project 1980 Austin Princess

[vulgalour]

Maxi.

[320touring]

Maxi.

4 gears you can get beats 5 you can't find..

[cort1977]

Great to see this finally doing some miles for you Vulg.  Think you're exactly right that cars need to be given some time to wake up, components free up with use, stale fuel gets flushed through and so on.  Maybe a longer road trip with some fast sections would help things along?

[purplebargeken]

Using car...... good. We like using cars.

[vulgalour]

Princess is having to live outdoors at the moment because of the ongoing shed saga meaning I can't put her in the garage where she belongs.  Makes for a good photo opportunity with the snow that's happened at least.  Started on the 26th when some came down enough to stick, which I found out when going out to see if I'd left my phone in the car... I hadn't, and just ended up with cold feet as a result.

20180226-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The next day was one of those lovely bright clear ones that was also bitterly cold.

20180227-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Fortunately I haven't had to go out anywhere, work has been keeping me at my desk and the cupboards are well stocked, which is fortunate given the weather.  I haven't the greatest confidence in the Princess' snow abilities on the current tyres and our little housing estate is never gritted or cleared.  The Rover isn't much better really, the tyres it wears are next to useless on snow.  Winter tyres are a luxury I haven't been able to afford, something to aim for next winter as I know they make a surprising difference to handling and stopping and I do have enough spare sets of wheels to accomodate them.  It's been snowing pretty much all day on and off today.  I did clear the drive of snow and ice only for it to snow again and fill up what I'd cleared,  at least there's no ice to break my limbs on now.  We're expecting more snow and have an Amber warning for our area so I'm just hoping I don't need to venture out until it's all cleared up again at this point.  Looks pretty though.

20180228-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180228-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

The Princess was/is a gr8 snowmobile. FWD, weight over wheels, 185 boots on narrow steels and 22 psi. WCPGW?

 

My Old Man's was just about unstoppable in the winter of 1981.

[vulgalour]

Had a little bit of thundersnow last night and a few more inches of snowfall.  I like how quiet everything is, all that irritating background noise of other people doing things and the constant buzz of traffic gone.  All the other little noises muffled away by a blanket of chilly white stuff.  Fine for me in my nice toasty house, not so much for the homeless, of course.

 

20180301-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180301-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180301-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Nearly 8" of snow now and we're forecast for more

[Mally]

I thought you would have a more artistic snowdrift than that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vulgalour]

If there were more I could carve it into a miniature Guggenheim museum.

[oldcars]

Funny you say how it seems quieter with the snow. I thought the same this morning until i ruined it by firing up the Rialto.

[vulgalour]

Today has been parcel day and in some of those parcels were things for the Princess.  First to arrive was another nodding tiger.  Long term readers will remember the one I repainted after the sun through the back window destroyed the flocking on it.  The sun through the back window has destroyed the paint on it too!  I think I'm going to get a super light UV tint of some sort on the back window, I can't be having that.  Anyway, I'm now the owner of two lumpen nodding tigers, but they shan't be going back in the car until I do something about that back window.

20180307-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180307-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180307-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Next to arrive was the speedo cable, this time one still in its original packaging and with all the protective caps intact, something I've not seen before with one of these items.  It literally is as new.  The listing I bought it from even showed a cross reference for the part so I could confirm it was definitely for my car so I was fairly confident it would fit.

20180307-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180307-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180307-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Unlike the cable on the car - itself a replacement to the one that was on the car when I bought it - the end of this new one has a plastic reducer rather than just ending in a metal piece.

20180307-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

There were a few discrepancies between the two cables.  The new cable is slightly longer, has a slightly different casting on the gearbox end screw, has a slightly different profile to the drive at the gearbox end, has a larger gromit (that actually fits the hole in the bulkhead), and has a plastic reducer piece at the speedo end.  That said, it does fit perfectly fine and was actually much easier to located in the binnacle since I actually had a bit of cable to use.

20180307-15 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

A quick test drive shows that  it works perfectly fine.  I also found out why the other brake light was out, which is simply that the bulb had somehow fallen out of the holder so I put it back in where it belongs.  The other thing to arrive today is the new downpipe.  It is pristine, with undamaged flanges, straight downpipes, an intact gearbox stay bracket and a flexi joint that actually flexes about!  I'm really hoping this resolves the exhaust issue.

20180307-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180307-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20180307-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Other thing I checked when I got home was for any oil spots under the car and there just isn't anything at all.  I find this incredibly strange.  Removing the old speedo cable and fitting the new one also didn't end up with me covered in oily sludge.  All very odd.

