1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

I really enjoy your updates.

Please continue....

P.

But at that point we all nod sagely and think "I feel your pain brother" because we've all been there, so collective Karma comes your way.

The beer plan is great, I shall have to substitute it with cider

The problem I'm facing lately is time. I have so little of it because I'm having a very busy period with work. Stretching myself too thin again. Luckily, there is a plan this weekend to combat this. Part of the reason I'm not getting in as much work on the Princess and Renault is simply the time issue, I'm only free in the very late evenings and a 4 mile drive away from them so that means if I want to work on them I've got a tiny 2 hour window to drive over, unlock the yard gates, the unit and the cars, do whatever I want to do before the light goes (because currently I have to work on both cars outdoors) and then lock up and drive home. Realistically, I'm only getting about 45 minutes of that 2 hours in because of all the other faff involved and I'm seriously tired lately so I'm not the sharpest pin.

SO... the Renault is coming back to the house this weekend to live in the garage at home. That means I'll have covered, lit access at any point of the day or night that will take me, at worst, 10 minutes to get to and from. I'll also have access to internet so referencing information is much easier and, of course, the all important kettle or, since I don't have to do any driving to get to and from the Renault, the aforementioned cider plan.

With the Renault running, I can then focus my attentions on saving for the last few pieces - sourced a radiator and tyres, just need a couple more paydays for them - and in turn, the Princess.

It's one of those awkward situations where there's not actually a great deal to do on the projects but finding the time to do it is my biggest obstacle. For the first time ever, a lack of funds isn't so much of an obstacle because work has been so good this year and the current residence has done wonders for my state of mind.

We will get there, I will persevere!

Cider works just as well I've found.
Pear Cidre is exceptionally good at problem solving

I would recommend a cider/ lager mix with added blackcurrent when it comes to drowning your sorrows if celibrating you can use a white lightening/ Tenants Super combo with the blackcurrent.

I saw an elastic rope used for towing recently, looked quite effective, note it wasn't a KERR type rope

Right... actual proper news this time rather than a post full of fail. Scaryoldcortina paid a visit and kindly donated some of his time and experience to get to the bottom of two issues and managed to figure out why I couldn't get the Princess or the Renault to run.

Princess was very easy when he got the timing light out, shone it on the relevant bits and discovered that in my frustration I'd muddled up the plug order and got the distributor way off where it should be. A quick replug and wiggle and she's running again, yay! The core problem that caused the running issues in the first place is the brand new condenser that's done all of 1 mile at the most is toast. This appears to be a very common problem with new condensers but fitting a relevant electric component from Maplin can resolve this issue. The clutch is also more than ready, the release bearing sounds like its finally imploded. I have new clutch kit to go so that's not really an issue.

The Renault was more difficult. We ended up taking the rocker cover off - which involves disconnecting the gear selector bar and jiggling lots of stuff about - after SOC had gone through a few other things, like there now only being compression on 4 and not on 1, 2 or 3. Once the cover was off we were immediately aware of two pushrods being unseated and one being bent. With the pushrods removed and checked, three are very slightly curved and one is bent, all are able to be straightened with care, I've been given instructions of how to do this by SOC so as to avoid damaging them.

With the pushrods out and the rockers and rocker bar removed it was then immediately clear to SOC that the mechanical timing was off. Frustratingly that's an engine out job because it's the only way to get to the timing chain which is right up against the bulkhead with zero access. A recheck of the cylinders proved that we actually had compression across all four without the pushrods in and that there was more than enough oil pressure.

So... a bit up and down with that. I'm elated that the Princess is now running, after a fashion, and feel much happier about the work I've got ahead of me there. I'm a bit annoyed about the mistake with the Renault engine but also relieved that no serious damage has been done and it's moderately easy to resolve. The most annoying thing with the Renault is that to re-time it correctly is a fairly quick job but getting the engine in and out of the car is not.

