26-07-2019, 02:13 PM
I've been using my 1929 fabric saloon all week, and covered about 250 miles.
I had taken the engine to bits some time ago to fix oil leaks and it was hardly used at all for a long time. It's now all back together and for some reason going better than it ever has. Quite happy cruising at 50mph.
I wanted to make sure all was all OK before the Scottish Austin Seven Club rally at Guildtown tomorrow and it's much improved.
I had trouble with starting after reassembly, the throttle linkage was wrong and there were induction leaks.
I had been using an Accuspark electronic distributor and reverted back to the DK4 distributor because it won't start on the starter with the Accuspark.
That was tedious when diagnosing starting issues. The starter drops the voltage too much - I probably need a new battery.
Once the starting was fixed I went back to the Accuspark because the car runs much more smoothly.
I've now got a fix for the dropped voltage with the starter. The engine starts first swing on the handle but it's awkward if it stalls in traffic!
I got a small (4"x2"x1") 6V sealed lead-acid battery. I have fitted a switch so I select which battery to use to power the ignition when starting. The main battery operates the starter. This seems to work well but I have to remember to switch back, as the small (1.2Ah) battery won't like charging at 4A.
I've ordered a 6V change-over relay which I can wire in so that when the starter's operating it switches to only the small battery and back when the starter's released.
The batteries will be in parallel normally once the relay is in place. That means both batteries will get charged.
I hope I get the best of both worlds.
I had taken the engine to bits some time ago to fix oil leaks and it was hardly used at all for a long time. It's now all back together and for some reason going better than it ever has. Quite happy cruising at 50mph.
I wanted to make sure all was all OK before the Scottish Austin Seven Club rally at Guildtown tomorrow and it's much improved.
I had trouble with starting after reassembly, the throttle linkage was wrong and there were induction leaks.
I had been using an Accuspark electronic distributor and reverted back to the DK4 distributor because it won't start on the starter with the Accuspark.
That was tedious when diagnosing starting issues. The starter drops the voltage too much - I probably need a new battery.
Once the starting was fixed I went back to the Accuspark because the car runs much more smoothly.
I've now got a fix for the dropped voltage with the starter. The engine starts first swing on the handle but it's awkward if it stalls in traffic!
I got a small (4"x2"x1") 6V sealed lead-acid battery. I have fitted a switch so I select which battery to use to power the ignition when starting. The main battery operates the starter. This seems to work well but I have to remember to switch back, as the small (1.2Ah) battery won't like charging at 4A.
I've ordered a 6V change-over relay which I can wire in so that when the starter's operating it switches to only the small battery and back when the starter's released.
The batteries will be in parallel normally once the relay is in place. That means both batteries will get charged.
I hope I get the best of both worlds.
Jim