What ho all.

I've been dismanting my 1937 3 bearing engine today, all was going fine until the removal of the camshaft. We removed the rear bearing cap and the squared headed top/front bearing bolt and the mid bearing bolt. The shaft moves fore and aft slightly but is very tight indeed, it still turns OK. The mid being pieces seem to drift forward reasonably OK, but the problem appears to be at the front bearing. I've consulted Woodrow and the Ian Bancroft magazine article. Presumable some heat needs applying around the front bearing I assume, so I wonder if any others have had similar problems and what would you recommend please?

The pistons are +60, and I've read somewhere that +80 thou is the maximum? Would I be better looking for another block which hasn't been so far bored out, thus allowing perhaps an additional rebore in due course, what do any of you think?

Thanks in advance, and sorry if some questions seem dumb, but this is the first time of dismantling an old engine.

Don't laugh....I can't get the crank out at present!

regards

Arthur

in the engine thread, this was mentioned in jest in passing. 

However, in scrutinising their present offerings previously (while ill in bed over Xmas), I was surprised that there is a very Seven like offering on their books.

660cc, 450kg

http://uk.caterhamcars.com/cars/seven-160

Finding the Autocar review from as far back as 2015 or so, it clearly is quite a Marmite, but well loved, car. Anyone driven one?

about the same cost as an Austin 7 engine. Bargain.

Currently I run 17” wheels with Longstone tyres - 652 mm diameter. At 5500 rpm this equates to 73 mph.
If I switched to 19” wheels and 669 mm tyres, what speed would this produce?
Am I simplifying things by assuming that as the difference is only 2.5% the speed would only increase to 75 mph or is there more to it? I have a feeling that pi and other long forgotten things may come into it!
Thank you for any answers.
David.

I've an Ulster Rep with a body made by Compound Curvatures in about 1992. It just arrived here in Seattle and I've noted that according to the Chris Gould book, there should be two bulkheads in the rear, boxing in the spare and stiffening the rear. I don't have these bulkheads. Is impossible to retrofit these bulkheads or is it too late? Are these bulkheads original to Ulsters?

Erich in Seattle

Hello friends

I am trying to set up the brakes on my 1936 Ruby special, but the handbrake Operating lever on the cross shaft is too far to the near side of the car. There is space on the cross shaft for it to slide along to make it directly under the roller that is at the bottom of the handbrake.

It is secured with a cotter pin, if I remove it, is the flat on the cross shaft wide enough to allow it to move along the shaft about 1/4"?

Thanks
Andrew

Is this part of an Austin 7 clutch mechanism?

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A few brave souls made it out on the 29th December to the Cold Turkey trial in Sevenoaks, Kent.

We normally double enter and passenger for each other but as my father had another passenger for the day it meant I could watch, (and take the odd photo / video).

Always surprises me how good these cars are off road.

I am delighted to announce that two new resources have been added to the Archive web site today. A new 'Oral History' with an interview of long time Austin 7 stalwart, Ian Dunford..

http://archive.a7ca.org/collections/people/ian-dunford/

and a completely new section for films, some you may have seen before and some, certainly for me, new...

http://archive.a7ca.org/collections/films/


My, indeed our, thanks go to Nick Turley for his hard work on both these topics. The amount of work should not be under-estimated. As ever, our talented Web Master, Chris Charles has done sterling work in making these available.. Our thanks must also go to Ron Hayhurst who brought the collection of films to our attention and his pal, Graham Waldren, who donated the films to the Archive.

There are more resources to be looked forward to in the coming weeks and months. The Russell Curtis collection of Brochures and other ephemera has been digitised and is now being formally catalogued - part of the necessary process before publishing on the web. We have other material we are also working on which we hope will make significant addition to the already published materials.

If you have not already done so, can I encourage you to sign up for the electronic newsletter the Project issues from time to time, to give you more news and background of the Project as it happens..

http://archive.a7ca.org/get-involved/

best wishes..

Hugh

I ventured out on our New Year's Day run with  a slightly pleased look on my face, having fitted my new Electronic Ingition Distributor and being happy with its tweaked timing.
Life was all good until about 20 miles in and a spluttering and loss of power. With the head gasket suspect we took a ride home at the excellent hands of RH and SOS services. Not so pleased with myself anymore.

Today and a compression test showed zilch compression on 2 and 3 so it was off with the head. 
The head gasket was last replaced about 4 years ago. I tightened then to 20lb, (repeating after a run), but it did feel like some were looser than others when undoing them today, so perhaps they had loosened off?

This time I decided to be a little more delicate about removal so made myself some extractors using hollowed out spark plugs and plates across the studs. 
 
This left the gasket in place and revealed below, a missing chunk between 2 and 3. I cannot see it anywhere (it isn't on the head). I haven't yet poked in every corner in the valve area but it is not obviously there. Surely it couldn't have vapourised or been sucked away into the water cooling system.


  gasket.jpg (Size: 297.14 KB / Downloads: 686)

Anyway, that curiosity aside my real question is as follows.
Prior to this failure I had noticed some bubbling around head stud 3 (centre back). Nothing too bad but just blowing a few water bubbles from around the stud.
With the head off it seems right to also do something about this. Stud 3 doesn't have any water way around it and is well away from the failure so I guess the water is coming up around the stud thread. The solution would seem easy, remove it and replace (I have spares) with threadlocker to seal. 
However, under gentle persuasion it does not want to move. I have locked a couple of nuts on it and turned but it is solid.
Given the problem I am trying to solve, do I:

Persevere with the spanner and risk snapping the head stud, opening up a whole new world of problems?
Heat it up, but I only have a pretty large brazing torch so it won't be delicate, although I could make up some baffle to protect the surrounding areas?
Try to clean up the top of the stud thread into the block and then dribble down thread locker, appreciating that I am only going to get down a half thread or so, and then back it up with lots of goo around the stud base to seal it off?

For goo, I know that is a whole thread of its own, but I have red Hermatite, blue hylomar and some Loctite 5920. Last time I used the blue hylomar. 

Thoughts appreciated on the stud question.
Oh and Happy New Year

Andy B