1937 Austin 7- 2 seater,Crank case Oil quantity?

[Tony Press]

I would think 4 1/2 Quarts of either size if it was flowing out the dipstick hole 

[Chris KC]

A British fluid oz is different from an American fluid oz - 28.413 ml and 29.574 ml respectively, or 4% - should this ever be relevant.

Is that why they use cups?

[JasonT]

    Thanks again! Yes feel like a real dope for overfilling it, lesson learned.

I will try and find some blue, Non Oat, Antifreeze.

Unfortunately my 80 year old father could not locate the ignition key or remember what it looked like. After some research I was able to find a blank Triumph Motorcycle key in the states that looked very similar and ordered it. 
I could not believe it but it worked.

I put in the fresh battery. I reinstalled the fuel tank with many swears & great difficulty! Reconnected the fuel line on both ends. Checked for “Correct amount” of oil and added water to the radiator.

My vehicle knowledge is clearly limited so bear with me.

I primed the petrol pump manually via the hand switch “assuming this should manually draw fuel from the tank to the pump?”

When i turned the key and saw the red light pop on i got excited. This car has been sitting in the shed for over 30 years! I pulled the air strangler and then the starter and it began trying to kick over. I gave it a quick spray of starter fluid into the air filter and tried again, same, starter kicks on but NOTHING! Such a bummer.

Next ?

The HT leads look to be very rough shape and have actually melted some in the sweltering garage so I ordered some new plugs and wires. (Hopefully the right ones) I knew they would need to be replaced but gave it a try anyway.

The Plugs i ordered were 14mm Copper Champion L86C ? Hopefully those will work!
I think my Austin manual said they should be gapped between 15-18.

Gotta get those new plugs and wires in and confirm that i have fuel at the carburetor i guess. 

Just gonna keep chugging along, praying that i can get her running before the real cold gets here.

   
   
   

[Colin Morgan]

A British Austin Seven takes 4 Imperial pints - which is 4.8 US pints.

[Chris KC]

Yeah, those HT leads are horrible! 

The engine should fire as long as you have fuel, compression and a spark. You can by-pass fuel supply issues by taking the lid off the carburettor float bowl and manually filling it with petrol - it will then run for a minute or two whether or not the pump is supplying fuel (of course if it's already full, chances are the pump is working). Make sure the petrol is reasonably fresh (don't try to start on 40-year-old fuel!)

You can check whether the plugs are sparking by taking one out, reconnecting the HT lead, and grounding the plug on a head stud, then turn the engine over with ignition on. Hold the plug with a rag or gloves to avoid getting a jolt...

Chances are your points will need replacing or at least cleaning. The gap should be about 12 thou. Make sure all contacts on rotor arm, distributor cap etc are clean too.

[JasonT]

Thanks so much Chris!

I dropped the carburetor bowl as you said and unfortunately it was dry as a bone which really bummed me out because i thought i had cleaned out the fuel tank and mesh well enough for flow through the pickup tube. I had also blew out the fuel lines. So maybe it was a fuel pump issue.

So next I did what you said and filled the bowl with fresh fuel and reinstalled it. There was some leakage out of the air intake when reinstalled very full. “don’t know if that’s normal”

I cranked it over with the bowl filled, unfortunately still NOTHING. So im assuming that some or part of the plugs, leads, distributor or coil is the culprit.

I have the new leads and plugs on the way.

(The Fuel Pump is a whole other thing)
So i took off the fuel line connections off the fuel pump, nothing until I loosened the top bolt on the cap to the fuel pump, a decent amount of the OLD fuel started leaking out. I wiped out the old fuel and cleaned up the pump filter screen that actually looked decent. I hooked everything back up and primed again and gave it a couple cranks, opened it back up, nothing inside. It doesn’t appear to be drawing fuel or my tank is still not clean enough.

Didn’t have a chance to check the plugs yet but i will.

Got a solid win though, turning on the small side lights and headlamps, both worked !

And cracked open the distributor, i don’t know much but the rotor arm and the metal points on the cap looked pretty clean.                             

---

And the distributor 
   
   

[Chris KC]

Well that's a little progress at least. It might be that the pump diaphragm has perished, or it could be sucking in air somewhere.
I can tell you want to hear it run (the psychological boost is enormous!) so personally I'd set aside the fuel problems for the moment and focus on getting a spark. Even if visually clean I would still clean and re-gap the points, they are generally the first thing to fail and if standing a long time will have patinated somewhat. But by all means fit your new leads first and try again.

[Reckless Rat]

The two holding down studs for the carburettor top have a squared lower end which you can use to remove the two jets in the bottom of the float chamber. They need to be blown clear.

[Howard Wright]

Hi Jason

Looking at your pictures this seems quite an interesting car. Left hand drive with a bench seat but with a UK engine layout. Could you confirm that all the photos are as taken and not mirror images?

Perhaps the historians amongst us could enlighten us on whether this was common?

Good luck with getting it going.

Cheers

Howard

[John Cornforth]

Hi

I used to find that the contact breaker points needed cleaning after 4 months layup, never mind many years. You won't see the tarnish, but it's there. My cleaning technique is to draw through a folded piece of very fine sandpaper a few times. Best not to use emery as the dust it produces is conductive. The second stage is to remove any residue by drawing through a strip cut from a business card and soaked in switch cleaner.

Good luck !