Watch this space, at any rate. I know better what I'm doing now and have a someone local I now know I can shout HELP at if I really get unstuck or if I'm at all unsure about anything. That in itself is worth a lot.

SOC to the diagnostic rescue! Did you ask him to come back to the board?

Today I was going to take the engine out to sort out the static timing issue.  Taking the engine out of this car is pretty involved and would take me quite a long time.  However, cutting an access hole in the bulkhead isn't and since this car is on a separate chassis it doesn't cause any structural issues, really.  I can always weld the metal back in too and with how long it was going to take me to pull the engine out that option is STILL preferable to me.  What I'll actually do is create a removable panel for this section with a seal to keep things where they need to be kept.
 
Previously, Scaryoldcortina had been and helped figure out what was going on so the engine looked like this.

 
With the access panel made inside the car, I could get to all the bolts that hold on the timing chain cover and remove it.  This is actually quite easy to deal with now, I can see what things are doing inside the car and don't have to find somewhere to put the engine while I work on it.
[img src="i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab16/volksangyl/Renault%206TL/20160807-02.jpg"]
 
With the chain attached, the crankshaft and camshaft turn together with no problem on the key but you cannot turn the engine by hand.  I even tried using some force with a breaker bar on the sprocket nut but no go.  I didn't check the timing because I couldn't get things rotated to the point they need to be so moved on and removed the chain and tensioner to see if the crankshaft and camshaft would rotate freely.
 
The camshaft does turn very smoothly when the chain is not attached, both from the sprocket end and with the water pump pulley, which you can do by hand with no real effort.
 
The crankshaft won't turn by hand at all.  You can put a bolt in the end of the sprocket to turn it, but even with the breaker bar I wasn't getting any movement and didn't want to force it.  However, as soon as you flick the key in the ignition it rotates freely and without any horrible noises.  The starter motor does not struggle to turn the engine over.
 
I did try to rock the car in gear to rotate the crankshaft to the relevant timing position but just didn't have the strength to do it (not much sleep and hurting my arm this morning, probably not helping me there), even with Mike helping.  You can't get the timing mark in the right place with the starter because it always jumps just past where you need it, we did try that several times to no avail.
 
I don't know enough about this sort of work to diagnose the potential problem beyond suspecting it's something to do with the crankshaft being too tight even though that was done to the torque settings listed in the book for the 1181 engine, which this one is.  There's oil everywhere and the crankshaft and bearings were installed with assembly lube as directed by people who know better than me so I don't believe the crankshaft is stuck, just tight.  What's frustrating is that before putting the engine in the car you COULD turn the whole thing by hand from the crankshaft and the camshaft, that you now can't is baffling to me.

---

So I quizzed SOC again and the autoshite community at large.  Previously early in the engine's rebuild, a bearing did spin.  I couldn't find anyone able to provide replacements for this particular engine so it was all buttoned up in the hope it would be okay.  Now, since the engine appears to have got tighter the more it's been turned over, it seems likely that a bearing has spun again, which isn't good news because that puts the brakes on this project indefinitely if it has.  If I'm lucky, it's just that a bearing is slightly too tight and it's just moving everything has possibly moved some dirt there and it's making the crankshaft tighter than it ought to be.

The only way I'll know for certain is by draining the oil, dropping the sump and having a look.  I should be able to do that without removing the engine, from memory the sump is accessible with the engine in the car.  As for when I'll do this I don't know, I haven't a great deal of car time available and I sacrificed my time to replace the front shocks on the Rover this weekend in favour of trying to get to the bottom of the Renault's issues.

Did you take the spark plugs out before trying to turn the engine over? As said above this might be your issue. If you did not then take them out and try again. Engine should turn over easily with a breaker bar (or even a socket ratchet bar).
If its still stiff then you have spun a shell. Hate to say I told you so (if this is indeed the case) but I did warn you about using old shells on a rebiuld - it's just not done.