Alastair B

You have BM Thanks

Thanks for all your responses, I didn’t realise you all had posted until today as the replies to my posting was showing zero, even when there were 4 posts….down to the progress and the new site I guess Myles – thanks, have seen your Alcester Sevens pages, very useful they are. The car sits in a dry garage with brakes not applied and is not used much from November to March, but has been the case for the last 7 years of my ownership and corrosion can build. I will have a go at the clean/check for corrosion at the front as you state. At the back yes standard Sierra calipers, I will will try the handbrake check as well. DJ – I think they are original calipers and I appreciate this will be a longer term fix. If I’m working on 3 of them it makes sense to do all 4 properly Paul – Will check handbrake – but to be honest this is something I never really have to use until MOT time I will try and find sometime in the next week or so and have a go at some of these ideas and will post back with results.

I need some advice for troubleshooting some brake problems on my ’99 de-dion car. My rear brakes both sides drag and my offside front brake the same, but not my nearside front, this spins freely when rotated. I have checked the offside front brake and can only remove the brake pad from one side the other is in tight against the piston. So I suspect the rear pistons / sliders and the front offside brake are getting stiction. But I was trying to understand if it could be the master cylinder, but the fact that the near side front behaves normally has cast some doubt on that. Is there a good way to troubleshoot and eliminate the master cylinder? How much free play should there be on the master cylinder when brake not depressed? What adjustment could I do to see if this is the problem? Is brake caliper rebuild with new seals a recommended way forward or refurbished calipers better? Thanks

Hi, waved to you as you were coming into Peckleton, my first outing this year, far from home?

Mine can do this when unplugged from the mains as it appears to reset itself, so keep it plugged in now. Suspect it is the button contact which I is worn as I got it to work eventually with much pressing.

John, is the insurance paying for the fitment to the frame?

I wouldn't "fit and forget" for too long. You will need to check your electrolyte levels every 3 months or so and top up as required. If you don't you risk shortening the life of your battery.

I recently got the wife's Fiesta wheels done through Speedy Wheels (branches in Leicester and Nottingham), the wheels went off for powder coating refurbishment, with laquer finish and the result was excellent. The price of £50/wheel included tyre removal and fitting and running around on their wheels/tyres for about a week whilst the work was organised. But I wouldn't recommend their tyres for a seven http://www.lotus7.club/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png

Has anyone seen or tried this as a cheaper, albeit annual renewal required, alternative to 3M protective film? 3M spray on protection film Edited by - Alastair B on 31 Jul 2014 19:07:43

Saw you today with your full hood up...think you were a SV? Edited by - Alastair B on 31 Jul 2014 20:47:12

Hi, gave you a thumbs up from my grey BMW at about 8:00am on the A50 close to Castle Donington exit on A50, you were travelling in the direction of Stoke.

Tayna.co.uk batteries are who I used last time, they have a next day delivery advert on their website

Say your orange R300 with Aero screens at Thurmaston Retail Park, Leicester parked up at about 10:40am, the masses were heard to say, "oooh look a racing car!"

I find Meguiar's Gold Trim Detailer very good and even smells nice, I do them about twice a year - works for me

I'm not an expert by any means on this but to get this going here is my 2p worth... a. Use pliers to grip the top of the caps, can be tricky if the contact grips hard the spark plug...perservere and manipulate gently the caps whilst pulling b. NGK BCPR7ES c. 0.9mm IIRC d. Yes, not too tight and a touch of copaslip would be good e. Not necessary IMO f. I'll leave that to the expertise of Blatchat 😶‍🌫️ Do search on Misfire...lengthy post from April 14 could be useful, don;t know how to link posts! Good luck!

You're right....going mad, I was returning from work in Derby in the evening on this day, I got confused with going that way the day earlier!

Think it was K777, could have been K77 with green rear and darker front, you passed me in my tin top going to the Field Head Roundabout in Markfield on 22nd April about 12pm, just starting to rain a bit, hope you didn't get wet.

Spotted at about 9:30am as you were coming into village

Is the clutch cable still available? Can you post? Thanks

Any tyre upgrade is probably one of the most noticeable and effective upgrades you can make, the car corners like it should with 'sticky' tyres. Before you decide you should read the many threads here on tyres...if you are to do track work the AO21's in the hotter months could overheat after a while, but if for general road work, they are hard to beat IMO. They have smaller tread blocks than the A048's that give you confidence as you can feel the car loading up against the block movement very progressively. In any case whatever you choose, you really should be aware of 'oil surge' if you are cornering hard with sticky tyres for sustained periods...oil tank sump gasket/pick up mods as per Dave Andrews recommendations as a start and then Apollo tank etc. If you buy Yokohama's one of the cheapest places to buy is George Polley.

My driver's sidescreen also does not fit as flush to the side skin as the passenger side and I get a draught blowing through this gap. This is becasue of the curvature of the sidescreen. In an attempt to permamently straighten the leading edge of the side screen I laid the sidescreen on the floor, protecting the plastic, cleaned the front tyre of grit and rolled the front wheel over the sidescreen at the critical position and left it for about 10 minutes. It has improved the curvature so that the gap is smaller, but not entirely.

Going home last nigh 19th Sept, sorry sight of a Caterham on a low loader with full hood on, presumably on way to Caterham Midlands?

They do break......I just had my clutch cable go yesterday, only 5 miles from home...and you guessed it travelling without tools. So I called the wife to bring out appropriate tools and pop into Caterham Midlands on the way, also very cloe, to get a clutch cable. You guessed it, not one clutch cable for a S3 RHD K series car available say the guys on duty on Saturday afternoon. So RAC it was, they were excellent. Arrived in 30 mins and with a clutch cable mending kit with replacement cable fed through old outer and grub screw nipple on the end all done in 15 minutes! So tool roll and some basic tools on my shopping list, plus a new clutch cable and I'll keep the RAC rigged up one as my new spare.

A sorry sight seeing a blue Caterham on tow, back end raised and being dragged backwards by an AA van....coming towards A47 roundabout on Meridian Way.

Gunmetal Grey colour with some mud splatter up the rear wings, saw you as I was going to work near the traffic lights on Groby Road next to the industrial estate junction.....perhaps heading to CC?