David Mirylees

Ford Type 9 gearbox in Lotus 7 - Strange noise in third gear. Sound recording here: https://youtu.be/KfmhOXpYKBA (Ignore the video, I just laid the sound byte over it! :-) ) Start off, 1st 2nd then 3rd - odd sound. Beeping is indicator whilst turning. Up shallow hill in 2nd then 3rd - odd sound again until recorder switched off. Noise only appears in 3rd when under load. Any idea as to what may be causing the noise? (Volume needs to be UP to hear it) https://youtu.be/KfmhOXpYKBA Cheers Solved: After a thorough inspection by Road & Race it was discovered that the 3rd gear selector was bent and there were signs of contact with the 4th gear. A replacement selector and cleaning up of the possible high spots on the 4th gear have meant that the box is now silent! Top marks to Phil at Road & Race 'cos it wasn't at all obvious at first sight. .

Ed. You could use the standard Zetec one. I had a Dunnell lightened (Zetec) unit which I used on the new motor. Specialists on the Zetecs are Raceline and Dunnell. david

Johnny, I didn't want to mess about so it just helps offset this Omex straight swap !!****$""£4$$4 david

Silvertop Ford Zetec 2.0L engine Whiting/Dunnell Twin 45 Webers Twin Throttle Linkage K&N Filters Dunnell Inlet Manifold Dunnell Alloy Sump Dunnell ECU & Software Dunnell Wiring Harness BHP 153 Alternator Engine Complete less clutch, flywheel and exhaust manifold (parts retained for new injected engine) Engine removed to be replaced with a new Omex injected Zetec. Silvertop was performing like a train and now after 2 months of pain and wishing that I had never started the damned swap, I have got the Omex to fit in my 1988 chassis and is at least running. Silvertop has been running in my Seven using the basic ECU setup ie. Coil, TPS, Crank Position. However the harness has all the wiring present for full use of the ECU. Simple 3-wire connection to the Seven (Ignition/Tacho/Earth) I was going to keep the Silvertop as a JIC spare but additional costs incurred with the Omex swap means that it isn't a practical option. So this (almost) complete engine is up for grabs at a no-nonsense £1200 Collection from West Dorset. David Mirylees 01305 266418 dmirylees@gmail.com

Gulf colours seen in Charminster Dorchester Sat. pm NX09.... Gave it a wave, which was acknowledged, nice to see a different 7 around here :-)

Back in the dark ages I found the same problem with the Blue High Beam lamp being too bright. I just swapped the Red ignition lamp and Blue HB lamp over. OK, so I have a blue ignition lamp and the red HB lamp but the red doesn't mess up my eyes when I go back to dip - which is another thing the blue one did. (Back in the 60's the Navy used red lighting in the control room so that your eyes didn't need an age to adjust to the darkness when you stepped outside).

Dorsettest01

...and there's always the option of wrapping. A local owner now has an academy car which is wrapped in white and it's pretty well perfect - including the louvres. (A full wrap would probably cost circa £800)

I know the owner who has done this (on the FB site). This is what he did: "Removing Paint from Caterham: Note that what was done was done mainly through 'gut-feel' from years of experience in Aerospace which stood the owner in pretty good stead. Paint stripper, but beware some of the ‘modern healthy’ options are more like polish than paint strippers. In the end used Nitromoors. A cheap flat wooden spoon was purchased then the end shaped to be like a broad wooden chisel enough to get under the paint but being wooden was much less likely to damage the aluminium. Then plenty of time to do the job carefully and thoroughly. Also made sure there were good covers/troughs under where working to catch anything that fell and the water used to rinse of the paint stripper. Then hand rubbed down the aluminium starting with, probably, 180/240 grit. (Obviously anything rough will produce deep scratches in the ally). Worked up through the grades to something ridiculously fine. The last ones being on a rotary polisher – trizact was brand name of the polishing pads – and probably used small amount of WD40/silicone spray to lubricate and prevent heating the ally up too much.. After that, went through the Nuvite grades (G6, C, S) with a polisher. Found that mechanical polishing of the bonnet produces some bounce and thus struggled to get the result I wanted with machines. Eventually made up a buck for the bonnet so polishing could be completed off car. For the other panels placed microfibre cloth onto orbital sander (not rotary!!) for polishing Nuvite. Nowadays it’s all by hand. Best not to go circular with hand polishing." Hope this helps.

