The following warnings occurred:
Warning [2] Undefined property: MyLanguage::$archive_pages - Line: 2 - File: printthread.php(287) : eval()'d code PHP 8.1.31 (Linux)
File Line Function
/inc/class_error.php 153 errorHandler->error
/printthread.php(287) : eval()'d code 2 errorHandler->error_callback
/printthread.php 287 eval
/printthread.php 117 printthread_multipage



Austinsevenfriends
What have you done today with your Austin Seven - Printable Version

+- Austinsevenfriends (https://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/forum)
+-- Forum: Austin Seven Friends Forum (https://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: Forum chat... (https://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=14)
+--- Thread: What have you done today with your Austin Seven (/showthread.php?tid=1921)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661

RE: What have you done today with your Austin Seven - Colin Wilks - 18-12-2019

The engine on my RP was rebuilt professionally only 1000 miles (but about ten years) ago. When I got it the car had covered only 300 miles or so since the rebuild. It developed a major oil leak which I tracked down to the Austin square headed 5/16 BSF special bolt that locates the camshaft bush. I lifted the block slightly so I could remove the bolt with a view to reinstalling it with some sealant. Having inspected it and observed the absence of much thread in the crankcase I shall remove the camshaft and redrill the bush and tap it to take a 5/16 cap head bolt which I'll seal with a Dowty washer..

I can see how the original installation when the engine was built at Austin's would work, with good threads in the crankcase and a tight hole in the bush to take the pin, there would be no movement at all. The little bit of wear that must have been present when the engine was rebuilt has allowed the camshaft's tendency to work forward to bear on the pin, which you can see is bent, and so erode the threads in the crankcase leading to my "gusher".

Interested to know how others address this problem.

RE: What have you done today with your Austin Seven - Chris KC - 18-12-2019

I'm surprised if the axial forces generated by the cam gear alone have bent the screw Colin. Are you sure someone hasn't tried to remove the shaft with the screw still in place?

It's important to limit end float here, and while the mod you describe should get you going again you need enough crankcase thread left to anchor the bush firmly in place. Before now I've drilled these holes oversize, plugged, re-drilled and tapped, creating a brand new thread (carefully positioned of course). If not too bad you may be able to open out a size larger instead. But this is a job difficult to do in situ I think.

RE: What have you done today with your Austin Seven - Colin Wilks - 18-12-2019

I don't know what others have done. I am assuming the pin has been bent by the movement of the camshaft since it seems unlikely that anyone rebuilding the engine would use a pin in this state and I don't think the previous owner ever had the engine apart after the rebuild. On my other car I had to replace a cam gear and in that case I tapped a new oversize thread through the crankcase and the bush with the engine in the car. It was fiddly but easy enough with a decent extension on the tap.

RE: What have you done today with your Austin Seven - bob46320 - 18-12-2019

Had there been a copper washer under the bolt head, it would provide a very crude backlash adjustment for the camshaft bearing - I did say crude !

RE: What have you done today with your Austin Seven - Colin Wilks - 18-12-2019

Well there was a fibre washer, which I think counts as even cruder!

RE: What have you done today with your Austin Seven - Ian Williams - 18-12-2019

I think it unlikely that the pin would bend so badly simply from the cam gear loading Colin, far more likely that as Chris suggests it has received a good solid clout at some point. Tapping the cam bush and using a Dowty washer is without doubt an excellent solution, most bushes these days have some wear in the locating hole, any movement at this point will simply allow the cam to kick back and forward exaggerating the problem, causing further wear and leaks.

