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For March 2002, I'm very happy to feature a 1970 Austin America owned by my friend Scott Williams of Topeka, Kansas. Scott's car is very unique in that it is one of the only America's with an automatic transmission, that is driven regularly. In fact, as you'll see below, Scott repaired the transmission himself! Scott is a dedicated British car enthusiast. He and his car are very deserving of the honor and will be receiving a commemorative plaque.
I first met Scott about 3 or 4 years ago after joining the UK based "1100 Club". This was about the same time I was starting to work on my car after it had been stored for a few years. I remember receiving the club's membership package and looking over the long list of 1100 owners from all over the USA. Not only was Scott listed as owning a couple of America's, but he was also listed as having a website. Another list member who caught my eye was Scott's friend, Frank Mckinney.
To say the least, Frank has quite a collection of British cars on his Kansas farm. I originally called Frank in search of a few hard to find parts. Turns out Scott had some of the parts I was looking for and Frank passed me along to Scott.
As they say, the rest is history. Along with Michael Carnell's MG1100 website, Scott's original British car website was one of the first I saw on the web relating to our cars. Scott continues to be a great source of 1100 knowledge and is a regular contributor to Michael Carnell's now world famous 1100 email chat group. Just last summer Scott saved me again by providing a part that was extremely hard for me to find (and he did so for free!!).
Thanks again for all the help Scott, and for taking the time to send me your story and pictures!
"British cars have always been a part of my life. My mom's daily driver when I was a kid was a Triumph TR-3. That's a really cool mom, don't you think? Of course, the back seat of that was was the gas tank, and we often wonder about that. The first car I could call my own was a 1972 MGB. The story goes on from there, but first, I cant tell the story of my experiences with Austin Americas without going into a bit about Frank McKinney in Great Bend, Kansas. He is a friend of mine that I met at an All-British car show in Kansas City in the mid-80's. Frank said to come visit his farm sometime as he had many British cars to show off. I took the trip one day from Salina to Great Bend.
(Frank (right) sits on the fender his 1970 Austin America and I sit on the fender of mine at his Great Bend farm many years after the first tour of the farm.)
Frank's farm is a auto salvage yard in disguise. Inside every barn and out shed you open a heavy sliding door and find all kinds of British automobiles. Austin Cambridge, ADO 16's and Wolseley sedans are abound. Even a Landcrab - ADO 17! His family bought British saloons in the 50's and beyond, and most of the cars they owned are still tucked away. Frank had a love of these cars from his childhood. He has fond memories of the families MG 1100, black with red interior that they bought from new.
(This is the first Austin America I had been given the chance to drive.)
In one of my early visits to the farm I had a chance to drive his blue 1970 Austin America. Frank pulled the America out of the barn and let me drive it around his farm. To keep the mice away, his cars have moth balls thrown in. Whenever I smell mothballs now I think of British cars. This car had automatic transmission, and I was fascinated to drive it and feel all of the automatic shifts. A four speed automatic spends a lot of time shifting to get to top gear. The novel quirk of Automatic
Austin Americas is of course the fact that you can select your gear manually or by letting it decide itself. The car is better at it then I was, and after you try the manual way, you will find it better to go auto. Most of his cars dont have license tags, so to test drive the cars, you drive out across his farm roads full of potholes. An excellent test for Hydrolastic abilities.
After a couple of visits, I was then on a mission to find either an Austin Marina or an Austin America. The Marina story happens first, as I bought three to turn into one. That car became my daily driver for 10 years. But after that car was together I still wanted to find an America.
(The 1971 bracken America arrives home.)
The first ADO16 I bought was actually one of Franks cars. I had followed him on the car rescue mission to a nearby town. The story of the bracken car is that it was owned by a college student at Sterling College in Sterling, Kansas. He had left it to be worked on at a small mechanic shop and never returned to pay for it. It had a thrown rod and an automatic transmission. Im not sure the mechanic really wanted to deal with that problem anyway. The shop had been pulling parts off to use in other vehicles, so it was semi-compete. Arriving home with the car I had a bit of trouble when the ramps fell off the trailer before the car was all the way off.
The ramps fell off the trailer and I was at a loss. It made for a photograph. At that time I had no garage of my own, so I was borrowing or renting spaces to work on my cars from understanding friends. I tore into the project and discovered that the oil light had been disconnected. So perhaps the student had run the oil out without knowing it and thrown the rod.
The blown automatic engine of the 1971 America was not going to be workable. Through the grape vine I had heard about an engine in Denver, Colorado. Somehow it was shipped to me - I can't remember how that worked. Some sort of trucking arrangement where somebody knew somebody. The resulting engine was a very tired 4-speed manual with a spun flywheel on the crank. It took a lot of work to get that engine together. That engine didn't work very long. The pistons I ordered from a parts house had been fitted with the wrong wrist pins. When I put my foot on the clutch, it was just enough pressure to have the pins scrape the cylinder walls. It never was right. I ran it for a short while and then pulled the engine. And, talk about a bouncing car, something was wrong or missing with that cars Hydrolastic suspension. Whenever the car would go over a bump it would bounce wildly and make a bubbly sound from the rear of the car. Perhaps the internal valves were blown out of the splacers? I spent a lot of time trying to debug that - pressurizing it and draining it and the result was always the same. It was a good training car, but I ended up pulling the motor and shelving that car in pursuit of a car that had more going for it.
