78 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow
With the bulk of essential recommissioning work taken care of, it was time for Pandora to attend her first MoT test since 2014… Part six shows what happened
In part six of Project Rolls-Royce, we cover the final work that needed to be completed before the much delayed MoT.
Regular readers will recall the mountain of braking system and suspension components I bought for Pandora, my Rolls- Royce Silver Shadow II, in preparation for her first MoT test in four years. Calipers, discs, pads, hoses, bushes, dampers, ball joints and pretty much every other chassis component you can think of was ordered direct from Crewe cars parts specialist, IntroCar, ready for installation.
The guys carrying out the work at independent Rolls- Royce and Bentley service, maintenance, repair and restoration outfit, Colbrook Specialists, were surprised to find rear discs with plenty of meat on them. “We can skim the face of each part using our in- house brake disc cutting lathe,” explained Colbrook’s general manager, Pete Wiles. The sound of saving pennies was music to my ears, but joy was short- lived when it was discovered the flange on the offside rear hub assembly was distorted. Fitting a new disc to a problematic hub was out of the question. Similarly, attempting to repair the offending part would have proved counterproductive when the hours spent fixing and rebuilding the unit using specialist tools would equate to a greater spend than buying a reconditioned rear hub assembly from IntroCar.
Delivered on an exchange basis, the complete hub features a brand new brake disc, inner and outer wheel bearings, an adjusting nut, a torque tightening nut, ‘O’-ring, felt seal and, where necessary, a modified grease retainer. A ‘fit and forget’ solution, the part arrived the day after I placed my order, enabling Colbrook technicians, Richard and Bradley, to continue getting Pandora MoT-worthy following the fitting of Bilstein B6 heavy duty dampers (replacing weak front shock absorbers), suspension mounts and other componentry I’d offloaded at the company’s workshop during earlier visits.
With all new brake lines, flexi hoses, a fresh dose of Castrol RR363 hydraulic
fluid, a repaired exhaust, a new power steering fluid oil cooler, new tyres and a new windscreen washer motor in place, it was time to head to Broadway Garage in Yaxley where tester, Daniel Meighan, was ready and waiting to give my revitalised land yacht a highly anticipated once- over. The car’s stopping power proved phenomenal. Exhaust emissions were spot on. All safety checks were passed with flying colours until we noticed the rear fog lamps had stopped working. Drat!
Out came the multimeter. Despite the fog lamp dash switch light illuminating, there was no charge being sent to the exterior lamps at the back of the car. An inspection of its brilliantly old-school fuse board proved inconclusive. There was no option but to return to Colbrook for Richard to carry out further investigation so the car could attend a retest as soon as the problem was rectified.
A short while later, Pete and I were back at Broadway Garage, where Daniel was pleased to present me with an MoT certificate free of advisories. Hooray! This is good news, however, it doesn’t mean I’ll return Pandora to the road right away. There’s still work to do, including fitting new Bilstein rear dampers, a job which presents an opportunity to renew the car’s hydraulic height control ram seals. Colin’s crew will also be disassembling, rebuilding and recharging the system’s accumulators with nitrogen to ensure they’re operating at full hydraulic pressure. The work will be documented in our next issue. Stay tuned!