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If it is enough, then the 1098cc version of the A-series is a lovely, understressed and flexible unit. Even in a Minor they go pretty well. The big trouble with more power, is that you generally need more of everything else as well, and that gets really spendy, really quick. I would think, given the stratospheric rise in values, sticking with “period” mods would be the way to go; so the 1098 you already have is probably ideal, and a largely stock 1275 probably the limit, unless the “econofrog” title is out the window already. 🤣

Best of luck with everything. 👍👍

I don’t know about where you are but, in our little corner of Kent, the weather today was miserable. Cold, wet, and not in the least bit conducive to cleaning and painting anything…

…but permission to play with the Canta is not something to give up lightly, so his lordship and I braved the inclemency to make the most of his mum’s goodwill. 😀

I thought, if we weren’t going to be stripping and cleaning stuff, then it made most sense to try and make the moving of the car less of a pain than it currently is - because up until now the only way to move it is to push it, and the floor of the woodshed isn’t particularly flat.

So, now that we have a battery that holds a charge, it seems like a good place to start would be getting the new ignition switch sorted out. I got this one, which is for a Peugeot 205, picked solely for the length of its factory cables. These Valeo switches are on loads of French stuff, but I couldn’t find anything that had the same plugs and I suspect that Waaijenburg simply used proprietary plugs to suit their own looms.



After working out what terminal did what, we snipped the redundant plugs off.



Then put suitable terminals on them, just standard 6.3mm latched Lucar male blades, and swapped the plug shells over from the old switch to the new. 



And, as if by magic, it plugged straight in and only went and worked! 😀👍



 

With the new found ability to start the engine with a turn of the key, rather than opening the bonnet and pulling on recoil starters, our attention was then turned to addressing the uneven and surging idle. After some faffing about, trying to see if there were any adjuster screws, that turned out to be a simple case of winding the incredibly awkwardly placed and tiny adjustment screw in a fraction.

We then stuck a nice new spark plug and air filter on it.





I don’t think the plug and filter made any difference to the running, but they both definitely looked like they needed changing. We then ran the engine for a bit to get it properly warmed up. I will sort out an oil change before it goes back on the road, but for now what’s in it will do. 

One new thing on the “to do” list is the exhaust silencer/heat exchanger. It’s holed internally and is sending fumes straight into the cabin. Less than ideal, and probably one of the reasons why the air tube is melted. I’m not sure whether to attempt to repair this, whether to source a replacement from Holland, or whether to do away with the system altogether in favour of another cheap Chinese diesel heater like I have in the Land-Rover and the workshop. I don’t want to spend good money on another exhaust, only to find that the bigger engine in the UK variant has a different one to the Dutch ones like I have with the drive belts. Whatever, for the time being it’s disconnected, and I will seal it off from the cabin before we actually venture out in it. 

We then took off the wrong new drive belt, and fitted the right new drive belt instead. Here’s a short clip of it working as it should, with the pulleys cycling through their range of movement as the revs are increased. 



I was pleased to find that the alternator is working fine, and charging the battery ok. I had been a little worried that the abuse it had suffered, running with a dead battery, or being run without the ignition on, might have damaged it, but it appears to have survived ok.

We did an electrics check next:

Sidelights yes.
Tail lights yes.
No plate light yes, but cover broken. 
Dip beam yes.
Main beam yes.
Brake lights no (broken switch).
Horn no.
Indicators sort of. Front right and rear left working, the other two not. Probably bulbs. 
Wiper motor appears to work. Not sure about washers.
Foglight no.
Reverse lights no.
Hazards no, switch jammed.
Main light switch a bit stiff, would probably respond to a dousing of contact cleaner and/or electrolube. 
Cigarette lighter no.
Dash lights yes.
Fuel gauge wasn’t registering anything, but I don’t think there’s much fuel in it anyway. 

All in all, I don’t think that was too bad. The switches will hopefully respond to some lubrication and some use, and the indicators to either a waggle of the bulbs in their holders, or some new bulbs. The horn is a tiny thing that looks like it should be on a moped, so I’ll probably just bin that and replace it with something from my stash.

Obviously, and despite the fact that we still have no brakes, we then had to see if it would now drive nicely with the new belt. 🤣



Which, I’m very happy to say, it does. 😀👍

The mangled gear selector cable does make getting it into forward gear very awkward though, so obtaining a replacement for that is going to be a necessity. I think that, and the pantograph arm for the wiper are going to be two things that I will definitely need to source from Holland, as I haven’t been able to find equivalents for them anywhere else. 

Looking at the rear window, I was wondering if it might be a standard rear window from a light van? Citroen Visa or suchlike? Any thoughts? 

Anyway, a bit of progress. 😀👍

I hate to be the one to say it, but aluminium and stainless are very poor bedfellows. I have no doubt that your climate will go a long way to negating the reaction between them, but in cold wet Blighty that would be a recipe for serious galvanic corrosion to the alloy in short order.

I don’t know about that 🤣

No progress to report, but the boy’s D of E requirements mean that permission work on it has been granted by the boss for next Sunday. Hopefully I can get the lad set to cleaning and painting the rear suspension on one side, and we can have a measure up for a spacer plate on the stub axle mount to give us clearance for the bigger tyres.

However, discussions with the lad have resulted in the somewhat surprising statement that he would prefer to have us put our efforts long term into keeping the Austin lorry than the Canta… so, it might make more sense to just sling four cheap 4.00x10 crossplies and save ourselves the hassle of making the bigger tyres fit if we’re only going to be moving it on…

So, the current plan is to get it running properly, converted to conventional controls, MoT’d and then move it on to a new owner. If anyone thinks that they are tempted, then please drop me a message. I would far prefer it to go to a fellow RetroRider than muck about on eBay.

I would think that a spring specialist could wind you a replacement. The links and bushes on my M33 were similarly worn out when I got the bike; replacing them really made a difference in how the bike felt to ride. I suspect that the regular greasing that these setups need simply gets neglected once the bikes are into their second or third owners and are still getting daily use.

The 1937 Ford Model Y I had was identical to that, with a knob on the dash you pulled out, and a cable direct to the starter.

The best thing about something like this is its simplicity and low state of tune. It means that pretty much anyone with a grasp of practical mechanics can keep it running indefinitely; providing they are able to live with its shortcomings. Even something as relatively closely related as my M33 was is just that couple of steps up the evolutionary ladder to make things much harder to keep up with when there’s little or no spares support.