Nigel Riches

Perhaps the clutch got lightly toasted on your sprinting session, not enough to be permanent damage, but enough to glaze the friction material, and now, after several cycles of the clutch under road use that has been removed, just a thought. Perhaps fanciful, but if the problem is now gone, better than hauling the engine and gearbox out. Nigel.

Chris, you'd be best talking to Arch Motors or the other lot, that make the newer frames. Caterham only specify which materials to be used, the chassis, with ali panels is then delivered to CC, for onward shipment to the customer. Nigel.

Ahmed, I think you would be best getting the engine and gearbox out of the car as a unit, then remove the gearbox and bell housing, hopefully the broken bolt will not snag on the b/h. You then have good access to the bolt, be sure to use plenty of Plusgas or better Wurth Rostoff, there is probably some dissimilar metal corrosion taken place. Cap head screws are extremely hard, you won't make any impression on it with a regular Cr-Vn drill, we use Cobalt drills at work when needing to remove broken screws. Nigel

Do a Google for "o ring material" heaps of info out there. Nigel.

Any decent vehicle paint shop should be able to match the paint closely if you take the item to be matched. My 32 year old rear BRG rear wing needed some rework, took it to them, and off I went with an aerosol to make it back like new, very good match, apart from my lack of spraying skilIs. I hope the garage are coming to some agreement about the replacement wing? Check there is no hidden damage where the wing bolts to the panelwork, these bolts will pull through the aluminium with very little force, certainly force enough to warrant a new wing would need to be looked at more closely. Nigel.

Don't mount any bracketry from chassis to the exhaust system, mount it back to the engine block, so the engine, exhaust, and bracket, all triangulated together move as one piece,. Movement of the engine will transfer energy through the exhaust and then into the chassis / frame, which is not a good situation. ​Nigel.

Check the face of the flange for flatness. If it's over about 0.5mm out of true have it skimmed and go easy on pulling the bolts tight. Nigel

Hi Bigdog, on my very elderly 40dcoe carbs replacing the throttle shaft seals wasn't too traumatic. I removed the nuts, lockwashers, then the thicker distance washer, this then allows removal of the "lid", there are two small holes either side of the shaft to assist in removal, however the material is very light gauge, and often damaged during extraction, never mind Weber agents usually have them, ok, so, after the lid is removed there is a light wire coil spring pressing on a leather washer, Weber name this "cover, dust" this is basically the shaft air seal, the shaft ball bearing is inboard of this. ​Your carbs are probably newer than mine, circa 1965,. Do a web search by carb type number ie 40dcoe type 151,loads of info out there. ​ Hope some of this has been of assistance. Nigel.

Slightly off topic, but related, check the brake pedal return spring is pulling the pedal fully back. This caused my cousin grief with his old Daimler V8. Nigel.

Ali box or steel?

Ok, just to throw in a different angle. My uncle had a Mk 3 cortina, from cold would start no problem, run for a while, a few miles and expire, leave it ten minutes and off it would go again, only to repeat the previous scenario. ​Turned out the baffles and packing in the silencer had collapsed, partially blocking the back of the silencer, restricting the exhaust gas flow, so not allowing new fuel charges into the cylinders, a new silencer sorted the problem. Might be worth a look at your exhaust system. Regards, Nigel.

Hi Bricol. From my limited experience of the Emerald K3 ECU , if the L.E.D. at the back of the unit is not showing red at power on, then some where the +ve 12 v is not getting to the E.C.U. I had this same "problem" turned out to be a wire off the ignition switch. Check all the supply wires, and ground wires also. But then of course it could have packed a sad, like my air temp sensor circuit . Hope this helps. Nigel.

You may find the rivet head is larger than the hole in the fixing piece, if this is the case, a few minutes with the rivet mandrels in an electric drill chuck, and some careful light action with a file will bring them to a suitable size to fit right down in the hollow of the "button". Definitely recommend the use of washers on the inside, as previously mentioned, to spread the load, Ali washers the same diameter as the button, mine are still in place after 33 years. Regards, Nigel.

you may like to look at this, if you haven't already seen it Have fun. Nigel.

Lucky you don't have an older car, engine and gearbox out for the same job .

