Have anyone tried a water brake on Austin 7 engine .I think the only and lightest way to get some load on engine out of car. Even standard engine 13 BHP /2400 RPM  in other words ,you must take 10 KW heat away for some time .
I don´t have a water brake ,but have tried an Eddy brake from a excercise bike .But this get very hot in few minutes at little more than idle speed,and torque is too low to make decent brake . If you only  use it some hours to bed in rings and get spark plugs up at 500degr c ,to burn oil and soot away,then to buy one are rather expensive.
Mogens

   

I seem to have a rogue half-shaft in my 1929 rear axle.
We recently took the back wheels off the car to repaint them and noticed the the nearside hub seemed to have a bad bearing. Very noisy when turned.
Having taken off the hub I found bearing to be good, but the noise persisted when turning the shaft itself.
With both wheels off the car and first gear engaged the noise was still there, but seemed to me from the near-side. This points to the differential being the culprit.
I have now taken the differential out and bearings look OK, so I was rather puzzled.
It seems to be caused by the pinion on the inner end of the half-shaft which I assume is not cut accurately.
There are two more problems with this shaft.
The thread at the hub end is incorrect. A new nut only goes on 3/4 turn and jams. The nut that was with it is OK.
I have had continual problems of oil coming down the tube onto the brakes.
When I fitted a new crown wheel  and pinion some 9000 miles ago I fitted lip seals to stop this which haven't worked on this shaft.
I now see why.
It is only rough machined on the section where the seal operates. No hope of the lip seal working so for now I'm going back to felt.
See attached picture.
Oil leaking onto the brakes is cured by using a sealed wheel bearing and making sure the 2 hub parts are properly sealed to.

I am trying to put together a spare bacon slicer starter but the two 'castings' i have use two types of starter switch.
The large bodied switch is in casting marked 90601
and the smaller switch in a casting marked (faintly) 17612. It is also painted a tasteful light green.
Never seen the smaller switch so is it a Lucas product or perchance CAV?
JW

My engine building continues slowly, mainly due to lack of practical experience. I had a great visit with Mr Hainsworth who checked my cam gear meshing for me, something tricky to judge having never seen it before. Steve confirmed the cam gears are good.

He also spotted a mistake I had made where I had left off the dished oil thrower on the rear main bearing. He suggested replacing the old cover with one of the modern ones with an oil seal. Yesterday I speedi sleeved the flywheel boss and have the new rear cover plate arriving today hopefully.

I have lapped the flywheel onto the taper. This is where I am confused. The flywheel taper seems to have a section machined out of the centre so the taper doesn't touch at all in the middle. The red book doesn't seem to mention this but Austin 7 Club article does: http://www.austin7club.org/How%20To3.htm

So is that normal?

I just lapped enough to get even marking on the taper where it does touch. Definitely makes a difference, even with the nut finger tight the flywheel locks onto the taper and needs a tap with a rubber hammer to unstick it.

I measured the run-out at about 6 thou which I think should be OK. 

Another question is I am using Phoenix rods with modern shells. The rods have little notches where projections on the shells locate into. These are only on one side of the rod. Does it matter which way around the rods go in the crankcase? I suspect not as long as I have them all on the same side?

Simon

Hello all!  My father and i are excitedly starting our restoration of a 1933 Box Saloon following the Beaulieu rally and after meeting many lovely people.  Apologies for the basic questions, but as a Millennial, im more comfortable soldering ECU's and playing with injection systems as opposed to carb jets and these crazy mechanical fuel pumps!

When bolting the engine together, we noticed a lot of 'slop' in the distributor cap fitment.  Unfortunately, part of the alignment guide on the base had snapped off so the 2 pieces do not mate properly.  We therefore presumably need a new base.  Unfortunately i can only find bases for the DK4 Base and not the DJ4!  We are trying to keep the car as original as possible (until it inevitably lets us down!) so was hoping someone could point me in the right direction for a new one please?

