Nods news , A fixorage happened

[Bobbycham]

I'll second that , Thanks Dave
Bob

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Got a stinker of a cold so updated the Singers wiring diagram to include the wipe / wash interface and some other alterations

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Good move.
I've made so many wiring 'improvements' I'd be lost without the additional diagrams. Easy to forget just what I did only a few months ago, let alone those that I did 10+ years ago.

[pubcrawler]

One of my 1st New Year jobs is to alter the wiring, include more fuses and relays plus.....draw a diagram

[Lotus-e-Clan]

And of course the diagrams will be passed-on to the next owner who may well respect and understand what you did, and why you did it, rather than despise you for corrupting the pure design/art form ...and therefore resist the urge to return everything back to 'factory' (like a Luddite might)!

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

At the risk of turning this into a blog I thought id better say something just to prove im still here
Well not a lots happened to the Singer apart from a flat battery that is - it seems total lack of use flattened it somewhat and although not totally flat it wouldnt quite start .
Still I charged the battery on Saturday 5th and used it for the first time this year going to Haynes breccie club the next day where it ran beautifully and caused a large amount of comments , a few not so good but many were nothing but positive .
Im sure its running too cold though as it only got to 76˚C after 5 miles - still it warmed up real quick ( if you consider 76˚C to be warm ) , heater was good considering .
I cant for the life of me remember what stats fitted so il have to actually check my own thread to find out
Couple of pics from Haynes

[617sqn]

My new one from Malcolm is a 78 deg.

Andy G

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Playing again .
Decades ago I moved the sidelights into the headlights , this meant I could do the following
Have 4 sidelights
Leave the original sidelights disconnected
Turn the sidelights into indicators by using a different flasher with side repeater capability ( orange lens needed ) meaning 2 bulbs per front indicator .
And finally run as DRL lights in either clear ( basically 4 sidelights again ) or amber ( totally legal with the sidelights still being white and in the headlights. )
I went for amber DRL lamps using the later shallow all amber lens normally used in the States on Arrow series cars and have done so for at least ten years .
Anyway one lens has cracked and ive no replacement and the Singer should have the deeper L717 lenses
Deep ones arnt available all Amber , only in all clear or the standard clear / amber . I tried the Tamiya paint on the clear sidelight lens but wasnt happy with the result
However with a bit of cunning , some sawing , some translucent waterproof goo its possible to make a pair of all amber early ones from two sets . Passenger one was a trial and although its OK for now its cracked all to hell so a pair are coming to make a new one.

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Glad you've looked into this ... I stopped myself fitting amber bulbs to a spare sidelight position on the Clan (within the pods) - 'cos I thought Plod might object.

Might follow your lead next time I fettle lighting stuff! (I'm chasing an oil leak from the oil cooler take off atm).

Be interested to see a picture at night with the amber lights on plus all the combos ..or is it like DRLs where currently they have to be off when headlights are on?

[617sqn]

Get the new Amber sidelights/DRLs to flash with the indicators. That must be easily attainable ?

Andy G

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Be interested to see a picture at night with the amber lights on plus all the combos ..or is it like DRLs where currently they have to be off when headlights are on?

Here you go

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

New passenger side lens now made to replace the cracked and knackered first try trial one - looks almost factory to me

[617sqn]

Nice job, Dave. I've got a pair of all Amber lenses with the indicator "bubble" which I've used with Angel Eyes 7" plain glass headlights in the past. I actually prefer the look of all clear lenses, but my originals from Peru eventually went cloudy.

Andy G

[Lotus-e-Clan]

I prefer amber glass on indicators not least because of the number of fails and advisories at MOT time on cars I've had with painted bulbs!

OK amber LEDs an't going to go that way - so that's sorted now.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Flatteries bat yet again , il do a parasitic drain test tomorrow just in case but i think the batteries just had its day

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Singer battery / Alternator / parasitic drain test results - its all OK I recon .
Whats what is with the separate pics
Any comments or thoughts are most welcome

[Peter Hurst]

I take it you have no power in garage for a trickle charger. My Imp battery is going into 12th year but when not being used battery usually connected to trickle charger. Typically I have at times completely run battery down by leaving door open and so interior light on at same time as not using trickle charger. Trickle charger brings battery back each time! I have taken bulb out of interior light now!

[eebiegeebie]

Is that first reading of 12.7v after the battery has "rested", e.g. overnight, or is that what you get immediately after running the engine? If the former, then it looks normal, but if it quickly drops to that after having 14.4v on it, then that wouldn't be good as it should take many hours to drop to that. Also, how old is the battery? In my experience, anything above, say, 5 years old is on "borrowed time", even though I have had some batteries last a lot longer than that. I've been told 7 years is the average, FWIW. I've had some die slowly and some die all of a sudden. They are mysterious things!

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Results of the battery test and the technical diagnosis is
Its fooked
CCA is 147 and it should be 330
New battery it is then - ive ordered one through work - might work out cheaper . Still all that testing beforehand made doubly sure i didnt buy a battery for no reason

[617sqn]

That's true, Dave. Always good to test things out anyway - no point in buying a new battery if it's not necessary. Any chance you could rig up a small solar panel to plug in ? Laid on the garage roof perhaps.

