1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

Et le Renault et le Princess?

Pictures this time. First of all, a picture of the clutch plate. Changed it really as late as I could before damage happened, this is the flywheel side and while the flywheel was free of scores you can see with the single rivet that's started to go shiny that it wouldn't have taken much longer for it to start scoring.


On the pressure plate side the rivets were much more worn.



The brake pedal squelch described to me is much more of a spring-covered-in-oil sort of noise and barely audible, so I'm not worrying about that. The suspension rises seemingly properly now, it's not 'jerky' but it goes rise-pause-rise-pause-rise until it gets to the correct height. Even better, the front end sits higher now than it did without having to go past the proper setting. Tyre pressures are a bit off and I've got some positive camber on the front which is most likely just due to the car being up in the air. The car isn't filling with water even though it's sat outside in the rain, but it does feel a little damp. I noticed that the skinny outer door seal that goes around where the window frame seals has deformed on the rear driver's side and on lifting it free, on lifting it off the rail it sits on I found it was absolutely full of mud and grime so I'm pulling the whole thing off, straightening it as best I can and then reseating it anew.

Overall, I'm much happier with how the car is now. Even the front end comes up to the proper height, no longer having a saggy nose, as you can see in these rough pictures.




All feels like it's on the right path. But it seems the number pad might be dying now as a couple of the numbers are pretty stubborn. Going to have to see about replacing it I think.

The squishing sound is pretty normal from the brake pedal from memory. You can do away with the keypad immobiliser - simply disconnect it when the engine is running and its gone until reconnected.

The best way to replace the bottom balljoint is to take the hub off fully, clamp it in a vice and use a massive set of stihlsons. Shock the end of the stilsons with a hammer and it will crack off, they are mega tight. The socket tool isnt very good at removing them, but necessary for refitting. Been there done that

PRINCESS NEWS

That's what you've all been waiting for, hence caps. Had a bit of a fettle tonight and found the battery hasn't got quite enough oomph to fire things up, everything else is working fine as expected. Tomorrow, we either drive or push her into the unit so the welding can continue.

Surprisingly dry inside considering the car has been sat outside in all weathers without a cover. Hopefully I won't get kicked out of the unit before the work I need to do is completed, especially as I'll have to drop the petrol tank, a job I'm not looking forward to.

So with the keypad, disconnect with engine running, strip it down and clean the contacts and housing, rebuild, reinstall.

tineca: Xantia clutch is done, LHM is done, but I'm still waiting on the gear linkage rod thing arriving so that I can select gears. At the minute, the car is stuck in a gear but I don't know which one so it can't be driven until the rod arrives.

@richardkc6: That's possible, I've learned they can be dismantled. I've got a known working replacement heading my way in better condition so I'll hopefully just be able to swap it out. I'll be sure to clean up the old one off the car anyway, from what I gather it's the micro-switches that are the problem.

Modern fuel goes off very quickly (months as compared to 'old fuel' which still is usuable) and could be part of your problem. Is the spark strong? possible issues with damp could be affecting things. Also realistically the car may be in a huff with you for the amount of time it has been 'neglected' or just jealous of the time spent on fixing the clutch on the Xantia!
Either way glad it is in the unit now for work.

John

Replace engine with V8

Love the Xantia always have been a fan of 90's French stuff, the numpad key is very James Bond.

The more I explored upgrading the ignition components and the way I use my car the less convinced I am that it's the best route for me to take. There are enough stories of upgraded ignition failure, owners reverting to points and condenser and repeated failure of electronic ignition units become costly that I think it would be foolish for me to ditch a system that works for a system that might cost me more than I can afford to invest.

I think it's a car/owner thing. Some owners and cars get on with the upgrade and some don't, for me points and condenser works perfectly fine and I'm not at a point where I need to change that just yet. It's also FAR cheaper to put right when it does fail than the upgraded version, very important for my shoestring budget.

I'm also 99.9% certain the current malady is a fuelling issue. The more info I've received on the forums and wider internet, the more it points at a blocked jet and duff fuel. I'll run the car from a jerry can of fresh fuel first, then clear out the jet with the air line and try again to eliminate the fuelling side. If it is electronic then it's going to be harder to find as all components on that side of things check out as being healthy, and having had the car running from Easy Start - effectively a separate direct fuel feed into the air intake, bypassing the possible blocked carb jet - points at there being fuel rather than spark issues.

But hey, you know this car well enough by now to know it's always a 50/50 chance of it being something utterly bizarre and not at all what should be wrong that's causing a problem!