project 1980 Austin Princess

[vulgalour]

So, I have an interesting question... I hope.

 

Since putting the new tyres on my spare wheels I've noticed the steering wheel is now about one spline off centred.  The car doesn't pull left or right, I've not disturbed any suspension things or track rod ends or whatever.  All I've done is put a different set of steels on the car with brand new tyres.

 

Why would that put my steering wheel off-centre?  Could there be something wrong with the wheels that were on the car?  Would this explain why historically it's been an absolute sod to set the tracking on?

[Rocket88]

Just a though [albeit probably a very stupid one!] is it possible that the other wheels weren't the same width?

[vulgalour]

I did check that and they all matched.  I can't actually see anything wrong with them at all.  Come to think of it, when I had the Lotus wheels on I had to correct the steering wheel too so maybe one of the old wheels is bent?  If so, it's been like that from the first day I got the car and may explain why it was originally on mismatched tyre sizes.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

So, I have an interesting question... I hope.

 

Since putting the new tyres on my spare wheels I've noticed the steering wheel is now about one spline off centred.  The car doesn't pull left or right, I've not disturbed any suspension things or track rod ends or whatever.  All I've done is put a different set of steels on the car with brand new tyres.

 

Why would that put my steering wheel off-centre?  Could there be something wrong with the wheels that were on the car?  Would this explain why historically it's been an absolute sod to set the tracking on?

Tracking is off?

[Asimo]

One Ambassador wheel? Ambassador wheels are wider but still had the same tyre size.

[keef]

Are both sets the same off-set?

[vulgalour]

Tracking is fine, car doesn't drift one way or the other but on the old wheels it did have a habit of having a slight pull to the left that no tracking adjustment would fully cure.

 

All the wheels are the same offset and all the wheels are Princess, no Ambassador wheels.

 

That's why it's so baffling really.  All I can think is the set of wheels the car came to me on are damaged somehow.  A visual inspection doesn't reveal anything amiss, or any mismatches, and the problem appeared once I put matching sized tyres on but wasn't so apparent on the mismatched tyres the car came to me with all those years ago.

 

The good thing is it's fine now on my matched set of refurbished spare steels with brand new tyres so I can only surmise there's something wrong with its original steels, I'm just at a loss as to what that might be.  It's very peculiar.

[dozeydustman]

All I can think of is the steering wheel was on wonky to start with and perhaps one of the old tyres was ever so slightly larger in diameter - only 1 or 2 mm. You haven't any play in the steering joints etc have you?

 

The transit we use at work for bin deliveries started pulling to the left after new front tyres had been fitted. Fitters checked the tracking, tyre pressures etc, couldn't find anything wrong. Put front left on front right & vice versa and the pull went, but steering wheel is now ever so slightly on the wonk.

[vulgalour]

Literally the only change is the wheels and tyres.  I'll just take the steering wheel off and shift it around one spline to the right to sort it.

 

Tyres are brand spanking new, I checked the date codes on them when delivered.  No play in the steering anywhere, no play I can find in track rod ends or similar and the car behaves extremely well with no wandering or pulling left or right.  If you let go the steering wheel and allow the car to coast it will do so in a nice straight line, but the steering wheel sits one spline off to the left.  The only thing I can think is that there was something wrong with the 16 year old tyres that were removed and/or the original steel wheels the car came to me on.

[PhilA]

Had the old tires been sat on the car? Possibly one side got more sun parked up the same way runs forever and hardened one set of tires more than the other and as such the dynamic properties were different?

 

I guess a test to see would be rotate the other wheels round and see if the drag occurs the other way.

 

Phil

[DodgeRover]

Sorry for posting in the wrong place but weren't you looking for a BX estate?

[vulgalour]

I already know I can't afford it.

 

I'm actually after a petrol BX too, I'd rather not have another diesel as it's not well suited to my needs.  That one is a bit more work than I want to take on too at the moment.  Still, it's nice to know they ARE out there.

[Zelandeth]

Much want...

[320touring]

It's had a fair bit of work done to it, and I can collect you from any airport/station as needed:)

[DodgeRover]

I think he just wants it to go to a caring home, might be cheap if you point him to your rover and princess threads....

