Shaun_E

Passed this afternoon with no side repeaters and, thankfully, no emissions test 😬. Yellow SL #32

If you are only going to replace the pair then I think it would be sensible to stick with the Bilsteins - probably won't get them much cheaper than at Caterham. If you are going to replace all 4 then the world is, as they say, your oyster. Common choices these days are AVO or Nitron. These could be bought on their own or as part of a set with springs. Just do a search on this site for AVO or Nitron and that should give you enough reading for the rest of the day . FWIW I've got Nitrons with 250lbft front springs and 150lbft rears. Let the debate commence 😬. Yellow SL #32

Stack sell a wheel speed sensor but it is about £100 - that's what is fitted on my car to go with the ST8130 dash. I believe you can also use a prop shaft sensor. The beauty of the wheel speed sensor is that it can be very accurately calibrated by measuring the rolling circumference of the tyre. Yellow SL #32

Moving the pedals will not have made the brakes spongy. The pushrod adjustment will affect the dead travel before the brakes start to activate. The usual problem is that, in the extreme pedal positions, either the brakes stay on (push rod too close) or you don't get the full travel on them (push rod too far away - but this is unlikely). Any sponginess will likely be down to air in the system (bleed brakes), water absorption (replace fluid) or a leak somewhere (master cylinder?). Fluid should be replaced every 2 years minimum. Yellow SL #32

Who have you looked at? I've got K9 Composites on mine and they look great. Drop me a blatmail and I'll send you a high res picture of the car. You can see the car here and here but they aren't very good pictures. BTW the front wings are Caterham ones and I will eventually replace them with K9 ones. Yellow SL #32

Details here but not exactly clear if fitted lights must work - I suspect any tester will assume that if they are there then they should work. The argument about whether they are required or not has been done to death on here - my opinion, and that of my tester, is that as long as the rule shown below can be satisfied then the car will pass.: Yellow SL #32

The place I go to has always put my LSD'd car on the rollers despite the fact that the MOT manual says otherwise - I believe it is just because the reading will be false rather than some damage being caused. You are highly unlikely to get away with visual smoke test on a 2001 car now that the MOT is all computerised - 2001 cars have to pass a CAT test unless you can prove the engine was of earlier vintage. Yellow SL #32

Rescued it from the post bag and changed class to N having read the booklet properly 😳. Yellow SL #32

Balls - I've put B2 and it's in the post - looks like it should have been N . I couldn't see what to write the cheque out as so wrote "Midland Automobile Club (Est. 1901) Limited". Yellow SL #32 Edited by - Shaun_E on 31 Mar 2006 17:18:25

I have never had to adjust the setting on the Autocom. I have the Pro-7 unit which has recently been superceded. The Pro-7 only has a VOX sensitivity adjustment and once set that shouldn't need changing. Yellow SL #32

When I had mine done, the chassis was blasted back to bare metal and badly corroded bits were cut out and replaced (e.g. front lower cross rail). The chassis was then zinc phospate primed before being powder coated. All new panels were fitted and every one except the back panel was powder coated, inner panels on both sides. This was all done at Arch. There is therefore no bare metal anywhere on the chassis/body. I also used Dinitrol in the crud traps and along the front lower chassi rails. Fingers crossed I never have to do that job again! Yellow SL #32

Just got my email from Roger and Barbara to say I have my place 😬. So far got places at Longcross, presumably got in at Llandow, now Curborough. Will nip home at lunchtime to see if Shelsey Walsh forms have arrived (hope I ticked the box on registration form). Yellow SL #32

Gasket not used on 6 speed. Some silicone sealant is used though. Yellow SL #32

Chris - I originally wrote that and then doubted myself 😳 so edited my post. glad to know I wasn't imagining things. My problem was that the dip switch had failed so I only had main beam. Yellow SL #32

