Vulgalour's Vehicles - 10/03 Ignition Switch Woe

Post pictures and stories about your cars both present and past. Also post up "blogs" on your restoration projects - the more pictures the better! Note: blog-type threads often get few replies, but are often read by many members, and provide interest and motivation to other enthusiasts so don't be disappointed if you don't get many replies.
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JPB
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Re: Vulgalour's Vehicles - 25/02 Princess

#921 Post by JPB » Sat Feb 25, 2017 9:59 pm

That's effing fantastic. :drool: I love the way that the car looks. To my mind, the front end treatment is the sort of thing that makes the casual onlooker think that something may have been modified and, though the overall look of the car is more fluent now than before (IMHO), the same onlooker wouldn't necessarily be able to put their finger on quite how it's different, which is a result!

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J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

vulgalour
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Re: Vulgalour's Vehicles - 25/02 Princess

#922 Post by vulgalour » Sun Feb 26, 2017 1:18 am

:mrgreen: :thumbs:

It's satisfying hearing people express surprise at seeing a Princess and then confusion when they try and pin down exactly what it is I've done. They know it's not factory, they just can't always figure out why. I'm really eager to get it to one of the shows the club attends so I can park it up next to some standard cars, that should really highlight the differences well.

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gazza82
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Re: Vulgalour's Vehicles - 25/02 Princess

#923 Post by gazza82 » Mon Feb 27, 2017 11:56 am

Looks good!

On that boot lock, it might not work but I tried a trick on an MGB years ago. Try pushing the panel in gently just below the lock and see if it pops ..




Here's the full tale ...

The context: The owner's husband, I'll call him Dave as that was his name, was a bit of a tinkerer .. and usually when his wife wasn't around. This white MGB was Meg's pride and joy and we were slowly working out a few faults so she could get a garage (or me) to fix them. Things like advising her she needed new propshaft UJs and not a diff as a garage had told her, getting all the electrics to work, changing the pads, air filters, etc. Another neighbour also had a B so we used his balanced to sort the carbs, etc.

This time Dave decided he would try and be useful and fit a new boot lock to her "B" that she had ordered and arrived while she was out. Unusually for him, he had checked that the key and lock worked first. Then he descended on the "B" in the garage. I was wandered down to my lock-up about an hour later to see his not insignificant "rear end" protruding from their garage door and as I got nearer saw his head and shoulders in the boot of her "B". You know when you get that thought .. "Oops! Meg is not going to be happy!" and "What is Dave up to now? She's going to kill him!"

Anyway he turns around with a big grin on his face and proclaims "I've replaced the broken book lock" .. then he shut the boot. That was his mistake .. he obviously hadn't checked as that was when he realised, it didn't open again. You could visibly see the blood vanish from his cheeks!! :roll:

So seeing him beginning to panic, I asked if I could have a look. Locks and unlocks and key turns so that's ok. Push button goes in and out so that's fine and you could just hear the mechanism moving but obviously not enough. Just not quite detaching from the fixed boot latch on the rear panel was my guess. So I gently pressed the rear panel with my knee just below the lock and voilà .. boot opened. A little tweak here and there and the boot lock was working fine .. just as Meg came around the corner.

Being a kind soul, I took full responsibility and told her "Dave really wanted to surprise you and as I was down here working on our Midget, he asked if I could help" . "He didn't try and do it himself did he? I've told him what I'll do to him if he touches the "B" without asking after the last time!" says Meg, looking daggers at poor Dave .. "No, no .. postman arrived while you were out and he thought it would be a nice surprise so you could go shopping in it today with the top down". (Not sure I should have said the last bit ...)

Anyway about 2 hours later, door bell rang. I opened the door and found a nice bottle of Vin Rouge standing on the door step with "Thanks, Dave" on the label! I'm pretty sure something would have been surgically removed if she had found out .. I never saw him go near that car again alone!! :-)

Oh and just for clarity. Meg was a very lovely tall lithe blonde lady and always impeccably turned-out. She worn a pinny when washing the car so she couldn't scratch it!


