Austin Classics

Thank you for visiting Austin Classics, this is the beginnings of an ongoing effort to create a new modern Austin 10 Maintenance guide. This is an ongoing project that will continually be updated as and when I find time to add to it. If you would like to become a contributor to this or any other part of the site, please let me know.

The Austin 10 was first introduced in 1932, spanning a period of fifteen years, where it was continually refined and updated until ultimately it was replaced by the 11hp A40 in 1948.

The aim of this manual is to help you get the best from your car by providing as much information as possible to help with routine maintenance and repairs. The information is primarily aimed at those who are trying to keep their car as close to the original specifications as possible. With this in mind I have tried to show as much information as possible on what the original part would have been and indicate any revisions that have been made to the design over time. There are potentially many updates that can be installed on a car of this age but only essential changes for the purpose of safety and complying with UK legislation will be covered. Other updates or modifications will be covered in separate technical articles on the site.

Wether you intend to perform your own maintenance and repairs or have a garage do it for you the information in this guide should prove invaluable to help you understand what is involved and have all the details to hand to help make the job easier. The manual has drawings, photos and descriptions to show the function of the various components so that their layout can be understood.

This manual assumes only a basic knowledge of motor engineering skills and aims to explain the function of various components and systems to a novice as well as detailed information for the more experienced mechanic. Enthusiasts span a wide range of abilities and I hope this manual will prove useful to all levels of experience. No doubt more experienced owners will find some of the information 'obvious' or 'elementary' please do not be put off by the this as you will hopefully find a great deal of useful detailed information. Likewise if you are new to motor engineering don't be put off by the technical parts as you can always come back again when you have learnt the basics.

About the Author

I am a relative newcomer to the classic car scene, having bought our first Austin 10 in 2005. Previously I had absolutely no experience of cars, preferring instead to just use a car and take it to the garage to be fixed or serviced. I had never even done an oil change, let alone need to understand enough about a car to repair something. So you might be thinking what would qualify me to write a maintenance guide with such a limited knowledge and lack of experience. Well the answer is simple, buying a classic Austin meant I found myself thrown in the deep end, now having to quickly learn a lot of new things in order to keep the car on the road. There is no where to plug a computer in to tell you where a fault lies and if you don't perform basic maintenance or at least have someone do it for you the car will soon refuse to take you anywhere.

Since getting the first car I have spent an inordinate amount of time absorbing every piece of information, advice, hints and tips from all sorts of places. Information can be found in difficult to find old publications, classic car books and magazines, from talking to enthusiastic owners and clubs. The biggest problem I found is that much of the useful information is not easily accessible as these cars all pre-date the information age so you often have to know the right person to ask to find an answer. While I don't claim to know everything, far from it in fact, I have learnt a lot in a very short space of time and felt there is a need for the information to be brought together in one place to make it more accessible. As I learn more I will keep adding to this guide and updating it. My aim is to help more people enjoy owning a classic Austin.

Remember that registered Austin Classics users can add comments to any page of this publication to add, correct or request more information to be added. I would encourage people to register and make a contribution if you can, even if it is to point out that you don't understand what is being described.

Darren