Rob Walker

I am having a problem with overheating rear brakes. The calipers are the stock Ford sierra claw type and my pads are Mintex 1144. Following a few laps of either Donnington Gp or Oulton the fluid Comma dot 5.1 in the calipers has boiled and I have excessive peddle travel and the discs have overheated/turned dull and the pads have glazed. Has anyone come up with a solution or must I bite the bullet and buy an uprated rear brake set up. Several people have suggested going up to 1177 pads or Pagids, AP 600 fluid and fit a rear brake bias valve to reduce the rear braking effort. I have to say that the latter suggestion sounds dubious . I can understand wanting to reduce the rear braking effort on the up rated rears but on the single piston claw calipers sounds undesirable. Edited by - Rob walker on 31 Mar 2002 10:37:49

Sounds like a very expensive way of going about the project as a bare VVC head is around £1200 then you will need cam cover, valves, followers,springs, topcaps,blanking kit, seals and gaskets studs nuts and bolts. In short economic suicide. If you were buying new a VHPD head would be a better bet. Why not source a complete used VVC engine and dump/sell the bits you don`t need. Good secondhand units go for £700 to £1200. Ring around the breakers in your area.

Dampers are about £100 per unit. Its possible to have them checked /rebuilt by Prodrive but this is almost as expensive as buying new. The Caterham Bilsteins have specific damping rates specified by Caterham so I doub`t you will source them anywhere else. Let me know if you do.

Nigel pay attention I wrote to you and told you where to get a set of 4 X 380cc/m high impedance injectors for £50 which work a treat. No problem with the idle either. Would you rather pay £100 for injectors that are far too big ? Rob Edited by - Rob walker on 29 Mar 2002 14:31:33

Ah! Whats that about counting Chickens ?

If you intend to fit an aeroscreen the R500 screen will cover them.

The biggest advantage I noticed after fitting the big front brakes was far better brake bias. With the standard brake setup the rears would always lock up first this made the car very loose when braking hard down from high speed, this lead to many scary moments negotiating the entry into Quarry at Castle Combe.

Graham, Yes and Yes. I have open nuts fitted to my car, they are available from Caterham. Don`t think there is much involved in fitting larger studs IIRC either Roger Swift or Alex Wong has these fitted. You should be able to get the longer studs from Halfrauds. On the front hubs the studs are threaded into the hubs from behind and can be withdrawn through the back of the hub once the disc has been removed. If the rears are the same you will have the added problem of undoing the ends of the drivshafts to withdraw the hubs. Its possible the rears are plain studs I am not shure, if this is the case the removal should be simply a matter of unscrewing the stud out of the front face of the hub. I notice the rear studs have a screwdriver slot machined on the end. Edited by - Rob walker on 24 Mar 2002 09:13:58

Mike, I will have these off you please phone me on 0117 9239941 Thanks Rob

Yoko suggested SS on the front and S on the rear was the optimum combination. I haven`t tried it yet I`m still on S all round.

Arnie, I visted Superlite Wheels last week, They did not suggest there was a problem making me some wheels and quoted 14 days. My enquiry was for split rims which can be made with vertually any offset. Arnie, have you mounted the RARB drop links on the inside of the shock absorber bottom mounts and on the inside face of the ARB wings. If so have you had any problems with the links/ball joints catching the ali turreting around the shock? I contemplated mounting them this way to gain extra clearance with wider wheels but thought it looked very close. The 6.5" R500/SLR fronts are positive 23mm offset same as the rears. Edited by - Rob walker on 20 Mar 2002 12:33:46

I have found that a soldering iron with a sharp point makes better holes through the Vinyl/leatherette. Than a drill or punch. Edited by - Rob walker on 20 Mar 2002 08:52:57

Superlite will make you wheels with what ever offset you require. Tel 01454 414465. I would stick to the Caterham offsets or you are entering a whole new area of possible problems.

The Caterham Minators 6X13 have a positive offset of 18mm the SLR& R500 6.5X13 and 8.5X13 have a postive 23mm offset. The thing to bear in mind is that once you go above 6X13 ET 18mm on the rear you will be force to locate the rear ARB on the bottom chassis rails or fit the Juno RARB which fits under the fuel tank.

Nick, I have looked into this problem, and would endorse all that Oily has posted but would add that it is very important that the position/orientation of the four cut outs in the piston face are aligned with the protusion on the back of the pads. The protrusion on the pad must be able to locate within the cutout/orifice on the face of the piston. If its out of alignment the pad will be presented to the disc face at an angle. This will cause the whole caliper to move on its slides and cause excess peddle travel and excellerated uneven pad wear. The piston can easily be turned to align with the pad by using a pair of sniped nosed plyers or the proper tool is available from Halfrauds.

Sorry Alex I posted duff info the hex spacer is 27mm and not 30mm as I posted earlier.

Alex, I looked at the Leda dampers at the Autosport Show and found them to be very heavy as compared to the Bilsteins. As to the length measure your own units and if they are non widetrack just add 30mm to allow for the hex spacer.

When you say play I presume that this is up and down and side to side, if so this is normal as the shaft needs to be supported in the crankshaft end by the spigot bearing, if you look there should be a small needle roller bearing in the end of the crank for this purpose . If the play is longtitudally in and out then this is not normal and needs further investigation.

Paul no need to worry it is not connected at one end , its the aerial for the vehicle security unit.

Arnie hasn`t its an old Vauxhall.

Tis true Caterham only do ali rads currently. The Road one has a vertical core and tanks top and bottom and has much the same dimensions as the steel/copper cored road rad. The ali race rad has horizontal core and tanks at each side, this rad has a greater coolant capacity.

Arnie, the lever cannot be EN36 casting as EN36 is not cast and you cannot case harden cast in any case. It could be EN 36 in which case it can be heated and bent and re case hardened if required.

Rubbish Mick the Apollo does nothing to help with oil surge. The engine still picks its oil up from the sump . If it can !

Caterham Parts Dept

Buda, Yes the kit can be fitted with the engine in the car, its quite straightforward and well described in the Haynes book of lies for the Rover 216/218. I am shure Caterham can also supply you with fitting instructions data sheet FOC. Rob