JetSepter

The top photo is the finished article. The others more or less follow the process.

A few photos of adapting La Jet Sept's cycle wing stays to allow Yoko 195/50/15s to be fitted in place of discontinued CR500 195/45/15s. Wires to indicator repeaters and daytime running lights were removed. Stays were cut about two thirds up from the hub fixing. Attachment angle to hub fitting plate adjusted and rewelded. Rod and sleeves welded in to achieve extension. Painted, before wires soldered back together and insulated with heat shrink, and run externally with cable ties. I think that was it!

Why is my rollover bar rusting underneath the black paint, to the point at which said paint is beginning to bubble and flake off? Is the remedy some strenuous work with a wire brush followed by a coat or two of smooth black Hammerite? Car was built in Feb/Mar 2011. Bad roll bar prep? There's no sign of any primer underneath the black, just rust. Anybody else's car of similar vintage suffering in the same way?

The deed is did. Front stays have been extended with some inserts and sleeves, and their geometry changed slightly through some rewelding. You can just about discern one of the joins, but you'd be hard put to it to spot the rest. An excellent job by Darcy Watts at Perranwell Classic Cars. Oh, and the Yokos now fit neatly under the cycle wings. I'll try and pop up some photos on my blog in the next few days. Meanwhile, I need to take advantage of the new tyres and the sunshine we have today down yer in deepest Cornwall.

Indeed. That was the realignment I was referring to. The wings are bonded. Rather than unbond them, I am expecting to bend the forward (more upright) stay (once cut and with its extension) to match up with the new position of the part of the stay remaining attached to the wing. There may be pictures in my blog if I get it right.

Yes, yet more about tyres. Thought I would share with anyone who wants to know, that Yoko AD09Rs, which only come in 50 rather than the CR500's 45 profile, are just that smidge too big to fit clear of the front cycle wings and stays that Caterham use for CR500 195/45/15s. (At least those on my 2011 car.) I am hoping to get my local garage to weld in some short extensions to the four stay tubes, though I guess there will also have to be a bit of realigning to match everything up. Hopefully the cost of this little job will not eat up too much of the saving the Yokos represented over a set of Avon ZZSs.

And ownership was duly changed. Thanks to the organisers. Andy Griffiths is no doubt greatly relieved! Just to say, to anyone who has read my earlier bloggings, that La Jet Sept is still going strong, though, seven years on, it seems to have worn out the carbon plate in its Titan/BMW LSD. The Sitaflex is still holding the daytime running lights fast to the underside of the front wings, and they are continuing to provide me with the reassurance of extra visibility, without the risk of running the battery flat, as was the case when I relied on the headlights and would forget to turn them off when I stopped for lunch... The car and I have now moved from Kent to Cornwall. I miss having it looked after by Sevens and Classics, but think we have fallen on our tyres by finding Darcy Watts at Perranwell Classic Cars Garage, a sympa and knowledgeable mechanic who has just carried out a very satisfactory service for me. It helps that he has done much work on Morgans with a somewhat similar Duratech engine. The Cornwall Sevens part of the club have made us welcome, and the easy access from our new abode to the fun roads and good restaurants around here, allied to garaging my cars side by side rather than one behind the other, means that La Jet Sept is getting used a lot more often now. No more mods, however, other than an intercom system so my passenger and I can talk rather than shout to each other.

This afternoon, a dark green Seven coming towards me on the back road from Threemilestone, near Truro. (Or there was a big mirror on the other side of the carriageway, since my car is also dark green... Can’t be it though - mine has a yellow nose ring and this one didn’t. And I waved, and my putative reflection didn’t...)

All interesting stuff, for which I’m grateful. Thanks, chaps. Final update - Titan innards in BMW casing; carbon plate, with lots of carbon in the oil drained from the diff. Attempting to drive the car forward on a trolley jack holding up one wheel caused the lifted wheel to rotate backwards but the other wheel to start inching the car forward, though without much success. So conclusion - yes, an LSD, but one which now needs maintenance if it is to continue to function as such. But I don’t track the car so I’ll probably not pursue that for the time being...

Thanks for these offerings. I had looked at Angus and Tessa's diff page. Unfortunately, it does not include a 'from the halfshaft' pic of Titan LSD innards, which is what I think was being fitted in the BMW casing in 2011. But in any event, at this stage I was hoping for a way of establishing the likely situation without taking things to bits. My mechanic may be doing that today. Carefully, on a smooth garage floor, he is going to lift one rear wheel off the ground with a trolley Jack and then see whether gentle application of engine power will cause that wheel to spin or the other to move the car forward. After all, that is the essence of what an LSD should do, right? Or is somebody going to tell me that they only take effect above a certain speed? Anybody got any info on the oil question I posed?

I've now moved from Kent to Cornwall. Cornwall Sevens are a pleasant bunch, who have made Mari and me welcome. Funny day today - the JetSept went in for a service and MoT this morning. According to the factory build sheet when I ordered it (and my detailed bill for the car!) my Seven has a limited slip diff. But the mechanic, wanting to check it before ordering appropriate oil, applied the ordinary test - hold the prop shaft and rotate one wheel. An open diff normally has the wheels going in opposite directions, an LSD in the same direction, I believe. I was expecting the latter. It did the former. So no LSD? Or does the unit the factory put into the BMW casing in 2011 not react in the usual way? Can anyone enlighten me? And assuming nobody knows - short of taking it all apart - which is the better way to err - put LSD-preferred oil in an open diff, or open diff oil in an LSD?

About 1130 this morning (Sun 19 Apr) as I was about to turn out of the garden centre in the Wolwo.

Well, the odd thing is, that I, JetSepter, am not and never have been Andy Griffiths. Though I must say I do approve of the admirably correct placing of the apostrophe in attributing my work to this gentleman. I imagine he, whom I do not think I have met, is equally surprised - indeed may be embarrassed, possibly even appalled - at being associated with the quality of my automobile workmanship, and/or my penmanship. I suppose this is fall out from the creation of the new website and the transfer to it of all the archival material. A horrendous job which I am jolly glad I did not have to carry out. Chapeau to those who did! Any chance of adding icing to the cake by changing the ownership of this blog to JetSepter? Douglas Evans

Dave Sorry to hear you have no choice but to sell the car that La Jet Sept got used to snuggling up to in the Eastmount Hotel car park. Hope you manage to get an SV replacement to be going on with before too long, and that whatever circs led to this ameliorate soon. Douglas

Never tried a 2.3, but my 2.0 litre 175bhp Duratec Roadsport has bags of torque, pulling strongly from 1000 rpm in 5th if wanted, but equally revving strongly if you want to drop your boot in second and third gears.Of course it may be different with roller barrels and more bhp. Is fuel consumption of any interest in making your decision? - my SV does about 35 mpg.