06-06-2021, 09:24 PM
In the last week I used my 1929 Riley. All seemed well on Monday, but on Wednesday there was no charge at all, but I did 30 odd miles without worrying because the mag covers the ignition. On Friday I looked for the problem and everything pointed to the dynamo on the front of the crankshaft below the radiator. I was puzzled as to why the projecting cranking dog wobbled substantially at the front of the dynamo, so I removed it and dismantled. Unfortunately the armature shaft is very heavily worn by turning in its bearing, so the postion immediately in front of the commutator needs building up by more than 20 thou I guess. I think I need to find a helpful expert.
Plan had been to take the Riley on a run with the 750/ PWA7C North Herts section today, so I got the Chummy out, which had been fine on Tuesday. After about 4 miles it missed a beat or two and finally failed on the dual carriageway roundabout over the A14. I knew the petrol was lowish so I put in the contents of my can and it restarted a bit unhappily and got me another 5 yards. When I looked more carefully under the bonnet there was a little fountain of water from a cylinder head core plug and the distributor cap on the magneto was well splashed. I managed to restart agin after topping up the water and coughed and spluttered 3 miles to the edge of my home village. I gave up at that stage and called a pal who only had a short rope, but kindly towed me the other mile home about 7 ft from his back bumper. Getting the Ulsteroid out from the back of the garage involves moving a few things and lifting my hinged loft staircase, so I chickened out at that stage and went to the finish of the run in the air-condtioned comfort og my Mercedes.
Plan had been to take the Riley on a run with the 750/ PWA7C North Herts section today, so I got the Chummy out, which had been fine on Tuesday. After about 4 miles it missed a beat or two and finally failed on the dual carriageway roundabout over the A14. I knew the petrol was lowish so I put in the contents of my can and it restarted a bit unhappily and got me another 5 yards. When I looked more carefully under the bonnet there was a little fountain of water from a cylinder head core plug and the distributor cap on the magneto was well splashed. I managed to restart agin after topping up the water and coughed and spluttered 3 miles to the edge of my home village. I gave up at that stage and called a pal who only had a short rope, but kindly towed me the other mile home about 7 ft from his back bumper. Getting the Ulsteroid out from the back of the garage involves moving a few things and lifting my hinged loft staircase, so I chickened out at that stage and went to the finish of the run in the air-condtioned comfort og my Mercedes.