What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Malcolm Parker]

This morning I decided to give the engine of the RL saloon a quick check over following the Cumbria Run last week.   The car had performed well enough but occasionally there had been some minor fluffing which I suspected was down to the ignition.
On taking the distributor cap off the Lucas DK4A you would have thought it was a 'barn find' that had not run since 1963!  The points assembly was covered in rust, the cam was dry and rusty and the whole base plate covered in a dirty black layer of muck.   The condenser had rust and corrosion and the moving part of the points was stiff on the pivot post.   The points themselves were dull with white corrosion present.  The inside of the distributor cap was a similar sorry sight.
It would appear that I have not had the distributor cap off for some time!  The car has always started immediately and run well enough, I posted a couple of months ago that it out-performed the much lighter Pytchley saloon on my local test hill.   The weather on the last Cumbria Run in September 2021 was atrocious with the heaviest rain I have driven in for many years and flooded roads.   The Austin never missed a beat and ploughed through the flood water.   It would appear however that the distributor must have got very wet internally.  It is remarkable that the car continued to perform so well.
I removed the distributor, stripped it right down, cleaned everything and re-assembled it.  Fortunately the surface rust and corrosion came off with some light oil and a bit of elbow grease.  It was also a good excuse to examine the drive gear for wear.   I put the distributor back on the engine, having roughly judged TDC with the thumb over the plug hole method.  It started immediately and idled perfectly, the timing seems to be spot on.
This afternoons job is to adjust the tappets.