What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[AustinWood]

Measuring gradient in percent is stupid. The old ratio makes sense. 1 in 2 is 50% and 1 in 1 (45degrees) comes out at 100% whatever that means!

[Denis Sweeney]

Not so much what have I done today but over the last two weeks.....

Some may recall my post on “Rear Hubs” where I was experiencing problems and noted that I had previously fitted replacement halfshafts sourced from Kirby in the late 80’s. Well in the end I decided to not run the risk of sticking with these halfshafts and so ordered some new un’s  and have spent a couple of weeks in self isolation in the garage, stripping out the old and rebuilding with new.

Fortunately all new bearings were installed previously but with felt seals so these were changed as well.

One thing I had noted from driving Ruby was a serious clunk from the rear end whenever trying to reverse, the same clunk appeared when returning to forward gears and all was peaceful until the next reversing manoeuvre.  What I found when stripping the axle was there was a "huge" amount of backlash on the pinion.  This was very difficult to remedy and I found myself going round in circles. However after much soul searching and a flash of inspiration at 2:30 one morning, I tried blueing the adjuster ring faces to see where premature contact was being made.  I found that outer ring of the bearing on the carrier side was coming into full contact with adjuster ring, preventing the CW fully engaging with the pinion, even though there seemed no way the adjuster ring could be moved further out. However after further examination and gentle persuasion the adjuster ring finally agreed to move further out and the backlash has now been reduced to acceptable levels.

The original Kirby halfshafts were not the cut and paste jobs that were highlighted in the previous posts but the dimensions of the tapers and screw thread lengths etc were somewhat different from the new ones.
  
An additional benefit in stripping the rear end down the rear end is that, related to another previous post I'd made questioning “Just How good should my Ruby brakes be..” I found that the rear brakes have only been working on the outer edges of the linings and so only about 20% max contact between drum and lining.  The reason for this was simple, I did not appreciate the importance of the little metal tags on the Semi Girling brakes and so as a recent post noted that the springs are very tight and when fitted, the shoes sat over at an angle. Naively, I had assumed that once the drums were in place the shoes would self align themselves to the drums, not so! The brakes shoes stayed exactly as installed and so ran with only an outer edge contact.  In addition the linings had begun to break up along the outer edge at the rivets, this may have been a touch of over enthusiastic wellie when fitting the linings or just the bad set up.

So with some serious lessons learned, new brake shoes, adjusted clips and brake shoes sitting square, all new seals and shafts, the rear end is now all back together and ready for a new fill of oil and hopefully a roll out of the garage in the morning.

Hopefully the efficiency of the brakes will improve, but I will be checking the fronts first .......
 
Cheers Denis S

[Henry Harris]

Fun and games today with new felts in the axle casings. There must be a way of fitting the spring clips without having to make a special tool!

[Tony Press]

 "I found that outer ring of the bearing on the carrier side was coming into full contact with adjuster ring, preventing the CW fully engaging with the pinion"

I was going to point out that the original carrier bearings were the Austin narrow  outer ring specials but of course here it makes no difference !

[Bob Culver]

Hi Denis

I would be surprised if any degree of backlash would give rise to knocking; gross errors more likely to chip the ends of teeth. Presumably you have obtained a reasonable mesh pattern despite the past.

[Denis Sweeney]

Bob, I had read up Woodrow, the A7 Companion and a paper on Ruby rear axle rebuild from Essex A7 club and it was there it was noted that a “clonking noise” would be apparent if there was too much backlash, hence my comment, apologies if that is a misinterpretation.
The condition of the CW&P is good with no sign of any damage. I managed to get a reasonable pattern which I believe is very similar to that described by Jack French. I employed the assistance of my good wife to look and tell me, independently, if the pattern on my CW looked like the JF picture and she said yes, so I think it is close.
What I did find is that I mixed a bright yellow acrylic paint with a little oil and this gave a much better definition than the usual blue, though it was more difficult to clean off.
As for making a special tool to insert the seal retaining spring, I had a tool that I had made for folding edges of sheet steel when repairing the bodywork and it is a 12” long 1/2” round bar with a cut in one end made with two saw blades fitted into a hacksaw. Then one side adjacent to the cut in the end is filed away at 45 degrees.
Having seen one of the springs fly off into a far place in the garage whilst trying to fit it and then spending the next three hours trying to find it, I saw this tool on the bench an thought this might work, it did, I found they went in very easily. So a few moments making something similar is well worth while.
I used the modern lip seals to replace the felts fitted previously, and you dispense with the original steal cups and the seal sits into the casing, this did not work at first and after discussion with the supplier I rounded off the edges of the recess in the casing with needle file and then very carefully used the needle file to remove a very thin layer of the rubber round the outer edge of the seal and then with a touch of grease these did make a tight fit into the recess.
Cheers

[Steve Jones]

In terms of steepness, I think the top of Old Wyche in Malvern might rival it, but that is only a short stretch of road in comparison.   Being the UK, all traffic is now prohibited from Old Wyche but a few years ago the Light Car Section of the VSCC got permission to use it for a demonstration (or as Fred Dybnah would have said 'a demonsteration')  run by cyclecars and three wheeler Morgans (assisted by the Morgan Factory in Malvern).  I was one of the marshals at the top of the hill, equipped with a long length of rope to put across the back of any cars that failed to climb the hill, all very 1920's.   It was a red hot day and the pub at the top of the hill, where it joins the main road at an impossibly steep gradient, was crowded with well lubricated spectators.   A young policeman had been sent  to oversee the junction.
What he didn't realise was that some of the 3-wheeler Morgans were racing machines which are very highly geared.  They could only get up the very steep gradient by approaching it at high speed.   A magical afternoon that will long remain in my memory.   The marginally legal motor events are generally the best!

A photo showing Malcolm and his fellow marshals at the top of the hill with their rope remains for posterity on the front cover of the 2000 edition of the VSCC's 'List of Members And Their Cars'. I'll scan it later and add it here. 

Steve

And here he is. Second white hat from the left, chap with his sleeves rolled up.

   

Steve

[Reckless Rat]

The sign at the bottom of the chemin de Saint-Julien claims it to be a gradient of 33%, whatever that is in imperialspeak - probably 1 in 3. All I know is that it was steep enough for the car to experience a bit of wheelspin on a couple of occasions despite a very rough concrete surface. Might have been debris related but it only happened on the two very tight bends so possibly also axle deflection.

Glad to have done it though. Probably a unique A7 experience for France at least, unless someone else knows different? Have any of the NZ branch had a go at the number one? It looks awesome. Looks nearly as steep as the south bay cliff tram up to the Grand Hotel in Scarborough!

[Duncan Grimmond]

"Looks nearly as steep as the south bay cliff tram up to the Grand Hotel in Scarborough!"
I'll vouch for the gradient there, positively vertiginous!
The Invergaregig(spelling?) corkscrew is a fair old one too

[Chris Garner]

I used to use the Scarborough cliff tram a lot when, as a student, I worked as a kitchen porter at the Grand Hotel around 1960. Great job - all the food you could eat and a selection of waitresses.
Does anyone from that part remember the Silver Grid bar- our drinking haunt?