Gridgway

Super thanks Robert, hadn't come across them before. I wonder where they get their stock from? I assume they must manufacture. I'll ask

So in my 80s BDR resto, I am doing the brakes. Done the front. One of the rears is leaking after 13 years of not being used. I have bought some replacement wheel cylinders, but they are generic copies. I'm looking at the Girling originals and wanting to re-use them - I love originality. They have a round slightly corroded area where they have stood for umpteen years. Does anyone have experience of honing them? Does it generally work or should I just replace them with the copies?

Just a thought. There is a huge difference between small rust deposits and major chassis issues. I think you need to check out how bad the problem is. My suspicion would be that some cleaning and por-15'ing will sort out the problems and major chassis works will not be needed. Also for the stone chips in the fibreglass, I'd leave them as patina and not seek to sort out or repaint, Just a thought!

Just a quick update. I've decided to go for the speedograph right angle drive plus a cable they will make to go to the Speedo which is VDO not Smiths. I got my two caterhams confused! Thanks for all the suggestions!

Then it will always blow Andrew. For the gauge to blow in this way there must be an earth through the gauge at 0 ohms (well obviously slightly above 0). This must be in parallel with the other earth so that when the other earth doesn't work, this one takes its place. If they are in parallel then a proportion of the current will flow through the gauge even when the other earth is working properly. The resistance of the main earth and the earth through the gauge will be similar, certainly not orders of magnitude different. If we look at the main earth while the starter is cranking. Let's say it's 100A and 0.01 Ohms. That's a PD of 1V. That 1V split across the two earths in parallel will fry the earth through the gauge anyway. I'm happy that my argument could well be false, but am interested in working out exactly why! The thing that is driving my thinking is that poor earths are the bane of Caterhams. If that resulted in the gauge taking the strain as it were and frying, it would be a very common occurrence and it's not!

My schoolboy physics says that can't happen. There is still only 12v (or a bit more) driving current down a wire (track). To drive more current, you need more volts or less ohms.

I'd be curious as to how a bad earth elsewhere would force more current through the gauge than Mr Ohm would normally allow?

Voltage regulator?

I've asked Speedograph (linked above) if they can supply a right angle drive plus cable for a Smiths gauge. That seems the right approach. Thanks for the GPS suggestion, I just prefer to keep my Smiths gauge.

I think that's a good observation Ian. I didn't need much more persuasion not to cut holes! I just need to decide whether to try and go for the right angle drive or not. Although I don't know if there is a cable with the right ends to screw to the drive at the gearbox end and a Smiths speedo at the other. Simplest is just a new cable.

Definitely a bit of a dog's dinner Gary! Shows the challenge of cutting nice access holes in situ. To cut the 2" circle, I'd have to mark it. drill inside the circle and do a rough cut to get the centre of the hole out. Then very carefully finish with a dremel to get a nice circle. Thanks for the link JK, I'd looked at the Burton site. Looks like their angle drive is the one made by the guys in Gary's link (and a very similar price). I think really I should get the right angle drive and new speedo cable. Then consider whether I want to make access better for the future.

I have taken the engine and box out of my mid-90s LA 7 (supposedly finished its resto) as the rebuilt xflow needs some work. Also the gearbox was leaking quite a lot from the speedo drive oil seal. So I can fix that easily, but what about the cable? There isn't a right angle drive, so the cable is a bit kinked where it comes out of the fitting that goes to the gearbox with the circlip. The plastic outer is split. It's currently not accessible as the underside of the tunnel is panelled. So any further work will need the engine and box out again. What would you do? 1 just use the old speedo cable as was is it still works? 2 replace the speedo cable like for like (here)? 3 Convert to the right angle drive and new cable (assuming you can get them)? 4 attack the panelling in the tunnel sides to cut access holes to be covered by a plate (or the big plastic 2" grommet here)? 5 something else? Cheers Graham

I'm in Epsom

It's not the direction you are going in, but I have a set of corner scales that I'd be happy to loan...

They are actually listed in the BDA supplement workshop manual under body of the sections especially the valve clearance checking part!

