When I got my RP there were two things that I did not like about the steering. One was the propensity for the car to be deflected by anything it hit and the other was a general stiffness.

The first was easy to sort and is now long forgotten. Reduce the tyre pressures to 22psi ish (Avons). I don't know who told me 28-30psi but they are forgiven.

For the second I dutifully filled the box with 140. This had the desired effect but naturally most of it found its way onto the garage floor. Following a traditional approach I then mixed up some tasty groil and pumped this into the box. Excellent, box smooth from lock to lock.

At the beginning of this year I decided to give it a few more squirts as part of a post Christmas service.

Climbing out of the car yesterday I found my knees smeared with old black grease.

There is a moral in this somewhere, I knew it could happen but obviously I never expected it to happen to me.

Regarding hearing aids, I have been given a new one by the NHS. I am so pleased with it that I wore it while driving the car yesterday. My advice? Just don't.

Michael, as you have discovered, putting too much oil (or grease) into the steering box means that it migrates up the steering column and comes out under the steering wheel and thence onto ones knees!
This is called one of the joys of Austin Seven ownership!
It would be nice if there was an easy way of removing excess oil.
Brian

Location: Near M1 Jtn 28

Michael, Join the club you me and others have found this out the hard way. I find treating the area of stained trousers with neat petrol and kitchen roll followed by a good application of Vanish stain removing powder rubbed into the stained area then a wash in the washing machine. Gets them as good as new. It also gets HWMB obeyed off your back.

John Mason.

Location: Nottinghamshire

I have to spend a little time under the car in the near future and I find it hard to get overalls that do not cause my voice to rise to a falsetto.

The aforementioned trousers are now properly prepared for such activity prior to 'upcycling' into rags for the annual polish.

Michael, your remark about hearing aids appears to have fallen on stoney ground.

So I will explain.

Before I got my hearing aids, my RM convertible had probably the smoothest, quietist engine ever. However after fitting the hearing aids, my car developed the most awfull noises. I still don't understand how a tiny thing like a hearing can cause noisy pistons, noisy bigends and a noisy gearbox all at the same time!

Location: Bonnie Galloway

Dave, I think you have a case of amplified finding and hearing imaginary fault syndrome. Most of us have the ordinary finding or hearing fault syndrome but for people who unfortunately have hearing aids this becomes an acute case.

John Mason

Location: Nottinghamshire

Which all leads back to the need to wire a beeper into any flashing indicator setup!

In the days before I had the Austin:

Me: "How do I fix the rattles in my Bantam (motorbike) engine?"

Expert bloke: "Get a tighter fitting crash helmet"


Simon

Location: On a hill in Wiltshire

I have found a way to reduce the noise on my RN , I now wear one hearing aid when driving it rather than two.