BenF

Thanks 21jigsaw The plate looks good, I cannot imagine how it could be bent, it must be the uprated one. So my friendly technician loosened off the lock nut, I bought new bolts from Trident Racing Supplies just for peace of mind and the assembly is back on the car and tightened up correctly.

If a car is priced right and is a good spec and condition, it should sell quickly at this time of year. The fact that it came from Sevens and Classics is a good sign - I got my latest 7 from them and they really know their stuff.

Very good idea Stu. I've left it as it is, as the car is being MoTd on Weds and I don't want to start fiddling around with it now. Afterwards I'll disassemble and have another look. Also ordered myself a workbench today as the next step in getting my garage better prepared for this kind of thing.

John, yes I have access to a workshop, not on this bank holiday weekend, but later this week. However it's a wake up call for me to get a proper workbench and vice. I've got loads of tools but the usual blocker for me when doing maintenance is whenever I have to loosen something which is tight or seized, it ends up being a right PITA.

Yes exactly, but when it's off the car, it's difficult to get enough of a grip on the part to loosen the 17mm nut. I do need to get a proper workbench and a vice! Obviously, the locknut will have to be tightened again when back on the car, but I can do that in a controlled way, whereas loosening it on the car by putting a lot of torque into it until it shifts, is something I would rather avoid, i.e. I don't want to be putting a lot of bending moment into the column unnecessarily when trying to undo it.

Yes, there is a 17mm locknut on the grub screw. It's hidden in the photo above, it's on the other side of the clamp. Try as I might, I can't get the grub screw to move. I could try doing this in situ but it would mean putting lots of load into the column, which I don't want to do. Later this next week I will try to get hold of someone with the right tools, to get it moving again and then reassemble it as per Stu's instructions in the other post.

Thanks Jonathan

So on this topic, it was not possible to loosen the grub screw (at least not without a vice and breaker bar, neither of which I have at home), so I had to make do with mating the grub screw on a fresh part of the flat on the lower column. Does anyone know from the build manual what the tightening torque for the two bolts should be?

Is there a setting for the rev counter which needs to be changed depending on the engine being used? i.e. are there dip switches on the back of the instrument which have been set wrongly?

Thanks Jonathan! I had not noticed that this topic had been covered so recently.

Ah right - so that the lower part would just slide up inside the upper part on impact.

Whilst on an early morning blat this morning, I had to do a three point turn and heard a clunk from the steering when on full lock. I then found the steering wheel was off centre, although the car itself was behaving itself fine - inspection of all bolts relevant to the steering system showed the reference marks still lining up. On inspection in the garage, I found the joint between upper and lower parts of the column was switching between two positions when a decent amount of torque is applied. Disassembling the joint, I can feel witness marks in the flat on the lower column where the grub screw had engaged, but there is no obvious damage as such. The clamping bolts were in their original position, at least based on the reference marks on the heads. I assume that over time, there has just been a bit of plastic deformation and the grub screw just needs readjusting and tightening. My plan was just to adjust the grub screw to have more contact force on the flat and then reassemble everything with some loctite on the bolts. I was a bit bemused to find such an agricultural connection between the parts of the column, but there you go. Has anyone had this problem before?

My 7 is insured with MSM but with Ageas as the underwriter. MSM are very honest about their choice of underwriters and policies, I would just tell them that you have reservations about KGM and ask for a quote from Ageas. I think MSM do try to compete on price, but they also say that you get what you pay for. They explained to me that, seeing as they will be chasing up any claim, they choose underwriters with whom they have a good relationship.

Can't you ask MSM do to a quote with Ageas as the underwriter? Would be interesting as a comparison

I'm a very happy customer with MSM (underwriter Ageas), only thing to bear in mind is that track day cover is not included and works out pretty expensive if you want to organise it as an add on. I forget the exact numbers but it was not economical. So that's really the only downside of going with MSM. If you want reliable on-road cover AND track day cover, I don't know if there is a good option out there.

But wasn't there also a specific page for head gasket failures for the K? I remember reading a long web article years ago about the various failure causes, I'm pretty sure it was on the DVA Power website but I might be mistaken.

If it is a HG failure, you need to sort out the root cause, rather than just replacing the gasket. Many people have changed a K-series head gasket, only to find the problem reoccurs. IIRC, there can be various causes, from the dowels used between block and head, head porosity, the head being warped and needing remachining etc. Dave Andrews (oilyhands on here) is a mine of information and I thought he had a web page specifically about this problem, but cannot find it now. Maybe someone else has a link?

For my 7, the underwriter with MSM is Ageas. MSM do not cover track days as standard and it gets quite expensive to cover them individually with them. That is the one downside of them. Years ago, I switched from MSM to REIS because of the track day cover, but with my current 7 am back with MSM, seeing as I'm not planning many track days.

I use MSM for my home, travel and 7 insurance. Dave Spragg at MSM admits that they don't offer the cheapest cover, but they choose underwriters who are reliable and give good service. It's good if A-Plan can fight your corner, but I'd think a good choice of underwriter (even if not the cheapest) is part of the job of a broker. I imagine that A-Plan will react to this kind of thing, it's not in their interest to use underwriters who are a pain to deal with.

Multimatic are another damper manufacturer, they are a bit different to conventional dampers as they use a series of spool valves inside, rather than the normal shims. They are a good alternative to Bilsteins - SamC has some on his CSR, I think he had them on a damper dyno after quite a high mileage and they still looked good compared to the original curves from Multimatic, but he can confirm.

Really the title of this thread should be: DVSA makes tiny change to MoT requirements. How anyone could think this is a big change is beyond me

Hi James Thanks for the reply. Let me think it over. Regards Ben

Hi James, are the headrest pockets sized for leather seats (rather than Tillets)?

Foggy, if the car itself is a good one and the price is right, then BC is good. I sold two cars on BC - my R300K within 1 day for the asking price and my Honda Jazz within 1 hour, also for the asking price. Spring is not too far away, I'd put an ad on here and see what happens.

I think all R400Ks were dry sump?