AnkerB-S

I stuffed some steel wool into mine to create a surface for catching the droplets. As mentioned in my earlier post, I haven't seen any oil in the tank yet, and the end of the orange tube is clean as a whistle.

Thanks, that was really helpful. I like the rivnut idea!

I am having trouble getting the front wheel bearing cap off. On all other cars I have owned there was a lip that allowed me to pry it off with a scare driver, but this one doesn't. What's the secret? I need to adjust both sides since I can feel play in the wheel.

Here is a picture of my setup. You can see the hose going from the breather to a nipple I installed next to the oil fill on the valve cover. At the other end of the valve cover, right over the exhaust pipe is another nipple for a hose that goes to the catch tank at the left of the picture. The orange hose leads under the car to open air.

On my Xflow I followed the advice of other forum members and ran a hose from the crankcase breather to one end of the valve cover, and then a hose from the other end of the valve cover to a catch tank, bought on Amazon, and then a hose under the transmission. To my surprise, the valve cover catches all of the fumes and the catch tank is dry as a bone. What a difference from before I did this, when oil fumes would waft from under the car when sitting still.

I got the answer. The hydraulic slave cylinder pulls instead put pushing, which is the norm. So it is possible to adjust the play with the threaded nuts on the actuator rod.

I will. Maybe tomorrow. It takes some effort to get there. Rear on jack stands, boot off the actuator, picture and then the reverse. Thanks/Anker

Today's mystery is that my clutch slave cylinder can move back and forth about 1/4", which robs the pedal of some of its travel. It has a cylindrical part that fits through a hole in a bracket, and this is where the longitudinal play occurs. I can't figure out how it is secured in this hole and what prevents more play than it has. So the specific questions are: Is it really supposed to have this play? If not, how and where do I eliminate it?Thanks in advance/Anker

My money is on the calipers. If there's rust on the front disks after a drive then the pads are making no contact. The pistons are probably seized because the brake fluid is full of water.

It sounds like you have the same problem as I had. Check the connections on the alternator. On mine two of the three were loose. Does the horn have the same problem? If it does, then it definitely is that cause.

Also, check the three connectors on the alternator. On mine, two of the three were loose. Low voltage as a result of a loose connection can cause all kinds of problems.

Hmmm. I swore I had replied to Roger. And my comment was in no way judgment. I appreciate that we all have lots of things to worry about. The answer is that the timing was just over 10 degrees when the cap touched the manifold. I had 12 degrees of advance before I pulled the carburetors the previous time and with that the car was happy with a smooth idle and no spitting out the carbs. So I knew the timing was off and could only be corrected by pulling the distributor and moving it a tooth so I could put enough advance on it. I have a really nice timing light that allows me to dial the advance I want and when the mark on the pulley lines up with the TDC mark on the case I know I have exactly what I want. For everybody's information, the nut I bought is called a coupling nut and it is 1 inch long. Enough to allow a socket to go on when the nut screwed completely in. That will make the next removal a ton easier. It won't be long, because I plan to replace my home cut gasket with the stock one as soon as it makes it over here to Trumpland from Caterham. Thanks/Anker

OK, since I wasn't getting an answer here, nor could I find anything in my search, I decided to take the carbs out and move the distributor the way I that I know doesn't break it. This time I decided to remove it by taking the manifold off the head. 5 easily accessible bolts and nuts must be easier than the 8 that hold the carb to the manifold. Oops, I have to drain the coolant before taking the manifold off. Why they don't have a petcock on the lowest place beats me, so I removed the lowest radiator hose and spilled a bunch of coolant on the garage floor because I wasn't prepared for the rush of coolant once the hose came off the radiator. And, yes, 4 of the 5 bolts and nut were a piece of cake. The 5th under the return for the cabin heater wasn't. Tolerances are too small for a socket and accessibility sucks. With an open-ended wrench I could turn it 1/12th of a turn before turning the wrench, giving it another 1/12th of a turn, etc, etc. Fortunately it loosened quickly and I could get it out with two fingers turning the nut. I ordered a special nut that is tall enough to allow a socket when I put it back on. The manifold did not want to come off with the bolts and nut off, but a plastic dead hammer loosened it, but not without breaking the gasket. The distributor job took 5 minutes with the manifold out of the way, I have gasket material so I cut a new manifold gasket and when the new nuts (I always order an extra) arrives I will get it together again. In conclusion, yes, it is easier to get the carbs off by separating the manifold from the head, but not a lot! I actually enjoy the above. Getting to know the car by taking it apart and putting it back together again is something I enjoy.

