What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[David Stepney]

Following on from Charlie Carpenter’s post regarding a fractured piston, my own car recently developed a noise on acceleration that, at first, I thought was a blown manifold gasket. However, investigation ruled this out, and, to cut a long story short, I decided that it had to be a little end noise. Indeed, so it proved to be. When I dismantled the engine (leaving the crankcase in the frame as I am no longer strong enough to tug the engine out on my own) there was slight but discernible play in number 4 little end. Further dismantling revealed that the “phantom badger” had been at it again, the securing bolt having been fitted without aligning the budget pin correctly, damaging both the bolt and thread in the rod. 

I ordered a set of suitable pistons and, having been able to rescue the thread in the rod, I borrowed a bore honing tool from a friend and fitted the pistons together with new small end bolts. Imagine my dismay, having had the engine to bits and carefully reassembled it, when I first started it up, it sounded like a bag of spanners. However, having let it run on idle for about half an hour, without anything untoward happening, I ventured gingerly round Bala Lake, a distance of about 11 miles, during which the little car ran well given that it had just had new pistons and rings, and sounded a lot more contented. There is some tappet noise still, as I tend to prefer tappers looser rather than tight but the annoying small end noise has gone.I have to go to Wrexham tomorrow and I now feel confident enough to use the Seven for this trip and put a few more gentle miles on.

I have also paid especial attention to the sealing of the block to crankcase joint, and so far there is no sign of any leakage. Fingers crossed that it remains so!