Original lights didn't have a built in indicator, a previous owner had fitted external indicators and removed the functionality of the Trafficators. Although I prefer the look of the original Lucas D-Lamp with stop & tail the indicators were very much an addition. As part of the re-wire the Trafficators will be back in use and we have included an additional circuit for warning hazards.
After spending what can only be described as a silly amount of cash on new rear lights it does allow the indicator to be included within the light. Still not sure why they didn't amend the design to put the indicator on the outer edge of the lens, seems odd seeing it inboard. I originally purchased lights with conventional bulbs however while testing on the bench the hot melt glue used to secure the bulb holders melted and stuck to the clear lens, this prevented the lamp unit from opening. I sent these back and was offered an LED version, something about LED bulbs I don't like, just seem harsh but no other choice.
The quality of the chrome is ok, the water proofing of the lights I'm really not sure about, not convinced the LED panels will survive the UK weather.
As with the headlights we created an assembly that allows the rear panel to be removed from the car if required. It is designed to drop down on flexible wires to allow access to the spare wheel.
The cable is 1mm Thinwall rated at 16amps and sleeved with cable heat shrink and 6-way AMP Econoseal connectors.
With the previous headlamp bodge removed we could make up a new loom for each of the headlamps and spot lights. To help removing the radiator we decide to connect via 2 x 4-pin AMP Econoseal connectors, these are ideal for automotive and waterproof.
The cable is 1mm Thinwall rated at 16amps and sleeved with cable heat shrink
New loom installed with integral side light and H4 bulb holder
Notek Farlite Spot Lamp
This Notek Farlite Spot Lamp was originally fitted to my dad's Sunbeam Talbot Ten, he removed it from the car when he sold it and I remember playing with the lamp as a kid in the garage at home. It is great to see it back on a car. It is in great condition, a new bulb and o-ring was all that was needed.
Another part of the car that was due an upgrade are the headlamps. The Sunbeam Talbot Ten was fitted with Lucas Dipping Reflectors. When the main beam switch is operated the nearside reflector dips to the left and at the same time the offside lamp is switched off.
This solenoid mechanism had long since been removed and the wiring bodged to fit conventional H4 dual-filament bulbs that provide both low and high beams. The wiring was never upgraded to take the additional current needed and the Dynamo fitted is unable to provide sufficient power.
The headlight bowl was taken from a VW Polo MK1 / Audi 50. The front glass removed and then sandwiched between a rubber gasket and the original Sunbeam Talbot Ten headlight glass. The net result was unusable as the light pattern was poor and the car battery discharged during use.
Bodged headlamp bowl from a VW Polo
A quick measure showed approximately 7" diameter replacement needed and not really thinking I ordered a low cost replica Lucas 7" headlights with sidelight and H4 bulb holder. I'd assumed the new light would fit under the chrome outer cover, clip into place and I'm all set. Yeah, good ideas and all that!
The 7" headlight is actually smaller than the Chrome outer cover so I needed some kind of adapter to keep everything in place. Could a 3d printed adapter be an option?
3d Printing If you've not heard of 3d printing it really is a game changer for producing 1 off or even small batches of parts. It all starts on a computer, where you design or find a digital model of the object you want to make.
The computer then "slices" that design into hundreds of super-thin layers—like slicing a loaf of bread. The 3D printer's nozzle, which is like a tiny, hot glue gun, then squeezes out melted plastic, drawing the first flat layer onto a platform. Once that layer is finished, the platform moves down just a tiny bit, and the nozzle draws the second layer right on top of the first. The plastic quickly cools and sticks together.
The printer keeps stacking these flat layers, one by one, very slowly, until all the layers are piled up and you have a solid, three-dimensional object you can hold.
Design Not being the creative type I can't take credit for the next steps but a friend designed the adapter using computer software Autodesk Fusion.
The design uses a simple groove to lock the top and bottom sections and secured with 3 x M4 Allen head screws. The outer edge has 4 grooves to take original Lucas fitting clips. The design allows a small amount of rotation to allow you to position the light vertically, once aligned a small bead of Silicon sealant or sikaflex to hold in place.
Autodesk Fusion render of Sunbeam Talbot Ten Headlight Adapter
Printing A basic 3d printer is relatively inexpensive to purchase and allows you to produce parts at home.
