1951 LD10 KKV 222

[Sydsmith]

I am sure that none DLOC members are worth their weight in car spares to those of us who use the forum for advice, so I agree it would be wrong to insist forum members are club members. But as has been said, we don't get owt for nowt in this world, the club finances the forum, I take the view that the membership fee compared with what we spend on our cars is a smidgen.

I was a member of the ATDC forum until they changed the rules on the forum. I did not then have an Austin, but had owned one for 30 years so had a host of knowledge and spares in the attic which I shared with members, but the new rules meant rejoin the club or drop out. When that happened I received several kind personal messages of thanks for my contributions from members. I took it up with the club but the club would not budge.

For my part I have more that reaped the benefit of membership. The magazine is a good read, I would not want to miss it every month. The articles are interesting. The for sale adverts have paid dividends for me in the past in that I have bought stuff from members at very good prices. The discount I get from the insurance company I picked up in the magazine pays the membership fee.

Each to his own but what's to lose?

[Vulgalour]

Running a club, keeping on top of the expenses, and being relevant to a modern audience is quite difficult really. The internet allows such a wealth of information to be freely available to the consumer that we do often overlook the cost to the provider. Pre-internet clubs could at least rely on being the source of experience, knowledge, and parts but these days that's no longer always the case because much of that information is easier to find without the club. Finding a way to keep a club active, funded, and relevant now is harder than ever, but a good forum and regular presence on social media and image sites seem to be the way forward.

A more prominently placed donation button of some sort would certainly have got some money out of us towards the club. It avoids the commitment to club membership and allows us to donate towards running costs of the very things we use, like the forum. We have donated to a couple of other forums over the years and they all have a prominent thread, or button, or banner of some sort to draw your attention to it. Some clubs we've encountered offer a free forum with no option to donate, and no obligation to sign up, using the club membership to provide the free service. It seems some clubs use the forum as an incentive to get new owners to sign up, which isn't a bad idea really. For others, like ourselves, forums offer an opportunity to figure out whether or not a car is for us without the obligation of signing up, and allows us the freedom to dip our toe in ownership before moving on to something else. Generally speaking, we use mixed-make forums more since that matches our interests. Joining one club for one car isn't that expensive, but joining a club for every car can very quickly add up to quite a large obligation when your interests are spread across several manufacturers.

The topic of free forums on membership based clubs is sometimes a thorny one. On the one hand I can appreciate that it costs money to operate the forum and that those costs must be met somewhere. However, on the other hand is the fact that the forum has been offered for free with no obligation to the user to pay for it. Unless explicitly stated, one must assume the forum is actually free to use and that the club can afford to offer it as such to people regardless of membership status. Closing the forum off to make it a members-only facility never seems to go well because it never introduces new people and new vehicles and quickly stagnates as a result.

At present, membership is almost £50 per year. I genuinely can't fault the price for what's offered, that's not really the issue, for those that want what's on offer and find the incentives useful for them it's great. For us, the usual incentives simply don't apply. What discounts this club might offer we already get from elsewhere, our insurance is so cheap we're not going to see any significant reduction from where it is currently, and the help and advice we might need is already on the forum or just a question away. For us, the option to donate, or to sign up to a lower membership tier would be more suitable. Theoretically, a more basic tier wouldn't include things like the magazine or some of the events but would offer membership and perhaps a window sticker or something of that sort, this system works for some clubs, but not all, every club is different as I'm sure the organisers of this one are well aware.

As it happens, the DLOC has got one of the best online presences we've encountered with a traditional club. Information is easy to find, the forum is well organised, and everything looks up to date and appealing. It's what got us here in the first place, and it's likely this ability to remain active and relevant that should see DLOC survive into the future.

[Vulgalour]

Wiper investigation today. First item to address was the play in the wiper mechanism which was causing one of the mechanism arms to chafe against the back of the dashboard. The electric wiper motor has a drive shaft that comes out of the back and connects to a central piece on the dashboard. This central piece then connects via a shorter arm to the passenger side wiper box, and then by a longer arm to the driver's side wiper box.






The problem is the longer arm which flops about too much. By removing the split pin and inserting a very thin washer it removed what play could be removed and still allow the split pin to be installed. The other issue is that the motor doesn't seem particularly strong and really struggled to move if the wipers were actually against the screen. Grease in the gearbox of the wiper motor was the main suspicion here and, on opening it up, the grease inside looked and felt for all the world like window putty.