Andy G

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Yes African Imp , we do recycle old batteries , il keep this one a while charged up as ive a spare engine i want to fire up sometime , then il recycle it via work

[The Nun]

I've got an old battery I've had for years, in fact it's probably about 20 years old, no good really for use in the car anymore but I keep charged up, it's great for testing electrical parts on the bench or anything else that needs a 12v supply to check it's working.

[bazzateer]

Recycled one old battery with built in carry handle as a garage door stop, works brilliantly!

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

With it being rather cold out i took the opportunity to referb / respray / slightly alter my fake " Rootes inspired " high level brake light i made a year or so ago . Back then time was not on my side so i got it working and stuck it in as was .

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Not a single clue as to wether a curved side on the airbox facing the fan will aid or hinder airflow into the aforementioned fan thus improving it or not but my brain insists its better than a squared off one .
Stuff used is highly flexible fibreglass - an offcut from the boot backing board I made .
It seems logical Mr Spock

[617sqn]

What an excellent idea, Dave ! why didn't I think of that ?

Andy G

[moose]

https://i0.wp.com/nasaspeed.news/wp-con ... C422&ssl=1

Dave. this is what i meant by curved the wrong way, the first proper drawing under the hand drawings shows "gently curved baffle"

What you have is a curve that leads to the two nuts that hold the fan mesh in place so you are funneling the air to that point and the large volume of air is being compacted into the tight corner were it creates a vortex that prevents smooth flow of air through mesh.

if you have a small opening air will go through, if behind that you have a larger area the air expands into it to take up the space so goes from dense high pressure air (compacted) to less dense air (less compact) so the less dense air will flow through the mesh easier. it is constanly being pushed into the larger opening by the higher pressure rushing into the opening. If the opeing is air tight apart from the fan mesh all the air will go through the fan mesh to where you want it. Less dense air will be easier to shift for the fan as well.

There is plenty of info out there of peoples front rad conversions using huge raidiators with very poor ducting. My rally car has a radiator of 16 inch by 10 inch 2 inches thick crossflow design keeping 100 + BHP cool i.e. the car runs at 70 deg C. It is set back from the front panel which creates a smaller opening behind grill the grill it opens out to the rad and i have the fans mounted horzontally in the out let duct which is positioned in the bonnet to expell into the low pressure area created by the air passing over the bonnet and rising over the curve near the front edge.
https://goo.gl/images/jDsuaH

http://contrails.free.fr/engine_aerodyn_radia_en.php
Scroll down and see the picture next to radiator in free air stream. This is why mocal type oil coolers do not work efficiently on imps , the sport cooler can disperse heat into the air in low flow situations.

Scroll down a bit more and see the Cost of cooling, look at the rad without air being ducted into it. Air will take the path of least resistance so rather than being forced between the fins it will bounce off and take an easier route . It is air forced over the fins that scrubs heat from the fins the more air that passes over more fins un-hindered by fans etc that removes more heat (hence a dirty rear rad on an imp will lead to overheating).

Sorry waffled on bit there Dave but hopefully explains what i mean, in the case of your heater blower it is not about getting rid of heat but if you have a good ram effect taking place to feed the heater fan less dense air it will move more air easily and you will feel the benifit at the screen outlets.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

maybe a 6 inch round smooth right angled bit of pipe would do it , air goes straight into the fan then avoiding the nuts etc

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Slightly revised addition , curved part now the correct side of the rear fan mounting nuts , might help until i find a better idea re. Mooses suggestion. theres next to no gaps top or bottom - it just looks that way

[617sqn]

I'm a tad confused here : is Mike "moose" thinking that this is about a front rad conversion and not about smoothing the airflow into your heater ducting ? Having read the info in the last link (ostensibly about piston aero engines) I can't see the relevance to your heater matrix, which is physically well up the tube, and certainly difficult to have adjustments made to shapes and flow.

Andy G

[moose]

look at the drawings again it is the same for front rad conversion ducting as for heater duct to fan. if you make a sharp angle in the corner you get turbulance and the air stalls as it packs itself into the corner like liquid going down a funnel, you have a large volume it is less dense, you taper it down and you get more dense liquid. You can initially pour fast into a funnel until the narrow bit fills with dense liquid and it backs up so you have to slow down the amount you pour, with air on a car going forwards and speed increasing the same effect happens but you cannot slow the air down so it spills out in all directions like if you did not slow down filling the funnel. if you used the funnel the other way round you could pour flat out down the narrow bit and as the liquid expands into the wider part it becomes less dense. There are limitations and more physics to it than that but basically that is how it works so look again at the drawing where instead of a duct with a tight angle to the edge of rad it is curved like a hump back bridge before the edge of the rad this makes air cling to the duct and flow smoothly through rad same applies to inlet of fan, hence me say dave it is curved the wrong way.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Gary Henderson suggested a central divider curved into the middle of the fan like so , bit of card to the right is roughly where the divider is between fan and horn

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Spare front handy for a trail build of it

