project 1980 Austin Princess

[vulgalour]

And went through MoTs like that with lower emissions than expected of a car of its age.  It's just like that.  It's a contrary old lump of a thing.

[Bren]

Your faulty instruments are not a surprise to an SD1 owner - series 2 cars being the worst. Typical of BL at that time but to fair, they never expected your princess to be functional in 2017. Keep at it.

[stuboy]

them fuses, blew 2 on holiday back in 1993 on isle sheppey, spent 3 hrs finding shop that did them

[michael1703]

What carb does it have fitted?

 

If its a HIF it has a flat bottom

 

Take the dash pot off with its 3 screws and pull the piston out.

 

See what the jet height is by eye because twiddling the screw doesn't always work on the HIFs (I work on them daily)

 

The mixture screw has an 'o' ring which furrs up and sticks, the jet is sprung with a bimetallic spring which will let you richen it but won't always go the other way.

 

Looking down from above, turn the screw anti clockwise and the jet should raise up through the jet holder, get the jet and jet holder flush and then turn the mixture screw two turns clockwise as a base setting, then put the piston and dash pot back on and fine tune using the piston lifting pin on the side

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

My Dad's 1979 Princess 1700HL company car was completely reliable.

 

HTH.

[vulgalour]

Michael1703: HIF44, if I remember correctly.  All the internals on the carb were fine when it was got running recently, the idling issue has only come about since running the tank dry by accident so I suspect it's just pulled some crap through past the inline filter and got a bit gummed up inside.  No big deal to take apart a few pieces and free it off again.  It only plays up like this when it isn't used regularly, when I was using it daily it was much less troublesome.

[MikeKnight]

them fuses, blew 2 on holiday back in 1993 on isle sheppey, spent 3 hrs finding shop that did them

 

We're going to change them for a much more practical blade fuse bank at some point in the future, they're not expensive and it'll be easy to fit.

 

The current ceramic type (though they're actually plastic) are 8A and 16A. Closest blades are 7.5A and 15A. I honestly don't think the difference will be enough to set the loom on fire. 

[vulgalour]

With the success of the Rover passing its MoT yesterday, today attention turned again to the Princess to see if we could get to the bottom of this fuse-blowing problem.  First, I got some new screws for the rear speakers (originally front door speakers) just so they weren't rattling around.

 

Mike then patiently tried to help me understand how the wiring was doing what it was doing.  I struggled with that, managed to accidentally pull a spade connector off one of the fog light wires when disconnecting them and eventually we plodded through until we found the fault.  Not a fun job, and not, as it happens, anything to do with the fog lights.  The issue was definitely in here.

 

After figuring out what wires went where and did what we had it down to 3 light bulbs and the front cigar lighter as being the source of the problem.  It seemed to take forever getting to this point and for a time we did think it was to do with the wiring to, or the black plug itself on the main dashboard loom connection piece.  It wasn't.  In the end it came back to the cigar lighter shorting out internally.  I did have another that had done this and replaced it with this one which had been fine until we were preparing the car for MoT.

 

Thankfully, that's an easy replacement and I wanted to upgrade the two cigar lighters in the car at some point anyway so we'll do that now and eliminate two issues.  Halfords had generic ones at something like £4 each that are suitable for Sat Nav connectors which is all I use the cigar lighter for.  I also picked up a windscreen tint since I spotted it and remembered how unpleasant the untinted glass in the Princess can be on a really sunny day.  Hooray for Mike's Halfords discount card too, I'm not going to grumble at the additional 15% discount on these bits.

 

Tomorrow, hopefully, we'll have the car back in one piece and ready for final MoT checks just to catch anything that's been missed.  Once I've shuffled funds around I'll be looking at MoT and insurance options, sadly not VED exempt for a few more years yet.

[DodgeRover]

Good news!