[vulgalour]

A caring home I could give it but it would have to be free and delivered to my door and then sit around waiting until next year before I could do anything with it.  I can't commit to purchasing anything really until I move house because if I do commit I'll just end up with too many cars to move when I do move.  That and I've zero funds at the moment anyway without selling the Rover, which isn't going to unlock enough funds to acquire a BX in any condition.  Also it's a diesel, and I really don't want a diesel.

 

I do like it because I love BX estates and I love that blue it's in.  It's just the wrong car at the wrong time.

 

There.  I said no to a project car.  One day at a time.  Just like my therapist said.

[DodgeRover]

Those therapy sessions have affected your eyesight - it's petrol....but yes that seems a sensible reason not to aquire another millstone round your neck project

[vulgalour]

I thought the 19TRS was a diesel... but then why would it have a carb?  Herp to the derp on my part there.  It's also an automatic and I really don't want an automatic.

[SiC]

There. I said no to a project car. One day at a time. Just like my therapist said.

What about a slightly purple/golden/rusty coloured 1100?

 

Tbh I don't blame you not taking on another project. I keep thinking about taking something else on but I know I need to get my other two projects (mostly) sorted first.

[vulgalour]

I'd like to say I learned my lesson with the 1100, I didn't.  Nor the Renault before it.  Nor the Princess before that.  Nor the BX before that...

 

I'm going to do the weird thing of waiting until the right car comes along at the right time and make use of the Rover being reliable and the Princess working most of them time to give me the luxury of time.  No more* jumping head first into a project because I feel sorry for it.

[Craig the Princess]

[vulgalour]

A non-picture update on things.

 

The Princess had lost all but the weakest and most intermittent spark recently which meant it wouldn't start.  Initial testing made it seem the condenser was at fault and, having had issues with poor condensers, it seemed sensible to replace that.  However, on fully removing the condenser in readiness for replacement, the earth wire inside the distributor decided to part company with one of the eyelets.  The wire, which had been replaced many years ago to replace the bare wire wrapped in electrical tape the car came to me with, had gone brittle and fractured right at the crimp.  This meant that the earth connection was incredibly poor.  Over time, this has steadily been getting worse and visual inspection had revealed nothing amiss, the symptoms manifesting as though other parts were at fault.

 

The solution was simply to replace the wire with new. I'd already bought a replacement condenser but rather than fitting that straight away, we put the new wire and the old condenser back on just to be sure it's not the old condenser at fault.  Happily, the old condenser is fine and the car starts quite willingly now.  There's also no sign of the occasional stutter/stumble that's been bothering the car for the last year or two and that I couldn't track down so I suspect that's also been due to that poor earth wire.

 

I shall continue to monitor the situation, hopefully this has resolved the issue.

[junkyarddog]

It's amazing that the smallest of faults can be such a big pain in the arse.

[PhilA]

Well, all of the electricity that makes the car run has to go through that wire.

 

Shouldn't they be an ultra-flexible braided effort, or was the original just a regular piece of wire?

 

Phil

[vulgalour]

I think originally it was just an insulated wire with those side-mount eyelets so the wire sits nice against the curve of the housing.  I don't actually know, because it had already been bodged when I got the car.  Replacement wires seem to be pretty poor efforts with the wrong, over-sized eyelets and a bare wire, much like was in the car when I got it, so perhaps that really is how they were done originally.  I don't think it would need a flexible braided type, the housing is designed in such a way that a regular bit of wire joined to two side-mount eyelets would fit very snugly with no stress on the crimps/solder points.

 

After a little drive I've learned that a few issues I didn't even know where issues have gone away now.  Aside from the smoother running, the car starts far more willingly than it has in ages and requires much less cranking.  I haven't had to juggle the choke anywhere near as much as usual for a damp day like today.  Acceleration is improved too, there's no hesitation or bogging down when setting off when the engine is still cold.  There seems less of a load on the engine when I've got all the items on, had to have headlights, interior fan, wipers, and heated rear screen on today and I didn't notice the usual slight drop in power, which is promising.  All of this, I assume, is because there's just a superior earth to previously.

[PhilA]

Huzzah! Yes, the engine will labor much less with a good spark at low RPM, better too at high RPM because it'll have less propensity to "blow out".

 

Plus now you have spare condensers. A useful thing to have.

