juleslid

Hi David, I fitted one of these over the winter, and it has eliminated the free play of the std quick-release, and, as the others say, had a different steering wheel orientation. The biggest problem was typical Caterham; the top and bottom steering bushes weren’t aligned! The bottom bush was pushed out on the first attempt, and that’s the awkward one. Half a day later it was sorted, after much swearing and lubricating, remember the cheap, flimsy steering bushes need to slot into a notch for alignment. Good luck! Julian

Oh, and 2 more things! SBFS Half Hood allowing removal of hood loops and neater boot cover. A bit of plastic pipe jammed through throttle pedal to make for easier heeling n’toeing. Surely that’s enough…

I hoped to avoid this topic, thought it could get a bit time-consuming, but couldn’t resist! It’s a 2009 175 Roadsport SV kit… Caterham throttle bodies, fitted by the boys at Caterham Midlands, best mod out there. A visit to The Two Steves for some ECU fettling to smooth things out after fitting R400 cams, injectors and valve springs. Cat eliminator pipe, together with lighter silencer from JP Exhausts of Macclesfield for some quality sounds. Carbon fibre propshaft with much better U/J’s. A thing of beauty but nobody can see it! Nitron NTR1 suspension from Meteor. AP racing brake master cylinder. Better brake pedal feel. Flexi hoses for rear calipers. JAL rear lights as well as a high level brake light and LED number plate lamp. Home-made tool roll, only used once after forgetting final tightening on wheel nuts after dropping car off axle stands and setting off in a hurry! Stronger rear anti-roll bar droplinks from McGill. Fire extinguisher on rear bulkead between seats. Extra lumbar support put into leather seats by local coachtrimmer. Small 1” bracket mounted on transmission tunnel as clutch foot rest (the beauty of an SV!). Better quality brake light switch from Car Builder Solutions. Punched a hole through driver’s seat cushion, tidied with plastic trim, to fit crotch strap for infrequent track days. Finally, apart from all the things I’ve forgotten in 15 years of ownership, a visit to Dave at Genzoe for a thorough flat-floor setup which made it steer beautifully. When will it all stop?! Julian

Hi, have you still got the booster seat? If so, it's not pink or anything like that, is it?! It would be for a boy... Cheers, Jules

Hi, I got mine from Redline, great service and a bit cheaper than CC.

Thanks for the reminder, John. I actually kept that edition of Low Flying as I thought it was such a useful article! Draining that gearbox isn't easy, is it? Got a pipe into the level hole eventually after downsizing the pipe from my trusty Sealey syringe by 3 times. Then no oil came out! After about 10 attempts to reposition the pipe I started to get some oil through, but there's no way of telling how much I've missed. Glad we don't have to do this every year!

Sorry, should have said, while I've got my gearbox head on the trans tunnel is coming off to give the gearshifter a clean-up and regrease. The oil drain/replace looks as if it will have to be done from above at the back of the engine bay. With quite a thin pipe by the look of things!

Thanks for your thoughts; 2 quarts of super-expensive Redline MTL are on the way from Demon Tweeks. Hi Wrightpayne, I saw the article you mentioned, will have a look to see if it's viable for my level of talent when I have the transmission tunnel cover off...

Sadly, there is no drain plug! Plan at the moment is to remove the transmission tunnel cover, warm the thing up (will drop eng oil at the same time) then get my big syringe into play...

While the airline industry is still on its arse I've decided I have time to change the gearbox oil on my 5-speeder. My (possibly incomplete) trawl through the archives has come up with recommendations for both Motorcraft XTM5QS and Redline MTL GL4, presumably both being 75W80 or 80 grade. Any other recommendations to make the 'box as smooth as possible? It has a slow synchromesh (and has from new!) between 2nd and third, and will be the first refill since I built the car in 2010. Or maybe the collective view is that Caterham's own oil is the best there is... Thanks in advance, Julian.

Having struggled with the (lack of) length of the Caterham SV hoses fitting them to my SV, I would definitely suggest fitting these to a S3, giving you much more opportunity for imaginative routings... Jules

No luck with the forum so have been on the blower to CC themselves for the definitive answer. So for anybody doing this job in the future the word is that the locknut goes onto the end that goes into the de dion-mounted t-piece, and the copper washer goes between the caliper and the double male connector piece. Simples! Doesn't make the hose any longer though...

