project 1980 Austin Princess

[danthecapriman]

Good to hear of some updates, and the car wasn’t on fire😄

Sorry to hear of your health issues though. Never good. Fingers crossed for you it improves and you can find someone who can find out what’s wrong.

[vulgalour]

Time for a car update this time.

Went on a short errand and found I'd lost first gear.  Or rather, it was almost impossible to engage.  I've had this happen before so the trick is to start the car in first until you're in a place to check it properly.  Checked the fluid reservoir and it had dropped quite a bit, again this is something it's done before and I don't know where the fluid goes to when it does as there's never any witness marks anywhere and it is a completely external system so it's not going into the engine or clutch housing.

Bled it, pumped the pedal, it felt terrible until it didn't and I got all the gears back.  Problem has now gone away, fluid level is normal, everything is fine.

HOWEVER, it made me think about the mystery squeak that comes and goes on the driver's side which I had thought was a brake since it's a rotational noise, but we couldn't find anything.  That's the same side the clutch lives so maybe it's the clutch that's squeaking.  Also, the mystery vibration I get sometimes on heavy braking from speed that can't be felt through the pedals or the brakes could also be the clutch I imagine.  What's peculiar is until today, the clutch feels perfectly fine, the bite point is healthy, and it never causes any concern.

What I'm not sure of is what could be the issue here.  I don't particularly want to do the clutch again, it's not a nice job and I'm not up to it at the moment.  It's also likely to be expensive in labour even though the parts are cheap.  Have I perhaps got a contaminated clutch plate, or a warped flywheel or something of that sort?  Is there a reason the problem sometimes just goes away of its own accord and then randomly comes back?  What should I be looking for to try and diagnosis the issue and pin down the cause?

The Princess has a master cylinder and reservoir on the bulkhead that goes into a flexi-hose to a slave cylinder on the outside of the gearbox which operates the clutch fork.  There is no sign of leaking inside the car, on the bulkhead, or at either slave cylinder.  The clutch fluid is completely isolated from the clutch assembly so shouldn't be able to contaminate anything.

[timolloyd]

Could the flexi have deteriorated in such a way that flow is only occasionally blocked?

[vulgalour]

Possibly, although when I bled it there was certainly no flow issue so that's a tricky one to diagnose.  It's a fairly new hose too.

[rustdevil]

Can you pull back the dust cover  on the slave cylinder  to see if fluid has collected there it should be dry. Same goes for the master cylinder  good luck with it

[vulgalour]

When I looked it was dry, no signs of leaks anywhere.  It's done this a couple of times now and sometimes the fluid just goes away somewhere.  I imagine like the fuel cap it's one of those things that has a very specific set of circumstances for it to happen and I've just not found what they are to recreate it and cure the issue.

[vulgalour]

Good news!  I just discovered the problem.  Decided to head out to the local garage to get a quote on replacing that rear axle mount bracket since I'm in no fit state to DIY and it needs doing and by the time I got to the end of the road I'd lost all my gears and was having to rev-match change.  Fortunately I was close enough to home that it wasn't a problem.  Popped the bonnet and the leak was incredibly apparent, especially considering there was nothing at all to see yesterday.  The shininess on the casting there is all clutch fluid that's suddenly leaked out just now that wasn't there when I checked last night.

Interestingly the mystery graunch-squeak was much worse too so perhaps the slave cylinder hasn't quite been sealing properly for a while and causing the clutch to drag sometimes, and also why I hadn't noticed a significant drop in the fluid level until very recently.  Luckily, there was a NOS slave cylinder on eBay, they're hard to find so I grabbed that.  I'll also grab a rebuild kit (which is a lot cheaper) so I'll always have a spare available.

It is thankfully a very easy part to replace and bleed so we should be back up and running again in no time, providing I've got the energy to do it.

[vulgalour]

Double good news today.  The first, as related elsewhere on the forum, is that I woke without any fatigue for the first time in months.  I'd been gradually feeling better last night and was hopeful today would be a good day and it's turned out to be me feeling like normal again.  It's such a huge relief!  Now, I do have to be a little bit careful, if it is ME as suspected then if I do too much now I could relapse into another episode of fatigue so I'm on light duties.

I've been good and been slow with everything today and decided to risk fitting the new clutch slave cylinder that arrived today.  Happily the car is operational again.  The squeak had gone away and then came back.  Operating the clutch makes no difference to the noise, neither does using the brakes, so I have no idea what it is.  It did make the noise on the drive so I had the opportunity for the housemate to listen outside the car as I rolled it slowly forwards and back and they confirmed it's something on the driver's side front. There's nothing to see, no play in anything, no witness marks on anything rotational so I've absolutely no idea what's causing it.

