p6rob

Having a car in Central Birmingham is becoming a liability. Most of the 'free' parking has become residents only Monday - Saturday. As far as I know Sherborne Wharf doesn't have any parking now, although it was expensive when I moored there, it included parking, so worked out cheaper in the long run. Now when I moor in Brum, I tend to park overnight by the Flapper and leave the car at my mom's at weekends and use the train. If you can commute via public transport, there's Copt Heath Wharf, and Knowle Hall Wharf, both near Knowle, Nearest train station is Dorridge which would get you to Solihull and Birmingham.

Thanks, Alan. The Siddeley Special was a model made between about 1934 and 1938. I think they were supposed to show off the companies advanced engineering, or On the car there's no mention of Armstrong, all the badges being Siddeley Special, or S6, so maybe it was because JD Siddeley was retiring, he would have been about 65 when the model launched. Most of the bodywork is aluminium as is the engine block, head and con rods. It's got hydraulic valves, which I think was quite advanced for the time. It was basically the biggest, most expensive model in the line-up at the time costing about as much as a 4 bed house in London. The other models were all known by their RAC HP rating, eg 12HP, 14HP, 16HP and 17HP. The Siddeley Special 5.0 litre engine, was RAC rated at 30HP, which is roughly 110BHP. About 253 were made but being made of aluminium, quite a few got donated and scrapped for the war effort. Worldwide there's about 22 extant about half of those are roadworthy. My dad bought this one in 1997 and although he didn't make much progress with it before he died in 2015, he was always dreaming of the day he could drive it. I promised him I'd get it back on the road and have spent the last four years restoring it. At about 1:43 in this video you can see what it looked like six months into the restoration. Maurice Smith, RIP, helped with panel beating the wings and it's been a feature of the club's stand at Stoneleigh and NEC restoration shows for the last few years.

I have almost the perfect thing to match your boat, a 1937 Armstrong Siddeley, Siddeley Special. Just returned to the road after being laid up since 1966ish. A heater and power steering would be a welcome upgrade though.

Hi, Sorry no idea, could be but it's unlikely to affect the running at this stage. Assuming there's a decent amount of coolant in the system, I'd get it running first then worry about the water flow side.

If you're only getting a little bit of smoke and the unit isn't starting up, it's far more likely to be a lack of fuel than a lack of volts. If you've got fuel but not enough volts there will be clouds of white smoke. If the unit runs for about three minutes and stops it's usually because of a failure to ignite caused by one of the above. If it fires up but cuts out after about 10-15 minutes it's overheating because the coolant isn't circulating. Have an empty jar or receptacle handy before this bit. Check you've got fuel by disconnecting the fuel pipe from the fuel pump inlet and suck on it. If you get a decent mouthful of diesel, there's no air leaks on the supply side. Once you get that far, reattach the fuel pump inlet pipe disconnect the fuel inlet at the webasto and start the webasto while sucking on the pipe from pump to webasto. It should spit fuel with each click of the pump, again of you get a decent spit of fuel, there's no air leak on the fuel supply so reattach it to the Webasto. Now with the pipes firmly reattached, restart the webasto. On my Eberspacher it takes about 4 attempts from this stage to get enough fuel up to fire. You should find the fuel vapour clouds increase each attempt until it eventually runs. If you get to this stage and it still doesn't run, there's an electrical issue or, because of previous attempts, the unit might have locked out and need resetting (you'll get an error on the display in that case). On my Eberspacher, this is done on the controller, I don't know about Webasto. I hope this helps. Rob

When single handing in narrow locks I tend to let my 40' boat float, untied, while I set the next lock in the flight but I do keep an eye on what's happening. To date most of the problems I've had with locks have been with crew involved.

The entire event was really good. We had a bit of an issue with the Typhoon on the way up to Bamburgh Castle. I was going perhaps a little fast for the car, it goes pretty well but at an indicated 75mph, the wind got under the front of the roof covering and ripped it off. We slowed down enough to get the rest of the way to Bamburgh Castle and the next day patched the roof up with gaffer tape. After the tour, on the Friday we got back to the Midlands and had afternoon tea with the Lord Mayor of Coventry, whilst the cars were parked outside Coventry Transport Museum. Sunday was the main event in the Memorial Park. Apparently 90 Armstrong Siddeley's were there joined by 13 various other classics. In the afternoon an Avro Lancaster did a fly past. For me the highlight of the trip was being allowed to drive one of Chris Warner's Siddeley Specials around the field. It was a great help to get a feel for how they're supposed to drive for when I eventually get mine on the road.

https://www.classicandsportscar.com/news/sponsored/lost-1954-allard-j2r-sopwiths-sphinx-finally-found How's that. I've seen a few Allards during my historic rallying days. Was always amazed how strong the prices were for a pretty much unknown, forgotten marque.

