Garth

MBB. I too struggled alot to get my diff in, difficult to tell from your photos if yours is worse than mine was. I did all that MartinH did, but also increased the size of the holes in the diff a very little with a dremmel but the thing that helped most was insetring a long bar into the bush that I was trying to knock the threaded end of the long bolt into and then flexing the bush to help line it up to the end of the tapered bolt before a whack with the hammer! Rattie had suggested this. Good luck. Garth atlast

Had my first reasonable drive this week *smile* . Couple of things need attention.. At motorway + speed there is a 'shake' in the steering wheel, I am on new 15" CR500 - came from CC all fitted and balanced! Seems like a balance issue to me so will get them to the local tyre shop and checked. Could it be anything else? Speedo also stopped working. 'jiggled' the wire coming out of the sessor on the rear wheel and this got it working again a couple of times, but now dead. Will check the sensor, but is there anything else I should be checking? Thanks Garth atlast

My owners handbook has the proceedure for this - check yours out! Garth atlast

Don - had the same problem on my recent 125 build and could not get hold off CCas it was the weekend! I used the basic torque value from the table in the manual for bolt sizes. atlast

My local spares shop sells the Comma ready mixed coolant cheaper than Halfords, so if you have one of those neaby check them out. Agree you need the bolts! What Caterham have you just bought? Where abouts in Surrey are you? Garth atlast

Jeff - I have sent you mail - I could send you the speedo input codes - you could then make sure yours is correct. When I did my IVA I had to change mine alot as I suspect they had a problem with there calibration equipment! On the way home it was over reading by about 20% compared to my sat nav! I just changed it back to the CC code and it is much closer to what my sat nav is telling me now! Garth atlast

Thanks for all your help chaps - after stripping, swapping pads, re-bleeding, time on some MOT rollers and plenty worring I could find nothing wrong, so can only assume that they were not bedded in well! Took for re-test today and tried as best as conditions would allow to follow 'Sigmamarks' advice! The brakes were alot better and went straight through! Now for the DVLA bit! Garth atlast

Peter, where is the light you are referring to? Garth atlast

Just insured new Roadsport with Richard Egger and they were the most competitive of the 3 insurers I spoke to and also efficient and helpful. they get the *thumbup* from me. No claim experience yet though! Hope I never have to! Garth atlast

Bought winding in tool and used it. Everything seems to be working fine. Booked in at the local test centre today to check the brakes on their rollers. Let us hope!.... atlast

Thanks for the responses - be interested to hear what readings you get on the oscilloscope jeffi and good luck with the speedo. When is your IVA? I will just keep an eye on the spike! atlast

You will need a working (and accurate) speedo for your IVA Our speed sensor is 1mm away from the 'disc' and it works fine. Sounds like there is a problem with the instrument. Try this..Switch the ignition off, then press the button and hold it down while you switch the ignition back on. Within a couple of seconds you should get a 6 digit number appearing which is the speedo input code. this will at least tell you if there is some life in the speedo unit! The illumination is a separate circuit? Good luck and let us know how you get on atlast

Thanks Paul - does it only do it at idle? I have not checked whether mine does it at higher revs- Will do so shortly atlast

At my Post build check (125 Roadsport - standard dash layout) I asked CC to look at my rev counter as it 'spikes' *eek*regularly. They told me this was normal! Cannot see why it should do this if everything is working properly?? atlast

About to swap the brake pads at rear - at least that will tell me whether or not it is an issue with the pads or the calliper!? atlast

How did you use the brakes on the way to the centre? atlast

Thanks for the advice MR 7 Wonders!! I will give this a go. What I cannot really understand is how air in one of the calipers would only affect that caliper, my limited understanding of hydraulics would suggest that air anywhere in the system would affect both calipers as the drop in pressure would be even throughout the pipe? Can someone confirm this please? I have just dismantled the offending side an it looks as though one face (of the external pad - opposite side to the piston) is worn very slightly unevenly. Perhaps they have simply not bedded in properly? Think I will swap the left and right hand side pads? atlast Edited by - Garth on 2 Jul 2010 22:09:15

I am definetly convinced thank you! atlast

Robert can you be a bit more specific about what 'winding down' is? Thanks atlast

Thanks for the advice, I think I will get new ones to avoid any doubt. I presume I can get them from most car places as they are a ford product? Met someone at the school gate who had a Fiat that had similar rear calipers (which only have one piston) and he said that a common problem was the movable part of the caliper used to stick, so will check to see (somehow!) that this is not snagging? atlast

I will check the alignment of the pads in the calliper again, but I am pretty sure they are sitting correctly and making good contact with the disc. It is possible I might have got some lubricant etc on the pads? So my plan at the moment is to replace the pads and then re-bleed and hope for the best!? Any other ideas? atlast

The fitting cost and travel are about £200 for nose cone, cycle wing fronts, sides and rear guards around the S/S protectors - about the same cost of the materials - am going to do it! atlast

My 125 Roadsport failed ☹️ its IVA today because the 'braking force' difference between the rear brakes was in excess of 30% . There was also a difference between the fronts, but this was within acceptable limits! The left hand side was the weaker both back and front. The tester also did an emergency stop and the car was sideways by the time it stopped! 🙅🏻‍♂️ CC charged to bleed the brakes during the post build check, so I am assuming this is not the problem although the pedal does still feel a little 'spongy'. It does certainly not feel really hard - should it? I will bleed them again! I spent a reasonable amount of time on the 15 mile journey to the test braking quite hard and they did get better, but on the way back I braked much harder stax of times and it still felt very unbalanced! The right rear locked a couple of times! Do not appear to be any obvious leaks? Any advice/help would be much appreciated - difficult to really check the problem is solved before taking it back for a re-test? atlast

That is extremely helpful thanks Andy. Great to hear that it will last at least 13 years! Premier can be found here and Dave from Premier has been very helpful so far. I will go ahead and get them to do it. atlast

Thanks for the response Dave - I am not planning on tailgating anyone in the near future! but will probably put some on the nose cone anyway as if I do it I will get it fitted by the pros and then the additional cost of the materila is almost insignificant! - I have tried to cover too many books for my kids in sticky back plastic to know that I do not have the knack and if it is poorly fitted then I imagine it will be horrid. Do you know how easy it is to remove? atlast