RE: What have you done today with your Austin Seven - SneezerUSA - 18-12-2019

Here in the Colonies I had a similar situation with a 1930 American Austin motor that created a destructive problem at the dynamo. The cam bushing was able to move forward enough to destroy the fiber gear on the back of the dynamo. The repair consisted of centering the locating hole in the bushing with the hole in the crankcase. Use a long drill bit drill both the crankcase and partially into the bushing (block was not removed). Bushing was then removed to complete drilling the hole. Bushing was then put back into position  making certain the holes were lined up. Hole was then tapped for an Allen head bolt of the correct depth. The bushing needed to be removed again to get the new threads  to the bottom of the hole. Again the bushing was reinstalled, aligned and then the bolt was installed to complete the repair. Sealant was applied to the threads.  Repair has been working for the past 350 miles.

RE: What have you done today with your Austin Seven - Steve kay - 22-12-2019

What I did this evening couldn't be photographed as it was intentionally well after dark. Having fitted new reflectors in the two forward facing lights allowed  in the Measham regs, twenty miles or so of seeing what they are like. The weather gods could not have provided better test conditions, rain, sleet, some very thick mist  as well as glimpses of starlight. Great improvement. Now the driver will be able to more or less see what road we are proceeding along. Whether it is the intended route is another matter.

RE: What have you done today with your Austin Seven - Duncan Grimmond - 29-12-2019

As it's a bright dry day I went up to the garage and started Mathildeux up for the first time in a month. I do wish that the starting handle was still available to turn the engine over a few times but it started on the third pull of the rod. A quick 5 mile spin round the block (country lanes that is) until it was too cool to continue.
The Punch Bowl at Marton-cum-Grafton (see previous posts)

  https://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?tid=3616&pid=38135&highlight=Punch+Bowl#pid38135. 

should be having their first Saturday of the month  classic gathering next Saturday so if the forecast for a dry and sunny/warm/overcast/not freezing week holds I'll be there.

RE: What have you done today with your Austin Seven - Reckless Rat - 29-12-2019

I must admit that since my trip to Santiago de Compostella in the RP it hasn't ventured out much. Neither have I, but that was mainly due to a spell in hospital and a period of convalescence. I have however been "busy" with other matters when able.

My daily runabout is a 1995 Citroen C15 van which I have owned for the past 10 years or so. The last "Contrôle Technique" raised a couple of issued that would need sorting for the next time, one of which was that the steering rack was badly worn and needed replacement. I had looked at the possibility of buying a refurbished rack but even so they weren't cheap (like me). The problem was solved one day earlier this year when for another reason I had to visit my local "garagiste" and I noticed another C15 in his yard. After asking what he was doing with it I learnt that is was scheduled to be scrapped because of various issues including a lack of documentation. I had a quick look at it and saw that the steering rack was good, with no wear. How much do you want for the van, I asked. Dunno, what're you offering? How about 100€ says I. OK no peroblem. I'll bring it round this afternoon - it turned out that the van was a runner, but the gearbox was "tired" as were the drive shafts, and some other bits.
Anyway, I got myself a complete 2004 C15 van for 100€ and the plan was to strip it for spares and scrap the shell. This is what I bought:

[Image: 20190729-144901.jpg]

That was back in early October and the van was driven into the garage and slowly stripped of its parts. About a week into the strip, a courier from UPS called with a parcel and enquired if I wanted to sell the seats. I didn't because they were better than I already had, but the engine and gearbox (minus starter motor and alternator) were there, for 100€. Done, says he. It's for my father in law. He came back a couple of days later and paid cash. Cushty. I now had a load of C15 spares for free!

After taking it all to bits, the front subframe and steering rack were reconditioned ready to fit into the other C15, but what to do with the rest. Flash of inspiration - I'll make a trailer out of the back half and dump the rest. Here it is:

[Image: 20191224-145457-resized.jpg]

So now I have a C22.5 = C15 plus C7.5... Smile Handy for all those jobs around the house:

[Image: 20191229-135614-resized.jpg]

Apologies to all those skilled metal bashers out there, but it works and all it cost me was 120€ for the tow hitch, jockey wheel, steelwork and paint. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!

On other matters closer to the thread, I checked the oil in the Austin and it was fine. The horn still works too.