OrangeMax

Greetings, I'm just about to remove the Sierra Diff from my Caterham and if I correctly understand this conversation the Right Hand nut is removed by turning anti-clockwise and the Left Hand Nut is removed by turning clockwise? The torque specification is 200 FT Pounds? Thanks! MAX

My sincere thank you to all of you. Yes, this is the information I needed to install the sump guard. :) MAX

Greetings, I'm interested in adding this part to my Duratec powered Caterham, but I can't find any pictures showing its installation. Does anyone have experience installing this part they would like to share? Thanks! MAX

Just an update on my curious 6 Speed. It does use the factory shifter made by Quaif. The former owner contacted me after reading my questions here on this forum. He informed me he purchased it from Raceline. Apparently Raceline was not clear of its origin to him. He just assumed the oversized shaft was a race modification. According to him, his customers usually require the refit of the saddle every 2 years or so if they track the car because the saddle becomes worn out. He thought the oversized shaft was the way someone created to prevent this failure. He also had trouble with getting the car out of reverse, but never thought to grease it up. He recommended I contact Road Race Transmissions, as perhaps they could shed some light on its unique reverse feature. MAX

It's off the transmission that was supplied with the car. The previous owner, (actually a Caterham dealer) isn't really forthcoming about where the parts for this Caterham originated from. I'll be taking the shifter out again when the saddle arrives. When that happens, pictures will follow. It will be interesting how all the parts fit up. I agree with you that wear with the current setup will be an issue. I'm curious if you know the outside width of the shifter fork? MAX

Greetings John, Thank you for the Guide. I followed the recommendations, cleaned and greased the shifter. It's working far better now. I'm happy! There is one curious item though. When I removed the shifter I noticed that the saddle you referred to (Ford PN 1522783) was missing from my shifter. I'm not sure the saddle would work in my application as the shaft that the saddle fits on is .375 inch in diameter and the fork spacing on the shifter is +.375 inch. (see photo). Did they make a version of this transmission that did not use the saddle?

Unfortunately, mine is not doing that. When I pull it back, it doesn't pop up. It's not quite in the gear, yet not completely free. MAX

Greetings, I wondering if there is some "Trick" to getting the Caterham 6 speed box out of reverse gear. Here is the situation. I put the car into reverse easy enough, but when I go to select 1st gear, the box seems stuck not in reverse and not in 1st and not really in neutral. If I grab the shifter with both hands I can shake it back into neutral and then I can shift it into first gear. Is there something I'm not doing correctly? Does the shifter need to be lifted or depressed prior to shifting out of reverse? Is some type of adjustment required? Thanks for any insight. Regards, MAX

Thank you for the recommendation. The email to Darren @ Caterham has been sent. MAX

Yes, there are many DS tank manufactures in the US. The smallest diameter tank available here is 6 inch. This will not fit in the space in front of the engine. The 5 inch tanks available that I've found so far have a capacity about 3.5 liters. There seems to be a concenses that around a 7 liter system is best. So far the only option I've found is the CC DS tank. If someone knows of a experienced DS tank fabricator who can make a front mounted tank in that has the volume of the CC tank, please share. Thanks! MAX

Greetings, I'm looking for a new dry sump tank for my Duratec powered Caterham. The chassis is a S3. The current location of the DS tank is on the right side of the car just in front of the passenger (in this case) foot well. Unfortunately the location is just behind the exhaust header. Oil temperatures are high, 140c before I installed a heat shield and about 130c after I installed the heat shield between the tank and the exhaust header. I plan to move the tank location to the front of the engine. I've looked into the Caterham triangle shaped tank and I'd use it but it appears to be out of stock. Does anyone have this tank available, new or used? What is the capacity of the Caterham DS tank? Barring the factory option I found this tank on the internet:https://ahfabrications.co/store/oil-systems/dry-sump-tanks-oil-tanks-and-coolers/ahf080-dry-sump-tank-for-caterham-westfield/ Does anyone have experience with this tank? It would fit the location at the front of the engine but the working capacity is listed at 3.86 liters. Is this enough capacity for the Duratec engine? Are there other DS tanks available that would fit in front of the engine? Thank you. MAX

Wanted, Factory Caterham dry sump tank for my Duratec powered Caterham. Must be willing to ship to USA. Thank you. MAX

So I took the car out for a drive today and did the final setup on the speedometer. It's now about dead on with the GPS speedometer, so I'm calling this job done! Thanks to everyone who offered their experience, especially John Vine. Now its on to fine tuning the roller barrel throttles and some fine tuning on the tach. Then off to get the car titled and Licensed! OM