Standard 21W bulb. Check that your headlights are working as the fog only comes on with headlights on. If not then suspect the fuse or the dip switch which is best sourced direct from Caterham as i couldn't find anywhere else that stocks them. Yellow SL #32 Edited by - Shaun_E on 29 Mar 2006 08:42:37

I have 2 Halfords torque wrenches - the big one goes up to 200lbft and is 1/2" drive, the smaller one which goes to (I think) 80lbft is 3/8" drive. What range does your wrench cover to need a 3/4" drive? I have a 3/8" to 1/2" step up and a 1/2" to 3/8" step down converter both bought from Halfords for less than a fiver each IIRC. As I have both 1/2" and 3/8" drive sockets sets now I rarely use the converters but they worked fine when I did use them. Yellow SL #32

Rik - my 1900 did exactly the same and it turned out to be the steel dowels that came with the head gasket were too long. Luckily we had the plugs out to crank for oil pressure - you should have seen the coolant shoot out all over the walls of Dave Andrews' garage . When you strip it back down, make sure the head has not warped - we did that using a "guaranteed straight edge" that Dave had and I was lucky otherwise you will need the head skimmed again. I wonder if the fact that Scholar machine the top of the block means that the locating holes are not as deep. Add to that the fact that a lot of tuned engines will have skimmed heads means that the dowels are just too long. You will need to reduce the length of the dowels and also perhaps put a bit more of a chamfer on them - Dave did that for mine and the engine went back together with no issues. Yellow SL #32

Probably this lot. Yellow SL #32

The Scholar blocks are hot honed under pre-stressed conditions. My understanding was that this means the cylinders should be their "best shape/size" when the engine is hot. In that case, when the engine is cold they will not be optimal. Could that be a source of friction in cold starting. It would explain why my engine started better when warm (before I got the new starter). Dave - I understand that you and Jason weren't happy with the shape/tolerance of the cylinders on your block. Does the hot honing process have a bearing on this? Yellow SL #32

The 1.9s do tend to have a higher compression ratio and I guess there is more friction due to the larger piston size. Is more work required to compress the larger volume of petrol/air as well? - not sure on that one. I am running with a Red Top 15 but tried with a brand new fully charged Banner as well and it made no difference. The Ah is not important for starting, it is the cranking current that is important and I have not been able to find a comparable value for the RedTop and the Banner - they each quote different measurements . The higher Ah will just give you more goes at starting it before the battery goes flat. With the race starter, my Red Top has been absolutely fine and will turn the engine over many times. I have not adjusted my cold start since the rolling road session and therefore it takes me a few goes to get the car started but there are no issues with the battery or starter. Yellow SL #32

I have no idea how effective they are but they are advertised as 0.9kw - the Caterham race starter is 1.4kw. Yellow SL #32

Are you sure that the damper cannot be repaired? Try giving Spax a call - they may be able to replace the damaged shaft as well. It would probably be best to get the other one refurbished at the same time to give them a fighting chance of being able to work effectively together. Yellow SL #32 Edited by - Shaun_E on 22 Mar 2006 14:50:50

My old Magnetti Marelli was not up to the job of turning over my 1.9K but is now doing stirling service on another car. I fitted the race starter from Caterham but it wouldn't fit under my old 4-1 exhaust so I bought the 4-2-1 from Caterham and there is loads of clearance. Be warned, they changed the design of the 4-2-1 in 2004 and the earlier ones will not clear the race starter -see this thread here. I have no idea whether the Magneton is any better than the Magnetti Marelli but I do know that the race starter is much, much better and turns the engine over very easily. Yellow SL #32

Don't see those very often. I'm pretty sure it was the same one that turned up at Penn Sevens last year. Yellow SL #32

I did wonder whether I'd been sent some flashy steel rods instead of the dampers I ordered . I just thought that a middle setting would be a good point to start from . Soft is fine - I drove the road from Burnham to Beaconsfield and was able to use full throttle on even the bumpiest sections. I am now a happy chappy 😬. Yellow SL #32