Austin Ten Drivers Club

Am I mad or just plain silly, but why isn't there an air filter fitted to my 10/4 April 1933

Regards

You will find its the little round part on the carb,about 3 dia thats whats on my 36 Sherborne.Ted

There is no air filter as such on pre-Cambridge - just a metal disc which may act as a deflector but is there primarily as part of the choke mechanism mounting.

Many thanks

Hi Jasper.
Living in NZ and being a member of the NZ VAR I found the first club run I did with my 1933 A10 was held over what we call shingle or gravel roads. Ie not sealed. So plenty of dust if you are not the first car out.!
I then looked into fitting some sort of air filter to my 26VA carb and found references to Austin fitting some to export cars but not consistently. Searching A7 web forums the subject comes up from time to time and I found a Cornwall club guy who made a few but since retired.
So after restoring the engine I wasn’t going to wear it out again buy ingesting dust. So I have done a SU HS2 conversion fitted with a cartridge filter. Not only protecting the engine but the cars runs much better and has a little bit more power pulling up hills.
Since I can’t post pic’s here send me your private email and I will show you what I did. Culleng@xtra.co.nz

The problem with the 26VA is the strangler blade ( choke) swings across the throat from outside the carb making designing an air filter to accommodate it is not easy.
Later A10’s we’re fitted with downdraft carbs and an air filter mounted on the top.
Cheers
Gary
Auckland
NZ

Looking back, seemingly all mass produced UK makes of the era only ever fitted air cleaners to 'Export' models (?). Ditto 4-blade cooling fans and oversized radiators, almost as if 'Export' was short hand for 'desert'. I guess they were hedging their bets. Although a lot of US models from the 20s and 30s also went without effective air cleaners despite there being a significant mileage of 'dirt' roads.