Oh .. and ex-policewoman!! ...
"If you're driving on the edge ... you're leaving too much room!"

Retirement Project: '59 Austin A35 2-door with 1330cc Midget engine and many upgrades
Said goodbye: got '98 Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 TSpark to 210K miles before tin worm struck

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TerryG
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Re: Vulgalour's Vehicles - 25/02 Princess

#924 Post by TerryG » Mon Feb 27, 2017 1:45 pm

If you damage your boot lid and need another, have a look on the facebook group "classic car scrapyard finds". A bloke called Tom Castle is breaking a Princess, the post says everything but running gear is available.
Understeer: when you hit the wall with the front of the car.
Oversteer: when you hit the wall with the back of the car.
Horsepower: how fast you hit the wall.
Torque: how far you take the wall with you.

vulgalour
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Re: Vulgalour's Vehicles - 25/02 Princess

#925 Post by vulgalour » Mon Feb 27, 2017 7:45 pm

@gazza82: Unfortunately my boot lock woes aren't the usual, the leaning, prying, wiggling, driving over bumps, etc, have not dislodged it. Did get it open but in a rather more drastic way than usual, as you'll see in this update. Luckily, no damage done. Enjoyed the story, poor well-meaning Dave!

@TerryG: I don't use Facebook. It's okay though, I have 2 spare bootlids myself.

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Mike has some spare time this week which has coincided nicely with my spare time too, we can really crack on with a lot of jobs. First one today was a bit of a car shuffle so the Micra could get out of the way of the lift and the Princess could take up residence. On going outside the car started running a bit rough, then dropped a cylinder, then died. Had a look at oil was puddling all around the spark plug under the distributor. Pulled it out and cleaned it up, checked there wasn't excessive oil coming up from under the plug (ie: knackered rings), and checked that it was in fact coming from the distributor instead. Looks like this has reached a critical point and on removing the distributor, the old O-ring which I can't remember replacing was very hard and flat like plastic.
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Fitted a new one which makes putting the distributor back in difficult so that should do the trick.
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Then got the car up on the ramp to have the first real up close and personal look at what the score is. I was aware of some oil leaks, quite a bad one on the passenger side. This was slightly embarrassing because it was just that I hadn't tightened the oil filter properly, at least it was easy to resolve. Lots of degreasing to do now.
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All the while I've had the car there's been a leak that I've suspected was where the selector rods go into the gearbox. I've never been able to get the car on a lift at my leisure so it wasn't until today I could actually prove my theory true. Not quite sure what I need to replace here to stop it leaking.
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The copper exhaust stay was checked out too. It's held up fairly well but is now tearing so I'll get this replaced with a steel bracket before the MoT since it's easy to do it with the car on the lift.
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Long term readers will know I had to replace a lot of air and rust with fresh metal and will hopefully understand my being nervous about having a proper look under the car to see what I was still going to have to deal with. I have to say overall I was pleasantly surprised. The sections I've repaired, particularly the giant orange patch, are substantial but other than that it's all pretty solid. The underseal needs redoing, which I planned to do anyway, as that's seen much better days. Overall, it's not that frightening under here. My only concern is the state of the rear displacers, something I can't do much about since they're exposed to all the crap and made of steel, not BL's best design decision that. All I can really do is give them a coat of rust converter and paint I think since they can't be dismantled to have the casings properly protected and repaired if needed.
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Found a bit of bodge and/or dirt hiding on the inner wing where it closes the tool compartment section of the boot. An easy repair with the car on the lift but not one that's need for MoT so it can wait for now.
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With me in the car on the lift and Mike underneath we tried to find where the play in the steering was. Nothing amiss underneath so the car came back down and as I was manipulating the wheel, Mike could watch the universal joint under the pedals and see it was just a little loose. A quick tighten of the nut and bolt and the play is gone. That's an MoT job and a previous fail item off the list!
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The other big job was getting the boot open. The rear seat had to come out, which was easy enough, then the backing board had to have the rivets holding it in removed. This allowed much better access than I'd expected to the hinge bolts and the boot catch, removing the boot lid was very easy as a result. I can't get the catch out of the boot lock though, we can't figure out how it's got stuck the way it has so some fettling will be in order.
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JPB
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Re: Vulgalour's Vehicles - 27/02 Princess

