incredibly easy to remove the axles and the rear diffy (to get the sheared piece out). Within say 1hr I had it disassembled, broken shaft identified, diffy back in and good shaft and hub reassembled.

Well done, Rover Engineers. Well done indeed!

[I Leak Oil]

Dear Rover Engineers,
You also had some very good designs. Yesterday I sheared a half shaft. It was incredibly easy to remove the axles and the rear diffy (to get the sheared piece out). Within say 1hr I had it disassembled, broken shaft identified, diffy back in and good shaft and hub reassembled.

Well done, Rover Engineers. Well done indeed!

They worked for 4 decades to perfect that design. Same goes for the use of the aluminum Buick designed V8. Well done Cletus....

[Partsman]

I use an app on my phone which uses the GPS to determine speed. So far it has worked pretty well. My speedometer works ok, reads maybe 5 under.

The gecko sized fingers on my extra tiny little forehead arm with two elbows cannot hold a beer, but it can open beers. So another advantage is I can hold a beer in a normal hand, open it with my gecko had, and scratch my fanny...ALL the same time.

After replacing the cable, my slowdometer still indicates that I am going somewhere between 5 MPH and 7032 MPH. My neighbor passed me when he was dragging out his trash bin so I can conclude that he either is one fast neighbor, or I will never know how slow I am going in the truck.

I'm currently working on using an electric speedometer from an F-150 pick-up with a hall effect sensor. then I'll mount the whole doo-hickey in my Series speedometer housing and hope that I'll actually know how fast I'm going.