What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Hugh Barnes]

lovely!

[RupertW]

Finally took the car on a test run with the valves redone and the new electronic ignition, only for it to die after about 10 minutes of driving and leave me stranded with no spark in an absolute downpour. With nothing obviously wrong I resorted to calling for recovery only to be told it'd be several hours, so onto plan B which was to get a taxi back home to collect the old distributor which was fitted in the space of 5 minutes and allowed me to make it home under my own steam. I'll reserve judgement on the electronic ignition until I've had a proper look to make sure I've not done something stupid, but I think the key lesson here is to make sure to double check the spare distributor is actually in the car and not sitting on the bench!

[Howard Wright]

Hi Rupert

I think I just about understand a conventional distributor but the black box of electronic ignition is a bit beyond me.  I find part of the joy of the A7 is understanding what is happening.  I keep a spare set of points and rotor in the car.

Having said that I do use a diode instead of the cut out but I’ve spent a bit of time trying to understand it and have a spare for emergencies.

Cheers

Howard

[Duncan Grimmond]

DOM. Dirty old man (cf Harold as in Steptoe & Son)

[Tony Griffiths]

Daughter's wedding yesterday; second attempt due to lockdowns. The Ruby delivered bride successfully - an anxious moment for the Ruby on its first significant journey for many many months and now running quite well.

Wonderful - a picture to treasure!

[Tony Griffiths]

You pays your money and....so I thought I'd experiment.
1930 Chummuy: snap-in electronic conversion kit. Starts and runs perfectly and is the tickover 50 r.p.m.? It feels like it.
1934 Ruby: electronic distributor. Starts and runs perfectly and is the tickover 50 r.p.m.? It feels like it
1929 Chummy: snap-in electronic conversion kit. Ran for 50 miles then started coughing, backfiring and rough running - though it never stopped. Happily, I discovered the cause - the car hated the fact that this unit was new; it was clearly expecting that any modification would be in line with the previous owner's other ingenious ideas. The conversion should have been made from the remains of a 1920s crystal radio set, carefully aside in 1928, "just in case". Put the points back, one pull on the handle, and off we went.

[Reckless Rat]

RP ran as rough as a bear's posterior on the Lucas DK that was there when I acquired the car. Changed it for a Bosch 009 from Willie McKenzie about 15 years ago. Has never missed a beat since.

[Tony Griffiths]

Had fun with a windscreen wiper motor of the pull-and-spin type - the one on the car was not working so I sourced three more from eBay and give them to the redoubtable Dave Mann to rebuild. Two came back working, together with a box of useful bits. But, what of the motor already on the car? I’d decided not to bother taking that off until I had something to replace it with, so, off it came to reveal, inside, an almost mint-condition unit - but with the pull-knob seized on its shaft. With the careful use of a slim, vintage Stanley blade saw, a cut was made around the inner face of the knob and then, using two screwdrivers as levers, carefully prised off. But, would it respond to power? It did, really well and so, as it’s original to the car, it was put back and the repaired ones stored away for the great-grandchildren to fit….

[Ruairidh Dunford]

That is really good news Tony!

[Dave Mann]

  MT 7 wiper motor 001.jpg (Size: 189.96 KB / Downloads: 180) I love the simplicity of the pull & spin wiper motors.