Foxy Smith

OK found that info, Polycarb sheet with special hardened coating I think it's called "Copal" supplier is Plastics4Performance www.plastics4performance.co.uk and does not seem to be hugely more expensive than acrylic(Perspex)

Polycarb is a lot tougher, therefore safer, but it does scratch more easily. I saw an article recently in a car mag that mentioned a new product specificaly for car screens which was a polycarb base with a harder outer laminate. I'll see if I can find the article.

How about using an extension nut on the 4mm of thread you have left on the battery than you can use a bolt into the top of the extension nut to fasten the lead. (By the way extension nuts/barrels are nuts but 3-4x higher)

Consider me nudged. For the same reasons above, cutting out the parachute effect and also to stop cr*p accumulating and give some additional protection to the fragile powder coating of the chassis and DeDeon tube. I have a three part tray, part one is from rear of nose cone to start of sump, part two is the triangle of the A-frame, part three is a complex panel which is the triangles to either side of the A-frame bridged by the large rectangular area under the fuel tank. Initial patterns cut from card and trial fitted then transfered to alu sheet (16g/1.5mm/0.063" in 1050 as this is easily avaliable and cheapish). Fastening to car is by cable ties so no messing about with the chassis tubes. At various strategic points, surprisingly few needed, I have drilled 10mm holes in the alu which when in place lie either side of a chassis rail. Into these I've put brass eyelets which is probably asking for electrolytic mayhem but it looked nice. Cable ties passed up around the chasssis rail fastened and clipped. Needless to say I carry a packet of cable ties in the car. I have used strips of stickyback neoprene/EPM between alu and chassis rails to stop any fretting of the powder coat. Very easy to make, quick to fasten in position and no hyper-precision allignment issues that you would be bound to have using conventional fastenings.

Ammo, Re the Cossy head, is this a bare head? and any idea how much?? Best wishes, Alan

Although it's a Vauxhall, my car also has the Caterham dry sump. I've never seen oil temp over 40deg C on the guage, however hard the engine works. However with an IR thermometer I've established that oil temp gets to where you would expect it to be 80-100 deg C. I also have a Laminova fitted. It's plumbed into the heater circuit because I was interested primarily in fast heating of oil from cold. According to the guage the LAminova has made no difference at all. I'm fairly convinced it's a sender issue and to that end bought a new sender from Redline today (Steve was that your car at Redline, distinctive colour! John mentioned that it was having a similar problem) I'll get the oil drained later this week and get the new sender fitted. I really want to see how quickly the oil temp comes up with the Laminova.

This is not gospel but to the best of my knowledge there were two predecessors to the current S type leather seats. The original S type seat and another type which Oxted trimming refer to as the 911. This alledgedly is the most comfortable seat ever produced for the Caterham and in leather looks stunning with contrasting piped edges. Oxted Trimming Company might well be your best source of more information.

Wag, The thread is a very fine one( M16x1mm) and as such pretty delicate. I would have thought you would struggle to get a safe repair to this that you could have any degree of confidence in. It is hard to restore tube to true round, having done this you would have to re-tap losing more metal from the thread. You may find it more economical to replace the wishbone. The thought of what could happen in the event of failure is not a happy one. Best wishes Alan

Yes, I would also be interested, approx 26m^2 Alan

Got the solution. Dodgy bulb holders, I think. Suffice to say everything working OK now.

Thanks for reply John. It looks as if switch is OK. Goes from infinite resistance to zero on application of pressure as you would expect. I have voltage at the live side of the switch, and same voltage at both bulb holders which I can switch on/off with brake pedal pressure. This is not a full 12V more like 7.5V-8V. But even with this I'm not even getting a glimmer from the bulbs. Everything else seems to be working OK including the reversing lamp which supposedly shares a fuse with the brake light circuit. Headlights are coming on nice and bright. Does not make a lot of sense. Dodgy earth has to be first thought but rear indicators and rear lamps share the same earth and they are fine. Any thoughts gratefully recieved. PS have tested and changed bulbs and cleaned contacts.

