6speedmanual

Me, large glob of grease over the bearing once I'd replaced it. Going good 5 years on. Peter

Probly worth getting at it properly and giving a good clean out. The selector housing can accumulate moisture and corrosion. Especially the spherical bearing can fail causing horrible sticky shifting issues. Peter

I once presented at mot with an arb drop link disconnected.... caused a comment from the tested but passed as clearly not a fault. It's right that it should cause a discussion. Getting into the nitty gritty of how the car works and how we can so quickly and easily adapt the driving pleasure of our machines is one of the joys of 7 ownership. Ah yes that CH video was one of the items I alluded to above. Same spirt as my R400K on 185/60 all round. Peter

That's alright mi old bean! If I'd known you'd just written it in a muddle I probably would have spend fewer keyboard strokes re-explaining myself! :)) No worries :) Peter

And if you do use wellnuts (rubber t nuts) make sure the threads are protected with a grease or waxoyl. If the screw seizes in the well nut they can be real bu99er to get out if you cannot access the back of the nut. Peter

Yes, not having access to a glass workshop floor, I will use the graph paper method. Probably rub some engineers' blue on the tyre and then lower it down onto the paper. Yeah, just like potato prints at primary school! :)

Thanks for keeping out of the ARB discussion You're very wise, Jonathan! The concept that the footprint is proportional to the load carried and the air pressure in the tyre is ok up to the point where the carcass stiffness changes everything. I intend to do a suspension overhaul this winter. What I will do is take prints of the tyre foot prints of 215 and 185 ZZRs carrying the same load (corner weight). I can also do this at a series of pressures (I expect that there will have to be BIG steps to make a reasonably measurable difference, so I'm thinking 5, 15, 25, 35 psi) to see how much the amount of rubber going down varies. It is my belief that between 2 psi increments which are commonly discussed on BC, the biggest changes are due to tyre dynamic feel rather than the absolute level of grip obtainable. Also the "cold" pressures everyone likes to work to are often radically different from the warmed up running pressure. Please be patient, I don't expect to be pulling my 7 in bits until after January! Peter

What can I say? Not wishing to be argumentative, but simply factual. The ARB does the opposite of what you describe. Picture this: Right hand bend. Car rolls to the left compressing LH suspension spring. Lever arm on LH end of ARB is pushed upwards. By the torsional stiffness of the ARB the RH lever arm of the ARB is also pushed upwards. This "lifts" weight off the inside (RH in case case) wheel. The outside (LH) tyre has to do more of the work. Load is transferred to the outer (LH) tyre. For the car to get round the corner a certain amount of cornering force has to be developed by the tyres. If the cornering force is shared between the tyres they both do some of the work (not equal amounts due to weight transfer). As the ARB is made stiffer, the load transfered to the outer tyre reduces the ability of the inner tyre to do its share of the work is reduced due to lower ground contact force. If the ARB is so stiff as to be able to cause the inner wheel to lift, this reduces the ability of the inner tyre to work to zero. At this point the outer wheel is doing ALL the cornering work. To illustrate this at an extreme, consider an ARB so stiff that is does not twist with cornering loads. In this instance as soon as the car enters a corner the load transfer to the outside wheel is instant and 100% The corning force available is that from 1 tyre, not the two working together sharing the load and both developing some cornering force. A fat tyre putting down more rubber in its footprint does in theory have more mechanical grip, all other things being equal. A car with stiff ARBs becomes eventually dependent on just the outside tyres for the grip (assuming the CofG is above the roll centre of the car and that the tyre has not yet started to slide at the point where the inner wheels are still on the ground). So Fat tyres should help here. But... as most cornering is not done on just the two outside wheels, the inner tyres do some work also. Now... it is entirely possible to create a situation where two narrow rear tyres both in contact with the road could create availability of more total cornering force than one fat tyre. Would never say narrow is better that fat. Just that narrow tyres on a set up with ARB stiffness more suited to Fat tyres will not really work. Narrow tyres with a softer ARB stiffness can work very well indeed. There is plenty of evidence for this - Rally Mk1/11 Escorts. Low and soft at the back, hard and high at the front. Gives goot turn in at front and nice even load distribution across the back axle to keep both tyres down on the tarmac/gravel. Optimising cornering force and traction. Prove for yourself - Run a test like this: I run my RARB on second softest setting for CR500 205/50s on rear. When I change to 185/60 CR28s* the outer tyre gets totally overwhelmed in hard cornering. The grip level at the rear and early transition into oversteer becomes the limiting factor. Disconnect the RARB and the cornering force is shared between both the rear tyres (no load transfer to the outer wheel from the ARB). Greater grip is available than with the ARB connected. Balance is restored and higher cornering force before transition into oversteer. In fact makes the 7 back into the natural understeerer that it is. Throttle balanced yaw control and oversteer available on demand. Pendennis, you must have a pair of spare 175 fronts you could lob on the back to try this....? * the CR28 is a much less grippy tyre than a CR500. Ones choice of tyre width depends on many things. The biggest discussion point on this thread is between ultimate cornering grip of fat tyres and relative playfulness of narrow tyres. Whilst a 7 on 175s allround "may" not be as fast as one with 175F and 205R around a race track ARBs set to suit), a narrow shod car can still offer huge and ample levels of grip and greater driver adjustability and playfulness. Recent press on 7s have had a good share of cars shod narrow all round - 160 and the 175 supersport. All thr write ups and videos relish the tactile pleasure and adjustability of the chassis. Going back to the very top,... Julian H, I would suggest you try different ARB settings with The 205s to learn about what changes it makes. then kit yourself with some 6" and 175s for the rear and go play again. The changes in behaviour from ARB adjustment are more obvious to identify when running narrow tyres. The great joy of a 7 is that the settings can be changed in a jiffy making experimentation play very accessible. Go enjoy! Peter

