Shaun_E

Kev - hole isn't tapped so you can drill it yourself. The fitting passes through the hole and a nut with lock washer goes on the inside of the cam cover. Make sure you loctite it - heaven forbid the nut comes off . Yellow SL #32

I am looking to replace my carbon dash and have just been told by Caterham that the dash for pre-year 2000 cars is no longer available and that a post 2000 won't fit my 1997 car. Has anyone else come across this and if so is it possible to make a post 2000 dash fit? I had hoped to get one from Caterham as they sell them pre drilled/cut. I have a Stack dash with the R400/R500 switch layout. I have emailed RiF re his dash but I'm pretty sure they are supplied blank - not the end of the world but I would have preferred a precut design. Are there any alternatives (I know MOG does one)? Yellow SL #32

cheers - I'll talk to Caterham tomorow. If it is OK with the plastic pulley I'll leave it but if Caterham say otherwise I guess I'll have to change it. Yellow SL #32

My SVC lights which arrived on Friday have the pins to go into the Econoseal connectors. Did you tell SVC your lights were for a Caterham? I'd have a chat with them tomorrow. Yellow SL #32

Is it essential to replace the wheel on the tensioner or is that just a belt and braces job? Might have helped if the instructions had mentioned it! Everything is on the car now - can the tensioner be removed without taking the whole lot off? Yellow SL #32

Have refitted engine and connected everything up but I have a black alloy pulley which doesn't seem to have a use and is not described anywhere in the instructions. Does anyone know what this is for? I wondered if it were for the belt tensioner but that has a plastic pulley fitted to it (pulley does not have a U section around the circumference). The pulley I have "spare" has a U section which is about the right width for the pump belt. Engine is K series in case that makes a difference. Yellow SL #32

The rear pads are £28 from Caterham and are very easy to fit so if you are running AP 4 pots at the front with standard Caterham pads then probably fine to stick with the normal ones on the rear as well. Make sure you get the ones with the blue markings on them as the rear pads to match an AP front set up are different to those for a standard front set up. Yellow SL #32

2000 miles is nothing to a K-series. I do about 5000 a year in mine including track days but if you check some of the other people on this forum you'll see that they are doing 25,000 miles a year with no ill effects to the engine. It's the body work that starts to get a bit tired on high mileage or frequently tracked cars. Yellow SL #32

The only really awkward bit about getting the gearbox out is undoing the 2 bolts holding gearbox mount to chassis. For this you need to remove the tunnel cover and then one person gets a socket onto the bolt head and the other undoes the nut from underneath the car. It's not that bad as long as the bolt isn't too rusty. A small 1/2" or 13mm socket (1/4" or 3/8" drive) will make the job easier as will a long socket extension bar. With the gearbox out with the engine it is then easy to split them and do the clutch change. If you have removable top chassis rails in the engine bay then take them off as well - makes getting the engine in and out much easier. Yellow SL #32

Have just put engine and gearbox back in after my rebuild. I replaced the following; CRB - £10 from Caterham Clutch - new AP clutch cover and plate about £200 from Caterham (they have standardised on one clutch now) Some of the hoses replaced with silicon ones as the old ones had perished a bit. Engine mounts. Gearbox mount (I took gearbox out which is the more normal method) Gearbox refurbished and new oil. Service items (don't necessarily need engine out but easy to work on if you have: Oil and filter rotor arm and distributor cap spark plugs I was fitting a dry sump but if not then change the foam baffle while the engine is out Yellow SL #32

Arch won't strip the car for you. See here for what needs to be removed. You then need to get it to Arch for the new panels and then to TSK for spraying. If you want someone to strip the car and manage the process then you 'll need to take it to somewhere like Ratrace, Seven Workshop or James Whiting. Some of the race places like Hyperion, etc. will probably be able to do it as well. Yellow SL #32

Eric - these sometimes come up for sale second hand when people upgrade. Alternatively, DVA can supply similar cams and an Emerald ECU for the same sort of money. See the K02 kit here. Yellow SL #32

Removing those rivets makes the job much easier but is a pain and then you need to decide whether to just rivet it back or use rivnuts. The scuttle is actually a one piece design consisting of the top bit that your windscreen rests on and the vertical plate the top is rivetted too. To remove it in one go (assume windscreen removed) you need to undo two nuts on the inside of the curved top piece. These nuts are screwed onto captive bolts just about where your knees are - if you have the little trim panels there you 'll need to remove them first. You then need to detach the fuse box and anything else from that vertical panel, and then the whole scuttle assembly lifts out. Hope that makes sense. Yellow SL #32

BOSS - the words I was waiting to hear . It is indeed the clutch cover plate to flywheel bolts - in my case M7. I guess 20lbft isn't much really. Yellow SL #32

Cheers Myles - please let me know what torque the Haynes manual gives. I did use threadlock as a belt and braces job- they definitely won't be coming out but on the other hand if they are too tight is there a chance that they could put unwanted stresses on the flywheel? I think I may have to split the engine and gearbox again - bu99er ☹️. Yellow SL #32

Have checked with Caterham and the correct value is 8-12 lbft. Their engine shop use 11 lbft. Now I did mine up to about 20lbft. Caterham said it probably wouldn't cause a problem but that it was my call. If anyone here has changed a clutch recently can they tell me what value they used. What are people views on whether I should undo the bolts and retighten to the recommended value? Would it do more harm than good - maybe requiring new bolts? Yellow SL #32

POR15 requires very little preparation - a quick wire brushing is fine. If you believe the blurb it actually chemically bonds with rust so does the job of "metal ready" and hammerite/chassis black as well. I did some of chassis using POR15 about 18 months ago and when I stripped the car down recently the bits I'd painted were perfect - it was the rest that was in a right state. I had done my front lower chassis rail with it as it was a mess and there wasn't a single chip on it. I am told that Hammerite is prone to chipping. POR15 is not UV stable - it discolours if exposed too much (doesn't affect the performance just the appearance) - so for areas that will see daylight regularly like wishbones, you probably need to overpaint with something like POR chassis coat. Having said all this I have given up the fight and had my chassis completely refurbished at Arch. I will be using leading edge tape to protect some of the more exposed chassis rails and lots of Dinitrol in the grot traps. Yellow SL #32

De-dion ears are 35 lbft or 48Nm Hub mountings are also 35 lbft/48 Nm Yellow SL #32

As per the title - anyone know what size they should be? Its the ones that bolt the mount to the chassis I need. Another item that has disappeared since I dismantled the car although I seem to remember them being more rust than bolt so may well have chucked them. Yellow SL #32 Edited by - Shaun_E on 30 Jan 2005 15:56:31

Cheers Mark - wine with lunch by any chance? Yellow SL #32

Now got some bolts - thanks to Mark - anybody know the torque figure for them? Yellow SL #32

POR15 prefers rust as a base rather than bare metal. However remove any loose powder coat before painting. The thing to watch is whether the rust has crept along under the powder coat - if it has you will need to remove more of the powder coat. Yellow SL #32

Mark - YHM Yellow SL #32

Norman, thanks for the instructions - they make sense. I'm a bit far away from you in sunny Slough but I'll drop you a line if I get stuck. Myles, I was afraid that might be the case ☹️. Looks like my engine won't be going back in this weekend. Oh well I'm sure there's other stuff I can be doing. Yellow SL #32

A length of thick wood can be used across the width of the car between the jack and the chassis - this spreads the load. It does need to be pretty strong though - at least 2 or 3 inches thick. I use 4" square fence post. Yellow SL #32