Having had so many helpful suggestions re. the damaged cap recess on one of my king pins, I thought people might like to know how I sorted it out.

Not having either a scaper or end mill, but wanting to get on, I opted for a rather risky strategy that I think has worked. I had a large drill bit with a diameter slightly less than the core plug, and I ground down the tip until it was nearly flat but just had a little lead on it. I put the old top bush back in, slightly lower than its proper position, and with the old king pin in the chuck of my pillar drill, I lined up the stub axle and clamped it tightly to the drill table. I replaced the king pin with my re-ground drill bit and with the drill on its slowest speed and the depth stop set, I made the initial cut. I then took the drill bit out again, ground off the lead and then very slightly undercut it so that the cutting tips were the lowest points (the mark in the photograph looks as if I blued it during grinding, but I didn't! - its a slight change of angle):

With the reground bit back in the drill, I reset the depth stop to cut fractionally deeper and continued until I just reached the bottom of the original recess:






As you can see, not perfect, but the core plug now pushes in with a slight tap. Once re-assembled, I'll try one of the ideas already suggested for keeping the cap in place whilst greasing, or even Araldite as suggested in the Woodrow manual.

John,

Proud of you!

That sort of inovative engineering is what makes Austin Seven folk the way they are.

Incidentally, if the blanking plugs which you have are of the core plug variety, ie slightly domed, then a sharp blow with a ball pein hammer should spread them enough to hold them in.

Mike