So to increase car mounted Speedometer reading to match GPS you would multiply. To decrease the car mounted Speedometer reading to match GPS you would divide. OM

Greetings, The Silver MPH speedometer showed up from Caterham. It's rather nice having the correct speedometer in the car working as it should. I set it for my current tire size as shown in the chart. It's a bit fast compared with the GPS speedometer but I can tune that out. My understanding of the procedure is to drive the car at 60 mph as shown on the speedometer and compare it to the GPS Speedometer. If the GPS is indicating 65 MPH when the car speedometer is showing 60 MPH. The formula is this: 60/65=.923 Then divide the Pulse Code (023855/.923=025845)?(example numbers shown, no test done yet). OM

Greetings John, According to the email I received from Caterham, yes it is. So its been ordered. Perhaps someone will need a Silver KPH speedometer in the near future! Thanks to you I had reason to be persistent. I'm truly glad this organization exists. OM

Three cheers! I have a working speedometer, thanks to the great advice from the folks who frequent the tech section of the Lotus 7 Forum. Just in the rare case that others may find themselves with a similar challenging speedometer I'll recap the things that were required to get it working. 1. The sensor distance to the trigger wheel was not correct, as it was not lighting on every tooth. 2. Ground modification was not done. (Sometimes this is not required, but it can't hurt to do it) 3. Sensor wire was going to the wrong pin on the speedometer. I changed it's location from pin #6 to Pin#7. 4. The wrong code was set in the speedometer. Thanks to the folks here I was able to set in the correct code. 5. There was not a 1K ohm .25w resistor between pin#1 and pin#7 wires. This was added. Thank you all again. OM

So, the 12v green wire from Pin #1 supplies the added voltage required for the speed sensor (reduced by the resistor)? Yes, the black tach is a dip switch version. Thank you for pointing that out. Is there a document covering the dip switch settings? OM

So, try placing a 1 ohm, 0.25w resistor inline on the red/blue signal wire? Ok, I'll try that!. Thank you for the info on the silver MPH Tach. I will contact Caterham on Monday Morning to confirm its a MPH version. Thanks! OM

So the saga of my speedometer continues...John, thank you for reminding me of the recalibration procedure for the speedometer. It's amazing how following the instructions works...sometimes. The code displayed was 008359. It did not match anything on the chart so I reset the code to 024581 (Avon CR500 205/55 x 13). I ran the car on stands in gear, no luck. It would not display any speed. I tried the signal wire both in Pin #6 and Pin#7 without success. I again checked to see if I was getting getting pulses at the sensor. The sensor would light up on all 42 teeth of the trigger wheel. I checked the voltage signal wire at the speedometer. it would range from .4V (no light) to .7V (light on). So I'm really scratching my head on this puzzle. I even tried a second speedometer I acquired. It also did not display speed. the second unit was curious as it would not let me access the recalibration feature. I have included pictures of it so maybe someone can say if this particular version omits recalibration? So any thought of what I can try now? If I can't get this working I'm considering having the speedometer converted to GPS. If that is the case I'd like to find a silver faced speedometer in MPH. Anyone have one they don't want sitting on their shelf? Regards, OM

Greetings John, Actually no. I tried the procedure and never got the code to display. It will display the miles, trip miles and I can zero out the trip miles, but I cannot get the code to show. I've tried this on both speedometers that I have without success. I have been able to move the signal wire from pin 6 to pin 7. Weather permitting I will test that change out today. M

Does anyone know the best way to remove the pins from the 8 pin speedometer plug?

Greetings, Here is the views of the speedometer as requested

Here is a drawing of my current Speedometer pin out

Thank you all for this information. My Caterham is probably unique in that it's mostly homogenization of different years/specifications. The fellow I purchased the car from had it running, and its fast and fun. But there were a few things he had not figured out. The chassis is an Arch motors unit dating from 2006. The wiring harness as close as we can figure might be sigma? The tach, according to the Caterham Dealer I've been working with dates to a Rover K series circa 2002. The engine is a Duratech 2.0, COP, barrel intake and Cosworth ECU. The former owner was building his version of an R400, I believe. Insofar as the Speedometer challenge goes. I have checked the wiring on the sensor plug and all the connections are correct. Yes, I agree that the use of the black wire for something other than a ground is a boobie trap. The former owner did create his own wire harness from the sensor to the main harness and he didn't use the factory colors for the wires. So I'm going to need to take the tunnel cover off and see what he spliced his wire job to. There is continuity from the signal wire to the red/blue wire pin #6 on the speedometer plug. Giving the information I'm going to try moving the red/blue wire from #6 pin to #7 pin as the Caerbont document shows MAX