A rush of blood to the head led me to dismantle more bits of my Dec 31st 1936 Opal than was necessary. Months later I'm now trying to reassemble the brake cross shaft and have forgotten what it was like when I dismantled it. After 4 days of scrawming around on a cold concrete floor I'm not a lot nearer getting it all together again. The problem is that when you adjust one clearance between felt seal and bearing housing you immediately unadjust another clearance. And to put felt seals in or take them out you have to take the whole bl**dy shebang to bits. I am getting better at that bit as I've done it so many times! But getting it all together so that everything is tight and the circlips fit correctly in their grooves is a nightmare.
The clearances at the footbrake end of the shaft are also a problem. The brake rod and the rear brake lever seem destined to interfere with each other, leading me to wonder if I've got the correct lever on each side.
Can any of you help a chap in distress. A photo or an idiots guide would help enormously and it would be even better if I knew the correct thicknesses for the felts - I can't believe Austin had as many different thicknesses as I've finished up with. Also, have I got the correct lever on the footbrake side? It's the curved one and the only way it seems to fit is with the curve heading towards the back axle.
Your combined wisdom would be much appreciated!

Location: Stuck under the car!

Try searching under 'brake cross shaft' - a few pictures shown there may help.

Cheers, Tony.

Location: Melbourne. Victoria, Australia.

On my tourer the lever (curved backwards) and the forked cable connector interfere with the wing nut on the brake rod, you have to lift the connector to turn the nut.
It doesn't look right, but I am sure it came off that way.

Sorry, cannot help with all the other bits.

I am not used to 4 wheel brakes, one set up tip that has helped is to leave the cotter out in the middle so you have the handbrake working the fronts and the footbrake working the rears. You have a better "feel" for the way the system is working, then, before connecting all four together again.

Don't know if that applies to the Ruby set up.

Simon

Location: On a hill in Wiltshire

Does this help you?



From Simon's pages and the Companion originally by the looks of it.

have a look at
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/austin7/?p=1038
Should help and has pictures too and by the sound of it had a similar experience to you!

Steve V.

Location: Polegate, East Sussex, United Kingdom

Hi Chris,

You asked about felts. I've done a few of these shafts and couldn't find bespoke felts (or bearings). I did find that other standard A7 felts could be adapted. I think the bigger ones take a hub seal with the OD cut down, I can't remember about the others but did adapt others (maybe the camshaft front seal?) with a bit of trimming, stretching and thickness halfing?

One of them started as a pile of bits so was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. The picture above helped a lot. Cotter direction is fairly obvious if you look for the machined land to indicate which side the nut fits, we used standard brake cam cotters.

I made new bearings from brass shim wrapped inside the housings and brazed up the centre 1/4" thick bearing filing out to make a bearing. Assemble with the felts well absorbed with water resistant grease. If there's any residual gaps on the seals wrap them with greased string like a fishing reel. It's very messy but preserving!

I can't remember how it went together or was adjusted but may be different to yourself as the housings were removed from the chassis and we bolted them back as part of re-assembly.

Hope of use Dave

I make the bearings from Zinc sheet, it is easy to work and readily available from roofing companies. The advantage over brass is that it self lubricates to a point and probably why Austin used it originally, realising that many owners would never lubricate the assembly.

Location: NZ

Dear Ruairidh, Simon, Dave et al, Thanks for the sundry comments. Glad I seem to have the offside brake lever pointing in the right direction! I find the drawing out of the green book rather confusing since it misses out the major levers and seems to have too many bits of felt packing on the right hand side.
I think I've just about got it all together now but have had to organise felt in various thicknesses to achieve this. Once the felts are sorted it doesn't take too long to put it all together and I've had plenty of practice at that. The main problem has been working under the car - even with my highest stands I'm reastricted for space and have to sit down quietly every time I emerge to let my circulation re-establish itself. I could do with one of the low cost garage lifts.

Location: Sheffield