Mike Bees

For low low price search Ebay for 'Car trailer' or 'car transporter', there are some right old sheds on there... Mike

Hi Jamie, You'll notice when you take the old diff out that there are packing washers (possibly some thin ones and some thick ones) between the bolts and the bushes (I'm talking about the bolts holding the diff in to the chassis). When you put the 'new' diff in then you need to put sufficient washers in everywhere to (a) just fill the empty space, and (b) centralise the diff (measured out to the chassis rails either side). Easiest way to do this is to put the diff and all it's bolts in without any washers, centralise it, then offer up stacks of washers to the gaps to work out what you need. Then one by one remove the bolts and replace with the appropriate stack of washers - this is much easier if you tape the washers together. Hope this helps. Mike

Is this here any good? Is the ratio associated with the LSD unit? It's independent (i.e. one LSD suits all CWP ratios) on the Sierra (De Dion) diff. Mike

Nifty has volunteered to pick up from the club sprint at Longcross - anyone from Paul's area able to transport them to Longcross? Mike

You really shouldn't be trying to map the ignition without a rolling road or dyno. The technique used is to get the engine steady at each load site (rpm/throttle position combination) and then slowly increase the advance until either the power stops increasing or it starts pinking. If it starts pinking then the advance is backed off slightly for that site. Then on to the next site in the map and repeat etc. You really can't do this by driving the car around on the road. Mike

It's been relisted - it was bid up to £5900 IIRC last week but didn't make reserve. Mike

Worth a go. I'll post a message. I'm reading Blatchat/email a bit sporadically at the moment (away from my desk). Mike

Changing the idle position won't affect the maps, it'll just put you in a slightly different place in the map at idle (slightly further away from load site zero). Also the amount of throttle movement required to get a whole heap more air at idle is really tiny, it'll actually only move you a few percent along the journey between load site zero and load site one. Mike

You may not get a very sensible reading from the lambda during warm-up since it may not be fully up to temperature. A couple of tips: If you don't have an IACV then you may need to set your throttle stop to give a fairly fast warm idle in order to get it to idle cold. A cold engine needs to make more power to turn it over at a given rpm compared to when it's warm (more friction/thicker oil etc.), so it needs more air & fuel when it's cold then when it's warm (this is where the IACV comes in useful). To play with the fuelling, just tap the fuel map up & down (+/- keys) to see if it runs faster as you add/remove fuel, then stop the engine, go to the cooland correction fuel map and change the % enrichment appropriately. Repeat. You'll need to repeat this process a few times from fully cold to get it roughly right. You're right to do with with the idle advance correction disabled. However it will make your life a bit easier if you add some advance to the coolant correction ignition map. Mike

I'll give you £200 if you can roll them down the hill to Essex... Mike

No, but I'd expect some detailed pictures 😬 Thanks. Mike

Mine had what looked like a very coarse wire wool by the breathers. Mike

EFA will be along to tell you how good they are. Top of the range (pricewise and quality wise) by all accounts. Mike

And Driver of the Day award too! Mike

There's a Caterham rollover bar on Ebay at the moment, here. Doesn't look like the standard one to me, and it's certainly not the FIA one - is it from an R500? Mike

Would any of our readers fluent in German care to read this here and see if it mentions which compound of V70a they used in the test? Thanks, Mike

Hyperion for servicing (Little Maplestead, or here). I'd be interested to know of an MOT-friendly place in Colchester too. Mike

Mike - just give up and sell me the half door 😬 John - got any pictures of your MOG/Fluke half door installation? Mike

A set went on Ebay during the week with 'good' slicks for less than £350 IIRC... Mike

A539s are essentially the same as the old A510. A very hard tyre compared to A021R/032R etc. Probably not as good as the Toyo (which will also be hard compared to blah blah). Mike

If you're lucky your belltankhousing comes with 2 threaded holes in just the right place... I just hacked up a bit of ali plate Bob was my uncle. You could adjust your clutch cable so that with the pedal fully depressed the clutch is just properly disengaged, then get someone to mark the position of the release arm while you've got the pedal to the floor. Won't allow any margin for clutch wear that way though. Mike

I think it's flex in the shaft causing it to be out of balance - the faster you spin it the more it flexes so the more it's out of balance. To visualise it just think of a skipping rope. Mike

Sorry - was asking if your trailer was a 12'x6'1" A-series, then read your post properly and saw it was a Minno... Oops, I've got your hopes up again! BTTT. Mike

A catcher's mitt? Is that from the Profanosaurus? Mike

Duh, sorry, yes that's what I meant. Mike