project 1980 Austin Princess

[alf892]

Re earth problems

 

I caused an ambassador to rev to destruction........I fitted a clutch and to do this you dropped the engine a bit. The factory earth lead goes from battery to engine.....with a lug that bolts to the body en route. To allow the engine to drop enough for clutch job you just undid the lug and left the rest connected. Bits like this are important when you are on a time saved bonus!

 

In my haste (Friday afternoon) to reassemble the car I left this lug off.

 

End result was the car sitting in the car park on Monday morning having been recovered by the AA. It was being driven at night and the throttle stuck open. Driver dipped the clutch and it revved till it went bang and pushed the cam through the cam cover.

 

Cause was the throttle cable overheating.......as it was the only body earth.

I learned from this mistake....

[vulgalour]

No updates, unfortunately, I've not been able to do anything.  Unsurprisingly, getting the bits to refurbish the Churchill pump is proving tricky as much of it is obsolete, particularly annoying as the pump side has decided to stop working.  It's likely that I'll chock the suspension to get the last few jobs done once I have some free time, which I've had very little of since the last update.

[vulgalour]

Actually found some time to get to where the Princess is and do something on it. Namely, fighting with the footwell to fit the throttle cable. It's not a difficult job, so long as you can hold a torch, the cable and move the throttle pedal all at the same time to get the cable and clip on the end of the pedal leg. All done, factory yellow one fitted. The red one is the choke cable and while it works, it could do with being replaced ideally, if for nothing else than the cosmetic.

 

 

I had hoped this was the root of my running problem. You see, the car will fire but won't idle. It's getting spark and fuel but the throttle pedal was jammed because of the old cable having melted to the plastic sheath when we somehow managed to earth the headlights through it last year. I thought that was, therefore, the route of the problem and fitting the new cable would mean the throttle would work as it should.

 

Not so.

 

It's ignition barrel related and I found that out by accident today. If you turn the key to the on position, none of the dash illuminates, which is a bit odd because I've never had that problem before and it's all plug and play so it shouldn't do that. Turn the key to start the car and away it goes no bother only to die as soon as you let go of the key. So I held on to the key for a bit longer to see what would happen and found that the car runs perfectly fine until you let go at which point it dies like you've switched it off.

 

It's as if the functions of the ignition barrel have rotated one too far clockwise without having physically moved. I haven't investigated further because I've no idea what to look for on this one. I expect it will be something really obvious and other people have experienced it. I hope so, anyway.

[Des]

I've seen BL ignition switches fail here and there, once saw a lazy car dealer try to fix one without any dismantling by emptying half a can of WD in, caught light on him.

[vulgalour]

*puts the WD40 can away* what, I wasn't gonna... you know...

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Pretty simple really. Unplug the ignition switch from the loom, find the power cable (red probably), bridge the contact that brings the ignition and red light on, and then using another bit of wire, just bridge these to the wire that operates the starter. When it starts, take the wire away. If it continues to run - ignition switch suckered. If it stops, it's something else.

 

 

That'll be £5 please.

[michael1703]

Also run a wire from positive terminal of battery direct to LT terminal of coil and eliminate wiring from coil to ignition switch

[panhard65]

I suspect there is something connected the wrong way round somewhere as these electrical faults are very unusual. There really should be no way that the headlights should use the throttle cable as a ground. I would be checking under the dash and make sure it is all connected correctly. The trouble with old British cars is they used the same connectors on everything making it pretty easy to get wrong. French stuff from the same era uses different plugs so it is a lot harder to get wrong. (which is pretty handy as they have a habit of changing the colour of the wiring from one end of a feed to the other) I would be looking closely at the indicator stalk and ignition switch connectors to start with.

[vulgalour]

FIXED!

 

Found and fixed the problem thanks, once again, the wealth of help and information available on the internet through this forum and many others I use.  As it happens, it was a very easy fix, just a fiddly one.  First job was to remove the ignition switch, a look in the book told me how.  I ignored the instruction to drop the steering column down as that was unnecessary, I already had the column shroud and the parcel shelf removed from other work that had been done on the car so I only needed to unscrew the tiny locating screw that holds the switch into the barrel, located on the underside.  The switch is then unplugged from the loom and removed from the barrel, being sure to keep the tiny screw safe.

