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[annihilator]

Thought this may amuse some of you.

Whilst refitting the engine and box into my A35 I discovered this forehead slapping moment when about to remove the engine hoist.



can you spot it?

[aaronjb]

You've built the chain hoist into the car (makes it handy when you're pulling the lump again, I suppose!)

(Chain loops under the engine mount)

[tunnie]

 

[zirk]

You've mounted the Engine wrong way round and now you can't shut the Bonnet because there's a Gearbox in the way where the front Grill should be.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Fancy letting the chain for raising/lowering the lifting tackle get stuck around the engine mount 

[Andy B]

Oooops! 

[annihilator]

Correct 

[Varche]

Last time I worked on an A35 was to take the engine out to "upgrade" a Morris 803cc to a Morrisathousand back in 1971.

Happy days

have you a photo of the whole car?

[Kevin Wood]

D'oh!

[aaronjb]

Best thing I've seen an A35 do in a while: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWfrcut4KuI

(And I was actually there & saw it live )

Apparently they now fetch quite a premium as they are being snapped up for this race series..

[ronnyd]

I,ve got an angle grinder you can borrow.

[annihilator]

What a pita that was to sort an hour of sweat and tears I'll never get back.you'd think undo a couple of nuts and done no chance took me ages to get the mounting holes to line up again   

[annihilator]

if it was 803cc would probably have been an A30,pic as requested a bit rough round the edges but solid in all the important places.



John.

[b4ndit]

Nice car

[Varche]

if it was 803cc would probably have been an A30,pic as requested a bit rough round the edges but solid in all the important places.



John.

Nice project. Tiny cars!

No, the Morris was the 803cc with semaphore signals etc. The A35 was the donor car for a better bigger engine and gearbox

[annihilator]

Oh right,engine I've just put in is a 1098 out of an A40farina.

[Lizzie Zoom]

That is a great project   Cars of my childhood

I just wish I had my Farina bodied A40 still.  My A Series engine was a 948cc in that.  I learnt my basic car mechanics with that car in 1970

[BazaJT]

Personally I always preferred the "baby"Austin to the Moggie thou.Still do as it happens.The late James Hunt was well known for running the van version.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Personally I always preferred the "baby"Austin to the Moggie thou.Still do as it happens.The late James Hunt was well known for running the van version.

Oh, yes.  The Austin Seven.  At the age of about 6 years I wanted one of those.  Still would love one.

[ronnyd]

My Grandad had one of these, (was his last car). I think the the A30 had a flat rear screen where as the A35 was a wrap round one.

[annihilator]

got one of those as well Lizzie which now has a 1340cc midget/marina based engine hence the donor 1098 in the A35.
yeah A30 had the smaller rear window,different instruments etc.



John

[omegod]

John how the hell do fit in those    

[annihilator]

good old fashioned cars from the 50's and 60's when most blokes wore hats so plenty of headroom although I admit legroom is a bit tight 

[Bigron]

I had both an A35 van and an A40, both of which went for pennies - I should have kept them! At least they were simple to work on.....

Ron.

[Lizzie Zoom]

got one of those as well Lizzie which now has a 1340cc midget/marina based engine hence the    donor 1098 in the A35.
yeah A30 had the smaller rear window,different instruments etc.



John

I love that John! That is the same colour, and of course a Mk1, as my old 1960 one

That is soooooooooooo good

Oops. Just looked at the picture again and realised that is a Mk2 unless the Mk2 boot lid has been transplanted onto a Mk1!

[annihilator]

Well spotted Lizzie impressive eye for detail, it is indeed a Mk2



John 

[raywilb]

an A35 was my first car . 3 speed column change if I remember right. 

[henryd]

1st car I ever drove was an A30 around the fields,my mates dad had bought it for bodywork spares for his road going one,well until my mate barrel rolled it and it became fubar

[annihilator]

Think it was the larger Austins a50/a60 that had column change.
John.

[Marks DTM Calib]

What a pita that was to sort an hour of sweat and tears I'll never get back.you'd think undo a couple of nuts and done no chance took me ages to get the mounting holes to line up again   

It would have involved an angle grinder and the welder if it was me (for the chain) 

[annihilator]

With hindsight would have been a lot easier and could have reformed the chain link.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Well spotted Lizzie impressive eye for detail, it is indeed a Mk2



John 

If only you lived closer John, I would be asking to come around for a nose / drive!

