What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[PeterN]

Good advice all round. Thank you

[David Stepney]

I note with my own car, that someone previously had run into the same problem of the dynamo housing bolts accessibility. The two between the housing and the block have screwdriver slots cut into them. Most useful. I use a 3/8 screwdriver bit socket.

[Andy Bennett]

Today we have been out and about researching the history of our house. We spent the afternoon in a local church and managed to track down a couple of previous occupants of the house going back hundreds of years. We also had a drive around the villages enjoying some crisp January sun.

   

[Ivor Hawkins]

What a lovely shot, the car looks lovely and the church tower is very interesting, I was busy sorting out the electrics on my wife’s Peugeot…

[Andy Bennett]

It is an amazing church for such a small village, more a grouping of about a dozen houses with a disused railway station nearby.. A sign of where the money used to be I guess when wool and mining created great wealth. The building to the left is the 'hearse house' complete with stables, hence the tall door for horse access, all ready and waiting for the next 'customer'. Now an information centre.
Searching gravestones can be a frustrating process, especially when looking for the local equivalent of 'John Smith', up here its 'Robert Robson'. Luckily they tend to include helpful notes on the stones, like 'Robert Robson who died at Long Ridge Castle on ......' etc. Helps cut down on the wrong RR.

And that reminds me, rear nearside indicator wasn't working all the time. Dodgy earth me thinks, off to the garage.

[AustinWood]

A lot of villages lost many of their population in the great plague. In some cases only the church remains.

[PeterN]

Three massive achievements today (with a little help from local Chummy owning friend)
1) The ignition light goes out now for the first time since I bought the car thanks to newly fitted refurbished dynamo
2) Timing set but needs trimming once I can get out for a run
3) Got rid of the 12V auxilliary battery so everything now runs from 6V even if the lights are a bit dim
Well they're massive for me anyway!

[Tony Griffiths]

Fitted the replacement dynamo, supplied by Vince Leek, with great difficulty as I lack a 7/16 box spanner. Had to grind down the diameter of a socket in order to get it in the gap for the rear bolt. Once I did that life got a lot easier. Next is to drill and tap the dynamo body ready for a helicoil to take the special shouldered plate retaining bolt. Recommend Vince by the way. Very helpful and understanding.

Hi Peter

I gave up using hex head bolts on the dynamo a while ago.  I use cap head, hex drive bolts.  No one can see the back bolts and it makes it so much easier to put a long Allen key round the back.

Coincidentally I spent an hour yesterday turning down the end of a 3/8 set screw and threading it for 1/4 BSF to use as the shoulder bolt on the distributor retaining plate.  A small lathe in the workshop is sooooo useful.

Cheers

Howard

A small lathe really is just so useful - if you don't have one, you'll never know what you're missing. Something like this would fit the bill - but do make sure that you have a really good step ladder. Even a http://www.lathes.co.uk/wade%20cva/index.html is better than nothing.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Long bolts, with a nut wound down to the point where the original bolt head would have been, stick out beyond the casing and allow a spanner to be used without difficulty.

       

[Charles P]

Long bolts, with a nut wound down to the point where the original bolt head would have been, stick out beyond the casing and allow a spanner to be used without difficulty.

I like that thinking but on a mag engined car the “bulge” of the dynamo housing gets in the way. 
On my car for reasons of my go faster modification, it's a real pain/impossibility to do the rear dynamo housing nut up onto the stud. I made a short barrel nut and brazed the end of a socket head screw onto the top. Now it’s manageable