Forum Replies Created
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I’m not sure that Kingston would have pre-allocated blocks of reg nos to Lagonda, although I know this practice applied for dealers. My July 1939 LG6 is JPB235, and December 1940 V12 is JPH403. My uncle coincidentally owned a V12 Rapide in the 50s registered JPH126…there are perhaps a couple of other JPH reg Lagondas but not remotely consecutive. The Lancefield bodied V12 was fairly late registered, and that is JPG492, so I don’t think there is much evidence to say Lagonda had blocks of reg nos to use. Perhaps they did in the 20s as production levels were higher then.
Laurence
Deux Sevres car club newsletter today states that there was an intention to build a car museum to display these cars at Chateau Gaillard, and the president of the Deux Sevres dept was in discussion with the son of the original owner to that end; but unfortunately that son died so now the cars are to be sold off.
Laurence
This was mentioned on the local radio station this morning. If I understood correctly, the location is in the countryside near Niort, which is around an hour’s drive from here.
Laurence
That’s frankly amazing, Colin.
To go from a scant collection of a few odd parts and end up with pretty well all the right ones for a particular model…well done!
What could so easily just have become another bitza special will instead add another Lagonda to the ranks…excellent.
Laurence
As Peter says, it will work, and pedal travel will be less…but you will have to press significantly harder to achieve the same level of braking. The result potentially is that you might not be able to press hard enough in an emergency stop situation, and in any event you could find the brakes tiring to use in heavy traffic.
If your request is simply that you’ve been unable to obtain the correct master cylinder, you could have the new one sleeved to 1.25″, using stainless steel so no rust in future!
LaurenceKlaus,
Have you checked out some of the UK suppliers who specialise in rubber mouldings? A few years ago I took a piece of my original windscreen frame rubber (V12 dhc) to an autojumble, and found 3 that were very close to the profile of the original.Laurence
Interesting….has a Sanction 1 engine.
And Riley RM boot hinges!
Hi Peter,
Thanks so much for this! Thoughtful of you, was wondering how I’d get to watch this following Colin’s alert.
Laurence
Hi Peter,
Well done, a heroic resolution to your annoying problem!
I face a similar issue with my LG6 special, which has a fuel gauge and sender unit; but no connection between the two. The gauge is a modern one of period style, and to confuse further, for reasons I’ve been unable to fathom, the petrol tank is from a Derby Bentley. Doubtless the previous owner discovered the two weren’t compatible, so yes, the car came with a wooden dipstick…in fact not really necessary as the racing pattern filler is huge and provides a good view of the tank contents anyway.
Your “modern” sender unit, the one you’ve removed, looks pretty similar to the one for my 1951 Riley RMB. So might be older, but perhaps they’re still manufactured for the retro market.
Laurence
My LG6 has a S4 Meadows engine. The previous owner had the engine rebuilt with TRW pistons…after 500 miles, it seized. I gather the problem was that these (Volvo?) pistons were to the correct tolerance for the bores, but no allowance had been made for the much longer stroke on the Meadows compared with the Volvo application. Because of the longer stroke in the Meadows engine, the pistons would not be getting the quantities of lubricating AND COOLING oil, meaning they would run hotter than intended, expand more…and seize.
The rebuilder’s remedy was to bore the bores out somewhat. To be honest, whilst the rebuilders were vintage engine specialists, they certainly weren’t Meadows specialists, so the result is I have an engine that doesn’t overheat or seize, but it’s down on power and uses a lot of oil….yes, in other words a new worn out engine, in effect! I think the rebuilders were correct with their remedy, but overdosed! As far as I know, no modifications have been made to the engine cooling circuit, but the car is a special and a specially made sloping radiator has been fitted.
Laurence
Engine number 7541? Reckon that’s the body number.
Hi Alastair,
Can’t say I recall any such problems with the V12, or LG6, which of course has the same mechanism. Could it be that a spring is missing, or too weak?
Incidentally, do check the compensator, which is on the massively over-engineered cross shaft running from one side of the chassis to the other. It is just behind the handbrake lever, and links that to the rear brakes. On my LG6 some “professional” had tightened the Simmonds nuts on the compensator fully, thus ignorantly locking the whole thing solid. This in turn led to only the NSR brake operating fully….not at all ideal.Laurence
Hi David,
Coincidentally my LG6 has exactly the same set up. When I bought the car, the magneto worked, but the distributor side packed up fairly quickly as the rotor arm burnt through. It was a new one made by “Park”. There was a spare “Park” one with the car so I fitted that, and that lasted about two weeks. I then fitted a very well used Lucas rotor arm….end of trouble. So watch what parts you buy!Not long after I enjoyed distributor reliability, the Vertex magneto packed up (despite having been rebuilt by D H Day not many miles previously). I’ve yet to resolve the problem, but it is useful for switching on whilst driving through tunnels to enjoy the backfires. Anyway….had no problems with the distributor or its wiring overheating, and like yours, it feeds the exhaust side.
I have a stainless exhaust manifold, but I would imagine that would perhaps radiate more heat than the original cast iron version. I doubt unburnt fuel is your problem; whilst there is doubtless some, it will be no more than that not fired by a normal single ignition engine. More likely, I would think, is that your ignition timing is out, or bearing in mind care might not have been exercised in choosing that distributor, that the centrifugal advance curve is unsuitable.
At least with a twin ignition system, you have two bites at the reliability cherry!
Laurence
Unfortunately I have no knowledge of your dynamo, but I think just leaving it is foolhardy.
It seems extremely odd that an instrument from that era has no obvious lubrication points. That being the case, there is a strong likelihood that it has never been serviced, or not for many years.
If you leave it, it will surely wear more quickly, resulting in possible bearing collapse, which could result in irreparable internal damage. Perhaps the manufacturer’s ethos was that servicing would be forced by brush wear…ie, once the brushes wear sufficiently for charging to cease, the owner would have to dismantle the instrument to renew the brushes, and would then take the opportunity to clean and lubricate it.
I’d certainly recommend taking it off, dismantling it and cleaning/lubricating it…bearing in mind the previous poster’s advice, in so far as don’t overdo it.
Dismantling should be straightforward; hopefully there is access to the brush springs so that these can be released before you withdraw the brush carrier…not a great problem dismantling, but reassembly could be problematic without.
Laurence
Laurence
Just found this, a photo taken at the Ellard auction.
Trouble uploading…now there’s 2 pictures…ho hum.
Anyway….doesn’t look down at heel then, does it. Poor thing.
Laurence