Midnight

Apart from a number of other problems with it, the Facet pump on my xflow does the same thing when the engine gets hot, ie 0ver 80c on the gauge. it stops as soon as things cool down again. Although i 've been caught in some major traffic jams and heat this year, it still seems to work o.k and the car keeps going despite the racket, it sounds as if the pump is running with no fuel going through it

Ronbo, I was in California a couple of years ago and wanted to check if it was possible to hire a Seven, and I recall getting details on the web of a company based between San Francisco and Los Angeles that actually hired out Sevens (think they had three on their books). Sorry don't have the name, and they might be a long way from you, but If the company is still going, it might be worth searching for, to get details of Seven knowledgeable mechanics in California. Regards, Des

you could also use strips of velcro. available in boxes B&Q 'S. glue one side (with Evo stik) to the ali on the tunnel and the other to the back of the carpet. makes it easy to pull on and off.

Chris, is the balance between carb's O.K? If they get well out of balance, one or the other carb is doing most of the work, and the car will seem to drive o.k at low power demand ,but the loss becomes apparent when you start to press on. Just a thought.

The bobbins are there to absorb shocks. if you bolt the rad directly to the chassis it wont last too long before the seams start to work loose and it will start leaking.

New se7ner there have ben some recent threads on this. The best fix for persistently blowing gaskets is a set of Roger Kings specials. The centre exhaust blows on xflows because there is no room for a centre bolt on the joined pipes and the flange bows a bit when hot resulting in a blown exhaust gasket. The other fix is to have the centre exhaust flange replaced by a much thicker item, which is what I have done. My centre flange is almost 1/2 inch thick and was a Van -Dieman formula Ford item. since I fitted this I've had no problem even whilst using the "normal" Burton big bore exhaust gaskets.

Phil the usual fix is to fit an oil catch tank. Mine is in front of the passengers footwell. Most Xflows use the same type of plastic bottle used as the catch tank in the cooling system and I believe as the water bottle for windscreen washers. i believe it is made by Lucas, and comes with the metal mounting bracket which can be rivetted to the footwell. Run a pipe from the breather on the block round the back of the engine and into a hole (which you have to make) in the side of the catch tank near the top. Drill a second hole on the opposite side of the tank and using a rubber elbow fitting, route a shorter length of pipe down to the bottom of the footwell box, secure with cable tie's. Any oil which gets pushed out of the breather under cornering etc should collect in the tank. I wouldnt recommend re-using it. There is a small plastic cap in the top of the bottle which can be removed to syphon out the old oil collected in the tank. hope this helps

If you have the older type of heater (the flat black box) then the heater control valve is/was an optional extra. it takes the form of a quadrant with a cable coming from it to a push/pull knob somewhere under the dash. many Xflows simply had the pipes running straight to and from it, so on all the time, with only the elctric fan to slow down the amount of heat. One thing you lose if you disconnect the heater is the the facility to cool the engine in traffic by putting on the heater. Its not pleasant on a hot day to have to turn on the heater, but sometimes its a choice of a bit of discomfort or an overheated (and problably stopped) engine and a sit at the side of the road. Heaters on the newer cars draw in fresh air from a separate set of louvres positioned at the back end of the bonnet

Peter, If you opt for the Lucas competition ignition pack (which you just fit and forget, instead of the more expensive 3D and programmable systems) you have to buy the complete set-up, which comprises of the amplifier (black) box, special high performance coil, the magnetronic distributor complete with cap and the leads between the black box,coil and distributor. Burtons will sell you a complete kit, for somewhere in the region of £200 - 250. Mine has been very reliable except that the engine died recently and I could not find the fault until i talked to the guy who makes these up for Lucas. It is essential to use a Lucas DRB192 rotor arm. The Intermotor part my system came with looked as new when it failed, but was the cause of my stoppage and simply was not up to the job. Also If you fit the System yourself it is absolutely essential to ensure the black box is well earthed because if it isn't, it will ruin the amplifier instantly. i have double earthed mine to the chassis. Also note that on a Xflow two of the connections coming from the amplifier are redundant.

Robert, Is the heat apparent on just one of the back wheels or on both? the clearance where the outboard constant velocity joints of the driveshafts goes through the dedion "ears" is quite tight , and has to be set with feeler gauges, although if these were rubbing you would probably have heard it. Are the brake pads binding or the handbrake mechanism sticking?. its possible that the rear wheels might get hotter after a run as they do not get as much cooling air as the fronts.

just remembered that Burtons do a very good parts catalogue, In the front half of which is a good technical section. that shows how they perform the unleaded conversion, plus lots of other building tips. The can also provide free, a Xflow parts catalogue which gives part numbers and descriptions of every single component that goes into a Crossflow.

There is an expert on Xflow set up on a rolling road at Marshalls (CITROEN dealership as i recall) in Cambridge. The last time I went there he managed to "find" about 18 missing horsepower by rejetting the carbs/ altering the timing etc. He takes a power reading before starting work so you can see the improvement. He likes you to give hi a hand by taking the car through the gears, so its interesting to be doing a 100 mph while sitting in the car chained down in a workshop. if those rollers jammed, i would've gone through the wall into the show room and onto the street, no trouble and the noise was unbelievable! It brought a fair proportion of the passing population of Cambridge to the door of the workshop to see what was going on. The guy was tuning a BDA engine in a single seater before doing mine so he is obviously popular with Ford based engine users

I know its quite some way from you in ilford Essex, but Burton engineering do very good unleaded conversions for Xflow heads . if they go the whole hog and chemical dip/shot blast crack check the head before doing the machining and valve seat insertion, the head will come back looking like brand new. their telephone number is 02085 540920. I believe they do mail order.

