Lockhouse

Yes perfect sense - thanks! And I didn;t mean to put you on the spot, I couldn't think of anything else either! It's just the photo, shame it wasn't that easy The fuel pump was fitted just before I bought the car so I have no way of knowing what it was like before. I am going to get a pressure gauge and see how much it's pushing out anyway. I might drop the pump off the body and see if there's a serial no and check the spec. A very useful tip about tapping with a hammer etc. I will certainly give all of these things a try before I start dismantling. Thanks to all you guys for suggestions. I hope to get round to the car Weds or Thurs work permitting and I will post how I get on. Cheers, Andy

OK thanks - I have to order the rebuild kit from the US - is there anything else I need to get at the same time to complete the job? (as it takes two weeks for parts to get here and I have the car booked out for four weddings in May!!!).

Hiya, Yes that is an electric - it's very noisy (also notice it has rubber mounts as well so should be reasonably quiet) but I can live with that if everything else is good. Will a rebuild kit come with all the bits I need to do the carb? Cheers, Andy

I had a re-occurrence of the stuck starter relay - this time only shorting it out seemed to free it. I fitted a NOS replacement that I obtained via eBay and it has made a huge difference to the starting performance - it must have been on the way out for some time. Thanks for your help!

She won;t start at all now, so I've started a new thread here as there appears to be other issues as well. She was actually running really well until last week!

Hi, This is following on from my Fuel Pump thread here. I have some problems with my '49 Super, there may be more than one issue so it may be a process of elimination. She was running more or less OK. To start her, four pumps on the accelerator, let fuel pump run for 10 secs, repeat half a dozen times (at least!) and she would eventually start. Once warm she ran like a dream. I always suspected the fuelling system was not running 100%. Now over the last week she got really noisy and laboured, not misfiring but noisy and lacking power and now she plain refuses to start. The first thing I noticed is that she was flooding almost straight away, just run the fuel pump on it's own, no priming the accelerator or anything and fuel would be literally flooding out of the air vent on the side of the carburettor within a few seconds. It appears to be a standard Carter carb. I attach some pics. Any ideas what could be causing it? Secondly the fuel pump, it appears to be a universal Carter rotary vane pump but I can't see a model number. It is incredibly loud. There appears to be no external adjustment either. She also runs out of gas when showing the tank 1/4 full. That may or may not be related to the fuel pump issue. I attach photos of the carb and the fuel pump. If anyone can suggest what may be the issue at the carb end (fuel is obviously getting there) that would be great. I'll worry about the fuel pump once I get her started. Thanks a lot, Andy Carb pic 1showing vent where petrol coming from Carb pic 2 Carb pic 3 Carb pic 4 Pump pic 1 Pump pic 2

Hi, I hope to take a look next weekend, I don't keep the car at home unfortunately and I can't get round there this weekend. I will post here as soon as I've taken a look! All the best, Andy

All sorted - my father-in-law made me a couple on his lathe! Here: Priceless Sunday Morning | Facebook

Worth checking Pete, thanks (and I didn't know that). Andy

Jaybird, Thanks for the suggestion and yes it does make sense to me! I will have a mess around with it at the weekend and see what I can find. Kind regards, Andy

HI, The fuel pump in my '49 Super is way noisier than the one in my '52. I didn't fit it but it's been replaced recently. It really buzzes quite loudly especially when priming the carb. Is this normal? I also have starting problems, it normally takes 6 or 7 goes to get the '49 engine to start from cold and I thought the two may be related - especially if the wrong type of pump had been fitted. Does this sound reasonable? Thanks, Andy

Hi, I'm after a pair of those burrs that fit on the end of the wiper mechanism that the wiper arms push onto. They are required for a '52 Super but I think '50 to 53 will fit as well. Both of mine have started to break up and I keep losing one of my wiper arms whenever the wipers move quickly! Thanks, Andy

Willie, if you ever come to the UK, I owe you a pint!

Mike, I've just read the thread and looked at the pictures. It's a tough one! It does sound like something has started to come apart internally. I like your "put it into reverse" suggestion (very gently), that might give you some clues or free something up. I shall now follow the thread with interest! Andy

All sorted! I was a stuck starter relay (the small box on the back of the engine bay). The auto-electrician found it was not cutting off properly. We took it to bits, cleaned the points and reassembled it and everything works fine. Thanks for all your help!

Hi, Went over to the unit today to take a look at the car. I dismantled the ignition switch to take it out of the equation so I just had the three ignition terminals not touching under the dash. This is what I did. I reconnected the battery. I connected the two ignition terminals, the fuel pump starts, I depress the gas pedal and the starter turns over,I then disconnect the two ignition terminals and the starter continues to turn over (!). I disconnect the battery and everything goes dead. I then re-connect the battery with the ignition terminals unconnected and the starter does not continue to turn over - as if disconnecting the battery has reset it. I had a friend with me who has an multimeter (I need to get a decent one!) but all his results were inconclusive. With the battery connected, no igniton wires connected and the throttle unpressed there was 4-5v between the starter solenoid contacts. Thanks, Andy

Even for someone who doesn't have a '57 that's a very interesting form indeed! Thanks!

Thanks Albert, I'm going up to unit tomorrow to try and sort it out. Andy

Thanks for the replies. Lots of things to check there. In the meantime I have a new igtition assembly on the way from The US. Before it arrives can I temporarily replace the original with a simple electrical switch to test everything else out and that the car is running OK? Andy

Thanks for the replies. Brad, the burnt out starter was what was going through my head when I was panicking! Rob, Great story - at least you could laugh about it later! Old-Tank, thanks for the advice everything was working OK a couple of weeks ago but I recall the ignition switch was loose. Any ideas where I can get the ignition switch assembly (and probably a new key) from? Thanks, Andy

I went over to the unit today to turn my '52 Super over as she'd not been started for three weeks. I switched on the ignition, put my foot on the throttle pedal and she turned over but failed to start. I then turned the key to 'off' but the car continued to turn over the started motor. By this time my foot was no longer on the gas pedal and the ignition was on 'off' but she was still turning over. I then pulled out the key and the lock barrel came out with it.....and the car is still turning over! I try to put the barrel and key back into the lock and I can now turn the barrel through 360 degrees and the car won't switch off and is still turning over. Whether it's on off or on the starter is still engaged and turning over. If it wasn't happening to me, it would all be rather funny. Meanwhile as I've got an Optima Spiral Cell battery it's turning over and over and only running down slightly. I end up jumping out of the car and pulling the battery cable off. Is this a faulty ignition switch or a problem with the starter sticking? I thought if I turned it the ignition to "off", the starter would disengage no matter what so I assume it's a problem with the switch? I hope this makes sense! Andy

If they don't come on first time I've found that switching from dipped to main beam and back again makes them work. Must be a switch issue.

Sound advice - cheers.

.....and I've spent my fair share of long, long hours in the pub, I can assure you!

The strangest thing - I went to pick the car up today and the headlights were working fine. Checked all the wiring, couldn't see any problems at all.