project 1980 Austin Princess

[Angrydicky]

Foglights look great to me.

[Essex V6]

Vulg - that is looking seriously sharp!

[Captain Slow]

MoT fail.

 

You're only allowed one dipped beam per side. You can have multiple high beams so long as they are symmetrical.

 

Phil

 

 

Surprised given that kits are actively marketed to do this to cars like the Stag - mine has the kit fitted and has never failed on it.

[captain_70s]

There are some Doloshites running around with a quad light set-up but it's been discussed on the TDC forum and decided to be illegal. 

 

Having said that my Dolly 1300 has been passing MOTs despite the fact the dipped beams come on with the sidelights when they shouldn't for years.

[worldofceri]

I passed a (modern) bus the other day that appeared to have quad dipped beam.  Could have been driving on high beam I suppose, but I don't think so.

 

My Renner 5 had dim-dip fitted (low intensity dipped beam comes on with sidelights) so lack of sidelight-only capability can't be an mot fail.

 

 

Back on topic:  Have you considered mounting just one foglight, centrally?

[tooSavvy]

I passed a (modern) bus the other day that appeared to have quad dipped beam.  Could have been driving on high beam I suppose, but I don't think so.

 

My Renner 5 had dim-dip fitted (low intensity dipped beam comes on with sidelights) so lack of sidelight-only capability can't be an mot fail.

 

 

Back on topic:  Have you considered mounting just one foglight, centrally?

 

.... for the stylee, Lyke..??

 

 

TS

[richardthestag]

, the throttle cable stopped working properly.  I hesitate to say it snapped because it's still connected at both ends, but it now sticks and doesn't release properly.  We reckon it's frayed inside the sheath.  I've not had much luck finding replacement cables but had a look on eBay anyway and found there's a good half a dozen out there so ordered one from my favourite NOS supplier, Jolly Good Car Spares which should fit better than the Peugeot one we made fit a few years ago.

 

the Staaaaag is running a Halfrauds universal bike brake cable as its throttle cable at the mo. behaves perfectly

[michael1703]

Central fog light idea is good, could just be a 2inch round light, frenched in with an off cut of tube with a scalloped end

[Parky]

Does the foglight have to be low down? Just wondered if it couldn't be mounted on the parcel shelf like a third level brake light? Saves faffing about with drilling holes in vulnerable places

[vulgalour]

The car has foglights.

 

No other solution is required right now.

[PhilA]

Hm. Sure I read it somewhere, but just perused the mot and construction and use and both only specify a minimum of 2 headlights mounted as a matched pair.

 

Dim dip may not bring on sidelights but sidelights must be available on the front

 

Lots of legislation nonsense. Most of it Junkman titled "1986".

 

Phil

[Eddie Honda]

You can have a pair of obligatory dipped headlamps + a pair of optional dipped headlamps if pre 1991. (Unless they've done some mad amendments to the RVLR 1989)

 

See schedules:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/contents/made

[vulgalour]

We got to the bottom of the headlight issue which turned out to be corroded connections.  The headlight wiring for the sealed beams needs the inner bowl plugs changing for the new halogens as they're a slightly different fitting.  However, things do work fine so that's a step in the right direction.  The really nice thing about these halogens is that it's not that obvious they're a replacement for the sealed beams thanks to the domed glass lenses and they sit further back so if I do want to do a hideaway or tube grille at any point it will be a lot easier to install.

 

At the back we got the full complement of bulbs in.  Just the fog lights and number plate to wire up now.  The connection on the outer brake light on the passenger side is still a bit iffy, we're not sure if it's corrosion, a slightly deformed connector or a bit of both so fettling continues on that one.  Just running lights on here, all four of them.  The four brake lights are in the upper halves of the clusters.

 

Today my new air filter arrived.  I had to get something smaller that was a direct fit for the HIF44 SU carb.  Luckily, this is the same carb as used on Minis so there was some choice out there.  For £20 I got myself a K&N-alike which fits by unbolting the old bracket from the carb and bolting the new back plate on through two different holes.  Very easy swap and makes quite a nice engine note.  It's likely I'll need a different needle for this carb too, it can likely be tuned on the standard set up to run well enough, if a little rich, I've got a friend on the case with the needle as he knows his way around SUs quite well.

 

Sounds pretty fruity on that carb, in a good way, and more importantly it clears the hydragas pipe repair.  I imagine there will be a small loss in fuel economy and perhaps a tiny increase in performance.  Happily the car now starts easily and comes off choke fairly rapidly just like it used to in regular use.  I'm waiting on my hydragas fluid arriving and the throttle cable turning up so that the car is a bit more mobile.  I took a short video of the car running today and would like to upload it, unfortunately the format my phone records in isn't recognised so I may use my camera instead when I'm next at the car.

[Noel Tidybeard]

with better breathing from pancake you mite find an improvement in OMGMPGs

 

might be a plan to route a cold air feed to the carb tho as its awfully close to the nasty hot fannymold

[PhilA]

That and better airflow around the fuel lines to hopefully abate vapor lock.

 

Phil

[michael1703]

Good to see the cam sprocket whirling around

[vulgalour]

with better breathing from pancake you mite find an improvement in OMGMPGs

 

might be a plan to route a cold air feed to the carb tho as its awfully close to the nasty hot fannymold

 

It's a terrible design, it really is.  The old filter has a cold* air feed that runs from the air box to a point at around where the cambelt is on the inner wing, Easy enough to reinstate it with a slightly longer pipe.

 

That and better airflow around the fuel lines to hopefully abate vapor lock.

 

I don't know how I'd achieve that, the air flow around the fuel lines is much the same as it was.

