Six Cylinders Motoring Notes - What I was driving 15 years ago when I joined Autoshite.

[Six-cylinder]

Today was the breakfast meeting for the Loose Alliance Group at the London Gliding club Dunstable. Another 45 miles of prewar motoring and I am finding it much more natural driving the 20/25.

I even remembered to press the 4th pedal today, anybody want to guess what it does?

[Surface Rust]

1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

Today was the breakfast meeting for the Loose Alliance Group at the London Gliding club Dunstable. Another 45 miles of prewar motoring and I am finding it much more natural driving the 20/25.

I even remembered to press the 4th pedal today, anybody want to guess what it does?

One shot lubrication?

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

I even remembered to press the 4th pedal today, anybody want to guess what it does?

Summons the Butler to serve Afternoon Tea? 

[hairnet]

mustard gas the serfs

 

[Six-cylinder]

49 minutes ago, Surface Rust said:

One shot lubrication?

Yes one shot chassis lubrcation.

[Surface Rust]

5 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Yes one shot chassis lubrcation.

Bit of a cheat as my Merc also has it, albeit it from 30 years later!

[tooSavvy]

3 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Yes one shot chassis lubrcation.

Ahh..... When a pimply yoof, out scrounging bits for my first wheels [MM 1000 van] in a scrappy, I looked at an old hearse, well derelict/rotted/collapsing... It had a network of pipes running to the leaf springs <aye, shocked me !> and a box on the well rotted bulkhead - said Tecalemit.

TYG 😉

🚙💨

[Six-cylinder]

Anybody wondered what happened to our 1989 Mazda 323GLX.

Nothing is the answer, in the spring I put it into storage to get something else out for a change and this week I was ready for a change of car so today I put the Seicento into storage and got out the Mazda.

6 months standing still. @Slowsilver insists on disconnecting batteries when we leave cars in storage and it works, I reconnected the battery and after a bit of churning it started fine without a jump. The n-s rear brake was stuck on but after a bit of forward and backward shunting it freed up and I drove it home.

[Six-cylinder]

3 minutes ago, Surface Rust said:

Bit of a cheat as my Merc also has it, albeit it from 30 years later!

I don't think any of my Mercs had chassis lubrication, which one is yours?

[hairnet]

1 minute ago, Six-cylinder said:

I don't think any of my Mercs had chassis lubrication, which one is yours?

1885

[Surface Rust]

1 minute ago, Six-cylinder said:

I don't think any of my Mercs had chassis lubrication, which one is yours?

1952 220 (w187). Prewar design really so probably a hangover from the past!

[Six-cylinder]

8 minutes ago, Surface Rust said:

1952 220 (w187). Prewar design really so probably a hangover from the past!

That explains it, the oldest I have owned is a W114. My dad had a Fintail and I looked at a couple with the view of purchasing one.

[hairnet]

3 hours ago, Surface Rust said:

1952 220 (w187). Prewar design really so probably a hangover from the past!

pics or else

[Six-cylinder]

Another local car gathering yesterday at Preston Bisset Nursery, which is the last for the year. The thing that stood out to me was the fantastic variety of cars attending on a damp Sunday morning.  

[Six-cylinder]

Last Thursday the brake lights on the Morris 1300 stuck on. I identified it the the hydraulic brake switch and I ordered one.  Today the new brake light switch arrived and decided as it was just take off 2 spade connectors and screw out the old one, screw in the new one I would do it myself.

I put cling film over the brake master cylinder is slow the drain of brake fluid when I took out switch. First problem was the old one was so stuck it tried to rotate the T piece it screws into and bend the brake pipes. Then it rained, after it stopped I griped the T piece with water pump pliers and a 27mm socket on the old switch and it came out.  

Now why the job was a failure, the replacement brake switch threads are so badly made it would not screw on. So many replacement parts are bad quality.

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

Last Thursday the brake lights on the Morris 1300 stuck on. I identified it the the hydraulic brake switch and I ordered one.  Today the new brake light switch arrived and decided as it was just take off 2 spade connectors and screw out the old one, screw in the new one I would do it myself.

I put cling film over the brake master cylinder is slow the drain of brake fluid when I took out switch. First problem was the old one was so stuck it tried to rotate the T piece it screws into and bend the brake pipes. Then it rained, after it stopped I griped the T piece with water pump pliers and a 27mm socket on the old switch and it came out.  

Now why the job was a failure, the replacement brake switch threads are so badly made it would not screw on. So many replacement parts are bad quality.

I'm surprised they use such a sophisticated* design. Triumphs of the same era had a simple plastic switch mounted above the pedal. When you press the pedal a plunger comes out completing the circuit. No need to interfere with the hydraulic lines when replacing them. The above looks like a better engineered set up until you  have to replace it. 

I always felt the BMC side of the company were better engineered than the Leyland side. Having had many Landcrabs and Triumph 2000s, the Landcrabs were definitely better put together. And whilst the Wolseley probably was a direct competitor to the Triumph, the Austin/Morris was meant to be a class below but the quality of all the fittings were just as good as the Wolseley even if they weren't covered in wood. 

So it doesn't surprise me to see this on the smaller cars. I assume a tap and die should be able to clean that thread up then it should be the simple job you were hoping for. 

[Six-cylinder]

16 minutes ago, Yoss said:

So it doesn't surprise me to see this on the smaller cars. I assume a tap and die should be able to clean that thread up then it should be the simple job you were hoping for. 