[vulgalour]

Another day of mixed results with the old lump today.  Mike got both of the new cigarette lighters wired in and they work a treat, quite nice that they have green illumination rings to match the dashboard.  I've managed to misplace one of the dials for my old Panasonic radio-casette, it works well enough and you can just swap the one dial onto whichever post you want to operate.  I've got my eye on a couple of period replacement units, they're just all very expensive for what they are.

 

 

Happily got the passenger front seat and the dashboard lower half reinstalled.  Today is the first day the car has felt genuinely close to going for a new MoT, I feel like we've crossed a bridge in terms of the work put in and now it's just desnagging.  Tested the dashboard and things were working quite well too...

 

...were... past tense.  The ignition switch I'd repaired recently has failed completely.  This is why the car won't idle.  I've tried to repair it but it's completely dead.  Most annoying of all is that the spare switch I've got from a 1979 car is different and won't fit, the piece the key goes into on it is a completely different design and 10mm smaller diameter.

 

 

There are other minor jobs that can be done without the switch, it just stops me driving the car since I'm disinclined to hotwire it just so I can wobble around the yard until the MoT is booked.

[Noel Tidybeard]

no need for hotwiring just release steering lock with key and use a screwdriver in the "new" barrel until a more permanent fix can be applied

[vulgalour]

That's a very good point!  I can plug the spare one in temporarily and do that.  The original is so bust you can't even get it to work with a screwdriver.

[Noel Tidybeard]

it could be used as an autoshite immobiliser if you could mount the black box out of sight and still operate it with a "key" of your choice

[michael1703]

The left one is the same as mgb 74-81 the other looks the same as leyland marathon truck

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LUCAS-IGNITION-SWITCH-30397B-THOUGHT-TO-FIT-VARIOUS-LEYLAND-MODELS-/222431897256?hash=item33c9f966a8:g:HKUAAOSwax5Yvoty

 

Or mk1 metro

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Austin-Metro-Mk-1-1980-84-Ignition-switch-/132102315766?hash=item1ec1e95ef6:g:eTwAAOSwo4pYffpm

[vulgalour]

Thank you for the links, Michael, I ordered a brand new one earlier tonight which should be here next week but if it turns out to be unsuitable then the Metro one might do the trick.  I think the same one was suggested on another forum I use.

[vulgalour]

With the Renault no longer preying on my mind I can switch my attention to the Princess properly. It's a huge relief. Didn't have a great deal of time spare today so I was focusing on establishing a pre-MoT desnagging list by going through the car and finding out what does and doesn't work.

I've ordered a new ignition switch of the correct type and until that arrives I'm following the suggestion of using the spare switch and a screwdriver. This worked perfectly and means I can check through everything and find if anything is amiss. Thank you to whoever it was that suggested it.


Mike and I then were a bit perplexed as the car wouldn't idle on more than what sounded like 2 cylinders. We did all the usual checks for fuel and spark and whatnot and it was okay. Checked the carb and even put more fuel in it in case it had already gobbled through the last can I put in but that wasn't it. Finally, we decided to fit the brand new NGK spark plugs I'd bought for when the car returned to the road, on pulling the old ones it was fairly obvious why they weren't working. Three are Bosch and one is a Champion and from memory, I think the Champion came out of my brother's Applause when it had running issues, I just never got around to sorting this out.


New plugs in, all the usual suspects checked such as points gap, and the car sprang to life very willingly indeed and idled quite well. It is obvious the carb needs fine tuning to get things spot on and then I noticed the overflow was weeing petrol out like a racehorse so we turned it off and I've added 'rebuild carb' to the desnag list. It likely just needs a clean out or the float adjusting slightly, it won't be a serious issue. Now attention could be turned to the various functions. Mike resoldered the missing tabs on the passenger door speaker so that we could get balanced sound out of the radio-cassette which now works well. I'm after a radio-cassette of 80s or very early 90s vintage with a green display to match the dash, nothing too fancy or high end, just something on a par with what's in. I'm not in a rush for this as the current one works well and sounds nice enough, it just doesn't match the interior that well.


Interior light is now working reliably rather than when it feels like it.


