Simos

Likewise. You can't get it much further away. Wrap some exhaust wrap around it with several large tie wraps. Does the job. Simon.

Bozz, you're not a management consultant are you ?? If not you've missed your calling

Strongy, yes batts can go just like that. I had one and a colleage had one just last week. Drove to campsite. Checked in - started and moved to tent location - unpacked. went to move car to parking lot and dead nothing = new batt. I had the same, batt died having worked a couple of hours before. meter showed +8 volts. A cellwas completed shagged ! Lead acids hate being deep discharged. More than say 5 times (dud alternator or lights left on kind of thing) and they're toast. Cheers, Simon.

Martin, there are a lot of BD variants. BD stands for belt drive because the cams are driven by a belt. COSWORTH had at the time just had a lot of problems with mechnical drives to the cams of DFV's which nessitated a very complex "quill" drive arrangement (which made them the most successful F1 engine of all time). Belt drives were seen as the way out of this so it was the important differentiating factor for this new series of engines - hence the designator. They started off as 13/15/1600 because thay were the cc classification of race that COSWORTH were mostly involved in. All were built on Ford 5 bearing blocks inc XF block (inc AX). These were BDA/BDB/BDC/BDD etc depending on which series they were destined for, ancilliaries and HP developed etc Later came many 2ltr series starting with BDG and ending up with monster BDT 2.2ltr turbo putting out 600+hp In between were a series of others including a BDR road going version of the BDA using 1600 BDA with iron crank and out of box webbers to reduce the price. This was destinined for Ford homologation special RS 1600 so it could homologate its escort rally cars. It was also bought by a certain small car company in 1700cc form for a particular small light weight sports car you might have heard of. The most important thing for a BD is engine history because most were built for racing and possibly built/rebuilt with different parts leading to some hotch/potch engines. BD's got a bad rep because of this. Which is a shame because properly built they're a bloody good engine - they were/are a stunningly successful race engine for this reason. Bad engines do not become successful IMHO. There are some top BD's out there with every upgraded bit you can think of - not neccessarily true to original designation but fab engines all the same Before Caterham bought BDRs to make their "HPC" car, BDAs were used to the same effect. HPC's later used the 2ltr vauxhaul engine. BDs have a rep as one of the best sounding small engines of all time. Upgraders like Norman's BDR have steel crank and rods, titanium followers, accralite pistons etc etc so 200+ hp is easily achieved from 16 or 1700 cc - not actually a BDR anymore as such. Cheers.

James Whiting did an IRS Caterham years ago which he said worked. He may still have the designs, who knows.

I always had an elecric pump from new with a 3bar pressure reg on the line. Replaced the pump after a while with a pretty bog standard pump.

Hi Brian, not sure but I have a pristine 2000/2001 roadsports cage for sale, probably a rear wheel intrusion bar as well (in Sussex/SE London) Cheers, Simon.

Tony has the crossflow version of the RR Merlin fited to his car, it was a typo, he actually meant 0.7 MPG.... Went to the science museum last Mon, saw their RR Merlin on Gnd flr. Wonderful! Nearly as big as a Seven. Sorry must stop drooling. Per Bills box of tricks, I also am thinking of going this route though the advent of baby#3 has slowed me down at present so I'll be waiting a while till he's grown up a bit (stops eating my tools and drinking the Mobil 1).

Have you checked the clamp which joins the two halves of the (collapsable) steering column. It is just behind the scuttle in the engine bay. Set the wheels and steering straight ahead. Loosen the large locknut around the centre bolt. Tighten the centre bolt with the appropriate allen key and re-tighten the lock nut. Don't split the halves if you can help it and if you do make notes as they are drilled as a pair so orientation counts. If it were de-dion failure then the steering would be not just off-centre but distinctly crab-wise and would change from left to right skew depending on the camber of the road. I know because I've done it. Look from underneath or remove boot floor and check front of tube in middle where it can be witnessed by tank clamps and et al weakening it (mine). Do this anyway and see if there are any places where paint/metal has been worn away from the tube/rust etc. Repair now and find what caused it. Just an off-centre steering wheel sounds like a loose(ish) clamp. Sticky enough for most driving but moves under large steering forces to a new position. With a front wheel against a wall so it can't move, can you twist the steering wheel ?

