What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Reckless Rat]

Jack Reacher says "Hope for the best but plan for the worst". With my long 8 day journey to Santiago de Compostelle taking place in just over a weeks time I have been trying to cover every eventuality. Should a half shaft break I will be carrying a spare but I thought I'd best check that things could be easily taken apart should I be stranded at the roadside. One of the things was to make sure the nearside spring pin was not seized to the backplate. Having cleaned off some of the grime I tried to undo the cotter nut, but it wasn't there. It seems that in the dim and distant past someone had probably replaced it and had put it back the wrong way round. Rather than putting the nut on they'd secured it with a blob of weld, which took me the best part of two hours to grind away sufficiently so I could drive out the cotter. At least I've found it now with enough time to spare to make good rather than being stuck somewhere remote with no means of removing it. Lucky.