A local (Dorset) owner was recently asking for a short-cockpit standard roll bar. PM me when you wish to part with it pls.

Great news! You will be pleased .

You're welcome! Their 1st batches also sold very quickly. Good idea well executed.

These work well and look really good. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Caterham-Mirrors-Aero-Race-Pair-Matt-Black-billet-aluminium-immediate-dispatch-/272002904811?fits=Car+Make%3ACaterham&hash=item3f54a2f2eb:g:C44AAOSwMmBVuIR7 Not fitted them to my old car but a couple of locals have. Just by the bye, as all the interior 'barnacle' mirrors I have used have proven useless, I simply modified one to clip over the top of the windscreen - works well and is easily removed.

Well, I am amazed that no-one has come forward on this one and that such a comment is made without having any apparent knowledge of the person involved. The owner of the Seven, Barry Sweeney, is a lovely guy that put pretty much all of his time and a mass of effort to get the original club website up, running and maintained (you remember the one that a great percentage of you said you wanted back) with no financial reward. Circumstances dictated that Barry wasn't in a position to keep the car running as he would have liked and it has unfortunately fallen into the condition that you now see. I'm pretty certain that anyone else would have sold the car years ago but Barry is a real Seven enthusiast and obviously couldn't bear to see it go. I know just how enthusiastic he is because way back in the formative years of this club, Barry drove hundreds of miles just to come and see me for a chat which was just one of the reasons that I asked him later to take over the club's accounts. I really hope that the car gets sorted and that Barry will be able to return to the life and enjoyment that the car really gave him before things changed for him. He could do with your support - not this sort of post.

If you go for the MG Midget unit, the early cars had a chromed lever .

I fitted an MG Midget handbrake to the passenger side of the tunnel. Just needed a small sheet of alloy the same pattern as the brake mount on the inside of the tunnel to reinforce it. It's been there since the early 80's and works well (cribbed from Robbie Philpott who used to autotest his Seven very succesfully).

Probably already been answered but if I comment/answer a thread I cannot go back and read it as it gets 'removed' from view. I can see any threads that I have answered only if I log out. Perhaps there's a setting that I have missed? I am using Opera.

Spoke to a friend who has a couple of BGH's fitted to his cars and he mentioned that the rattles that he had were due to the nylon bush at the root of the gearlever being worn. He sourced a Bronze replacement on-line which cured the problem (4 times the price but worth it). May be useful info anyway...

£22K for a real Lotus (type 60) with a twink (£8-10K). Elans and Europas fetching £30k+ Not really bad - IF you like series 4s. They're also a very nice car to drive - did my first Swiss trip in 1970 in an S4. Most of the series 4s went (eventually) to Switzerland (and Japan). Personal choices.

Thanks for the info Doug. Jonathan, I have had speakers in my 7 since about 1969 when the first radio/cassette players for cars came out and really appreciate being able to point the car at the sun and relax with gentle sounds for driver and passenger or turn up the volume for the occasional party :-) I do also nowadays have the Starcom so that I can converse with my passenger and listen to MP3 music when needed...

Always had a radio/stereo fitted in my 7. It's mounted up under the dash between the Steering wheel and the side scuttle. Speakers are appx. 5" diameter mounted into the side panels either side just over thigh level. (Mine's an old std cockpit car without the honeycomb filled panels. Yes, it's audible and I like driving with music. Have to be careful to remember to lower the volume when reaching built up areas as on the occasions when I have forgotten and then switched off the engine, I am very conscious at just how loud it has been!! Doug, your dash speakers look really neat, what are they?

Just by the bye, checked my Silver top Dunnell wiring for the water thermostat. Although the plug type take off on top of the thermostat has the plug fitted, the cable is short and not connected to anything. The only connection from the thermostat to the loom is the single wire that is attached to the underside of the thermostat the exhaust manifold side. My set-up maybe '2D' as the loom only 'sees' the TPS, Crank posn and the coil pack.

I'll have a look on Sunday and see what set-up I have. In the meantime, why not give James Whiting a call as he did the Dunnell Zetecs - inc mine.

Short of taking the trunnion off, maybe pumping the oil in may force the grease out? Never had to try it but I suppose it depends upon the viscosity of the grease v oil. Should be quickly apparent after a stroke or two. ...and apologies the manuals state EP90 (not 80)