project 1980 Austin Princess

[vulgalour]

I did many hours of work yesterday so I could get a larger chunk of time in on the Princess today.  Pretty worn out as a result.  First job was getting the clutch fastened in place properly once it was aligned.  The clutch alignment tool we have is too short for the Princess' clutch so I improvised with various suitable diameter tools to get it in the right place.
20170123-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
 
A lot of time was spent between Mike and I scrubbing off grime and grease and scraping off old gasket material to prepare the gearbox housing components for reassembly.  To make sure all was healthy, Mike wanted to make sure the bearings weren't dry and followed instructions in the manual to set about removing a bearing to repack with grease, before realising it could just be oiled because of how everything works.  We then couldn't get the bearing to seat back in fully and don't have a press, so he's going to sort this out tomorrow.   The  parts all look lovely and clean now at least, we just couldn't get the gearbox back together because of this.  Rookie error because it's a weird gearbox and we're both new to this particular design, the manual makes it very easy to get *too* involved in a job.
20170123-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
 
The cold air feed bracket I'd previously repainted now has the rubber insert refitted and the cold air intake pipe in place.  I need to replace the rubber insert because it has some historic damage and that pipe could do with being replaced too because someone in the past has brush-painted just the top surface with silver paint.  It's a bit too fragile to clean and since it's spiralised ducting I'm hoping I can just buy a length of generic replacement in black or silver.
20170123-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
 
Some of the old wiring loom wrap had come undone so I re-wrapped that.  I then did some wire tidying and used some tiny cable ties just to get everything more respectable.  This has to be the first time the engine bay wiring has ever actually looked tidy in my ownership.
20170123-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
 
When we measured up the rubber radiator hose to replace the damaged steel coolant pipe we found it was too short.  Instead, I chopped out the worst part of the old pipe, repainted it with some VHT silver and bridged the missing section with the radiator hose that happened to be exactly the right diameter for the job.
20170123-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
 
20170123-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
 
Ah yes, and the radiator went back in!  It's not in the way of the engine when fitted and I reckon it will be a lot easier to put in now than when the engine is in.  Before fitting, the Rover 400 fan (bubble type, not R8) it was wearing was removed (but not binned, because it still works really well and is a good back-up).  Before that, the spare original radiator fan was tested and found to be working well, the fixings were a bit stubborn and since I want to get the radiator refurbished in the future I decided not to fight with it and just get it back in the car for now.  One very odd thing about the radiator - which was salvaged from the orange Princess I broke a few years ago - is that someone had chopped the plug off and twisted the wires back together to reverse the fan.  This would mean the fan was pulling hot air out of the engine bay, through the radiator, and trying to expell it out of the front of the car because the fan was fitted in the factory location when I removed it.  That's UTTERLY baffling.  Mike corrected it and resoldered the joints properly.  He had to use loom wrap as we'd run out of heatshrink.
20170123-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
 
There was a bit of faff figuring out which side it went to and getting the bolts to line up, the radiator and fan together are a very tight fit but the dipstick and distributor are much more accessible with the factory fan installed.
20170123-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr
 
Frustratingly close to done now.  It is at least just a case of bolting things back together, there's very little cleaning to do and only one engine bracket left to paint.  One more long afternoon and it should be sorted.
20170123-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

[plasticvandan]

Stick the bearing in the freezer overnight,should fall in in the morning

[Stanky]

Excellent work, looks to be in the home straight now! I agree with PVD though, bearing in the freezer (or just outside the back door in this bloody weather!) and it should go in easier tomorrow.

[vulgalour]

Need a bigger freezer.  You see the gear on the casing?  The bearing is on that and won't come out or go in, so I need a freezer big enough to put the WHOLE casing in.  It wasn't knocked all the way out, just far enough for Mike to realise it only needed oil and not packing with grease, and now it won't go back in with the tools we have.  Bit of a nuisance.  Fortunately a neighbouring garage has a press and they'll have it sorted in about 5 seconds, they just weren't open when we needed them today.

[danthecapriman]

Great job Vulg, engine bay looks superb!

[320touring]

Looks like cracking progress there chap- good effort by thee and Mike.

 

I have a clutch to do on my Toledo, and I'm awaiting better weather before tackling it.