#926 Post by JPB » Mon Feb 27, 2017 9:38 pm

The gearchange rod is the lower of the two in that image, knock the roll pin out and pull the rod out of the fitting by selecting 1st gear, then twist and pull out the end with the rubber seals around it. Inside, there's a lip seal that fits over that rod, we used to fit two as a cure but if these are the same size as mini seals, there's an uprated part which can stop the dribbles but only needs to be fitted singly.
It's a BL product so some territory marking is common and not massive cause for concern unless it does like my Princess 1800 - a very late example that was registered some three months after the O engine had officially replaced the B - and that used to make the Torrey Canyon look oil tight.

Best thing by far for keeping the vulnerable bottles from rusting away as you drive is a good covering of Shell Ensis V, which is similar to Waxoyl, but works and doesn't need any bare areas to be 100% perfect prior to application. It's undoubtedly because of that wonderful stuff that my 27 year old Toyota's shell has never been welded and even after sitting on the drive through the winter, that car still exhibits no corrosion whatsoever. It was treated when it was new and the sill drain channels still dribble slightly on sunny days, yet the fluid isn't thick enough to block such vital drainage points. Even the best paint will chip and cannot heal, Ensis V creeps to fill any compromised areas, but never quite hardens.
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

vulgalour
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Re: Vulgalour's Vehicles - 27/02 Princess

#927 Post by vulgalour » Mon Feb 27, 2017 11:27 pm

Lots of useful info there :) I'll get it all degreased and re-assess the leak situation when I've actually used the car a bit. For a while I did get it down to one tiny spot from the gearbox and nothing else and that was tolerable if annoying for those with block paved drives (er... like me now... bother) but at least I know there's a potential way to fix that. Not doing too bad on leak fixing really though that will mean I have to step up the rust protection to compensate.

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Grumpy Northener
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Re: Vulgalour's Vehicles - 27/02 Princess

#928 Post by Grumpy Northener » Tue Feb 28, 2017 8:35 am

Not doing too bad on leak fixing really though that will mean I have to step up the rust protection to compensate.
Not something that GHT would give any credit to BLMC for :roll: No doubt he will be along with some type of discredit shortly - and I bet his MG doesn't leak oil either :roll: (I will be doing some surveillance work when I next see it out and will report back) ;)
1937 Jowett 8 - Project - in less pieces than the Jupiter
1943 Jowett Stationary Engine
1952 Jowett Jupiter - In lots of peices http://Jowett.org/
1952 Jowett Javelin - Largely original
1973 Rover P6 V8 - Original / 22,000 miles

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gazza82
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Re: Vulgalour's Vehicles - 27/02 Princess

#929 Post by gazza82 » Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:43 pm

@gazza82: Unfortunately my boot lock woes aren't the usual, the leaning, prying, wiggling, driving over bumps, etc, have not dislodged it. Did get it open but in a rather more drastic way than usual, as you'll see in this update. Luckily, no damage done. Enjoyed the story, poor well-meaning Dave!
I think I was bl**dy lucky to be honest .. the worse thing would have been me trying to get into the boot via the rear panel as Dave would never have fitted .. :lol:

Luckily Meg trusted me with her pride and joy .. but unlike Dave I waited to be asked! Glad it gave you a chuckle or two!! Still makes me smile after 30 odd years.


As a PS: if you wanted further evidence of Dave's "skills" I lent him a hedge trimmer and long extension lead .. what I got back was a hedge trimmer and THREE shorter extension leads .. :roll:
"If you're driving on the edge ... you're leaving too much room!"