The printing filament is supplied on reels and available in a range of different colours and types. One common type is PLA (Polylactic Acid) which is extremely easy to print with. It has good tensile strength but relatively brittle and low impact resistance. It also has a low heat resistance and can deform in hot environments, like a car on a sunny day.
As the adapter will be exposed heat we chose to print using ASA (Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate) filament. It has excellent UV Resistance and retains its colour and mechanical properties when exposed to sunlight for long periods, making it ideal for outdoor applications. It offers good mechanical strength, rigidity, and high impact resistance. It is also stable in warmer environments and shows good resistance to many chemicals, water, and oil.
Timelapse video of Sunbeam Talbot Ten Headlight adapter ring being 3d printed. The parts are printed in ASA and take around 2 hours to print
Early Sunbeam Talbot Ten Headlamp Adapter Prototype
Fixing The original lights are held in place using a W shaped spring loaded clip. I was missing a couple from one headlamp and the rest were well corroded. The replacement is a Lucas Headlamp OEM 500291.
Left to right. Lucas 500291, Original Lucas, Amazon knock-off greenhouse glass clip.
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Unfortunately the ones I ordered are shorter and according to the supplier the longer version is no longer manufactured. An alternative is to use a clip for supporting glass in greenhouses, they need modifying but the ones I picked up from Amazon didn't have much spring to them and could be bent with your fingers into different shapes, nothing like the quality of the Lucas items.
We also re-printed the top section at a greater depth and moved the clip location upwards a couple of mm but the spring force was then in the wrong direction and the lamp wasn't secure in the front bezel.
Time to improvise with the 3d printer.
Lucas 500291 adapter to allow for the shorter length of the Lucas 500291 Clip. The clip is curved to follow the shape of the front bezel
Finished Article The adapters allow you take a Lucas 7" sealed beam conversion unit with modern fluted lens and have a higher quality beam pattern and cut off compared to the original lighting on the Sunbeam Talbot Ten.
You are free to choose a lamp with either a curved or flat lens and between Halogen or LED bulbs assuming an H4 bulb pattern and enough power available from the dynamo or alternator.
Front view - Sunbeam Talbot Ten Headlamp Adapter for 7" headlamp
Rear view - Sunbeam Talbot Ten Headlamp Adapter for 7" headlamp
They are available to purchase as adapters or as a complete kit with screws, new clips and headlamps. If you wish to use a branded 7" headlamp they should be compatible, once I've got the car back on the road I'm keen to try a branded lamp as a comparison.
Owning a few different cars and working on them in the garage or driveway is as hassle. Axle stands don't allow you to get the car high enough and with more modern cars it seems where the axle stand needs to be is where I'm also try to jack the vehicle from.
Sadly my garage hasn't the height for even a shortened 2 post lift and the BH Repairs Mid Rise Lift seemed a little bulky.
In the UK, Costco tend to discount the QuickJacks once a year. They are easier to store and can be lifted individually. The lifting points can be restrictive as you need to observe the minimum and maximum range, if the jacking points are outside of this range you are stuck. They lift the car via rubber blocks included in the kit.
For the Sunbeam Talbot Ten they aren't really suited. You could lift the car but as the front and rear bumpers are the jacking points it is dead easy to raise anyway and can be supported on 4 axle stands. For the daily barge however it is much easier.
They come in a large packing crate with the hydraulic pump, hoses and manual. Assembly is easy, you need a foot pump to charge the return air cylinder (forces the oil back into the main cylinder when lowering) but otherwise everything is included.
Once the vehicle has been lifted, the side supports lock in place and you then lower the jacks to the stop. At this point the jacks are locked in place, the hydraulics are depressurised and you can remove the hydraulic hoses if you wish.
BMW E61 on a Quickjack 7000TL on the lowest height setting
B5 RS4 on a Quickjack 7000TL on the highest setting
They fold away flat and can be stored vertically. The hydraulic pump lives on a shelf, only real struggle is where to keep the hoses when the jacks are in use or stored.
Found a seller on ebay who offers brackets for the different Quickjack range including the 7000TL, 500TL and the 3500SLX. These allow you to keep the brackets fixed to each lift and also a hose holder. The brackets are a sprung fit on the steel rail and shaped to accept the nut on the hose keeping it all in place.