I didn't get any of the fatigue, shakes, or nausea happening after doing the job, it felt totally normal.  I'm in such a good mood today!  I feel like I'm back to myself and it's amazing.

[Zelandeth]

Yep, just keep taking it easy.  If it is ME, and it's anything like mine it's a case of being fine until you push yourself 1% too far. Then you spend several days paying for it.  You will learn to find where the balance is, but it might take a while.

You may also find there are things which help massively to reduce symptoms in your case, a friend has found that they're far better off since essentially removing all processed foods from their diet.  Seems to be everyone is different - which really doesn't help the whole nobody really understanding what is going on with the damned condition.

[vulgalour]

@Zelandeth I have at least been looking for trends like that, trying to figure out when I've had similar episodes (I've never had one last this long, it's been ridiculous, normally it's 1-3 days or when it's very bad a full week, this one has been nearly three months).  I've recognised two things, the first being any job that requires social interaction on a regular basis, after a couple of months it's really hard for me to stay focused and after about six months I'm generally totally wiped.  The other is driving, anything over 200 miles in a day can knock me out for a few days afterwards.  Not found any dietary things yet.  I'm also not sure whether or not an unsettled environment is a trigger, that's a stressful thing at the best of times so it might not be, or it might be.  It's like anything that has to be sustained for a long period of time regularly is a problem, short bursts of activity with rest between isn't so much.

The best thing is my gp has actually taken it seriously and that means I might actually get some help.  I know my self employment is a career I can fit around my limitations and is something I very much enjoy doing so I do have a solution.  Left to my own devices, I usually know when to stop, it's when I'm forced to work by someone else's schedule and pace that it all falls apart because then I'll push beyond what I can do and the bad times happen.  I have no idea what it means with things like disability claims or even if I should make one, providing I can live the slower pace of life I need to I can live perfectly healthily, it's when things speed up too much that I get the issues.

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, vulgalour said:

@Zelandeth I have at least been looking for trends like that, trying to figure out when I've had similar episodes (I've never had one last this long, it's been ridiculous, normally it's 1-3 days or when it's very bad a full week, this one has been nearly three months).  I've recognised two things, the first being any job that requires social interaction on a regular basis, after a couple of months it's really hard for me to stay focused and after about six months I'm generally totally wiped.  The other is driving, anything over 200 miles in a day can knock me out for a few days afterwards.  Not found any dietary things yet.  I'm also not sure whether or not an unsettled environment is a trigger, that's a stressful thing at the best of times so it might not be, or it might be.  It's like anything that has to be sustained for a long period of time regularly is a problem, short bursts of activity with rest between isn't so much.

The best thing is my gp has actually taken it seriously and that means I might actually get some help.  I know my self employment is a career I can fit around my limitations and is something I very much enjoy doing so I do have a solution.  Left to my own devices, I usually know when to stop, it's when I'm forced to work by someone else's schedule and pace that it all falls apart because then I'll push beyond what I can do and the bad times happen.  I have no idea what it means with things like disability claims or even if I should make one, providing I can live the slower pace of life I need to I can live perfectly healthily, it's when things speed up too much that I get the issues.

Sounds like you're making progress.  At least it sounds like your GP has taken some interest in the situation, whereas mine was basically "Well there's nothing we can do about it, here's an online fatigue management class. Next!"

If you want to talk more about this privately (or just want someone to moan at) you know where I am.  

For my part it really wasn't something I was really all that aware of until after I was diagnosed.  Certainly wasn't something I had to really think about until I got the first dose of COVID.  Reckon I aged about 30 years in a week, and now I do need to be aware of it as if I do overdo it, I'll be paying for it for several days.  Does make planning around big events a challenge sometimes.

[vulgalour]

Shall we have some photos with this update?  I think that'd be nice.  First up, the alternator.  oooh, shiny.

Got a friend to help me tension the belt fully and I'm happy to report charging is normal... mostly.  It puts out a reliable 14.2volts with no load from various devices, dropping as you'd expect as various things are turned on and the load increased.  Happy days.  However, I noticed recently the mystery stumble has reappeared, a thing the car has done all throughout my ownership and I've never pinned down.

With the multimeter on the battery I could see that when the stumble happens, the voltage drops significantly sometimes as low as 5v which is bit odd.  Worse when the car is cold, it goes away once everything is warmed up.  I checked the rotor arm and cap, they both had slightly dirty contacts so I cleaned those up which improved matters a bit but didn't solve the issue.  Plug leads and connections are all clean, don't appear to have any damage, aren't brittle, etc.  Coil seems to be doing coil things and the electronic ignition seems to be operating normally.  I didn't pull the spark plugs, haven't had the energy to go that far just yet, so I'm wondering if it's perhaps a fouled plug causing the issue and as things get hot, whatever is fouling the plug gets burned off and that's why the problem goes away.

