19-06-2019, 05:11 AM
(This post was last modified: 19-06-2019, 05:24 AM by PedigreeChummy.)
Thanks for your kind words, chaps.
Chris, I'll look into the 4 blade fan for sure, and I'm going to completely "service" the car over coming weeks, so will be sure to give her a coolant flush. I'll look into those bushes, but just to the naked eye the pully is moving back and forth on tickover, and there is a noticeable gap, which made me think something was missing. A quick look in Austin 7 Parts showed it was a felt washer, which I suppose dampens any minor travel, but I will check those bushes at the same time. Can the pully assembly come off without taking the radiator off?
Gearbox is a crash variety, I'm pretty sure, though I am by default adopting a double de-clutch on downchanges, and notice the pedals are nicely positioned for a bit of heel and toe, though upshifts are very smooth with just one press. Third to fourth is a big gap, almost like it's an overdrive, so that's seems to match what you are telling me. I'll hang fire on fiddling about with ratios....
Bob, you're right, I am in the "charmed by it" category, though this is far from my first experience of vintage motoring. The difference now is "choice"... I have a very love/hate relationship with cars of this era, my main experiences having been being dragged out of bed on what seemed like endless, usually rainy, Sunday mornings as a teenager to sit in the back of my dad's various pride and joy vehicles on VSCC runs, Lakeland this and that (definitely always raining...), Manchester to Blackpool events (more rain) etc. etc., the hood always being down, no matter how inclement the weather, as it "spoils the lines of the car", being bollocked for looking miserable, then hanging around with other moody teenagers wishing they were at home with a copy of Escort, in a field or isolated hill-top pub car park as he and various other men of his type poked around under each other's bonnets... not to mention the constant midweek evening sessions of "lifting things on and off" the damn things, when I should have been doing my homework... or watching Blackadder or the Young Ones, or listening to The Smiths or The Stranglers. How things have changed now as a 40 something. Minis were and remain my thing primarily but I always secretly loved the cuteness of the Austin 7, even as a surly teenager.
I did used to think back then "wtf would you choose to spend a Sunday driving slowly in something you're likely going to have fix by the side of the road...", now I am that soldier!
Chris, I'll look into the 4 blade fan for sure, and I'm going to completely "service" the car over coming weeks, so will be sure to give her a coolant flush. I'll look into those bushes, but just to the naked eye the pully is moving back and forth on tickover, and there is a noticeable gap, which made me think something was missing. A quick look in Austin 7 Parts showed it was a felt washer, which I suppose dampens any minor travel, but I will check those bushes at the same time. Can the pully assembly come off without taking the radiator off?
Gearbox is a crash variety, I'm pretty sure, though I am by default adopting a double de-clutch on downchanges, and notice the pedals are nicely positioned for a bit of heel and toe, though upshifts are very smooth with just one press. Third to fourth is a big gap, almost like it's an overdrive, so that's seems to match what you are telling me. I'll hang fire on fiddling about with ratios....
Bob, you're right, I am in the "charmed by it" category, though this is far from my first experience of vintage motoring. The difference now is "choice"... I have a very love/hate relationship with cars of this era, my main experiences having been being dragged out of bed on what seemed like endless, usually rainy, Sunday mornings as a teenager to sit in the back of my dad's various pride and joy vehicles on VSCC runs, Lakeland this and that (definitely always raining...), Manchester to Blackpool events (more rain) etc. etc., the hood always being down, no matter how inclement the weather, as it "spoils the lines of the car", being bollocked for looking miserable, then hanging around with other moody teenagers wishing they were at home with a copy of Escort, in a field or isolated hill-top pub car park as he and various other men of his type poked around under each other's bonnets... not to mention the constant midweek evening sessions of "lifting things on and off" the damn things, when I should have been doing my homework... or watching Blackadder or the Young Ones, or listening to The Smiths or The Stranglers. How things have changed now as a 40 something. Minis were and remain my thing primarily but I always secretly loved the cuteness of the Austin 7, even as a surly teenager.
I did used to think back then "wtf would you choose to spend a Sunday driving slowly in something you're likely going to have fix by the side of the road...", now I am that soldier!