1981 Austin Princess - 11/08 - Sold!

Is there any chance that some old crud may have made its way into the carb jet? My V6 Cosworth Cortina refused to run and that was down to blocked injectors through old fuel and crud.

Managed to grab a couple of hours this afternoon to get stuff done. First up was to refit and refill the washer bottle since the new pump arrived today. I cleaned up the bottle for the repair and cleaned up the bulkhead bracket which had some bodyfiller and chewing gum on it just like the bottle did. I'd already tested the bottle to see if it leaked and it all appeared fine with plain water so I risked filling it up with screenwash. Time will tell whether or not my repair is good enough, I may need to redo it if it leaks again but that's no big deal.


The new washer pump arrived and is identical to the old one and works so I got that fitted. Trimmed the washer hose down to get rid of the stuck nub from the old pump and applied a little heat from one of those long-nose gas lighters you get for gas cookers, barbecues, candles, that sort of thing.


Then I pulled the plugs to have a look at them. These plugs are brand new and were fitted when I rebuilt the head, they've done 0 miles so far but they were black with soot which confirms what I already knew about the car running rich. Gaps all look about the same, but my feeler gauges have *disappeared* so I couldn't do any more with this as by the time I'd bought some new ones it was too late to do anything about it. Now I've got the gauges I'll get these gapped properly, get the mixture where it should be on the carb and try again, it looks like there's enough fuel going through to just swamp the plugs and prevent the spark from doing its job.


After this I had a go at replacing the handbrake cable and the rear flexi. The rear shoes are actually in reasonable shape so I'll likely leave them, the handbrake was very good before we cut the cable earlier this year so I'm happy with those. On removing the old cable the circlip that holds it in place in the car snapped, I bought some new ones to sort that out. Again, didn't get any further than threading the cable into place as I just didn't have the time today.

The brake hose I've managed to unseize most of the way but the end of the thread won't come all the way out of the union and I ran the risk of twisting the brake line which is something I really don't want to have to replace. The other issue was when dry fitting the new hose, it only seems to want to cross thread into the union on the hub which I'm not thrilled about so I've got to try and clean the union out so that it doesn't cross thread and I can plumb it all in. Plus-gassed everything that needed it and I'll tackle it again tomorrow.

Final haul for today was a pack of circlips, some grease for the hub and pivot shafts, a tin of plusgas and some exhaust paste, that combined with the 6 litres of oil, new oil filter and hydralastic fluid should see me sorted. I've not had another go at the spare sphere yet beyond taking it out of the vinegar which has removed a *lot* of rust and dousing it in plusgas ready for an attack with the hammer tomorrow.


I must not be beaten by these last few jobs.

Today I have been exhausted and plans to do any work on the orange breaker car were thwarted by the simple fact I just didn't have the physical energy or mental faculty to do it. I did not want it to be a wasted day so I took a look at what could be done on the HLS to get it that bit more sorted.

To start, I removed the dead bonnet struts from the car to replace them with the good ones on the orange breaker. It is much nicer to be able to work under the bonnet without having a prop in the way.


Next, that rear window. One issue with living here is that things go missing, nobody will ever put their hands up to it and things usually turn up again, but it's always the one thing you need that disappears. In this instance it was the fixings for the rear window guides that had vanished (and today, the box of drill bits I could have done with have wandered off). Happily, the fixings I need are on the orange car so I got things all swapped over and fitted.


I also liberated the better interior light lens from the orange car.


While I was at it, the central cubby got swapped in too so I don't have to repair the one that was originally in the red car. These are admittedly little things but they do make me feel better about the car and make me feel more encouraged to work on it.


Rather than go headlong into any really big jobs, I decided to give myself a mojo boost by giving the red car a wash. True to form, it's the car that keeps on giving, and it gave me this pinhole in a common rot spot. It's not serious yet but it will need fixing within the next year or two, not really my problem but one for the new owner to address.


Car has been sat outside for a while now, longer than I wanted really, so it's been looking a bit sorry for itself. I reckon all projects go through this stage where they just seem to demand more money and time and effort than you have the will to put into them, then they get looking neglected and it compounds the issue. Traditional bucket shot here.



