Rob Walker

Richard your cheapest route is to source a secondhand standard diff 3.92 or 3.62 from a scrappy this will give you a casing and the crown wheel and pinion for around £80 , the rest can be discarded. Then buy the ZF LSD unit either fom RRT or Caterham and have it fitted. IIRC the ZF unit costs £580 and less than £100 to have is modded and fitted.

Arnie, Graham, Dave, come on guy`s someone must know?????????????/

Svendriver, If you bring it round to my garage i will tell you what the noise is. I am in Clifton Tel 0117 9239941. Rob

To add to my previous posting Peter is correct it is advisable to have the ramp angles and preload modded for the seven application. I am told that running with the ZF LSD unmodded makes the car understeer. Edited by - Rob walker on 6 Jan 2003 17:01:35

Can anyone tell me if the VX race engines as supplied by Minister about 1992 had the uprated ARP bolts fitted. If fitted was it just the main caps or the big ends as well. Any other uprated bits fitted other than the 48 Webbers, in particular solid lifters ?????????? Many thanks Rob

They look nice Fred what do they cost inc the springs ???????????

Sorry 5.5 liters without the heater.

Rob, The preload to which I refer is the spring clamping force as applied to the clutch plates within the diff. When my diff was installed new it required a torque of approximately 36 lbft to overcome the clamping forces . Therefore it is a good indicator that no wear has taken place and all is well if this torque has remained the same. If the clutch plates had worn the clamping force would have reduced, if the spring had degraded the same would result. To check the pre-load leave one wheel on the ground, jack up the other and make sure the handbrake and pads are not dragging on this wheel, you can then put a socket and good quallity torque wrench on the drive flange/ driveshaft nut and check what torque is required to overcome the clamping force as applied to the clutch plates. How often should you check this? not really sure the unit is very robust and I would think once a year or 10000 m should be enough.

Sorry to disappoint you the flywheel is at the other end of the engine. Come on really no one can know so little about their car, your having a larf , I hope ! Try checking the ali plug cover, its on top of the engine in the centre of the cam cover with Caterham cast into it. The fixings sometimes work loose giving the noise you describe.

About 6 Liters

Richard I fitted it about 2 years ago and its done about 8000 miles and thats with 230 bhp 160 lb ft of torque pushed through it. I checked it last week and the static preload is still 35lb ft the same as when it was installed. So no need to adjust it yet! Makes me laugh people going on about the ZF diff being noisy. Most Caterhams are deafening and the noise the diff makes is insignificant as compared to the engine induction, exhaust and gearbox noise.

Fit a ZF its all rubbish about extra noise and maintenance. Talk to Phil Stewart he will tell you the same.

I can confirm NO NEED to drill the crank. Shorten the input shaft to suit using and angle grinder IIRC 12mm was lopped off mine, be sure to check this first as the later 6 speed boxes came with the shorten input shaft as standard. The sleeve is necessary to adjust the size of the rover spigot bearing hole which is 22.15mm to that of the Ford which is 21mm dia. Rob

Hoopy, Sorry its Rally Design not Equip as I previously posted. They do not seem to have a web site but their phone number is 01795 531871 and they will be at the M Sport show next week.

Hoopy, Rally Design sell a neat little mechanical caliper for £45 that will accomodate the rear vented discs up to 20.8mm thick if you are set on this upgrade. IMO the claw caliper is more than up to the job if the correct pads are fitted. The problem with this caliper and the caterham installation is that its fed by solid pipes which is poor engineering as part of the caliper floats, this can work harden and cause the flared ends to fail it also can act as a spring disturbing the position of the floating part of the caliper and thus seating of the pads each time you take your foot off the brakes. This is partly resposible for the poor peddle feel. The rigid pipes also make it very difficult to successfully bleed the calipers. I have also noted on my car that under hard use the rear discs are expanding and hitting the fixed portion of the calipers. If these problems are addressed by installing flexible hoses and reducing the diameter of the discs by about a mm, I can see no reason why the claw calipers should not do the job I have no problem with bite,breaking effort, or fade . Another important point to watch out for is pad wear when using these calipers, if the pads get below half worn 4MM the floating part of the caliper can foul the radius arms. Rob Edited by - Rob walker on 4 Jan 2003 09:13:50

AVES Pagid RS14 fitted all round. Rob

I found the deflectors worse than useless, I recon there is less wind in my face and turbulance using my R500 aeroscreen. Another problem with them is that they can damage scuttles paintwork as they flap about. Rubbish product ! Rob

Andy, You will be surprised to know that the weight of the CATHERHAM UPRATED front brakes is in fact lighter than the standard girling brake setup. Rob

Simon, Before you run out and spend a load of dosh on uprated front brakes I would advise to to try living with your standard brakes with high performance pads. fit pagid RS14 pads all round, this is a pad material with a higher coefficient of friction so will improve intial bite, also as the pads heat up the coefficient of friction increases with this pad material. I would also relace my brake fluid with Castrol SRF and fit a brake bias valve into the rear brake circuit this will allow you to reduce the rear braking effort as the rears tend to be too powerfull. If you just uprate the fronts by fitting 4 pot calipers and vented discs, you will find all the braking will be on the front, sure it will feel impressive the car will stand on its nose but the front wheels will lock up easily and you will not stop the car efficeintly. A well set up set of standard brakes will out brake you every time IMO. Rob Edited by - Rob walker on 2 Jan 2003 14:43:54

Dave, I have the Sigma 800 fitted and its works a treat cost about £15. Be care if looking at some other makes a lot do not have a high enough top speed capability. Rob

Gary, The brown film is just the Stainless Steel oxidizing due to the high temp of the exhaust gases passing through and heating the tube, a good thrashing on a track on a hot day will produce a deeper brown colour. This is the same effect as when you temper steel, as the steel is heated to about 350C a straw coloured oxide forms on cooling if you heat a bit more 450C the oxide turns blue. Therefore if you see your manifold turn blue outside the engine bay this is a good indicator that either you have a weak mixture or your timing is out. Rob

Johnty Your new name should be Johnty the Octapus.

Matt, I have seen this problem a couple of times, its likely that the crank timing pulley will need to be replaced, as Chris posted these are about £8, I would also replace the timing belt to be sure. Its also necessary to remove the starter motor in order to lock the engine at 90 DBTDC using the starter ring gear. locking the engine is also necessary to be able to torque up the front pulley bolt to 205 Nm, I would also put a drop of loctite on this bolt before insertion. DO NOT DRIVE OR START THE CAR UNTIL YOU HAVE THE FRONT PULLEY BOLT CORRECTLY TORQUED.

AFAIK the date only applies if you want to race the car.

JP your having a larf, "I don`t think its too bad " A child could do better