rkeywood

Great way to travel! We toured Eire quite a while back and stayed in some wonderful off the beaten track places. We use an OverBoard 60 litre roll top dry duffle bag which goes in the boot neatly for the camping gear. That takes a Vaude Terraquattro 3P, Thermarest NeoAir Xlite mats and Trekker chairs, down bags (RAB Ascent 500) and a small cooking set for porridge and coffee kickstart to the day - MSR Dragonfly, cheap 2 pan and & kettle set, Handpresso Espresso maker (best bit of camping kit I’ve bought!). Then it’s a couple of OverBoard 20 litre dry tubes for clothes etc.

Something like 150 front and 75 rear would be a decent starting point if just road use. Generally you can go stiffer on the fronts but I've found you need to keep the rear soft to avoid losing traction and ride quality. I run 265lb front and 90lb rear on my track biased LA car but it's OK on the road. The additional top link on the front suspension really needs to be fitted, if not already fitted, with stiffer fronts. What dampers do you have? If adjustable Bilsteins then refurbing them is an option. I'd go for Protech's if changing. Rob

Hi Ital is GHS 184 - GHS 111 is Marina (-78?) Ital pinion seal is DAM 5079

I run 265lb front and 90lb rear on a track biased car but it's OK on the road. Generally you can increase the fronts a lot but less so on the rear without losing traction, it really depends what you're looking for and how far you want to go. The older Caterham springs (as yours I think) are too soft and the original dampers were awful. The springs were, I think, stiffer on the replacement (Bilstien?) dampers and the rear springs progressive rate. Something like 125 to 150 front and 75 rear might be a decent starting point if you just want to firm it up a bit for the road. A change in springs probably needs to go hand in hand with a look at the dampers, unless already running later ones. Also the additional top link on the front suspension really needs adding, if not already fitted, with stiffer fronts. Worth having a chat with Matt at ProComp Motorsport, either just about springs or spring/damper options. Whilst they mainly do track work they're a real help on live axle road cars.

Check the neck size/thread and try Merlin Motorsport. They do knurled spares for their tanks which might just be the same

Looks like a 105E mount - see if this is it and the dim's match up

As you say, looks like a 7T. Here’s the speedo drive list for the 3 & 4 rail Ford boxes with 13” wheels if it helps in any way. What diff and wheels/tyres are you using?

IIRC they were Gates hoses at one point. Might be worth contacting them - the contact form on their website usually gets a quick response. TBH as the Redline hoses are only around £25 it’s best just to get one them. The Caterham red silicone hoses at about £40 are good and not that expensive. The black and blue are more for some odd reason.

Glad that’s helped identify the issue. You should be able to get a new one - try the classic ford (escort, capri etc) specialists and gearbox rebuilders. AFAIK the type 9 and earlier boxes use the same drive so more options when you Google. There’s a German guy on Ebay selling metal shaft remakes - I’ve no experience but worth a punt.

The instructions I had when I got mine (1991?) were to cut a 1" hole. Working off the bracket and mounting holes in the chassis you can mark the centre of the bit that comes through the skin on the inside, drill a pilot from the inside, then use a conduit box cutter for the hole from the outside. You can also flip the brackets L to R, temporarily bolt them in facing inwards and use them as a guide for the hole position and a final check before drilling

I'll pop mine in the post mine for you to try. The shaft measures 0.311". I've an old paper with the oil seal dims listed as 5/16" X 0.635" X 0.27".

I can't recall any of the Type E box drives being brown so could be a Type 9 which, I think, are interchangeable. Needs a tooth count on both the gear and pinion to see where you are with your diff / tyre combination. The original Caterham selections for the Ital diffs above assume a 7 tooth pinion and 13" 185/70 tyres The spare I have is a 25T and happy for you to borrow it to check the oil seal - message me with your address if you want to do that. Here's the original Ford schedule for the various drive combinations if it helps

I've not had a problem with the Burton supplied oil seals but the speedo drive gear can be a problem. Is yours the original plastic one? If it needs replacing they can be hard to find new or secondhand. Steel ones used to be available from Burton (and others) but don't think they are any longer. I think I've a spare original type but not sure many teeth it has. What's yours? The regular Ital axle/diff drive gears are: 3.64 22T original Ford pt no 1546878 White 3.89 24T 6011062 Green 4.11 25T 1546879 Blue I think there's a 23T (Black?) as well which is used with one of the Ford diffs. The pinion gear can also be changed (6, 7 or 8 tooth) so you can get some odd combinations where people have juggled with the gears to an accurate reading with different diff and tyre combinations.

This might help: VTA info.pdf Rob Morley at Protune Racing is the go to for VTA info - he was, I think, the main engine man at Vegantune

Try speaking with PowerTrack. Robert