I've only been there a couple of times as it's not on my normal route, and not been for a few years but they were extremely helpful when I was trying to find a bleed screw for my bmc 1.5. They didn't have the right screw but the young woman found a copper washer, nut and bolt of the correct diameter and pitch and explained how to fit that in place. She put a lot of work into a sale worth only a few pennies. I kept that in place for a few years and only replaced it when I happened to ask at Calcutt if they had the right bit in stock (they were out of stock each of the other times I'd asked). Rob

Well spotted. I've always had Rover P6s since passing my driving test in 1990. Still have a 1966 2000TC but had to sell the 3500S when I got divorced. I inherited the Armstrongs when my father died.

Hi, Some of you may know, I've got an unhealthy interest in Armstrong Siddeley Cars, I own a 1949 Typhoon and 1937 Siddeley Special. This year the Armstrong Siddeley Owners Club is celebrating the Centenary by having a week long event starting this Sunday (7th July 2019) at Bamburgh Castle, home to the Armstrong family and finishing next Sunday at The Memorial Park in Coventry. We'll also be visiting Cragside, Coventry motor museum and Kenilworth Castle during the week. I know there are a few boats fitted with AS diesel's so thought some of you might be interested in attending. We're hoping to get over 100 cars at the Memorial park on Sunday 14th July 2019. Anyone with a passing interest in Armstrong Siddeley's would be most welcome. Rob

Thank you to all the organisation and to @Postcode and @cheshire~rose for letting us play on their boat. I'm sure we should have scored at least 207 points for our route plus the extras for the photos and questions, even if 13 locks didn't qualify. @tree monkey, I thought we'd agreed to blame @dyad for any problems ? Although, I do now admit doing Netherton tunnel was a complete waste of time, we should have done Spon Lane locks and gone along the old main line into Brum instead. Either way, I think we had a great time, the crew worked well together. I just wish I had enough stamina to stay awake for the social bit on Sunday. Rob

A former member, Kendal recommended an alternative type of lay flat hose. It looks pretty good. I was going to buy one as I found my blue lay flat hose a pain the bum if you weren't moored the length of the hose away from the water point. It'd kink and restrict flow and blew the connector off the pipe on more than one occasion. As it happened my ex-wife moved to a flat and gave me my old garden hose reel back and I've been using that ever since. Just checked the link in the old thread and it no longer exists but this looks to be the same thing on Amazon. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brunner-METRE-ROLL-GRADE-CARRIER/dp/B0013T5X0E Rob

Just had a very good experience with the vollies on the Tardebigge flight. We were lucky, they were about to go home as it had been so quiet, instead they helped us through all but three of the locks.

I got the slow down signal while passing somewhere around Alvechurch yesterday. We were fighting against the headwind from storm Hannah and another boater was going the other way. I did wonder how much affect we could possibly have made compared to the wind that was already battering his boat. Rob

One of my windows for shattered some time ago. It's still in place and I've covered it inside and out with plastic film. As I was passing a boat yard, I asked about getting the window replaced. They think that because it's an old window, it'll be difficult to replace just the broken but, so are recommending replacing the whole unit with new. This is obviously expensive as a one off. The window is going to be 1100 plus fitting at around 400. Channelglaze have said there isn't going to be a discounted price for getting all four windows made at the same time. Having one or two window frames replaced is financially manageable but it'd be nice to get them all done at the same time and get rid of the rattly louvres but would need time to save up. Plus, I'm hoping to finish the Armstrong Siddeley car I'm restoring before July and need cash really available for that. At the moment, I'm thinking of having a go at replacing just the broken window pane myself so I can save up to get all the frames replaced at a later date. Or possibly get the existing holes welded over and cutting openings for conventional narrow boat windows. It's a dilemma.

You mention an alternator problem as well as the overheating. Can you see if the fan belt is loose?

Coincidentally Solihull is almost the perfect place for people interested in classic buses. There's the nearby Wythall Transport Museum!