[purplebargeken]

A clean and tidy engine bay makes life that bit more warm and fuzzily happy.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

That's great work Vulg - nicely tidied...... I tend to end up going overboard and redoing (for example) the radiator ends there - repainted, the front panel as 'Im doing the inner wings anyway etc.... and then end up with a job taking far far too long and pissing me off royally.

Excellent finish, top work on the cabling and pipework too. Good luck with the bearing.

 

I keep 'finding' things to do at home instead of hitting the garage at the moment - too bloody cold!

[Zelandeth]

For that cold air intake pipe, how about just giving it a blow over with one of the darker shades of alloy wheel paints?  Should allow it to take on a "clean" but not too blindingly bright and shiny appearance, so it at least doesn't stick out like a sore thumb once everything's reassembled.

[vulgalour]

For the pipes, it turns out www.carbuildersolutions.com does exactly the ducting I need in original spec, so I'll be ordering suitable lengths of that once everything is back together again, bit more expensive than trying to refurbish/repaint the existing pipes but a whole load easier.

 

---

 

I am finally winning with this job!  With the housing all clean, the new release bearing was installed with some copper grease, the R-clps reinstated and everything checked for security and mobility.

20180124-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

With all the relevant surfaces cleaned up, I got the new gaskets out and put the big one on ready for the clutch housing to be dropped in place.  Mike had been into the unit before me today but other jobs meant he couldn't stay to help.  For the most part this wasn't a problem as it was nearly all one-person work really.  He did find a longer clutch alignment tool and confirmed my improvised approach was accurate, like there was ever any doubt.

20180124-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Clutch housing was slipped into place, which went surprisingly easily, and bolted down where needed.  I then reinstalled the remote drive gears, being sure to get them the correct way around, and the locking washer and bit nut, which was a bit of a faff trying to tighten the nut and lock the flywheel on my own, but I managed it.  The fiddly sunken nut was reinstated too,  which again went much easier than I expected.  With that done it was time to reinstall the end plate and I found that there were only two ways the new gasket would nearly fit but none that it actually would.  The gasket looks to be a bad cut, if you stretch it a little it does all line up, you'd just never get it to seal properly because it's paper rather than rubber.  It's almost as though the template slipped when they were cutting it out.  Oh well, it happens, and even though the packet lists this gasket and seal set as suitable for the 1700 manual my car is equipped with, perhaps there was some peculiar difference back when it was new.  RTV to the rescue on this job.

20180124-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180124-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The end plate dropped on very easily, the RTV looks to have squidged out just enough to suggest a good seal, so I'm hoping this doesn't leak once everything is filled with oil.  After some jiggery pokery with the jack and engine stand I had one engine mount in place and bolted in loosely.  Didn't want to do the bolt up fully until the other three were fitted so that I have a little bit of alignment wiggle room if I need it.  I couldn't figure out the correct way around for a couple of the engine mount brackets, partly because Mike removed them so I had no memory to help me with on this job,  and partly because I was getting a bit work blind  trying to remember stuff.  I pretty much ran out of things to do at that point so tidied up and went to get some axle stands to support the engine rather than relying on the jack and engine crane hydraulics and managed to smack my head hard enough on a shelf that I felt ill.  Whomever put the axle stands in a big jumbled mess right in the corner underneath the shelves, half boxed in with other things, was an idiot.  Perhaps not as big an idiot as me who went and injured himself trying to get useable axle stands out.  Oh well.  I can't wait to get my own workshop some day that nobody else is ever allowed to reorganise so this stuff doesn't happen.

20180124-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180124-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

It's almost in properly now at any rate.  Bolting up engine mounts, a bit of belt-side degreasing and then fresh fluids and a test run can be done.  Weirdly, I haven't really felt stressed out by this job even though it has been an absolute chore.  There's more work to do on the car after this, of course, but doing the clutch was always going to be a massive job since there were so many other smaller jobs I wanted to get done at the same time, perhaps it's the satisfaction of getting those smaller jobs done that's cancelled out the frustration of the bigger clutch job?

 

More updates when I have them.  Might not get further on this until the weekend as Mike may need my help with the Wolseley to get it ready for it's MoT on Friday.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Well done Vulg. This is a job that sucks alien apocalypse monster balls 24/7 but you are making a sweet job of it.

