UF 7090 1930 Coachbuilt Saloon

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:34 pm

Although the Peatling Magna Drive was called off, i still managed to find an event to join. We drove to the Kettering Auto Club meeting at the village of Bulwick about thirty miles north of Northampton.
The attraction, apart from a good gathering of classic cars, was the hog roast that had been organised which we enjoyed with a group of MR members.
Apart from my Minor, Bob Worthington was there with his 1933/4 tourer with the extraordinary headlamps. They are thought to be from a Morris Cowley and were fitted by a previous owner many years before and now they have become very much part of the cars character.
This will probably be the last outing for a while. I have acquired a spare gearbox and clutch shaft, so will be setting this up to replace mine and cure the wobbling brake pedal and the worn gear lever that allows the 2nd/3rd gear selector to be selected before the 1st/rev selector is in neutral. No doubt as I progress there will be items on the technical pages.

Post by **Ian Grace** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 6:54 pm

Nice picture Martin, and good luck with the gearbox replacement - keep us posted!

Ian

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 9:46 pm

I took UF for an MOT today and glad to say it passed. The brake balance was extremely good (more luck than judgment?) as I always use the John Wrigley technique when adjustment seems necessary. I also noticed that I have covered 1400 miles this year which is well over twice as far as the car travelled in the previous two years. Mind you I did join the PWMN Rally, Pre-war Prescott and the Thorseby Rally to mention just three main events amongst the 'drive-it' days and other days out.

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 9:34 pm

I have started a process of winter work.
I am replacing the OSR wheel bearing and have had the half shaft flange firmly pressed on to the halfshaft. Removing the play there will (I hope) make this bearing last longer than the previous one.

I also need to fix the oil leak between the flywheel housing and block once and for all. So when I do that and the gearbox is off, I will reassemble with my spare box with new gear lever and into which I have fitted my remachined clutch shaft and bushes. So that should improve gear changing. Also with the new clutch shaft, the brake pedal will be a good fit and will be more secure.

Finally, if I can get my mind round to it, I will have a go at refining the front brake cable arrangement, by removing the untidy bowdenex cables and fitting something more in line with the accepted modifications.

Quite apart from these jobs there is all the routine oil changes, greasing etc. to attend to, but all together these jobs should help make the new season as successful as the last.

Quite a list, so lets hope the weather is not so cold that working in my unheated garage becomes unbearable.

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 8:24 pm

Well I managed to repair the half-shaft and OSR bearing so that's all back together.
I also installed my replacement gear selectors and gear lever to improve gear changing and refilled the gearbox with AG140, although the new clutch shaft will need to wait.
We then went out for a spin to the classic car meet at the Black Horse at Foxton. A very pleasant 50mile round trip on a beautiful sunny winter's day. It was a very cold day, but the coach-built saloon has its own built in heater called 'the engine' so we were very comfortable. The heavier gear oil also made up-changing easier, but the new gear lever is still not quite right. My original is having a bit of weld deposited on the tip so that I can then file it down to the correct width to finally prevent the lever moving across the selectors before the 1st selector is in neutral.
The good news / bad news was that I had hoped that the trip would have prompted my oil leak to re-appear so that i could isolate it with a view to repair. However, there were no leaks in sight so I will need to try again perhaps on a warmer day.

: Heading off in the sun; IMGP7163s..jpg (94.93 KiB) Viewed 11391 times

: Prewar line up (Morris 8, Minor, Austin 7); IMGP7170s.JPG (125.3 KiB) Viewed 11391 times

We arrived home with enough sun and daylight left to wash off the salt that we had gathered during the day and popped the car back into the garage to wait more fettling.

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Tue Feb 10, 2015 10:21 pm

Since my last post I have some catching up to do as I have had a useful few days.
I noticed damp patches on the garage floor, so I had the radiator off and took it to a local repairer. They found and fixed a fairly significant leak and generally cleaned and repainted, so it now looks pretty good. I will replace it, but without the 'Morris' sign on the front which is non standard for a 1931 model car anyway. So this season my car will have a new look.

: New radiator; IMGP7480 adj01vvs.jpg (62.28 KiB) Viewed 11377 times

I had weld deposited on the tip of my gear lever and filed it back to fit the selector locations accurately. It is now not possible to move across the selectors unless they are both in neutral. This will prevent the problem I have had since I bought the car that the gear box can jam when changing from 1st to 2nd unless taking great care.

: Reshaped gear lever; Reworked lever 3vs.jpg (85.29 KiB) Viewed 11377 times

I am now waiting for a new phosphor bronze bearing for the cooling fan that I am having made up. This will overcome another issue I have. The bearing is quite slack so the only way to keep it running smoothly is to tighten the end nut to try to make the end faces hold the fan stable. This is almost impossible and the fan vibrates quite considerably at certain speeds.