Another electrical gremlin is my headlight switch is being recalcitrant.  Some days it works just fine, other days it refuses to latch in the fully on position.  I do have a replacement switch and a new headlight wiring loom with relays and correct configuration for twin lights, it's just another job I haven't yet had the energy to do.  It'll get done soon-ish.

The most recent malady had been the clutch slave cylinder just splurging its guts out.  Fortunately even though this is a rare part there was one available on eBay when I needed it so I scooped that up and aside from it taking a little while to fully bleed, I can report that's fixed the problem.  Or at least it's fixed the problem where I couldn't select gears properly.

The rotational squeak persists.  Since I can't find any signs of the cause at all, there's nothing on show with the brakes, wheel, front axle, bearing, CV joint, etc. and it's not related to any sort of input from the clutch or brake pedal, I'm at a total loss as to what it might be.  I have noticed since doing the clutch slave cylinder the volume of the squeak is much reduced so the only thing I can think is, given the condition of that clutch arm boot (I've never been able to find a replacement for it) is that maybe some of the clutch fluid has got in and contaminated the clutch a little bit in one spot.  I'm not experiencing a slipping clutch so I don't think it's done any harm if that is the case, I just can't think what else it could be at all and nobody that has looked at the car can find the cause of it either, all we can agree on is it's something on the driver's front corner.

When we next have some dry weather I'm going to have another go at that rear axle mount bracket.  I didn't have the strength to do it last time, perhaps in a few days I will.  It's only two bolts I'm struggling with so once I've got those cracked off I can quite easily replace the part and then maybe, just maybe, I can book the people in for doing the suspension regas.

I've also chased Pilkingtons again for where my windscreen that I ordered in June has got to.  I'm pretty disappointed at how long it's taken, especially considering how much it cost me.

[vulgalour]

Had a bit of a headlight mishap recently in that I had to go out in the dark and after setting off, the headlight switch failed.  Limped home on sidelights and hazards since I couldn't fix it at the side of the road.  I did have a spare switch in the car but it didn't want to work.  Turns out that was just corrosion from lack of use and it being in storage forever.  The reason the old switch had failed is it had at some point got quite hot and melted the plastic pushrods inside.  This is probably because BL never put a headlight relay on the Princess, and neither did I.

Short term solution was to disconnect the inner pair of headlights to reduce the load on the switch and not use main beam after cleaning up and installing the spare switch.

Today I had a look about fitting the relay wiring harness and encountered two problems.  On the battery side there's fixings I could already use for mounting the relays and the fused wire to the battery easily.  Unfortunately, the wiring harness is the wrong way around for my car.  The headlight wiring on the Princess main harness has the battery and headlight feed on opposite sides of the engine bay, but the relayed harness I bought assumes they're on the same side, so that means I have to do some extending or shortening of wires to get it all fitted.  I don't have enough brain or materials for that today.

No bother, went to just plug the originals back in and one of the original wires snapped right at the crimp for the headlight plug, so I had to put a little splice in there to get my headlights back.

Longer term I'm probably best replacing the whole original headlight wiring harness with new wire since it looks like the original is quite brittle in places (as is to be expected, it's in an exposed spot and is above forty years old) and I'm just not up to it yet.  At least for now the headlights are working and safe enough, I doubt a single pair of the LED headlights have more draw on the wiring and switch than the halogens they replaced so I shouldn't have to worry about things getting hot.

Sorry for the lack of pics here, I haven't the mental capacity for that either today, just wanted to make a record of the goings on for future reference really.

[vulgalour]

Squeak identified!

Got the front end on axle stands and rotated the wheels and the squeak was immediately apparent.  It's the CV boots - which are healthy, devoid of damage - rubbing on themselves.  There's not really anything I can do about that and it explains why the brakes and clutch feel totally fine.  It also explains why the squeak sometimes goes away when you turn the wheel because doing that with the car on stands exhibited the same behaviour.  I'm guessing the reason the squeak disappears after driving is that the cv boots warm up just enough to make the rubber soft enough not to squeak.

What a ridiculous problem.  At least I don't need to worry about it, just have to put up with the awful noise when it's cold.

[Zelandeth]

10 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

Squeak identified!

