Mike Biddle

Re well being of feet, I suffered the same problem living in Dubai with an LHD car, also an injected VX. My solution was to fit scoops venting into the footwells, which works very well, see the pic below. Note that when this was taken I had fitted a different engine, hence exhausts both sides.

Thanks guys, will look at both of those. Mike.

I'm going to sell my 1989 Range Rover, and need to clean up the matt black areas, window surrounds, lower pillars, bumpers etc, no corrosion, just faded surface. I want to end up with a sheen, but not a gloss, so T cut or similar might be a tad too aggressive. Any experience/thoughts?

Agree with RJ, When I had the business in Dubai, we had a 5 ton forklift and if I ever wanted to get a look underneath the 7 a couple of pieces of wood on top of the forks and up she goes, perfect! A few others are, Stahlwille torque wrench, chain hoists, a pair of steelfixers nips, a 36" stihl chainsaw, and a brush attachment for my stihl combi https://www.stihl.co.uk/STIHL-Products/KombiSystem-and-MultiSystem/KombiTools/21174-1482/KB-KM.aspx Finaly, magnet on a stick and mirro on a stick.

I have 280 MM Hi spec discs and and racing 4 calipers. I am running 13 inch rims, so you should be OK, but that would depend on rim and caliper design/dims. You should be able to check by getting the caliper dims and measuring clearances on the car.

One of the plugs in the photos looks like it's running rich. Could be an injector problem?

Oops! Well there you go, never assume anything. Sorry Steve, love to help but Florida is a tad too far away. Try to post some pics.

Elie, I have a 1938 BMW currently under restoration and if you can post or send me a picture I can ask both the restorer and the technical advisor at the club, and I'm sure, get an answer, probably get hold of the correct part.

As per other posters, you do not currently have enough information to come to any conclusions, get any quotes, or make any decisions. If you can get it out of the car and take the sump off that should allow enough of an inspection to gather required information/quotes and make an informed decision. Are you in a position to do that/do you have facilities/mechanical skills to make an assessment or at least take and post some pics? If you had the engine out now I am on Crawley today, going to Stuttgart over the weekend to retro classics show, would be prepared to delay return to North Somerset and take a look on Monday if it helps. I'm assuming of course that your location is indicated by your posting name?

I believe that dual master cylinders are legal in UK, but you are not supposed to have a means of adjusting the balance from the driving seat, I will be looking for an MOT soon in order to register the 7 in UK so I guess I will find out then, because that's what I have. Pedal effort and travel is dependent on the relative surface area between master cylinder and brake cylinder/s pistons. If you have a master cylinder with a large piston surface area relative to brake caliper piston/s then you will have a short pedal travel but high pedal effort, and if its the other way round then you will have less pedal effort with a longer pedal travel. The second scenario offers more sensitive control over braking effort, the first can feel quite "wooden" in action. you can look at in the same way as a gear ratio.

Hi RJ, if you do a lot of track days and place high importance on well balanced brakes, then surely a dual master cylinder with balance bar set up would be ideal, then you can set the balance according to to your needs, track, road etc.

Yes Jonathan the air goes straight into the footwells, but its not so much pushed in by the scoops as sucked in by the negative cockpit pressure. Really helps to cool the feet. The OP was posting about cockpit temps?

Chris, here are my experiences with footwell temps, which was a big issue for me when I first got the car new in 1996, ambient temps in Dubai being rarely less than 20C, and I was often driving the car in 35C. Needless to say the footwells were getting really hot and I experimented a lot to get that under control as far as possible. Wrapping or coating the primaries will help. Insulating the transmission tunnel internally is a big help if done well. A lot of hot air from the engine bay goes down there. While you are doing that, try to seal all joints around the tunnel and footwells, whether you run a standard or aeroscreen there is a lot of negative pressure in the cockpit and if you get someone else to drive you can run your hand around under the dash and feel hot air coming in almost everywhere. I took the heater out and threw it away,then covered the hole making sure it was sealed up well. You don't need it anyway, just wear motorcycle clothing if you want to drive in cold weather. Finally, I fitted air scoops to the footwells, and that really helps, the negative cockpit pressure ensures a good blast of cooling air on your feet. You can see the passenger side scoop in the picture below. Of course not everyone wants to cut holes in the side of their car, but I use mine for touring and comfort is paramount.

