andi4eyes

You are too kind DirtBuddha

Unfortunately I've decided to sell my car as I'm in the UK only a few months every year and rather than driving the bloody thing I seem to be looking for new garage space, bringing the car in for service and MOT or I'm out of the country entirely. Caterham 1999 VX 1.6 Classic, ex. Graduates Series race car, now road car for the last two years 1600cc C16NZ GM Family II engine (Vauxhall, Holden, Opel) 2x Weber DCOE 40 Live axle 5 speedPrice: £9400 Winner 2016 Graduates Classic Championship in the hands of Steven McMaster. The car didn’t seem to have been raced in 2017 but was then raced again in the Classic Championship in 2018 and 2019 by the previous owner. In the short 2020 racing season the car wasn’t raced but has done a couple of track days. The car is now enjoying its retirement by being road driven. For the last four years there are invoices for over £12’000 from PT, GRS and Williams. Among other things the car has received (since 2018): New engine block (as I understand a handful of new old stock blocks turned up in Australia, some made it over to the UK) New clutch Aluminium radiator Refurbished prop shaft Gearbox refurbish (by rrtransmission) Reseated valves New used axle casingThe car has cosmetic blemishes as you would expect from a car that has seen dozens of races. For me that was a great way not to worry too much about stone chips, scratches, dings from the harness buckles and so on. It could of course also be a base for a restoration, be it a re-skin or paint. The car comes with: Two Tillett seats with Oxted padding, driver seat on runners Lowered floor on driver side In-date Schroth 6 point harness on driver side, out-of-date Caterham 4 point harness on passenger side Lifeline quick release steering boss Electronic speedo Recently refurbished 13’’ minilite wheels with good Yokohama A539 all round Bilstein dampers with adjustable ride height Set of full doors Set of wind deflectors SBFS tunnel bag SBFS Storm cap Big box of spares: Brake pads, ignition parts, exhaust, oil filters etc.MOT until 19. August 2022 I put the car on PH as well: Link to ad with more and larger pictures

Looking for 2 rear light clusters with Econoseal sub loom and 2 black GRP cycle wings. Thanks!

I'd like to give an update or the (likely) solution to this problem: The master switch seems to be the culprit. The "key" fits ever so slightly sloppy in the socket. By chance I realized that a slight touch or wiggle of just a fraction of a degree cuts power to one of the small terminals. All the other terminals stay powered. My brand new RRS branded replacement master switch I had in my garage for over a year was basically broken out of the box so I couldn't really test with a new switch. I hope one of those "Made in Germany" ones are better quality than the RRS one but I understand that these parts are consumables. I will keep an eye on the condition of the new one.

According to Facet (who replied quite quickly to my question) there aren't any shut off conditions for the pumps. They didn't immediately understand the vacuum problem so I take this with a pinch of salt. If true however, the potential fuel cap vent issue becomes unlikely as the pump clearly wasn't running when the engine cut out and this goes back being a potential electrical issue.

Thanks, I will inspect my filler cap tonight. I remember having a hard time removing the cap last time I filled up. I don't remember hearing a hissing sound when I finally got it out but maybe I didn't pay attention or there was too much background noise.

Thank you Olly. The filler necks for the newer cars seem to be quite different. Can anybody tell me how venting is done on older carburetted cars (VX, Crossflow)? I will drive over to the garage to have a look at my fuel cap later tonight.

Thanks Rick. That is a good point. The very high fuel level in the tank currently could explain why the pump stops quite soon after starting the car because there isn't much air in there to begin with. I will ask Facet if the stopping of the pump would be consistent with a vacuum. I imagine it would as the pump would have to work harder and harder and eventually shut down. I have to admit I don't know how the venting of the fuel tank is supposed to work. I have an aluminium fuel tank for carburetted engines and the following filler cap: Venting must be integrated into the cap as I can't see where else it would be. Could someone please enlighten me?

