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At a Riley RM club meeting in the late 1970s, I arrived in the V12, and overheard someone saying how long it took to dismantle the engine. Turned out he’d worked at the factory. He gave me the phone number of Ted Vickers, who drove for Alan Good. Unfortunately Ted was due to go into hospital and didn’t expect to come out, but he did recollect seeing 118mph in my car along the Oxford bypass. That did coincide with 5500 rpm in top gear…
LaurenceMight also be worth considering that this part could well be common to other vehicles. For example, my Riley RMB has a Borg & Beck clutch with a carbon release bearing. I have a spare to hand, and just in case they are the same part, the casting has embossed: “BORG & BECK CO LTD 0.(or Q)44 EN6 40416.
Ideally, it would help if you could find someone with an early post war Borg & Beck catalogue.
LaurenceThe shoulder of the remains of the nipple appears to be proud of the spring eye. In that case, would it not be easier to hacksaw a slot across the head of the nipple, then use a well-fitting wide bladed screwdriver to unscrew it? One suspects that it would undo fairly easily.
LaurenceMany years ago I removed the V12’s water pump, and found that the seal consisted of a brass belows with graphite carbon ring. That was pretty knackered, but the bellows section was fine. I did some research and found this company: http://www.morgancarbon.com/gb/
I spoke with their technical department…and it turned out that they had supplied Lagonda originally. They kindly sent me a “sample” free of charge. The sample was big enough to make several seals!
So, if a replacement assembly can’t be found, it could be well worth contacting this firm.
LaurenceAnother consideration might be Excelscior Stahl Sport RADIAL tyres; yes, radial, but in imperial sizes. I bought a set of these for my 1951 Riley and have been pretty impressed with them….tread pattern looks right on the car, they look just like crossplies, but have the handling and wear characteristics you’d expect of a radial tyre. I will certainly consider these for my LG6 & V12.
My LG6 is currently on Michelin DR 6.50 x 18 tyres. As Michael experienced, there can be a huge difference in the rolling radius of the same size tyres produced by different manufacturers. These Michelins for example have one of the highest rolling radii amongst 6.50 x 18 tyres. The Michelins do have quite a rounded profile, and as they seem to work better at higher pressures, I’m not so sure about them as the contact footprint must be smaller than ideal.
Laurence
My V12 certainly has rubber in the front seat squabs; and very comfortable they are too. Pretty certain that is how they left the factory.
Adam,
The most likely scenario is that the gasket failure has resulted in compression pressure leaking through to the water jacket. That would certainly result in the bubbles you see.
That said, clean everything up and check for cracks; let’s hope it’s simply the gasket.
LaurenceMy V12 has underfelt that appears to be original, given that the carpets are original. It is cut fairly approximately to fit, with circular holes punched for the special floor retaining bolts. It is black, and is felt, not that hairy material used years ago for domestic carpet underlay.
The carpet incidentally is leather bound, and in some areas it is retained by Lift-the-dot fasteners.
LaurenceThis was listed last week at ?50, at which I’m surprised it didn’t sell. Strange that the vendor provides comprehensive photos of the Motor Trader Data Sheet, yet only two of the handbook!
Annoying that the inner cover clearly has a previous owner’s identity written in, yet the vendor leaves it covered by Lagonda’s errata slip.
So…the ideal purchaser is someone who owns a V12 (presumably Sanction 2-4, given the errata slip) known to have changed hands in February 1958!
Somewhat bizarre that Lagonda would contemplate selling a car costing the equivalent of 3 quite nice houses, yet feel it acceptable to stick in errata slips (if mine is anything to go by, there will be several more like that in there!) instead of printing updated pages for the car’s handbook.
The Trader data sheet itself is pretty rare (in this condition worth probably no more than ?10), but is well worth having, even for the clear photos (which unfortunately you don’t get with the club reprint). The information contained in it is well worth having.
It of course won’t be for a 1938 V12, he is going by the date on the Lucas circuit diagram, but that said, if the errata slips are ignored, it would be correct for a 1938 V12.
What a shame that Lagonda didn’t trouble to identify each handbook supplied with the accompanying vehicle’s chassis number. Like this one, mine has some service history written in, and I can see that that car was in the Brighton area (so not my V12!). If only such information could be related to a particular car.
LaurenceUnfortunately can’t advise on that, the V12’s seats have leather backs.
The “Lagonda in Detail” book relevant for your era might give you some pointers, but best of all would be to seek out an original car.Laurence
I doubt it was the abominable Karvel, unless they produced a range of qualities. My 1951 Riley had that rubbish originally, and it’s one area where I have not slavishly followed originality.
My V12 still has its original carpet, and it certainly isn’t Karvel, and yes, I’d say Wilton a likely contender.
LaurenceI don’t know when they were introduced, but my V12 has thin oblong aluminium spacers with a hole in the middle to clear the central spring bolt. So by that means they must have fine tuned to ensure the wheels / tyres fitted the rear wing aperture correctly each side. Perhaps they had trouble with springs not matching?!
Laurence
You’re welcome. Funnily enough I think I have those fasteners on my LG6 special’s tonneau cover.
Getting that barrel to the locksmith might be easier than you think? If it’s like my V12, the door handle escutcheon is screwed to the door with two wood screws….so why not simply take the whole handle assembly.
Alternatively, autojumbles could be your friend for finding original Tenaxit keys, even one that might fit. Could be worth a wanted ad in the VSCC Newsletter, doubtless some member will have some.
LaurenceThe FS lock series was made by Union (or at least that is what it says on the key! That series would date to the late 1950s at the earliest, so would not be original to the car. The series goes back to FA, which commenced late 40s/early 50s. It was preceded by MRN, and my V12 has MRN series keys, which are original, as the key numbers match the works record.
Unfortunately I don’t know when MRN started. Rather bizarrely, Union stamped the key number onto the visible face of the lock barrel, which must have been a bonus for car thieves.
So Bill, if no key number is stated on the barrel face, it won’t be MRN, and I suspect it might not be Union either.
I did have, but can’t find now, quite a few non-Union old car keys, I do recollect several were Yale, so that might help.
As an aside, my 1951 Riley has FA series locks, most of which have been replaced by FS series due to wear. An easy swap, except that the barrel protudes a little, where the FA ones sat flush.
A source of MRN pattern keys you could try is keys for filing cabinets! Although stamped (from memory) L & F, I suspect they “borrowed” the MRN tooling, as they are a direct fit….no correlation of numbers though.
It might help to know that, the more worn the lock, the more keys that will work it.
LaurenceIf the springs have been removed and found to measure different curvatures, that indicates that it is indeed a problem with those springs.
I had new springs made for my LG6 by Paddington Springs; they did a great job, but despite a number of attempts, they never did get the “set” right for my car. To be fair, it is a special, hence the car is much lighter, furthermore as the chassis has been shortened, the springs are shorter.
A long way round in stating that this meant Paddington had no standard to work to; they reset my V12 and Riley RMB springs perfectly.
I took the LG6 springs to Jones Springs, where I expected many technical questions. Instead, he simply asked what difference in ride height I wanted. Not very reassuring….but they got it right!
Rather strange that one spring should sag and not its pair. Perhaps one has been replaced previously. Frankly, especially with both off, I’d ask Jones to reset both of them, having checked they have Lagonda standard spring settings available, and they should have. Or at least ask their advice…if they state the good one is fine, I’d accept that opinion.
Laurence