 

Phil

[purplebargeken]

I'd like to say I learned my lesson with the 1100, I didn't.  Nor the Renault before it.  Nor the Princess before that.  Nor the BX before that...

 

^^ I do believe that this would apply to 99.9999999999999999% of the people on this very forum.

[vulgalour]

It's only been a few days of only-car duties.  So far, it's going very smoothly, as you might expect in the honeymoon period.  I haven't yet dreaded getting in the car, no matter what the weather is doing.  I do have some observations.

 

- Starting.  Since replacing the earth wire, the car now starts, idles, runs, and generally behaves much better.  The occasional stutter/stumble thing it was doing it no longer does.  Less throttle is required to make progress and to accelerate from a standstill and a very quiet tick I couldn't place beyond 'the top of the engine somewhere' is now gone.  Perhaps the tick was the old earth wire sparking out and earthing where it shouldn't, perhaps it's merely coincidence.

 

- New tyres are amazing.  They're the best I've ever driven on and I don't feel like I've even come close to their limits.  I'm continually impressed with them, especially in the rain.

 

- Oil pressure switch I replaced has cured an oil leak.  Previously, I wasn't entirely certain if it was the cause of the oil down the belt side of the engine, now I am, because that side of the engine and the driveshaft are all oil-free.  I'm pleased about this as it means I'm losing less oil than I was.

 

- Brakes are good.  However, the braking habits of other drivers aren't so much.  I find myself driving slower than I might normally because of how unpredictably, and how quickly, other drivers stop.  The plus side to that is it means I'm paying a lot more attention when I am driving and therefore driving more defensively which has meant I've avoided situations that may have become a close call, or worse.

 

- Island style speed bumps are less of a problem because of the width of the Princess, in most cases the track is wide enough that it's like they're not even there.  Bar type speed bumps are a little more annoying, especially the ones with a harsh drop off and rise, but no more so than in any other car.

 

- I feel generally less vulnerable and more visible to other road users than I do in the Rover.  This in turn makes driving considerably more relaxing.

 

So now the problems, since I can't pretend it's been entirely plain sailing.

 

- My old regime was to check the fluids once a week or every 100 miles, whichever came first.  Because the Rover never needed this attention, I'd slipped to a more loose once a month or every 500 miles and that doesn't stick with the Princess.  Today, the gear change was notchier than usual and reverse became difficult to select when the oil had warmed up and on checking, the oil was barely at the bottom of the dipstick.  Thankfully, a glug of fresh oil resolved this.  I suspect the car is consuming a little oil, though not alarming quantities, and I know there are still oil leaks I haven't been able to find the source of.  I suspect one or more of the gaskets that were replaced when we did the clutch are the culprit since the minor leak I do have is on that side of things, it's just proving difficult to find since it takes a while to manifest.  I shall continue to monitor the situation, at any rate.

 

- Sidewinds are tedious.  It can be easy to forget how much power steering compensates for small corrections, so you are more prone to a little bit of lane wandering when it's as windy as it's been today.

 

- Although there's no noticeable coolant usage, I did notice a very small spot of coolant under a pipe join today.  It's something to monitor, the one spot wasn't even enough to constitute a weep, let alone a leak.

 

- Parking is still a chore.  The biggest issue I face here is no longer the lack of power steering.  The combination of the Princess' C-pillar blind spot and the sheer bulk of modern cars causing big visual obstacles can make reversing out of a parking space a bit of a gamble, especially when other drivers seem intent on paying no attention whatsoever to a car slowly exiting a parking space.  The bodywork on most modern cars is so high that I can't simply look through the cabin of neighbouring vehicles to see if it's safe to exit a parking space, so it has to be done with caution.

 

That's it.  Overall I'm quite happy to hop in and use this car.  The biggest problem I encounter on a daily basis really is other inconsiderate road users, the sorts everyone else encounters too.  If anything, being behind the wheel of the Princess again is making me think a lot harder about hazards and driving and, I hope, making me a better driver in the process.

[timolloyd]

I hear you about parking. I tend to reverse into most spaces anyway, because it’s always easier on the exit, but especially so in my Caterham where I simply can’t see anything either side.

[Felly Magic]

The Saab we have on loan has serious blind spots, and I agree about parking, some fucker in a soft roader parked right on the white line, making getting in a barsteward