The bodyshell isn't bad at all on this car and the new panels have much better paint so while it's a bit flat, as is the wont of red cars the world over, some G3 action and a full Vulgalour valet should see this looking very smart indeed. For now, it's just a quick wash to make me feel better about the car, which I do. I now want to get on with the mechanical maladies again as today has felt like a better day to own this car.

I was not aware of this collection. I wonder what the story is, looks like someone's field of spares cars.

Sometimes it's the simple things that are the problem and you miss the obvious. Turns out the overfuelling issue was just that.

As you may recall, I've been having issues getting the car to run without throwing a lot of fuel straight out of the air filter. I'd already cleaned out the carb twice, the first time replacing the needle valve and valve seat. After running the fuel in the tank through the system it got gunged up and I had to clean it a third time but the sodding thing just wouldn't run and kept throwing fuel everywhere which was not an ideal situation.

Today, took the carb apart again and found the float had jammed in place with sediment, presumably pulled up from the tank. Cleaned it out, checked the float was okay and working, rebuilt and put it back on the car which ran lovely from a jerry can of fresh fuel for a few seconds and then overfuelled massively. Remove the carb, check the float clearance which needed a little tweak, since we were running from a fresh fuel supply there was nothing in the carb that shouldn't be there so plumbed it all in and tried again to the same result.

Checked the spark plug gaps, which were spot on, and the timing which needed a little tweak. Checked the points, rotor arm and distributor cap all of which were healthy. Good spark, no arcing in the leads, battery healthy, no issues with alternator or starter motor and all fuses still good, so the electricity side eliminated as the culprit at this point.

Back to the fuel side of things, suspected the mechanical pump may be pumping at too high a pressure so used the lower pressure electric pump to the same result. Removed the carb yet again and inspected it to find all was as it should be and still lovely and clean inside. Topped up the squelch pot and then noticed the problem.



The above illustrates the carb correctly plumbed, I'd put the vent and inlet the wrong way around. Of all the things it could be! I could have fixed this problem ages ago had I realised this, but at least now the carb is spotless inside. Fired the car up and it ran very nicely with no horrible smells or noises. Tried to adjust the choke a little and found it was very stiff and then wouldn't move but I was at least happy the engine was running and sounded pretty good.

Investigated the choke cable next, I had a very good one liberated from the orange car so when I saw this I wasn't too worried.


Easy way to do this is to undo the steering column cowl, unplug the relevant bit of wiring and pull the choke cable through into the cabin once you've disconnected it from the carb. Slightly tricky to rethread because you can't really see what you're doing, but with the factory choke cable being bright red you can leave it partially threaded so you can find the relevant bulkhead hole to thread the new one through from under the dash.


Emerges from just beside the brake master cylinder, pretty fiddly location.


Thread back into the carb, tighten up and then put the airbox back on now I feel comfortable I don't have to remove the carb again. Next big fuel related job is to drop the petrol tank to clean it out and I'll use the electric pump to pull fresh fuel through the line and into a separate container so I know it's as clean as I can make it here before reconnecting the engine to the fuel tank.


Last thing was to put some water in the system. I know the radiator leaks and now I know exactly where from: top hose joint. I'm not sure if the leak is from where the metal pipe joins the radiator, the rubber hose or a bit of both so I'll carefully remove the top hose to check. If need be I have what appears to be a good spare radiator and top hose from the orange car to use.


Today went okay.

Nice work there Mr.V! Annoying as it might be at least everything seems to be ok now and thank goodness it is. That wedge is going to be hitting the road very soon indeed, I can just feel it!!!

Nice progress. This has become a very inspiring and motivating thread. I need to save reading these updates until saturday and sunday lunch times to motivate me into opening up the tool kit.

In the bid to get things moving here I investigated the leak on the radiator. Solder/braze has cracked around the top hose. This is repairable.


But since I've got a not-leaking radiator from the orange car, I'll use this instead. It's easier in this instance.


Nothing terribly exciting I suppose, but it's progress.

Might be worth trying a different condensor or set of points?