Toby S

Anyone tried Permatex Copper silcone gasket - Never tried it myself, but have heard good reports at high temperature joins

Tried that - forward down, forward up, back and up - just about everyway but loose - just too little clearance - mines a 1992 imperial chassis so not sure if clearances got better when they went metric

Tried that - forward down, forward up, back and up - just about everyway but loose - just too little clearance - mines a 1992 imperial chassis so not sure if clearances got better when they went metric

Well that's 3 hours of my life I'm never going to get back - and I still need to wait for a new exhaust manifold gasket to arrive from Rimmer Bros to put the exhaust primaries back on 15 mins to get the alternator off - easy 30 mins trying every possible way to get the b****** out of the engine bay with no success About an hour disassembling the exhaust system to get the primaries off - hmm I seemed to have done too good a job sealing the joints a year or so ago when I put it on 30 mins putting the new alternator on - could have done with a pet octopus to help with the tensioner 40 mins cleaning the primaries and all exhaust joints ready to put back on 20 mins on internet looking for a new manifold gasket and permaflex 1 hour down the pub recovering from the ordeal !!! FFS who designed this thing - must have been having a good chuckle at me this afternoon during steps 2 and 3 !!

#6 Andrew my local primary school is looking for a new school bell to call the kids in from playtime if you're free*rofl*

Agreed Roger Mind you with my 1400 Supersport, I think 30-70 in top you may be looking at a timing in minutes rather than seconds !! In 2nd though - Wow

I must admit 0- 60 times for a Caterham is increasingly irrelevant with electric motors and traction control, and computers effectively driving the car for you. What may have been f**ing quick in its day, is now just semi-quick, (hell some SUV's can do 0-60 in around 5 seconds) and probably in 5 years time when electric motors seriously takes over will be deemed just normal family car acceleration. The whole point of a Caterham and other old time marques is you've achieved the performance, handling and quickness through a certain element of your own skill (as well as the underlying capability of somewhat dated mechanics), and somehow avoided during the whole process getting the car pointing backwards. and ending up in a hedge.

Mines the same as Wrightpaynes's - brass and so is the thread its screwing into - would make sense to be the same material so it has the same expansion properties when it gets hot - I wonder whether that;'s why yours was such a sod to get out. I've also got a a fibre washer as well like SMT25 Mine looks like the link below, although I'm pretty sure last time I had it off, my thread went to the top https://caterhamparts.co.uk/radiators/1800-bleed-screw-brass-radiator.html?search_query=radiator+bleed&results=72 Washer I would guess its this (no image to check against https://caterhamparts.co.uk/fittings/3359-fibre-washer-for-radiator-bleed-plug.html When filling and bleeding I've always got the front of the car as high as possible (my drives on a slope so arse down the drive, chock the back wheels and then front as high as I can get it) and final fill at the radiator Expansion tank reservoir up to top, and then bleed first at heater elbow (I've no heater fitted), then at radiator and then on occasions, refill at radiator again and repeated the same process, effectively getting coolant level in expansion tank down to the required level through the bleeding process - problem I've found doing it any other way you can end up with an air lock at top of the radiator and then risk the fan switch being in the air lock and not kicking the fan in at the right point. No doubt others have other methods which equally work for them, but this is what I do. P.S. mine is a 92 1400 K series supersport, so don't know if its different on other models. I know when I was short of time once, just before the Taffia fish and chip run a few years ago, due to work pressure I had to let a local garage fit new hoses and bleed the system, and they used the standard vacuum pump professional system used on modern cars, and that made a right horlicks of it - fan kick in switch was in an airlock and the engine was running well hot circa 5 degrees above normal in all conditions - fortunately found a welsh farm track on a 1 in 2 or 3 slope and stuck the nose up there and did a roadside bleed good enough to finish the run and get home

Hi Alastair Sorry - previous post should have read Woods Auto not Woods Electrics Links beow - 55 Amp or 70 Amp ones - equiv of the Lucas A127 - both should fit (both same size) although the LH version of the 16070 is the one required (which they didn't have in stock) - both the same price within a few £'s anyway https://www.woodauto.com/product/ALT16068 https://www.woodauto.com/product/ALT16070 I went for the 16068 in the end - £75 inc VAT and next day delivery as the 55Amp RH (160870) would have had to have been fitted upside down which the bloke on the phone at Woods advised against - 70amp a bit OTT I know, but per the bloke at Woods shouldn't be a problem - better to go a bit over than a bit under - looks to be the same size as in terms of cm/inches as one currently on car - fitting it tomorrow and I'll update how I get on and also on performance.

