maintenance

[Ian Williams]

Bob your intentions may be honourable, but I am afraid that I found your review of the various books uninformed and misleading, so perhaps best not to confuse newcomers any further. Of course I may not know what I am talking about ether, but but the club sites provide enough information for the uninitiated, and it has at least been vetted by people with extensive experience.

[Jeff Taylor]

Don't forget everyone, Banjodeano has a BIG SEVEN - books such as Nicholson or early Pitman don't cover the Big Seven. The engine in the Big Seven is different in many ways from earlier Sevens and has more in common with the Austin 8 which of course superseded the Big Seven.

[Andy Bennett]

My own experience was that all the maintenance books are of an era. For me they all had their own 'ah so that's it' parts and plenty of other confusing and sometimes contradictory parts. Their value also depends massively on the readers baseline knowledge. I find that as my own knowledge improves over the years the books also become more useful in filling in gaps and confirming points. So I am with Ian on the question of different people's view of the value of different books. Also noting that most of the books we refer to here are for the Austin 7, and I think you said you have a Big 7, so big red book etc will be of no use to you.

For me the answers and confidence to starting to use my Austin Seven came from the people not the books.

All comes back to what we have all been saying, and I think Banjo is going to do, join the local club and start chatting with those who know and can point at oily bits and tell you how the book might say this, but with modern this and that the reality of today is this, and if you lever this bit up here to get access to that bit then voila problem solved.....

As you did say before you are new to car maintenance I would also seek out an independent local club member to check the car over before you start using it to make sure there aren't any problem areas you don't yet know of and which might cause you catastrophic failures etc.

All is going to be a little more complicated as most of us here are Austin 7 owners, not Big 7, so you will need to find someone who knows the Big 7 and its similarities/differences.

good luck
Andy

EDIT: I was typing whilst Jeff was replying, but same thoughts re being careful not to take advice for an Austin 7 when you have a Big 7.

[Jeff Taylor]

A person Banjo should endeavour to make contact with is Robin Taylor of the Austin Big 7 Register and Big 7 Spares:-

Email: robin.e.taylor@talktalk.net

Tel: 01332 700629

Just to emphasize what Andy has already said, when asking for advice on the forum, Banjo needs to make it clear he has a BIG SEVEN otherwise he may receive incorrect advice.

For those unfamiliar with the Big Seven engine, I've included a couple of images found on the net.


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[Banjodeano]

Thanks for the input guys..

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Andy and Jeff make a very valid Point - ‘almost’ everything on a Big Seven is different compared to a Seven.

[Banjodeano]

Please excuse my ignorance guys, but which is the official club to join, is this the one.. https://www.pwa7c.co.uk/
or this http://a7ca.org/

[Andy Bennett]

Now that's what I call an air filter

[Jeff Taylor]

The Austin Big Seven Handbook - Publication 1523A dated October 1937 is available to download here:

http://a7ca.org/downloads/handbooks/HB_1...gSeven.pdf

[Martin Prior]

Please excuse my ignorance guys, but which is the official club to join, is this the one..  https://www.pwa7c.co.uk/
or this http://a7ca.org/

Hi.  

The A7CA is the "umbrella" organisation for all Austin Seven related clubs.  Joining an A7CA constituent club such as the PWA7C gives you the benefits of a local group, along with those of a much bigger, national set-up.   

As Jeff mentioned above, contact Robin Taylor at the Big Seven Register.  I owned a Big Seven for a while and found him to be very helpful for specific Big 7 parts and info.  I was (and am) also a member of the Bristol A7C, which offered all that you'd expect from a local club.