They are 3D printed using ASA (acrylic styrene acrylonitrile), a thermoplastic like ABS, but with improved heat resistance and durability.
I'd never been happy
with the timing chain setup on the Ten, it was noisy with a large amount of
slack in the chain with plenty of wear to both sprockets. It also included a
later Hillman rubber tensioner which seemed an odd fit having not seen any
mention of it in the parts book. It did remove some slack in the trailing edge to
a degree but did nothing for the wear in the sprockets and stretched chain.
Speaking to others in the club and the usual suppliers it
became clear replacements were no longer available and my best option was a “used
set” with less wear, downside any used set will be of a similar age.
We looked at later Rootes cars but couldn’t see anything
directly compatible or that could be easily modified.Some
early MG cars came close and we looked at modifying the centre from an upgraded
MG vernier pulley but just seemed overly complex.
That left us with the idea of manufacturing from scratch.
For either of these options we really needed the original drawings.
A huge thanks is due to James Spencer at the https://www.rootesarchive.org/ who
kindly forwarded copies of the original engineering drawings for both sprockets.
I only need 1 set but a small batch could lower the cost
assuming I can sell on the remaining spares. With printed drawings in hand I
approached some local machine shops, in fairness to them; an enthusiastic owner
arriving in an Austin 7, waving printed drawings probably didn’t help matters
but ultimately my lack of budget was the limiting factor. I’m extremely grateful
for the time and ideas they suggested to simplify the manufacturing process.
20 Tooth Sprocket
40 Tooth Sprocket
Their main suggestion was to move away from the idea of creating from scratch and modify an off the shelf sprocket. These sprockets are available from bearing suppliers as single, duplex, triplex etc in a range of diameters, pitch and tooth count.
For the Ten we chose a basic pilot bore which leaves almost enough material to turn it into what we need.
Chatting about old cars with an even older friend, while being ribbed on the lack of progress re-wiring the Ten, my poor life choices and general state of the garage the discussion moves to sprockets. “Oh, why don’t you speak with Dafydd at DGL”, if only he had said this at the start!
20 Tooth Blank
40 Tooth Blank
Dafydd’s plan was to re-create the drawings in CAD, remove
the bulk of the material on a manual lathe before finishing on a CNC Milling
Machine.
4 further sets are available to purchase. Price at £200 + £10 UK postage per set. It includes both the Camshaft and Crankshaft Sprockets. I'd recommend sourcing a new timing chain, the chain is not included, Happy to post abroad if required.
The fuel gauge is located within the oil pressure, ammeter cluster. The fuel gauge has never worked since I owned the car. The wiring to this has always been suspect and suspected this was probably the main issue.
The gauge is held in the back of the cluster by a couple of screws. The printed cover on the gauge is held in place by a couple of burrs, I tried lifting these without success. I ended up drilling them out to release the cover.
On removal it is clear someone has been here before as the bobbins are facing the wrong way, suspect someone has loosened the bobbin coils and they rotated snapping the wires from the soldered joints.
With a steady hand and a pair of magnifiers and dental hook we measured the resistance across each part of the gauge and re soldered the joints. The wires are tiny.. I can't even see them without magnifiers.
Cleaned the contacts with emery paper and then re-assemble.
150 Ohm resistor. Showing signs of heat but still functioning
Fuel gauge hasn't worked since I purchased the car and the re-wire is an opportunity to fix. Fuel sender is located in the top of the fuel tank and fixed with 6 allen head screws. Fuel sender is lower than the top of the tank so expect a flood of fuel if the fuel level is above this.
The float on the sender was stuck but freed up easily enough by moving it about. The resistance reading were very erratic. Taking off the cover and cleaning with a contact cleaner got it working and apart from a new gasket being needed this was an easy fix.
Neighbour has 3d printed a TPU gasket which is resistant to fuel.
Resistance tank full = 90 ohms Resistance tank empty = 5 ohms
It is important to connect a 0v wire to the sender body ensuring it is at the same potential as the gauge 0v.
Some success cleaning the dashboard with Bilt Hamber Surfex-HD. Sprayed on at 50% and watched the years of brown tobacco and other gunge come away. Overall quite faded compared to the reverse.
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