Getting to know the car a bit more. Took off down the road & quite encouraging! HOWEVER! significant lack of power unless I pulled the strangler which had the desired effect of sucking more fuel in and got me up the incline, but did restrict the revs! To my mind this suggests that the main jet may not be operating properly (?) It was clear when I dismantled & cleaned the carb (22FZ) before I started to get the car running.
Also the quadrant on the head of the steering column that "contains" the A/R & Hand Throttle rotates on the column despite being clamped as far as it will go. Not helpful. This is even after replacing the M6 set screw & nut with an honest 1/4-20!
(I hadn't got an 1 1/4" long BSF which was probably the original!)How does the top of the column come apart? I can remove the horn button, but how do the levers & the "quadrant" come off? This would have to be done to take off the steering wheel of course. The spring loaded clamps that bear on the rim of the quadrant are freed off, as tightening them makes the quadrant rotate, obviously there is a trade off between their pressure on the rim & the clamp on the column.
One more query....The oil (treacle) in the three speed gearbox is 4.75" below the top of the box, is this enough? I will be changing it in due course. There does not appear to be a formal dipstick!
David

Location: Stratford upon Avon

You need to disconnect the horn wire and then remove the two levers at the bottom of the steering column before removing the top levers and tubes as a whole upwards from within the steering column.

The engine dipstick doubles as a gearbox dipstick, although it can look as though it will disappear completely into the filler hole it won't.

Thanks Ruairidh. Oily fingers tomorrow then. And I have only just remade the horn wire connection! Before I attempt to take it all apart I will give some thought as to how to make the pinch bolt work better; open up the gap & put a shim around the column perhaps?
I have seen several different illustrations of the quadrant...some show the levers operating "12 & 6 o'clock" others at "9 & 3" which I believe is more likely.

Location: Stratford upon Avon

Location: Near M1 Motorway Jtn 28

On an RK saloon the ign/gas tubes won't come out of the column because it hits the roof. When I fitted a new quadrant I had to unbolt the column and allow it to tip down so the tubes cleared the roof. A bit of a fiddle.

I was able to remove them on mine but it was very tight.

This may be irrelevant, when I owned an RK it needed 1st gear to ascend the moderate incline near my home. Once I had ditched the magneto and installed a coil conversion, it drove up the same hill in top gear effortlessly.

Roly

I was once told that Austin Sevens lose way/weigh on inclines invisible to the naked eye.

Location: Bristol

David,

The fix depends on whether the Control bracket (quadrant plate) is loose on the Control bracket tube or the tube is broken (as one of mine was).

If the bracket is loose the suppliers can offer a replacement - if the tube is broken then there is a more difficult solution which from memory has been discussed here before.

Regarding the gearbox oil which you call 'treacle' - in the UK it should be SAE 30 Engine Oil.

(In Melbourne I use SAE 90 Gear Oil= SAE 50 Engine Oil).

The recommendation is 2/3 of a pint.

Cheers, Tony.

Location: Melbourne Australia.

Oh dear ...I already have a coil as standard!!

Location: Stratford upon Avon

The same applies to my ZA Magnette where the self cancelling indicators don't, & you have to withdraw the stator tube into the car & the roof gets in the way to fix it. I have lived with non self cancelling indicators for many years & may feel the need to do the same with the quadrant on the RK! Experience tells me that this is the sort of job you do when new car enthusiasm is high, or else it becomes a "live with it" !

Location: Stratford upon Avon

Both levers now freed off nicely, quadrant still a bit loose, but not inhibiting anything!
Got it running better this afternoon. Not sure if it did anything, but I reversed the bob weights on the carb needle jet so that the really worn part no longer bears on the float (Can't remember where I saw this mentioned)and after that it would run at higher revs when not under load. Gradually things seemed better so I did an eight mile trip (wow!)and it went really pretty well. No need to use the strangler at all. I now have to re-learn how to play the advance & retard to get the best out of the "performance", but I saw a dizzy 35 on the (not too fluttery) speedo with more to come....but on 30+ year old rather dodgy tyres & a bit of frost on the road, that was more than enough.
I have added £5.30 worth of a pair of Hong Kong's finest 5 LED cycle rear lights....clipped onto a broom handle & the assembly strapped to the rear no plate frame. They claim to last 33 hours on two AA batteries and are really bright.
No more outings until the tyres are done.
Happy New Year to all
David

Location: Stratford upon Avon

Hi David,
Exciting stuff with lots more fun to come!

Steve V.

Location: Polegate, East Sussex, United Kingdom