I've got a Lucas rally ignition set-up on my 1700 xflow which has just stopped working. I've changed over the black box amplifier and the coil with ones that I know are working, and I've checked all all of the wires and ignition leads and there connections which are o.k. So the problem would appear to be in the dizzy. What can go wrong with this part of the system and how can I test it. Can parts such as the magnet pickup be replaced if found to be faulty., or am i looking at a new distibutor. Any advice would be much appreciated

I've got a Lucas rally ignition set-up on my 1700 xflow which has just stopped working. I've changed over the black box amplifier and the coil with ones that I know are working, and I've checked all all of the wires and ignition leads and there connections which are o.k. So the problem would appear to be in the dizzy. What can go wrong with this part of the system and how can I test it. Can parts such as the magnet pickup be replaced if found to be faulty., or am i looking at a new distibutor. Any advice would be much appreciated

Steve, I had a similar problem with my central manifold gaskets blowing on a regular basis. Even after trueing up the mating surfaces it still blew. Steve Parker recommended using a much thicker exhaust flange, because the standard caterham one tends to bow as it heats up, because there is no provision or space to have a central bolt to pull it down tight between the pipes. I had a Van Deiman supplied X/flow flange fitted to my centre pipes which has a thickness of almost 20mm!, and this has permanently cured the problem. Obviously trying Roger's gaskets first would be the logical/cheaper way to go. But if the problem still persists you could think about the thicker flange fix. The company that did the conversion for me are specialists who do all sorts of racing pipes, including some formula 1 stuff and are near Croydon. I've got the details somewhere if this is of interest.

is the solid state Facet you guys are referring to the square jobby or the cylindrical variety?

I have tried both taking just the carbs off, and by taking them off complete with the inlet manifold. The only trouble with taking the carbs off with the manifold is that you have to clean up the faces on the head and the manifold itself, before refitting with a new gasket. There is also the question of getting water leaks from the inlet manifold water jacket. Also the whole lump together is quite heavy and unwieldy if you intend to put the lot back on the engine in one piece. Although taking the carbs off on their own is a bit of a pain, because of the poor access to the lower carb to manifold nuts, I prefer this method, and if you are carefull, particularly when splitting the carbs from each other via the balancing linkage, the carbs can be removed/replaced without actually altering any of the (screw) settings. A tip to aid removal of the carbs is to unscrew the throttle cable bracket from under one of the carbs, which lets you swing it back out of the way a bit, and gives you a bit of movement to work with. i also take off the distributor cap and leads as this gives better access to the lower carb nuts. Usually you can only get a very small amount of pull from the spanner. so it takes a bit of time. When refitting the throttle linkage to the underside of the carbs make sure you apply some threadlock to the screws as they can work loose and fall staight out.

I fitted an electric pump onto the bulkhead behind the brake master cylinder and wired the pump into a spare terminal under the black plastic cover behind the ignition switch. i also wired in a fused link and a fairly well hidden on/off pump switch as an added security feature. i fitted the electrical pump because the power of my rebuilt engine demanded a greater fuel flow. than the mech pump could supply at higher revs (you must pick a pump that delivers the correct litreage for your power. it mIght also be necessary to use a fuel regulator to stop the carbs from being oversupplied with fuel and flooding) if you keep the mechanical pump as well, it will take a bit of power from the engine, which you could probably live with. you could contrive to cut the new fuel hoses with enough spare length to fit both the electric pump or be routed down to the mechanical pump if the need arose. I would not recommend the Facet gold/silver top pumps as mine lasted less than 8.000 miles, and having it pack up and cause a holdup on a major route/ bank holiday Monday, did not endear me to a fairly large number of day trippers!. Webcon pumps are supposedly very reliable and quiet, Thats what I'm getting next. good luck

Thanks for the replies. i'll probabl;y go for the Webcon pump.

The Facet fuel pump on my crossflow has just packed up after about 8,000 miles, I know they are generally have a very poor reputation as regards reliability. and they are not designed to be serviced/repaired ,so I will not be replacing it. but what is the best alternative? I have heard that Webcon's from james Whiting are good but also that Weber pumps are worth a look. Any advice would be most appreciated. Blast, It looks like Stoneleigh in the tin top!!

I believe either Demon Tweeks or Burtons do a new type of "geared" starter motor to fit the crossflow which is tiny, ie less than a third the size, when compared to the standard item. also has the advantage of being lighter and requiring less current to operate. Not sure of the costs though

I believe either Demon Tweeks or Burtons do a new type of "geared" starter motor to fit the crossflow which is tiny, ie less than a third the size, when compared to the standard item. also has the advantage of being lighter and requiring less current to operate. Not sure of the costs though

I believe either Demon Tweeks or Burtons do a new type of "geared" starter motor to fit the crossflow which is tiny, ie less than a third the size, when compared to the standard item. also has the advantage of being lighter and requiring less current to operate. Not sure of the costs though

I need to replace the front crankshaft oil seal on my X/flow. Does anyone know the best way/type of puller to get the pulley off and if there is enough room between the front of the engine and the chassis to remove the pulley. Is there a particular puller that will fit in the limited space available, and Is there also a tool available that can extract the old seal and press in the new one, Will it fit in the limited space ?