Yes of course (see link to PDF below): PDF: https://www.facet-purolator.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/42664REVC_1-cube-E.pdf

Thank you very much, Jonathan, I'll send you my email address via PM. I have seen a few diagrams already, maybe you have one for a 1999 live axle. Andrew: Yes you are right. Facet actually recommends mounting the pump in a 45 degree angle (flow going up) but horizontal seems to be acceptable as well. The pump was fitted like that before and I can't imagine this setup being prone to failure when the car was raced for many seasons exactly like that. I wonder is the pump would just stop working if there wasn't enough fuel supply due to less than perfect mounting or if it would only loose prime (you would be able to hear that, the noise gets quite a lot louder). My understanding is the later. Thinking about it now and looking at the wiring diagram provided by Facet I wonder if the pump is wired through the oil pressure switch. A faulty switch and/or low oil pressure at/near idle could cause the circuit to break. I have to drive to the garage and check that. I don't know how those switches work: I assume the circuit would be closed when the engine isn't running or otherwise the fuel pump would get power at all, correct? If the switch is triggered, would it be consistent with the behaviour I experience? No pump activity while battery power is still on but back to normal operation once battery power is cut and re-established?

Hello Shortly after getting my 1600 VX, my electric fuel pump wouldn't come on one day when I was about to start the car. After power cycling using the master switch the pump came on without a problem. That was about a year and a half ago and I didn't have any further problems. Fast forward to about two weeks ago. With revs quite low driving down a 20mph road the engine cut off. I was out getting petrol, driving for about 10 minutes when the Facet pump had stopped running. I checked all the fuses which were fine. After a few minutes I did turn the master switch back to ON an to my surprise the pump started working again. After reading stories about failed Facet pumps I decided to install a new pump so I got myself a new Facet 40105 (3-4.5 psi) which seems to be the right model for those small displacement engines running two DCOE 40s. I installed the new pump in the same place as the old one, this time with the supplied fuel filter. The old setup didn't have the filter installed. A short 5 minutes test drive on Saturday was successful so I wanted to do a longer one yesterday. After only about 200 meters the car backfired (I assume because the mixture went too lean to ignite in the cylinders) and the engine stopped. The new fuel pump had stopped working again. I suspected that my wiring had failed so I pushed the car back to the garage. Only there I decided to check if the pump was back running after cycling the power and of course it was... The wiring in my car doesn't seem to be standard, maybe because it's an ex Graduates Classic race car. There seems to be no fuel pump relay: I removed all three 4-pin relays (+ the indicator relay) but the pump was still running. The pump seems to be wired directly to ignition switch position 2 but I didn't trace the wiring as of yet. What is your experience with a setup like that? You can see my installation in the picture below. The pump I grounded on the aluminium panel same as before. I only installed soft mounts with an additional wire from one side of the rubber to the aluminium panel (as per Facet soft mount kit). Under what conditions do these pumps shut off? As far as my research go they shouldn't stop pumping when they see a certain pressure. As they are supposed to run whenever they see 12V I would assume the pump would come back right on after a quick drop of voltage or loss of ground. In both circumstances, old pump and new pump, the fuel level in the petrol tank is very high. Could that point in a certain direction? Thank you for your input

Thank you for all the excellent tips. I ended up lowering the spring platforms to release as much spring pressure from the bolt holding the radius arm and the damper. Regarding the "Nylon Racing Washer Shims": I did include some of those in yesterday's Redline order. However I can't find them in my 90s assembly guide. Do they go either side of the radius arm bushes? Is there enough space?

Thank you for the suggestions on how to remove the radius arms. Will I be able to remove the entire bottom shock bolt (in order to get to the mounting point of the shock to remove rust and paint the area) when I disconnect the A-frame at the diff? Again assuming the chassis is supported on jack stands and the axle supported by floor jack.

I would do it in situ. The jack stands are supporting the chassis. I have a floor jack to support the axle.

Thank you for your answers. The bolt is under tension when the car is on jack stands. Is it enough to remove the bolt from the A-frame to release that tension from the spring?