Helloooooo!

[Tony Griffiths]

Afternoon All thought I'd check back in let you know how its going. All is great been out quite alot, done the food shop been to the pub we did drive it day you may have seen that on the austin seven FB page, around 50 miles so pleased with that.
The things I am struggling with.
Light bulbs i have 35/3W 6v, I would like those but have had to order 35/35?
The windscreen wiper?
Sluggish uphill runs a dream on the flat and small hills but really steep or heavy load ( hubby) slows right up needs to change down. I think I have the advance & Retard sorted? ish.

All suggestions greatly received.

Ignition timing does make a huge difference to the limited performance of a Seven. The trick, with manual advance/retard, is to get the car well warmed up and drive it on a flat road at a steady 35 m.ph. Play with the lever and you'll discover that, at one point in its travel, the car will speed up slightly. Advance it a little more and the engine will start to rumble, but you'll not go any faster - this is the crank-breaking protest limit of the engine. Note where the lever is for best performance and try not to exceed it - especially when slogging uphill in top, or revving hard in second when the whine/scream/howling from the gearbox drowns out all other sounds. The car might feel more "aggressive" with the rumble, but you won't be going any faster. In the past, when covering huge mileages every year, I always ran long journeys with a little retard, only advancing when necessary. Unfortunately, in competitions, I just could not resist overdoing things with forlorn the expectation of another 1 m.p.h.

As your car weighs so little, adding passengers and luggage really cripples the power-to-weight ratio.

[Parazine]

Light bulbs i have 35/3W 6v, I would like those but have had to order 35/35?
The windscreen wiper?
Sluggish uphill runs a dream on the flat and small hills but really steep or heavy load ( hubby) slows right up needs to change down. 

Bulbs for the scuttle lights are a problem. Someone on eBay was advertising 24/3 W bulbs for £10 each (!) but they have been unobtanium as new stock since the early 60's.

You can fit 21/5 W stop/tail parallel pin bulbs (try AES, Tenbury Wells for these) but they're a bit dim. I have them in my Chummy but I don't drive it at night much. Otherwise, scan eBay and the autojumble stands, I came up with three 24/6 headlight bulbs a couple of years ago.
BTW, 35W is too much current draw for the dynamo, especially if it's a Mag (CAV DFL) dynamo, that's nearly 12A on headlights alone. The dynamo should be running at 6-7A max, they're terribly fragile.

I'm waiting for some suitable LED bulbs but.....

Windscreen wiper, see the posting on electric vs. suction wipes that's been active recently. A suction or vacuum wiper will run happily on the flat or when you are not taxing the engine but, being reliant on suction behind the throttle plate, it will slow down on larger throttle openings and stop altogether at times. It's normal. 
You can fit an electric wiper from a Ruby if it really annoys you or just get used to it and enjoy motoring as it was in the twenties.

[Extrareach]

Thanks for that Top Tip.

Did a nice 50 miler last night main roads at a decent speed cruising at 35mph and even up a couple of really steep hills didn't go under 30 all with a passenger so pleased with that. meet some lovely folks at the Suffolk branch club meeting. and the lights worked but I will be looking for some better bulbs.

["Slack Alice" Simon]

I though I would hate the vacuum wiper, but now I put it down to the characteristics of an old car.

My usual run home is a long, flat out level road, followed by a steepish hill.

If it is raining, there is no movement of the wiper over the last couple of miles.

I get used to giving the hand lever a tweak, as and when required.

If fitted, the electric wiper usually sits right in your eyeline.   Our car with scuttle lights has an electric wiper and a fold down screen.

If it is raining and dark, the screen goes down.   Otherwise, you cannot see anything much, wiper or no wiper.