She really does look good, and yes the Mk2 is one I would no doubt had transpired to if I hadn't been blessed with company cars after my Mk1.  They are such a joy to drive, even with mine that was a real "rust bucket" all over (cars didn't last as long then as they do now)|  Great "first car", even now in 2017.

Any chance of pictures of the interior John to really "take me back to when"?

[Lizzie Zoom]

Think it was the larger Austins a50/a60 that had column change.
John.

Yes, the Austin Westminster's certainly had column gear changes, with bench seats at the front, just like big cars under the Austin, Morris, and Humber badges, to name a few.

[annihilator]

Here u go Lizzie 



and it's not been round the clock so nice low mileage and only 2 previous father/son owners.
John.

[Kevin Wood]

They don't make 'em like that any more.

[Bigron]

Nice aftermarket binnacle and I so well recall that panoramic speedo!
Mine had a habit of jumping out of second gear and needed holding in most of the time. Anyone else experience that?

Ron.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Here u go Lizzie 



and it's not been round the clock so nice low mileage and only 2 previous father/son owners.
John.

Thanks John!

My Mk1 was far more basic than that, but I could be quite at home in that drivers seat!

[Lizzie Zoom]

Nice aftermarket binnacle and I so well recall that panoramic speedo!
Mine had a habit of jumping out of second gear and needed holding in most of the time. Anyone else experience that?

Ron.

No Ron, as my problem was getting it into gear with me having to so often double de-clutch as the clutch was knackered!   I well remember the day I was driving back from Tunbridge Wells up the Tonbridge bypass in a rain storm, going up hill, with water coming in under the passengers feet and the clutch slipping so badly the wind was actually pushing us back to 30 mph, but the engine was racing!!  Oh what memories, what fun!

[Bigron]

Oh, and there was I thinking that there wasn't so much to go wrong back then, Lizzie! 

Ron.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Oh, and there was I thinking that there wasn't so much to go wrong back then, Lizzie! 

Ron.

    One of my first learner mechanic jobs was replacing 2 valves.  The car had blown them with big chunks out of the rims, a fact I found out when going up a big hill in Kent at about 2300 when clouds of blue smoke came out of the tail pipe and I shuddered to a halt.  Then the handbrake would hold the car and I started to go backwards down the hill until I steered into an earth bank at the side of the road!  Go wrong?  No cars then never went wrong

This was on my first drive out with friends after passing my test!

The hill in question by the way was Blue Bell Hill.  It's name haunts me now!

[ronnyd]

Think it was the larger Austins a50/a60 that had column change.
John.

I had an Austin A50 with a column change, the front bench seat was great too . Also no seat belts to get in the way either.

[Bigron]

Er, get in the way of what, ronnyd? 

Ron.

[ronnyd]

If you don,t know by now Ron

[Bigron]

Yerse, that's why I liked my Renault 4 - no gearlever nor handbrake in the middle - they both came through the dashboard.....

Ron.

[terry paget]

Back in the 1950s cars had bench front seats (or adjoining square front seats), column gearchanges and umbrella handle under the dash handbrakes, to allow 3 people to sit in the front. My father's early cars, Austin A40 Somerset and A50 Cambridge, were thus equipped. I passed my driving test in the A40. Seat belts put a stop to this nonsense. The gearchange was poor, the handbrake lousy

[78bex]

Nice little collection 
That takes me back, I bought my rusty A35 for £45 from a bloke who worked in the chip shop.
Used it to learn to drive by goin out  with my Bro most evenings 
Loved the little pull starter knob, think it had an "s" printed on it 

[Bigron]

My first car, a 1938 Morris 12, had the starter "button", a big lump, near the clutch pedal. Simple key ignition on the dash, which activated the SU fuel pump and you could quietly press the starter and the engine burst into life, to the amazement of the unknowing passenger - especially if I said "Start" - and it did!
Ah well, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.....

Ron.

[ronnyd]

Yerse, that's why I liked my Renault 4 - no gearlever nor handbrake in the middle - they both came through the dashboard.....

Ron.

[Bigron]

Oi!

[Lizzie Zoom]

With all this talk of lovely old cars that give many of us fond memories (we forget the heartache times!) it has made me think again of one big thing these cars had that now no modern car has.