Anyone know if there are any issues with the hydraulically operated brakelight switch not working/failing following a brake fluid drain down and refill?? Have just put the rear wings back on and everything works except brake lights!! Have not tried shorting switch yet will do that after a much needed cuppa. Just hope it's not a hydraulic prob I do not want to bleed those bl**ding brakes again. Thanks Alan

Anthony, You won't regret your purchase. I'm proud owner of the first Raceco Ti can and it was the best thing I ever bought for the car!!! 😬 P.S. I still have that alternator of yours. All the best Alan

Graeme, If its not the bulb/holder then the usual problem is the connector on the gearbox, assuming you have a T9 box. Mine was forever working is way free, usually just before a MOT test. You can access the connector by lifting the transmission tunnel cover enough to pull away the carpet on the drivers side. There should be a hole in the ally, looking through this you should see the connector, a bit like the connectors on a PP9 battery. Can be a fiddle geting hold of the wire if it has come loose. Hope this helps. Alan

Steve, You don't hit the thread, it's much more subtle than that. What you do is back off the locking nut underneath a few turns. Then using two hammers simultaneously in a horizontal plane you hit the alloy in which is the hole that the ball joint taper locates. The idea is that this fractionally and reversably distorts the housing and pops the ball joint out. It sounds so implausable when you read it but it works really well and with surprisingly little force required but it is absolutely critical that both hammers hit at the same time. I would suggest that relatively heavy hammers with longish shafts would be best and rely on the hammers weight rather than your own effort. Also when you reassemble smear the taper with a little copperslip for future ease and use a jack to load the taper otherwise you'll find that the whole thing just spins when you try to do up the lock nut. Hope this helps.

Would just repeat what I said on a similar thread a few days ago. Two hammers technique seems to work remarkably well. If you've knackered the gaiter, Redline can supply new gaiters without having to purchase the whole ball joint. Alan

Interesting thought but can't see how this helps, after all a vacuum can't distinguish between air and water. Only way I can see this might help would be if you established a partial vacuum in the dry cooling circuit then used the vacuum to pull in the coolant via a hose drawing coolant from the bottom of a container so that no air is introduced. A bit like bleeding brakes but backwards!! Actually no reason why you could'nt bleed brakes like this. If you are interested in pursuing this I have a retired surgical vacuum pump in my workshop which you are welcome to borrow, not sure if it would be man enough to do the job tho'! Alan

Ianrm, If its any help this was my experience of doing this. As Mr Locost says getting a splitter in this joint can be difficult. A small fork type seems to be the best but whatever type will damage the gaiter. Not a problem in your case I know. Someone on this excellent forum, suggested a different technique which initially sounds tricky but is'nt and works well. If you back off the locking nut underneath by a few mm then with two largish hammers strike the upright where the joint inserts simultaneously, i.e. one hammer from behind one in front. This has the effect of sqeezing the tapered socket that the ball joint locates in and shocks the joint out. You don't need to hit hard but you must hit each hammer at the same time. This does not appear to deform the socket, I suppose it's supported by the ball joint. Also for some reason Caterham don't seem to supply the gaiters on their own but Redline have them.

Seen one in the Burtons catalogue, looked expensive. Don't know if they have a web site.

Sell it and buy a proper car. 😬

It was'nt a bodge Arnie, it was an elegant solution to a technical problem which by luck worked rather well. Phil, yes right forum, but its a long story and strictly non PC. My worry about doing what you suggest is that the sleeve is very thin as you know and the material is surprisingly soft. I think that if you try to drive it unsupported internally and it jams it will buckle. Two further solutions that occured to me were a. loctite the sleeve to the spigot bearing so that the bearing provides intrnal support in driving in. And b. shrink fitting the sleeve using liquid nitrogen. I have access to liquid nitrogen so it's not completely fanciful, but as the sleeves mass is so small it would'nt stay shrunk for long and you would have to move fast. One further point re flap wheels in hand held drills. This can be a good way to get a bore out of round fast,although there is so little to be removed here it's not critical.

What I did, and I'm not saying it was right, was to find a socket that was a good sliding fit on the inside of the sleeve. The sleeve was then mounted in a lathe and the outside polished down to hopefully achieve a good fit. Having done this the sleeve is mounted on the socket with a short extension bar attached. The sleeve can now be driven into the crank with judicious hammer taps on the end of the extesnion bar. The problem with this technique is that where the socket goes from the diameter that fits inside the sleeve to the larger diameter that actually drives it in is radiused. This results in the outer edge of the sleeve being belled or flared out and so the sleeve cannot be driven fully home. In practice this does not matter as by now there is enough sleeve with in the crank to support the spigot bearing. If it had been my car ( it was John Howes Sausage express I was experimenting on!!!) and my socket, I would have been inclined to stick the socket in the lathe and turn the radius to a square shoulder to give a direct and square push to the sleeve. This all assumes you have access to a lathe or can improvise. Good luck. Alan

I've had a problem in the past with the non-return valve on the master cylinder getting jammed up. This might cause the problems you describe but I would have thought that it would be apparent when trying to bleed. Is it a Girling m/c? and when bleeding can you get the full pedal stroke?

Are we allowed to ask why you were sleeping in the garage??? "Woke up last night ......" 😬

Brill, Ta.