[vulgalour]

It feels like a rite of passage.

[Parky]

God that looked horrendous to do. Well done Vulg (and Mike too)

[Asimo]

New thermostat housing required!

Shame they used such cheap, cheasy metal for this. I was worried about the state of this part when my car was 4 years old.

[vulgalour]

One of the big reasons for swapping the head since that housing won't come out of the old head without smashing it to bits and the good one in my replacement head the car is currently wearing is likewise stuck!  One time, all the water came out on the motorway because of that broken bit and I had to fix it with metal putty in a Tesco car park and fill the coolant system up with sodding mineral water to get me home.  Ah, memories.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

I have to admit - fwd clutch jobs (I've only done 3) were all on mates cars and I always said Never again........ dont know why but they fought me every bloody inch of the way.

You've made it seem* piss easy in comparison........ well done fella. I'll also admit I'm nowhere near as methodical as you though, so am sometimes my own worst enemy - Oh - and also usually that idiot who puts the most useful tool/tool you'll need next where you'll be injured picking the damn thing up!

 

Do you have a planned fill up and test it out date?

[MikeKnight]

Fun handy tip; the clutch shaft on these comes out with a small press or a lump hammer as it's integrated with its own bearing (and held on with a C clip). Ours fell out accidentally when the housing got knocked but the handy thing about it is you can then use it as a perfect clutch alignment tool. As long as you have access to a small press it presses right back in to the housing when done. Thanks BL!

 

I was slightly annoyed Angyl managed to align the clutch by eye, something I have never been able to do accurately. I believe my exact words in the text to him were "you jammy bastard".

[vulgalour]

Today has been the longest day ever.  It was so long Mike ordered pizza to enjoy at the unit instead of going home and cooking food and it's STILL not finished.  Most of the jobs remaining I could do myself but Mike's help was invaluable faffing about with the engine mounts.  With those secured I could work my way through the many items still to fiddle about with and get reinstated.

20180125-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I removed, cleaned and repainted the clutch slave cylinder before fitting it with a cable tie for the rubber boot since it didn't have one when we removed it.  I haven't been able to find a gaiter the right size, I got close with some tractor parts, but not quite close enough to actually fit in the hole so I'm using the old one for now, turned around so the better looking side is to the top since it's too fragile to even  clean.  I also removed, cleaned out and repainted the oil catch can/breather and replaced the pipe that runs from it to the carburettor since the pipe was completely blocked.

20180125-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The original air box - which I'd refreshed a year or two ago and still looked fine - was reinstalled along with some salvaged ducting, I'll be replacing the ducting with new eventually.  Also refitted the cam cover and bracket and improvised some grommets so it doesn't rattle.  I've been unable to find any of the original conical shaped grommets in the size I need for this so I'm hoping my improvised approach is sturdy enough to last a while.  Carburettor, heatshield and cables all reinstated.  Rotor arm and distributor cap refitted.  Oil dipstick cleaned of yet more brush paint too.

20180125-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

There was a little hiccup when installing the battery when the thread on one of the clamp rods stripped.  Luckily I had a spare, unluckily that was destined for the 1100 so I'll have to source another clamp rod for the 1100 now.  Did my best with the wiring around the battery, none of which is attractive, and added a band of electrical tape to the coil so it actually fits the clamp properly now.  Plug leads aren't plugged in yet, that's a job for next time.  Popped the front wheel covers back on too, they were taken off when we thought we might have to remove the driveshafts.

20180125-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180125-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180125-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

With the engine bay all tidy, got the plastics reinstalled and that was it for today.  Doesn't sound like a lot but because of all the up-and-down and fighting with bolts and all that, I invested about 6 hours work in this today.  The engine bay looks pleasantly complete now.  The indicators need new bullet connectors, the gear selector rod seal needs replacing, the oil pressure sender needs resealing and then it can be filled with oil and water, tested for leaks, and fired up once all is good.

20180125-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

[purplebargeken]

I suppose with this job out of the way shortly, virtually everything else you do on the car will seem like the biggest doddle of ever.

[vulgalour]

It had better!

