Free wheeling

[MikeB]

After working on my 39 P2 over the winter and tuning her up, I am now going to go to some rallies, starting with the fathers day rally at Harewood house, now I live in Nottinghamshire so its a little treck to get there, I also went there last year, so fuel costs can be quite high in a vehicle that does around 20 MPG,so this year I decide to take advantage of the free wheel device and see if it can save some fuel as well as making the gear changes smooth without crunching going down the box as I seem to do when getting into second

I read some of the advice in the workshop manual for using this device and followed the instructions, which were ; Use it on undulating roads, not steep hills and valleys, change up with 1-2 seconds in between pulling out of one gear and before putting it into the next gear and change down without waiting, just get it in as soon as possible
What a transformation to the driving experience when you do this, silent gear changes without bothering to use the clutch, smooth transition between gears, and you can select the gear you think best suited to the speed of the car a lot quicker, no nearly stopping completely at give ways and having to get back into first before setting off again

As for less fuel consumption I would think the 15% savings quoted are around the correct values as you can drive a lot more smoothly

I used to have one of these devices on a Wartburg car many moons ago and using it on the rover reminded my of it that car it only did around 20 MPG also as it was a two stoke, so the free wheel was fitted to it as a fuel saving device the same as the Rover only Rover got there a lot earlier !

All in all, I would say if you are not using the free wheel on your Rover give it a go, for me it transforms the driving experience and saves you money !

[lakesrally]

Glad you have enjoyed using the Freewheel, I use the one on my P3 all the time. I have found a lot of people rather reluctant to use it as it is not something they familiar with, the only problem I have found is when you arrive at a steep downward hill you were not expecting, it can be quite 'entertaining'.

[MikeB]

Yes I've taken to using it all the time, living in the lakes with all the hills is probably exciting I bet,

I have a nicer chromed handle that I would like to install at some point but cannot see how the cable is threaded into the handle yet any ideas

Mike

[luli]

You can watch all the details here: http://wp.me/pXLKy-ZG

[MikeB]

Thanks for the help Luli I can now see how it is put together I like the varnish trick to make the knob like new again

Mike

[Phil - Nottingham]

I only use the FW when going down very steep hills - it saves transmission and clutch wear too