aerobod - near CYYC

If you have the pin out for the MEMS ECU and at least about 50mm of slack in the current loom to the ECU, it is fairly straightforward to re-pin to the MBE ECU 36-pin plug. I've changed and added pins on my 9A4, the most important things are to take your time and obtain the right crimping and stripping tools (I see Farmell have suitable crimpers) get some spare pins from MBE and practice a few crimps before doing the real loom.

If you have to re-pin for the 9A4 ECU and you don't currently have the 36-pin connector, you can purchase it and the separate pins from SBD. I found it imperative to use a proper ratcheting crimping tool if you have to change the pins, a 0.5-1.0 mm^2 open barrel crimper is needed, I purchased this one for the equivalent of £45 that has interchangeable jaws for all common crimp connections: http://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/7-pc-professional-quick-change-ratcheting-wire-terminal-crimper-kit/A-p8355331e I'm not sure if it is available in the UK, as the vendor is Canadian, but I'm sure an equivalent can be found. Here is the pinout info: http://www.sbdev.co.uk/Info_sheets/MBE/9A4-PinoutIssue%20F.pdf The connector that is needed (including pins) is the LM-36W (see the bottom of the page): http://www.sbdev.co.uk/Engine_Management_Systems/Fuel_Inject_Looms_Standard/Wiring_Looms_Standard.htm

BMW definitely moved to 16 & 18mm over 17 & 19mm sockets about 10 years ago, they now seem to be favouring spline sockets and bits instead of hex or torx ones for many bolts.

Here are the Avon specs for the CR500, a 6.5" to 8.5" rim is specified for a 205/55-13 tyre: http://www.avonmotorsport.com/road-legal/performance/cr500

There is a special Ford tool to remove that connector (and also another for the fuel pump to fuel tank clamp ring), but if you Google "ford fuel pipe removal tool", there are videos of various techniques that have been used to do that.

On my R400D I put a 1000ohm and 2000ohm resistor in parallel with the fuel gauge wires from the sender (giving 667ohms of parallel resistance to the sender unit). With this value the gauge gives both a slightly better indication of full and is on zero with 7 litres in the tank (which seems to be about the minimum to avoid fuel starvation at the track). Due to the sloping bottom of the tank, a completely different float position and design would be needed to get the gauge to read zero when fuel in the tank is also zero.

Quoting Nigel Fox: It's because acceleration due to gravity is 32 feet per second per second. Therefore if you cover 64 feet from a standing start in 2 seconds that averages out at 1g. Or in SI - 9.81m/s^2 acceleration for 2 seconds over 19.62m.

Quoting Roger Ford: Is that the ACES shift lights? If you have the full unit, you can adjust the brightness. Not sure if that feature is removed from the cut-down Caterham version. And is the green "Econometer" light also on the ACES? If so you can program the revs where that comes on too. My Caterham fit ACES unit is fully adjustable for brightness and shift point illumination from the control unit buried under the dash next to the heater valve control. Edited by - Aerobod on 5 Sep 2014 05:53:51

For a little lighter tyre than the R888, I can recommend the Dunlop Star Spec Z2, which is available on tirerack.com in 185/60-14 size (if you have clearance issues with the 205 wide R888s, which I know will rub the inner cycle stay on my R400 if I use 205/50-15 size). Currently I'm running a set in 195/50-15 size, they get heat in them much faster than the CR500s and seem to have comparable grip in Auto-x.

After 8,000km of use, the copper plated contacts in my switch were well eroded from arcing, the OEM switch is not well designed to take multiple amps of current.

As others have done, I fitted a relay to mine, dropped the current through the new brake light switch to 0.14A from 3.5A. The switch construction is such that the contacts won't last long with 3.5A arcing through the contacts. A few quid for a short bit of wire, some spade connectors and a relay. Half an hour to mount the relay with mounting tape on the ledge in the pedal box, make up a new short "Y" connector to connect the existing 12V spade to both the switch and power on the relay, then a short wire from the other side of the switch to the relay coil, a wire from the ground on the relay to a nearby body ground and plug the relay output to the existing brake lights spade connector. All fully reversible with no loom modifications. For me, no more risk of being re-ended on the track after I had been given a point-by from a Corvette driver, who then nearly ran into the back of me at the next corner due to my brake lights having just failed. He thought he could follow me around without braking, then nearly exited the track straight ahead due to very late braking.

Although they are expensive, this is the best mirror for our cars, in my opinion. It has a wider view than the normal mirror plus the standard door mirrors combined. It does have a rather restricted view when the roof is fitted though, as it is quite high: Mirrors for Sevens Edited by - Aerobod on 11 Jul 2014 05:44:11

Quoting Rattie: Interesting. I didn't notice the drive shafts originally having spring centering in them, which you would feel as the axle carrier needing preload to mount up on the deDion ears, but maybe at full droop you just don't notice this. not sure where a spring would dislodge to, maybe they're using tripod joints without springs. Anybody got a recent driveshaft off the car, or experience with one that has noticed preload? Yes, I found preload that I recall to be about 5kg, with a shaft movement of up to about 15mm away from the diff being possible. I was surprised that this preload is all that keeps the diff end of the shaft in place against the oil seal and bearing. One thing to be careful about with the BMW diff is that the side bearings are held in place with large circlips that have a specific thickness that is adjusted on each side to give the correct bearing load and lateral ring and pinion mesh, if they are removed to gain access to the LSD, they have to go back on the correct side (the thickness in mm is etched on the circlip face).

