Rover Sports Register Forum

Hello - I have been an RSR member for many years, but have now only just joined the forum.

I have been interested in restoring and running Rovers for a long time and have owned a 105 P4, a P5b coupe and now just have a 1938 10 coupe which I have been restoring for many years and never seem to get enough time to finish - it was going to be a 3 year project, but here we are 14 years later and it's still ongoing ! All the hard work is done and it is really just a case of putting in the time to finish.
One area I have got stuck is the central lubrication system - this was all missing apart from the reservoir/pump and the odd pipe. What I have been wondering is if other owners actually rely on this system to lubricate or tend to go around oiling all the points anyway?

Look forward to following the forum

Regards

Neal
1938 10 coupe

I go round oiling all the points but I really do think it is better to get the Luvax working even if the vac unit has to be pumped manual - avoid grease though.

It really is matter of how much its used - in the end very few do get used much at all so wear is going to be very slow.

Full details to get it back working are in the RSR WSM

Welcome to the Forum anyway

Hi Neal, welcome to the forum.

There is an interesting article here regarding the Luvax system

Hi Neal,
Welcome to the Forum. There have been a number of articles in Freewheel over the years about the Luvax system, inlcuding a very interesting one by Chaz Vyse who re-created his system from scratch. If you go onto the main RSR site at http://www.thersr.co.uk" target="_blank and follow the 'Magazine' link from the menu you can get to a 'search' facility which enables you to find articles in Freewheel. I just did a search for Luvax and got the following list:

Subject Author Issue - Freewheel Number Month Year Page Number Title of Article
Luvax-Bijur Brown 153 Feb 1979 1740-1 Luvax-Bijur chassis lubrication as used on Rover cars
Luvax-Bijur Brown 175 Oct 1982 2164 Vacuum line filter on the Luvax Bijur system
Luvax-Bijur Brown 190 April 1985 2471 Renovating Luvax-Bijur meter valves
Luvax-Bijur Rover Co. 17 May 1956 46-50 Luvax-Bijur automatic chassis lubrication Pt.1
Luvax-Bijur Rover Co. 18 Aug 1956 55-56 Luvax-Bijur automatic chassis lubrication Pt.2
Luvax-Bijur Owen 82 April 1967 593-5 Note on the Luvax-Bijur automatic lubrication system
Luvax-Bijur Tredwell 102 Aug 1970 819 Plastic tubing for Luvax-Bijur system
Luvax-Bijur Brown 233 June 1992 3309 Bijur patent
Luvax-Bijur Stokes 263 June 1997 9-11+illus New life for old Luvax
Luvax-Bijur Vyse 299 June 2003 21-23+illus/diag Installing a Bijur chassis lubrication from scratch

If you haven't got your own copies of Freewheel you can get the back issues from Stewart Devlin. In the unlikely event that Stewart isn't able to help Anne-Marie Rowland holds a full set in the pre 50 library. Contact details for both Anne-Marie and Stewart are in the front of Freewheel
Regards
Paul

Many thanks for all your replies - It looks like there is quite a bit of info on the Luvax system which I will check out with interest.
many thanks to you all.
Regards

Neal

Rolls Royce & Bentely also used a similar system at the same time except it was not automatic - the driver had the press a foot plunger everytime he got into the car or once a day. Whether this was because the fully automatic vacuum sytem of the Rover or others was considered unreliable or to avoid patent infringements I do not know.

Bijur licence/patents must have been bought by Lucas and Girling - the two became the same anyway later

Interesting - thanks Phil. I can't image Rolls Royce owners at that time pumping it themselves - must have been the chauffaur's job!!

Regards

Neal

Hello Neal,

I am an enthusiast for the Luvax-Bijur system and have it working on both my cars. The only points to receive insufficient oil are on the near-side rear spring - but the garage floor gets some drips! I collected extra bowls, pipes, junctions and meter valves from cars in scrap yards in the '80's, so may be able to help out should you decide to renovate your system.

Best wishes,

David Moseley

Hello David,

That is very kind of you and I may take you up on the offer when I finally get down to it!

all the best

Neal