I don't have any suitable grease at the moment, but when I do this will be cleaned out and regreased accordingly which will hopefully restore proper functionality. Did a bit more video experimenting too today, and braved putting myself on camera. Be kind.

[grahamemmett]

Loved the unscheduled visit from your friendly neighbour!
If like mine, they think you should just buy a new car.

[watkindj]

Wiper investigation today. First item to address was the play in the wiper mechanism which was causing one of the mechanism arms to chafe against the back of the dashboard. The electric wiper motor has a drive shaft that comes out of the back and connects to a central piece on the dashboard. This central piece then connects via a shorter arm to the passenger side wiper box, and then by a longer arm to the driver's side wiper box.

Hopefully these will assist with the wiper restoration

http://ld10.awardspace.co.uk/controls/wiper.htm

Dual Arm Lucas SW4 Windscreen Wiper.pdf

(511.1 KiB) Downloaded 60 times

Lucas SW4 Windscreen Wiper Fitting Instructions.pdf

(1.08 MiB) Downloaded 65 times

[grahamemmett]

Darren, that’s useful for all models, thank you.

[Vulgalour]

We got a little further on the Lanchester today so here is an update for you. First task was to try and install the dashboard for which the steering wheel had to be removed. We're both used to cars where you pop off the centre and undo the big nut behind so when we popped the horn button off the Lanchester and found two brass screws behind it we weren't entirely sure how to proceed. We did the seemingly sensible thing and attempted to undo the screws, one of which did, and one of which decided that the brass it was made of had about the same tensile strength as butter.


After careful application of a drill, we removed the head from the screw and got the contact plate removed to reveal... another brass screw. Similarly this one appeared to be made of butter so it was time for the drill again. It was also time for that sinking feeling that we weren't doing this correctly and were now too far in to go back since the first screw we removed the head from would not come out. Neither would the second screw, they both just spin and spin.


It wasn't any clearer at this point and we're pretty sure this isn't how you do it. Of course, now we have to remove all of this anyway to replace the brass/butter screws to stand any chance of removing the steering wheel and are no closer to getting the dashboard installed. We made careful note of the order of components removed and have put them aside safely. If nothing else, all of these components will at least receive a thorough clean and fresh grease before reassembly.


We suspect a puller of some sort is required. There's no sign of a grub screw or pin or similar anywhere on the steering wheel, and no sign of other fixings inside the steering wheel hub, so our current working theory based on what info we could find is that the central boss for the trafficator mechanism is a push fit onto a spline and behind it will be a large nut that holds the steering wheel on its own splined mechanism. Dropping the steering column isn't exactly straightforward, it looks like a good amount of the preselector mechanism also needs to be disconnected to do it and we may even need to disconnect the steering box. Rather than make things any worse, we've left this alone for now to do some research and the dashboard is on the back seat awaiting instalation. I suppose that means we've technically put the dashboard in the car, just not the way Lanchester and Barker intended.

We had rather more success with the new jigsaw for cutting out the new door cards. We're just waiting on the bifurcated rivets arriving so that we can put the door cards back together properly and they should be a fairly simple thing to refit, we hope.




For a more in depth look at how the door cards are constructed, and to hear a very loud plane we couldn't identify, there is another video.

[ranald]

You mentioned in your wiper motor video some awkwardness in refitting a wood screw. I often use a small piece of masking tape to keep the screw on the screwdriver. Then as soon as it is located, just remove the masking tape. Thanks for keeping this thread going. It must be hugely time consuming. All the best, Ranald

[HenryC]

You may find that the horn switch mechanism is attached to a stator tube, a thin tube that runs down the centre of the steering column and exits the steering box at the furthest end. It carries the wiring from the horn. The stator tube is held in place by a compression olive and nut on the far end of the steering box. If you remove the nut and olive and disconnect the horn and indicator wires at the junction box near the steering box, you should be able to pull the whole lot, including horn/indicator switch, up and out of the steering column (into the interior of the car). I attach a thin draw cord to the wires before pulling them out, this aids replacement. You should find the large nut on the top of the column, it is likely the the column/steering wheel is a taper fit.

[triddell]

Vulgador - there are detailed instructions re the steering wheel removal and horn button assembly on the LD10 award space website. It's a really helpful website re LD10 maintenance. The link to the website has been given before a couple of times earlier in this posting.
Tom