AdamQ

I'm just after a bit of help/confirmation regarding alternator wiring. I can't see a make anywhere on the alternator or any other markings for that matter. It has a large and a small male spade connection next to each other and another small male spade connection remote from the others (pretty much directly opposite near the perimeter). I'm assuming that the large and small next to each other both go off to +ve (via the solenoid) and that the remote one is connected to the switched +ve from the ignition - does this sound right? Cheers, Adam

As the subject says. 13000 miles, assiduously serviced, came with my first Caterham build in 1999 (only 13000 miles - disgraceful - I've done better since!). Quoted at 126 BHP AFAIR Used on the road by me until 2005 and then my Mother (70 last birthday) bought the car off me and used it until 2011 (one gentle track day at Goodwood in 2009); in dry storage until now. Started first time off jump leads and covered 40 faultless miles before the engine was removed a few weeks ago. Full engine less carbs and exhaust, but with everything else including clutch, flywheel, crank position sensor etc. (alternator as well though one of the mount holes is worn). Engine mounts at no extra cost. I was looking for around £500 for the lot but will consider any serious offers Bosch coil £30 with engine, £35 separately. SOLD Standard Type 9 5-speed gearbox, as provided by Caterham with the original kit, £200 with engine, £225 separately (gearstick not included) VX to Live Axle propshaft - £35 with engine, £42 separately. Collection only for the big bits (though happy to pallet if anybody wants to arrange the other details). Otherwise collection from Horsham, GONADS or P&P at cost. 0781 007 3021 or AdamQ at blandings dot net Regards, Adam Edited by - AdamQ on 4 Feb 2014 17:39:33

Lifeline Zero 2000 2.25 l 'Dumpy' fire extinguisher including cockpit nozzle engine bay nozzle activation cable and handle mounting bracket and clips hose, T-piece, connectors (hose is kinked where it goes into the extinguisher connection, but that's easily sorted I believe) Date on bottle is 14/06/2013. £85 ono. Collection from Tunbridge Wells or Horsham, GONADS or P&P at cost (if they let you post such things these days). 0781 007 3021 or AdamQ at blandings dot net Regards, Adam

Thanks to all for the suggestions. Mankee, those certainly look like they might be the things. I shall investigate further ... Thanks to all once again, Adam

I'm after 4 of the fasteners that attach the aluminium legs on the rad to the platic legs that the fan is mounted to IYSWIM and I'm at something of a loss to know what to trawl for. It's the aluminium rad with plastic top and bottom bits here. The holes in the aluminium legs are square suggesting that the fasteners have a square section at one end to stop them turning and, from the picture, they appear to be 'spring-clipped' in place. Caterham parts are unable to help. Any assistance in tracking down four of these would be much appreciated ... Otherwise some dome-headed coach bolts or something along those lines might work I guess. Many thanks, Adam

What's the surface area of the parts of the bolt involved in the shear? Assuming I've understood the question correctly, that's the area of the coss-section of the bolt at the point where the two parts it's holding together meet (and are trying to go in opposite directions), i.e. pi × r × r. To complicate matters slightly (or maybe it simplifies it?), depending on the configuration, some of the shear load might be taken by friction between the joined components owing to the clamping action of the bolt so the bolt will not be taking the entire load. as the bolts are 'tougher' they can be more likely to suffer a brittle failure I don't think that's quite the right way round is it - see Stridey's post - very generally (and for a given material), a stronger bolt is more likely to suffer a brittle failure, but a tougher bolt is less likely to suffer a brittle failure (almost by definition as toughness could be considered to be the direct opposite to brittleness). As you say though, fatigue rather than strength and toughness is likely to be the governing criterion ... Adam

I've got the Raceline engine mounts.

Yes, sorry, 5sp box. Thanks for that - sounds like the simplest, cheapest and most elegant solution by far. Thinking aloud here - for the gearbox mount, did you weld in a new cross-piece or did you bolt some extensions to the existing mount holes? Thanks again, Adam Edited by - AdamQ on 1 Jan 2014 13:00:06

...or 'The consequences of insufficient preparation and research' might be a better subject I suspect. I'm sure all the information I need is in TechTalk, but I'm struggling to find it so ... I'm trying to install a Zetec into a 1999 LA VX Classic 7. On the first attempt, I dropped the engine and gearbox in only to find that the engine mounts were a long way back from the chassis mounts when the gearbox mount was aligned. No problem I thought, I'll simply use the forward gearbox mount. I did that but the problem remains, albeit less extreme, and I'm a bit concerned about the length of engagement between the propshaft and the gearbox output. (And for about 30 seconds I was feeling so smug at having remembered to put the gearbox oil in and connect the speedo ...!) I've ascertained that the gearbox has the short input shaft. I'm assuming that I need to do the following: - install a long input shaft in the gearbox - insert a spacer between the bellhousing and engine (or buy a different bellhousing) - buy a longer propshaft Can anybody confirm that this is indeed what I need to do? Is there anything I've missed - e.g. clutch arms and that sort of thing? Any recommendations for spacer and propshaft sources would also be welcome. Many thanks, Adam

Mike, Mark, Thank you both for your kind offers - greatly appreciated. Mike, I think the logistics of getting them to Moorgate might be a bit tricky, but thank you very much. Mark, that sounds viable - I shall blatmail you. Again, thank you both, Adam

