1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Maybe it's just the onset of SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder), as the dark nights of Autumn draw in...

I've faced the same alternator issues on my Minor. It's handy if you have some sort of lever/crowbar to help with lifting the alternator away from the block while you tighten it, but obviously not something you may have available at the roadside.

[vulgalour]

Whatever it is, I just want to get better and back to normal. I literally know as much about what it could be as any of you making guesses and am at the mercy of the NHS.

At the moment just to add to it all I've picked up a nasty cold, so that's been doubling-down on on some of the physical symptoms. Happily, the brain fog has lifted a lot this week and while I'm physically well below par, mentally I'm getting back towards normal which is nice. Emotionally I feel perfectly fine and normal, which in a way is good and in a way is annoying since that really does point at this being something physical and harder for me to fix on my own.

In other car related news, this week I've been able to start actually thinking about, planning, and researching my small business future. I'm unsure whether or not I'm returning to the NHS job, it's demanding in a way that my art career isn't and I might not be able to actually meet those demands. It would be a shame, of course, I'd really rather like to be part of the NHS, I just have to accept my own limitations.

I've got to get my marketing improved considerably. Making the product is the easy bit, I know how to do that and can do it at a pretty rapid pace due to years of experience. Actually getting the product out there and selling it is a different matter, and that's my current focus. It's harder than just posting on Facebook and getting a real world gallery to accept your work, you have to craft a whole brand and identity, parasocial relationships, regular update schedule, etc. I've been a bit too scattergun with my approach because I've struggled to really just focus on one idea and push that one thing.

The end goal is to make sure I've got the several grand together I need to before I move house next year - new pc, appliances, rent deposit, moving costs, car repairs - and have a business that can look after itself a bit better than it is at the moment. The bigger end goal is to buy a house, that's about £100k, and at 42 I don't have much time left to sort that out if I'm to stand any chance of getting a mortgage.

I do want to do more with the car content as part of my work. I want to push the car artwork a lot harder, get a broader reach, and I want to make the Youtube channel a real going concern as a place to document living with and working older cars, as well as advertising my artwork. I've just got to figure out how to join the dots from here to there.

The one thing I absolutely won't do is rejoin Facebook or Twitter. Neither place has ever been anything but stress and a massive timesink, full of people trying to steal off me through spurious refund claims, not paying invoices, and generally being awful. Anything else is fair game really, probably even going to dust off Instagram and figure out how to use it to help me in a way that doesn't involve them stealing all my work to train their AI garbage.

Things are looking up at least. I'm positive about the future because I think it's very possible I can make all of this work. Socially I'm in a way better place than I've been for years, it's just my health letting me down at the moment and holding me back from success.

[daddyshortlegs]

Iron deficiency?

[glenanderson]

Twitter is just a poisonous nest of bots, lunatics, hidden agenda nut jobs and spammers. The best thing anyone can do for their mental health is to stay as far away from there as possible.

[blackpopracing]

I'm proud to say I've never been on twitter ever

100k for a house? seems ultra cheap?

[jimi]

Oct 18, 2024 12:06:02 GMT blackpopracing said:

I'm proud to say I've never been on twitter ever

I'm in that club

[vulgalour]

Oct 18, 2024 12:06:02 GMT blackpopracing said:

I'm proud to say I've never been on twitter ever

100k for a house? seems ultra cheap?

Scunthorpe is dirt cheap for housing and I also want something small and humble which helps.  I like it here for that and a number of other reasons.

[kevins]

My Son's just moved there, comparred to central Essex it's ridiculously cheap, he's renting at the moment, paying less for a 3 bed house with garden and garage than a bedsit round here. The pay (he's a graduate engineer doing CAD work) is probably 30% less that round here but with housing 1/4 of the cost he's way better off.

[vulgalour]

Not a car update, a me update. Got the blood test results back and everything is normal so rules out a few things and means I don't really have any answers.

I've been diagnosed with Stress from the start of all this and while that is entirely plausible given how life has been, it also feels glib as a diagnosis. I've got a GP appointment on the 25th by which point I'm hoping I'm feeling better. Presently, my brain is almost entirely back to normal now, memory and such is pretty much what it always was. The problem that's persisting is when I try and do any work, physical or otherwise, I'm knackered out really fast.

Emotionally stable, clear of thought, motivated, eager to get back to work... and just physically exhausted whenever I try to do even basic things. I don't know, maybe that's also Stress, which would be fine if I actually felt stressed. I just feel frustrated at the situation more than anything. I want to get on with my life and I can't yet.

