Nigel Riches

Given that this engine is in some state of tune, it would be worth being sure that the replacement components are balanced and lightened, shot peened etc,before installation, to match the original items, lest some nasty vibration and out of balance force destroy the engine again. Nigel.

Mark Jackson asks' about a standard atmospheric condition for rolling road tuning, the internationally accepeted aviation standard day temp and air pressure are 20 deg C, and 29.913 in.Hg, that's without any correction for local gravity, but that's not going to make a lot of difference to your vehicle figures.

The wipers on the wifes car are screeching as they move across the screen, this has a knock-on effect in my ear, even when I'm not in the car, so to save what little hearing I have left, could anyone advise a remedy, the wiper blades have been changed and the screen cleaned with a brillo pad, well the N.Z. equivalent, cheers people, regards Nigel.

I've got flared wings on my car, but as for the length question, do mean overall, or, the length of the flat fitted to the side panel, .................so I've just been out to the garage and a quick measure is as follows: from the front pointy bit over the top surface to the where the wing is bolted to the side panel measured 66.5 inches, the measurement along the side panel mountings was 49.5inches, has that helped any? Nigel.

Jimbo, there's millions of Kumho tyres on vehicles here in N.Z., I had some very ordinary 165.80x14 on my old dunger, and found them more than adequate, but as for the type of profile your talking and the envisaged use, may not be out there with the Yokohamas and Avons, value for money and ease of purchase in these parts make them more popular than Goodyear, Dunlop, Michelin, many of which are made in the far east under lincense, so as with a lot of motoring quandaries, you pays your money, and take a risk, no that can't be right, but for sure heaps of high performance Jap cars would be running Kumho tyres here. Nigel. Just noticed I'm now in my anorak, and here it is getting in to summer, just my luck. Edited by - nigelriches on 23 Nov 2002 09:02:07

Brent, your right it's a short cockpit, to suit my short stature, it's was the only chassis available in January 1982, what difference is there between Simon's and mine?. When was the "universal" chassis brought out?, so many questions, so little time. regards Nigel.

Simon, just to confuse things further, I had my 1982 chassis converted to take the 5 speed gearbox, the mounting for the original remote 4 speed shift remained in place, and the remote mechanism has been shortened, there is about 6mm clearance from the back of the gearbox to the shift mounting bridge, I also needed to cut a section of the gearbox casting mounting point, to lower the box in the tunnel and give clearance of the bottom of the gear stick and the forward propshaft U.J., I have some photos of the installed shift and could scan to you if your interested, maybe the chassis changed more radically between yours and mine, but it's all interesting stuff, regards Nigel.

Ninja, if the odometer is still counting , then the cable is in serviceable order, as the mechanism to drive the speedo pointer is a magnetic disc and a drag cup arrangement with the pointer attached to the drag cup, which is sprung loaded to return to zero, it maybe there is some foriegn object, not very large stuck in the area of the speedo pointer, in the works, if the cover of the speedo has a rolled bezel, this can be carefully removed with a lot of small twists of a screwdriver, around the rear of the bezel, this will release the glass and seal from the case, the mechanism can then be removed by removing the screws on the rear of the indicator, and a much better idea of what is going on can be seen, sounds like the speedo is pretty much O.K. just needs a bit of a fiddle, careful with the pointer return spring very delicate and if distorted will give problems, have fun hope this has been some help, if you need more info get in touch, regards Nigel.

.....and it's extremely difficult if your car is of the older closed floor design, seal removal and installation is possible insitu, through the tunnel top, levering out the original seal is not to difficult as it's probably stuffed anyway, be careful not to marr the recess that accepts the seal, as this could cause further leaks, use some form of gasket sealer on the outer (metal) surface of the new seal when fitting, holding the seal "square on" to the extension housing and then tapping it home is the real *astard, as the bridge for the gear shift gets in the way, hope this has been of some assistance, and if it you have the open underside most of this won't apply, have fun skinning your knuckles, regards Nigel. P.S. It's worth putting a smear of grease on the lip seal to aid insertion of the propshaft and to alleviate friction as the propshaft turns, and thus prolong the seal life, sorry don't know what grease to use, I just dobbbed on some Castrol LM, one of the more erudite bretheren will probably point out the correct lubricant. Edited by - nigelriches on 3 Nov 2002 08:03:40

Smally, yes I certainly know of this problem, as you describe, the wheel casting alloy was porous, and when the machining and re-polishing was finished the wheels looked fine, but one wouldn't hold pressure, some small imperfections on the inside rim surface, some robust, frank and earnest discussions with the wheel polishing outfit eventually got it fixed, (bodged), sorry I am not sure what was used to fix the leak, possibly just some paint on the inside?. Regards Nigel.

JonnyS, how's old Wokingham town?, I used to drink in the Three Frogs or the Hope and Anchor, when I grew up there (well sort of), sorry to hear of the light failure, flickering dashlights on my old dunger turned out to be wire from the switch to the panel lamps, having grown tired, and manky, a new wire and some new crimp connectors, and all was fine and dandy. Hope this sheds some light (sorry) on the problem. Regards Nigel, in N.Z.