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Well it fitted perfectly , got to give it a coat of paint then see if it makes a difference . Having blown a load of vape clouds into it before and after trial fitting it does seem to smooth the flow , made a small difference with just the fan but tricky to tell , might make another and split the box exactly in half but wanted to see if a narrow entrance sped the flow up at all

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Trial " Slightly " opened out front grill finally painted .Slots are about twice as wide . il wait for it to harden off a bit then try it the weekend to see if it improves the heater fan at all

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

New grill fitted , i did it just enough to hopefully let more air through but not so youd notice it much
BEFORE

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

AFTER

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

New top switch panel made , my old one had three switch holes but only two were used so rather than stuff a grommet or blank in it I knocked up another one , i wanted the hazards and washers in real easy reach which is why they arnt on the bottom one

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Its way too old for the car but i love it anyway - its a 1930s in car tapley meter made for Ferodo.
Info here , i have the clamp mentioned as well . http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/brake-tester.htm

[The Nun]

Never seen one before only the huge thing the mot tester put in the passenger footwell in the days they took the car out to test the brakes, bit dodgy if they weren't working right I would have thought?
I recognise the Rapier fastback ciggy lighter though

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Switch panel failed - not because it didnt look good or hold the switches but because its just too flimsy . Fine on a normal switch but the hazard switch takes some pushing off = it bent , MK3 is in progress and a completely different idea - pics will follow

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

This Switch panel is much better , doesnt move or bend operating the rather stiff hazard switch plus I do like the curved end better . Made from a bit of dead wire winding machine we scrapped at work

[617sqn]

Looks fab, Dave. Fits right in there !

Andy G

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Just done 40 odd miles looking for snowdrops of which we only saw a few . Still the Singer ran grand as its first proper outing of the year .
Maybe im imagining it but the heater felt hotter after the fan duct alterations - Annie certainly complained it was too hot in there so had to use the 60s aircon and wind the window down a tad .
One thing i have noticed is the coolant level rise in the expansion bottle is considerably more since i put the pressure cap back on the rad and the non pressure one on the bottle rather than the blank on the rad and the pressure cap on the bottle . might have to lower the cold level. its running at 80˚C at 70MPH after 6 miles without backing off .
Moose , whos suggestion this was - or anyone else for that matter - any clues as to why the bottle hot level has changed just by swapping caps over ???

[617sqn]

Seems obvious to me, Dave. Unless I'm not seeing things correctly, I cannot see any outlet on your expansion tank. I believe that the caps are now the wrong way around : the rad cap allows expanded water into your exp. tank but it has no place to go. Except rise in the bottle and pressurise it. Looks dangerous to me ! Mine is the opposite way about. Expanded coolant flows into the exp. tank but can release pressurised air to atmosphere by the action of the standard 7lb rad cap through a small outlet.

Andy G

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Its now basically identical to a standard Van / Husky set up , ie. pressure cap on the rad , non pressurised expansion bottle . Expansion bottle cap is permanently vented , coolant rises and falls as before.
Outlet or vent is the clear pipe just below the cap , coolant in is via the black pipe going into the bottom of the bottle

[617sqn]

Right. OK, I see it now I've expanded the image.

Andy G

[617sqn]

Mine has a completely non-vented cap on the radiator. It seals against the top of the filler neck, leaving the overflow stub exposed. The expanded coolant then flows down that into the bottom of the expansion tank. The tank has a 7 lb cap which can release pressure over and above to atmosphere. When cooling down that cap allows air back into the exp. tank and the radiator draws coolant back from the exp. tank by negative pressure (we'll call it vacuum here). Very rarely needs any water, except when the HG failed

Andy G

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Cooling system is fine , been for a 40 mile drive today and its running superbly i must say ,
I lowered the expansion bottles cold level to 1/3rd full instead of 1/2 full , it seems the new setup of moving the rad caps means its more efficient at getting the heat out therefor the coolant rises more , certainly today it ran too cold and only got to 72˚C so i need an 82˚ or 88˚ stat

[moose]

Cooling system working as it should thermostat is regulating the temp to 72 deg so an 82 deg stat will do the same engine will get to 82 deg and stat will open rad will remove the excess heat and stat will close and allow engine to maintain 82 deg then open again etc. Proper spark allows complete combustion of the mixture and a correctly set mixture keeps engine temp in check i.e. if you went lean the engine temp would rise. How many people rush down the route of electric water pump before getting the basics right, like a clean rad inside and out, no leaks, pressure maintained in the system and as much air as possible removed from the coolant. Less air in the coolant prevents steam bubbles that raise pressure and lift cap if the cap lifts the boiling point lowers. Think of a pan of water it takes a while to boil but if you splash water on a hot hob ring it bubbles and steams off. The imp rad cannot be filled to the top due to its shape so the only way to get it brim full is pressure cap on rad and overflow pipe into a vented container so that when it gets hot and the coolant expands and air rises to top of coolant and bubbles into overflow bottle when cap lifts. When the car cools only coolant is drawn back into the space this fills the rad brim full. You need the cap to lift a couple of times and keep a check on overflow bottle then the level should be maintained as per Dave's pictures a hot high level and a low cold level.