In between all this, the wheel centres that I designed have been received from Ian Harris (who holds stock and would be delighted to sell more) and they set of my wheels beautifully.

: Chrome wheel centres; IMGP7023vs Chrome.jpg (57.52 KiB) Viewed 11377 times

: New wheel centres; IMGP7303s.jpg (131.69 KiB) Viewed 11377 times

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Mon Apr 13, 2015 9:11 pm

UF7090 is now all put back together with new wheel centres, new fan bearing, repaired radiator and reshaped gear lever. It is also fettled (tappets and clutch adjusted, greased all round etc) and polished within an inch of its life in preparation for Drive it Day and the "Around the Edge" charity drive.
I have attached one of the press photos taken for "The Edge" and it shows how good our cars can look when photographed with a professional camera and a professional photographer.
Hopefully this might persuade some of you think about making a donation to our charities and you can do this at:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/martinpwmn

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Mon May 25, 2015 9:43 am

Our 'Around the Edge' trip ws completed last week with 500 miles covered and only one very small issue about 20 miles from home. The condenser earth failed with a drastic loss of power. We limped to a near lay-by thinking how sad it would be to arrive home on a tow truck. When I investigated in a rational manner I noticed the fault and re-earthed the condenser to the advance / retard lever as a temporary fix and we flew home.

: Break Down on the A43; IMGP8918s.jpg (67.41 KiB) Viewed 11359 times

So this was a fantastic week of Minor motoring and we have raised over £1000 for our charities.
Yesterday I fitted a new condenser, new engine mounts and attended to some of the rattled and squeaks.
We will be out again today so I will discover just how effectivly I have silenced the extraneous noises.

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Thu May 28, 2015 8:16 pm

Started the car on Wednesday and it kicked back even when fully retarded, so something wrong.
Yesterday I cleaned plugs and points and today I fitted a new coil I happened to have and reset the timing with a strobe.
It was indeed advanced by 5-10 degrees, but how that happened I do not know. Can timing drift like that?
Anyway, it is now spot on so should run more sweetly than ever.

Trevor Wilkinson · Post by **Trevor Wilkinson** » Sat May 30, 2015 6:03 pm

Timing is affected by the size of the points gap, the wider the gap the further adavced.

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Mon Jun 01, 2015 12:30 pm

Thanks Trevor, that will explain it, but how sensitive is it? After I had cleaned the points (and removed a central blip) I guess that gap was a bit bigger, although still around 15th.

Incidentally in the 1930 handbook for the OHC the gap is stated as 20thou, but in the 1931 handbook for the SV it is given as 15.
I have left mine at 15, and reset the distributor. Should I set my OHC at 20?
It is also interesting to me that if points wear had caused the advancing, then I would have expected that when the contacts had been cleaned they would have been greater than 15th, so I am still a little mystified.
However, all seems to be running OK at the moment so I will now leave well alone.
Martin

Trevor Wilkinson · Post by **Trevor Wilkinson** » Tue Jun 02, 2015 7:57 pm

The fibre heel that operates the points wears away quicker than the points, hence the gap will gradually decrese over time.

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Wed Jun 03, 2015 9:21 pm

But Trevor that would retard the ignition if a larger gap advances, then a smaller one would retard.
Still a mystery, but the explanation will be identified perhaps at some time.
I'll recheck the distributor gap again on each cam and see if there is perhaps some wear that causes the distributor to 'wobble' and affect the gap when actually running.

martinng · Post by **martinng** » Thu Jun 11, 2015 5:10 pm

Well the PWMN Rally has now been compekted an it was a wonderful weekend of Minoring fun.
UF7090 behaved wonderfully, starting with the trip from Northampton to Norfolk in the company of Roger Burnett and his MG Sportsman Coupe.
We stopped at the Harringworth Viaduct for Roger who had seen the pictures on my post and wanted to see for himself.
WE arrived in Norfolk and on Saturday followed the impeccable directions around the local area for lunch at the Dabbling Duck in Great Massingham and then back for dinner in Titchwell.
On Sunday we spent the morning exploring the coast to Wells-next-the-sea and then in need of petrol drove down to Fakenham and the off to Houghton Hall - the extravagant abode of Robert Walpole teh first Prime Minister int e early 18th century.
A farewell dinner in Holme ended the weekend and we then traced our path back to Northampton havinf covered 400 miles. All was well until the flange between manifold and exhaust pipe came apart and we stopped in a layby sounding like a badly tuned tractor. I managed a roadside repair and we arrived home safely.
A few pictures of our adventures are attached.