Welcome to the Austin Seven Friends web site and forum
As announced earlier, this forum with it's respective web address will go offline within the next days!
Please follow the link to our new forum
http://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/forum
and make sure, you readjust your link button to the new address!
The rotor arms mention can join the 'Halfshaft Nuts' and 'Brake Cam Shafts' on the NEW Faulty Manufactered listings on the A7CA web site (www.a7ca.org). The listing is clearly highlighted on the Home page, so you cannot miss it.
Don't forget if you belong to a A7 Club, then you are also part of the Association, it's there for you, by you.
Naomi 
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Aunty,
Far-be-it from me to contraduct my elders, but is this strictly true?
"Don't forget if you belong to an A7 Club, then you are also part of the Association" you said.
I pay an additional premium to my Austin Seven club for membership of the Association. Or is this grey (or maybe buff 
) magazine subscription perhaps?
Never-the-less a good magazine, a good Association, and yours is a good idea.
Mike 
OK Mike I accept the individual person is not a member of the Assoc. but without the input from the individuals, especially for the Grey Mag, there would not be an effective Association. Oh and just reading my previous input, I do indicate "... if your a member of a Club, then your a member ..." etc etc.
I see looking through the Associations Register, some of the cars are ascribed to the Association, does that mean some clubs as opposed to individuals own cars?
In recent correspondance with Sandy, he tells me there are over a 100 (listed as Club 25), all of which are from the Year 2000 Register, but they have not appeared on any recent Club listing, to allow him to alter the Club.
Aunty Naomi......
Time for a rest now.
The Association Web site is being used to collate concerns with 'spares' that don't fit.
There may not be a problem, in that all Austin Seven owners expect to have to fettle spares to get them to fit, but on the other hand the number of conversations that seem to abound about spares not fitting I would have expected more response to the web site survey.
In the event of there being little information submitted then the survey will close with the conclusion that all is well.
It is in your hands !
Malcolm
I think its a bit of a tricky subject really.
From my own experience I have fettled nearly everything I have fitted to the Colander. But remember I am fairly young and all my previous experience was with modern parts for modern cars that are built to modern quality control standards/tolerances etc. Of course modern parts in general just bolt straight on, how many modern kwik fit mechanics have to use a file or a reamer?
The clue may lie in reading some of the older books on mechanical repair techniques and speaking to older mechanics, I think perhaps that back in the Austin Sevens day maybe it was more accepted that you had to actually fit parts as opposed to bolt on?
Of course to complicate matters there is the issue of mass production which theoretically should negate the need to "fit" parts. Measurement techniques and limits and tolerances were well advanced by the time of the Austin Seven,bearing in mind the pace of aircraft development in the early 20th C. "standardisation" allowed for the manufacture of parts in "batches" that could be inspected and catagorised before fitting to the final assembly, so parts nade to "spec" should fit.
It would be interesting to see what drawings the A7CA have i.e Stanley Edges notebook etc to see what kind of tolerances are published on them?
The other issue I have come accross is the substitution of an older spec part (a bush for instance) with a modern mass produced part that is nearly the right size. In my experience when this has occured the supplier has been kind enough to tell me and advise on the correct way to fit the said part.
a bit of a minefield I think!!!
Steve
Hi Steve,
When suppliers supply a part which is close but not a perfect fit ( i.e. Oilite bushes ) the advice that they give is not necessarily the correct advice. I have been advised to ream an oilite bush to the size required. This can damage the structure of the bush, which consists of granules of bearing material loosely bonded leaving gaps between them to hold the oil. When you ream the bush you deform the spaces on the working surface of the bush which minimises the lubrication just where you need it. The bush can be machined in a lathe with a very sharp tool but even that is not perfect.
Malcolm
Just fitted a new dynamo bush, advised to soak in oil overnight, which I did. Of course I then found it to be too small so reamed it to fit then cleaned and soaked again BUT I wasnt happy that there was no oil hole in it, so I drilled one in line with the lubrication hole in the housing. I intend to oil it now and again, but will have to be carefull about too much oil on the brushes. Maybe cutting some grooves on the inner circumference would allow oil to flow around and negate the loss of oil retention caused by reaming?
At the end of the day I'm just glad to have finaly got one of the things to charge!!!!
Steve
Steve,
If the oilite bush is the correct one then there is no need for an oil hole as the lubricant should gradually filter down through the bush keeping up the lubrication. You have to be careful with lubrication of this bush as too much oil works its way onto the commutator and your charging dynamo will stop charging.
Looking forward to seeing the beast on the road, soon ?
