David.Ashley.Poole

Hello Adrian,

That at is jolly interesting.  I ordered the race rack from CC Parts and was surprised to find that it wa a 2.0 lock to clock ratio - so I emailed Darren about it and got this reply...

Morning,
 
OK, I have some figures from the supplier on the racks:
 
60S008A – 2.41 turns, 97.04mm travel, 40.20mm per turn
60S010A – 2.07 turns, 97.04mm travel, 46.91mm per turn
 
Regards
 
Darren Phillips
Aftersales Commercial Manager
Caterham Cars

So I fitted it, but I still feel that it is a little slow.  The SV quick rack is, by repute, around 1.6 - so perhaps I can poke Titan and see if they can shed some light on it.  I would be happy to buy a 1.6 and sell mine.  As for your rack, it seems to me that you should be able to rebuild the end bushes - I had a Lotus Seven years ago and did this, but I have not taken my present rack apart to investigate the construction.

I talked to SBD and they have a new ECU with a much higher data rate and a new base map for the 260, and they offered me this as the only way to unlock the map... said the original map could not be copied.  I did not ask if they could unlock the present ECU, though.  But I do not have any interest (yet!) in fooling with the map, and there are a lot of stories about operators blowing up engines on the rolling road, so I am going to buy the monitor interface and leave everything else alone.

Hello Pete,

Thanks for the info on DRLs.  I read the relevant regulations, and although they seem to be a hit vague they are also clear that the DRLs should not dazzle anyone at night.  So my plan was to power them from a single-pole double throw relay, energized by the sidelight voltage, with one throw connected to the ignition bus and the other to the main beam headlight bus.  This would mean that the DRLs would go on with the ignition, and go off when the sidelight were on - except when the main beams were on, when they would act as additional main beam lighting.  Any comments about the legality of all this would be welcome....

Hello David,

Thanks for your kind comments.  Actually, I was not totally sold on the color until I saw the CSR.  And then, as you may have read, it was love at first sight.  LOL.

I was reading your blog, and I have to say that in my experience spray cans work just as well as any other paint, as long as you do the prep properly.  The great thing about them is that the quality is really under your control,- and you can do small areas instead of the whole car when things get complicated – and expensive.

I would have been very happy with 153 bhp in any of my sixes and sevens – that was pretty good for an early BDA – and would have seemed quite electrifying to me at the time.  We have become a little more jaded since…

I actually live in the USA, and only have a holiday home with a tiny garage in the UK through Unplanned Events.  But I really like being back – I was a teenager in Weymouth before I joined the Royal Navy and finally wound up in the America.  I have a 2002 Morgan Plus 8 here as my daily driver, and I have changed the engine and just about everything else.  It came with a really wimpy and somewhat obnoxious 4.0 Aluminium V8, but I changed it to a Stage III 4.5 that makes only a little more  power than my CSR (!).  And the combination of working from home in Weymouth, meetings with the company in London, wind and kite surfing at Portland (something of a work in progress, I must admit), running on the beach and driving my CSR  has me captivated.  

Here in the USA they have the Constitution, which has Amendments.  The Fifth amendment means you can refuse to reply if the answer will incriminate or embarrass you.  So I believe that all Morgan and CSR related expenses are protected by the Fifth.  Just saying...

Good hearing from you. And do you have a picture of your car?  Here is my Morgan… but it is almost the complete opposite of a Caterham in engineering.

All the best,

David Poole

Hello Jim,

i am not sure (yet) what my map looks like, or if it has ever been updated.  I wrote to SBD to see if they could shed some light on what might be possible, and to buy an interface, but they have not replied so I will have to give them a call.  The ECU is a closed book to me at the moment, but I intend to get to grips with it in the Spring.  The kangaroo-ing was not bad after I replaced the Lambda sensor, but the Iridium Plugs made the final difference.  I also indexed them when I fitted them. It is not as easy indexing conical seated plugs as the flat washer variety, but I did it by buying 16 (!) and swapping them around until I got all the electrodes pointed in (more or less) the right direction.  I assume that I will need lots since the manual says that they should be replaced every 3000 miles, but this seems to be a bit OTT.  But if you have any insight into the ECU and engine I would be very glad to hear it.  It may be interesting that I wanted to buy a 620S, but I could not find one for sale anywhere in the Spring last year.  I only use my car on the road (it is actually my only car, since my wife is – sensibly -  unenthusiastic about me driving her car), and the CSR is probably better suited to that than a 620 would be...  but I do admire them.