[glenanderson]

Liked for support.

Years ago a mate of mine was struck down with something similar. They said it was ME. Is that still a thing?

[vulgalour]

It is, and I'm hoping to talk to the doctor about it next visit. A lot of the symptoms line up with it. Absolute curse word of a thing if it is that because that's one of those 'invisible disabilities' so I'm hoping it's not.

[vulgalour]

Time for a car update this time.

Went on a short errand and found I'd lost first gear. Or rather, it was almost impossible to engage. I've had this happen before so the trick is to start the car in first until you're in a place to check it properly. Checked the fluid reservoir and it had dropped quite a bit, again this is something it's done before and I don't know where the fluid goes to when it does as there's never any witness marks anywhere and it is a completely external system so it's not going into the engine or clutch housing.

Bled it, pumped the pedal, it felt terrible until it didn't and I got all the gears back. Problem has now gone away, fluid level is normal, everything is fine.

HOWEVER, it made me think about the mystery squeak that comes and goes on the driver's side which I had thought was a brake since it's a rotational noise, but we couldn't find anything. That's the same side the clutch lives so maybe it's the clutch that's squeaking. Also, the mystery vibration I get sometimes on heavy braking from speed that can't be felt through the pedals or the brakes could also be the clutch I imagine. What's peculiar is until today, the clutch feels perfectly fine, the bite point is healthy, and it never causes any concern.

What I'm not sure of is what could be the issue here. I don't particularly want to do the clutch again, it's not a nice job and I'm not up to it at the moment. It's also likely to be expensive in labour even though the parts are cheap. Have I perhaps got a contaminated clutch plate, or a warped flywheel or something of that sort? Is there a reason the problem sometimes just goes away of its own accord and then randomly comes back? What should I be looking for to try and diagnosis the issue and pin down the cause?

The Princess has a master cylinder and reservoir on the bulkhead that goes into a flexi-hose to a slave cylinder on the outside of the gearbox which operates the clutch fork. There is no sign of leaking inside the car, on the bulkhead, or at either slave cylinder. The clutch fluid is completely isolated from the clutch assembly so shouldn't be able to contaminate anything.

[vulgalour]

Good news! I just discovered the problem. Decided to head out to the local garage to get a quote on replacing that rear axle mount bracket since I'm in no fit state to DIY and it needs doing and by the time I got to the end of the road I'd lost all my gears and was having to rev-match change. Fortunately I was close enough to home that it wasn't a problem. Popped the bonnet and the leak was incredibly apparent, especially considering there was nothing at all to see yesterday. The shininess on the casting there is all clutch fluid that's suddenly leaked out just now that wasn't there when I checked last night.



Interestingly the mystery graunch-squeak was much worse too so perhaps the slave cylinder hasn't quite been sealing properly for a while and causing the clutch to drag sometimes, and also why I hadn't noticed a significant drop in the fluid level until very recently. Luckily, there was a NOS slave cylinder on eBay, they're hard to find so I grabbed that. I'll also grab a rebuild kit (which is a lot cheaper) so I'll always have a spare available.

It is thankfully a very easy part to replace and bleed so we should be back up and running again in no time, providing I've got the energy to do it.

[vulgalour]

It's a me update again. Saw the doctor and went through the details etc. and they said that it's likely ME and have referred me to the neurology team. This is not a death sentence, and not a diagnosis yet. I've had these symptoms to a lesser degree since my 20s, never really thought much of it because it didn't follow a set pattern.

I've decided to hand my notice in on the part-time job at the NHS because it will be impossible to manage the condition and do that job. Instead I'm going to focus on the self-employment because it's much easier to fit around the demands of ME (or whatever it is I've got if it's not that) and it's what I really want to do.

ME isn't very well understood and it tends to get worse as you get older. More commonly diagnosed in women than men, and recovery is incredibly rare. The worst thing one can do is to try and do too much physically when you're having an episode and I can absolutely attest to that in recent weeks. You just have to ride it out.

On the positive side of things, I am doing a little bit better every day. Recovery is incredibly slow and I still can't do anywhere close to as much as I'm used to in a day. The day I'm well enough to clean the car I might even have a little cry, it will be such a relief to get to that level of normality again. I'm taking solace in all the small things I can do now that I couldn't a few weeks ago and learning to be patient with myself.