With both horn and flashers working as they should I need to turn the dizzy one tooth so I can dial in enough advance to prevent slight spitting out the carbs. It doesn't look like there is room to move the dizzy a tooth without removing the carbs. Is that correct? The dizzy is the Lucas electronic ignition one with the huge rotor that I can't pull off. Is that the design, or did I just not pull hard enough? Without the rotor, there should be enough room. If that doesn't give me enough room, I'll have to remove the carbs again. I would like to do that this time by removing the manifold with the carbs. The manifold to head bolts are much easier to access and torque than the manifold to carb nuts. Because my car has the useless heater, I'll have to drain some coolant because the return hose from the heater goes to an outlet on the manifold. I'd prefer to just lift the dizzy out a bit, move a tooth and reinsert it without going to all that trouble.

So, after two days of effort, I found the problem. Most of the time, I was sure it was a grounding problem. I did find both ground points. Yes, one was hidden on top of the wiper motor bracket. The other one on the oil cooler bracket. Also very difficult to spot. Because the problem was heat-related, I thought it had to be the ground point on the oil cooler and ran a wire from there directly to the negative battery terminal. It didn't help. So, this morning I decided to use the fact that both the horn and indicators were failing had to have significance. I printed out multiple copies of the wiring diagram and traced all connections to and from the indicators on one sheet and the horn on another. They are both powered through independent fuses from one terminal on the alternator. When I checked those, I found that one was loose and needed pinching, and another was loose, but just had to be pushed fully in. Then everything worked as it should! The prior owner had lived with the problem for a long time and had tried replacing the flasher unit. Jonathan was a huge help. What a great resource. Thank you, Jonathan! A very relieved and tired Anker.

I have a really crazy electrical problem. When I turn the key to the run position and test the horn, emergency blinker and turn signals they work like a charm. If I start the car they will stop working after a while. Since the horn is on a different relay than the blink relay used by the emergency blinker and turn indicator it must be either an electrical supply problem or a grounding problem. When it is close to failure the horn and flashers will work intermittently and I can hear the relays buzzing instead of clicking. When they fail there is no sound from the relays. Strangely the head light switch works fine all the time and I can switch between high and low beams with no problem. My problem is that I can't find the chassis grounding point for the instrument panel. Will appreciate if someone can tell me where it is. The car is a 1987 1700 Supersprint. It is a mix of a pre-1988 and post-1988 1700. It is a LHD USA model. Thanks/Anker

You can easily get at the fuel filler tube by removing the soft cover over the tank/"boot". Loosen the clamp on the flexible tube and remove the locked fuel cap, stuff a small towel into the filler tube and either fix or replace the cap.

So I am pretty sure I have it figured out now. The red and black wires going to the distributor are from the rev limiter. They stay. The wiring diagram in the Weale book shows the functions of the other wires. The WB (white and black wire) Goes to the tach and distributor. Of the two white wires one goes to the ignition switch and the other goes to the ignition amplifier, which does the magic of simulating points opening and closing. Which is which would require disconnecting one and using a multimeter. To wire the new distributor with the Aldon Igniter I connect the red wire to side the ignition switch is wired to (+), and the black wire to the other side of the coil (-). I can leave the wire going to the old ignition amplifier. It simply powers it, but since it was unplugged from the old distributor it doesn't do anything. The wiring diagram is a bit misleading since it shows two WB wires going to the coil. There's only one. The splice is hidden in the wiring harness. Thanks for the help and my apologies for being able to answer the question myself.

Yes, the old Lucas had 3 wires. A red, a green and a black.

