[Abs-Zero]

 

Current Project - 1947 Vauxhall 10

12th October 2008

I've spent a couple of evenings in the garage and bought a couple of manuals through eBay.  One (Pitman) manual covers the 'ownership' type information which in those days included how to take the engine apart, and the other manual (published by Vauxhall Motors) is the proper service manual from 1939.

Anyway, my main attention has been on getting things working, or rather working out what does work, what can be fixed and what will need replacement.  Here's a quick rundown of progress, photos are coming just as soon as I receive a replacement camera card reader.

Starting with mechanical things, it's obviously apparent that the wheels go round, the steering works and the foot brake doesn't work (a squelch sound was heard when pressed, and the pedal didn't return.  The handbrake is operated via a lever mounted just ahead of the drivers door on the inside, and this thankfully works still.  The suspension appears still to be correctly damped and I've got to say that the manuals suggest that it's pretty simple, so replacement of the damping oil may be all that needs doing to it before being used on the road.  Underneath, the pedals actuate various rods, which because they sit next to the OSF wheel, are all caked up in mud.  Expecting them to be thoroughly rusty, I thought I'd give them a quick wire brush up before dousing them in penetrating oil to give them the best chance of being removed non-destructively.  Although they're not completely free of corrosion, the vast majority of the rods and suspension components are in surprisingly good condition, pretty much free from rust and smooth.  The clutch pedal felt OK too, although pretty light, so I wasn't sure if it was all there.  The engine finally got my attention and I removed the plugs to gain access to the bores.  I'd been advised to squirt some oil down onto the tops of the pistons to penetrate and lubricate the rings and bores.  I chose to use WD40 simply because it's very light and would penetrate very quickly.  The engine was at first quite stiff but I didn't need to force it after about an hour had passed since liberally dousing the pistons in WD40, I gently pulled on the fan blade, turning the engine over.  The second rotation was smooth and free, with gentle 'plink' noises which were probably valves and pushrods moving.

Next thing to look at was the electrical system.  I'd slowly worked out the functions of the controls on the dash board and they were mostly stuck in their last set positions.  Notably, that included the centrally mounted ignition and headlamp switch assembly, which was seized solid.  After some wiggling it was possible to fractionally move the headlamp switch between the 'off' and 'sidelights' positions, and then eventually to the 'headlamps on' position.  Then luckily I got a similar level of luck with the ignition switch, which was stuck 'off' with the key in.  First I managed to start it rotating, then finally to remove the key.  A couple of drops of WD40 on the key itself helped to get the tumblers in the lock moving more freely and a mental note was made to get some locksmiths graphite powder.

The engine starter knob is remoted via a rod which directly connects to the switch mounted on the engine side of the bulkhead.  Quite simply, the switch breaks the (negative) live battery feed to the starter motor.  Pressing it makes the connection directly, no solenoid is used.  After tightening the dash mounted bezel, which was flopping about freely, the button seemed to have a fairly positive action.

I don't yet have a 6V battery, but do have some old Chloride Cyclon cells, each has a capacity of approx 25Ah and voltage of 2.2V, so three were connected together in series.  The original battery cables have succumbed to what looks to have been a small engine bay fire and years of presumed baking within the barn, so their insulation was at best patchy.  Bend them and the insulation came off in flakes.  Later I was going to realise that all of the wiring on the car was going to be in a similar condition, so moving any wires was from that point on, avoided.  With the battery cables replaced with new items, the Cyclon rig was connected up.  No sparks, so no short circuits yet.  Going inside the car, I switched on the headlamps and was greeted by a fairly yellow glow from the front nearside lamp and nothing from the offside.  One rear sidelight glowed brightly but the other stayed off.  A quick disassembly and contact cleanup solved that, but I've not managed to get the OS headlamp to illuminate yet.  The number plate lamp glowed very dimly until I touched it, and hasn't since, although it's wiring looks very dodgy.

Next was to see what happened when the ignition was switched on.  One lamp marked 'IGN' slowly came up to a bright glow.  A lampholder hanging below the dash also lit up and then I realised that this was the 'OIL' pressure telltale and refitted it into its bezel in the dash.  With the ignition on, the trafficators can be used, although mine have seen better days.  The nearside one sometimes raises itself, and then only sometimes illuminates.  The offside one is too sticky to operate, but can be lifted manually and illuminates brightly.

With the ignition off again, I thought it was time to see if the starter motor worked.  Pressing the button gave a clean sounding whirr, but no engagement with the ring gear and obviously the engine didn't turn over.  Of course it's supposed to pre-engage as the motor spins up and so I was left with the option of removing it and lubricating it (despite the manual saying not to oil it) or just pressing the button a couple more times.  Of course I did the latter and on the second and third attempts it engaged cleanly and turned the engine over.  With the ignition on, this results in the 'OIL' light going out very quickly after the onset of cranking and coming back on about 3 seconds after releasing the button.  So there's at least some oil pressure.  Next was a quick test of the clutch.  Putting the gearbox into first, I cranked the engine and the car briefly lurched forward showing that there's drive.  Next time (gearbox still in first) I pressed the starter, the engine turned over normally without propelling the car forward, so the clutch disengages.  I have no idea whether the clutch is otherwise serviceable or not, but it passed the basic test.

Seems like I'm getting somewhere so it was time to look at the ignition system.  It is of course very simple electrically, with a (ignition) switched (negative) live connected to one side of the coil and a set of contact breaker points within the distributor connected to the other side.  The spark is produced as the earth provided by the points is disconnected by the opening of the points, which are operated by a cam inside the distributor body.  The HT leads are in atrocious condition but provided it doesn't get too damp in there I thought they might work well enough for a test.  I disconnected the centre lead from the distributor cap and laid it close to the body of the distributor, switched on the ignition and cranked the engine over.  No spark.  A quick ckeck with the multimeter confirmed that the ignition live was present at the coil, so I used a length of wire to bridge the other terminal to earth,  which got some sparks from the exposed HT lead.  Removing the points it was pretty clear that they'd be oily, as there was a light coating of waxy clear oil over everything under the rotor arm. the contacts were as suspected, glazed over with browny coloured gunge, which was easily removed with a sheet of P600 wet and dry paper.  I don't yet have a feeler gauge so my best guess at setting the gap while the points were open was to set the engine so that the cam held them open and bolt the backplate down such that there was a visible gap, which closed as the cam released the lever.  Imprecise, but functional, as the HT lead emits a spark every time the cam releases the points lever, even while cranking.

A few drops of petrol were poured directly into the carburettor after the HT lead was replaced onto the distributor and I tried starting the engine.  First go gave nothing, but that could have been a wrong choke setting, or too much/not enough petrol, but the second time, after about 41 years in hibernation, she sparked into life, albeit briefly.  My other half was there for the momentous event and captured it on video. (click the image link below).  I've got to say I was pretty surprised at how quiet it was, it ran for about 3-5 seconds each time I put some petrol in, quite smoothly and with no untoward clatter or knocking that I could hear.  That's with half the exhaust missing too!

 

 

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Last review was Friday, 31 October 2008