Phil B

Hi John V, Thanks for the tip off.

BTTT Thanks John, still looking. Phil

Hi John, Thanks for the reply, sorry for the delay forgot to set the alert me. Actually its for widetrack S3, but could you measure it up as it be possible to make up some extenders for the ends. Phil

Hi, Per title, I'm looking for an orange 1/2" ARB for widetrack, as I want to try something softer than my current set up. Thanks, Phil

Delbert, I'm intrigued, what are you building please? Phil

Hi Melvin, I have a red ARB which came off my imperial chassis with standard track wishbones when I upgrade to wide track. If a narrow/standard track bar is what you need I can help, if you're not sure I'll need to dig it out of the shed to measure it. Not sure if it still has balls on, is there a without balls dimension just in case? Where are you based? I'm in Sussex near Gatwick Phil

Hi Paul, I'll take some pics this evening and email over. Phil

Hi Roger, As far as I know they are standard stays for 13" wheels. My 185/70 tyres are a close fit,if that helps. Happy to measure them if you can tell me what the critical dimensions are. Phil

Need to clear out the shed after last year's rebuild. 4off Minator 6 x 13 Ital pcd, silver. Currently with 185/70 13 A021 (3-4mm tread) £150 ono. Straight, no curbing marks, but paint not pretty. Can get tyres removed if not wanted. currently dibs with Matthew W. Pair front wings bonded onto stays, Post Office red paint. Wings and stays sound but stays could do with rub down and repaint. £30 pair. currently dibs with Matthew W. All parts in sunny Sussex, prefer collect, or may be able to bring to Surrey/Sussex/Kent meets. BM for pics. Phil Edited by - phil b on 1 Jul 2014 10:16:27 Edited by - phil b on 4 Jul 2014 20:58:57 Edited by - phil b on 4 Jul 2014 20:59:55

Thanks V-E, Called Andy, he uses Toat Hill Garage, so I'll give them a try unless there are any other suggestions. Phil

Hi, My usual moT station in Billingshurst has changed owners and when I took daughters' car in I didn't recognise any of the mechanics either, so looking for 7 friendly moT station in the Horsham/Gatwick area. Any suggestions? Phil

BTTT

Hi Craig, I used a foam filter from a UK company called RamAir. I wanted something to fit over my Jenvey TBs and within the standard bonnet cutout for the old crossflow. At the time they didn't have a pre-cut backplate so I bought a blank and cut it to suit. Not sure if this item would be a direct fit, but the filter itself is the same size as the one I used. If I recall correctly I had to slightly offset the backplate rearwards so that the front edge just brushed the inside of the cutout. http://ramair-filters.co.uk/rt-carb-filters/caterham-ford-kent-weber-dcoe-twin-carburettor-bolt-on-air-filter.html Phil

Craig, You don't need a lambda probe to run an Omex 600 and TBs. But you do need the boss for one to be fitted when it gets mapped. Phil

Craig, The Omex 600 can only work with a narrow band lambda. There is a page in Map3000 where you can set the maximum trim authority that it can exercise. The settings you can adjust are revs below which it will trim, engine load % (TPS) below which it will trim and max % fuel trim (injector pulse duration). When the Steve's mapped my car they used their Wideband probe. They then put my narrowband probe in and set the authority so that it trims to achieve lambda 1.0 up to motorway cruising speeds (3500rpm around 30% throttle and max 15% fuel trim) if I remember correctly. So the lambda trim only operates when I am cruising the motorway, bimbling through town or at MoT time (even though I am visible smoke only). This set up helps me get up to 40mpg on longer runs, but doesn't stop the grin when blatting 🥰 Phil

Craig, I decided to go down the standard Caterham injection tank route, as one came up on BC with a pump. It is a simpler installation, I used my old low pressure feed line as the return and fitted a new (metal) feed line. JW has a list of the various bits you need and Ruthg sorted out what I couldn't find via BC The fuel filler for my old (steel) carb tank was different (larger diameter) from the newer alloy injection tank, so i needed to fit a new filler neck as well. Phil B

Craig, If you just want somebody to check/adjust your carb settings and not play around with the ignition mapping, you could try Tom Airey. He's old school happier with carbs and distributors, but depending on what you want, he's not too far from you. Airey Tuning Co Harnham House Cheriton, Alresford Hampshire, SO24 0NT Tel. 01962 771845 Phil B

Hi, I looking for a softer ARB than I currently have. Does anyone have (preferably) a BLUE - 9/16" ARB, or second choice an ORANGE - 1/2" ARB, for Imperial Widetrack S3 chassis. Thanks, Phil

