One or two members have kindly inquired as to why there have been no updates to this thread, even wondering if there was a sinister reason. Well, I did think that maybe I was beginning to weary you all with the seemingly unending catalogue of ups and downs Modestine seems hell bent on putting me through. However, the view count of the thread moves ever upwards so I relent and here is a résumé of the past six months.
Prior to the 2011 AGM Weekend I stripped the engine to investigate the knocking noise on tick over but found no obvious cause. The problem still exists and the general consensus is that it is most likely piston slap associated with the two modified pistons I fitted a couple of years ago. One benefit of the strip down was that I took the opportunity to clean out the engine water jacket and was astonished at the amount of debris removed. See picture 1.
I had also been plagued for a long time with contact breaker point gaps closing and on investigation found them to be totally knackered and shorting out. So, I had the distributor modified to electronic ignition. No bolt on kit was available so the work was carried out by Jolly Engineering of Malvern
http://www.classicheads.com. A splendid job with nothing visible externally to give away the modification and greatly improved starting, idling and acceleration. Apologies to the purists.
On to the AGM. The plan was to travel via Motor Wheel Services at Slough and have two new Blockley rear tyres fitted and all the wheels balanced. The Blockleys are slightly smaller than the Michlins and refused to pop out evenly to the rim bead. After three hours of struggle the tyre fitter was satisfied they were OK and I set off. Five miles down the motorway one of them punctured so on with the spare and back to MWS. Three hours later and a new tyre refused to co-operate so they re-fitted the worn Michlins and I set off once more. Too late now to visit Keith Bowley at Ashton Keynes Vintage Restorations to view progress on the Steady Barker Dilambda so on to Cheltenham arriving halfway through the evening meal.
Navigatorless for the Saturday tour (Margaret preferred to be in France with the family!
) John Millham offered to come along and a super day we had. Not least because he drove Modestine and was able to give an objective view on how she went. Steering shake, heavy steering, brakes requiring way to much pressure and very high revs in top gear did not endear the old girl to him at all! Not at all like a good Lambda don’t ya know?
The rest of the weekend passed off very agreeably and I particularly enjoyed dressing up 1930s style as requested for the gala Dinner.
Picture 2 courtesy Tony Harrison.
Sunday evening it was off to Portsmouth to catch the overnight ferry to France and revel in 10 days motoring on their superb empty roads. Met a guy at a Vide Grenier (boot fair) who was selling motoring bits who, spotting my Lancia Club badge said that he had a Belna. Arranged to visit later in the week and indeed he has a very nice Belna and was thrilled to get up close and personal with a Dilambda, a model he had never seen in the metal. Photo 3. Sadly I did manage to reverse into a stone wall and damage the nearside rear wing which still awaits repair.
Home again, having left Margaret in France to await the arrival of the other half of the family I had a week running a kids camp and honour a booking for Modestine to strut her stuff as wedding transport. Lovely feeling to have Modestine putting money in my pocket for a change!
Incidentally for your interest, Footman James say that I can do up to ten paid for weddings in a year provided I notify them and pay £15.99 each time. I’ve since learnt that this only applies to weddings and funerals and that all other hire would require a private hire licence which is about £120 per year. Even if it’s for a relative or friend and you charge nothing you must not accept anything in kind.
All good stuff until it came time to return to France. I had arranged for MWS to collect the wheels and sort out the tyres and to return via MWS to Keith Bowley the track rod I had borrowed from him earlier in the year. Left my track rod with my local vintage repairers for them to make new joints. A week into my French leave and Keith rings to ask where his track rod is – long story short, the carrier had lost it!
It took a week to convince them that they had picked it up and for them to find it at their Leeds depot instead of Heathrow where it should have gone. All still perfectly labelled and at a huge cost in mobile phone calls.
Big disappointment on my return home to find that there had been absolutely no progress in making the new track rod ends so retrieved them and sent them to Omicron who did a splendid (if costly) job of making new ones in under a month. Fitted in no time, tracked up locally and on the road once more.
Out and about regularly up to the New Year including a super Lambda Lunch at the Phoenix, Hartley Wintney where attendees included Steady Barker who’s reminiscences were a joy to listen to ably prompted by Jack Romano.
So came to an end 2011, a year in which, by and large, Modestine behaved herself very well and we had a lot of fun. However, the clutch? Watch this space!