(The 1963 MG 1100 stands on blocks for 17 years near Marquette, Kansas.)
My second ADO 16 was one that Frank McKinney had kept his eye on through the years. It was sitting on blocks on a little back road near Marquette, Kansas. It was a 1963 MG 1100 painted in a faded red color. The story of the car is that a lady named Vera drove it to Kansas from Colorado in about 1974. Somewhere along the line the engine blew up.
After throwing rod number two, a gaping hole was created in this early 1098 engine. The car was placed on blocks and left that way for 17 years. Her son tried to work on the car and took pieces off but never completed the work. I asked the woman what she would want for the car and she said I could have it for the trouble taking it away. And it was a trouble to take away as parts of it had frozen up. I paid her a dollar and had her sign a paper saying she sold it to me. She didn't have the title and I still have to get a title for it. Before I left, I asked her what it was like to drive the car and she described it as a "Runnin Jesse." I'm still looking for the origin of that phrase, but I decided to name the car "Jesse" as a result.
In the meanwhile, the search went on for a more complete car that I could easily put on the road,. My third ADO16 was a 1970 Austin America that I found in an interesting way. I was at the Kansas City All-British car show another time when a guy walked past me holding a Hydrolastic displacer. I questioned him about it and learned he was a Mini owner and during the course of our conversation he told me about a really nice America in Missouri he had seen and suggested I go look at it. That turned into a car-rescue adventure. I borrowed a truck and trailer and traveled with my father in pouring rain to the Ozarks.
A rainy day made for a slippery car rescue of this 1970 America from the Ozarks of Missouri. There I scooped up the green car I'm driving today. It was very low mileage but had a blown 4-speed manual transmission and a strangely painted blue engine. The story I heard about that car is that it had been in an estate of several cars. The owner had died and its new owner never had time to fix the car up. He was actually driving it when its rod number two failed and blew a hole out in the engine, and continued to drive the car home!!!!! The hole, by coincidence, was exactly like the '63 1100's engine hole. Both of them rod number two.
 The 1970 America made its debut at the Kansas City All-British car show several years ago. This is, of course, the car I have been writing about on the [now world famous] MG1100 list because it has a running example of the automatic transmission. In order to get one of these to work, I asked Doug at Mini City Ltd. for help. He gave me the phone number of a guy in Boston who was, at that time, a daily Austin America driver. He talked to me on the phone several times and sent me some automatic parts, along with detailed descriptions of how to make the automatic work. As I had never rebuilt anything like this I was not too successful getting all the clearances right and my transmission whines more than it should, I dont trust it much on the highway. I use it as an around-town car these days.
I had the Hydrolastic suspension on that car fail one day. I took the car to the car wash. As I got out of the car I got a faint hint of the whiskey smell of Hydrolastic suspension liquid. I washed my car, drove it home and put it in the garage. Within seconds of getting out of the
car I hear a hiss and a large green puddle was forming under the car as the whole right side sank. Wasn't it nice of the car to hold its bladder(s) until it was safely at home! A trip back to Frank's farm resulted in a displacer from another car and I had the unit in place and
pressurized in short order.
At the Kansas City All-British show, someone pointed out a sticker on the windshield that I didn't know the significance of. The sticker said, "Parking Permit BA Rapid Transit," which I learned was Bay Area Rapid Transit. So my car grew up in San Francisco! The paint, as seen in
this photo, is not nearly as nice as it looks in the picture. Hours went into that wax job.
 Now, back to that MG 1100. It's been a project on the "back burner" for some years. But plans are in the works to make that the next show car. I'm replacing it with a 1098 I had picked up along the way and keeping the original gear ratios. Much work is needed in finding interior parts. I ordered the Heritage Certificate for the car and verified its original color scheme. Old English White over Sandy Beige. From what I hear, very few duo-tone cars made it to the United States. So keeping with that scheme will really set it apart. I have an MGB convertible to sell to raise funds for the restoration, so if you need an MGB, contact me. I hope to get the 1100 painted in the year 2002. Finally. After sanding the red off the side of my 1963 1100, the original two-tone paint scheme was revealed. It was an exciting moment.
Other Examples, Influences, & Ramblings:
(One impressive MG 1100 that I encountered was owned by Ralph McCaddon of Clifton, Kansas.)
I have seen other examples cars through the years that I'd like to mention. One was owned buy a machinist in Clifton, Kansas named Ralph McCaddon. He had found two MG 1100's years ago and turned them into one. He was very resourceful as no one in his area knew what an MG 1100 was. Victoria British in Kansas City could supply parts related to MG Midgets and Sprites, but offered no direct assistance with the ADO16. He and his wife traveled to England and finally found someone he could talk to about he car. He stuffed his suitcases with various bits and pieces and brought his car to life. You may note that the car has MGB seats. That was his plan to accommodate for his significant height.
