Allegro Adventures '82 Austin Allegro Mk3 On Banded Wheels

Mobile disco

So I have priced a recon 1275 gearbox up from a place at Nuneaton and it comes out about £460 service exchange, this will be a job for the winter I reckon so I am going to chance the 80 mile drive to RRG16 with the car as it is.
I have AA relay cover so if the worst does happen I can always get relayed back and pick the Saab up. Not even considered how I'm going to get the other 80 miles back home yet! 😂

All ready (even if it is a bit premature!).

Well I went out to give the Allegrat the once over before Friday's epic 80 mile journey, it started first turn which was good but on closer inspection it seemed to be suffering from a lack of electricity.
No horn, no heater, no hazard lights, no main beam and no cigarette lighter! curse word!!!!

So must be a fuse eh? No the heater is on a different fuse!





So after twenty minutes or so the dashboard looked like this! ^^^^^^😆

So I swapped a few fuses around one of which broke in two while I was trying to remove it.
There then followed a trip to the local motor factors "Shepherd and Wilson" who luckily still stock glass quick blow fuses at the princely sum of 15p per fuse.
So I decided to swap the lot!
After another half hour or so of changing fuses and wiggling cables the heater motor started working, then the horn started, this was swiftly followed by everything else! Not sure if it was the inverter that caused this or just dodgy '70s Leyland electrics but I could certainly do without his kind of problem with RRG16 looming large!
Better make sure I've got my AA card in my pocket! 😳

This is terrible. I love it.

Saturday afternoon after the previous nights ale had worn off we decided to take the old nail on a run to try and iron out a couple of the issues, I had Louis with me who had owned this Allegro at some stage along with around ten or twelve others he has had, we got around half a mile from the camping field and it just died!

We called for back up but the damn thing would not start so I suffered the indignation of being towed back into the camping field to much applause, thanks folks! 😂



So after much fiddling the car fired up but under any kind of load just died, not having any spare points or a spare condenser, we messed about with the timing to try and get is to run a little better but by then though the heavens opened to a pretty torrential downpour so we gave up and got back on the ale!! 😆👍🏻🍺

Hello Mr Vulgalour, it's a manual lift pump mounted at the back of the lump under the carb, there was plenty of fuel, but a lack of spark.

So Sunday show day dawned and after another half an hour or so messing about I decided to try and get the car off the field through the mud, I made it as far as outside the gate where a kind gentleman helped to push me back in.
I managed to get running again and this time made it to the hill just before the entrance of the hill climb, damn it!!

Louis pulled in front in his VW T5 and towed me up to the show field where I could at least get a mobile phone signal if I needed to call the AA.
Ah well at least I made it into the show field even if it was on a rope!! 😆😩

So I had a root about and found another condenser to fit, by this time I was getting a few people looking at the car and offers of help, Jonny69 offered some assistance amongst others, I took the old condenser out and then went and dropped the screw in the grass, this was about the last straw for me tbh, my self and justanotherhigh or Nick as he is really called grubbed around in the grass trying to find it but by this time it was becoming very apparent that it was only going to end one way.

So I called the AA.

The AA guy was great as were the very understanding staff on gate 'C'. So a big thanks for that.
The journey home wasn't too bad either as the AA patrol man told me all about his 1959 Morris Minor he had just bought and his 1978 series 3 Landrover he has.



So after leaving the car alone on the drive for a couple of days I've managed to get it running again today with a tie wrap holding the condenser down, the points are absolutely shot on close inspection and it's hardly surprising tbh as all the engine had was an oil and filter and a new temperature sender, nothing else and don't forget it had been standing since 1995 so it's testament to how strong these 'A' series engines are.



So with that in mind it's time to spend a bit of money on the old thing and get it running properly, who knows maybe I'll make the Midlands stand at RetroRides Gathering next year!!!

makes for a good adventure that you wont soon forget.  looks like with a bit of fiddling, it will be much more dependable....did you find out why it is overheating in traffic?


neat car...looks like you can modify it to your hearts content and any choice you make will be great fun!


JP

You don't have to fit electronic ignition, you just need to find someone selling decent condensers. I'm yet to have a problem with any points I've bought but condensers are another story. I'm told you can fit a capacitor in place of the condenser which does the same job, it's something I'll be doing with the Princess in the near future, and that should cost in the region of £2 and provide decent reliability. I've not done it yet but I'll be sure to post results when I do attempt it later this year.

For the overheating, check the state of the thermostat as well as getting the radiator cleaned out properly. It's been stood a long time so the antifreeze that was in there could have started to do weird things and gum up the internals. If you're really unlucky it's will have jammed up the waterpump. All the parts are easy to get at least, one big benefit of the A.