Pinion Assembly

[Tony Press]

Did you get the AC bearings from a bearing factor or similar? The ones Austin used on all but a few late cars are narrower on the outside race than the "off the peg" AC bearings. If  you have the standard width bearings, as well as that gap, the pinion mesh will be different by the difference in the width of one of the bearings.

The ones that Seven Workshop (and others) sell are ground down to the correct width.

https://www.theaustinsevenworkshop.com/p...-ac-thrust

Spot on Stuart- as with the crankshaft AC bearings. We now have the standard AC bearing outer rings machined to the correct narrow width- ceramic tools apparently - wonders never cease !

Cheers, Tony.