VAR Forum

Welcome to Austin ownership & to the VAR. Where about in the country is the car? If it’s reasonably local I would be more than happy to come and have a look and give you answers to your questions and hopefully get it to start. I work for the Heritage Skills Academy where we teach vintage car res...

Meet Mavis - just purchased for restoration from Facebook market place.
She is a 1929 16/6 Burnham - woodwork is mostly sound with no woodworm or rot.
I will need a propshaft and a pair of valve chest covers if anyone has any spare.
@1928 Austin 12/4 Arthur, Ada & Mavis

I would be happy to donate a complete front & rear axle.

Wanted Austin 12 rolling chassis preferably with engine & gearbox for apprentices to strip and rebuild for training purposes. There is so much training in an Austin 12 - side valve, magneto, cable brakes, clutch lining on flywheel not driven plate, cloth coupling, front brakes design through kin...

Thank you for the reply.
I will be investigating this weekend.
I will report on my findings

I am building a very special Austin 12/4 and have finally got it’s modified Prop-shaft fitted ( it’s from a old Morris Marina to do away with the cloth coupling at the gearbox). I ran the engine with the car in 4th gear and the rear wheels raised off the ground and find that the off side rear brake ...

Arthur is now a rolling chassis and was seen at the last VAR National Rally in 2019. D47B26B4-FDB9-4D02-8999-66736802D1A8.jpeg B3CE3C71-755E-4450-B0AB-1DDB99963ACF.jpeg I put Arthur into temporary storage so that I could work on my other Austin 12/4 Ada. 01F43CBC-750F-432A-873B-5430E4FAD3D7.jpeg F45...

It would be sad to see this car broken for spares as it has survived so long.
But if somebody wants the rolling chassis and engine etc, I would be very interested in just the body as I have a restored chassis waiting for a body to be found or made.

Latest update. I gave up with the Zenith Carb and fitted an 1 1/4“ SU Carb which I am more familiar with. Still will not start. Not trusting the old magneto I made up a mounting for a Lucas distributor & fitted. It still will not run ( I know it is wasted spark as it runs at the same rotation as...

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I have just come in from having another try - it is now running on all 4 cylinders, but still with back pressure through the carb. I’m thinking maybe the head gasket may be passing between the pots? It was an old gasket - or maybe I have not set the valve clearance...