There are devices that you can get (never tested one) that attach to the batt and stop the current flow if the charge drops to a preset level that typically will start a car. This would stop your tracker working if they trailered it but if they hot wire it it will still track if you see what I mean. However since it looks like your tracker will be dead anyhow there's not much of a loss really and you would be able to start the car. Worth remembering that car batteries (and many others) are not meant to be deep discharged. A few full discharge cycles is enough to damage them significantly, more so if they are left discharged for a while. You are then on a slippery slope... On my old VW when I killed the batt I went to the local motor shop and bought the biggest batt that would fit in the space. There were a whole series of batteries the same width that would fit in the clamp but were different lengths and capacities. The one I got was a for a big diesel beastie with nearly double the capacity specced by VW for the petrol passat and it never gave me any grief ever again :-) (cost £<30, maybe £5 extra and boy did it turn the engine over !) ended a whole string of not starting incidents including a RAC callout to a remote location. best £30 I ever spent on the car.

YHM ref the Vids....

If you do use on a diesel you must ensure the engine is turning over before spraying in else it will pre-ignite being more combustable than the heavier diesel oil that the engine is designed to run on and will backfire getting you no-where and giving your starter et-al serious grief. On a petrol engine you can spray and then turn over - though it is also better if you spray as turning over as you get a more even distribution in the cyls. We have used easy start to start my dad's old Fergie 35 tractor (diesel) for 25 years - it's the only way it will start ! Bit agricultural though The old boys used to say the engines become addicted to it, if you use easy start to start it you'll ALWAYS have to use easy start....

Norman, that would be the jack shaft pulley right (?). I've not seen one on mine but that's not to say there isn't one there :-) Once you've got the crank and cam pulleys lined up presumably you can just lock them somehow so you can put it all back together as it came apart...?

For a laugh try starting it on the other 3 cyls and seeing how deep into your garage ceiling you can embed the pencil from No:1...

Bill, YHM. Cheers, Simon.

Electrical probs on caterhams are often earth related. There's an earth strap to the bell housing. One under the dashboard left side One under the left rear wheel arch. Take em off, clean 'em with emery cloth or scouring pad etc and tighten 'em up. Cures all manner of ills, especially the really wierd ones...

I mixed loads of additives depending what I had at the time and it made no difference. I had it unleadeded after about 2-3,000 miles and Roger said it looked fine (BDR). Best to use the same one obviously but you've a fair amount of leeway. Even using nothing would take quite a while to stuff your seats...

Monkfish, yes I did but since the car was originally bought as a JPE, has a newer chassis (with Watts link) that is probably better than the original, is faster and better sorted than a factory delivered JPE I just regard the rivet counting attitude unnecessary. The description was accurate and the title justified. Let Joachim sell his car. Here endeth the second lesson. Simon.

I do not see Joachim miss-representing his car at all. He does not say anywhere in his original postings that it is an unaltered 'JPE'. In fact the original description is very accurate. He does say it is a JPE engine which given the original purchase of a JPE and subsequent re-chassis is accurate. It is sold as is and has many bona fides as to its performance. Monkfish: Did you read the description before you made your comment ? If not please do so.

The 660 Mega-watt turbo alternators at Drax are also filled with hydrogen. Additional properties are that it is 'dry' and non-conductive which is important 😬 with such currents in the beastie. Seem to recall there is positive pressure to ensure no air gets in.

Never had anything but genuine enthusiasm from either James or Ruth. Top couple.

Forgiving my ignorance, is the mems programmable at all, could you download a bastardised map that will get you MOT and then reload the proper map afterward. An easier way of doing this is to go to a different MOT garage which is more favourable to 7's....

Halfrauds sell a variety - I got one for my roll bar.

Think you mean't to say don't use leaded rather than unleaded. Both the lead in leaded and the potassium in LRP will poison the platinum and rhodium in your catalyst so that they don't catalyse any more. Your cat will be dead in a very few miles, well within one tankful.... Actually neat fuel will kill the cat albeit more slowly, hence carbs don't get catted etc etc.

Don't think you will "over" cool your oil, give it 5-10 mins to get to your blatting roads and it will be suitably warm even on a cold day. I have one as described and my oil pressure drops from 5 to 2 bar (which is normal) at idle in 5+ mins. Always get 4+ bar at revs. I don't think it should be any cooler than this (stuck in traffic in summer, I'll see 1 bar at idle - this is too hot) However the laminova is a better solution. Clearly it will heat up sooner and have a much more stable temperature overall. There was no laminova when I built mine. If I were to spec an installation now I'd put in a laminova unless cost were a big factor for me. If you install a cooler put it after the rad rather than in front. This will use engine temp to help warm up the oil and still provide an airflow to take the high temps off when working (air temp at speed is nothing like the engine temp).