It is quite I fine thread and I did not fancy trying to find a die so have rejected it on Ebay and bought a different make. Now I have to wait 3 days and I wanted to use the car for a Triumph Club meeting tomorrow night.

[Schaefft]

4 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Another local car gathering yesterday at Preston Bisset Nursery, which is the last for the year. The thing that stood out to me was the fantastic variety of cars attending on a damp Sunday morning.  

Liked for the Lexus LC500. One day...

[Six-cylinder]

I have had better luck today and the replacement Intermotor brake light switch I ordered yesterday due in 2 days came this morning. The threads on this switch have been properly formed and it screwed straight in and worked.

[High Jetter]

Successful screw gets thumbs up from me. Agree the simple Triumph option makes more sense

[Zelandeth]

6 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

I have had better luck today and the replacement Intermotor brake light switch I ordered yesterday due in 2 days came this morning. The threads on this switch have been properly formed and it screwed straight in and worked.

I certainly wouldn't be wanting anything machined that "well" anywhere near my braking system.  Last thing you need is the core popping out the first time you try to do an emergency stop.  That is probably my biggest worry with this type of setup as it's an obvious weak point in the hydraulic circuit.  At least it feels to me like it must be.

I've only sat in it for a few minutes, but was really impressed by that little Mazda.  

[Mr Livered]

On 07/10/2025 at 18:27, Six-cylinder said:

We were given it by @Mr Livered of this parish and I bet he did not expect us to like it, use it, be maintaining it and enjoy it 11 years and 36,500 miles later. It was a very strange feeling getting off a train and being given a free car by a near stranger to drive home nearly 200 miles.

I'm very happy about that; of course the reason I chose to give it away on AS rather than selling it was that I was hoping it would get continued use and love. Eleven years and 36,500 miles is better than I would have dared hope for however, and I must say that she is looking great. To think that the chap who sold it to me thought that it was at the end of its life, all the way back then.

 

You have done that car proud Mr 6CL and I feel vindicated in my decision to pass it on to you. I could probably have got a few hundred quid for it from someone, but the satisfaction I'm still getting in knowing it's doing so well all these years later is worth much, much more.

 

Good on you  

[auntiemaryscanary]

On 18/10/2025 at 18:47, Six-cylinder said:

Anybody wondered what happened to our 1989 Mazda 323GLX.

Nothing is the answer, in the spring I put it into storage to get something else out for a change and this week I was ready for a change of car so today I put the Seicento into storage and got out the Mazda.

6 months standing still. @Slowsilver insists on disconnecting batteries when we leave cars in storage and it works, I reconnected the battery and after a bit of churning it started fine without a jump. The n-s rear brake was stuck on but after a bit of forward and backward shunting it freed up and I drove it home.

My second ever car in about 1994 was a Mazda 323 on a C plate. The log book said it was gold but if it ever was it had faded to beige which matched the interior.

It was bought off a family friend and it was nice little thing especially coming from a base, base level metro (only one wing mirror, no wiring for reversing lights, no radio) and it took me all over the country. The rot set in after a couple of years so it got scrapped and I bought something cheaper and even worse unfortunately...

[Six-cylinder]

9 hours ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

My second ever car in about 1994 was a Mazda 323 on a C plate. The log book said it was gold but if it ever was it had faded to beige which matched the interior.

It was bought off a family friend and it was nice little thing especially coming from a base, base level metro (only one wing mirror, no wiring for reversing lights, no radio) and it took me all over the country. The rot set in after a couple of years so it got scrapped and I bought something cheaper and even worse unfortunately...

I am guessing you mean 1984 on a C plate? That was the model before ours. Do you have a picture of yours?

[hairnet]

Chris in 1994 he had a pre 86 square fronted 323 😛

[auntiemaryscanary]

2 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

I am guessing you mean 1984 on a C plate? That was the model before ours. Do you have a picture of yours?

I'll have a look, it will be on film of course. Yes 84 on a C plate, I bought it around 94.

I remember driving over to the Mazda dealers (long gone of course) to ask if it would run, without modification, on unleaded! They reassured me it was manufactured to do that...

[hairnet]

canary - finger out

 

[Six-cylinder]

Saturday was a Loose Alliance breakfast meeting, but I was charging the Rolls Royce so I took the Morris 1300 instead. The positive side effect was the Morris has a heater that the Rolls Royce doesn’t at 8:30am on a late October morning. There were 30 cars which seems like a decent turnout for the time of year.

[Six-cylinder]

Things did not go well Friday. With the help of @Slowsilver we decided to we would fit a temporary rev counter to my 20/25, it worked nicely but we could not find a route to get the trigger wire from the HT leads to the dashboard. The whole of the firewall is sealed and not even a grommet to push an extra wire through.

The other thing we did is replace the 35amp 25mm fuse I fitted last time it stopped charging with a correct 20 amp 20mm one. This is when it stopped charging but the fuse was not blown.

We taped the rev counter to the outside of the windscreen to give it a go at road speeds and the car would not restart on my drive. It did start with a jump, but had a low battery and as it had stopped charging, we didn’t go out.

Yesterday I charged the battery and set off to drive the car 20 miles to get it sorted and serviced that was booked. After about 6 miles it started charging again, which means we are not going to find out what is wrong. My 20/25 now has another 20/25 to talk to.

[High Jetter]

Early rail carriage undergoing restoration in the background?