[Squire_Dawson]

Good stuff. I have a feeling everything is going to turn out fine.

[Des]

That nodding tiger is just asking for red LED eyes, maybe movement activated or wired into the tail lamps. And get him a bobble hat knitted.

[vulgalour]

I probably shouldn't have tried to do the exhaust today, I'm not quite over this cold so lots of fun coughing fits were had and Mike ended up doing rather more of the job than was perhaps fair as a result.  Also, I forgot my camera, so was relying on my phone which isn't that good.  Anyway, enough of me whinging, what did we do?  Old exhaust off and after rather a lot of effort, the single slip joint was split so we could compare old and new downpipe sections.  Happily they are both the same.  Offering up the new one for dry-fitting and it pretty much fell exactly into place, a far cry from what we were dealing with before!

 

Rejoining the two halves of the exhaust proved rather more difficult since both halves are aftermarket and the central slip joint required about an inch taking off the new pipe so the join would actually sit in the correct place.  You do expect this sort of thing when you're mixing and matching parts, so it wasn't too much grief.  As it happens, the front manifold joints that also used to be impossible to seal actually sealed really easily.  It was as if the parts I had were actually supposed to fit together! Clamps tightened and minimal exhaust paste used just in case.  It was not a chore to align, this was very strange.

 

Mike spent some time making a new stay bracket from the once I'd fashioned some time ago for the old exhaust since all that was left of the car's original was this.

20180308-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

That's supposed to be a bent shape so it can clamp to the C clamp the exhaust came with.  Our bracket is a little crude but it works, it should also help prevent the manifold joint from splitting, especially in combination with the better flexi this pipe has.

20180308-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

With everything on and double checked under there it was time to start the car.  I did find an oil leak, though very minor, which is from the end of the oil pressure switch I suspected was leaking.  We suspect there might be another minor leak somewhere, but it was hard to tell if it was wicking back from the oil pressure switch or creeping along the  water splashed up from driving on wet roads.  I'll replace the switch and then we'll know for definite.  Also, I'd forgotten a new clip was fitted to the CV boot that I thought had one missing, so that's one less job to worry about.

20180308-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Set the car back on the ground, started it up and... it's quiet.  It's *really* quiet.  It's never been this quiet all the years I've owned it.  The exhaust rattle is now gone too, still not sure what that was knocking on but I'm glad it's not now.  On the drive home the speedo packed in again, which was a little odd.  I could hear it clicking against something as I was driving though so when I got home I checked and it looks like I hadn't quite clicked it home on the speedo properly, once unplugged and plugged back in again, it's working normally.

 

Princess is now in better health than at the last MoT.  That gives me the warm fuzzies.  Providing I get a pass at test time (and I don't see why I won't), I should just have those tiny bits of welding to things like the door bottoms to do and paintwork now.  This is where I've wanted to be with this car for ages, it feels good.

[320touring]

Superb:)

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Today has been parcel day and in some of those parcels were things for the Princess.  First to arrive was another nodding tiger.  Long term readers will remember the one I repainted after the sun through the back window destroyed the flocking on it.  The sun through the back window has destroyed the paint on it too!  I think I'm going to get a super light UV tint of some sort on the back window, I can't be having that.  Anyway, I'm now the owner of two lumpen nodding tigers, but they shan't be going back in the car until I do something about that back window.....

Maybe a third one hanging from the fuel filler cap?

 

...Other thing I checked when I got home was for any oil spots under the car and there just isn't anything at all.  I find this incredibly strange.  Removing the old speedo cable and fitting the new one also didn't end up with me covered in oily sludge.  All very odd.

 

 

Possibly because it's colder now?

 

That nodding tiger is just asking for red LED eyes, maybe movement activated or wired into the tail lamps. And get him a bobble hat knitted.

I didn't know you could get nodding tigers. I'd like a nodding philosopher for the Citroën, because French.

[purplebargeken]

Excellent outcome.

[timolloyd]

Very pleased for you. Can't wait to read about the first longer runs!

[plasticvandan]

Only when something like a noisy pipe is fixed,do you realise how bad it really was

[vulgalour]

It's weird how almost every annoying noise is now gone too.  With the exception of a trim rattle somewhere (forgivable, given its age), every other annoying noise is gone.  That old exhaust must have been comprehensively fucked, had it been an easier part to replace I would have done so a LOT sooner, but the O series downpipes don't come up for sale very often, the one I bought is only the second one I've seen in six years of ownership.  The  B and E series engines are far easier to find parts for,  especially the E series in fact, which are rather spoiled for choice most of the time.