[Des]

I wonder if a section of steering rack gaiter would do for the clutch arm, you can thicken up the bit that goes in the aperture by gluing inside pleats together, glue in an O ring.

Actually no, knit one for it. With a little bobble. And a matching cover for that SU dashpot, like what old ladies make for bog rolls, with a bobble.

[vulgalour]

I need to find something that's 45mm for the big hole (which is oval, not round) at the bottom and 15mm for the small hole (which sits snug to the clutch arm itself) at the top and about 30mm tall.  The original one has a large flange (stop it) that tucks into the housing and smaller flange (careful) that sits on top.  Nearest I could find was a tractor gear lever gaitor which was about the right diameter at the top, but too small at the bottom and about twice as tall as I wanted. Some balljoint covers look like they might be about right if I could find one that was a large enough diameter at the bottom.

[Eddie Honda]

...large enough diameter at the bottom.

 

Fnarr fnarr!

[MikeKnight]

It's a pity it's such a "messy" engine as the engine bay itself looks really nice now.

 

I don't mean vulg's engine itself is messy but rather the design of it by BL is very slapdash with wires going everywhere. The dizzy would've been better served on the end of the cam where there is oodles of room for it, rather than sticking out like a sore thumb right in the middle of the head.

 

In comparison, the E-series straight six in the Woolsely is a very tidy engine indeed.

[vulgalour]

Today should have been a simple case of a couple of minor jobs, fresh fluids, and a test drive.  Easy peasy, right?  WRONG.

 

Let's start with the good updates, we can get onto the frustration later.  I bought a replacement air compressor since my old Italian one stopped working for reasons unknown.  We thought it might be the brushes and while they're worn, they're not failing to do their job.  Doesn't matter what you do with it, it's like the compressor can't put enough air out to make more than a pathetic dudududu noise and the tiniest of squeaks from the horns.  Luckily, you can take the whole thing apart so I'll do a full inspection on this at some point.  For now, I ordered a cheap compressor online and now have working horns again at least.  Mike also redid the indicator connectors and I did a bit more wire tidying with some loom tape, so that's good too.  Here's the inside of the Italian compressor from the top, there's two bolts underneath that release the base plate which should allow me to check out the motor internals/windings which I  planned to do today, but the Princess had other ideas about my time management.

20180128-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The other small successful job was removing, cleaning and thread-locking the oil pressure switch.  I still suspect this is leaking out of the plastic bit that the spade connector goes in, now everything is clean I should learn whether or not it is pretty quickly.  If it does leak where I think it is, I'll try sealing it up with some suitable sealant first and if that doesn't work I'll get a replacement.  It's quite difficult to remove and refit without taking belts and pulleys off, but you can do it with a little patience and an old fashioned spanner.

20180128-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

With all the small engine bay jobs now done, attention could turn to the last really big job, which was the gearbox selector rod seal.  You have to remove the lower stay bar (big black one running the width of the car in the following picture) for the best access and then undo the nut and bolt holding the gear selector stay rod.

20180128-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Push the little rubber caterpillar back and you've got two roll pins to knock out of the gear selector rod bush, one running horizontally that you can see here, and one running vertically that you can't.  Both come out fairly easily.

20180128-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180128-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

That allows you to unbolt the gear selector box which is just two nuts on the bobbins under the gear lever, unplug the reverse light switch wires and lower the whole assembly out of the car.  Pretty painless procedure really.

20180128-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

In the gearbox side you can see the black seal that needs replacing.  These are exactly the same as those available for the classic Mini, plentiful and cheap.  The kits you get sometimes come with a metal bush and a rubber caterpillar but neither is suitable for the Princess, you only need the small black O seal providing your caterpillar is in reasonable condition.

20180128-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The old seal in mine was very hard and leaking and one of the main causes of oil drops under the car.  Yet another job I've been putting off for years since it has to be done in tandem with an oil change and there's always been lots of other jobs ahead of it on the list.

20180128-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Princess caterpillar on the left and Mini on the right.  The overall diameter of the Mini one is too small to go over the Princess selector rod bush.