No particular hurry, but if anybody is able to help with getting a set of four wishbones from Pinner to either Horsham or Tunbridge Wells or anywhere nearby either of those I'd be most grateful. Mobile no. is 0781 007 3021. Many thanks, Adam

I've just looked at mine and your memory is spot on - 6 mm it is. Regards, Adam

May I have second dibs on the wind deflectors please. Thanks, Adam

Jules, I understand your point, but remember that a lot of that surface area that you've got on the foam filter is taken up by the foam that's tying all the little air gaps together (IYSWIM!). Mine made 210.5 bhp (the 0.5 is obviously tremendously important!) on the rolling road with the arrangement shown (and with the nosecone on) - exactly what it's supposed to make as it's running Raceline 210 camshafts ... FWIW ... Adam

Hi Jules, I have an S3 and had similar feelings to you about bonnet holes and what have you. I was also in the same situation with the foam air filter being tight against the bonnet at the narrow end and I didn't like the fact that the induction was taking in hot air from the engine bay. After reading plenty of threads on cold air feeds and seeing one about one Seven variant (can't remember which) which takes a feed from under the radiator, I did the following. - Canted the radiator back by bending the top brackets back and drilling some new holes - Raised the radiator as far as I could, having canted it back - Cut a 'postbox' type hole in the nose cone behind/just below the number plate (it can't be seen when looking at the car from any 'normal' viewpoint - Used some 4" ducting and an in-line air filter to get cold air to a home-made airbox It needs refining slightly, but on the whole set-up seems to work very well and the induction noise is noticeably less. There are some pictures here, here, here and here. As I say, and as can be clearly seen, a little tidying and refinement is required! Adam

I also have a 2.0L Duratec in an S3 with the Raceline/Jenvey throttle bodies. When I installed the engine (converting from a K series), I was very reluctant to cut a hole in the bonnet and did manage to avoid doing that (despite much pressure and abuse from various quarters!). It does mean you have to use shorter (45 mm) trumpets which compromises the lower range torque slightly as I understand it and, with the configuration I had, which was a Pipercross foam air filter on a backplate, the clearance between the bonnet and no. 1 trumpet is very tight - see here. This configuration also means that you're drawing hot air into the engine from the engine bay, which is not ideal and I have since changed things so that cooler air is ducted from under/just in front of the radiator, through an in-line K&N air filter to a home-made airbox on the TBs (this has also reduced the induction noise somewhat). As for fitting, as far as I remember it's fairly straightforward. I used a bike brake cable for the throttle cable and a home-made bracket slung under the TBs - see here. In my case, one of the holes in the head was unthreaded and 10 mm in diameter whilst all the others are 8 mm and tapped to M8 - see here, so that needs to be dealt with. Hope that might help a bit. Adam

If you have a scrapyard nearby, I'd go there and get one - cost me £2 the last time I went. In fact, I'd get several on the chance that one might be duff. The readings I got from a known good TPS were as follows (with the multimeter on the 20k resistance scale): Closed pins 1-2 4.29 pins 1-3 4.44 pins 2-3 0.3 Open pins 1-2 0.17 pins 1-3 4.44 pins 2-3 4.6 Hope that helps, Adam

Hi Dave, I have harnesses. I strap my son (aged three when he had his first outing) into the seat using the booster seat's straps and then the whole assembly is strapped to the Seven's seat by the harnesses which come through the shoulder-level gaps in the booster seat and between the arm-rests and the base of the booster seat. I do put some foam under the booster seat, but only to give him a better view - it's not a necessity. I thought I'd have to move the (Seven's) seat as far forward as possible to get the harness tight enough,but that wasn't necessary either. Hope that helps (and makes sense). Adam

I've got the standard leather seats, not Tillets, but I can confirm that these fit in terms of width (standard S3, not an SV) and work very well in general.

I've bought two lots of Acoustafil from Thermal Velocity - on both occasions the service has been good - fast and hassle-free. The calculator to determine how much you need is here. Adam

On the off-chance that there are one or two snippets of useful information in it, the write-up of my conversion can be found here. Adam

Doh! Ignore questions below - being an idiot - of course there should only be low resistance - after all they're just two ends of a long piece of wire coiled round and round and round. A while ago I put a 12V DC electric motor into a previously pedal powered-tractor. A couple of weeks ago, it stopped working and in investigating the cause I've found that the resistance bewteen the +ve and -ve power feeds to the motor is about 0.7 Ohms - am I right in saying this isn't right? I don't see how it can be because surely in effect you're directly connecting the two terminals of the battery in this situation? Edited by - AdamQ on 28 Jul 2013 18:39:14

And I'd suggest threadlock or PTFE tape on the central screw and the screw that goes through the mirror housing - some have found that further measures (additional grubscrews, bits of rubber strategically placed etc.) are necessary to keep the mirrors where one wants them to be ...

Does anybody happen to know whether or not the cylinder heads for the 1600 and 1800 variants of the 8 valve Vauxhall engines used in the Classic Seven are the same? I know that different cams were used - I'm just interested to know whether the castings are the same. Many thanks, Adam

Hi Mark, Do you or does your friend know if the 1.6 and 1.8 heads are the same, i.e. will this fit a 1.8 8 valve Vauxhall? Thanks, Adam