Lynx I MkIII purchase

[Alastair Thomas]

Well, on Sunday we spent some time shunting vehicles around and got the Lynx out of the barn at last. Remarkably all the vehicles started and moved without any trouble.
We then celebrated by taking it to the Half Moon pub 3.5 miles down the road.
First impressions were good: very cold on the eyes and hands without goggles and gloves and no flies eaten.
The steering is good and the brakes adequate when I can find them. I am still to get used to the offset seating position. The time lag, caused by the hydraulic throttle and clutch controls, that I had been warned about, was not present on this vehicle - my gear changes were just as bad as when I am in the F60S.
The vehicle pitches a bit but not as bad as when we picked it up and towed it on a solid bar.
The armoured roof, folded back, makes a terrible racket. Even the Stukas would have heard it. Presumably there are some discrete rubber pads to be added.
It seems to understeer but I was not going fast enough to induce slippage in the front tyres so I think it is just a matter of getting used to the fact that there is very little vehicle in front of the driver giving a different perspective on the road.
I felt that I was going like the wind but my brother Gordon, who was following in the tow car just in case, tells me I was doing only 30mph.
I did not measure the fuel consumption but it is sobering to think that if I have the reported fuel consumption of 4mpg I should have used nearly 2 gallons for the round trip.
Anyway, here is a picture of it in the open. You will see that I have added easily removeable head lights and indicators for public road driving.
Alastair

[Alastair Thomas]

In the process of refurbishing a pair of military Butler lights, I left them on the kitchen table before going out for the evening.
When I got back I saw that my wife had restored their modesty.
Alastair

[Alastair Thomas]

We have had some trouble getting the Lynx to run reliably. Annoyingly for my brother, it fails to start for him when he wants to show it off to visitors but starts promptly for me (usually). We have been trying to find the problem especially when it broke down twice away from home. In each case it re-started after a delay of 20 minutes or so. It broke down again 20 miles from its home yesterday. An ignition tester showed us that there was little or no spark. We had suspected the ignition side since fitting a petrol pump with a glass bowl top enabled us to be sure that petrol is getting through. So we checked the points (OK), changed the condenser and coil but no better. Eventually we took the distributor cap off and found the rotor arm a little past its best.
Are these readily available in the UK?
Alastair
F60S
Lynx III MkI*

[Harry Moon]

"The armoured roof, folded back, makes a terrible racket."
I don't have any rubber on mine but I don't have any racket either. The roof is held down tight with the locking mechanism, I couldn't see what you had.

[Alastair Thomas]

Thanks, Harry.
I have the same locking mechanism. It is very positive and I need the help of a tyre lever to release it. When we get the vehicle going reliably I will ask the passenger to tell me what is rattling against what and we can take it from there.
Alastair

[Harry Moon]

Originally Posted by Alastair Thomas

Thanks, Harry.
I have the same locking mechanism. It is very positive and I need the help of a tyre lever to release it. When we get the vehicle going reliably I will ask the passenger to tell me what is rattling against what and we can take it from there.
Alastair

There is the locking mechanism for the bottom or rear roof panel and the separate mechanism for the top or forward roof panel..... I can't see if you have the latter in your pictures.


I find that the viewport lids bang when ever i hit a bump hard enough. the locks just rest in place and don't apply any camming to hold them in place and often i find they bounce out of the locked position when i get to my destination.
Can't help on the ignition as the motor I'm using is a later top mount distributor, 12 volts, petronix.

[Mike Cecil]

Alistair,

This might sound crazy, but have you felt the temp of the coil when it stops running? The symptoms you describe are exactly what was happening when I first drove my first F15 in the 1980s, and we soon discovered that the 4.5 volt coil was getting 6 Volts - and gradually overheating. After 20 minutes, it had cooled, and the engine started again without a problem, then would run until the coil overheated. No/little spark, so no ignition.

Of course, your Lynx system is 12 Volt - is the coil also 12 V or a standard 4.5 V Ford coil working via a resistor?

Mike