Additionally, the rotor arm has a few thou of play.  Would this be ok 'fixing' by some PTFE tape around the shaft or similar?

Some images of progress so far.  We cannot wait to have a running chassis!

Anyone fancy a 1933 American Bantam two seater project? One for sale in Clovis New Mexico on Hemmings www.hemmings.com for only $4500. Quite a lot of "lookers" at it but it should be saved from being rodded!
Ad says the motor runs! Looking through the pictures it is mostly all there apart from seats / trim / lights/ top , but looks in generally un-molested condition. Very stylish.
I dare not get another!  I can't get a direct link, so you will have to look it up!
David

After the disappointment of England's football result last night

It didn't feel much better after several pints of the black stuff, at our local red lion.

Well we are ENGLISH, and used to disappointment.

BUT TODAYS ANOTHER DAY. And this pile of boxs just landed on the door step.

Just testing to see if the log on has really worked, and it appears that success is achieved. I will try to change my password later so the saga may continue. My thanks for the interest shown by other members on the FB site. All I did was to try to log in as earlier,but this time when it asked for the verification digits,I refreshed the choice and bingo we had lift off. I hope that the Web master and R.D. enjoy their holidays.Pics please R.

Hello everyone! 

I best introduce myself and explain what kind of nut case I am so this post makes sense. 

My name is Delia Chapman I'm 24 (nearly 25) and a antiques collector who has worked in the antiques field from the age of 16 till recently.  I am based in Belfast Northern Ireland. 

I collect antique bicycles. Restore valve radios, record players and black and white tvs (mostly 405 line standerd) my main TV is a 405 line ekco I've just never liked colour TV. 

I also collect antique Teddy bears, antique light bulbs (any pre 1970 electrical goods) , clocks, phonographs and gramophones, furniture, live steam toys especially O gauge live steam locomotives, vintage and antique clothing etc. 


I'm currently sadly not a 7 owner but hope to rectify this in a year or two. My dream car from I was a very small child was a Austin 7. Probably the fault of having grown up with Brum on TV. 

My current "daily driver" is a 1950 98cc two stroke New Hudson autocycle (seen in my user image) with a top speed of 30mph. So I'm rather used to a slower vehicle. 

I have no intention to change to a modern vehicle as I have a deep dislike for them.  I am rather machanicaly minded and have always loved maintaining my own equipment. 

As can be seen from my user name my favourite 7 is the wonderful RP Box saloon. I like Rubys as well but the styling is a little modern for me 

My intention is to use one as a daily Driver and my first car and if all goes well my only car. 

My question is to those who already daily there's have you had trouble finding insurance companies to cover you? 

Have you found the car to be reasonably reliable? ( I don't mind doing repair work just curious) 

Do you use lead replacement mix in your petrol? 

How has running costs been?

Plus any advice to someone new to 7s.

Thanks for your time and help

I look forward to talking with you all and eventually joining the fraternity of owners. 

Regards Delia

I have decided the way to go with my new front spring and old rears.

The new front leaves are painted all over with KBS Coatings RustSeal (a very tough paint).
I will grease between leaves with constant velocity (CV) lithium based grease containing MOLYBDENUM DISULPHIDE -- a very slippery additive in the grease (basically flat plates of lubrication molecules). Have used Moly before especially in steering box to transform steering.  The Moly is very persistent and does not disappear/dry out.

Round the assembled springs I will wrap DENSO tape to keep out dirt/water and keep grease fresh.  Over this I will fit home made leather covers made from old leather jacket (sleeves).  Leather jackets available in charity shops so you can even colour co-ordinate to your car!  The leather will be held in place with copper wire removed from old electrical cabling (60 amp).  (Leather kept subtle with grease or waxoil?)
Using Denso means springs can be got at without removing any pins/shackles as compared to using heat-shrink-wrap.

Can anyone tell me how long a roll of DENSO I need to do both rear springs (standard A7) and a big 7 front?.  (rough spring lengths 18" each rear springs and 15" each side of front spring.........finger poised ready to order (ebay).

Dennis