He and his wife drove quite a distance to Salina, Kansas one day to show the car off at a small British Car gathering. That was where I first met him, and at that time I got to drive that car. It was the most precise example of an MG 1100 have ever experienced to this day. This guy was a resourceful machinist who knew all about clearances and how to make that engine sing. The gearbox felt tight and easy to shift. I hope to have a gearbox like that someday.
I stopped in to see him two years ago. He was in poor health but was glad to see me. I learned later that he had passed away a very short time after that visit. I contacted his son and asked if he needed any help with the car, or if it would be for sale. The son, who owns an MGB, was going to keep the car, as well he should. But he sold me some extra parts that I will be using on my car.
Other America Moments: America Take-Away:
(The manager of a salvage yard in in Wichita, Kansas gives a lift to an Austin America.)
Frank McKinney and I visited a wrecking yard in Wichita, Kansas. They had several Austin Americas there and Frank had his eye on two non-running examples of the cars. To move the vehicle around to our trailer the resourceful junkyard operator used a fork lift to transport the cars from the back of the yard to the front of the office. Its an image I'm glad I captured. An Austin America to go!
Another time, on a visit to Salina, Kansas, Frank McKinney and I found a Morris 1100 in an auto wrecking service yard. It was going to come up at an auction. The thing I remember about that car is looking in the passenger compartment and seeing this nice gray carpet. Or so I thought. What I was looking at was the gray concrete below the car. It had
absolutely no floors. A total Fred Flintsone car! The auction house never contacted us as we had requested to tell us when the auction was, and we never heard the fate of that vehicle.
Television "Transmission":
While I was working at Smoky Hills Public Television in Bunker Hill, Kansas, I wanted to create a television spot for pledge drive that included the four-syncro Austin America transmission that I had been working on in my garage. The name of the spot was "Station Gear" and I wanted to show spinning gears under the title "SHPTV GEAR." I took the stations camera into my garage and spun the gears by turning the output flanges by hand. If you want to see the resulting spot, follow this link: http://homepage.mac.com/ibook3417/iMovieTheater1.html
Automatic America Tech Talk...:
One of the techniques suggested to me to make the transmission last longer was to take the fourth-gear clutch plates and use them in the forward clutch. If Leyland had done this, perhaps the automatic transmission would have lasted longer.
(Bronze fourth gear clutch plates are interchangeable with forward clutch plates.) They were created out of bronze. They were interchangeable with the original fiber-covered ones. Yet, with the modification, it shifted beautifully, though perhaps slightly harsher.
(These are the stock-issue forward drive clutch plates. You can see bits have flaked off. Some examples that I threw away showed the surface scraped clear to the metal.)
I was told by someone that the dealers had a hard time selling the automatic cars in the early seventies. To make the car seem desirable and exciting, during a test drive they would rev the engines and throw the car into drive. Of course, the wheels in front spun with energy and made screeching pavement sounds. If a new owner were to take this idea home and show it off with to their friends, the transmission would fry very prematurely.
Another story I heard through the years is that the American driver would place the car in fourth gear and never let it shift. Supposedly the driver would go around town in that gear and it would burn up the torque converters. In practice, the car would not go very fast using that technique. I really wonder where that story started.
Somewhere in a magazine of the past it was printed that all US-bound Austin Americas were automatic. It seems to me that the ratio of auto to manual was probably closer to 50/50. I would suspect that many cars on the road were converted to manual after burning up an automatic - especially if they were under warranty!
Automatics have two definite "quirks." They go into gear from neutral with a huge thud. So much so that two extra stabilizer bars are used on the automatic engines, and mounts can still break with use. The second "quirk" is the third to fourth gear flare. The engine revs up, or flares, between these gears before slowing down into forth. Its more prone to doing it when the engine is cold and its your first time into forth.
Leyland tried to address both problems. The had a modification the dealer could add to prime fourth gear. I have that modification on mine and it seems to makes no difference. The neutral to drive thud was addressed with a valve body that was supposed to redirect the oil around
and make the shift into gear smoother by delaying the oil supply in a certain sequence. I tried putting that valve body on and the car ended up delaying the forward drive forever! I removed that valve (after pulling and re-splitting the transmission/engine) and it all works now.
If you've got one working now, change the oil every 1,500 miles and hold your breath. Bear in mind that reverse must be used with care or you won't have one. Park where you don't need it if possible. I should do that more than I do.
Automatic Magic:
These are the key ingredients to the Austin America Automatic minus the torque converter, which most people have seen. Upper Left: The valves that dance up and down and shift the bands. Upper Right: The main drive line in the automatic box with brake bands laying on top. Lower Left: The hydraulic "brain" that instructs the
valves when to open and close - running on engine oil of course! Lower Right: The "governor" that monitors road speed and compares that to the throttle opening before mechanically sending that information on to the
"brain."
And finally... Its an Austin America, NOT and Austin American. (OK, it's a pet peeve of mine.)
Thanks to Todd for letting me waste all his server space with my words!"
Scott Williams
Topeka, Kansas
scott@oldertech.com
Fantastic story Scott. The car looks great and I'm looking forward to your pending MG 1100 restoration. Congratulations on being March 2002's Austin America owner!
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