StewartG

I think you should have four hex lumps, a pair each to extend the shox and the steering rack. I wouldn't fit the shox ones either, you get more suspension travel that way. The steering rack ones look a bit heath-robinson IMHO far better to get a proper wide track rack.

You could try... 1)Smaller wheels with smaller cycle wings 2)More oversteer 3)Less understeer 4)Repositioning the headlights and indicators to be slightly higher 5)Angling the indicators in a bit 6)Remounting the cycle wings perhaps rotated slightly backwards and bending the stays to help clearance 7)or Investigate whether the higher ratio racks have a larger turning circle The wide track kit is straight forward to fit but it does involve a complete reset of geometry and in my opinion neccessitates stiffer springs BTW options 2 and 3 may not work at all speeds.

It's my understanding that oil is forced into the camshaft at the front bearing and is squeezed out of each bearing to lubricate them. If the end of the camshaft is not blocked by the distributor the oil will come out of the end and back down into the sump via the hole in the dizzy housing. Obviously with no dizzy sealing the end of the camshaft a ball must be hammered in to maintain pressure to the camshaft bearings

You mind find it makes life easier if you cut some access holes in the transmission tunnel sides.

Peter, I had an identical failure about two months ago. There was no way that the sheared bolt could be removed with a stud extractor, believe me I and my local garage tried and they even heated the de dion with oxy acetalyne to loosen it, all that happened was the extractor broke. We came to the conclusion that the heat generated in the shearing bolt had effectively welded it in. The shock thrashed about hitting the half shaft but luckily the clip holding the cv boot on was dislodged but the rubber wasn't pierced. I just refitted the clip. The cause in my case was an overestressed bolt which had been cross-threaded in a previous shock change. I remember the garage told me they had to tap a new thread. It's likely given the age of yuor car, the same as mine, that your de dion has the old style central hole which I used to refit the shock.You need a long 1/2 inch unf or unc bolt and nylock nut for both sides. Not only was the car driveable it's been like that ever since. The ride height was adjusted back to normal but you don't need to do this to get home. E-mail a contact number if I can be of any help.

My car originally had a dayglow coloured fia bar and the paint got chipped to bXggery in no time. Maybe it's hard to get the paint to stick to the original black finish, maybe you could armourfend the front half that catches the stones or maybe get an unfinished one painted.

I'm interested in your rear dampers and springs. Are they the type intended for fitment through the centre of the de dion tube or are they the longer ones which use the underslung mounting point? It's the former that I need. Thanks.

Instead of buying a new de dion tube I swapped to the through the middle mounts, seems OK.

I would have thought a good starting point for most webbers is two turns out for the idle screws.

I think the spericals will fit it's just the groove in the wishbone that's different. Circlip ones have a wider deeper groove than wire clip ones. When you try to locate a circlip into a wire clip groove it can't open out properly and so fouls the ball.

I seem to remember that there are two types of sperical bearing retainers, one is a normal circlip and the other is a wire ring. You need the appropriate one for your wishbones. I got the wrong ones supplied with the bearings, the circlip ones, and they jammed the bearing so I reused the old wire ones and sealed the bearing into the wishbones for safety.

I need the C spanner and the short stubby spanner used to adjust the old type Bilsteins, Caterham only keep the new type pin ones. Can anyone help?

Why not just get some long bolts and use the holes through the middle with suitable ride height adjustment.

Got any left Franky I'm always on the lookout for new earplugs to try.

I had the same problem with lack of damper travel (after going widetrack) but rather than raise the ride height and perhaps compromise the handling I was able to remove the hex damper top spacers.

Franky, you origimally noticed more understeer having fitted 13" wheels and 48Rs. Whilst the rake was excessive I would have thought lowering the back would worsen the understeer. Having read your comments about higher tyre pressure I decided to give 20psi a try. Findings appear sinilar to yours. The front wheels do move up and down more presumably because bumps are being absorbed by the springs and not the sidewalls. The ride over bumps does seem better with less lurching around as the tyres deform but and it's a big but, I suspect that ultimate grip levels are lower with earlier slides on known corners. I'm also going to keep a close eye out for excessive wear of the centre of the tread. I'm not convinced that a tyre running higher pressure heats up and therefore grips more. There is an arguement to the contrary which says that a tyre with less pressure deforms more and thats what heats it up. Maybe greater minds than mine know which effect dominates.

I would cut the end of the pick up pipe at an angle so that it's as close as possible to the bottom of the sump but can't seal against it.

Anyone local to where?

Yep that's what I did, starter button in parallel with the key starter - works fine.

I don't think 3.5psi is a problem.

Standard calipers, standard discs, the black compound. They do wear the discs but new discs are cheaper than new pads.

I used Hawk black ones when I was running standard brakes and they are excellent high friction pads at a reasonable cost. Get them from Cambridge Motorsport.

Jet Black 53 reg Sept 1 03 with Leather seats and air con, paddle shift and big alloys. Just had first service having covered about 7500 miles. Looking for £12000 Edited by - stewartg on 6 Jun 2004 02:40:53

Burt1069 where abouts are you based? You could drop by and use mine if you're close to North London.

The carbs are balanced with, respect to each other, using the screw on the linkage in the middle of the pair. The individual chokes of the same carb can be balanced using the bleed screws under the white caps. Good luck with the tube in the ear method of tuning if you can get any sort of result with it you're a better man than me, I was totally confused and ended up worse than when I started. I would suggest you buy or borrow the webber carb synchcroniser thingy. If the mixture is too lean you usually get coughing and spitting in the carbs themselves.