At the front, all lights function as they should. Imagine the indicators on fully, I was very good at pressing the camera button when the indicators were off, not when they were on. All headlight functions are normal and the horn is instantaneous since having the relay wired in. Obviously I can't photograph the horn going honk so you have to imagine that.


At the back, all the lights are now working with the exception of one reversing light and the brake lights. Suspected dodgy bulb for the former and possibly dislodged switch for the latter. The brakes were working properly, they're not now. I couldn't get a photograph of the indicators in action, I tried a dozen times and just couldn't press the button at the right moment, so imagine those illuminated too.


Almost there. I didn't have time to get the car up in the air to have a wiggle of things underneath. I'm hoping to have enough time this week to get through the last of the niggles and be MoT ready. My updated list is like this:

MoT list update:
> tune the carb
> identify insecure CV joint fail from previous MoT
> identify why brake lights aren't coming on with pedal
> exhaust downpipe/manifold joint is blowing
> exhaust stay needs replacing
> replace hazard relay
> clean carburettor to resolve excessive overflow
> replace fuel gauge (put the original one back in, replacement one broken, original wasn't)
> identify why passenger side reversing light not working
> coolant flush and change
> trim/bend exhaust pipe tip so it clears fog light better

> make hazard switch work - DONE
> identify why fuse #5 is blowing - DONE
> connect fog lights - DONE
> connect number plate lights - DONE
> stick number plates on - DONE
> make the indicator lights work - DONE
> pump up the suspension - DONE
> fit the new tyres - DONE
> fit a new washer jet pump - DONE
> find the loose steering component - DONE
 

[purplebargeken]

Honk! There you go. It wasn't that difficult.

 

Princess is looking coooool!

[Guest Breadvan72]

Deep and lasting joy!

[Guest Breadvan72]

 

 

Interior light is now working reliably rather than when it feels like it.

 

Phew!  That saves you from the Junkman frowny face.

[Parky]

An old Alpine Stereo is what you want - all us kool kidz of the early nineties had one of these:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-alpine-radio-cassette-player-7280L-/222414619444?hash=item33c8f1c334:g:2~kAAOSw4shYA9J4

 

Bit pricey mind - I think they weren't much more than this when brand new, but they do have the advantage of having muchness of green on the facia.

 

Auto Metal, Bi-Level and SCC Head as standard. Any one of these marked you out as highly shaggable in old Romford town in 1991

[michael1703]

Reverse light isn't a testable item so scratch that off.

 

Looking close, I don't smoke but I'm going to smoke a virtual Havana when it passes, fingers crossed

[vulgalour]

I like that, Parky, but it's a bit rich.  I only want to spend about £30 on a replacement.

 

Michael:  not everything on the list are testable items, I'd rather everything be above MoT standard if possible and fully functional otherwise it'll bug me.

[Ghosty]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Classic-ALPINE-TDM-7554R-car-stereo-Cassette-radio/401279521157?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3Df93eeac09da8454abe50dfc379436ad6%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D222414619444

[vulgalour]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Classic-Audioline-car-stereo-cassette-radio/401289509593

 

 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292048608925

 

That top one is pretty much perfect, to look at.  The bottom one is as modern looking as I'd want to go, the way the digital display looks is particularly appealing on that one.  The Alpines are lovely looking things but on reflection I'm not sure they're right for what I'm envisioning.  The new head unit should be more analogue looking I think with very sharp edged buttons and lights.

[dean36014]

I brought one of those Audioline radios brand new from Comet for my mk1 Escort. It went in the cheaply made aftemarket centre console from Harry Moss I think. I thought it was the bee's knees with some pye 3 way shelf speakers.

[vulgalour]

Audioline.... Comet... Harry Moss... PYE.

 

You had me at cheaply made aftermarket centre console.

[purplebargeken]

I had one of those Audioline radios - bought it from a catalogue at not very much per week. Oddly enough I can't recall which car it went into. 

[MikeKnight]

I'll wire the rear speakers in (and the larger middle woofer type if I can find my box 'o speakers which has mysteriously vanished) when we change the radio, mostly because the current radio may struggle to drive all four or five with any amount of oomph.