After spending 4 weeks in UK recently the car hire bill was not cheap, having 5 adults plus luggage to cart around. So, I'm thinking that buying a car would be the best option so I'm seeking the collective advice, here are the parameters. 1. Must fit into the forthcoming classic car collection, with at least a chance of future appreciation. 2. Must accommodate aforementioned 5 adults + luggage. 3. Something with style, power, and pace. 4 No German cars allowed. Right now I'm leaning towards a Jaguar XJR, and there may be a "portfolio" special edition car for sale, someone is going to take a look for me next week. Big, (Audi A8 size) fast, (0-60 5 secs) Aluminium unitary construction, Aluminium suspension, quite a sophisticated car, and only 100 portfolio's made. Any other suggestions?

If the De Dion tube is out of line with the chassis, shimming won't fix it, best establish that first.

Thrust angle explanation copied from the website of a provider that uses the hunter alignment system you mention. Thrust angle (other than zero) occurs when the individual rear toe values are unequal. The easiest example to imagine is for a car with a live rear axle (one piece) that has the axle fitted crocked in the body such that one rear wheel has toe-in and the other one has toe-out. Thrust line is an angle of the resultant drive direction compared to the vehicle centreline. Cars driven with high thrust angles may appear to 'crab'. On cars, which have independent suspension, some are individually adjustable for toe, which can then be used to correct both the toe-in and thrust line together. Thrust angle should where possible always be adjusted to zero, to coincide with the vehicle centreline. Sign definition A positive thrust angle is one that points to the left. A negative thrust line is one that points to the right. Straight steering wheel Errors in the steering wheel being straight on road test can be the rear toe being wrong and a high thrustline. (As well as the front track-rods being adjusted un-equally or steering wheel having been fitted incorrectly). Computerised aligners measure and record the thrustline and at the adjustment stage will set the steering wheel level allowing for any thrust angle. It is for this reason that the adjustment step on all aligners takes you first through rear toe adjust, to give you the opportunity of reducing the thrust angle as far as possible, before moving on and adjusting the front toe and steering wheel. So, thrust angle should be zero, and alignment of the ear axle is controlled by the radius arms, these run forward from the ends of the De Dion tube outside the body under the rear fenders to mounting points in the chassis. There are two mounting points available in the chassis, upper and lower. They should of course be in the same position each side. You can easily check just by taking a quick look under the front of the rear fenders, you will see the radius arms. Maybe one of them is a bit bent? Maybe a worn bush? If absolutely necessary, adjustable radius arms could easily and cheaply be fabricated, or adjustable sections installed in the existing ones. Could also be a slight bend in the De Dion tube, or the plate on the end to which the "ear" mounts, which carries the rear hub, but unlikely because this should have been picked up by the alignment system.

No, handbrake survives and works.

I have 280 MM solid disc's under 13" rims on the fronts with Hi Spec ultralight racing 4 calipers. Clearance is minimal but they do fit, and have been on the car for about 15 years. Rears are the ventilated disc's from the Caterham front "big brake" kit, with Hi Spec handbrake calipers. Also have dual master cylinders with balance bar. The big advantage with larger diameter disc's is that braking effort is much more controllable.

There used to be radiator blinds available, a roller blind at the bottom or top of the radiator, operated by cable from inside the car, allowing the driver to adjust it up and down according to engine temp. I remember my brother having one on his Hillman Hunter Should be pretty easy to rig up on a seven.

Do some drifting.

From the symptoms you describe I would say that it's almost certainly a MC seal problem. The fact that your wife reported the pedal firming up, then the effect dissipating is classic seal failure stuff. The new MC will obviously fix it.

No marks on the prop, and no witness marks on the front end to indicate contact with tail housing which would probably have happened if it was shoved forward, which I don't believe it was, De Dion tube is fine, as are radius arms and A frame, the impact was only on offside rear wing/wheel. My question was prompted by the fact that it was out of the car and there was an opportunity to get it checked for fatigue. Thanks to all contributors. Mike.

Thanks for the input. Mike.

Do carbon props deteriorate over time? Is there a way to get them tested/looked at/X rayed or something? Where to get such a service? Note original supplier not interested, not replying to mails/calls etc. My car is being put back together after being rear ended earlier this year and the question has arisen.

I had excellent service from Quantum.