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1980 Austin Princess


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Posted

Printer ink makes a marvellous substitute for carpet dye, even near boiling water and neat TFR won't touch it :(

Posted

Printer ink has a special property where it only sticks to things you don't want it to.  If you use it on purpose, it washes straight off.

  • Like 3
Posted

We have a printer at work that uses crayons to print with. That would be interesting. Would probably be better to print a new carpet on paper and lay it down like one of those paper mats dealerships uses.

Posted

GREAT SUCCESS!  I followed a suggestion from Mike that I don't really need self-cancelling indicators after he and I both got really fed up with springs pinging off into the unknown and I have managed to get the indicator switch back together and seemingly operational.  I won't know for definite until it's back on the car (hopefully tomorrow).  Hope it works!

Posted

You're doing better than me. I had to buy an entire new unit for the Renault, as it was unfixable. Just make sure the dash telltale works...

 

Phil

Posted

I might have to get a new unit yet since we're only moderately certain it's the stalk that was causing the problem and there appeared to be nothing internally wrong with it.

Posted

Test current draw with a multimeter between the switch pins. Make sure none of the circuits are causing excess draw.

Posted

First job today was to get to the unit to grab the multimeter and a selection of spanners in the correct size.  Then Mike could help fit this troublesome pipe.  Even with the schrader valve removed and two of us wiggling the pipe about it was a chore to refit and then, more by luck than judgement, it popped into the right place.  It will sit more correctly once it's all clipped in under the car.

37548088306_0e50186947_b.jpg20171009-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Complicated arrangements of axle stands and jacks and a big wooden lever were employed to ease the crosstube out of the way to allow the rear of the pipe to go into place too.  That's when I found that all the spanners I'd brought home and the spanners I already had at home were the wrong size for the pipe fittings so it couldn't be connected to the displacers today. 

37597046651_aac9041f3c_b.jpg20171009-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Importantly the pipe is in place and just needs pushing into the clips under the car, the connectors screwing onto the displacers and the schrader valve putting back in the block before we can pump it up again and hope it doesn't leak!  Nearly called it quits several times because the weather decided to wait until we were past the point of no return before absolutely bucketing it down right up until we'd finished what we could do and then it stopped.  Typical.

37597046501_867d916a5a_b.jpg20171009-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

After a break and a clean up I went back out to fit the column stalks.  I've reassembled the indicator stalk without the cancellers, a suggestion from Mike when both of us were fed up of springs pinging off into the unknown when we both attempted with great patience to rebuild the thing.  I don't need self-cancelling indicators so this is no great loss for me.

37597046291_27c2ee09b9_b.jpg20171009-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Also made sure to do up the tiny column clamp screw and make sure the wires weren't interfering with trim or fixings when everything went back together.

37564868722_6c10f68f8f_b.jpg20171009-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Ignition on and all systems normal.  No smells, no smoke, no unwanted clicking.  Nothing manifested so I then tried out the indicators which function perfectly normally and again, no smells, no smoke, and the proper amount and rate of clicking.  Decided to be even more brave and start the car.  Same result!  For now I'm considering that fixed and I'm wondering if it was somehow the self-cancelling components that were causing the issue, though I'm not sure how, since that's the only thing that's been altered.  Put the column shroud back together, steering wheel back on and that made the interior look much tidier.  Feeling pretty positive about this at the moment and eager to get the pipe fitted and the suspension pumped up. In celebration the rain decided to come back and I didn't really want to be fiddling about screwing the pipe back on and doing the clips while getting rained on so I'll leave that for another day.

37597046151_bbe15c6e9b_b.jpg20171009-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

  • Like 4
Posted

Maybe a spring was touching something it shouldn't have or the grease had got contaminated enough to carry current.

Glad it's fixed though, fingers crossed it stays fixed.

Posted

Possibly, I don't know.  One of those problems I'll likely never know the cause of.  I'm just glad things seem to work now.  Next electrical challenge is to figure out why two dash lights don't illuminate even though the bulbs are good.

Posted

Mike and I got the pipe fully fitted, everything tightened up and ready to go.  All five of the rubber protectors on the pipe have been replaced and the pipe all clipped tidily under the car.

23821719398_d6ff16b767_b.jpg20171013-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Mike had brought the pump back, the vacuum side isn't operational yet but the pump side is and should be enough to get the car off its bump stops.  I've got some fluid left, which should be enough to get the car up enough to move it, if not drive it on the open road.

 

37416848900_4db98fc746_b.jpg20171013-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Connect up to the side that needs it and get pumping!

36964481104_f22be93f05_b.jpg20171013-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

This was going well up until we hit around 100psi and then this happened.

37416848560_e4369eba66_b.jpg20171013-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I guess that's not repaired after all.  The other issue is that the pump, for reasons unknown since it's kitted out with all new stuff that's rated for the system properly, only wants to pump up to  120psi.  It's unclear if this is because of the pump, air in the system on the car or some other reason.  Especially annoying because nothing, apart from that join, is leaking, and there's no obvious reason for this to be an issue beyond the possibility that there's too much air in the suspension system so there's no space for the fluid to go to get pressurised properly.

