1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

You don't need any of the manky wiring harness to run the engine. Just make sure there is power at the starter and the coil and the block is earthed, and you can start it by connecting the terminals on the starter with a screwdriver.

If you're bored you can also build a posh remote starter, this is one I made:

Today I had some help so we determined to try and get a few things done on the Lanchester. First up was trying to find something lying about that would quieten the exhaust down where the flexi has snapped. Looking underneath the car the exhaust is a patchwork of pipes and silencers, the whole thing needs to be redone properly. We had set aside some tin cans to put around the exhaust and found they were actually much too big. A silicone hose joiner, however, was a close enough diameter to at least reduce the noise if not seal the exhaust properly. This is a temporary addition just until we've dealt with more important items and is just to reduce the noise output a bit.


We had suspected there was a problem with electrical connectors and started going through what was easy to get to in the engine bay, cleaning up whatever we could reach. Another attempt was made to start the car and it was then we noticed a couple of sparks and whiffs of smoke from the battery area. Turns out, there's too many leads back there and the original braided earth strap was sparking and shorting against the battery box. We also learned that the newer lead a previous owner had fitted had chafed through the protective sheath, had previously been repaired with electrical tape and chafed through again. After a considerable amount of time we eventually removed the new red strap from the chassis, the nut and bolt holding it to the chassis well and truly stuck together and no access for power tools.





Then a thunderstorm arrived. This demonstrated quite rapidly that the water that had appeared around the passenger side A-pillar when I washed the car was actually from the windscreen seal which is leaking quite badly.





To mitigate this I improvised with some rubber car mats at least until we could push the car back in the garage. The storm didn't last long, thankfully, and the mats did a reasonable job.


After that, we fitted a better positive earth strap and re-routed the negative cable following the path that matched the p-clip on the cable and shape of the cable itself. The old braided earth strap clamp broke so we trimmed that back as far as we could to the bolt that held it to the body mount. We didn't want to risk trying to undo the body mount bolt and since everything is nice and secure it seemed wiser to trim the old earth strap back than to potentially shear the body mounting bolt and creating more work for ourselves. We plan to fit new, appropriate length battery cables rather than relying on what's there now. That done, we also topped up the fluid flywheel. I'd previously thought the engine had dropped too far for the starting handle to locate in the pulley, it turns out I'd missed that there was a second bracket with a hole to guide the handle through behind the number plate and was simply putting the handle in the wrong place. Turning the crank brought the flywheel fill plug into line with the viewing window inside the car and we could top it up. Well, I say top it up, it must have been empty for how much oil we had to put in and nothing came out underneath the car. Since we didn't have a syringe type filler, we improvised with a funnel and a spout and using two pairs of hands we could fill the flywheel. We were optimistic we'd be able to run the car today after all this, which had taken far longer to acheive than seems reasonable due to the difficult bolt for the old red positive battery lead.

A video was taken, though I apologise in advance for the poor recording, my camera is very old now and not great.


We now have a car that's incredibly willing to crank, producing a good spark, delivering fuel, and coming very close to actually starting. The biggest problem was that while the car would almost run, even with some new fuel, we couldn't quite get it to idle and, after a while, we flattened the battery since we've barely been able to put any charge back in it while we've been trying to get the Lanchester going. Our main suspicion now has turned to the carburettor which likely needs a good clean out and rebuild. Since the car is so willing to crank, providing a good spark, and delivering plenty of fuel to the carburettor, it seems sensible that the carburettor is the bottleneck in the system and preventing the car from running. Rebuild kits are available for the Zenith 30 VIG-3 that the Lanchester uses and we have an ultrasonic cleaner which will help get the carburettor as clean as possible.

Fresh fuel in the carb does indeed improve matters, which is another reason we suspect it's a bit gummed up and in need of a rebuild.

One carb service kit ordered now too. Burlen have all the relevant bits needed at good prices and having used them before I trust their quality. It is very strange being able to just go online and order what I need without having to hunt for days for the correct part.

I think we have to find BPR a Lanchester of his own (not mine) so that he can be happy.

Brake cleaner usually works well to encourage starting.

Pump is working great at getting fuel up to the carb and I've tried using my hand on the inlet while cranking to moderate success. All out of brake cleaner, easystart, and similar substitutes. It's kind of adorable when we're working on the car because the local old men appear to see if they can help and have all been cheering us on and trying to figure out just exactly what combination of little problems is keeping it from running. We've got a married couple at the bottom of the street who are both really keen on seeing the Lanchester running and delighted that us "young people" (we're both pushing forty now) are into the old cars.

If nothing else, owning the Lanchester has been making us more friends than enemies so its worth owning just for that!

If I go down to the barn today what am I likely to find (actually it was Friday)



4 new 16" tyres that should fit a Lanchester that's what I'll find



I will get them taken off the rims tomorrow



And samta22 is visiting me on Wednesday so that's a lump of the logistics sorted for getting them back to you

@grumpynorthener , what width and offset are those wheels, and are they easy to come by? 16" would look good on my Saab 95, which I plan to lift a little. If the offset is way off I can correct that.