Recommissioning 1929 long two

[AlanBartlett]

On the wiring side, depending on how much youd like to learn about the workings of the car I'd say have ago and do yourself, wiring was one of the first things i did to my car after a cloud of thick white smoked emerged from behind the dash of the old loom when I first stated working on my car. .

This route i used the 33/34 diagram to get what colours are needed, then bought indivdual roles of the cable, make sure the cables sufficent to handle what operation it needs to do. and basically started from the dash and worked my way around the car, making sure when i cut the wires i cut them a little longer than needed to allow for mistakes and to make sure it reached where it had to go. then loomed them with insulating tape ready for the sleaving at a later date. not concours but does the job. But other than that fairly straight forward.

[BarryCambs]

Hi Alan

I've rewired several things over the years, so once I have worked out the charging circuit, which seems to be a mix of 1929 and 1934, I should be ok. I need to finish the garage roof and move it back home before I start on the rewire, which is a bit frustrating. It's in a friends garage at the moment, but I've been taking more bits off for my dad to refurbish (carb, distributor, windscreen wiper, horn etc, etc), so hopefully there won't be much more to do by the time we can move it.

It's now sporting a very smart set of new Waymaster tyres which turned up in our local independent tyre depot. Apparently someone ordered them a couple of years ago, then wrote the car off before they were fitted.

[BarryCambs]

The car has 2 battery boxes fitted, presumably from where it was converted to 12 volts. The box on drivers side looks like the original, the one on the passenger side looks home made. One thing that puzzles me - in all the pictures I can find of these cars, including the 1929 brochure on the gallery, the spare tyre is mounted on the driver's side running board and the car only has a passenger door. However, this one has a driver's door and the spare is mounted on a carrier frame on the back. Could this have been an option?

I understand from George that it is also a non standard colour scheme. However, while it does look as if the wheels were black at some stage, I can see no sign that the body was ever anything but green, so possibly, it did come out of the factory that colour.

[BarryCambs]

Against all the odds, the car is finally back home, so we can start work in earnest. The carb, distributor, starter, windscreen wiper motor and a few other bits and pieces have already been removed and overhauled ready to go back on, so the next job is the wiring.

I've noticed the valve gear is completely exposed. The instructions for checking valve clearances in both the Pitman Book and owner's manual, state "Remove the valve covers". The engine is 1934, so can I assume these covers are lost? The only other thing I know for sure is missing is the starting handle, which could be useful. I don't know if Jowett spares hold many second hand spares for these cars?

The entire exhaust is now paper thin, but Jowett spares dispatched a new Y piece for £100, so I'm glad I though to check with them before I tried to bend one up myself! There are a couple of new head gaskets in the boot, ,so I will take the heads off and put some oil round the bores before I try starting it.

I'm a bit nervous about driving it in modern traffic without brake lights. I'd like to have indicators, but didn't want to fit any modern units. In a flash of inspiration, I though it would be a good solution to use the old style of flashing brake lights on the rear and coloured bulbs in the front side lamps, thus avoiding fitting any more lights. A bit of research reveals a Lucas DB10 relay unit is needed to work this system, as used on some Morris, MG etc. As the car needs rewiring, it seems a good time to do this.

[Forumadmin]

Hi Barry,
Let us hope the next update is not next year! The other idea on rear lights is to fit high intensity quartz halogen bubs. They may be available for the older bulb holders.

[BarryCambs]

Oh dear - I just noticed it has been that long. Now it is actually home, I'm quietly confident I can get it done and while the weather is like this, there's a real incentive

At the moment, it has some quite nasty rubber trailer lights on the back, but I'll change these for something more appropriate and have a look at the lamps, as you suggest.

[BarryCambs]

I've started on the wiring which is beyond help. Someone had a go at it some time ago and it now consists of a mixture of chock blocks and domestic cabling along with plenty of twisted wire connections and tape. The whole lot is held in with string under the dash. Inevitably, there was a small fire when the battery was connected and they mercifully gave up before doing any more damage.