Thanks for the message Tazio. Will go for public reply in case it's useful to others. I think you were suggesting copper washer between the caliper and the double male connector thing. That was my thought too, but was concerned that it might stop the (45 degree-ish) mating surfaces meeting. Not even sure if they would meet though, as the thread on this thing is a lot shorter than the fitting on the copper pipe! And for 7 Wonders, great idea but I wasn't sufficiently sure about the fittings needed either end.

Worrying, isn't it Tazio? Am sure they weren't put in the pack just for a laugh though! Couldn't find the SV hoses on the website so phoned up and asked. As a point of interest, they seem to be so mean in length that it might make sense to put these on an S3... Just retrieved the bags from the garage; 570B0001 and 570B0002 should do you. Jules

Evening all. I've finally got round to taking the advice of the forum and decided to fit flexible rear brake hoses once I found that Caterham made SV versions. Can't find any fitting instructions, so am after a bit of advice before I fill them with brake fluid seeing as I have a nut and copper washer left over on each side! They came with a double male connector thing that I've bunged onto the calipers, but no clues about the aforementioned locknut and copper washer. Has anybody done this conversion recently and can offer their thoughts on the correct order of things? Cheers, Jules

Thanks John, Message sent to Johnny. Cheers, Jules

Apologies if my search missed an obvious answer! Trying to start the car after winter fettling I managed to fill the garage with petrol this afternoon! After pulling the boot apart I found the fuel pump/sender broken where the fuel pipe connects. When asking around it looks as if I have to replace the whole unit at £420 from CC, dammit. Tempting though the superglue option might be, I can't see a quick fix being an option! My local Ford dealer was unable to locate the right part, even with the pump on his desk. Has anybody found a cunning fix for this in the past, or shall I pass the problem to Visa? One more thing, is there a safe way to remove the broken bit of pump outlet from the fuel pipe without special tools? Car is 2009 175 Roadsport SV. Thanks, Jules

Thanks for the heads-up re McGill Motorsport, I found some freeplay in my droplinks (again) during the winter fettle and took the advice in this discussion, fitting the McGill items today. FYI the McGill ones are a bit bigger and heftier, and look as if they should do the job well. But for the weight-obsessed amongst you, they each weigh 65g vs the CC items at 48g! There were also some rose joint options on the site, but I chose to play safe as they live in such an exposed area. Jules

Thanks Chris, that's very helpful. Looks like a reasonably straightforward job, doesn't even seem to need a gasket, if I read it correctly. Looking at your link, it would seem to suggest that a Haynes manual covering 2007 Mondeos should be good for our engines... Cheers, Julian

Very rude to leave a thread unfinished, so here's the update: The noise was infrequent and unintrusive so I was soon able to ignore it. Then I made the long haul trip down to see the 2 Steves recently (quite an experience, engine lovely now) and Steve G picked it up at the end of the job with the final conclusion being that it was probably the water pump making occasional noises. So, that will probably become a winter job now, has anybody else come across this problem? Planning ahead, has anybody found a good book to help with working on Duratecs, such as a Haynes Mondeo or something? The build manual stops at how to bolt it in! Cheers, Julian

The latest evidence of my mid-life crises is an urge to buy an old Jag XJ6, and the owner of "The One" says his use of an Airflow battery conditioner has apparently been a great success. Before I splash any cash, has anyone on the forum had any experience of these devices? Have only used Optimates on bikes up to now... Thanks, Jules

I know it is only polite to finish with the successful conclusion to a posted problem, but all I can say is that the noise has become less noticeable of late so I've shelved it until something happens!

Thanks for that John, I suspected that might be a tensioner, therefore the belt tension will not be adjustable by me. The belt looks healthy enough, though it is the original. I suppose the next course of action will be to remove the belt and check that the alternator, and the other pulleys, all rotate cleanly. And yes, you were right, the bolt through the pulley on the tensioner is 17mm.. Jules

I feel a bit of a fool, I built the car but can't see how to tighten up the alt belt! Or is it automatic, tensioned by the thing at the top right of the engine when looking at the engine from the front? There is a little bit of a new noise from the engine, not a full-on squeal yet, that seems to increase with electrical load, so the obvious place to start would seem to be the alternator belt. But the alternator is fixed into position, which left me scratching my head? Any thoughts? Car is a late 2009 Roadsport 175. Thanks, and apologies if I've missed a previous thread. Jules

Thanks Nick, if you reckon the tyres are all ok (apart from the inner cracks on the 4mm jobs) then that's good enough for me; you have been doing this for long enough now! Sold. I'll take the 4, and put off my (expensive) move to the ZZS for another couple of years. Am abroad at the moment, but could be available on Mon, Tues, Weds next week if you want to suggest a RV then. Cheers, Julian