Slightly unorthodox but not a problem. As the two lever ends of the ARB are reacting against each other, the net effect if having them in different holes averages them. eg. Using hole 3 on one side and 4 on the other gives an equivalent ARB stiffness of 3.5 (approximately, due to variations in relative angles of links to the arms giving slight mathematical deviation). The ARB links are deffo strong enough but due to their metal to metal design tend to quickly get some free play. Depends on your tolerance to rattle over broken up road surfaces how often you want to replace them. There may be a type with a ptfe lining at great expense? (Anyone?) Or expensively redesign with sphercal bearing rod ends which would last longer. Peter

I don't. I'm just making the point that just fitting "fatter" rear tyres will not necessarily give more (or optimum) cornering force if other aspects of the chassis are not right. It is quite easy to demonstrate that the RARB can transfer load to the outside tyre and off the inside tyre to the point where the inner wheel is doing virtually nowt. At this point a non lsd car starts to spin off any torque surplus. An lsd can mask the issue and provoke power oversteer. Over stiffening the RARB is a nasty place. I can quite understand running without one as I do myself for skinnies all round. I didn't claim narrower tyres to be better but give a different feel and dynamic to the car from running fatties on the rear. If OP or anyone wants to experiment there is a world of variation and different pleasures to be experienced. Just don't expect just to change tyres/rims in isolatuon and expect to be getting the best from the change....

But if the RARB is lifting the fat 8" tyre off the road it gives zero grip.

Yes, "offset" is important. Actually the rims should be inset. (carr ret) ET (actually German for inset) should be 23 or 24 mm on a 6" rim. (carr ret) Peter

I would contact Pipercross direct and just get the replacement part required. Peter

I too agree with the above discussion. I am very happy driving my R400, 220hp on 185/60x13 all round, 6" rims ARB disconnected. I wrote quite a bit about this before. Maybe you could even find it using the "marvellous" search function... Main thing is that armed with a choice of rear rims and tyres you can try all different settings and find out what you like and feel comfortable with. Fatter tyres do not always give more grip! Especially if a very stiff ARB is effectively negating the grip from the inner wheel on a turn. Go play and enjoy! Peter

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How far in does it go before it stops? If the first 1-2 turns is crossed, they can be very shallowly drilled out, teh thread then picks up on the 3rd thread in. Maybe conside getting a bolt 1/8" longer. I belive as mentioned above teh brazed in bush is threaded right through. Peter

I have had CR28 aquaplane too if hitting deeper puddles. In a recent trip to Scotland we had a MAJOR downpour. ZZR shod 7 (other end of spectrum regarding rain) had no trouble staying with M3, Megane Cup and 7 on CR500. Eventually it is very much down to driver and adjusting to the conditions. If I lived in Scotland I'd probably run CR28 my tyre of choice for Springtime excursions North. Peter

Aquaplaning with CR500...? Either very worn tread or just going too fast!. T1R clears water well but lack grip on damp surfaces. Make for uncertainty whe trying to be spot-on with braking. R1R might be better on a 7. Depending what size wheels you have you could also get something biased much more in wet direction such as Avon CR28 or Uniroyal Rainexpert. Peter

Answer to final question - No. (carr ret) Answer to penultimate q - a small number but not enough to reasonably inject wax. (carr ret)Peter

Jonathan (carr return)Yes, in practice an increase in knob weight has a far greater effect than the relative weight difference between your arm and knob. (carr return)As the grip on the knob is not rigid, padded by flesh and general loose hand grip (a lot of drivers change gear with finger tips with very poor control of the action), once the knob is moving, following being given initial push/pull, its momentum helps to load the synchro ring to help it work and carry the shifter mechanism through to engage the dog ring. At different points in the lever/mechanism travel there is a fair bit of work to do (especially if the driver is not synchronising well). Any speed that can be picked up by the lever in the low load parts of the travel then helps it bump through the hard work parts. (carr return) Generally a heavier knob can help achieve a cleaner gearchange with full engagement, less kickback, notchiness and gritty feeling into the driver's hand. (carr return)Peter

M8 minimum recommended fixings to hold in seats and regulated in MSA blue book. Peter

And when you refit them you can leave out the yards of gastly plsdtic piping. The edge of the interior trim sheet can be perfectly dressed to the curvature of the panel wrapping over the spaceframe tube. There is no real function to this strip other than to mask panel alignment and save hand dressing every interior trim sheet. *looks neater. *eliminates grit trap. *saves weight. *reduces complexity. Peter

I would change the oil first. The Comma 80w90 EP with lsd additive. It definitely expires. When my car was 2 years old I started to notice a slight snaggy feeling when trying to push car out of garage on full lock. Oil change sorted it. Since then changed diff oil every Spring. Peter.

I'd sort the suspension to try to keep the wheel on the ground. All well and good using an LSD to stop the lifted wheel spinning, but it means that all the corning and traction effort at the rear is going though the 1 very overworked tyre on the road. (might as well have a Morgan 3 wheelwr, LoL) I would disconnect rear ARB completelt to begin with and then work it back in one setting at a time. Peter

Heavy gear knobs not always a bad thing. (carr return)Some are deliberately heavy (steel) to provide extra momentum to help shift quality. (carr return)Peter