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Lanchester 15/18 timing

Pinkbeard
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2017 9:54 pm
Location: Banff, Scotland

Lanchester 15/18 timing

Post by Pinkbeard »

My 1932 Lanchester 15/18 is being scrutinised by an experienced vintage car mechanic who has a suspicion that the timing is not correct.

Any advice for him?

One thing puzzling Ted is that the Owners Manual states that the manual Advance Retard timing adjustment on the steering wheel is only required when starting the engine as the timing is ‘automatic’ when running.

Does anybody know how the timing is ‘automatically’ adjusted? The distributor that is fitted to my engine does not have a ‘recognisable vacuum diaphragm’.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.......

Thank you for your time gentlemen

AlanCoombs
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2016 10:07 am
Location: Cambridgeshire

Re: Lanchester 15/18 timing

Post by AlanCoombs »

Hi Paul,

The "Automatic" timing advance on these cars just refers to the balance weights and springs built into the distributor base that advance the ignition with engine speed - there is no vacuum advance. On my car, my preference has been to set the timing to the "correct" advance using a timing light with the steering wheel control in the centre, and use the control to advance it further as required under load or depending on the quality of petrol until it starts pinking, and fully retard it if I want it to idle especially smoothly, slowly or quietly, such as when parking. In practice, I find it always starts instantly no matter where the control is set, and it's just about impossible to ever get any "pinking" due to being over-advanced since the compression ratio of 5.5:1 is so low - that might not have been true in the days of 2-star petrol!

Best regards,
Alan

ranald
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Location: North Wales

Re: Lanchester 15/18 timing

Post by ranald »

Paul, Welcome to the forum. It might be worth looking at the tappet adjusters. They use a hardened steel ball with one flat surface. The ball can rotate within it's socket and when badly worn, a second flat may be found to have formed. This can impact on the gapping (normally about 50 thou). Marcel Renshaw whose contact details are in the Driving Member has a stock of newly manufactured adjusters should you wish to change them. All the best, Ranald

Pinkbeard
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2017 9:54 pm
Location: Banff, Scotland

Re: Lanchester 15/18 timing

Post by Pinkbeard »

Thank you Alan & Ranald, I will pass this on to Ted.

My apologies for the slow response. I understood that I would get an email alert when a response was posted but I must have got that wrong.

Cheers

Paul M

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John-B
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Re: Lanchester 15/18 timing

Post by John-B »

Pinkbeard wrote: Wed Sep 05, 2018 10:45 pm My apologies for the slow response. I understood that I would get an email alert when a response was posted but I must have got that wrong.
Cheers
Paul M
I have a suspicion that the email when someone replies to a topic you have subscribed to isn't working properly. I've searched the phpBB support forum and there are hundreds of posts about subscribe topic. If there is a problem, I can't do anything about it.

However, notification (the red icon that appears top right when logged in) does work when someone replies to a topic you are subscribed to. Just check by clicking your username top right, User Control Panel, Board Preferences, Edit Notification Options and check all the Notifications boxes.

What does surprise me is that I seem to be automatically subscribed to all topics (open any topic and click the spanner icon to check) but I don't receive a notification or email to all topics. That would produce hundreds of emails and notifications. That seems odd.

EDIT: I think the button is working the wrong way round. If you open any topic and click the spanner icon you may see that the subscribe box is already checked. Uncheck this box, confirm Yes in popup that you do want to subscribe, then ignore the error pop up. Then go to User Control Panel, Overview, Manage Subscriptions and you will probably see that the chosen topic is in the Watch list.
In User Control Panel, Board Preferences, Edit Notification Options , make sure the box for Emails for "Someone replies to a topic to which you are subscribed" is checked.
Let's see what happens! You should only receive emails for newer replies (but not your own).

EDIT 2: The above method works. I've received an email about a reply by someone to another topic I subscribed to.

Pinkbeard
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2017 9:54 pm
Location: Banff, Scotland

Re: Lanchester 15/18 timing/Notifications

Post by Pinkbeard »

Hello John and thank you for your comments.

I have now changed my notifications as per suggestions - yes some were not ticked for emailing me.....fingers crossed it will now work when required next.

Paul M

ranald
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Re: Lanchester 15/18 timing

Post by ranald »

Paul, I've posted this to test the email notification. Let us know if it works. Regards, Ranald

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John-B
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Re: Lanchester 15/18 timing

Post by John-B »

ranald wrote: Thu Sep 13, 2018 11:08 am Paul, I've posted this to test the email notification. Let us know if it works. Regards, Ranald
Let's hope so. I've just had an email telling me about a reply from another member to another topic, so it works for me.

Pinkbeard
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2017 9:54 pm
Location: Banff, Scotland

Re: Lanchester 15/18 timing

Post by Pinkbeard »

And me......

Chris_R
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Re: Lanchester 15/18 timing

Post by Chris_R »

AlanCoombs wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 10:39 pm In practice, I find it always starts instantly no matter where the control is set, and it's just about impossible to ever get any "pinking" due to being over-advanced since the compression ratio of 5.5:1 is so low - that might not have been true in the days of 2-star petrol!

Best regards,
Alan
Just to put that into perspective, 2-star petrol was 92 Octane. When the car was in production, typical 1930s petrol was in the 60's range Octane rating, boosted to somewhere in the 70s range by the addition of either TEL or Ethanol as Octane boosters. A 1936 advert for Cleveland Discol (the ethanol blended petrol) advertised the petrol being suitable for up to 8.5 to 1 compression ratios compared to the more normal 5.5 to 6 to 1 compression ratios used by regular petrols.

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