 

Logistics are the next issue.  I can remove the pipe again, take it to a place of repair, again, and hope that when I refit it the repair is suitable.  Alternatively, I can either get our pump fixed or get the last guy out that pumped up the car pre-MoT to do it, drive to a place of repair, get them to fix the pipe in situ (which will likely entail dropping the fluid and having to get it pumped up yet again once repaired) and then drive the car home.  I really don't want to remove the pipe again because there's a chance it will leak when refitted.  There's even a chance that no matter how careful we were, the pipe repair was undone when the pipe was refitted and that's why it's leaking.

 

Too many variables to say one way or the other on this one.  Suffice to say I'm annoyed and frustrated about the situation.

  • Like 3
Posted

I have pumped a few up with an HGV cab tilt pump. Never had a vacuum pump.

They say if the valve is at a high point the air will rise to there after a while and you can bleed it off, and fill it again.

The air present should not prevent it reaching pressure though, think its around 300psi? which is quite a lot.

Imagine its best to remove the pipe to repair it again. As you say turning the nut likely broke the join, but shouldn't have really.

We raced a Mini for a while with no link pipes and the spheres blown up individually.

Posted

400psi on the Princess, which is higher than the 1100 on the earlier Hydralastic.

 

I really want a repair solution that doesn't involve removing the pipe.  If I had the relevant gear at home I'd drain the system and try to solder the joint in situ.  I can see where it's leaking from and exactly where it needs sealing so it shouldn't be a big job.  I'd do it with chemical metal if I thought it had any chance of withstanding the pressures the system is under, though I'm pretty sure it would just pop any sort of putty/epoxy/splodge right off on the first bump in the road.

Posted

Depending what the pipe and valve block are made of could it be braised up? Looks very similar to fittings used on some HVAC systems, which quite commonly have running pressures of a couple of hundred PSI...

Posted

Silver Solder may be good enough, problem is you need to be sure its all clean and the whole joint must be recoated.

You can't just blob a bit over it.

 

Can't remember exactly, but I used Bundy pipe, with flared ends screwed to a T piece.

But it was easy 30 years ago, when trucks used it in the braking system and the bins were full of it.

Its all plastic re-enforced brake pipe now, but I bet it would still work.

Posted

yeah liquid levers used to sell bendy placca pipes for this job.

 

I feel your pain VULG, when I was 15 I had an 1100 with crispy hydrolastic pipes and lived on a remote hill farm in Northumberland, I couldnt get it to a garage for a pump-up and was too dim to make my own and there was no eBay either. At the time it seemed like a totally insurmountable problem and drove me friggin mental

Posted

I'll get it sorted.  It's just hassle.

 

- fork out for those custom adaptors so I can individualise the displacers, doing away with the stupid pipes completely.

- fanny about with pumps and repairers to try and get the pipe repaired in situ

- fanny about removing the pipe to try and do it again, knowing full well it'll probably leak once the pipe is reinstalled.

- replace this pipe with a new one for the full length, leave the other one alone until it joins the leaky party.

 

One of these options will sort it out.  We'll get there.  I'll focus on pointless cosmetic things in the meantime like orange carpets.  That seems sensible.

  • Like 4
Posted

That'd be like having vegan fish and chips

Which incidentally reminds me, I still need to go down to our local Vegan fish and chips shop down the road. Friends that have been, have said that it's really very tasty.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=matter+fast+foods+fishponds&oq=matter+fast+foods+fishponds&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.665j0j7&client=ms-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

 

The thing about vegan and vegetarian foods, as you don't have the strong taste of meat in something, you need to make it up elsewhere. So it's usually is very tasty food.

Posted

Can you easily convert to conventional springs and dampeners?

A, there's a dedicated fred for these sorts of questions.

B, there's no need to unnecessarily raise Vulgalour's "displacer anxiety" level.

Posted

I'll get it sorted.  It's just hassle.

 

- fork out for those custom adaptors so I can individualise the displacers, doing away with the stupid pipes completely.

 

 

 

Would it have no suspension at all then? 

Posted

The theory is sound, at least, it's how they do 'wet sprung' racing Minis after all.  No idea if it'll work in practice or what it'll do to the handling and ride characteristics in practice.  The suspension is one of the best and one of the worst things about this car and I've spent pretty much my entire ownership trying to find long term solutions and being met, mostly, with a no solutions.

Posted

Checked the leak this morning to see how bad it was and found that the schrader valve itself is leaking, not at the thread where it goes into the block, but at the top where you get the fluid in and out of it.  I have no idea on that, I guess the valve is buggered.

Posted

Yup.  The valve body should be a taper thread - Metro ones were.  

Posted

I've got spares I'm just... urgh... at the moment with this.

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