 

One big problem I had with the car on hot days was heat getting stuck around the carb, with the manifolds and carb sharing space in the pocket of engine bay behind the engine nothing ever seemed to cool down where it needed to.  You could feel the heat difference in the air with your hand between the front and back of the engine bay it got so bad.  I don't know how exactly to resolve that issue, I assume having a cold air feed to the pocket behind the engine would help or having some way to suck the hot air out.  It's only a problem for two weeks of the year really, but those two weeks become a real chore as a result.

[PhilA]

A fan wired in on the radiator fan circuit perhaps?

[vulgalour]

I've got an over-ride switch on the column shroud (fairly standard period mod that, as you'll know) that could be made to do the job easily enough.  I'd have to figure out just where air is getting trapped properly so I could flush it out, I don't want to end up accidentally putting more hot air into the same spot.

 

Been out of action since Thursday due to foot surgery, I'm only just getting to be not-groggy as I write this, anaesthetic always seems to make me woolly headed for a day or two even when it's only local.  Annoyingly, I shan't be able to do anything on the Princess until at least Monday afternoon as the dressing on my foot is too big for me to get any of my shoes or boots on over it.  Monday they change the dressing, hopefully for a smaller one, and I can get back to work on these last few jobs.

[Honey Badger]

Hope the recovery goes well, the princess looks better with every picture.

 

would a discreet bonnet vent above the pancake filter help slove the hot air issue, or maybe a Scooby monstrosity, made tasteful by the application on Purple paint?

[Noel Tidybeard]

louvres is what you need

[Parky]

Or a NACA duct as seen here on a lightly restyled Princess

[Noel Tidybeard]

 

It's a terrible design, it really is.  The old filter has a cold* air feed that runs from the air box to a point at around where the cambelt is on the inner wing, Easy enough to reinstate it with a slightly longer pipe.

 

 

 

I don't know how I'd achieve that, the air flow around the fuel lines is much the same as it was.

 

One big problem I had with the car on hot days was heat getting stuck around the carb, with the manifolds and carb sharing space in the pocket of engine bay behind the engine nothing ever seemed to cool down where it needed to.  You could feel the heat difference in the air with your hand between the front and back of the engine bay it got so bad.  I don't know how exactly to resolve that issue, I assume having a cold air feed to the pocket behind the engine would help or having some way to suck the hot air out.  It's only a problem for two weeks of the year really, but those two weeks become a real chore as a result.

 

 

maybe you could fashion an item out of a biscuit tin or quality street tin to fit between carb and filter with a cold feed from the inner wing or grill area

[vulgalour]

It's fine, we'll leave it as it is for now and see what happens.  Or maybe use Pringles tubes for cold air induction piping...

 

---

 

I may repeat myself a bit, I'm not sure where I am on various fora I update so here's a brief recap:

 

Hydragas pump bodge resulted in me dropping the suspension half an inch by accident and then the pump stopped working.  Pump is currently in bits while Mike gets new stuff to make it work again so we can lift the car back up.  Awkwardly, that now means the car is stuck with arches on the tyres again.

 

Headlights were earthing through the throttle cable for some reason.  This was resolved by checking and fitting good new earths to the new headlights, courtesy of my brother and Mike, and now the headlights work fine.

 

Weirdly, after fixing the headlights and doing nothing else, we went to start the car to run it for a bit to put some charge back in the battery (we'd had lights on and off for a while testing stuff) and it wouldn't start.  Even stranger, the handbrake warning light was on with no key in the ignition but would extinguish if you release the handbrake.  Choke and oil pressure lights came on as normal with the ignition but turning the key to start the car just resulted in those and the handbrake light going out and nothing else.  The interior light wouldn't operate at all.  No fuses blown, no bulbs blown.  The car was, effectively, dead.

 

A few days and much headscratching later it was determined the problem must be in the dashboard part of the wiring as it was the only part that hadn't been tidied and debodged.  Today, just to see if it would, I put the key in the ignition and the car started fine, perfectly normally, and all electrical functions were restored.  I didn't fix anything or inspect anything, just literally put the key in the ignition and started the car.

 

I came to the conclusion the car must be haunted.

 

Then my brother pointed out some electrical tape on one of the ignition wires so we unwrapped that to see what was going on and in this blurry picture you can see that there's a split in the casing of the white wire with bare wires exposed at the kink.  Although these were insulated from the rest of the wiring by the tape, this could in fact be a broken wire offering a poor connection so it will be repaired.  It's possible this was used as a live feed for a radio or the old tape deck that was in the car when I got it.

 

The other small bit of news was that I found an indicator flasher relay that I believe to be the correct sort to replace the later 90s Nissan one that was bodged in by a previous owner.  Plug and play at least and when I have the dashboard plugged back in I'll be able to check that.

 

 

More updates when I have them.

 

[Rocket88]

I would suspect worn ignition switch / barrel / connections.................try bypassing it, and hot wiring it....................

[danthecapriman]

Excellent progress with this, inspite of inheriting Junkmans Rover spirits!

 

I like the back end btw, it looks the dogs plums it does!

[vulgalour]

colc:  It's the first time it's ever done it in the four years I've owned it so I'm more inclined to think it's because everything has been disturbed than a worn ignition barrel.  The ignition barrel doesn't feel particularly worn in operation either. With everything in bits just recently it's possible the white wire wasn't connecting properly when we tried to start the car previously.  I'm just happy it's working again.

 

Dan: cheers

[Timewaster]

That white wire cut looks like scotchlock damage.

 

Connector of the devil.

[RoadworkUK]

This may be my favourite project on all of these here pages, you know. Superb work all round.

[michael1703]

This may be my favourite project on all of these here pages, you know. Superb work all round.

Bump for an update,need my fix