1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

I have missed the updates too - a "'72 1100, '80 Princess, '94 414SLi" update is one of the first I look for daily (Along with Grenade, plackpopracing, anything from Seth and a few many others).

Edit:

Not forgetting:
johnnybravo
Flyingphil
rebel
Low Standards
freshandminty
Frankenhealey
Griz
Grumpynorthener
MR TIKI
Bullstarz
mrbounce
johnthesparky
wilfred
edk83.......................

curse word, what have I started here?

Right. Charged the battery and started the Princess no bother. Alternator is charging properly and, with the flasher relay disconnected, I wasn't getting any problems. Let the car start to get up to temperature and I could start to smell hot electrics.

No smoke, nothing obvious so waited a bit and the smell just got stronger. It's coming from behind the dashboard somewhere and the only way I'll find out where is by pulling the dashboard out at this point *but* I don't think it's the flasher at fault, more that it was highlighting audibly that there is a fault somewhere in the vicinity.

Next step is to pull the dashboard out yet again, see if we can find any obvious fault and, if not, rebuild the dashboard. At this point, custom dashboard feels a sensible route to go since I'll be upgrading everything with new wires and whatnot and able to make everything as safe as possible. In the short term I've disconnected the battery and left it alone until I have the time to pull the dash and do a full inspection properly, which won't be today.

As mentioned already, nothing has been disturbed at all between the car being used and this problem appearing. Earth points, etc. are all as they were and all the usual suspects check out fine.

There's been numerous suggestions that it could be indicator stalk related with wear, dirt or damage causing this bizarre issue. I'm not convinced. However, nothing ventured nothing gained so I've got the steering column shroud off and was going to remove the stalk to dismantle, inspect and clean but I've misplaced the 33mm compatible tools to remove the steering wheel. What I can say is there's no obvious signs of damage to any of the wiring that goes to the stalks so if there is damage it'll be inside the unit where I can't see yet.

I'm really, really short on free time lately so I'm only getting the odd half hour here and there on the car which is a bit frustrating.

Here's the Princess update proper.

The first thing I did today was unfasten the steering column cowling and have a look at the wiring. Nothing amiss, all nice and clean and no signs of damage. I then went to remove the steering wheel only to find I didn't have a 33mm socket at home. Went to the unit and got the only thing I could find that would match, an adjustable spanner, which when I got home I found didn't go big enough. Had to do some work so next break I got I went and tried to buy a new socket, eventually ended up at Halfords as it was the only place with one on the shelf.
20170920-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


That sorted it was easy enough to get the steering wheel off so I could then remove the stalks. Merely loosen the column clamp screw, unplug the two stalk connectors on the loom and remove the stalks. Steering wheel could then go back on so the car is still mobile. Fired it up again and waited for the smell of burning electricals which after several minutes did not manifest. I plugged the indicator flasher in and that remained silent, though that could be because the circuit is incomplete without the stalks, I don't know, I'm not an electrician.
20170920-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170920-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

On inspection, there's no sign of anything having become warm, let alone hot enough to deform. Several people had already suggested it could be worn or damaged tracks inside the switch so that would have to be the next step.
20170920-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Difficult to photograph, but once inside the switch there's no wear beyond what you'd normally expect. The grease hasn't dried out, there's no dirt to speak of. All of the plastic pieces are as new. There is nothing untoward inside either switch.
20170920-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170920-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I cleaned the contact surfaces anyway, since it was all apart, and then reassembled. Then found that the indicator solid was locked solid so took it apart again. Then fought with the return springs, plastic locators, hub ring, backing plate and stalk to line it all up, screwed it together, and the indicator stalk was locked solid again. I tried several different combinations and alignments of the various internal components always with the same result: massive frustration and a locked up indicator stalk. I can't find a diagram to show alignments, etc. of the switch internals in the manual, nor pictures online. I don't have a reference picture myself because on opening the switch up everything moved before I even lifted the backing plate off.

That means in trying to fix this, I've actually made things worse. Perfect.

Next step is once I've actually managed to get the switch to go together properly - which it probably will after I've had a good rest and more than five minutes spare to work on it - is to plug it back in and see what happens. If the burning smell and smoke don't reappear than brilliant, I've fixed it. If it does reappear and it is the switch pack I have no idea how to fix something that doesn't show any signs of being broken.

Time will tell. But it's certainly not fixed. Quite the opposite, in fact.

They look very similar if not the same as Rover SD1 stalks .
Do you have a pic of the stalk side with the settings on?

Insurance renewal came through for the Rover. I'm going to have to get on the phone and do it the old fashioned way by the looks of things.

Old premium: £276.73
Renewal: £382.20
Two cheapest online competitors: £379.90
Every other online competitor: £700-1200

What the fudge happened? That's quite a hike in price, especially for someone who rather than making claims has had another year of motoring claim-free. I'm used to renewal being daft and switching provider to get a better deal, this time it looks like I can't do that. I mean, that's a 50% increase for no apparent reason. It would suggest something has happened across the board for it to be all providers issuing the same price hike.

I'll do some old-fashioned phone calls to try and get a better deal with a specialist, though normally for one reason or another they either won't insure me (car's too new, car's too old, not enough NCB, not enough driving experience, not a home owner...) or they aren't competitive so I don't hold out much hope.

Not looking for insurer suggestions, I have a pretty exhaustive list of insurers I call every year with the same results and pretty much always end up back with the cheapest online comparison site provider.

yeah... I'm not going to chance it. You know what my luck's like

I'm self-employed and my 'commute' is probably much less than most peoples as I'm home based but got hammered for it on the MX5, and it was on restricted mileage anyway. Why is 'business' mileage more of a risk?

NFU is worth checking out for self-employed as it covers business use as standard.