What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Nick Lettington]

I have been trying to find a replacement semi-girling back axle for my ORT. I picked one up last year just before Moreton and have just got round to opening the hubs to check the brakes... oh dear! New oil seals requred!!! 

I managed to remove the spring pins after a year of adding easing oil once in a while, but the hubs themselves steadfastly refuse to shift. (Over the last two days I have tried heat, ice spray, a three legged puller on my frankenstein hub puller wound up to bursting point and left overnight, plus the biggest of hammers... all in various combinations.) Ho hum. 

If I do manage to seperate them, can anyone tell me what lip seal I need to replace the old felt seal with... there's a bearing place not far from here...

[Howard Wright]

Hi Nick

If you are referring to separating the outer hub from the half shaft I have resorted to putting the axle in a workbench with the half shaft pointing upwards. Then hit it with a sledge hammer.

I remember the first time I did this on an axle that had been standing for 50 years. I started with gentle taps then ended with a fully fledged over the head thwack. Yes I mangled the thread on the half shaft.  The second time I did more to protect the half shaft thread but it took less effort to separate the taper.

Seals available from cherished suppliers, often next day delivery  .

Cheers

Howard

[dickie65]

Fiat in Question is factory built just read the radiator for its model designation.

[Nick Lettington]

Hi Nick

If you are referring to separating the outer hub from the half shaft I have resorted to putting the axle in a workbench with the half shaft pointing upwards. Then hit it with a sledge hammer.

I remember the first time I did this on an axle that had been standing for 50 years. I started with gentle taps then ended with a fully fledged over the head thwack. Yes I mangled the thread on the half shaft.  The second time I did more to protect the half shaft thread but it took less effort to separate the taper.

Seals available from cherished suppliers, often next day delivery  .

Cheers

Howard

Last time I welded the puller on... looks like I'll be doing the same again... then reaching for the sledgehammer! is a 14lb one too big?

[Peter Naulls]

I'm following this with interest as I stripped the thread on a perfectly good original puller recently. My plan is to weld the puller on but, as the car is out of action anyway I can afford to put it off for another day and see what solution you find!

[AustinWood]

I have freed the hub taper with a large hammer. It works quite well I find. Need to go for it. One really hard blow. Leave the nut on unscrewed to be level with the end of the shaft.
Many years ago I had a car with a boss on the end of the half shafts so that it could be hit hard. Worked very well. Only needed to slacken the nut off a few turns to prevent the shaft being driven into the diff.

[Nick Lettington]

I'm following this with interest as I stripped the thread on a perfectly good original puller recently. My plan is to weld the puller on but, as the car is out of action anyway I can afford to put it off for another day and see what solution you find!

That's what I did the first time I tried. Then I welded the puller onto the hub and broke the welds... I didn't realise the big hammer breaks the taper... so welded it on again and it eventually let go. I cut the knackered threads off the old puller, then a hexagon with the good threads that remained, cut that in half and welded a three sided clamp with two bolts to tighten the screw threads onto the hub. A three legged puller then worked well and in the last 15 years I have pulled several hubs with ease... until yesterday! I'll need to make frankenstein no 2... anyone got a useless dead hub puller they can't bear to chuck?

[Steve Jones]

Well, not today but Friday - Tuesday. Long weekend in Grassington with the Saloon staying at the Caravan Club site at Threshfield with our Motorhome. Travelled there Friday, Saturday, after a run into Grassington to get a paper, late morning went over to the Craven Arms at Appletreewick for lunch. The Craven Arms is run by a long time A7 owner and local 'character', David Ainsworth. I first met him about 35 years ago when I looked at a LWB Saloon he had for sale. I didn't buy it! He currently has a 1927 Saloon as well as his Punch and Judy show mounted on the back of an A7 Pick Up. Those that know me know that I’m not too tolerant of the ‘Are you going to a show’ type of questions. Like most, over the years I’ve heard them all and to misquote ‘Blaster’ Bates, they ask the same daft questions and they get the same daft answers. However, as I was getting out of the car at the Craven Arms, a cyclist that we’d passed a few minutes before pulled up and after saying ‘what is it’, came out with one I’d never heard before asking ‘does it run on petrol?’

   
Outside the Craven Arms.

Sunday, a run into Grassington parking among the bikers in the main square. Very busy so a pint in the pub and back to base.

Monday, a run up the Wharfe Valley to Kettlewell and a go at driving up Park Rash which is a 1:4 hill that includes a hairpin left followed by a hairpin right. Used as a trials hill in the vintage period it's a serious challenge and last time we were there with the Saloon it wasn't in the best of form and it failed. This time, stormed up with just a whisper of steam from the radiator cap at the top.


  Park Rash.jpg (Size: 90.18 KB / Downloads: 196)
Start of Park Rash

We could have gone on over the moor all the way to Leyburn but another lunch was calling at The Buck at Buckden, a pub I first visited (and had a pint in) when I was 16, 55 years ago and somewhere we've visited many times over the years. We therefore turned round, back into Kettlewell and on to Buckden.

   
Parked at The Buck

Yesterday, a crap run home in pouring rain!!

Steve

[John Mason]

Peter if the threads you have stripped are the ones that screw the puller to the hub. You could try turning them off in a lathe if it leaves sufficient good threads for the puller to work.

John Mason.

[Howard Wright]

Hi Steve

Looks like a great weekend.  Better rain on the way home rather on the way there!

Cheers

Howard