Austin A55 Cambridge

[AutoshiteBoy]

I *THINK* I've got a water pump for one of these.

[59Impala]

Very nice acquisition. Is that the Tweed Grey livery? If so you'll need to get the Lansdowne model of it and yes I have one When I moved into my first house in Margate back in 1986 my neighbour was an ex-RAF Bomber Command WW2 veteran, a lovely chap by the name of Stan Candy. He told me that he bought a new A55 in black and paid seven pounds ten shillings extra for a floor change. When he took delivery he said it bounced down the road so he returned to the dealership where they discovered that the front shocks had not been filled with the necessary damping liquid. He also said that he knew a car guy was coming to live there when before moving in a friend and I drove up in a RHD 1939 Lincoln Zephyr, as you do.

[brandersnatch]

Great find. Great story. Thanks.

[JimH]

We might still have some wheel slave cylinder and other NOS brake bits for these. Many decades ago we had an Austin LC301 (which looks like this now: https://www.flickr.com/photos/boblovelo ... 0887250396) and as I recall it the brakes on these things were a right mish mash of all sorts of BMC car components. My old man ended up buying all sorts of NOS wheel cylinders, seal kits and the like to get a working set of brakes. It certainly involved buying a lot of stuff that ended up not being used. I'm sure there is a box in a store somewhere with what was left over. I shall look for it this weekend.

[angrydicky]

That would be brilliant Jim, thank you.

[angrydicky]

Can’t remember if I posted this picture before and the older pics aren’t currently showing. But it was nice to get the Cambridge side to side with what is effectively its predecessor, the A40 Somerset.
OK, the Somerset replacement was the A40 Cambridge but this is effectively the same car, facelifted with a longer boot, more chrome and a bigger engine.

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We got it up on the ramp and had a quick poke around.
Pleasingly, it’s not that bad. It needs welding in most of the usual places but it’s ok. It’s had a bit of mot welding in the past, there’s a patch on one sill, another patch on the front crossmember and it’s had the triangular “kiss of death” bodge plates welded over the front outriggers on each side. It’s not the worst mot welding I’ve ever seen to be fair, but they haven’t cut the rot out so it’ll have to come out.

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While I was working on the Hampshire, my dad has been playing with this one. He fitted new points and condenser (decent ones from the distributor doctor) and we now have a good, fat spark.
The fuel pump was partially stuck, he stripped and rebuilt it with a new diaphragm, gaskets and valves. It feels ok now and is pumping although the priming lever isn’t returning properly - he thinks the return spring has failed.
It’ll do for testing purposes.
The tank is empty, and quite rusty inside, not as bad as the Hampshire though! We popped his cheap Aldi endoscope down the filler neck to look inside.
My contribution was to remove and rebuild the clutch master and slave cylinders. They actually came undone without a fight but both pistons were well stuck in their respective bores. I’d already bought a 3/8” x 24 UNF grease nipple just for this job and it worked a treat to strip the slave cylinder.
Normally, with these Girling CV master cylinders you can’t pump them as the oil/grease or whatever just fills the reservoir. I tried the usual method of clean the front, penetrating oil in the bore, hammer the piston down with a suitable punch and get it bouncing but it didn’t want to know as it had been stationary so long.
But, as the cap was corroded on I was able to get away with it and forced the piston assembly back up and, after some persuasion by wrapping in a rag and hitting the end against the vice, it eventually came apart. I also got the cap off, and it’s salvageable too.
Other methods for stripping reluctant CVS are to submerge in an ultrasonic cleaner and leave for a few hours, or to stick in the oven for 40 mins or so.
The bores were good on both so happy to reuse. Nice to salvage the original components rather than sticking a horrible Chinky one on.
I’ve got the brake master out too but haven’t stripped it yet. It’s easier to refit that one before the clutch goes in.
So it’s now got spark, compression and will have some fuel. I’ve drained the horrible old oil out in preparation to change it but haven’t decided yet whether to remove the sump and clean it all out. I’d like to, but the suspension crossmember is in the way and it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of clearance to remove it. Has anyone ever tackled this job on a farina or pre farina?
Oh, some other good news - a classic car restorer and good mate of mine has offered to repair the original front wings. He’s an excellent fabricator, much better than me and as it’s cosmetic it needs to be good and not require loads of filler.
I put the feelers out and another mate of mine has a set of good rear wings in his garage which were left over from his A55 owning days, so they’re now waiting for me to get down to Essex to collect them.

[mercrocker]

Good progress there, especially in locating some potentially good wings. I think your Cambridge is dead cert a replacement for the Somerset in Austin terms. The A40 Cambridge was only really there to meet the Cowley head on (and vice versa!) by offering an entry level big family car, it was the A50 and subsequent A55 that properly flew the Longbridge banner as a family car just as the Somerset and Devon did before it....

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I’ve drained the horrible old oil out in preparation to change it but haven’t decided yet whether to remove the sump and clean it all out. I’d like to, but the suspension crossmember is in the way and it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of clearance to remove it. Has anyone ever tackled this job on a farina or pre farina?

Yes you can. Lift the engine off its mounts slightly and it will wiggle out. Definitely worth doing.

[Shoestring]

This is a great thread and a fantastic history of the car and ex owner. It is great to see it in very good hands and I look forward to updates. I really like Cambridges although I have never owned one, I would be tempted by an A60 estate or an early big fin farina as my Dad had one before I was born and loved it. It would be great to see some updates on your Royale also as that is another very interesting car.
The reason I posted is that I assume the original owners name was Muriel as there is a Rover 214SLi on page 14 of the latest Practical Classics which looks like the one the A55 lived with and is being restored then auctioned later this year.