1964 Humber Sceptre from UK and Ireland - Comments

Clutch went recently.

Engine stalling problem. traced to a badly blocked up air filter.

Self induced minor electrical problems.

Very nicely styled, similar to the larger super snipe series cars and the early 60's american saloons.

Fast for its day and handles well, although it does have a fair amount of body roll.

Economy in normal driving is good. 30-32mpg easily attainable in normal driving.

The 6 speed manual/overdrive transmission is *brilliant*. Much more flexible than the 4 or 5 speed manuals found in modern cars. O/D change control is mounted on the column and is self cancelling. Transmission could be made to be 8 ratio with the disconnection of the lock out on 1st and 2nd gears (1 wire).

It would be pointless in cutting one wire to the overdrive just so you can say you have 8 ratios. It would also burn out the overdrive unit in less time than it took me to type this.

Agree. The overdrive is a Laycock de Normanville unit. If you run OD on 1st and 2nd you are definitely likely to over rev and overheat the overdrive. There are many quaint descriptions of the result, but suffice to say the overdrive unit will not work any more.

For your information.

The very first thing that the special equipment dept @ Rootes did to their competition rally cars was fit this exact modification.

It would have actually made little difference to the overdrive if it was used correctly and it made the transmission that much more flexible.

The issues with overheating in use on a normal saloon derivative could have been solved using an external oil cooler and anyway there would be very few people that would be likely to use 8 speeds in road conditions.

The issue of damaging the overdrive unit is nothing to do with overheating. The overdrive unit simply cannot handle the torque input from first or second gear and as the previous contibutors point out, just not necessary.

I owned a Sceptre for many years and was very happy with it.

The danger in modifying the overdrive circuit to permit operation in all gears is that if you inadvertently pull away from rest in first gear with the overdrive engaged, the overdrive unit will be mechanically broken, as soon as the clutch is released (not "overheated") because it cannot handle such a high torque. It's an unnecessary exercise, anyway, as the gear ratios suit the car very well.

Overdrive is primarily for relaxed high speed cruising.

It is not available on new cars nowadays because a fifth gear is a better, cheaper and lighter alternative.

ACH.

I owned a 1964 Mk 1 Humber Sceptre for about 7yrs. (It was stolen). I rewired the overdrive to work on all forward gears. I only once tried to pull away quickly with overdrive engaged in 1st. The adaptor flange broke. I never tried that again. The overdrive was in use in all gears for all the time I owned it and covered in excess of 100,000 miles like this. I found it very useful for the low-speed crawl along the A40 in the 1970s getting to work and home. Apart from the above, the car only let me down once when the head gasket went on a hot summer's day.