What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Hedd_Jones]

interestingly there are two of us here in market Drayton, Shropshire. Never met the one from Caersws

[Hedd_Jones]

I have taoen the engine out, when I studied the clutch I found two of the posts stuck in the back plate, meaning it was partially stuck disengaged. 

Have removed the rear cover to find that a previous meddler had fitted shims to the bottom of the slots for the fingers in the cover. These seem to have been an interference fit, and thus not totally obvious. And I certainly didnt notice them when I assembled it about a month ago. The action of the rollers seems to have upset one, and it is not present. The 2nd one was loose and binding the post. The third was also still present but seemingly working fine. With everything being thus out of cock, it seems to have jammed it up when the pedal was pushed down. 

I have now filed up all the burrs, restoring clearance in everything, cleaned and degreased it all again and the pressure plate and flywheel are drying in the sun. 

I will reassemble later, probably after lunch with some bigger rollers to see where we are at. May even get the engine back in the car with some luck.

[flywheel1935]

  IMG_0037.jpg (Size: 22.01 KB / Downloads: 285) Just taken the back wall of my garage out so the Ruby (under white dust cover), can be pushed into my "Campbell Shed" themed extension & finished off and be ready as a 'Daily driver' by Easter !!!!!    

[Hedd_Jones]

I reassembled the clutch onto the flywheel. Then fitted engine to car.



Went for a test drive, all good on the clutch front. I have to say the feel with the rollers in the toggles is totally different. Will take some getting used to. Still need to sort where I want the pedal I think (its a clamp type so easily adjusted).

Not so good on the puncture front!. Had to put the spare on whilst on the test run.





Seems a good engine, starts very easily from cold. No smoke whatsoever. Went up the test hill easy as in 3rd (which the old engine also did). One Jub clip seemed to drip a bit.

https://www.facebook.com/1069529276/vide...3832826848

Oddly, neither horn now works. So will have to investigate that. I guess an afternoons work will sort. List

1 - Adjust pedal on clutch shaft.
2 - Fix honkers (fuse I hope)
3 - Fit cover around handbrake
4 - Fit cover to flywheel and floor cover over that. secure speedo cable (uses one of the flywheel cover bolts)
5 - Clean off gearbox oil off rubber mats (dont ask!)
6 - Mess with bottom hose jub clip to seal - fill with antifreeze (which will probably find more leaks LOL)
7 - Fix Puncture (well 2 actually, I have another 400 needing a puncture repair).
8 - Touch up paint where I've scratched the floor, chassis and fixings.

[Dennis Nicholas]

Fitting hoses and Jubilee clips responds well to cleaning up new or old castings.

New alloy:- Often come with a casting ridge along the round length.....file back to just about level then strip of abrasive cloth part wrapped round till all surface blends together.  Less tightening of clip will be required for water tight join and will put rubber under less stress.  I also use a silicone grease round the surface to help hose slide and position itself and perhaps prevent corrosion.

Old alloy:- often pitted and corroded.  Clean thoroughly.....wash, wire brush etc. then smear all round with JB weld or similar.  Once dry gentle file off worst rough then strip of abrasive to give final round clean finish.

May seem a bit of extra work but saves in the end and not so much strain on over squashed rubber from clips.

Dennis

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Worked on front axle back plates.
Today, being slightly warmer I gave a quick squirt of engine paint to the tab lock washers, where they were bent up against the bolt heads, in the hope of restoring a bit of damaged paint surface.  Also to ends of bolts where they are flush with stub axle on the other side in the hope of sealing ends by capillary action on thread.
I used a heat gun to warm up the metal first then had it standing vertically under and with the help of a fan heater to keep temperature up while paint cured.  Then did same to other side.
There was a blanket and cover over the top of the axle and chassis to keep the heat in.

I don't know how well the rattle can engine paint will take to the POR15 that the back plates/stubs were painted with.

Dennis

[Dave Trickett]

Very pleasantly surprised when the RM started on the second swing after being laid up for a couple of months to switch from 12V to 6V. Converted the dynamo back to 3 brush, sourced an old coil from Beaulieu and a CF3 cutout from a club member. I now to investigate the lack of increased charging current on the winter setting and to sort the horn, wipers and indicators!

[JohnD]

I had to remove the gearbox from the Pearl last week due to an engine issue, which turned out to be the starter motor. While it was out i have changed the Ball and Spring for 2nd and 3rd gear as it would often drop out of third when on the over run.
Turned out to be an easy enough job, but a bit fiddly, as i dropped the ball into the bowls of the box, which resulted in me having to then drain the oil to retireve it. Anyway got it all back together and its now awaiting refitting to the car at the weekend.

[Dave Trickett]

Very pleasantly surprised when the RM started on the second swing after being laid up for a couple of months to switch from 12V to 6V. Converted the dynamo back to 3 brush, sourced an old coil from Beaulieu and a CF3 cutout from a club member. I now to investigate the lack of increased charging current on the winter setting and to sort the horn, wipers and indicators!

[Graham Barker]

Hi JohnD, My Ruby drops out of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear on overrun. So will be interested to hear whether your fix works.
Cheers 
Graham.

[Bob Culver]

Hi Dave
Dunno your experience but linking the field and output at the dynamo dupicates the Winter condition so if output remains reduced the question sort of reframes!