Cursitor Doom wrote:

I'd have thought the Austin 1800 would be rather more your stamp, Dave.

When I inherited my Dad's Austin 1800, in many ways it was a step
up from my Beetle, but it was quite old, and the gears became
troublesome, some were unselectable with a cold engine. Much
tinkering with the cable linkage had no effect.

The fix came serendipitously when I put in a different multigrade
engine oil, as it also lubricates the gearbox.

My dad had it re sprayed in "Rover" brown. Its sills still rusted
through, so jacking was a bit tricky. Very heavy steering - multi
storey car parks were a trial.

Then there was the time it was sitting down on the offside, so I
asked them to pump up the suspension. Turned out the engine mount
had failed, and its downward progress had been arrested by the
shearing off of a pipe stub on the main hydrolastic unit :-(

When I came to trade it in, the battery terminals were a bit
dodgy, and it wouldn't turn over when I tried to start it for the
salesman to value. I lifted the bonnet and pushed the solenoid, a
handy facility in simpler times, and it burst into life. Salesman
bemused - turned out he had only just taken the job, previously
being a golf pro, and clearly knew less about cars than I did
about golf.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
@ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.