Above: Charlesworth goes for the quick fix. A spurt of WD40 and some vigorous buffing, but all to no avail. Hard cheese.
Below: nice and very much borrowed NOS Lucas RB340 regulator, unsullied by human or electrical contact. It didn't work either...
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ENTER THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS...
SO WHAT DO you do when you’re waiting for oil to drain from a sump? The last phase of the modern’s service was ambling along swimmingly but now my idle thumbs were starting to twirl.
A recent bout of Ebayness had meant that I might have solved my Midget’s clutch pedal linkage problem. I found a local seller who was punting out interior door escutcheons and before I knew it, I had another pedal box, a set of quarterlights, headlamps and a dashboard.
After soaking in a downpour of WD40, the pedal box was free of its old master cylinders. However, both pedals were still seized together on the pivot bolt. Much heffing and jeffing, particularly when the vice bolts sheared – hmm, quality – has resulted in a bit of movement, but it is looking like this bolt will have to be drilled out because the bush ain’t giving. On went more WD40 and I left it to see if time would work its magic.
The Golf meanwhile is no longer an old Haynes Manual depositary and I have found where the exhaust is blowing. It’s just ahead of the centre silence join, on the side of the downpipe, so of course I’m looking at a new exhaust rather than something simple like a new back box!
A bit of research has led me to believe that the 1600 Veedub perks up no end with a 1.8 GTI camshaft, a Weber carb and a performance exhaust system. So hopefully, this is true because I fitted a Weber carb to replace the notorious semi-auto choke Pierburg P2E2 years ago – which means I’m already two-thirds the way there. So brakes and suspension will also be on the cards.
A quick top up charge and the Gazelle leapt eagerly into life once more, yet still, that ignition light was blazing brightly on the dash – almost as if the prince of darkness was teasing me from beyond the grave.
Right, that was it, up came the bonnet and out came the spanners. The two most obvious potential shirkers responsible for this problem were either the dynamo or the regulator. Being an advocate of the easy life, the regulator was disconnected and removed – its terminals were filthy – so out came some fine wet and dry paper and WD40. Back on it went and... Arse! No joy.
Gez decided that this was starting to get personal, so off came the regulator’s cover and it was clear that the points were out of adjustment and slightly corroded. The snail cams were adjusted, more WD40 gushed forth and the points cleaned. Still no joy, but when it was manually operated, out went the dashboard’s ignition light. So we were getting closer.
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Above: whilst the MG's pedal box does nothing but stew in WD40, the dynamo has its guts opened up. Getting it apart was a piece of cake, but the healthy brushes made sure that reassembly wasn't quite so la-de-dah easy.
Luckily, Mr Stretton had another NOS Lucas RB340 lying around, so I cheekily hooked it up and... A sinking sense of impending backache took root – the dynamo had to come out.
When running, the dynamo was only just managing to fart out a rather pathetic 1.8V, yet the feed to the regulator was still packing a healthy 12V – which would go to explaining why the battery kept getting sucked dry of all its juice.
Delving into the bowels of the Singer’s engine bay and I once again was feeling very smug at the big space around the Arrow’s lowly 1500cc OHV lump. During the week, I had helped by brother change a headlamp bulb on his Focus TDCi and it took us three hours and an overnight break to complete. It was a nightmare and Tim's hands came out of looking like he’d lost a tournament of slapsies with Edward Scissorhands.
On the bench and this was clearly not the Gazelle’s original dynamo, because it was wearing a far newer Lucas sticker – more early Eighties than late Sixties. The bolts snapped eagerly and the commutator slid out of the body with huge ease. I know that we make a big joke about old mechanical electrical components, but they really are beautifully simple to work on.
The carbon brushes looked brand new, the commutator itself revealed my efforts to lubricate it had worked and that it was comparatively free of carbon clogging – but I did clean it out with a hacksaw blade whilst I had it in pieces anyway. Hmmm, all looked well but clearly something was amiss – perhaps the Singer’s 15 year hibernation has caused the coil to lose its magnetism.
So there’s only one thing for it, I have to go back on Ebay – which is always a tough exercise in self-restraint. Particularly when Gez keeps pointing out that there is a cheap MkIII Landcrab with a ticket currently up for sale...
SC's Pledge: "Time for my head to start ruling my heart. Yes, I prefer the Gazelle, but the reality is that the Golf will be easier to put through the MoT. Even if it is a bit new for my tastes and it handles like a drunk shopping trolley."
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The brushes had plenty of life in them and the commutator was in good healthy too. A quick clean up – handily hacksaw blades fit perfectly – and put it back together. Sadly, it's looking like the only way ahead is a new dynamo.
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