 

 

Immediately apparent were two items that needed addressing, the first being the old PYE tape deck wiring that had been let in by splitting the shroud and then wrapping the wire for the tape deck haphazardly around the ignition switch wiring.  The other item is the cut white shroud which previously had a chock-block also for the PYE tape deck that was fitted when I bought the car.

 

 

 

Mike checked for continuity and found the wires to be in good order so there was no need to rejoin or replace them and they were rewrapped individually with proper loom tape.  The connectors for the switch were carefully prised out and found to be quite grimy so they were cleaned up and treated to some fresh electrical switch grease before reassembly.  I did have some difficulty initially getting the switch to operate but with a bit of patience it soon worked as it ought with clearly defined notches at the relevant points.

 

I then tried it out in the car, plugging it all back in and found my dash lights illuminated as they should and the car now runs when you release the key.  I had enough time to go through as many of the functions as I could and found that headlights, sidelights and indicators are all working properly.  Horn and interior fan also works.  The foglights aren't connected yet and I couldn't test the heated rear screen as it wasn't fogged up to watch it do its thing.  The hazard switch isn't working but I think that's down to the switch needing a clean, the old one I had in there was the same.

 

The list is now very short:

Suspension - got a contact for someone with a pump willing to come to me, hooray!

Steering Rack - find out what component is loose, it's definitely something under the car I've just not been able to get under it

Fog lights - connect

Hazard lights - find out why they don't work

Tyres - get them fitted to one of my sets of wheels

 

Er... that's it I think.  At least for the MoT.  I'm nearly there.  It's much easier now the days are getting longer, I have more time available to actually work on the car.

 

 

The Princess loom is pretty good under the dash because the plugs are colour coded, you can't really get it wrong.  I think my issue has been previous bodge more than anything, now all the bodge (I hope) is out things seem to be working as they ought.

[danthecapriman]

Nice job. Glad it turned out to be something pretty easy once you found it.

That wiring bodge is terrible!

[tooSavvy]

With the Cam sprocket free to whirl in open air.... why not bodge up a 'paddle fan' onto the pulley, add a 'tin pot' cover and then have a nice draught directed back across the carb/fannymould.

 

*inspiration from 'vac pumps', on Diesel camshafts....

 

 

TS

[vulgalour]

er... anyone?  You've lost me there, tooSavvy.

[tooSavvy]

er... anyone?  You've lost me there, tooSavvy.

 

...err - like a dash blower but on the cam end not an electric motor .. ..

 

TS

[vulgalour]

So that it can cool... the carburettor?  I'm not sure what this would be for.

[tooSavvy]

Hmm... recalibrate this post... shall we?

 

I saw the whizzing sprocket/read comment of 'heat soak issues/thought of free blower ** opportunity **

 

 

.... where was my nice comfy stone....

 

 

TS

[vulgalour]

ah, that problem.  I fitted a sheet of aluminium as a heat shield and so far that seems to be doing the trick.

[Des]

If carburettors were supposed to be cool they'd be wearing Raybans.

[Eddie Honda]

Mmmm PYES!

 

 

Look at the back of the box - note outline of other wedge shaped vehicle usage.

 

 

I've got a BNIB 2279. Bought only because I had fond memories of having one before in my old Wolseley 16/60 auto (later being transferred to Reliant Rebel no 1)

 

passenger: I wanna here that song again.

me: [ejects tape, flips it over and has to fast forward to find the right place using skill and judgement if not track 1]

 

Edit to add: It was also fitted in my Mk1 Austin 1100, with gaffer tape to the bottom of the case to insulate it from the metal strip on the under-dash parcel shelf, because positive earth car.

[vulgalour]

Double post

[vulgalour]

Pic from way back in 2012, a few days after buying the car.