No commiserations, please, only support and good vibes. I've lived with crusty old cars where you have to drive around the problems to keep them going for long enough that I intend to do exactly the same with my own body to beat this thing.

[TravellingNigel]

Oct 24, 2024 16:07:30 GMT vulgalour said:

I've lived with crusty old cars where you have to drive around the problems to keep them going for long enough that I intend to do exactly the same with my own body to beat this thing.

Great analogy, good vibes being sent 

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Well, seeing as you're driving a 1980s car, maybe it is indeed a bout of 'Yuppie flu'...

[generallee]

Good vibes dude.

[vulgalour]

Bit of good news for you all, maybe the good vibes did the trick. Woke up today with no fatigue, first time in a couple of months I've had that. Feeling much more like myself again finally. Still going to take it easy, stick to light duties, I don't want to push myself back into ill health due to impatience and the desire to get stuff done.

What a relief!

Waxoyling Lyrical Not sure the Princess is the right car, I need to go out and get myself a German saloon

[vulgalour]

More good news, clutch slave cylinder arrived and has been fitted, car is operational again. The squeak had gone away and then came back. Operating the clutch makes no difference to the noise, neither does using the brakes, so I have no idea what it is. It did make the noise on the drive so I had the opportunity for the housemate to listen outside the car as I rolled it slowly forwards and back and they confirmed it's something on the driver's side front. There's nothing to see, no play in anything, no witness marks on anything rotational so I've absolutely no idea what's causing it.

I didn't get any of the fatigue, shakes, or nausea happening after doing the job, it felt totally normal. I'm in such a good mood today! I feel like I'm back to myself and it's amazing.

[vulgalour]

Shall we have some photos with this update? I think that'd be nice. First up, the alternator. oooh, shiny.


Got a friend to help me tension the belt fully and I'm happy to report charging is normal... mostly. It puts out a reliable 14.2volts with no load from various devices, dropping as you'd expect as various things are turned on and the load increased. Happy days. However, I noticed recently the mystery stumble has reappeared, a thing the car has done all throughout my ownership and I've never pinned down.

With the multimeter on the battery I could see that when the stumble happens, the voltage drops significantly sometimes as low as 5v which is bit odd. Worse when the car is cold, it goes away once everything is warmed up. I checked the rotor arm and cap, they both had slightly dirty contacts so I cleaned those up which improved matters a bit but didn't solve the issue. Plug leads and connections are all clean, don't appear to have any damage, aren't brittle, etc. Coil seems to be doing coil things and the electronic ignition seems to be operating normally. I didn't pull the spark plugs, haven't had the energy to go that far just yet, so I'm wondering if it's perhaps a fouled plug causing the issue and as things get hot, whatever is fouling the plug gets burned off and that's why the problem goes away.

Another electrical gremlin is my headlight switch is being recalcitrant. Some days it works just fine, other days it refuses to latch in the fully on position. I do have a replacement switch and a new headlight wiring loom with relays and correct configuration for twin lights, it's just another job I haven't yet had the energy to do. It'll get done soon-ish.

The most recent malady had been the clutch slave cylinder just splurging its guts out. Fortunately even though this is a rare part there was one available on eBay when I needed it so I scooped that up and aside from it taking a little while to fully bleed, I can report that's fixed the problem. Or at least it's fixed the problem where I couldn't select gears properly.


The rotational squeak persists. Since I can't find any signs of the cause at all, there's nothing on show with the brakes, wheel, front axle, bearing, CV joint, etc. and it's not related to any sort of input from the clutch or brake pedal, I'm at a total loss as to what it might be. I have noticed since doing the clutch slave cylinder the volume of the squeak is much reduced so the only thing I can think is, given the condition of that clutch arm boot (I've never been able to find a replacement for it) is that maybe some of the clutch fluid has got in and contaminated the clutch a little bit in one spot. I'm not experiencing a slipping clutch so I don't think it's done any harm if that is the case, I just can't think what else it could be at all and nobody that has looked at the car can find the cause of it either, all we can agree on is it's something on the driver's front corner.

When we next have some dry weather I'm going to have another go at that rear axle mount bracket. I didn't have the strength to do it last time, perhaps in a few days I will. It's only two bolts I'm struggling with so once I've got those cracked off I can quite easily replace the part and then maybe, just maybe, I can book the people in for doing the suspension regas.

I've also chased Pilkingtons again for where my windscreen that I ordered in June has got to. I'm pretty disappointed at how long it's taken, especially considering how much it cost me.