Nick , if your gearbox is a Ford item this following is from the Tony Weale book, hope it may be useful:-Axle ratio = 3.92:1, drive gear (on gearbox output shaft), 7 teeth, driven gear, (to speedo drive) 24 teeth, Ford finis code 6011058, and the colour would be black, under all the oily filth. The foregoing is for a speedo calibrated at 1000 turns per mile, except the de dion, with 3.62 axle calibrated at 1100 turns per mile, and equates to a speed of 16.5 mph/1000 rpm, in 4th gear, or, 20.2 mph/1000 rpm for the de dion, in 5th gear, it really is a combination of the tyre revolutions per mile to the speedo drive ratio, also a long while back, probably in the archive now, I posted a chart about tyre size, rolling radius and such, but it was back in the dim darks, may be worth a search, speedo cal can be corrected without to much expense or aggro if the maths is carried out before the gearbox disappears down the tunnel. Have fun Nigel.

Sounds like one stuffed fan motor, no amount of wiggling or ****ing abouts goin' to fix it, need a new fan.

I believe these earlier brake master cylinders where sourced from a Vauxhall Viva, probably not a vehicle that would not have made it to your shores, but as a General Motors component perhaps available through restoration shops in U.S.A. for some of the smaller motor vehicles, hope this is of some assistance, regards, Nigel, in Noo Zillund.

Mr B.G.H, in Kent, he's the man to talk to to sort your 'box problems, what he doesn't know about these Ford gearboxes, got one of his and wouldn't have any other now, sorry I don't have his phone/fax no, regards Nigel.

I seem to recall from the dim dark distant past that genuine Ford reconditioned motors had "blue" painted head assemblies, I could well be wrong here, it's all a long time ago now, as for the other info, sorry no can help. Nigel.

Monsieur Sin, some of the odd noises you mention could be from the gearbox bearings, and the gears themselves, the clutch release bearing, or from the carb inlets, when I changed from the "sandwich" plate Weber mountings to the ali plate "Misab" seals, a definate whistling noise was noticeable when running the engine at usual thrashing speeds, this was put down to the inner edge of the sealing plates acting as a reed, like in a saxophone, creating the noise mentioned, and if the motor in your car is a fairly standard Ford, then you may be able to find a local motor engineer to fix your bearings, if this is what it turns out to be, main bearing failure is often accompanied by a heavy rumbling sound as the surfaces rub together, are there traces of metal in the oil drained from the sump? so many noises, don't worry, be happy, as they say, Au Revoir, Nigel.

Trevor I believe there are rectangular Q-max cutters available, make a nice neat hole, in your wallet, and dashboard, very careful drilling, sawing and filing should see you right, remember the the 8 P's of success, prior planning, and proper preparation, prevent piss poor performance, so mark it carefully, and go to it!!! Careful with that axe Eugene.

I set a D.T.I. with a magnetic base over the "open" valve to be sure of picking the fully open position, possibly being to picky, but it works good, regards Nigel.

James why are you still in blighty? the weather down here is headed for summer, we had snow on monday night, hurry or you'll miss it, come on down Regards Nigel in Noo Zillund.

My 1982 car had the sort of cooling system where the filler cap was fitted in the top hose, with a piece of plastic pipe running down the side of the radiator, out to the street, when the coolant expanded the excess fluid was expelled via this pipe, net result, lower coolant level as none was drawn back of course, it did stabilise at this lower level and didn't seem to suffer any ill effects, and ran like this for about ten years, how ever I have now got a "sealed" system, where excess coolant is overflowed to an expansion tank, ( must be partially filled with coolant, and overflow pipe immersed in this) excess coolant flows to the expansion tank, and upon the cooling system temperature becoming lower the necessary fluid is drawn back into the system via the water filler cap, the filler cap must be able to allow excess coolant out when hot ie running at normal working temp, and also to be able to admit coolant from the expansion tank when the system pressure drops as the coolant temp decreases, this results in a system which is full of coolant at all times, hopefully, and more stable engine temperature, never run a fully closed system as something will burst big time, it's all to do with heat and pressure and expansion, and there is a limit, often in one of the hoses, regards Nigel.

I have one of those locks with a length of steel plastic wrapped cable to secure the spare from the attention of the light fingered ones, fit it through the wheel spokes and also around the spare wheel carrier, regards Nigel.

Miff, the Haynes how to take your Ford type 9 box of cogs apart and get 'em all back in again, book says to use Ford fully synthetic gear oil, but I believe this is now extinct, I use Castrol Syntrax 75w/90 in my B.G.H. 'box and the change action is really very slick, no problem with synchros, 'though the double de clutch for better effect of the right boot when changing down to overtake is still used. As for the selection of 1st or 2nd gear, is the clutch adjustment O.K., just a thought, have fun, Nigel.

I think Caterhams are skinned with "alclad" which is a surface skin of aluminium over a base, (sandwich) of some form of aluminium alloy, this allows greater strength and better corrosion resistance with out a weight penalty, similar material is used for aircraft skins.

I have a 2.8 sporting close ratio gearbox, excellent shift and nice ratios, but talk about a bucket of bolts noises when idling and a real screamer when running, except in fourth (1:1), the noise is definately in the gearbox as pressing the clutch when idling all becomes quiet, apart from the usual x-flow cacophony, anyone out there had similar experience with these gearboxes?, is this going to be another job for next winter?, new bearings and such like?, or am I just paranoid, taken to driving with earplugs on any long trips,(700 miles last weekend.) any info gratefully received, thanks Nigel In Noo Zillund.