The manual choke!  That great knob you pulled out which decided if you started or not. Make the mixture too strong and the engine didn't with you ending up with a flooded engine.  When I think about it (my brain is now hurting ) the cars of today we take for granted will start 999 times out of 1000 times; but the engines of yesterday, or at least with the already old cars we could just about to afford to own and run, did not always start.  In fact often the bonnet was up and you were checking if the movable air intake was in the relevant seasonal position; the plugs were receiving a spark; the distributor was fully functional, with the 2/6d capacitor working, and, oh yes, the leads were not arcing somewhere (best seen in the dark!).  Then there where thoughts about if one of the tappets had become out of adjustment, or you had broken a push-rod.

Yes, Ron joked earlier about the myth these cars never went wrong; the fact was most of them did, and not at very high mileage.  The times you would pass cars at the side of the road with the bonnet up and, usually, a man not women scratching his head wondering what was wrong.  Those were the days!!

[Bigron]

Yes, Lizzie, I'm sure you miss the choke; where do you hang your handbag now?
You won't be able to find me, I'm hiding.....

Ron.

[annihilator]

yes "S" for start and same speedo as Mk1 A40's



John.

[Varche]

Quite right Lizzie. Fond and many not so fond memories of old technology. There is a bridge over the river Don on the A1 where I remember breaking down in a Mini. No spark despite a fairly recent new set of genuine BMC points. No spare ( surprisingly) in my toolbox which had at least one of everything else) Had a look and the heel of the plastic points had worn away. In my toolbox was a piece of meccano strip which when held in place with a piece of wire made sufficient of a gap to have a spark. I limped back to Newark

annihilator. Is that speedo 3411 first or second time round.? In the 70's , I regularly stayed with a BandB landlady in manchester called Mrs Higson. She had a very low mileage Hillman Stinx. It was only used once a week in the summer months each year to go womens crown green bowling a few miles down the road. We used to charge the battery for her.I would have loved to have bought it .

[Lizzie Zoom]

yes "S" for start and same speedo as Mk1 A40's



John.

Yes, yes, yes!!  That is how my dash board was in mine.  Do you know John until you posted that picture I had actually forgotten what it looked like    Thanks for that; I really can now imagine back in the drivers seat

[Lizzie Zoom]

Quite right Lizzie. Fond and many not so fond memories of old technology. There is a bridge over the river Don on the A1 where I remember breaking down in a Mini. No spark despite a fairly recent new set of genuine BMC points. No spare ( surprisingly) in my toolbox which had at least one of everything else) Had a look and the heel of the plastic points had worn away. In my toolbox was a piece of meccano strip which when held in place with a piece of wire made sufficient of a gap to have a spark. I limped back to Newark

annihilator. Is that speedo 3411 first or second time round.? In the 70's , I regularly stayed with a BandB landlady in manchester called Mrs Higson. She had a very low mileage Hillman Stinx. It was only used once a week in the summer months each year to go womens crown green bowling a few miles down the road. We used to charge the battery for her.I would have loved to have bought it .

I bet Vache you never had to use a pair of your tights as I once did when the fan belt went?

Oh, yes, those ruddy points.  All too easy to leave you stranded!  With these older cars it was amazing what we had to resort to to keep them going.  Try any of those DIY methods on a Omega now and it just won't work as some interfering sensor will stop the engine starting

[Varche]

Lizzie, No but only because I never wore tights. In those days you expected to break down on most journeys. maybe the technology of the day, maybe poor maintenance and MOT standards.

I remember going on my grand trip of Europe in 1980 in a modern ( by these old car standards) Viva HB. second day in France the radiator sprang a highly visible leak. We stopped at a cafe and bought two coffees and an egg. Topped the rad up with water, cracked the egg in and amazingly it worked and was still working when I sold the car (brakeless - master cylinder failure) 8 weeks later.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Lizzie, No but only because I never wore tights. In those days you expected to break down on most journeys. maybe the technology of the day, maybe poor maintenance and MOT standards.

I remember going on my grand trip of Europe in 1980 in a modern ( by these old car standards) Viva HB. second day in France the radiator sprang a highly visible leak. We stopped at a cafe and bought two coffees and an egg. Topped the rad up with water, cracked the egg in and amazingly it worked and was still working when I sold the car (brakeless - master cylinder failure) 8 weeks later.