 

Only annoying thing to changing the radio in this is having to remove the entire bloody dash to do it.

[oldcars]

Another BL part on my Reliant then, that interior light. Be great to see this back on the road, good work.

[vulgalour]

A little more progress made again today in my couple of spare hours before work.  Gradually ticking items off the MoT desnag list and discovering a few new items along the way, as is to be expected really.  I wanted to tackle the last item on my old MoT failure sheet which was the insecure CV joint, something that didn't make any sense.  On getting the car up in the air the first thing I actually noticed was that the centre exhaust hanger has failed pretty spectacularly so I'll have to order some replacement bits for that, pretty sure it's a generic component for this.

 

Then, so I could see what I was doing, scrubbed some degreaser on the worst of the gunge on the gearbox and lower engine before Mike volunteered to jetwash it all off.  Came up pretty well really, a more dedicated scrub should see it looking very presentable.

 

 

The advisory was on the driver's side and now that I could see the boots and clips I could check.  There's absolutely nothing loose here, or missing, or damaged.  Even the steering rack boots are good.  I can only think a mistake was made on the test.  Everything checks out as being completely normal and in rude health so I'm considering that item done.  I even checked the passenger side, just to be extra sure.

 

 

 

Then I had to take the dashboard out.  Again.  Thrice, in fact.  The first time was to replace the fuel gauge with the one I knew worked from the old dashboard.  In the new instrument cluster it too appears not to be working, there should be enough fuel in the tank for it to register in the red but the needle isn't even moving.  I'm going to try and fault find this before reinstalling the dashboard again.  Then I had to remove the dash a second time because I'd dislodged one of the fan plugs on reassembly.  The third time the dashboard was removed was because the seatbelt warning light bulb blew, it was an old bulb so that's probably why, and some new ones have been ordered.  It's annoying that the dash has to come out to replace this bulb, there's no other way to do it as far as I can tell.  Getting quite good at taking this dashboard in and out now.

 

The NOS ignition switch arrived today too.  The loom plug was different and the fixing screw wouldn't bite into the plastic casing properly so there was some modification required.  Mike fitted the Princess loom plug and removed the extra wires from the new switch and then helped me change the old plastic cap onto the new internals.  Bit of a faff, but at least I have an ignition switch that now works beautifully well.  It works so nicely, in fact, I'm more convinced than ever that the supposed 74k or so miles this car has done is a complete fabrication.

 

The carburettor problem was also identified and it's a problem the car has had before which is that of a sticking float.  Internally, the carb is lovely and clean, the new parts I put in a few years ago still look new and once I'd emptied out the fuel and reassembled the carb the car starts on the key and runs quite well.  We're still to set the carb up as it's idling a little high and possibly running a little rich still but I'd run out of time because of the dashboard fiasco so it will have to wait for another day.  Still, for all it was annoying to take the dash in and out so many times, I did get some items off the list and the items added are minor service items for the most part, such as fluid changing.

 

MoT list update:

> clean carburettor to resolve excessive overflow - DONE

> tune the carb

> identify why brake lights aren't coming on with pedal

> identify why passenger side reversing light not working

> replace hazard relay (ordered)

> replace fuel gauge - DONE

> identify why fuel gauge not registering (potentially just not enough fuel in tank)

> coolant flush and change

> exhaust downpipe/manifold joint is blowing

> exhaust stay needs replacing

> exhaust centre hangers need replacing

> trim/bend exhaust pipe tip so it clears fog light better

> bleed the brakes

> identify insecure CV joint fail from previous MoT - DONE

 

> make hazard switch work - DONE

> identify why fuse #5 is blowing - DONE

> connect fog lights - DONE

> connect number plate lights - DONE

> stick number plates on - DONE

> make the indicator lights work - DONE

> pump up the suspension - DONE

> fit the new tyres - DONE

> fit a new washer jet pump - DONE

> find the loose steering component - DONE