What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Ivor Hawkins]

No, it was because the ford was 3feet deep

Alan Fairless

Where’s your sense of adventure!

[Alan]

I’d just cleaned the car.

[Bob Culver]

I drive a 1964 car and regularly get asked if I bought it new. I am tempted to say my parents gave it to me at birth instead of a silver spoon but my appearance does not fit. So I tell them I got it for a 21st present.
(It looks better than me, is mechanically more sound, and more fixable)

[bob46320]

Took the petrol tap off of the RN as it had stopped shutting the fuel off. To get the tap off, needed to remove 3 of the 4 bulkhead tank retaining bolts.
Made a new set of corks for it from some 1/8" thick Walkers Jointing ((3 x 1/8" = 3/8"). Fitted it all back and as the fuel wetted the corks, they swelled up a little making the tap almost impossible to open or shut.
Drained it all down again, sanded the corks a little bit smaller and put it back again. Feels good now, no drips from the delivery side of the tap!
Incidentally, the thread on the tap "knobs" is 5/32 whitworth and the tap barrel is 0.360 diameter (which could be 23/64").
Whilst checking things over, I cleaned out the FZ22B carburettor (which was spotless since last visit 10 or more years ago) BUT noticed that both the Jet nuts and the jets themselves were almost finger tight - was that why there was a smell of petrol in the garage!!

[Tony Griffiths]

Funny that - The RN has a 5 litre reserve tap- BUT, Smell of petrol in the garage today. The fuel tap was allowing a good dribble through to the carb and the float needle not being a perfect shut off valve allowed a slow drip onto the floor for a day or two.  Took the Ewarts tap off of the bulkhead tank and (have to remove 3 of the 4 mounting bolts), made some new cork washers and back in business once again. Don't you just love these simple systems.
Bob

On the first cars with the 5-gallon exposed scuttle tank (mid-1930 onwards) the tap was held on with two bolts. The plungers have corks held in place by a washer integral with a long shaft that ends in a thread screwed into the plunger (4 or 5BA?). The end of the thread has a slot and so, with a fine screwdriver, it's possible to adjust the compression of the cork. Are yours like this - or of the common "motorcycle" type where no adjustment is possible?

[bob46320]

   
That's the one however with a 5/32 Whitworth Thread.

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

Checked the tappets on the Special today. Not that easy as the bunch of bananas manifold and semi updraft SU make access to the cover impossible so had to come off.

The gaps were way off. The reason....the silicon block to case gasket. I had tightened the block to case nuts several times during the rebuild but 200 miles on and I got an extra 1/4 turn on most.

I have also found that the backlash on the timing gears seems to have opened up slightly (7 thou) and the distributor gear backlash much more  .  

Is it just noise that excess backlash causes or is there likely to be more serious consequences?

Cheers

Howard

[Tony Griffiths]

That's the one however with a 5/32 Whitworth Thread.

Thank you, Bob - a most useful drawing indeed.

[Dave Mann]

That's like mine Tony, except that I've turned the pipe through 180 degrees which puts the main tap under the bonnet and the reserve in the cab where it can be reached if I need reserve.

[David.H]

Am I correct to say that the reserve is on when pulled out? Like the "main". My car had a shield to prevent the passenger's foot pushing it in accidentally.