Got the front end on axle stands and rotated the wheels and the squeak was immediately apparent.  It's the CV boots - which are healthy, devoid of damage - rubbing on themselves.  There's not really anything I can do about that and it explains why the brakes and clutch feel totally fine.  It also explains why the squeak sometimes goes away when you turn the wheel because doing that with the car on stands exhibited the same behaviour.  I'm guessing the reason the squeak disappears after driving is that the cv boots warm up just enough to make the rubber soft enough not to squeak.

What a ridiculous problem.  At least I don't need to worry about it, just have to put up with the awful noise when it's cold.

Interesting one.  Glad it's been identified though as it was bugging the hell out of me and it's not even my car.

Wondering if something like bumper gel might work to provide just enough lubrication?  Or maybe belt dressing?

[vulgalour]

Belt dressing might make it worse as that would increase the friction I would have thought?  Bumper gel might do the trick, a friend suggested silicone spray which probably would do the trick but can be a bit sticky and pick up dirt.

[Noel Tidybeard]

dry lubricant like ptfe spray?

[Rocket88]

Smear of Vaseline?

[vulgalour]

I'll add them to the list of remedies to try.  Something has to work, right?

[Noel Tidybeard]

21 hours ago, Rocket88 said:

Smear of Vaseline?

[Rocket88]

4 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

😀😀😀

[SilverMachine]

glad your feeling a bit more yourself fella, and hopefully closer to a full diagnosis! after just reading about your squeak discovery, i thought talc could maybe help, but that would negate any usefullness after becoming wet. Then i remembered windscreen wipers are covered in some sort of graphite as a lubricant, not a grease though! find a lump of graphite or dismantle several pencils and sand them to make a powder to use as a lubricant?  maybe not that much of a practical solution after all. am wondering now if new ones have any sort of graphite on them?

just of interest, what sort of spec was your main pc that decided it wanted retirement? apologies if you have already said!

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, SilverMachine said:

glad your feeling a bit more yourself fella, and hopefully closer to a full diagnosis! after just reading about your squeak discovery, i thought talc could maybe help, but that would negate any usefullness after becoming wet. Then i remembered windscreen wipers are covered in some sort of graphite as a lubricant, not a grease though! find a lump of graphite or dismantle several pencils and sand them to make a powder to use as a lubricant?  maybe not that much of a practical solution after all. am wondering now if new ones have any sort of graphite on them?

just of interest, what sort of spec was your main pc that decided it wanted retirement? apologies if you have already said!

Graphite powder should be available from any locksmith I'd think.

[vulgalour]

@SilverMachine the old machine was built on a tight budget with a mix of new and second hand parts (the oldest being a hard drive that was 14 years old when the PC died... but still works fine) and had provided more years of service than I ever expected it to.  It was almost obsolete when it was built, let alone now.  Don't have the specs to hand, I might have mentioned them before, but I was doing stuff with the machine that by rights it shouldn't have been able to do and it wasn't until I bought the second-hand laptop that I found out just how much it had been holding back my workflow and ability to do pretty much everything.  It was fine for Windows XP but it couldn't run Windows 11.

@Zelandeth I do have some graphite powder that I bought to sort out the starter motor which magically fixed itself so I'll add that to the list too.  Definitely less time consuming than processing pencils!

[bunglebus]

Just been having a nose at your items, some really fun stickers etc in there at a decent price so I may be making a purchase. Shame VW are so litigious as that's my main interest. 

Cheers for the follow back on Insta too, hopefully you won't be offended if I say I didn't realise how young you are, I just don't associate an Austin Princess with anyone below retirement age, even pink ones...

[vulgalour]

I shall take all of that as a compliment.  I am a sprightly 43 with the mind of an octagenarian.

[SilverMachine]

Octagenarian  =  8 legged old person......  just how my mind works. apologies....

2 videos in 2 days? your spoiling us sir! and i could show you worse cable management! proper wood furniture is the best, i have 2 small tables my late great uncle made and there great.  been sort of looking at beauraus wondering if i would use one... and where it could fit in!

 

[vulgalour]

14 hours ago, SilverMachine said:

Octagenarian  =  8 legged old person......  just how my mind works. apologies....

 

I'm definitely not three thousand spiders in a trench coat pretending to be a person.  Absolutely not.  What would ever give you that idea?

[SilverMachine]

6 hours ago, vulgalour said:

I'm definitely not three thousand spiders in a trench coat pretending to be a person.  Absolutely not.  What would ever give you that idea?

lol are you sure?

just the word, i am actually a couple years closer to getting my spider trench coat though!

[High Jetter]

8 hours ago, vulgalour said:

I'm definitely not three thousand spiders in a trench coat pretending to be a person.  Absolutely not.  What would ever give you that idea?

You have a web presence, shirley?