Jam Mad

if someone has mentioned this, and i've missed it in my haste, then sorry... but the caterham is a very light car, so easily understeers.. it's best to think about it, as someone above is doing, in terms of the forces on the wheels. with little weight over the front of the car, if you turn in too fast, or with too much gas, the front wheels won't necessarily grip. why should they ? set-up can of course ensure a fiercer turn-in, but so can trail braking. that is braking until you just after you have turned in. braking transfers weight to the front wheels, giving them more grip. this won't stop a badly set up car from understeering, but it will sharpen turn-in on a neutral car. the best thing to do is get instruction. that way you will soon be overtaking people who spend a lot more money on the cars, and a lot less money ( often none ) on improving their driving ability. it's fun to see their faces !

as you all know i'm off to new zealand for good on monday, and i haven't got shot of my scooter yet. all new super low price for you lot. £700 for a Y reg 2001 yamaha neos 50cc scooter with full yamaha service history. dark green, excellent runner, comes with a lock, but you HAVE to buy it this saturday. sorry to sully these hallowed pages with something as un-7 as this, but i'm cutting it a bit fine.

just to let y'all know that this sold for £8,900. thought i'd let you know to get some idea of where the market is at the mo'. ☹️ i was sorry to see it go... a sad day indeed.....

hi there... i have the same; a noisy flame spitting car.. fun aren't they ? 😬 as far as i'm aware there is no regulation on exhaust noise on the road, although if you drove around without a silencer i'm sure someone would do something about it. however, if and when you go on trackdays you might have a problem. depending on the type of silencer you have you will either need to - buy a new one, preferably a re-packable version or - re-pack the old one if you already have a re-packable silencer. being reasonably new to all this, and someone may correct me here, i think that if you have a branded silencer, it may well be re-packable. if you haven't, it probably isn't. j

wow, thanks steve. that's the third thing that i've fixed on my car due to a faulty earth; indicators and a fog light being the other two. should my multimeter be able to perform a resistance test on the switch ? cheers, j

so, with sincere apologies for ian for diverting the course a little bit here, if the brake test light doesn't come on when pressed and you check the wires into the back of the switch, is it a case of changing a bulb in the switch, or replacing the switch ? j

hello all.. crikey, it's been a while since i've been on techtalk.. ho hum.. good to be back ! 😬 anyway, i promised to fix the heater fan before my buyer takes my car off my hands, but it has me a bit puzzled. i bought a multimeter, and headed down to the garage. i figured i'd check if it was the switch first, so jacked the multimeter into the wires that go into the fan and flicked the switch. nothing at the first position, and a measly 3v at the second full-on position. off came the switch from the dash and i had a look at it. i put the multimeter into the various three holes, and again got about 3v in what i took to be one position, and nowt in the other. hmmmm. the switch seemed ok, so after a shake, i put it back together, fitting the wires to the back. next up i thought i'd undo the fan from the top of the heater. not easy, i realised i'd have to take the heater off. so while undoing the four little screws that hold it on, i noticed that one of them was a rather rusty earth screw. after a fiddle i realised that the fan is quite integral to the whole affair, and that i'd need to take the thing clean off to have a good look at it. i couldn't be bothered to do that today, so i put it back together. checked the wires to the fan with the multimeter and voila ! with the switch at full on i got 12v. so i pushed the wires back on and the fan worked, but only on the full-on position. ( yeah, i know, that's the only position that is any good, but i want to get to the bottom of this ). so while i realise that it seems that the earth was dodgy and is now fixed, would you agree that it looks like i may have a dodgy switch for which the first fan level is broken ? or am i missing something. y'see i don't understand why i originally got only 3v when checking the voltage through the wires into the back of the switch, when having fixed the earth further on in the circuit, i now get 12v. if i haven't made myself clear, don't worry.. i'm probably missing a basic tenet of car wiring... but that's what i'm hoping someone will be able to explain to me. cheers, j

caterham sell some brilliant ones with splines on, and a key that fits them.

hmmm.. help needed please. toward the end of a recent trip i noticed every now and again a clonk from the rear of the car. nothing that upset the handling really, but every now and then in a hard corner.. clonk ! i have just been in the garage and have found the following, but don't know what to do next. i had loosened the nearside rear wheel nuts and it disappeared. tightening them up again, it was back. so i jacked the car up and grabbed the wheel. it moved in and out by a couple of centimetres, with the same clonk. off came the wheel, and i grabbed the drum brake. it didn't move, until i grabbed the outer drum, which clonked. off came the drum, and i saw the problem... i'm not sure what to call the particular part of the assembly, but the part of the axle that attaches to the drum can be moved easily in and out by 1-2 cm with a clonk. help !!! what do i do ? any ideas ? i'm in two minds as to whether it is a simple matter of tightening something, or if it's a serious job of opening up the diff. cheers all, j ps car for sale too, so will of course be sorted before anyone acquires it. i intend to be above board with the chap coming to see it tomorrow. cheers, j

as a further addition to this thread, i traced my squeaky rear end to the front a-frame bushes on my ital xflow. they need changing with the help of a hydraulic press, but most garages should be able to help. cheers, j

i'm going to boing this.... wanted one for xxx years ? since you were a schoolboy ? why wait for your bank balance to swell to r500 proportions when you could be tearing about it this while your savings grow ? it's a no-brainer folks... ************************* SOLD FOR £8,900.... ************************* Edited by - jam mad on 27 Oct 2002 01:28:55

ade, the thing is to not worry, you'll get them in somehow. i bought a g-clamp kit from mfi, and i use the smallest one to squeeze the bushes together, before pushing the a-frame into the bracket on the diff. i then get a pry bar and push it in each side in turn, give it a good wiggle, and you should find that the bolt slips back through the whole caboodle. they often pick up oil under there, so before you do put the new ones in, wipe it all down as well as you can. it has gone from being a dreaded job, to an easy 15minutes. and i am by no means mechanical. well.. not very. j ps i'm sure the archives have full instructions too.

same thing happened to our nurburgring 24hour car.. luckily with enough time to swap it.. but it went in exactly the same place. it was said to be terrifying when it happened.. the car "snapped" sideways in the middle of bigger and quicker traffic, on the nordschleife. all's well that ended well though, as my forthcoming feature in low flying will detail. PLUG ! PLUG ! 😬

nigel, don't worry ! i am not giving up sevening... i plan to build a fraser as soon as we have sorted ourselves out. others, sorry for not having put price in, i'm looking for around £9k and i'm in streatham in south london. once again last week before heading off to an area meeting i couldn't believe how good the engine in my car is... it does not leak any oil ( i renewed the sump gaskets at christmas ), nor does it use much. both fairly rare attributes for a x flow. also, i forgot to mention that it has a vecta immobiliser, for which i have a spare key. cheers, j Edited by - jam mad on 27 Oct 2002 01:31:43

oops.. sorry, didn't see this one when you first posted it, thanks for the boing noger. i had mine done at ratrace, and they used dome headed allen key bolts. they're noticeable to a caterham owner, but have never been noticed by anyone else. i haven't ever bothered painting them, but doing that would make them even less noticeable. the only photos i have easily are on page 17 here, and if you don't really get a good impression, i'm going to add a couple more photos to that soon. j