Paul Gibb

Thanks Guys, Chaos, are you already running the polyvee belts & pulleys? if so any furthr info on the belt lengths & pulley diameters would be appreciated. Anthony, as above & pics would be very helpful thanks, also the spec dims or part no. of the brize alternator you have used. Pete, any further info on the alternator mtg & belts would be appreciated. Paul L7 FUN

Hi guys, SBD sell a polyvee alternator belt kit for Vx engines consisting of modified crank pulley, wide polyvee belt and small alternator with polyvee pulley. Has anyone here fitted one of these to a 2.0l Vauxhall in a Caterham - and with the alternator on the exhaust side of the block as standard? I am considering this because despite very careful attention to alignment & tension my alternator belt just will not stay on at high rpm. Many thanks, Paul L7 FUN

Edited by - Paul Gibb on 24 May 2004 23:14:13

Agree with Mark, Graham Frankland at Exhausts by design is your man. I have now had two manifolds made by him and can recommend him highly. EBD Unit 2 Westwell Farm Westwell Lane Tingewick Bucks MK18 4BD 01280 847 756 www.exhaustsbydesign.co.uk L7 FUN

Aves, I have a full set of tappets converted to solid by Swindon sitting in the garage if you are interested. Paul L7 FUN

Mark, I have a spare propshaft off a '95 dedion Vx in the garage which you are welcome to have FOC - it was routinely changed this winter (after reading Anthony's posts about propshaft failure last year) & AFAIK it is fine. Email me if you are interested. Paul L7 FUN

Mark, I have a spare propshaft off a '95 dedion Vx in the garage which you are welcome to have FOC - it was routinely changed this winter (after reading Anthony's posts about propshaft failure last year) & AFAIK it is fine. Email me if you are interested. Paul L7 FUN

Thank you Roger, Graham, MattJ, Andy, Robmar et al. Roll on Saturday. Paul L7 FUN

Hi Graham, I thought I was class 5 on account of the CR500's or ACB10's. Paul L7 FUN

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Barry, YHM. Regards, Paul 2833 L7 FUN

Cheers guy's. Mark many thanks, I will look out for no.74 Paul L7 FUN

That'll be me then! All help & advice will be very gratefully received so please come & say hello. I will most probably be parked in the wrong place, queing in the wrong queue, or as start time approaches lurking somewhere near the loos! Paul Black & dayglo no. 75 L7 FUN

Hi Jerry, I did this on my own so you shouldn't have any trouble! I used the large 70litre bag. The seat is made semi rigid by extracting air like a vacuum splint, the more air you pump out the stiffer the seat becomes. I used an electric paddling pool pump resting on the boot cover just over my left shoulder to suck & blow whist sitting in the car. Have a few practice runs before adding the resin & setting agent. Bunch up the beads under your thighs to provide support making sure that you can comfortably reach & depress the pedals ie stand on clutch & brake whils seat cures. Cut the top & bottom corners, cut out for L elbow, slots for lap & crutch belts etc. with a modelling knife or stanley with the blade extended & tape the cut edges with tank tape. Mine was not covered and it still good after 18 months. Single seater racers I think cover these with a thin layer of glass then nomex material to make them last longer. I will send pics if you wish. Regards Paul L7 FUN

Paul, You may be lucky - water can do this. If you washed the car you may find water inside the black plug - blow it out and all should be OK. Otherwise find someone to bypass the immobiliser tomorrow. Good luck, Paul L7 FUN

Hi Mark, The steel (I think they are iron) hubs are cheaper & considerably heavier, but much stronger. For your application I would have thought that steel front hubs were more appropriate than aluminium (unless you are in the habit of checking the hubs regularly) as they are 'fit & forget'. Paul L7 FUN

Stewart, I have a set available with the Swindon solid tappet conversion. Mail me if you are interested. Paul L7 FUN

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Jules, I've told Ray he should keep the car & bring it with him to Spa, it is too fast to sell! Paul Hi John L7 FUN

Dave, No one would dispute the pedigree of the Hart racing engine but the late Swindon touring car Vauxhalls were reputedly 290+bhp at over 9000rpm, sharing very little in common with engines built in JPE spec. Swindon have two Froude G490 dynamometers running with Superflow software and hardware. Instruments like these are regularly calibrated in standardised fashion and unlikely to read any different than HTR's dyno. It is because of SRE's unsurpassed reputation that many Caterham owners are Swindon Vauxhall enthusiasts. Paul L7 FUN

Marius, You are welcome to have the 71/4" single plate QM clutch recently removed from L7FUN at a knock down price c/w a brand new rally spec friction plate - this will fit inside the Vx dry sump bellhousing (incidentally I am also now selling one of these cheap). A word of warning though - Alan ran this clutch with a 5 speed type 9 HD gearbox from early 2001 and I continued to run the car with the same clutch & gearbox from May 2002 until dog rings failed. In March 2003 when I replaced the box with a Quaiffe 6 spd sequential the friction plate appeared hardly worn and was not replaced. By August (6 trackdays later) the clutch had failed due to fracture of the friction plate. Why did the single plate clutch fail? I figured either because I failed to replace the friction plate when I had the chance or because the single plate clutch was just not up to the seq box. Having discovered that other users of the seq box were using twin plate clutches (Arnie, Chelspeed et al) I have just changed from the d/s bellhousing with integral tank to a wet sump bellhousing with external d/s tank (copied off Chaos) to make room for a twin plate clutch! Hence the items now for sale. Paul I am sure that others will have comments on this. Best of luck Paul L7 FUN

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What the b****y hell was going on here?? BTW Mike C many congrats on catching the car. Paul L7 FUN

Mark, No thanks the engine was fine, I just feel an overwhelming compulsion to explore the rule of diminishing returns! Nick, Adrian, Graham, stewart and others, YHM Adrian please let me know if the photos fail to materialise. Paul L7 FUN

Sorry Guys, Been away from the computer all day & just got back. Working through mounds of emails this evening. Paul L7 FUN