OAP

I have a spare 5" (2" pipe) silencer which was on my VX for about 2000m, between 1996 and 98 - it has lived in my garage since then. No marks or dents, but I will check and confirm if you are interested in buying it. I'm in Lymington - about two hours from Swindon.

Exactly the same, except the ebay boat has cut aways in the foredeck - I think this is an owner modification. Also mine has a jib which hanks onto the forestay, and my trailer is a bit newer.

Ferranti 10ft sailing dinghy, ss rigging, aluminium spars, hanked jib and gaff main, ply dagger board and rudder, complete with road / launching trailer. I think this dates from the 1970's - I bought it secondhand in 1987 for my children to use, then I used it with oars as a tender for some years, and it has lived behind my garage for the past 5 or 6 years. Goodish condition, hull could use a little tlc, sails, spars, rigging perfect, trailer needs a wheel (tyre perfect but wheel rim rusted), sail away for £200. Blatmail me if interested. Edited by - OAP on 19 Jul 2008 16:11:41

Thanks Rob

My reply might be meaningless if you are certain the readings are correct, but I've had three or four different senders, all of which give different readings, at least one as high as you are getting. I fitted a 2.5bar pressure switch independently of the sender, and now ignore the gauge, knowing that if the light goes on when the car is being driven I have a problem.

I've ordered a set of Kumhos to replace CR 500's, and see from the respective web sites that the Avon 175/55 are 527mm dia, the 205/55 are 554mm dia, and the Kumhos are 175/60, 537mm dia, and 205/55 554mm dia. Fitting the Kumhos without altering the ride height will reduce the current 15mm (with me in it) fore / aft rake to 2mm - virtually level. How will this effect handling? Anyone else made this change, and did you alter the heights? Will the change be so marginal that I am worrying unnecessarily?

Do the discs need regular sanding? My Pagids were fantastic when first fitted, but don't seem as good now - it might be that I've just got used to them.

Found three plugs fouled this morning, changed them and all now OK - I should have thought of this before posting on here, especially as I started it briefly a couple of days ago to see if the battery needed charging. It likes running up to temperature once started, otherwise at least one plug will oil up.

I will not be at Cadwell this year, as I have for the past four years, mainly because LF arrived whist I was on holiday in February and announced full before I got back, but I must say I was dubious about participating this year due to OPL - I much prefer sessions on club days. Blatchat debate in the past has favoured sessions, so it would be interesting to learn how membership preferences were expressed so as to cause the change, and how success or failure is to be measured Edited by - OAP on 5 Mar 2008 08:59:21

I took the throttle pedal off to lubricate it, as it was sticking. I had to bend the upper arm so as to clear the bolt head that holds it on. When I replaced it, I didn't bend it back far enough and the cable was a little loose, giving me kangaroo progress on neutral/light throttle, so this afternoon I bent it back further. In the process of replacing the cable in the slot, I pulled the throttle wide open - perhaps two or three times - and now the car won't start, backfiring through the TB's and exhaust. What have I done? Can anyone suggest how I fix it? Any help greatly appreciated

My VX HPC would not get below 105db when new. Repacking a standard silencer will not necessarily solve track day noise issues, and almost certainly will not get it down to 98db.

Why the change to OPL?

I have been using xply Avon slicks on radial ears, and am down past the wear marks on one side of the rear tyres. Can I run these against the marked direction of rotation to use the other side, or will I be inviting problems?

Any M or N suffix considered - must be cheap.

Is this still for sale?

........well then you ought to keep it and start using it again, you know it makes sense. However, if you do sell it, someone is going to get a bargain at this price, after all you have lavished on it.

Taking the bolt out did the trick - 5 years since I built it and had forgotten about the groove in the splines - thanks for the help.

I've altered the camber, and then the tracking, but ignored the steering wheel position in order to equal the track rod threads at either end, thinking it would be easy just to re-align th esteering wheel by adjusting at the UJ. I only need to pull it out of the UJ, turn it then re-insert. I'll try removing the nut and bolt completely in the morning to see if that will work. I don't think the steering lock has any effect as it is a removable Momo wheel. Thanks for the suggestions.

Should the entire assembly just slide up after releasing the UJ at the rack? Mine seems to clunk to a stop after about 5mm movement, and I can't for the life of me find what is stopping it. I've tried removing the slider at the wheel end, and the upper column will move OK. Any ideas?

New Cat, I can show you how to do it when you call here on Wednesday.

Richard, The car did have its factory settings before I altered them, so the 4 & 3 turns should be OK from what you say - I was just concerned by the temperature difference across the tread. I adjusted the tracking using string as a sight line, then made final adjustments at my local garage using their equipment. By way of interest, one revolution of the track rod equals 20min toe in/out.

Peter, The car is five years old, 13500 miles. Selection is tighter when the box is hot, and I first noticed last year at Croft in 30+ temperatures. It got easier when cool, but has never returned to how it was. Trouble is, you don't notice small changes, and I hadn't realised how mine was until I drove a new car recently.

The build manual says 2l, but says nothing about lubricating the lever - I can't remember if mine contained green grease when I assembled it.

Most of my tyre wear occurs on track days, but the camber settings had been left as Caterham supplied the upper wishbones with the camber "set" The front near side tyre (CR500, wide track, R400) wore out the outer tread from the centre groove to the point where there was no discernible tread left, but the inside was still legal, with plenty of tread left. I've now changed the camber by turning in the ball joint 4 turns on the nearside, and 3 turns on the offside (same problem here but not quite so bad) leaving 4 and 5 threads respectively showing, then re-tracked. I've just been out in the car, around the block in traffic - on new tyres - and discover there is a significant temperature difference between the inside and outside of the tread. Now the inside is much hotter. I've done this without a camber gauge and wonder if I've gone too far. Any views?

Peter, I have exactly the same issue, and changed the oil yesterday. The box took 1.7 litres with the front jacked up to let me get underneath, then a fair bit (100/200ml ?) drained out when the car was returned to horizontal - I'll lubricate the ball next.