I'm normally confident with electrics, but I am a bit confused by the charging system. I understand the 3 brush charging, but this seems to have some sort of hybrid system on it, incorporating some sort of control box. I wonder if it was fitted when the later engine was fitted and it was changed to 12 volt. The chap who owned it at the time was an electrical engineer, so was probably keen to bring it up to date.

What I assume is the control box is missing its cover, so I can't identify it. It looks noting like the normal Lucas items from more modern cars. Can anyone shed any light on this from the photo??

I'm thinking I might be better to go back to the original system as it needs rewiring anyway, but any advise would be much appreciated.

[Tony Fearn]

Hello Barry.

I'd rip the whole lot out after seeing the photo below. Throw away all the non-standard bits and pieces and start afresh. At least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that all the wiring is new.

Tony.

[BarryCambs]

Hi Tony

The loom under the bonnet I'd guess was done by the electrical engineer and it very neat, it is the stuff under the dash that has to be seen to be believed! I will take some photos when I pull it out. Even if the charging is working, I'm not happy about having this "mystery" component in the system, as it is going to cause a lot of hassle if it ever goes wrong.

I assume you are using the original 3 brush charging on your without problem?

Barry

[Tony Fearn]

Hello again Barry.

Yes both the '33 Flying Fox and the '34 Short saloon use the 3rd brush system. I rewired them both myself using the photo in the Pitman's book and it worked both times without any melted wires!

Here's a photo of the '33 FF and a diagram of the set-up.

Sarah Jane ('32).JPG

scan0006.jpg

Tony.

[BarryCambs]

Hi Tony

That looks identical to mine and the cut out box is still on the dynamo. Reading up on 3 brush conversions, I think I need to check it hasn't been converted to 2 brush, but other than that, I think I can just change back to the original set up. I'm still fascinated to know what the other box is. The chap who owned it in the 50/60s had an electrical repair shop, doing electronics goods etc, so there is always a chance it wasn't standard automotive component I suppose, or something other than lucas. It appears to have a coil behind all the contacts you can see in the photo.

[BarryCambs]

Once I'd removed what I thought was the voltage regulator, it turned out to be some sort of relay. There is a cam in the middle which rotates and closes all 4 sets of contacts. I did start trying to trace it's wiring, but 4 of the wires from it were twisted together in one of the many chock blocks and I soon gave up.

Under the dashboard a circuit board came to light! I assume this is a voltage dropper to supply 6 volts to the original petrol gauge? I counted 25 wires passing from the dashboard to under the bonnet - the wiring diagram seems to show 6, so I can't help thinking the old loom was maybe a bit "over spec'd".

[Tony Fearn]

I assume this is a voltage dropper to supply 6 volts to the original petrol gauge?

Funny that this should come up. Yesterday I was talking to Ian P about Clive's request for instruments for his 1934 Flying Fox. IP said that if we could not find an original petrol gauge, then JCS had some NOS Bradford ones. I queried the voltage difference:- FF 12v, Bradford 6v, but he said that voltage doesn't matter for the petrol gauge.

I forgot to ask why.

Tony.

[george garside]

Ian is right about the fuel gauge voltage not matering. Most modern gauges have some sort of device to stop the needle bouncing around eg when cornering but Idon't think that applied in the early thirties. Perhps the 'thing' in the circuit is one of them!

george

[BarryCambs]

The circuit does look a bit complicated to be a simple voltage converter, so maybe George is right and it is some sort of damping system. I'll show it to my brother when he is across. I spent an evening on the excellent Auto Electrics Supplies website http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/home which was recommended for vintage/classic wiring, ordering lots of goodies.

At the moment, the horn push and dip switch on the steering wheel are unused, there being a foot operated switch and separate button mounted on the door. As the dip switch is only a simple earthing, I thought I could use a small change over relay to operate the dip/main beam on the off side headlamp. Reading up on this, I understand it would have originally had some sort of tipping reflector. I'm also tempted to put a proper fuse box under the dash.