charlie_pank

2002 620 Monster ie. Thanks for the info. I think it might be the air temp sensor playing up. As it seems to have a tickover that varies between 700 and 2000 rpm depending on the ambient temperature and the temp in the area immediately surrounding the engine (ie I think that the air temp sensor is too close to the fins of the air-cooled engine). If there was a workshop manual available it would be an easy job to take it off, clean it up, test it and refit or relocate it.

I had one of those Motorolla ones (it's an EU3) and the plug is not directly compatible with the Emerald. In order to link an Emerald up to it you have to either wire in a new plug to the loom or get hold of a plug and make an adaptor (which I did). IMHO - having had some ECU problems myself, I think it will be extremely difficult to diagnose this fault without attaching a PC and looking at all the readings the ECU is seeing, it was (partly) for this reason that I chose to bin the old ECU and get an Emerald. If you don't want the expense of doing this (and I don't blame you) then you are really at the mercy of Caterham/Rover to have a look at it for you and run the ECU diagnostics... (good luck, I got really fed up with the Rover garage at the end of my road making a big song and dance about it not being a Rover, so them not being able to do anything with it.)

Angus&Tessa's problem was that the signal from the HT lead was interfering with the crank sensor signal. It's unlikely to be this on an EU3 as the HT leads are tucked away with the coils under the cam cover cover (!). That having been said it does sound very electrical in nature. If it is a problem with the tacho (which reads a signal from the ECU so it knows when the plugs are firing), perhaps you could try driving without it plugged in. If this doesn't give any joy, perhaps see if you can borrow an Emerald - this will be more tricky for you as you need an adaptor to plug the Emerald into the loom (if you are in or anywhere near Edinburgh, I have one you can borrow )

[suspicious look]What do you want to use that for?[/suspicious look]

Cagey, I would advise strongly against 'Can leave it in the boot and not be too concerned if it gets stolen.... '. You're leaving the would-be-car-thief everything he needs to start your immobilised pride and joy and drive away in it.

Put it back on again? 😬 Probably need to use some silicone to re-seal. 2 min job

I've posted this query on some bike forums, but haven't met any satisfactory responses. So I thought I'd try the intelligencia of BC. It's a very simple problem, I just want to know where to start looking for the cause... basically I have a desmodromic V-twin engined FI bike which is backfiring into the airbox sometimes when the engine is up to temp. when I blip the throttle for downshifts and moving away from stationary. It's not causing any other problems but is rather annoying and I would like to get the engine running properly again. I'm pretty sure it's only 1 cylinder that's acting up, my thoughts on what it could be are: 1. Dodgy mixture in 1 cylinder - possible causes: - TPS needs adjusting - Throttle bodies need balancing - One of the ECU sensors misbehaving - Sticky injector 2. Dodgy inlet valve clearance in 1 cylinder 3. I think that although 1 cylinder is right out in the airstream, and the other is tucked away between my legs, they both use exactly the same map, which, therefore must be an approximation. Could the backfire here just be the result of one cylinder being much cooler than the other? Any suggestions about what could be causing this problem, and/or how to test out these hypotheses is much appreciated... Edited by - charlie_pank on 27 Aug 2004 13:01:47

Bikes generally don't have fuel gauges, but you're (presumably) not using the bike's fuel tank in your installation so it depends on what kind of fuel tank you've got, but I see no reason why it should be any different to the one on any other 7, in which case you must have some kind of blanking plate over where the sensor should be anyway. BTW, you might be better off with the bike system of "Prim" and "Res" on the fuel tap compared with the 7 fuel gauge , which I find overreads in the 1st half of the scale and underreads in the 2nd, and doesn't correctly register until you switch the engine off and back on again.

Or you bike tyre :(

I love my 21s, might be tempted to try some 48s at some point though.

I always loosen the reservoir cap, or remove it all together whilst bleeding. If you're creating a vacuum in the reservoir as you push fluid down the lines then surely it will suck air in through the bleed nipples as soon as you stop pushing on the brake. On the second round of bleeding do you still find bubbles and manky fluid coming out of the brake lines? If so I suggest you retry the whole operation with the lid off the reservoir - I also suggest you get a replacement cap for it. HTH

Wire wool or some fine wet & dry

Umm, surely you mean the torque peak, it must make higher power at higher revs by definition (right?) Lights touchpaper, dons tin hat and dives back into dugout...

Clutch drama's what? 😬 Ummm to be honest it doesn't sound good. If you give it a good check over and can't see anything loose on the outside, then it's an engine-out job I'm afraid. Edited by - charlie_pank on 10 Aug 2004 14:17:53

Jase, I've done this both on the 7 and the Pug, it's an easy job. Have a look in the FAQ section to get the instructions - probably going to be slightly different for a Zetec, but it will give you the gist of what you need to know.

On my one of these, you put 2 pop fastners on the underside of the screen, they pop-fasten the screen to the 2 on centre of the scuttle. Seems to work fine.

Cheers Jase, I think I'd like to have a bash at it myself...

Steve, in order to avoid continuing the hi-jack I've started the new thread now corrected link here Charlie'n'Kermit The plan is: There is no plan S5EVN Edited by - charlie_pank on 9 Aug 2004 21:46:54

I think that the synchro's going in 3rd because if I do a quick redline in 2nd -> 3rd upshift then I get a nasty crunch. If I change it slowly: 2nd --> --> 3rd then it's fine. I guess ultimately I would hardly gain anything even if the synchro did its job and I could just do a quick shift, so maybe I just need to drive with more mechanical sympathy (I do try to anyway). Charlie'n'Kermit The plan is: There is no plan S5EVN

Duncan, you can get composite ones from Caterham Cars. The one I got from them is a direct swap for the windscreen, they can be switched back and forth in about 15 mins. The aerodynamic difference is very noticeable, but beware of stones and big bugs! C

Insatiable curiosity! Don't worry it wasn't a loaded question. Kermit is still well and happy here in Sunny Scotland. He had a good 150 mile run this weekend around the twisties of Fife, although at some point in the not too distant future he will need a new synchro ring for 3rd... BTW how pointless that SVA now insists on the handbrake being on the tunnel. I've never used mine except when needing to lock the wheels for working on the car. Any piccys of your latest baby Steve?

I would worry about buying a car from an owner who clearly knows so little about it. Perhaps it might be possible to enlist the help of a fellow Blatchatter to go along with you and have a good look at it. Perhaps it might also be worth doing an HPI and posting some more of the details on here to check that it is legit? BTW (and sorry for the hijack) does one now need a tunnel-mounted handbrake for SVA?

Wow Gary, that must be the first twin engined Caterham!

Steve, this souds like it might be a problem with one of the sensors feeding the ECU. You can check this by disconnecting any one of them (I disconnected the lambda probe to test this) which will put the car in "get you home mode" if it then runs fine, it's likely to be the fact that one of your sensor connections is dodgy or you need a new one. If you want to find out which one, you'll need to employ a lot of trial and error, or borrow an emerald so you can see all the outputs... (that might be a good idea anyway if there's one near to you, that way you can diagnose the problem PDQ regardless of whether it's a sensor or not). If you plug in an emerald and all the readings are normal, then I suspect you have a problem in the ECU itself...

Martin, I'm not sure what you mean about red rubber boots, however, I did manage to get hold of 2 spare coil packs, by going to a breakers. (I asked Rover and they put my name down in a big book, but I never heard back from them). If you really can't find them at a breakers, give me a shout and I'll think about selling you my spares (I don't want to though, cos then I won't have any for me!)