P38A Shouldn I buy it!!

Go drive it
See it from cold warm up tidy and gearbox works as it should.

Things you’ve mentioned are small run of the mill niggles.

kermit_rr said:

Just a few silly issues and low mileage, only £1200
Sounds too good to be true, but I'm old and cynical

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Seen a lot go on the Bay for that with similar mileage. The expensive ones are dealers having a try and rarely move.

Ruby Range said:

So a couple of questions symptoms for the slipped liners ???? and how do I check the vcu please guys. I would hate to break it as it does look really clean and I have time at weekends to tinker and a good general knowledge of cars, my L322 has made sure of that !!!

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To check the VCU, jack one front wheel, gearbox in neutral, handbrake on, with a great deal off effort, you should be able to turn the wheel very slowly.

Thanks for all your input guys. Am waiting for the owner to get back to me today and wil let you all know with pics if I buy it.

Datatek said:

To check the VCU, jack one front wheel, gearbox in neutral, handbrake on, with a great deal off effort, you should be able to turn the wheel very slowly.

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Should be possible with torque wrench set to 70nm on the manual box. Guess auto similar. Scrubbing on outside of tyres another give-away.

I thought Ruby already had a rather nice red p38!

Unfortunately mate she had to go 12 months ago to help pay for my daughters wedding!!! Found my L322 cheap with simple gearbox problem and non functioning lpg which I managed to sort out on the cheap but still miss ruby red !!!

Go for it, these are really going up in price as all the bad ones have been broken up now. I'm probably going a bit soft, but heartbreaking to see another one get torn up. If it's a "high days and holidays" car, then any faults can be done at your leisure. Nothing there that cant be fixed.

Am
Looking at it later today I know if the liners have dropped im walking away from it but what about the VCU. Is this something I can do on my drive and what sort of cost !!

Datatek said:

To check the VCU, jack one front wheel, gearbox in neutral, handbrake on, with a great deal off effort, you should be able to turn the wheel very slowly.

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Take a jack with you and a breaker bar and a 27mm socket. You can do this in their drive.

Yes understand that but want to know if I can sort it out on my drive and what sort of cost is involved if it’s seized

Ruby Range said:

Yes understand that but want to know if I can sort it out on my drive and what sort of cost is involved if it’s seized

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The repair? OK.
You can do it on the drive yes.
Drop the front prop,
Drop the cross member under the transfer box, with help of a jack to hold the gearbox up.
Undo the VCU casing bolts and remove the casing and VCU from the transfer. (catch any oil).
There is also the prop flange to remove.
There is a bearing pressed onto the VCU end that needs to be removed and replaced in reverse order, with a new bearing (if any doubt of condition) .
Then reassembled.
Ashcroft do a réplacement unit or whoever you can find for a better price. Maybe island 4x4?

The oil is dexron 2/3. Just short of 2ltr.

Mark Piercy said:

The repair? OK.
You can do it on the drive yes.
Drop the front prop,
Drop the cross member under the transfer box, with help of a jack to hold the gearbox up.
Undo the VCU casing bolts and remove the casing and VCU from the transfer. (catch any oil).
There is also the prop flange to remove.
There is a bearing pressed onto the VCU end that needs to be removed and replaced in reverse order, with a new bearing (if any doubt of condition) .
Then reassembled.
Ashcroft do a réplacement unit or whoever you can find for a better price. Maybe island 4x4?

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Ashcrofts do a refurbed transfer box for £650 which includes the VCU or the VCU is about £300. Easy enough to do on drive.

Ok just come back from viewing and haven’t purchased it . Body work was in pretty good condition the odd little nick here and there but n/s rear quarter above light was pushed in. Plastic bag under passenger floor mate and wet carpet hevac needed doing. Cheap but pain in the arse job. Not a proper autobiography which was the biggest disappointment. Centre consol was light wood but all door capping were dark wood and no sunroof. Autobiography was a sticker not proper decal. Could have forgiven the rest and fixed but not for a he’s or vogue model. So search still goes on.

I've got a 4.0 you can have. Been sat for a year or two but I fire it up and move it every month.
Body isn't perfect by any stretch but I'd like it to go to someone who will enjoy it rather than break it.
Would need trailering away.

Thanks for your real kind offer mate and I would be interested apart from you are about a 10 hour round trip away . There are a few out there which I will keep an eye out for and I think would prefer the 4.0 ltr lump.

Lots of 4.0 going cheap on eBay lately. Mostly bad but might find a good one.

Wazzajnr said:

I've got a 4.0 you can have.

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Is that the one you were rebuilding coolant system or n some time ago?

No, the p38 has never lost a drip of coolant, even sat in a traffic jam in Germany for 4 hours in the mid 30's

I put new fan belt and thermostat in the L322 a few months ago, that was a task and 3/4!

No was a p38 you were doing maybe 18 months ago or more
Thought you’d sold it.

RangeRoller dt said:

No was a p38 you were doing maybe 18 months ago or more
Thought you’d sold it.

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Never touched the cooling system. I changed the aircon condenser so probably pulled the rad for that.