Spanner sizes for a 1928 Austin Seven

[JohnG]

Hi. We have recently bought a 1928 Chummy & I am putting together a tool kit. I am trying to find suitable spanners to use. Are they Whitworth ones or is there a mix of types?

[Howard Wright]

Hi

Mainly Whitworth and BA but quite a few specials.

I find this list on the Cornish A7 club site very useful

http://www.austin7.org/Data%20Pages/Tech%20Data/

I’d start with a good set of Whitworth spanners and add to them as you find need.

Cheers

Howard

PS the Zenith carb uses metric sizes.

[JohnG]

Thanks. Very helpful. John

[David Stepney]

A good set of whitworth spanners should cover most things. Some of the small fixings on electrical items are often BA sizes. However, beware that some fixings may have been replaced over the years with whatever was to hand (UNF/UNC or metric).

[Jeff Taylor]

The Seven Workshop and Austin 7 Components Ltd among others can supply new sets of combination Whitworth spanners and other A7 tools.

https://www.theaustinsevenworkshop.com/p...h-spanners

https://www.a7c.co.uk/spares.php

[JohnG]

Thanks all.

[David.H]

I have a 3/16w x1/4 w ring and a1/4w x5/16w rIng that are an invaluable pair....open end the same also. They seem to cover most short term dramas! Mind you - you can never have enough, the one you can find is always too long or too short!
Many modern bsw sockets I have found do not fit properly. ...can't beat old King Dick!

[Bob Culver]

My car was maintained and extensively dismantled and reassembled over decades with no sockets. These do speed work but are conducive to stripped and broken threads. Only a very few spanner sizes necessary. Much can be done with a 4" and 12" Cescent type. And for large nuts as rear wheel bearings old style F spanners useful. These often at flea markets for very little and usually battered, so hammering on not a sin. Can often be tidied by filing.

[Charles Levien]

A couple of small box spanners too — for those awkward places where a ring spanner or socket can’t get to. Dynamo mounting, etc

[39Jet]

The Japanese firm Koken still make Whitworth sockets. Top quality imo.
German makers like Stahlwille used to make Whitworth ring-and-open-ended (combination) spanners which are excellent and seem very long lasting.
Stahlwille also used to make their very useful flexi-joint spanners in Whitworth as did Britool.
Second-hand Whitworth ring spanners from many manufacturers, which must date from the 50s and 60s, are common in my part of the world.

Whitworth is also known as BSW. BSF spanners also fit Whitworth fasteners. BSF is also known as BS.
No other type of spanner really fits Whitworth fasteners, but the number of Whitworth spanners usually used is small.

Folk on here speak highly of King Dick ratchet combination spanners which are available new but are not cheap. They speed up dismantling and re-assembly greatly apparently.