My twopennorth. The hub-centric design is a location device it does not carry load when the wheel is fully tightened on the bolts/nuts and studs. The clamping force of the wheel nuts (or bolts) onto the hub face is what enables the weight of the car to be transmitted to the hub, suspension etc. Just stop and think about what transmits the torque of acceleration and braking, it sure as hell can't be a smooth parallel spigot, you need a taper fit for that (eg Ital half shafts). Car manufacturers have been locating wheels using the wheels studs for over 100 years, it really does work well. The introduction of wheel bolts creates a challenge on the assembly line, nothing to hang the wheel on while the wheel gun is used to fit 4 or 5 bolts simultaneously. A close tolerance bore in the wheel which keeps it on the hub enables the assmebly worker to simply rotate the wheel and align the holes, this means bolts go in the right place quickly and avoids cross threading. Wheel stud failures are due to using over long studs/spacers which allow the length of unsupported stud to flex slightly and fatigue. Phil B

Take lots of close up pictures before you disconnect anything. Especially useful if you get one of those phone calls just after unplugging something and a clip has just sprung across the garage. Yep been there too! You shouldn't need to drill out rivets to separate the scuttle top from the firewall, you can remove the complete scuttle and firewall complete. If you are replacing the complete loom, you will need to gain access to the transmission tunnel to feed out the old rear loom and feed in the new one. There may well be a multi-plug just inside the transmission tunnel that splits the rear (there was in mine (1985). The engine bay part of the loom however was wired directly to the dash section, so the was an awful lot of wiring to feed through from inside the car into the engine bay. Does your car still have the "Otter" resettable circuit breakers mounted on the engine bay side of the firewall, or do you have more modern replaceable fuses? My car had the "Otter" CBs and they are made of unobtanium, so I replaced them with an 8 way blade fuse box mounted in the same place. If you do decide to replace the dash panel itself be aware that there are many variations depending on type of instruments, number of switches and whether your warning lights are in the main gauges or mounted separately between them. regards, Phil

Ralph, I recently replaced the same hose on my Raceline Blacktop installation. Similar problem to you but I solved it using a 90deg reducing elbow, an alloy sleeve and a short length of straight hose, all in silicone off E-bay (Mr Silicon IIRC). It gives you an extra pair of hose clips, but saved me trapsing round scrap yards to try and find a suitable donor. Phil

Adam, I fitted ProTech during my rebuild last year, very pleased with them so far. Billet alloy bodies, adjustable platform and you have a choice of 1 way or 2 way adjustment. I went for 1 way. Around £120 per corner incluing springs. They will also fit either rubber bushes or spherical bearings, or differnet each end. Really helpful guys. phil

Hi, You don't mention what size wheels/tyres he is running. Most of the 7 esque cars around use 15" wheels and low profile tyres, so the ground clearance is not much. This will influence the inclination of wishbones at what would be a typical sump clearance of a 7 running the more typical 185/70 or 185/60 x 13" tyres. Also from what I have observed the angle of the front dampers tends to be pretty shallow so the effective spring rate is much reduced hence adjusting the platforms doesn't change the ride height much. When I went widetrack on my early chassis car I took account of the reduced angle of my dampers and increased the spring rate to 300ibs (was 260). Although this may sound high, due to the shallow geometry the actual effective wheel rate gives me a compliant ride with no crashing on bumps, even with a Zetec in the front. Has your friend tried posting a request for help on the Southern Kit Car forum? They're a friendly bunch and plenty of members in the Surrey/Sussex area. Phil

I wonder if the lambda reading is accurate? Was the lambda probe a simple narrow band (Lambda =1) or a wideband where stoichemetric target is 14? I presume when you say a lambda boss was fitted, that this is in the manifold collector, rather than in an individual header. Air leaks around the collector can affect lambda readings and from the trail of discussion one thing that hasn't been questioned is was the lambda reading accurate. The plug colours make me wonder. Is the exhaust 4 into 1, or 4-2-1? The probe to give a representative average should be in the "1" and in the top half of the pipe. It may be worth checking that the pipes are a good tight fit into the collector and the collector outlet is a tight fit into the silencer to eliminate air leaks distorting the reading. Viele Gluck! Phil

Hi Ellie, The early English axles (presume you mean Ford Escort) were 7/16 unf thread and the pitch circle diameter is 4.125" (108mm), so same as on a deDion car. The size of the splines on the wheel studs is the same (13.1mm I think) as on the later deDion cars, so you can chnage the studs to use M12 x 1.5mm. Don't get confused by the spanner size, as both the original Escort 7/16unf wheel nut and the deDion M12 wheel nut are both 3/4" or 19mm AF. Hope this helps. Phil