The old distributor is the Lucas electronic ignition that includes an electronic ignition amplifier. I also have an Armtech rev limiter. I assume, but would like confirmed that I should disconnect the amplifier. Burton is quite adamant that the coil must have a resistance of at least 3 ohm, which I confirmed, but I am not sure what the amplifier does and whether it can burn out the Ignitor. I would like to retain the rev limiter. So here's the issue. On the coil there are double male spade connectors on each terminal. Ther's a red wire going to one terminal and a black to the other, which I assume come from the distributor. I can confirm that with an ohmmeter. The trouble is that the other three wires, one going to one terminal and one going to the other, are all white or gray, with two going to one terminal and one going to the other. The rev limiter has red and black wires that are supposed to be spliced into the red and black wires going into the distributor, but the splice must be hidden somewhere in the wiring harness. But they could be a pair of the white/gray wires. I'd hate to have to open the wiring harness and trace all the wires. So here's my plan, which I would like to have critiqued: Connect the red and black wires from the new distributor to the red and black wires that came from the wiring harness to the old distributor. This should ensure that the rev limiter remains active. Then cut all the wires going into the ignition amplifier, which should disable that. Finally retain all wires going to the coil. So what could possibly go wrong?

The tie wraps are only temporary. I will get replacement sprung mounts from the seller and install them when I receive them.

While working on the engine I noticed a bit of leakage from the coolant thermostat housing. Unbolted it and the gasket is complete toast, fell apart as soon as I tried to pry it off the housing. Some of it on the head and some of it on the housing. Will have to clean the surfaces and replace the gasket. Assume it is standard gasket that I can purchase at any auto parts store. Precious owner clearly wasn't a DIY mechanic. Finding lots of issues like this..

I did and installed it today! To get it off the carbs have to be removed, which is a pain because the bottom manifold nuts are hard to get to. Now I have to do the wiring, which will be a breeze. I'll leave the control box for the original Lucas electronic ignition for some day where I completely redo the wiring loom. I answered my own question by using brute force and a screw driver to get the breather connector out and the new one in. Much better fit. The new catch can also came from Amazon today. Nice, shine aluminum one but no baffles, so I will stuff a couple of steel pads into the can to help catch the remaining droplets. There's room to install it on the left hand side of engine compartment. I'll have to make sure there's plenty of space between the exhaust manifold and the tube going to the catch can so it won't melt. I also got the cooling fan and its relay mounted. The mounting hardware for the fan is cr.p. Two of the four broke under hand pressure and I had to use tie wraps to replace them. I am going to leave the original fan in and let it pull air through the oil cooler. The plus wire for the original cooling fan will be used to trigger the relay for the radiator fan, so they will both engage at the same temperature.

I guess its not a PVC valve, but simply a crankcase breather.

Started for serious on updating, cleaning and checking the 1700 Supersprint. Item 1 was putting it on jack stands and removing the wheels so I can get at suspension and brakes. Learned the hard way that you can't put jack stands on one side and then the other side. Has to be one end at a time. was careful, so I saw what was going to happen. The whole suspension is going to need a good cleaning. Oily grime covers everything. Bearings and bushings seem to be in good shape. Cleaning, flushing brakes and checking pads and shes can wait. Then I moved to the engine. I am going to reroute the crank case blow by using the routing through the valve cover and then a catch can. The Caterham catch can is a bit of junk, so I'll get a good one instead and use the hoses and PVC valve connector from the Caterham kit. QUESTION: The original rubber PVC valve connector is a really lose fit, but doesn't want to come out of the valve. It is held by a disk that appears to be brazed on to the valve. Do I just use brute force to pull the old connector out? Seems to be the only option The carb was a real chore to remove. Especially the nuts on the bottom of the carb that holds it on to the manifold. I was able to get a socket on them with a universal joint on the outer nuts and an extension on the inner nuts. The butterfly valve for cylinder 4 was quite a bit dirtier than the others. I suspect that's the one with a leaking valve seal. The spitting caused by the bad ignition timing must have blown oil on to the butterfly valve. The last thing I did today was to trial fit the 8" cooling fan that I'll replace the original with, The shield will need a bit of trimming to get a good fit, but it will work a lot better than the original fan when fitted properly. No wonder the original fan is inefficient. There's no funnel to prevent sucking from the sides and there;s a huge hap between the fan and the radiator, so most of the ait sucked by the feeble fan must have come from around the radiator. Must have taken over an hour to complete the job, but now I can get at the distributor. I am going to replace the original with one from Burton Power with an Ignitor. Cleaned up all the tools and called it a day.