New owner..

[John Cornforth]

Hi Colin

Your car is on the register of surviving Austin Sevens, and is an ARQ Ruby (also known unofficially as an "Early Ruby" or "Mark 1 Ruby") dating from March 1936.

[Dennis Nicholas]

Hi Colin
Here are some photos of my tool for grinding faces of axle and stub king pin eyes made by small local engineer firm.  I refer to Big 7 but it is same construction for Ruby and other 7s, just that the Big 7 has 5/8 king pins instead of 1/2 inch and the thrust sits up in a recess on the underside of the axle end.  The diameter of the cylinders you will need will also vary from those I show.  I had the cylinders made to grind the maximum diameter on axle and stub axle eyes.  The cylinders are held onto the pilot by a grub screw.
Right hand cylinder has 2 different diameter for grinding different size faces and there is a second cylinder for a third diameter.
THE TOOL
   

In position for grinding stub axle lower eye face
   

Then upper eye face; you will notice the engineer's bluing on the cylinder lower eye face.. the bluing is applied to the face after cleaning off the grinding paste and the cylinder rotated against the stub eye where it will leave blue marks where the face has been ground away.  Keep grinding till the blue marks on the stub form a complete ring.
   

Nearly there
   

Finished, nice and blue all round.
   

Dennis

[Colin D Smith]

Hi Chaps
Well I have got the front axle off the car and there is wear in all the bushings so I'm making a list and ( checking it twice). Here is a pic of the leaf spring. The leafs look like they are not inline and run off on the other side forward, could that be caused by the worn bushes? Pick of the apparently one year only stub axle. and some rubbing on the axle. mmmm

Dennis I like the tool, I think I will be needing something of the same.

[Dave Wortley]

Colin, unless I have missed it, no one has mentioned the fit of the kingpin in the hole in the axle beam and if the beam itself at this zone is sound. This hole sometimes has been worn owing to the cotter which locates the kingpin in the axle coming loose. Also people have bored out the hole in the beam and fitted a thin bush to bring the hole to standard size. This is a bad idea as it leaves only a small amount of material on the outer edge of the beam and quite quickly the axle will crack between the bush hole and the outer edge of the beam. Obviously this could be very dangerous. If the beam hole is worn, it can be brought back to standard and the outer edge of the beam strengthened with weld. One of A7 Friends "cherished suppliers" is very good at this. Another point is you cannot remove the cotter until you have taken out the kingpin as the cotter has a half moon shape rather than the more conventional taper.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I can repair axle eyes, turn around time is about 2 weeks from arriving with me, contact me on dunford1@aol.com for more details.

www.albaaustins.co.uk

[Nick Turley]

Colin
The axle eyes need to be good or your time will be wasted.
Take advantage of the service that Mr Dunford offers - that part of the operation is not really a DIY job.

[Denis Sweeney]

I second that Nick, very pleased with Ruairidh’s work recently repairing my front axle beam

[Bob Culver]

If the kingpins are worn reaming is somewhat difficult with the early models as the bore is normally obstructed for a stock reamer. I dunno if removing the brake bush gives enough clearance but it is not a big deal to remove the backplate.

[Dennis Nicholas]

It is also good to check that there is no twist in the axle beam.  A half inch rod in each king pin hole should be seen to line up with each other vertically and be same measurement from eye top to top of opposite rod (obviously with tops of rods at same heights)  The longer the rods the easier it is too see any difference if any.

The springs can be dismantled for cleaning and grinding bottom edges at end of each leaf to form a slight curve which will slide on the top of the leaf below rather than dig in.