The bearing faces of the stub axle and beam axle need to be flat and square to the king pins.  Due to king pin wear/wobble over years these faces become unequally worn.  They should be resurfaced. Probably only a couple or so thou metal removal involved.  What tool to be used??  I am told a spotface cutter on a pilot is the item required. The A7 companion mentions a D cutter. The cutter is in the form of a cylinder with cutting teeth on one face and it has a hole in the middle through which a pilot fits with the cutter being able to be fixed to the pilot.  This allows the cutter to be put between the stub axle eyes then the pilot to be put through to be running in the bushes.  I found such a pilot/cutter arrangement but pilot alone was in region of £70 and cutter £130ish!!!!!!!!  
Does anyone know of a cheaper version suitable for A7verners?

A local elderly engineer has made me an alternative version......a cylinder of metal 1.2685' dia. with 5/8" hole and rod of 5/8' steel.  The cylinder is put in place and the rod pushed through the king pin bushes and cylinder and the cylinder held onto the rod by a grub screw. The faces of the cylinder are parallel and square to the pilot rod.  Grinding paste is put on the cylinder face and using a slow speed hand drill the cylinder pulled against the axle face to grind away a small amount and so square up and clean up the bearing surfaces.    Simples -  and cost £12 for him to make for me.  I will shortly be trying this method.


Dennis

A technical question for the engineers.

The A7 has a flanged bush in the bottom of the stub axle to take the king pin (phosphor bronze?).  Between that and the axle beam eye there is a thrust washer.  The Big 7 is similar except no flange on the lower bush so the thrust washer runs directly on the stub axle and beam axle eyes.  The big 7 beam has a recessed area around the bottom of the eye into which the thrust washer partly sits. Big 7 king pin is 5/8 inch dia.

I would obviously like the least possible wear to the stub and beam axle faces. Washers can easily be replaced

The big question is what should the thrust washer be made from????

There is information that they should be hardened steel.

The ones that came with my last set of KP and bushes were a tuffnol type material!

The A30/A35 Austin swivel pins (also the 5/8 inch dia. like the big 7 king pin) also have thrust washers and are same size apart from being 1 1/4 OD instead of smaller (I recon 1 1/8 for the big 7 beam and stub spot faces but easy enough to turn down the OD by mounting them on a bolt in a drill and filing the edges).

Bull Motif can supply the A30/35  thrusts but theirs are made in brass. 

I am sure I read somewhere that hard and soft metal rubbing together then perversely the HARD metal will wear away quicker?

So - hardened steel, brass, phosphor bronze, Nylatron, tuffnol, ?, ?.    What and why?

The last time I did the king pins I put a thin washer in the big 7 beam recess with araldite so the thrust was wearing against the washer and not the beam (washer could be replaced eventually).  I will also araldite a thin washer onto the stub axle lower eye.

Dennis

The position of Secretary to the Austin 7 Clubs' Association will fall vacant in April 2018 when the current incumbent, Hugh Barnes, stands down under the Constitution Term Limit rules. Nominations for a successor are sought. Under the Term limit rules, the appointment will be for a period of 3 years, with the possibility of renewal for a further 3 year term. After a maximum of 6 years in post, the post holder must stand down. As an aside, this rule is now in force for all of the 9 Officer posts in the Association.
 
The duties of the Secretary are to offer support to the Association Committee (comprising representatives of the 18 Member Clubs) by organising the quarterly Association meeting with the production of an agenda and producing minutes in a timely manner. A precis of the full minutes is also produced and distributed to Club Magazine Editors for inclusion in their own local magazines.
 
The Secretary is also responsible for the Association Public Liability Insurance, renewed each February, and acts as the liaison point with Hiscox for matters related to the Association Austin 7 motor Insurance scheme through Richardson Hoskins.
 
The Secretary is also responsible for communications to all Member, Associate and Overseas Clubs and, as such, maintains an address/contacts file within the Secretarial gmail account. Changes to those details are provided to both the Association Webmaster to maintain the Association website and the Association Magazine designer for the quarterly magazine.
 
The qualities that one would look for in the new Secretary would be someone with an eye for detail and be keen to see the continued growth of the Association. There will inevitably be considerable involvement in the team planning the 2022 Centenary celebrations. The Secretarial email account is always busy so daily access to that and having some IT skills would be helpful. All Secretarial files are now held in a 'Dropbox' account and can be shared with others where necessary and will be handed on to subsequent post holders. Considerable support from the old to the new Secretary is offered.
 
Informal enquiries are encouraged from anyone with an interest and should be made to Hugh, by emailing:

secretary@a7ca.org

thank you....

I am sure this has been discussed before, but I am looking for info on what I may have done wrong on fitting.
This joint has only done about 500klms. Have I had the bolts too tight or loose? Are there different qualities? The drive shaft appears to be straight.
   

It is quite difficult finding information about original hoods, and more so for the Sports models.

Has anyone got any memory or evidence, photographic or physical, of 65 or Nippy hood fastenings. i.e. lift the dot, press stud, Tenax or turnbuckle... on hoods which could conceivably be original. The photo evidence is always difficult as the items are so small, even if the images are hi-res.

I'd also be interested to know when hood material like duck came into use. WE know earlier hoods were rexine, but it seems less clear by 1935.

TIA

I am in possession of issue no 9 of a monthly magazine named "the Journal--The monthly magazine for Austin Seven owners " April 1976.
I guess from this it began in  June 1975.  The editor at this time was Barrie Argent  Twickenham , Middlesex. It is full of interesting articles on sports and originality  etc, plus reports from A7OC , Thames valley,Oxford,  N. Hants,  N. London, Bristol ,Essex, 750 MC Brooklands Centre, Scottish Austin 7 club and South Wales.
Questions  : how much longer did it survive, and does anyone have  a scanned set on PDF ?
Can I assume it  petered out as the Grey Book gained status ?

As part of my ongoing quest to create an oil tight engine I'm looking at the tappet chest.
On my car, because of the blower, I have a tappet chest cover made from 10mm thick aluminium plate (I'd have to remove the blower to get to the tappers with a standard cover). Since everything is in bits I was contemplating machining an O ring groove into the plate to give a better seal. However my replacement 1929 block is the early type that has virtually no register at the top for any gasket (O ring, cork or paper) to push against. (See picture below)
What has anyone else done to help make this leak free? I have thought about machining a groove in the face for the bottom and sides and in the top of the 10mm plate for the top seal. Mad?

   

Thanks 

Charles

I've just uploaded the first of several photos to the gallery (under the coachbuilt section) but it appears far too large to view. I was expecting it to automatically resize to fit the screen. Can anyone tell me, do I have to delete it and resize it before uploading?

Peter.

I've been making new front wings using stump shrinking instead of a shrinker machine.  What is the best method for flattening the pleats on the outside face?  If I whack it too much then if straightens out the curve.  If I'm too soft then the depressions stay in place.  Should I be using a small ball hammer from behind to push the depressions out before using the file?  1.5mm 5251 sheet.

I've had to make it in 3 foot lengths so I can weld the straight sections on later.  My English Wheel is mounted on the bench and anything longer hits the wall.

Thanks

Rob

Attached Files

  stumpshrink1.jpg (Size: 79.54 KB / Downloads: 347)

Looking to build an engine for a special and wondered if the collective wisdom had any view on the Jack French bottom end listed on eBay or too far gone?
Any guidance appreciated.
Thank you