Location: Derby

Hi Ruairidh,
As you well know I am new to A7s and I can agree with your comments, I find that some replies to what seems to a honest request for help finds a caustic response in return. Not everyone has lived with A7s for the last 50 years and it is very off putting to new A7 enthusiasts. I am a member of other vehicle forum sites that are much more friendly and tolerate the newbie with more sympathy.
Bottom line not everyone is a University Engineering Graduate who has spent the last 50 or 60 years playing with their A7s !!!

Location: Duns, Scottish Borders

Thank you all for the emails and your comments on here today - seems this is an issue to a good number of you.

Let's hope the great ideas and considered thoughts shared above are taken up by the few for the benefit of the many.

I feel differently.
The Austin seven community have always been very helpful to me. It is true that more could be documented.
So if I can be of help call, visit, or email me and I will do my best to help.
Please don't be grumpy.
There are a lot of share people out there.

Location: The centre of the universe

Hi Ruairidh,
I agree completely with what has been said on this subject.
One thing that might help would be to ask what experience the person has as this makes a big difference in how the reply is formulated (IE) it might help to explain why something is done in a certain way.
when you have been Engineering for a long time you have the Fundamentals fixed in your Head (Alzheimers permiting)Newbys don't.
I just think this is something we should all keep in Mind when Replying to Posts

Location: TINOPAI NZ

Hi Dave W

Your enquiry about mid 1930s cross shafts should be answered in the post "Brake Cross-shafts-Definitive Notes."
You will have to tolerate much by a contributor considered terminally boring by some who know it all (but seldom volunteer broad information for newbies).

Location: Auckland, NZ

Quote: Nick Turley
The Austin seven community have always been very helpful to me.
---------------
and me, sadly lack of knowledge prevents me from contributing more often.

The help often comes off forum.
Ruairidh was able to facilitate shipping of a cabin heater for my Ruby.
It's winter here in OZ, newly fitted, we are basking in comfort, may be a different story come the summer ! thanks Russell

Location: oz

I'm rather new to A7 - bought my first one in 2013. During the restoration of this car, the forum was a great source of knowledge. In addition, books like Woodrow are very helpful. In switzerland, where I'm from the number of A7 is quite low - therefore finding someone to talk about technical issues is difficult. In many cases, the forum was the only source I had.

Of course, some people tend to criticise and explain their point of view about everything but what you have asked. Maybee, thats a matter of time.

I'm happy that this forum exists.
Oliver

Location: Zürich

Steve V,
Thanks for the compliment.

Ruairidh brings up a good point, as we with long experience CAN and DO loose sight that WE where totally CLUELESS at one stage and had to start up that greasy pole of experience.

The reason I'm posting all the photos and videos of progress, is that with luck they will be of help to someone at some time in the future.

I'm new to Sevens, so everything I'm tackling is a leap in the dark so to speak as I'm CLUELESS with regards to 'ours'.

I have been lucky, however, in having a father who was a mechanical wizard, and have inherited some of his genes, but not enough of the wizard ones unfortunately.

The experience of working on my cars in the 60s/70s and then converting my 105E to go racing, and building my own engines, has proved invaluable.
The racing part taught me a lot about preparation and doing things right first time, something I must admit I sometimes fail miserably at.

Geoff - Lets not spoil the best reservoir of knowledge this forum is.

Location: South Norfolk - Next to Suffolk

Thanks everyone for your help. I remember reading it now you have pointed it out. R, I agree with your comments re grumpiness and it could be off-putting but this is a common occurence in all walks of life. Everything will be fine when someone invents an anti-grumpiness pill!

Location: Sheffield

One tricky thing I find with this forum is the search function is pretty rubbish!

Often I search using Google limited just for this forum. It a useful trick most people don't know. It also works for any site.

Enter your search in the Google search box as usual then include after it site:http://pub25.bravenet.com/forum

So, as an example, you would type:

tappets site:http://pub25.bravenet.com/forum

You will get returned results just from the forum but with a little snippet of the relevant text. That gave about 370 results for me for that tappets example. The first one is below.

Location: Wellington

I am new to A7s and must say I have given a very warm welcome and much help. I have found this forum to be a particularly rich source of information but you have to weigh up for yourself the best course of action having taken into account as much information and its source as possible. Its like all learning not all you read in books or find on the internet is 100% accurate! Over time you begin to learn who to rely upon and who although they may have things useful to say may not always get it right. Personalities also rub and a fair degree of tolerance is required to ensure a full diversity of views can be expressed. Of course you don't have to read it all.

When you buy an 80+ year old car with the sort of history an A7 may have had in the past you never quite know what you are getting until you come to take it apart and discover what has actually been done to the car in the past. In my case I had a rear axle made up of two mismatching axle casings, one kidney shaped giving extra brake shoe leverage and one round. No wonder I was struggling with the brakes.

I confess to being the friend that Dave Wortley mentions above and he is a fine example of a very helpful long standing A7 owner who contributes to this forum. I think I now understand how the concentric tube cross shafts work: the outer tube transfers the force exerted by the foot pedal lever to roughly the middle of the inner tube i.e. where it is fixed by the pin that passes through both tubes, this force is then transmitted to the outer ends of the inner tube such that the twist in the tube is equal at both ends and hence the rear brakes should be applied equally. This relies on the inner and outer tubes being free to twist about each other from the fixing pin outwards. If this is not so then you may as well not have concentric tubes.
The problem is when lying on your back under the car how can you exert enough force to verify that the two tubes are free to twist independently to work as designed. If all is as it should be then the advice often put forward to set the near side rear brake to come on first should be ignored.
If my understanding is wrong then please advise and I will not be grumpy.

I have now concluded that my braking problem was elsewhere and determined that the moon shaped front cable compensating lever was dragging on the cable and causing one of the front brakes to stick on if brakes had been applied on full lock. A chain saw file seems to have restored a free movement.

Sorry if I have wandered off topic but a relevant point I would make is that a newcomer may find it difficult to ask the right questions for fear of being accused of not having done enough initial research first. But maybe that is just me!

I also use google to search the forum as Simon does, works well.

Location: NE Peak Corner

Hi David. You should not have to fear asking even the most simple question on this forum for fear of the response. You will be in good company if there are things that you don't quite understand about our beloved cars even after many years of tinkering with them. There are also ways of doing things that if you don't ask first, can end in tears. This is a great forum for everyone and there is no place for unfriendly attitudes.

There is a saying that there is no such thing as a stupid question.

Location: Derby

Ray,
But there are a plethora of Stupid answers.

Location: Oakley , Hampshire

Location: Derby

Just restoring the original subject title to this thread which seems to have got changed by Ray's post.

Location: NE Peak Corner

So sorry - I don't know how that happened!

David,
Thank you for your kind words. You explained succinctly how the cross shaft works! I will reaquaint myself with the cross shaft on my special when I return from hols, even though it will mean crawling under the car.
Dave

Location: Sheffield

I use the Search facility regularly then Bookmark what I need from the results.
A wealth of information available 👏👍

JonE,
Looks as if I will have to have another go at either a website or spend time with getting to grips with Wordpress.
More videos and photos will be added, and I would very much wish for the contents to be easily viewed.

Geoff - Latest video added to my 'Rejuvination' thread.

Location: South Norfolk - Next to Suffolk