Personal Notes

A series of emails from Peter Schweinsberg in Australia about his Roadster including comments about cracks in the rear, racing and valve timing.

Peter welcomes comments and suggestion being sent to peter<at>peterandval.com (replace <at> with @ before sending)

Email 1 - 23-Oct-2009 - Paul's Singer history

Congratulations on your web site. I am glad that I searched you out.

Acquired my first Singer in 1961, a 9HP Bantam roadster and sold it two years later to a work mate. My first 4ADT came in 1962, it was sold as a 1956, so was probably first registered in '56 from '55 production stock. I have often thought that it could be the last sold here. After that I acquired one more 4ADT and two 4ADs as spares.

Back in about 1964 I bought the last of the Dominion Motors stock of new Singer spares along with the parts stock cards.

My "good" car has not run for over thirty years, the founding of a business and raising two sons took over my life, but ran it in regularity events at Amaroo and Oran Park race circuits over a number of years. Learnt how well she handled at Amaroo and screwing its neck to 80mph at the end of the straight at Oran was a lot of fun.

I have never had a really close look at the new spares, but one of these days I will produce a list along with descriptions and part numbers and let the world know. Someone out there might regard me as a life saver.

Now that I am almost retired and have acquired a new home complete with a 4000 sq ft industrial quality shed, I am now planning the layout of my restoration "shop", and probably the first project will be the "good" 4ADT.

Along the way I acquired the UTE. It is a basket case, I pulled it out of a fowl yard on a wet night but have not bothered to look for numbers to see whether it is a 9 or a 10.

I have lots of other cars as well:

1934 Austin 10 4 door saloon
1948 DS1 Austin Sheerline
c. 1948 to 1950 Singer 9 or 10 Utility (yet to be properly identified.)
1953 DM3 Austin SWB Princess limo
1957 DS7 Vanden Plas Princess *
1982 VW Caravelle with 3.6 Porsche engine & GB *
1989 VW Carravelle Synchro 4WD *
1991 BMW 850 *

* indicates fully road registered and going

I am looking forward to staying in touch

Ps. My Singers are not included in the 2002 survey

Email 2 - 25-Oct-2009 Aluminium cracks in rear

Read with interest the articles relating to the horizontal aluminium cracks adjacent to the bottom corners of the boot. I have had my first 4ADT since 1962. Acquired it with 25,000mls and retired it at about 90,000. Restored it once after a bad smash and it is now being considered as my next restoration project. The last time I really seriously drove it, 30 years ago, was at the Oran Park race track in a regularity event. Interestingly after 8 laps the cracks, which had got to about 1/2" since the restoration opened up to about 1 1/2". An extra inch in 8 laps flat out on a track.

The problems as I see it are:

1.You have two wooden body frame members at that point, they are 90 degrees to each other. The joint is not rigid so they move in a scissor action and the aluminium has no strength.

2. The chassis: rigid to the back of the cruciform, then just channel/ladder. Very bendy as other contributors have stated, but this does contribute to keeping the inside wheel on the ground in a tight fast turn.

3. The vertical sides of the body, rear of the doors are very rigidly mounted to the long timber floor plates which are attached to the chassis.

This means that as the chassis twists, that twist is transmitted progressively through the rear body structure to the joints in the frame which works the aluminium skin.

Solution: I do not really know.

Have been thinking about it for over 40 years. Weld a fourth side into the chassis. Build a space frame inside the timber frame so that the body provides rigidity to the chassis. Something like this was done here in Australia back in the late 50's.

Make the timber joint rigid using modern boat building adhesives, etc.. But his will probably cause problems elsewhere in the frame. something has to give. Whatever, even with my modified engine you don't want to add too much extra weight. Back in the 60's I could overtake a line of ten cars without blinking. These days would screw its neck just to keep up with the traffic.

When I get to that stage, I'll let you know what I do, then over a period of driving, I'll report on my observations.

As an aside, I remember the old Singer Boys (60's) saying that the 4A was the best handling post war Singer roadster. I have never had one so do not know. But think about it: less weight, a beam axle at both ends, a really flexible chassis.

Oh, and Oran Park Race Track. The Singer Car Club built it in 1962. They were seriously into sporting car events in those days. Unfortunately they lost control through open membership to other makes. These others were saying: "Who will come just to see a few Singers running around." The rest is history.

Email 3 - 03-Nov-2009 - Valve Timing Method

Valve Timing Singer OH Cam Engines:

Dear All,

I agree with everything that has been said on your web site with regard to valve timing, but I would like to offer development to the "Smiley Method".

To me the visual method is only as good as your judgement.

The "Smiley Method" can be made more precise.

Assumption: You want standard valve timing using a standard cam shaft.

Steps:

1. Get the flywheel to TDC for #1 cylinder.

2. Remove the spring loaded part of the timing chain tensioner and replace it with a bolt. this makes it much more rigid. You can put the proper tensioner back later. Actually, I have found the spring loaded type very unreliable, the springs broke too often, so I run with a rigid tensioner bolt with just a little slack when cold and have never had a problem even on the track, even after 50,000 miles or more.

3. Rotate the cam according to the "Smiley Method". Then open up the tappet gaps and rotate the cam ever so slightly until the position of the cam and the gap openings allow both rockers to just move. Use a feeler gauge to assure yourself. You are now in just the right position to have the inlet valve opening before TDC at the same angle as the exhaust is closing after TDC.

4. Without moving either the cam or the crank, fit the sprocket to the cam shaft. I have found that it always just goes straight on.

5. Re-adjust the tappet gaps and enjoy.

Email 4 - 3 Nov 2009 - Racing at Oram Park.

I am just so impressed with your web site that any contribution has to be to the advantage of all.

When I first acquired my 4ADT back in 1962, I was almost alone.

The Singer Car Club was absorbed into the NSW Road Racing Drivers Club (See my contribution the the BMW club which will appear in the next edition of Torque magazine).

Singers disappearing from the road very rapidly, either becoming spares like three of mine or just being scrapped. The cracks in the rear aluminium skin was akin to the car having leprosy. But there were people around who could give advice, and that is where the rocking valve method of timing the cam shaft came from.

Please find attached a copy of my Singer Car Club/Oran Park article, and a photo of my 4ADT opening up its cracks at Oran park.