Thanks all Sourced one from Woods Electrics in the end - £75 delivered and arrived within 24 hours - very knowledgeable bloke on the phone - and they have more choice of alternators than you could poke a stick - really wide choice of starter motors as well Worth a recommending

My alternator finally bit the dust on Sunday whilst on a blat out and the car just cut out (came home on the back of a low loader which gave the neighbours something to chuckle about). I was wondering whether anyone has any recommendations - I've looked through archive and most of the posts didn't cover I tried Redline, but he's completely out - he recommended Cambridge Motorsports although looking at their website couldn't see anything under £300 - 400. Looked at Rimmer bros and saw for following, which possibly may do were https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-YLE10057P Which is a 55Amp one for a 16V Metro 1400 and https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-YLE101520P Which is a 65 Amp one for 200/25ZT Must admit the first one looks more like what is currently on the car (cooling vane at front), albeit I can't see the rear of the alternator to check the connection - With ECU 2 cars there's one big thick wire with a connector on the end. Has anybody replaced theirs with either of the above or have any other recommendations

#3 amd #7 - isn't the black rod at the top of the picture running under the boot floor and passing just above the differential the ARB - if not what is it - something to do with the suspension and I've always assumed that was the ARB

Good idea Piers but not sure that would work - when I had my tank out last year it was a split tank where on the pump side there is an aluminium plate circa 5-6 inches to the left of the right hand tank edge running the full width (front to back) of the tank other than a recess hole in the bottom front of the plate (lowest part of the tank) and a few higher up - I guess this is it to stop fuel starvation on low fuel levels on high speed cornering/acceleration pushing the low amount of fuel away from the pump which is in the right hand front corner (ish). Almost looks light a mini reserve tank The gauge sender is in the bigger portion of the fuel tank (other side of the metal divide) - if something dropped in from fuel filler it guess it would likely to be in the smaller "reserve" tank - mind you if its anything like my car, logic never seems to work in finding anything, so the best conclusion would be the bloody thing could be anywhere !!

Is it an in tank fuel pump - k series - if so there is likely to be a fine gauze filter on the pump pick up (standard) any way which should stop anything going into the pump and fuel system ven if it tried sucking something through

Thumbs up from me for Mintex 1144 pads

Thanks guys - a few options to think about

Thanks 7WOTW Jonathan also sent me a PM and suggested the same - looks like just the job - should be an easy job to do before I put the the new wings on the car. Might also do the front ones, whilst I have the paint brush handy before they get any worse

I've just bought a second had pair of rear wings in great condition My old ones are in very poor state with star cracks all over the place, loads of splits, cracks and the gel coat on the outside (shiny side) cracked and lifting in a number of places. In the main the damage has occurred due to stones off the R888R's being thrown up and hitting the inside of the arch as opposed to debris hits on the outside (although I did have a pheasant strike recently - had the brooklands on so it could have been worse). I was wondering what people do to protect the inside of the wings. I've thought of:- Strengthening the wing with additional layers of fibre glass and epoxy on the inside Glueing layers of a cut down truck inner tube to the inside of the arch to give a rubber layer of padding (not sure which glue I'd use though) WaxOyling the inside.Was wondering if anyone had any recommendations, do and don'ts

Totally agree with you John and a good analogy "worry gauges" especially like you say the electrical oil pressure gauge - I've long since given up getting too excited on the actual reading per se, kerbing my interest to the movement being recorded between tick over and blipping the throttle - as long as that still showing a 2 - 2.5 bar differential I'm generally happy - as for the reading on tick over that can range between 1/2 a bar and 2 bar depending if its sulking or not. I know I really should replace it with a mechanical gauge sometime - perhaps I should also get the dual sort of gauge which show oil temp as well to give me something else to worry about

Hi Mrp That would be great - PM sent with e-mail address

PS - the 205 width tyres on 60 profile also fill the rear wheel arches better from a pure asthetics point of view

On my 1992 1400 Supersport I run 13x6 inch wheels with Toyo R88R's other than in winter - 185/60 on front but 205/60 on the rear - not only gives better overall balance but also gets the extra profile on the speedo wheels - 185/70 profile would be12.95cm, 205/60 is 12,3cm so still a bit of an over read but within reason (circa 5-7% against savnav speed - I know in winter when I'm running 185/60's all round, the over read is more significant when the profile drops to 11.1cm - serious over read of circa 15%+

Hi Are the rear wheel arches still for sale What condition are they in - any scrapes or cracks Whereabouts are you for collection - probably a bit bulky for courier - I'm in Worcester

Best way to test it is to find an empty straight piece of road - stop and then drop the clutch at about 5,000 revs - if you leave 11's on the tarmac, can't be too much wrong with it

I think, although haven't checked, its probably something to do with the lighting up laws in UK, whereby headlights only need to be used between 30mins after sunset - 30mins before sunrise - hence side lights being kept. Re parking lights, main side and headlights need to have the number plate light lit as well, but parking lights don't and also parking lights need only to be on on the O/S of the car, saving battery power. Mind you with a Caterham, I should imagine given the capacity of the battery, leaving parking or side lights on overnight, you'll probably find the battery as flat as a witches tit come morning