Good afternoon all. For our sins my son and I own a Mk1 Mini, a very early MGB GT and 3 Austin 7's. Recently I had to order parts for all three - the Mini and MG suppliers required so much information the only thing lacking was my National Insurance number and blood group but they both sent completely the wrong parts!
On the other hand a short conversation with Willie McKenzie of ARP  at 4.30pm had the parts delivered to me at 10.00am the next day.
Big isn't best - give me the personal contact every time.

Regards from Staffordshire where the pot holes have filled with molten tar.

Stuart

I now have a new ring gear to suit my early style clutch where the starter motor faces the rear of the car.

I understand the old ring gear needs machining off leaving a 9.010" diameter onto which the new gear is shrunk.

The pressure plate is 1/2" thick and the ring gear 5/16" so it looks as though you could either simply machine right across the plate leaving the correct diameter or only machine away the part where the teeth are actually cut which would leave approximately a 3/16" thick flange and this would still have the fixing holes in it.

Machining right across would be simpler but creating a step would presumably give you something to locate the heated ring gear against and because there would still be full diameter fixing holes in the flange part these could be used to guide the drill when transferring the holes through the new ring gear.

Not sure if this makes sense but I just wondered what people normally do.   Also can anyone can recommend a place to get the machining done, ideally in South Devon?

John.

2004D06 letter in the Assoc magazine - about a late WOC Nippy project, but no name given. 

Anyone have a contact for a Seven owner who might live at Clarendon Road, or indeed anyone have a contact for a Roy Warburton also mentioned therein?

thanks Jon

Hi All,

Preparatory to sending the car to the paint shop, I pulled the G/B and the prop shaft. It is a short w/b Ulster Rep with a 3 speed box and spider to front Hardy Spicer joint in place of the fabric coupling. At the rear, there is another Hardy Spicer U joint in front of the torque tube. The latter is the hex head type feeding a bolt up banjo differential. At the front, the U joints are quite flexible with no play. At the rear, one U joint is flexible, while the other has a stiff spot. All the U joints are fastened with circlip and there is only one grease fitting and that is on the sliding spline on the front of the prop shaft. Can I remove the stiff U joint and replace or lubricate it and is it a standard size available from a cherished supplier? Do these have needle bearings or plain? Just to reiterate, the chassis is 1930, but the front fabric coupling has been changed to a Hardy Spicer joint as has the rear instead of the cardan block type.

Erich in Seattle

Within the last year I have rebuilt my engine, re-bore, new split skirt pistons etc but it continues to smoke and use quite a lot of oil even after 2000 miles. The engine was not idled after the re-build.
The rings were gapped 6 thou and evenly spaced. The rings have no shape to them or markings so I assume have no up direction.
I am still using the oil baffles. The compression is really good compared with other low compression engines that do not smoke.
Is it possible for this amount of smoke to be due to worn valve guides and is there a method to prove definitively that it is the bores or the valve guides at fault.
Your valued input would be appreciated before I strip it all apart again.
Many thanks.
Adrian.

A baking hot weekend at Beaulieu and another memorable Rally.

Here are the photos from the weekend. They are at lo-res but if anyone want a particular one at higher res let me know the ref number.


  winner.JPG (Size: 28.15 KB / Downloads: 727)
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmnyXY7J


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https://flic.kr/s/aHsmkLcMGp


  cars and people.JPG (Size: 31.19 KB / Downloads: 724)
https://www.flickr.com/gp/134441372@N05/F0M60A


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https://www.flickr.com/gp/134441372@N05/45i9a6

Hi,

What is this one, then, that has just appeared on carandclassic?  From back to front - Coupe/RK/Mulliner?  

Colin

Attached Files

  Coupe.jpg (Size: 118.15 KB / Downloads: 404)

As received, the steering on my 1938 Ruby was a bit stiff in both direction of rotation and made a creaking noise the you could feel through the wheel at the point in rotation when it became stiff. The stiffness was only present with the wheels on the ground, and not whenever jacked up. I greased the box - no difference.

So I took the box apart, checked all was good, lapped in the gears. Rebuilt with clean grease (CV joint type grease) and the problem is now much worse but only evident with the wheels on the ground. I cannot find any external interference that might be causing this. The friction level has increased and the creaking is now more evident across a much wider angle of rotation.

I know I'm probably using the wrong lubricant and will make up a mix of hypoid oil and grease and squeeze that into the box today, but has anybody got any thoughts or had similar steering box issues that the year managed to fix?

Th aka

Ray

Reluctant sale of my 1935 Ruby Tourer. Car is in Chesterfield Derbyshire. Restored to a good standard 10yrs ago and little use since. Has been fitted with bosch distributor and Period SU to get up hills better. Originals will come with car. Album of pics here....

http://tinypic.com/a/fkwfpj/3

I would like £12000 for car and transferable plate,or £10k ish for car. I really don't want to separate the car from the plate but it does have a value, I have refused offers for it just to keep it with the car.
Please contact me by email if you have any questions.
Andy Mitchell

A delightful photo of a 1924 50mph Sports on beaded-edge tyres; the OL registration number (a mid-1920s Birmingham number) and the church tower on the town sign presumably indicates this is Christchurch, Dorset, rather than Christchurch, New Zealand?