What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Bob Culver]

Locals have reported cases of the centre breaking out of timing gear due tight mesh. The front of the crank must jump about to some extent. Those who have tinkered with dial gauges in lathes know how much deflection a few pounds pressure produces.

[jansens]

Simon, I overdid the removal of metal of dynamo housing  2 years ago on my RN. There was still backlash all the way round but obviously not enough as 150 metres from home there was an awful din from the front of the engine. I freewheeled down the hill back home and found half a dozen cam/crank gear teeth in the bottom of the timg case. Fortunately no pthe damage

---

Sorry, should say "timing " and "other" Fat finger syndrome.

I checked it on all teeth several times around so hopefully there aren't any tight spots. I couldn't feel any turning by hand. It's why I stopped at 3 thou and not the minimum of 2, just to have a little margin for errors!

Simon

[Reckless Rat]

I made the best of the sunny periods today and had a run out in the RP, first of all to fill up with some 95 unleaded at the supermarket and then for a tootle round the area. On the way back in I took a picture of these two which as far as I can remember haven't budged for at least 20 years. The Escort whilst a bit tatty is reasonably well preserved and is not beyond redemption (the tyres are still inflated). The Peugeot (if that's what it is) might need a bit more than a bit of TLC as there's not much of it left.

I wonder how many LHD mark1 Escorts have survived...

https://i.postimg.cc/CxdDCxP1/20190127-141608.jpg

[Phil Kingdom]

Mk 1 Escorts are fetching very good money in the UK, even bare shells, it may be worth your while to check out prices and make a few inquiries.

[Mike Costigan]

Indeed! And the rally boys, who are largely responsible for the current prices of Escorts, love lhd cars, especially two-door cars.

[Reckless Rat]

I'll leave it for someone who hasn't experienced the Mem'Sahib's rolling pin...

[Alan]

I sold mine for 300 quid. It was 1978 or so, though

[Peter Johnson]

   

Today I tried to figure out what was wrong with the cup model. It didn’t take very long to find the problem... I have got a spare distributor, so I will drop that in for now and see how we go on. 

The grease had turned silver and there weren’t any large chunks of gear in there so it has clearly spent its whole life grinding away. 12 months use, probably no more than 1000 miles. 

Peter

[bob46320]

Where did you get that gear from, and did you suspect the problem lies with the dizzy gear or the dynamo gear?

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I had the same happen to me in the Ulster on a commute from Bristol to Glasgow in 1995 - it totally stripped near Lancaster and I had not carried a spare! I always have since...