I'm a relative beginner here looking for advice.
I acquired an Austin 7 Ulster built in 2000 from my late father and I am refurbishing it to put it back on the road after a 20 year lapse and I am on a very steep learning curve. I drained the differential oil out and refilled it with EP 140 oil 3/4 of a pint as recommended in various threads. The car is on rear axle stands with the front wheels chocked on the ground. A considerable amount of oil is leaking from the propeller shaft casing through a hole which deliberately seems to be placed in the bottom of the casing about one third of the way back from the universal join to the diff casing. Should this hole have some sort of plug in it? It seems to be deliberately placed there but if oil is simply going to leak out of it from the differential I don't understand quite what it is for. Whilst the back of the car is higher off the ground in the front, this would happen going down any hill so I can't believe that is the problem. I have a Box saloon 1929 which does not seem to have a hole in this position. The other difference between these cars is that the differential is much wider on the saloon and quite narrow on the Ulster.
I would be grateful for any advice about how to proceed. I have taken a photograph on my iPhone but I am not quite sure how to attach it to this thread because it tells me it is in the wrong format.
Thank you to those with expertise for your help in advance
Peter Venn
I acquired an Austin 7 Ulster built in 2000 from my late father and I am refurbishing it to put it back on the road after a 20 year lapse and I am on a very steep learning curve. I drained the differential oil out and refilled it with EP 140 oil 3/4 of a pint as recommended in various threads. The car is on rear axle stands with the front wheels chocked on the ground. A considerable amount of oil is leaking from the propeller shaft casing through a hole which deliberately seems to be placed in the bottom of the casing about one third of the way back from the universal join to the diff casing. Should this hole have some sort of plug in it? It seems to be deliberately placed there but if oil is simply going to leak out of it from the differential I don't understand quite what it is for. Whilst the back of the car is higher off the ground in the front, this would happen going down any hill so I can't believe that is the problem. I have a Box saloon 1929 which does not seem to have a hole in this position. The other difference between these cars is that the differential is much wider on the saloon and quite narrow on the Ulster.
I would be grateful for any advice about how to proceed. I have taken a photograph on my iPhone but I am not quite sure how to attach it to this thread because it tells me it is in the wrong format.
Thank you to those with expertise for your help in advance
Peter Venn