20180128-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Normally, you'd pull the old seal out, push the new one in, bolt everything up and you're done.  However, Mike was convinced we needed to inspect a bush (that doesn't actually exist, so I'm not sure what bush he was thinking of) and we ended up taking the end plate off which, normally, would be unnecessary.  In this instance it highlighted a problem I never knew I had!  Behind the end plate are your gear selector fingers/butterflies.  Part of the assembly is a rod that the selector rod bush goes over, connecting your gearbox to your gear lever, effectively.  I'm not describing this very well, I'm aware, it's been a LONG day.  Anyway, that rod that operates the fingers/butterflies also keeps a top-hat shaped pin in place which is quite important and prevents the selector rod just coming out.  You insert the top hat through the hole and then the rod to lock it all together.  When we pulled this out, the top hat was inserted from the other side with nothing locking it in place, how it never fell out is a mystery.  Luckily the manual highlighted the issue and we could rectify it and I now have a better understanding of why the gear selection makes the very specific noise it does because I've seen inside the gearbox a little more.  Top hat indicated here with a blue arrow.

20180128-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

From the outside you can see the round peg hole that the top hat sits in.  It's now impossible to move the selector rod too far and, incidentally, the gear selection itself seems less vague... though still vague-ish because Princess.  One thing I do have now is a more definite Neutral zone in the gear selection and less of a pudding stirrer.

20180128-11 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

With all those bits sorted, gasket material cleaned off and new gunk applied you can bolt it all back together and jobs a good un.

20180128-12 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

After that was all done we filled up with oil and water, nothing leaked out, and we fought with the exhaust for far too long.  The exhaust on this car is a NIGHTMARE.  It's so bad that when it starts blowing at the manifold joint I just leave it because the design is so bad it usually leaks worse when you try and fix it.  Now why, you might be wondering, was the exhaust off?  Well, when that little gearbox selector end plate thingy was  removed, to sort out the problem we had to remove the exhaust to sort it out, because access is impossible otherwise.  That meant the dreaded job of disconnecting the manifold-to-downpipe join.

 

The exhaust seemed, as it pretty much always does, to change shape for the brief time it was off the car and no amount of fighting, swearing or cajoling would see it sitting comfortably.  We just about got it lined up and when the car was fired up found it was blowing the worst it ever has.  That's because one clamp had completely missed the downpipe flange, something you can't readily see because of the unique way in which this exhaust system is arranged, and now it all has to come off again to be redone.  That wasn't a problem, I have no qualms about driving the car home with only half the exhaust attached since I know this can be sorted on the drive at home at my leisure.

 

Fine, one problem isn't a big deal.  We seem to have no leaks, electrics seem to be working, car starts and runs happily (if noisily) so let's take it for a test run into the yard once we've bled the clutch hydraulics.  That went well ... a little too well perhaps... go for a gear *PAINFUL GRINDING NOISES*.  Bugger.  Furiously pump the clutch pedal and try again *LESS PAINFUL GRINDING NOISES*.  Double bugger.

 

At that point I was done.  Because of the stupid exhaust and the extra gearbox fault to fix Mike and I were there for getting on 7 hours today and we'd both had enough.  Ideally I'd like to throw a new clutch master cylinder, slave cylinder and clutch hose at this but my Google-fu is weak tonight and all I've really been able to find are rebuild kits and classic Mini slave cylinders that look similar to what's fitted.  I'll try again another day.

 

In closing, since the MoT in April I've managed to drive a grand total of 196 miles in this car.  What an almost-year it has been.

[dollywobbler]

Ugh. I'm sure we've all been there with cars that just fight all the way. A few more jobs and hopefully it'll behave for a bit. If not, just replace it with that classy Wolseley. Sorted. You should definitely tell it that this could happen.

[vulgalour]

I am the Richard to its Hyacinth.  Such is my lot.

[chodweaver]

Courage. You're getting there. It just feels like you're not moving forward now because of the progress you have been making.

 

Again, loving the detail in your updates and the quality of your work. (I dream of cleaning and repainting an engine bay.)

 

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I see you're on the Mini Mark 1 forum.

 

A horribly cliquey lot they are! 

 

No idea on the clutch issue - same and the 1100; not enough 'push' due to hydraulics?

[captain_70s]

Is this the worst car on AS in regards to the ratio of time/money/effort spent vs actually having a functional car?

 

It must be close, surely?