 

 

 

I could fit a brand new head unit, I'm not going to.  Instead, I'm going to fit the Radiomobile radio I liberated from the orange car, the PYE tape deck (not sure what model but it has an impressive* 10Watt output!) and speakers and, if I can find a place for it, the analogue graphic equalizer I've been hoarding for a few years.

 

The parcel shelf is actually equipped with cut-outs for a central oval speaker (presumably bass) and two outer round speakers and I've already made use of that by starting the installation of a spare pair of front door Princess speakers I had in the stash.  I need to get two new speakers for the PYE speaker boxes as the old paper ones were goosed and they can then be screwed down to the parcel shelf properly and wired in.

 

It won't give me fantastic audio and there are better ways to build a system but this would be in the spirit of the build.  I've never known anything other than analogue radio and tape cassettes in a car so it's no great loss to me and the cost of installation should be minimal if not totally free.  It's a fun little post-MoT job to look forward to.

[Eddie Honda]

the PYE tape deck (not sure what model but it has an impressive* 10Watt output!)

10W Peak, 0.00000001W RMS.

 

It's a 2278, the little brother of my one,

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

just drop something like this into the boxes

http://www.halfords.com/technology/car-audio/car-speakers/edge-ed204-4-v2-car-speakers

[Noel Tidybeard]

...errr those wont fit as they 10cm whereas the pye ones seem to be 12cm so you'd need these

http://www.halfords.com/technology/car-audio/car-speakers/edge-ed205-5-25-v2-car-speakers

[meshking]

10W Peak, 0.00000001W RMS.

 

It's a 2278, the little brother of my one,

 

Awww, that brings back memories. My first car had one of those fitted. The car was a yellow and black 2CV charleston, which is still kicking about in the club. The tape deck was useless, you couldn't hear it on the move and when you stopped you wouldn't want to hear it through its single speaker mounted on the front parcel shelf.

[vulgalour]

Urgh, old cars  .  Started her up to move her around the yard and found a leaking coolant hose, that at least was a simple case of tightening a jubilee clip.  I cleared the stuff out that doesn't need to be in the car any more and intended to reattach the front parcel shelf today.  First, I wanted to find out why the hazard switch wasn't working and went through the various controls.  Now the heated rear screen switch isn't illuminating and the indicators have stopped working.  First check was under the dash to make sure nothing was adrift, and it wasn't, so next stop was the fuse box where I found a blown 16amp fuse.

 

Turned the ignition off, forgot to disconnect the battery and promptly burned my thumb putting a new fuse in which blew straight away.  I knew the fuses I'd bought weren't the best so Mike dug out a better quality one and we fitted that since it was highly likely the fuses were just bad ones being so cheaply made.  That also blew.  A multi-meter check (which we probably should have started with) showed that something was drawing power through that fuse as soon as the battery was connected, just no idea what.  Best guess is an earth point is corroded or there's a wire adrift somewhere that I haven't found and couldn't find today.  The fuse is for Ignition Other Accessories, so I'm guessing that's things like radio which there isn't one of in the car at the moment.  Why that would affect the indicators, I don't know.

 

It's likely the problem is behind the dash because on checking the boot and engine bay all the wires, connectors and earth points were fine.  It's not grounding through the throttle cable either, which is good.  I expect the old radio wiring is at fault, there's no radio in the car at the moment and that's the one point that's likely to have a live wire earthing out somewhere it shouldn't.  I hate electrical jobs, but I still love this car.  It's possible it's ignition switch related, I'm not sure how and would expect it to blow a different fuse if it were, but that's the only electrical thing that's been disturbed since the indicators were last operational.

[scaryoldcortina]

Stray live wire (probably from a radio) earthing out behind the dash is my guess.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Excellent WTF moment obtained from that wing mirror, for which thanks.  I hope you get the problem fixed easily.

[michael1703]

I hope you're disconnecting the battery overnight

[vulgalour]

I am.  Don't want it to catch fire or whatever.

[DeeJay]

I hope you're disconnecting the battery overnight

 

I am.  Don't want it to catch fire or whatever.

 

I bet you wouldn't of done if you hadn't burnt your thumb.