What axle type?

Hi Kingsley, from my search on the interweb the thread is 1/8 NPT. Have a search for "bmc mini brake light switch", the same switch is found on several different makes and models. Nigel.

Hi Finmac. A bit more information about the type of 7 you have might get more response. Generally it's a case of get it off the ground, remove wheels, remove bolts holding brake calliper to the upright, remove bearing dust cap from the centre of the hub, remove the split pin in the castellated nut, remove nut, the disc and outer bearing will now be removable, the outer race of the inboard bearing will also come away. The disc is held onto the hub by four bolts, inside the "top hat", remove these and install the new disc. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly, to quote Mr. Haynes famous words, however be sure to torque the bolts to the correct amount, which I can't find just now. Ok got it, disc / hub bolt 22 - 27 lb ft, and the bolts to attach the calliper to the upright is 40 - 45 lb ft, well according to my 1996 Caterham assembly guide. The castellated nut on the stub axle is tightened to the point where rotational resistance is felt, then backed off to the nearest slot allowing the split pin (a new one each time) to be installed, don't forget to bend the ends apart. Hope this helps. Regards, Nigel. Damn, beaten to it by Ian.

Battery, get a new one, from somewhere. My take on this is the battery is on the "edge" of serviceability, ok, it cranks the engine but there's sweet FA for the ignition system, easy start is sending you a hoax, this stuff is pretty much ether, so will ignite at the least sign of a spark. Did you have the battery on a conditioner over winter, how are the cell electrolyte levels? Try to jump start from another vehicle, with the engine thereof running, and a good healthy charge from that alternator. When the battery in my diesel Land Cruiser quit it cranked fine, but the ecu had a nervous breakdown, all sorts of trouble, new battery, problem gone. Just my Saturday evening input. Hope you get it sorted soon, with the spring weather improving. Regards, Nigel.

Be careful of carpet burn with all that sliding around . Nigel.

First thing check if the manifold face is true, they do distort, if it's out of true there may be enough material to machine it back, check also at the cylinder head face, not so likely here as there is more metal heat and cool. Make sure the two faces are free from any foreign object debris which would preclude a flush fit, ie, old gasket material or sealant. Don't be over exuberant on the fasteners, and torque progressively to the figure for your engine. Regards, Nigel.

Copper slip or some similar anti corrosion paste will both aid assembly and later dis-assembly, apply to the metal jacket of the bushes and the corresponding bolts, including the threads, providing the nut locking feature is still tight. I applied copper slip to all the bushes and bolts when I assembled my car in 1982, never encountered a problem with seized, corroded components when working on it, even after all these years. Worth its weight in gold, well, ok, copper. It also inhibits green / blue stuff growing on the battery terminals. Regards, Nigel.

Top service gents, I thought it was NPT, but the other threads are metric. Regards, Nigel.

Good evening and welcome. Tonight's starter for ten. The Ford zetec black top engine oil pressure port is what size, and for bonus points, what thread form? Many thanks. Regards, Nigel.

Thanks gentlemen, I have some quality time in the garage booked over the weekend, as SWMBO won't be here for most of Saturday . I will reinstall the hotter thermostat, and recalibrate of the fan on / off point, luckily I bought a sheet of gasket material, and have cut several thermostat housing gaskets for this exercise. Just as an aside I researched the 2l Vauxhaul motor power, seems it was only 95kw, and that was the JPE car, so the radiator I have is now under specified for the 127kw zetec engine, but of course those figures are at max chat, my cooling problem is manifest at much more mundane power levels. I looked at the Radtec website, nice kit, nice price, depending on which side of the counter you're standing, and a fair few threads in BC about leaking, not what I need down here. So my quest for a resolution continues, there is a company very close to where myself and handbrake will be going for Easter, they make radiators from scratch, they manufactured the oil coolers for the Hawker Hurricane P3551, which was restored to flight in 2000. There will be a visit to see what they can offer. Other problems need addressing also, a bit of the old "flog on rewardless" comes to mind. I did have a bit of a laugh at the words the predictive lexicon wanted to use, oh dear, stay behind after class and learn the nuances of the English language. Regards, Nigel.