Just got back in from the garage. I had another go and it turns out that you can change the belt with the engine in and leaving the tensioner pulley in situ. It would be a lot easier if you could take the pulley off, but with a suitable amount of pull-pushing, deft hand wriggling and a lot of loud cursing, it's back together. I've come in to regain a sense of calm then I'll go back to it and double check the belt is in the right place and tension it up.

I'm investigating a cambelt change on my BDR (it's probably original from when the motor was built in 2001 and not used since 2008. However things are very tight at the front of the motor. From the BDA manual I have got it says that the adjustment pulley needs to come off and it certainly looks like it. There is definitely not enough room to get the pulley off with the crossmember in front of it. That looks to me to be an engine out job. Anyone done it in situ? And I've also found a drop of coolant of the lower front cross-member. I can't see how that can be leaking from the hoses/rad, so I suspect water pump which is definitely an engine out job. I think my aspiration of getting the car "quickly" back on the road is going to fail.

Ian that would be fantastic and very generous. Thanks. Shall I message you my address?

In my 1980s live axle car that I am restoring, I have dispensed with the old steel tank (being extremely rusty inside) and got the carb S3 aluminium tank complete with "fuel tank strap with bolts" on the caterham parts website here. This was as advised by Caterham parts. I have got 4 tabs on the chassis at the bottom corners of the tank. If I put the strap across the front of the tank and the bolts in the front tabs, it just pulls the strap off the front of the tank. The bolts don't seem long enough to reach the rearmost tabs. The old tank had the straps around the tank in a longitudinal direction. My 90s long cockpit live axle car has the same arrangement of longitudinal straps but with the ally tank. They have to be longer as the outside dimensions of the ally tank are greater. Does anyone have this locating arrangement to advise on fitment please? There's nothing in the assembly manual as the tank is pre-fitted in the CKD. Thanks!

I persevered with lots of flux and eventually the solder stuck. Seems to be a strong enough joint now.

Thanks both. I think it's hot enough, I'm using a blow torch to heat it. I definitely don't have a man enough soldering iron

I am fitting a new fuel sender and it's one of the generic types that you have to bend and cut the two parts of the arm to length. There are little clips to hold the metal arms together for you to solder the two bits. I'm not a super expert at soldering, but I have been doing it for many years. The solder sticks to one of the parts of the arm and the clips,, but not the other. I cleaned and degreased before starting. I have tested the offcuts and one piece is fine and the other is just no go. I'm using electrical solder. I even dug out my ancient pot of Bakers flux and it made no difference. You can see that the two halves are different metals. I wonder if one is coated/dipped in some way. I might abraid the errant piece more to get any coating off. All ideas welcome. Sorry the pic is not in focus very well, but it gives the idea. It's the arm attached to the sender which is proving intransigent.

It's definitely not a race engine, just peppy 1700 with a 245 cam. It does have large valves, so I think we'll be machining to suit and also taking the compression ratio down to a more road reasonable level. I was changing the head gasket for a thicker cometic one to reduce the CR when I found the piston damage, It's only one piston that has hit a valve so I think we'll end up with a new piston and valve. I think the set of 4 pistons that come together are in an engine set for balance purposes - well according to the Burton web site blurb! But if the pistons are going to be machined, they can be weighed against each other then.

Phew, Roger has saved the day again! If you centre the piston the disparity goes away. Glad I asked - you can see I've not built any engines! Re the compression ratio, the Burton supplied Accralite pistons are approx 12.0 : 1 out of the box - which I presume is at a standard deck height. I did some measuring and estimating and came to 13:1, but that's not at all an accurate figure. But I think they will be 12.0:1 or so.

Thanks Roger that's very helpful. Would I be able to rock them by hand in the block? I hadn't thought about that as all 4 look the same. But I certainly don't want to instigate a difficult conversation with the engine builder on a subject that actually isn't a problem! The competence question is odd as he's a very well used and capable builder, but there are a few issues. The compression ratio is too high and the first valve from the front has caught the edge of the valve cutout in the top of the piston which makes no sense how that happened to me. Also two of the valve stem oil seals have come off and worked their way up the valve stems. I wasn't expecting any issues at all.