AUSTIN SEVEN SPECIAL
RUN BY Martin Port OWNED SINCE August 2022 PREVIOUS REPORT October 2023
I was pretty darned pleased to have completed my mission to build a Special, then drive it to Le Mans and back. But with the Austin back home in the garage, I began to wonder what was next.
The first job was simple: sort out why it had struggled to maintain momentum up hills on the way home. My thoughts first turned to the timing, so I replaced the points, condenser, rotor arm and distributor, but nothing made a real difference. Swinging by Grace Engine Developments resulted in some improvement after James Goldstraw adjusted the carb: the car positively flew on the flat, but was still stumped by inclines.
That didnʼt stop my enjoyment of the Special, however, and the following weekend I took it to the 30th Newbury Classic Car Show, organised by the West Berkshire Classic Vehicle Club. With my brother-in-law as passenger, all was going well until the last mile of our short journey, when the Austin began to run terribly. It was clearly only firing on three cylinders.
After taking our place on the showground, I dived in, re-set the points gap and swapped the spark plugs. Although running again, it wasnʼt great, and when we left that afternoon it was back on three cylinders. Pull over, swap the coil, change the mixture, adjust the timing… Still nothing, but by pulling leads off plugs, we worked out that number four was the problem. By swapping the plug the car was once again full of pep.
Later on, a return to the issue prompted me to do a compression test: all looked good. Then it ran brilliantly again. Iʼd love to report a happy ending, but investigation is ongoing and my latest suspicion is that a sticky valve is to blame (which might explain plug fourʼs tendency to foul). The plan is to buy a spare head to be machined, tickled and rebuilt, so itʼs fingers crossed that results in some longterm improvement.
In the meantime, the Vegemite Special was almost becoming regular transport, with school runs and shopping trips mixed into its weekly duties. I even added a mount for the spare tyre. During Septemberʼs heatwave I gladly jumped into the Austin to pick up some barbecue supplies, but was confused when it suddenly stalled reversing out of the drive. Confusion quickly turned to panic as I heard an odd crackling noise and found myself enveloped in a cloud of thick smoke.
I had hoped that flicking the isolator switch would bring about some clarity, but things seemed to get worse. With a slow-motion realisation that the situation was on the cusp of requiring specialist back-up with blue lights, hoses and uniforms, I grabbed the fire extinguisher and doused the inside of the carʼs rear, where both battery and fuel tank are situated.
I had rescued my creation from disaster, but it was now a right mess inside. Playing fire detective, it didnʼt take too long to work out what had happened.
The process of getting my Series II Land-rover back up and running had resulted in a tub full of tools that needed to be returned to their relevant homes. One of these was a tyre lever – normally carried in the Austin in case I need to fit a new inner tube – and that had been deployed to tension the fanbelt. During my recent (and rushed) tidy-up, Iʼd slung it back behind the seats of the Special, figuring that I would put it away properly later. I didnʼt, and that morning Iʼd stowed the tonneau cover in there as well. Doing so had pushed the tyre lever towards the battery and up underneath its cover. The act of reversing had then jolted the lever those last few millimetres until it touched the positive terminal and welded itself in place, probably shorting out against the body or fuel tank. The smoke was caused by the earth-lead insulation burning away, scorching the wooden boot floor and anything it was touching.
I got lucky. Not only had I saved the vehicle, but once Iʼd tidied up the mess and replaced the earth cable to the battery, the Austin fired up (yes, pun intended) and everything seemed to still work, even if I found myself imagining that I had a very warm back during the subsequent test drive.
When I retold this mishap to a friend and restorer, he asked two questions: did I fit an isolator switch, and did I have a fire extinguisher in the car? I was proud to say yes to both, otherwise I might have been writing a very different Our classics report.