One thing I had to be careful of after installing the upgraded diff cover and carrier, is that on my R400 the new cover is about 10mm closer to the boot floor than the original cover. The fuel pipe after emerging from the tunnel at the front of the diff has to pass over the top of the cover to avoid introducing tight bends into it, but the clearance to the boot floor is too little with the new cover. I decided to put a 'U' shaped notch in the top of the cover above the full width bolt hole to avoid trapping the fuel pipe, but re-routing may be a viable solution, too.

Quoting evotell: Yes, I know we have talked about it every way including sideways. We are talking the BMW diif out of our SS and getting Road & Race Transmission to try and sort the clonking and back lash issues out. Has anybody had this done and what was the outcome? It must be able to be sorted, the BMW diff in SV Sigma we have just built was absolutely silent, nothing no noise whatsoever 😬 Terry, does that BMW diff have the same model Titan LSD in it that was in the R400 you sold to me? If so, the two shims in the upgrade kit you gave to me did the job in eliminating the clonking. I installed them between the Belleville washers that press on the driveshaft side gears and the casing (could also have gone between the gears and Belleville washers). - James Edited by - Aerobod on 27 May 2014 04:59:09

If it is the BMW diff withe the Titan LSD, there is a shim upgrade that reduces the end float on the driveshaft gears as the spider tries to move them side-to-side as the load on the diff changes, eliminating the clunking. The shim upgrade came from Caterham with two new driveshaft seals, you have to disassemble the whole limited slip to put the shims in, it is important to put everything back in the same order and not mix up the big circlips under each shaft seal as their thickness is adjusted to tune the gear mesh.

Quoting evotell: My speedo is reading 80KM when in reality the cars doing 120KM according to my GPS. 😳That's outrageous, any suggestions would be most appreciated. Terry, if you have the new type of Caterham/Caerbont electronic speedometer, then you can use this procedure to adjust the calibration here. When in calibration mode, note the value that is flashing (the number of pulses per mile or kilometre), then determine the number of pulses that the value should be by taking current_setting multiplied by displayed_speed divided by actual_speed.

Quoting Mucus72: i'm not sure I understand the plastic versus tin comment though. HPDE plastic bottles are somewhat permeable to water vapour and air, whereas metal containers aren't. Brake fluid in a plastic bottle, even if not opened, has a finite shelf life.

Quoting timbo: Can anyone confirm the current metric chassis diffs are from which model year BMW 118. Are there any significant mods - such as output flange? I will need a sub 3.20 differential. Did BMW produce any with standard LSD? This should be the standard BMW diff that Caterham use. It is the same on a wide range of BMW models, it has a 3.64:1 ratio: BMW diff link The output flanges are removed by levering on each side until they pop out (they are held in place with spring clips), the Caterham drive shafts then directly insert into the internal splines of the output. There aren't any non-///M BMWs that have had LSDs for at least 15 years or so. Edited by - Aerobod on 8 Jan 2014 06:11:30

Here is the calibration I measured on my 2012 R400 tank sender, first column is litres in tank, second is resistance in ohms, third column is total resistance with 667 ohms in parallel (1000 and 500 ohm resistance in parallel to try to match Caerbont gauge range). Note that the sloping bottom on the tank causes the standard sender to hit the bottom with between 6 and 8 litres remaining: 0 195 150 2 195 150 4 195 150 6 195 150 8 169 135 10 158 129 12 128 109 14 107 92 16 81 72 18 71 64 20 61 54 22 49 46 24 43 40 26 34 32 28 25 24 30 21 20 32 16 16 34 14 13 36 9 9

Canadian quarter (25c coin that is an exact fit into nose cone dzus fasteners, much better than screw driver), tyre plugs with tyre rasp and needle, can of tyre foam, multi-tool, tyre pressure gauge and an old towel.

The Merkur Scorpio in North America should be the correct caliper fit, these NAPA calipers seem to be the correct ones: http://m.napaonline.com/Tablet/parts/PartDetails.aspx?Id=SEBSE1897_0248620718 http://m.napaonline.com/Tablet/parts/PartDetails.aspx?Id=SEBSE1898_0248620714

Typical plug gaps for fuel injected, electronic ignition cars are in the range of 0.7 to 1.3mm with 1mm being typical. That equates to 28 to 52 thou, 40 thou in the middle. Generally larger gaps in modern engines compared with older cars with points and condensers, allows for better flame propagation and more complete combustion.

Check everything is working OK