1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

Just for support: all the best. I hope it's only temporary and all will be better soon.

Just a note to say I hope things work out for you and good luck with the sale.

Even though it's up for sale, the video updates will continue for a little while yet on this project. This time around, it's dealing with woodworm.



One day I will let you all know why this has happened, even if things change and for some reason we end up being able to keep it. For now, I'll just keep posting the content because it's useful knowledge for anyone wanting to know what this type of car is like to work on. Thank you for all the kind words too, this is a much loved car both by us and seemingly everyone else that encounters it, definitely going to be a sale we regret.

It's actually not that bad, at least on our very brief test drive early in the project. Hubnut did recently do a Lanchester LD10 review showing the gearbox in action.

Made and fitted my very first brake line today.  Amazingly, I even remembered to not only put the unions on before doing the flares, I also put them on the right way around.  Fitting the new brake cylinder was a bit of a war due to the spring washer thingy (there's probably a tool for this that I don't have) and I could finally adjust the shoes properly to get the drum on and off. 





 
To celebrate, even though the in-tank pump is definitely running, no fuel is getting to the front of the car.  This is a problem that has developed all on its own in the last fortnight or so because that's when I last had the car running with absolutely no issues.  I'm really hoping it's not a blocked pick up in the tank because getting the tank to seal when you remove the pump and sender is just about impossible, and Princess tanks are predictably unobtanium.  They're also triangular so it's not even like you can easily use a generic one either.  OH WELL.  Tomorrow I bleed the brakes and I'll have a furtle to see if I can encourage some fuel up to the front of the car so it can be turned around to do the other rear drum.

New welding gas is ordered so when that arrives I can crack on with the arch and sill repairs on the Princess and the door corners on the Maestro.  MoTs (even though the Princess doesn't need one, I'd like it for peace of mind) and insurance swap and shuffling about so the Maestro can find a new home and the Princess can be back on daily duties full time again. 

At some point during all of this I also need to find the time to make a more serious effort selling the Lanchester than I currently have.  There's only so many hours in a day, that's the only problem. 

It's definitely an option.  I noticed on getting back from an errand just now that there's what looks like a damp spot under the car right underneath a rubber section of fuel line.  It's not wet or petrol smelling now, but it might have been earlier and I just didn't see it.  Hopefully it's just a pipe that's gone pourous or something, it'll be very easy to replace it if that is the culprit.

Super minor tiny update here.  Did a couple of cosmetic things, namely put the gutter and waist trims back on, this helps make a bit more sense of why the colour is split where it's split and why the A pillar isn't painted black.


The other thing I've done is very quickly splashed some satin black on the driver's side B pillar.  I don't really know why I never got around to doing this since I did the other side.  It's good to have it done now at least.


Fuel filler flap will go back after I've thrown some black paint in the pocket and found some suitable screws/bolts that don't have chewed up heads like the originals.  I'm not sweating the state of the paint that was rollered on since it looks tidier than the patchwork it was in and I can go back and do a better job at any point.  For now, I want to tackle all the other outstanding niggly bits for that sense of accomplishment and motivation boost, something that finally having the rear brakes back together has given me. 

Victory!  I drove it for the first time in FOREVER.


Trouble is, there's a fuelling issue with it.  I did think the tank was empty and the sender had got stuck at half gauge but after putting 10 litres of fuel in it the gauge did move up the requisite amount.  I also can't get it to start without manually priming it and after that it runs fine under load but will gradually lean off and die at idle.


 I can hear the pump running, the battery is fully charged, I topped up the dashpot just to be sure, the float in the carb doesn't look to be sticking, I've got no curse word in the fuel filter and I can't see any air bubbles appearing in the filter when the car is running.  I do know the fuel in the car is old but it's also now diluted with fresh new fuel so I wouldn't expect that to be the issue in this instance especially since the fuel doesn't smell varnishy and looks nice and clean.  Throttle and choke cables are moving freely and when it is running it's pretty happy.  It's only at idle I'm getting the issue.  I do wonder if it might be drawing air in from somewhere, or if the electric in-tank pump is perhaps weak and on its way out. 

When I can get to the back of the garage again I'll have a rummage for the mechanical pump and fit that, see if that solves the issue.  If it does, I'll just run that since I've done that before with no bother and it's a far easier solution than trying to get the pump out of the tank and then seal the tank up afterwards. 

I'm not getting really any fuel flow at all from the pump, it's not pushing fuel as far as the filter... and I'm a bit confused about what it's doing because I can get it to run which I wouldn't expect if the pump wasn't doing anything.

 I look to be getting a reasonable 13ish volts at the pump so I don't think it's an earth problem.  Sender is also apparently reading properly since the gauge went up when I put more fuel in.
Under load/throttle the engine runs fine, enough fuel gets to the front.  If you come off the throttle the idle returns to a normal level but then drops off until the car eventually stalls as if fuel starved.  To restart, you have to manually prime it because the pump doesn't seem able to force enough fuel up to the carb.
However, if when it's idling the idle speed begins to fall, you can revive it by pumping/feathering the throttle and it will go back to running okay for a bit until the idle drops off again.
Could this be a carb issue?  Or am I missing something else obvious here?