What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Robert Foreman]

It is definitely a Sima Violet with the newly rebuilt back axle.

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

Thanks for all the replies on the Sima Violet.  Robert’s intimate knowledge of the rear axle is pretty conclusive it I think.

Talking to friends while marshalling on the Sunday trial the little car was seen flying up the Cambrian hills two up on Saturday.

Cheers

Howard

[Duncan Grimmond]

I think the one pictured is perhaps the example rebuilt either by or with assistance from "Licorne", one of the driving forces /moderators behind the ATF forum. An elusive chap with an encyclopaedic knowledge of cyclecars who shares his time between France and UK and who I think I met/didn't meet or recall at le Puy Notre-Dame a couple of years ago.

There was a Youtube film made with this car and another scampering through the dales including the Buttertubs pass but I can't seem to find it...

[Steve kay]

Any anorak will be unable to resist accompanying post breakfast coffee with WB’s book on Montlhery. Boddy  reports that in October “The 500cc category was exciting because Dore and Stanton contrived to dead heat, each driving a Sima-Violet, their mechanics holding hands as they crossed the line.” The subsequent note that Hall’s Seven had to run without a water pump sent me from the breakfast table to the library in search of further info. Canning Brown tells us that REO Hall was driving Gordon England’s  second streamlined car, the water pump of which failed before the start. Lacking a spare, the car depended on thermo syphoning, requiring a number of pit stops for water. Second place sounds even braver! Now down to the workshop to continue with a Seven, some, but certainly not all of which was already a year old in 1925.

[Andy Bennett]

Today my 7 has saved the day.
Tomorrow I am due to travel 300 miles as part of the ongoing attempts to sell our house in the south.
Today, on returning from a trip to the local tip to deposit an old fridge (that's another story, special pass required, with minimum 48 hours notice, so I was expecting them to have organised some sort if welcoming party for me and sorely tempted to say 'too much effort' and just leave it by the roadside), I noticed that the modern was listing at the rear.
A quick inspection revealed a snapped spring.
Thankful that it didn't go on the A1, the A7 was brought into service to travel 12 miles to the local town with a parts supplier. It included a stretch of dual carriageway where I had to cut across to take a right turn. Everyone was impeccable in their road manners. The only difficulty being getting across to the right lane because of an enthusiast passenger in a modern pulling alongside to take pictures.
Anyway, 2 hours later and a quick watch of a helpful Youtube video to point out a couple of bolts I needed to remove to drop the rear beam, and the modern of fixed and I am ready to go.
Where would we be without a reliable 7?

[David Stepney]

For some little while, my RP has been plagued by a transmission vibration at speed (about 40 to 45mph) so I have spent the last couple of days sorting the problem out. Investigation revealed quite a lot of play in the torque tube mounting but the adjuster nut was already tight up against the mounting body. Having only a three jaw puller and fearful of damaging the drive flange, I made up a thin dished washer from a plastic sealing ring for a drainpipe that was just the right diameter to fit inside the adjuster nut. It took a bit of trial and error to get it thin enough to allow the adjuster nut to screw in sufficiently. I deemed that about 2/3 of the way in would be about right. The original locking bolts were a bit scruffy, so these were replaced by (horror of horrors!) two 8mm bolts that were just the right length. 

I have just got back from road test and, much to my joy, the vibration has disappeared. 

The next job is to find out why the brakes are so noisy. This has been a continual problem since I relined them. They were ok to begin with, but then started to squeal. I have cleaned the drums, and roughened the linings, which cures the problem but only temporarily. I have even tried swapping  the drums around but that doesn’t work either. Incidentally the linings are woven ones from one of our cherished suppliers. The brakes work fine otherwise and they don’t do it at speed, say if one steadies the car with a touch on the brakes before entering a bend. Any ideas anyone?

[Peter Naulls]

I've had the same problem since re-lining mine (Girling brakes, Green Gripper linings). They are noisiest the first couple of times you use them, then they seem to settle down. It's the first time I've had non-asbestos linings but I don't know if that's a factor.

[Steve kay]

My Ruby also is noisy for the first few applications, then gets quiet. The descent in stern gear down the drive makes a considerable racket.

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

Likewise the RK has recently been shod with green grippers and it sounds like a pig for the first few hundred yards then quietens to acceptable levels.  

Cheers

Howard

[David Stepney]

Thank you, gentlemen for your reassurance concerning my brake noise. Perhaps part of my problem is that my brakes rarely get hot. When I was learning to drive some 55 years ago, I was taught at least in part by an elderly chauffeur who always insisted that:

1. The car should be driven as if the brakes were disconnected, and
2. They should only be used when bringing the car to a stand.

He also used to tell me that the passengers should only be aware of the motion of the car by the passing of the scenery.

He has been trained before the war at Rolls-Royce, who, I understand ran a chauffeurs school and this was the advice given, amongst many other 'bon mot'. I still drive this way and I am training young Leon in a similar fashion, contrary, I believe to modern practice.