Attempting to get a 110 back on the road

Hi all,

I'm a complete amateur however I have always worked on my own cars, never paid a penny to a mechanic as I've always managed to learn and succeed. However I'm struggling with my 110. perhaps because I've always worked on semi modern Rovers. Rover is my proffered brand. I picked it up as a runner which has stood for many years. It runs and drives well.

Today I went outside on a very frosty morning with the intention of freeing up and restoring the rear brakes. I needed to turn it around to make it safer to jack up on the slight incline on my road. The car nearly started after a few seconds on the starter but stopped, no ignition light and all electrical systems dead. Oil has also leaked from around the dipstick hole. I assumed the moisture has caused something to short out and blown a fuse but I'm more concerned about the oil leak.

Please help. many thanks
 
As Colin said ,classic symptoms of poor Battery connection or the connections on the battery cable to the starter , including the starter solenoid.
 
If the oil has come out of the dipstick hole, it points to excessive crankcase pressure. Not usual if it didn't actually start though :hmm:

Try cleaning out any breathers pipes you have on top of the engine, including any filters on the top cover.
 
Next thing I’m struggling with is getting the butterfly valve to fully close. I have lubricated from the pedal box up to the throttle body, replaced the return spring and rotated the spring mount on the shaft to increase tension. However I am still needing to force the throttle shut by hand at the valve.
 
Throttle shaft wear preventing smooth closure? Does it take much pressure to force the butterfly closed? Tried it with the linkage diconnected?
 
Hi all,

I seem to have solved the throttle problem by increasing the tension of the pedal return spring. It closes normally and idles smoothly now. However will I come of any unwanted side effects by using this method? I made the adjustment at the rod which has a ball joint at either end. I am starting to believe that the car has been completely stripped down at some point and not fully rebuilt. I am coming across all sorts of things not fully tightened.
 
More tension on the return spring may accelerate wear on the carb throttle shaft, which will produce an air leak eventually and change the idle.To check for a leak here spray something flammable onto the shaft ends whille its running and see if the idle changes. Depends a bit on carb model - some later SUs had seals on the shafts to reduce this - certainly the HD series did, and my HIF do. I wouldnt be surprised if the ball joints in the linkage have some wear that makes them favour an inorrect position .
 
I had a TC that wouldn't idle below 1500RPM when I got it, but I could push the throttles down to slow it. Turned out that the butterflies where not centered correctly by a previous owner. I loosened the screws holding the butterfly to the shaft and snapped it shut with the idle screw fully out. Tightned the screws and all of a sudden I had a 700rpm idle!

I'd check that first before going too crazy looking for a bigger fault.
 
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