i plan to pull the engine and gearbox out (or get Chapman to pull it out - I do not have a garage large enough to do it myself) in the Spring since the gearbox, although it changes nicely and the synchros are good, has a worrying attribute in that the gear lever moves forward and back slightly during power on/off transitions.  And I am sure that this means that the main shaft has picked up some endplay, which, together with the whine in third and fourth, is not conducive to peace of mind.  I talked to Philip at R&R at some length about this, and I have it booked in for April.  He said that fourth whines because of the gear design, which CC decided not to change for cost reasons.  He also said that the lightweight countershaft from Tracsport is not really worthwhile, and that he would replace the shifters if there were not of the latest standard.  No doubt this will all become clear in time… but comments are welcome.

I am also unsure about getting the engine sharpened up while it is out.  It only has 21k miles, but it is 10 years or so old.  So some advice on new bearing shells, rings, valves, oil seals etc. and whether they are worthwhile would be appreciated.

All the best,
David Poole.

I

Life with a CSR – 2

I did not realize that my table of gear ratio/speed calculations was going to become so Horlicksed up when I posted them, so here is another shot.  If anyone would like the spreadsheet just shout… the blue cells are inputs and can be changed to suit various ratios.

And I forgot to mention the headlamp re-location.  CC have new, lower, headlamp mounts for the CSR that fit onto the top front wishbone mounting, and I decided to fit these.  Here is the before shot…

This made me build new headlamp sub-looms, since the cable routing is entirely different (it has to go from the rear of the front wishbone, along the space frame diagonal bars at the top, to the front of the wishbone).  So I ordered the correct color-coded wires, six-way Encoseal connectors, pins, seals and a crimping tool.  I made the sub-harnesses 1.5 meters long, and left the headlamp-ends clean so I could thread them through the mounts and headlamp bases.  The Econseal connectors and crimping tool I found a definite challenge – fortunately I had ordered about twice as many pins as I needed – and getting the core cable, seal and insulation (the seal is crimped with the insulation) all correctly crimped was a definite challenge.  I should have made a U-Tube video – how not to crimp Econseal connector pins… LOL.  

And while I was at it I replaced the front indicators, rear lamps, rear fog and reversing lamps since they were all rusty to some degree.  And I finished off with LED bulbs all round and a new digital indicator flasher unit.

This left the original tubular headlamp mount clamps free, so I am making up some Daytime Running Lights mounts as a trial.  I bought motorcycle DRLs and plan to wire them so that they are permanently on with the engine running (there is an ignition bus running down the chassis next to the lights that is not presently used), but use a relay to turn them off with when the sidelights are on, and back on again when the main beams are on.  So we shall see… or not.

The LED headlamps came with the car and I have not used it enough at night to really form an opinion.  It gets dark so late in summer that it was difficult to evaluate them properly, but the dip cutoff was very sharp indeed and they were very white.  I have not been able to track the make down yet… 

And while I am collecting sundry missing thoughts, here is a photo of the primaries with the insulation tape.  

I have used Thermotec wrap in the past - it starts out looking fairly smart but gets ratty in a hurry, and steams so much in the wet, even if you use their spray, that it quite alarms pedestrians.  I bought the wrap from DT – made by Design Engineering – and it seems excellent so far.  But I realize that I should have wrapped the primaries from the collector end back to the manifold stubs, so that the outer ends were neater, instead of the other way round.  The last time I wrapped primaries they were a four into one integrated design, and wrapping them in the direction of flow was the only option.  Ah well, next time… I had considered getting them Zircotec coated but I thought that two weeks without the car seemed a long time.  In the event the builders parked a skiff in the drive for a few days that turned into nearly a month, and I was marooned the whole time.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.  

I was also not sure to do about the exhaust finish – polishing did not seem quite the thing, so I was trying to get them media blasted with walnut shells to get a satin finish.  The only local source used Aluminium Oxide and then glass beads, so I went with that option.  It came out looking jolly nice however, in an industrial sort of way, and it was sympathetic to the rest of the car.  But I will probably replace the silencer in the Spring with a Raceco, since it is presently a bit noisy.  And since my last post I have decided to replace the seats with a pair of GT from Thunder Sports.  The present seats are not – puzzlingly – a pair, and although they look very similar the passenger seat is clearly the newer and has a back that is about 20mm taller.  So I think that CC must have changed the design - probably around 2008 – and if anyone has more information I would be interested.