(17-06-2022, 08:35 PM)Reckless Rat Wrote: Pastis and an Austin Seven in France, magnifique!
Far too hot down here in Rekkersland for any jolly jaunts.
I saw the thermometer make it to almost 39°C on our terrace this afternoon ( in full shade) and that's the hottest I've witnessed in over 20 years, especially this early in the year. Bonkers hot.
Too hot for me. The average over the last few days in the Peak District has been around 20C - absolutely ideal. Snag is, we can't grow grapes; still, never mind.
18-06-2022, 11:55 AM (This post was last modified: 18-06-2022, 12:06 PM by Reckless Rat.)
I don't know how the ex-pats in Spain cope with summer temperatures down there, it's hot enough here. 28° is perfick. Anything over that then it just gets silly. Some people will just lie in it and fry themselves to death but the cemeteries are full of 'em.
The advantage is that in the evening, when the Big Guy has turned the sun off you can sit outside without having your Arran jumper on.
You can grow grapes, Tony. You just need a greenhouse. We had a massive one in Chapeltown (grape vine, not greenhouse). Plant the roots outside and lead the stem inside. It will grow fine.
On other matters relating to grapes, I had to go to the "hole in the wall" this morning for some beer tokens. I took the Mem'Sahib's Peugeot 107 because it has air-con. On the way there I noticed a loud clonking coming from the back of the car, which sounded ominously like one of the exhaust doughnuts had gone and the silencer was banging on the underbody. Anyway, on getting home I mentioned it to Mary who said "Oh yes, it's been like that for ages".... after allowing the car to cool I had a look underneath and everything seemed OK., so I opened the tailgate and had a look in the boot. Under a pile of shopping bags there was a bottle of Chardonnay rolling about, and it was that which was banging on the bulkhead... O. M. G!
This morning I decided to give the engine of the RL saloon a quick check over following the Cumbria Run last week. The car had performed well enough but occasionally there had been some minor fluffing which I suspected was down to the ignition.
On taking the distributor cap off the Lucas DK4A you would have thought it was a 'barn find' that had not run since 1963! The points assembly was covered in rust, the cam was dry and rusty and the whole base plate covered in a dirty black layer of muck. The condenser had rust and corrosion and the moving part of the points was stiff on the pivot post. The points themselves were dull with white corrosion present. The inside of the distributor cap was a similar sorry sight.
It would appear that I have not had the distributor cap off for some time! The car has always started immediately and run well enough, I posted a couple of months ago that it out-performed the much lighter Pytchley saloon on my local test hill. The weather on the last Cumbria Run in September 2021 was atrocious with the heaviest rain I have driven in for many years and flooded roads. The Austin never missed a beat and ploughed through the flood water. It would appear however that the distributor must have got very wet internally. It is remarkable that the car continued to perform so well.
I removed the distributor, stripped it right down, cleaned everything and re-assembled it. Fortunately the surface rust and corrosion came off with some light oil and a bit of elbow grease. It was also a good excuse to examine the drive gear for wear. I put the distributor back on the engine, having roughly judged TDC with the thumb over the plug hole method. It started immediately and idled perfectly, the timing seems to be spot on.
This afternoons job is to adjust the tappets.
A bit of a poor turnout at the local car show at Harrogate, but if there had been any awards my two black Austins would have won 'oldest at the show' and 'second oldest at the show'.
Sweltering sunshine soon gave way to cloud and an icy breeze.
The weather gods were a little unkind to us at the Letchworth Car Club picnic yesterday but we still had a fine crop of Sevens in attendance, and A7 friends including: Ken & Eileen Cook, Colin and Chris Cook, Stuart and Caroline Jenkins, Phil and Rebecca Simms, Steve Bradford-Best, Iain Mansell, Janet Edroff, Geoff & Rita Smith. (Sorry if I missed anyone!)
The weather did try to ruin the day, but it didn't succeed. Nice cars, friendly faces and a cake stall meant that we had a good day. Even got a chance to show my wife what driving in the rain is like, with an open car. She didn't seem to mind too much. Happy days.
We represented Austin at the Race The Waves event at Bridlington in our Chummy. It was very much a hot rod event, but we were made to feel very welcome - perhaps because there was no chance of us out-dragging anyone! The only other standard vintage car was a type 51 Bugatti (or possibly an Argentinian replica). We had a great run back to York via Driffield, Warter, Pocklington and Elvington. The car ran much better once I'd by-passed the modern inline fuel filter too.
Made up a new control rod from 3/16" steel to connect the bracket at the bottom of the steering column with the advance/retard bracket under the DJ4. The old one was upside down and bent in the middle so looked a bit rubbish. The cast bronze bracket at the base of the column was bent, which was why a previous owner had put the rod in upside down. I had been warned by a couple of people that this bracket would break if I tried to straighten it, so I invested in a new one from Willie McKenzie. Having got the job sorted and having nothing to lose I thought I'd try to bend the old bracket back into shape. Getting it red hot it bent back without drama. I let it cool naturally and it appears good to go, so that's £20 I could have spent on petrol!
Incidentally, I tried to load a couple of pics but I no longer have the add attachment option, or I have forgotten how it works. Any ideas please?
