What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[frequentflyer]

Thats one way of skimming a head. not conventional but I guess it works fine.

[Charles P]

Thats one way of skimming a head. not conventional but I guess it works fine.

It's worked well for me for some years. You need a solid and accurate lathe with a decent faceplate (as you can see)

[Charles P]

Hi folks. 
I am posting from sunny New Jersey. I may have mentioned before that I picked up a chassis and engine from Connecticut this Summer. In the process of tearing down the engine to find out if it’s a runner with not too much effort. Look at the attached picks. When I took the head off I see that some of the valves have been replaced with Ford (USA) valves. Anyone heard of this before? Can I use these as replacements?  I am super curious. 
All the best 
Chris Law.

I’ve not seen that before but have adapted non Austin valves to fit in the past. It’s not hard to alter a valve head or stem if you have suitable machine tools. I’ve not heard of of a direct replacement from a Ford but you never know. 
If you put it together with Austin type parts from one of the suppliers do check the diameters first. When people start modifying parts they sometimes modify the rest. It’s worth checking the cotter and valve cap arrangement too.

[Reckless Rat]

Nice day today, but rain forecast for tonight so I thought I'd make the most of it and take the Austin out for a run round the block, and fill it up at the supermarché with a few litres of E10 ready for the winter.
First of all I had to release the Kraken (Merc) so I could get the RP out from the middle of the garage:



I had a run round through St Sauveur de Cruzières and the old 403 pick-up is still there. It made me think of the Monty Python film where they are calling "Bring out your dead!" and an old guy in a loincloth says "I'm not dead yet!"



On the way round there was a guy harvesting his olives - very bucolic!



The traffic, as usual, was terrible...



The RP is now back in its nest, covered in a couple of sheets until the next nice day...

Bon weekend!
RR

[JohnD]

Started to change this a few weeks ago and when removed the spring pins broke, so this weekend, with new parts received this was finally changed

Amazing what people had to repair before we had the cherished suppliers working hard to supply these parts 

   

[Jamie]

My Ruby had had one of these rear links replaced with a piece of flat steel, about a 1/4" thick, drilled for the bolts. They dispensed altogether with the rubber bushes.

Jamie.

[Stuart Joseph]

Having spent a chunk of the kid’s inheritance on a surface grinder and magnetic chuck I was advised by a Kent based engineer (who is a correspondent on these pages and I greatly respect) that the best results were achieved by facing the head in the lathe. He also introduced me to the concept of ‘wedging’ which I hadn’t heard of before. Fortunately my Harrison 140 is up to the task. 

Regards from the creative county Staffordshire.

[Tony Griffiths]

The rev counter drive on my Ulster is taken from the bottom of the distributor spindle. Needing a replacement distributor, its shaft was drilled, and a small cable end shaft from a scrapped Ford Speedo (£10, including post on eBay) was pressed into it. Having gone to that trouble, a friend said, “Why didn't you use a clock key? You can get a four-spoke one with different sizes of square holes from Bay for a few pence”. Oh well, I consoled myself with the thought my fitting was in steel not brass.
As the old cable had been repaired several times, a new one was bought - easy enough? Not quite, for juggling outer cable length, inner cable length and correct fitting of a “stop” on the cable at the rev counter end proved entertaining to solve - but eventually, at the second attempt (my fault) the short-hours-working Company Speedy Cables of Cardiff came up with one with the correct ends and assorted lengths. It is nice to have a rev counter on a sporting car.

[Dave Mann]

Fitted the spare engine to one of our cars because it has developed an appetite for oil and and the block/crankcase paper joint has failed after 25 years and 60,000 miles. For those that drain the engine cooling system for winter I drained the engine after a run when it was hot as I didn't want the removed engine lying around with wet cooling passages a breeding ground for rust. By the time I had removed the radiator I could see in the water outlet that the cylinder head internals were dry.    

[Nick Salmon]

From whom did you buy that paper gasket?  After so few miles and so few years you should ask for your money back!