Retirement Project: '59 Austin A35 2-door with 1330cc Midget engine and many upgrades
Said goodbye: got '98 Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 TSpark to 210K miles before tin worm struck

vulgalour
Posts: 674
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Vulgalour's Vehicles - 27/02 Princess

#930 Post by vulgalour » Tue Feb 28, 2017 6:42 pm

Oh, but everybody needs to know a Dave. Makes the slow days entertaining. :lol: GHT doesn't know what he's missing, I've got bodyroll for days and all the giffers want to chat to me. Except that one giffer who wouldn't believe it was my car and insisted it belonged to my parents, that was very strange.

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Another day of Princess fettling, another update for you all. Tyres were dropped off at the local place but won't be ready to collect until tomorrow, not really a problem as the car doesn't need to be back on its wheels yet. I'm going to tick that one off the list for now as they'll be on the car tomorrow and sorted. With the bootlid off again I found that the cause of the problem was one of the latch components was 180 degrees out and I know how it happened; the mechanism almost fell apart as I was fitting it, since it's a fiddly job, and I thought I'd put it back together properly. Clearly not. I can sort that out easily enough now and I've freed the latch from the catch, it also explains why the lock wouldn't release the catch. I stripped all the paint off the outside of the boot and found yet more excessive filler work to deal with some very minor dings. I then put a good coat of primer and a quick top coat of relevant colours on just to keep it moisture proof. I'll do more work on this before it goes on the car and tidy up the colour splits properly, this was a bit of a rush job.
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Two little holes were drilled so that the washer pump could be attached securely to the bulkhead. Nice and smart and no need to alter pipe or wiring lengths, I'm very happy with that.
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Mike investigated the random relay and wires that had lived behind the battery since I bought the car. One wire needed fixing but the rest is seemingly a relay for the electric fuel pump that used to be fitted. It was tidied up properly, made safe and may be utilised if I switch back to an electric pump in the future.
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Mike also completed the wiring for the fog lights. We can't test them as we've still got that issue with the blowing fuse but from looking back through photographs and eliminating other wiring we know that they're connected to the correct wires. We also know the fog lights work as they were bench tested before being fitted to the car. Wiring route was a little tricky as the big square hole can't have the wires running through it, they have to go through the double skinned bit instead. The wiring loom will likely be tidied away behind the custom trim panels I'll be making, if there's enough length and suitable gaps, it may also go through the double skinned section. For now, it's not in the way.
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The other job that was dealt with was reconnecting the fuel sender wires. This didn't resolve the fuse blowing issue so we now know that the wires up here were not earthing/shorting on the bodywork. It also highlighted that the other reason the car stopped running was I'd run out of fuel... which I've never actually done before! Chucked a jerry can of fuel in because the needle only came up to just below the red on the gauge, it was that empty!
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With the only wiring job at the back now being the high level brake light donated to the cause by Trigger, the boot mat could go back in. Spare wheel is staying out for now until that light is wired in as Mike will probably have to sit in the boot to do it. Usefully, not having the boot lid on makes Mike's life a lot easier for all this horrible wiring work that he seems quite content to beaver away at.
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On pulling the plugs today I found they were all quite sooty, confirming my belief that the car is running rich since fitting the cone filter. That wasn't much of a surprise, retuning the carb is on my list after all. Speaking of the list...

MoT list update:

> make hazard switch work
> tune the carb
> identify insecure CV joint fail from previous MoT
> identify why fuse #5 is blowing
> connect fog lights - DONE
> connect number plate lights - DONE
> stick number plates on - DONE
> make the indicator lights work - DONE
> fit the new tyres - DONE
> fit a new washer jet pump - DONE
> find the loose steering component - DONE


Not much to go! Saving as many pennies as I can now for insurance, tax and MoT expenses. There may be some other minor items to attend to as we go through final checks that I don't know about yet but overall, it's look pretty good

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