[vulgalour]

Okay, so, in an attempt to get more miles on this I've been pootling about for a few hours today in it, trying to balance stuff I need to do with the spare time I have, and I can report that the noisiest thing in the cabin now is the comforting whine of the gearbox and the whirr of the speedo cable.  I have never had these noises be the loudest in the car before, it's very offputting having it be so quiet!  There was a clickety noise that I hadn't really heard before which I thought might be the manifold gasket blowing but, when I checked, it's just the engine internals making their regular engine noises.

 

I also checked my tyre pressures, something that you need to remove the hubcabs to do or have tiny child fingers to get in at the valve caps and yeah, I should have maybe checked that more recently as one was down at 21psi and another at 25psi.  Inflated them all back up to 28psi (book says 24psi and 26psi, other owners say 30psi, I find 28psi is the happiest medium for comfort and handling) and the only discernible difference is that it rides a bit smoother on broken surfaces.  That's one flaw with the Hydragas, when you've got a low or flat tyre you can't really tell when you're driving.

 

Sploshed some fresh fuel in and that's helped with a bit of an occasional chunter.  It's not a misfire or hunting, it's just every now and then there's a bit of a chunter.  I'm pretty sure this is down to stale fuel as the more fresh I've put in and the more I've used the car, the less its appeared.  It's been so well behaved on today's errands that it's given me a bit of a confidence boost about its reliability now.  I'm not confident enough to make the 300 mile journey down south to visit my other half just yet, but I might end up doing that since I'd like to stagger the Rover and Princess MoT dates a bit further than 1 week, so I might end up with the Princess being my only road legal car for a bit yet.  We shall see.

[Parky]

The engine might still be in a state of tune more suitable for 4 star fuel which as I recall was 98 Octane.

 

Are you using normal or super unleaded? I find chucking in a tank of something higher octane (Tesco Momentum 99 or Shell V Power Nitro seem good) can help where the engine feels like it's missing a little something

[oldcars]

Love the nodding tiger its class. 

[SiC]

Excellent work. Does the lack of noise add or hinder confidence in it?

 

These updates have made me want to give my MGB a spin to increase my confidence in it. Even left work early to. Naturally it's peeing it down, so cba.

 

Has your other half had a trip in it yet?

[vulgalour]

Parky:  It seems to prefer regular to premium, so that's what I run it on.  When you feed it premium it goes lumpy, runs on badly every time you turn it off and is generally horrible.  On regular it behaves like a car should.  I really do think it's more down to stale fuel than anything else.  I'll be rechecking the state of the tune on it since it was last done when sporting a different air filter, so the tune could be slightly off.

 

SiC: A quiet car is a suspicious car.  Makes me feel like it's planning to break something difficult at the worst moment.  At least when it's noisy and farty and smelly and only half-working I know how to coax it along.  When its behaving I get very nervous.  Other half has been in it once, wasn't so sure about it until he took a ride and now he's adamant that it'll live in a garage of its very own when we find the right house so I'd say  he's pretty sold on it.  I might even let him drive it one day, if he can control his Kentish driving habits.

[Zelandeth]

Very much like me with the Lada then.  If there's at least something not working properly I'm at ease.  If everything is working right, I immediately become hugely suspicious of the thing and start wondering what will decide to play up next.

 

At least the carb, AFR, distributor and EGR systems no longer exist, so it can't pick those to mess around with...the tail lights have been replaced, so the usual musical dodgy earths there are no longer on the table...Oh, wait...the heater fan has just started squealing...there we go...normality has been restored!

[vulgalour]

*phew*  I was worried you had a fully functional car for a minute there.

[Zelandeth]

*phew* I was worried you had a fully functional car for a minute there.

See also: why I'm loathe to fix the squeaky belt, creaky strut or regas the A/C on the Activa...it has the potential to mess me about in so many other truly exciting ways that car...

[dozeydustman]

Excellent progress, I'm sure the beige beast will sail through the mott no problem when it comes round to it.

 

I might even let him drive it one day, if he can control his Kentish driving habits.

 

 

What's wrong with Kentish driving habits? I feel hurt.

[vulgalour]

What's right with Kentish driving habits?  Bullying, fiddling with phones, shouting out the window, tailgating, razzing the tits off your car in ever gear...  Calm down, dear!