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1980 Austin Princess


vulgalour

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  • 2 weeks later...

RIGHT.  I've been fighting with this sodding Hydragas pipe and finally have it off!  Bit of a chore as jobs go, this one.  After unscrewing the fixing at the rear displacer and at the front displacer (well, the repair section in my case) you then have to unbolt and partially drop the rear axle, unclip the pipe from all the clips under the car, removed the schrader valve from the block at the front and then spend far too long swearing at the car and wiggling the pipe and moving axle stands until eventually it comes out.  Don't forget to headbutt the sill-to-floor seam on your way out from under the car for maximum enjoyment.

 

How things look in the engine bay.

36153322190_12d641aac8_b.jpg20170813-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The pipe itself.  I could potentially have made things a little easier by removing the whole exhaust but I really didn't want to do that since it's a bugger of a thing to get to seal again when you remove it.

36503581726_c5c3aa4b9b_b.jpg20170813-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

This is the bit that's leaking and which I'm hoping to get repaired.  If it can't be repaired then it will be replaced instead.

35740686733_215e41d6bf_b.jpg20170813-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I've got a couple of spare sections of pipe with the relevant block that show no signs of leaking, so we'll just have to see on this one.

36550065735_e55c29d2d9_b.jpg20170813-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Back on her wheels again so she can be moved back into the garage later.

35740686423_0b48c192e7_b.jpg20170813-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I am *not* looking forward to reinstalling the pipe.  If it was this difficult to remove you can bet it'll be twice as difficult to refit.

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It's just easier and cheaper to get the block re-sealed and stick the pipe back on the car.  The amount of work involved in making a whole new pipe with 400psi friendly fittings isn't something I want to be getting into if I can avoid it, and paying someone else to do it is prohibitively expensive for my budget.

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I really ought to get mine done, I just keep finding other things to spend the money on.  It's £60 minimum per unit for anyone else that's doing it which is a big chunk of cash I don't presently have (in part because I spent it on the 1100 like a fool).

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's been a while since I did so I went out to fire up the Princess and make sure the brakes hadn't stuck on, that sort of thing, and was greeted with a flat battery.  Thought that was a bit odd, but then it's been a while so maybe it had just gone flat like batteries do.  Jumped it off the Rover, fired up no bother and then I trundled it back and forth a few times while it got up to temperature.

 

Then the indicator flasher relay wouldn't stop clicking.

 

Then smoke started appearing from that area.

 

Turned it all off, checked for anything warm, or hot, or melted, and there's no signs of anything amiss.  Attempted to restart to recreate the issue and the battery is already flat.

 

Of course that means there's an electrical problem, probably an earth problem.  If I'd disturbed anything between last starting the car and today I could understand it but the car has sat idle and nothing electrical has been moved.  The suspension pipe removal didn't involve disturbing any electrical or earth points.  I reckon I'm going to have to pull the dashboard out YET AGAIN to get to the bottom of this.  Not particularly thrilled really that it's still throwing weird electrical issues at me and the last thing I want is the car catching fire behind the dash (or at all).

 

Haven't had time spare to organise getting the suspension pipe fixed either.  VED expires this month so I reckon I'm just going to SORN it and stick it in the corner for the winter.  Work slows down a bit November-February usually so I can probably crack on with stuff then.  Besides, I wanted to spare the Princess the worst of the winter weather.  Just feels like I've barely used the car at all since getting it back on the road in April.

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I just don't know what.  It's not something it's done before and I've not touched anything electrical so I guess something somewhere has failed or come undone and shorted, or something like that.  I'm just a bit fed up of the electrical maladies with this car tbqh.

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I have one of these

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Battery-Disconnect-Switch-Isolator-Cut-Off-Switch-/170877531705?hash=item27c9183639:g:2xkAAOSwNSxVAcEU

 

on the staaag which doesnt get used that often. If I am parking up for a while I turn the green screw and battery has disconekt.

 

Flasher problem ouch, 

 

On the stag the 12v feed for the indicator circuit goes to the flasher unit, then the switch then earths through the corners of the car.

 

If the flasher unit is clicking when ignition is on and the indicators are flashing then possible fault in the indictator switch itself.

If the flasher unit is clicking when ignition is on and no lights are flashing then suspect a fault between the flasher unit and the switch

 

smoke leaking out of a Lucas loom is not a good thing

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Yeah sounds like a wire to an indicator is shorted to ground/body. I'd disconnect the terminals to the flasher an measure against it to ground. I reckon it'll be reading nearly a dead short. Maybe a wire for a indicator bulb holder has come detached and is now touching the car body?

 

Smoke is probably from the flasher unit as it was being forced to draw huge amount of current. I'd crack the lid off that too and see if its burnt up inside.

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The smoke wasn't from the flasher itself, just somewhere in the vicinity,  there's no deformation to the flasher (opaque plastic casing) and it hadn't even got warm.  That said, it is my main suspect for the same reasons as mentioned in the recent comments.  I doubt it's the alternator causing the issue, though I could of course be wrong.

 

For now the battery is disconnected and I've left the car to think about what it's done until I have time spare to investigate more properly.  I had hoped to get the suspension pipe repaired this week but work has eaten all my time.

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Haven't removed the dash but I've had a better poke about and nothing seems to be amiss visually.  Got the battery on charge at the moment and when that's got some power in it I'll try again with the flasher disconnected.  Hopefully, it's just the flasher that's failed, in which case I'll get yet another one.

 

Very unlikely to be vermin damage, we don't get any of that sort of damage here, in part because of how many people have cats.

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Right.  Charged the battery and started the car no bother.  Alternator is charging properly and, with the flasher relay disconnected, I wasn't getting any problems.  Let the car start to get up to temperature and I could start to smell hot electrics.

 

No smoke, nothing obvious so waited a bit and the smell just got stronger.  It's coming from behind the dashboard somewhere and the only way I'll find out where is by pulling the dashboard out at this point *but* I don't think it's the flasher at fault, more that it was highlighting audibly that there is a fault somewhere in the vicinity.

 

Next step is to pull the dashboard out yet again, see if we can find any obvious fault and, if not, rebuild the dashboard.  At this point, custom dashboard feels a sensible route to go since I'll be upgrading everything with new wires and whatnot and able to make everything as safe as possible.  In the short term I've disconnected the battery and left it alone until I have the time to pull the dash and do a full inspection properly, which won't be today.

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