Farmer_Terry

Thanks everyone for that - is it that easy to get the disks as well? (I'm not the technical one of the team). Terry

We need to replace / refurbish the brake calipers on the front of my Caterham, and I wondered if anyone could identify what we have. There are some photos of the calipers here. Any hints / tips / pointers gratefully accepted.

Great. Thanks. That seems to be what I needed to know.

Thanks Guy, that seems like a good place to start. I must admit, while I realised that too much pressure will chuck fuel away, (and before it was fitted that was indeed what happened) the result of too little pressure hadn't occurred to me. Thank you. I will start at 3 and if I get any starvation problems I can increase it. As you may have gathered, I am not very technical with car engines, so is loss of power at high revs the sort of symptom is would be watching for?

I have one of these fitted to my car. The engine is a 2 litre zetec with two twin choke webers and the fuel pump is electric. It started to leak at the end of last season, so I had to dismantle and mantle it again. The leak is now cured, but I don't have much idea how to set it. The page shown in the link recommends setting it to around 4 psi - is there any more information I should have? All tips, hints, pointers or general advice gratefully accepted, as always.

Hi Both, Thanks for the tips. It turns out that Viper is only an hour away from me, and they can do both the alloy tube and the silicone elbows, so at worst, I can put the car on the trailer and take it down there. I will give them a call tomorrow. Thanks again.

Hi All, It's been a long time but I'm still around and looking forward to getting the car going again this year. Unfortunately, it looks as if we will need new rad hoses and my car is anything but standard. I have a 2 litre zetec engine, and what may or may not be a standard radiator. I have some pictures which may (or may not) be of use. Here and here. What is the recommended procedure for procuring new hoses in these circumstances? Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Hi John, Do (not) under any circumstance use a chlorine based bleach / you need to avoid washing using "soap" based products Thanks for that. I was aware of those two big don'ts, but the difficulty I have had is separating what is a detergent and what is a soap bassed product. The current plan is to use Persil Small and Mighty non-bio on the basis that I believe it to be a detergent. Do you know if that is the case?

Thanks all. That's what I needed to know. I'll now have a nice shiny blue suit for my next track day. Terry

Here is a (rough) image of the http://www.chisman.co.uk/TempFiles/20140830_163010.jpg on the suit. I think you'll find that everything turns to various shades of grey... That's the answer. Most of my clothes started lifein shades of grey. Terry Edited by - Farmer_Terry on 30 Aug 2014 18:18:17

Thanks Stu, the label confirms that it is “100% Aramid fibre”. Thanks Jonathan too, but first up - I tried Which? (I'm a member) but I couldn't find what I was looking for - i.e. which products are detergent and which soap. There are some cleaning symbols in the suit - a non-standard one which looks like "hand wash", the one for "no bleach", the one for iron (not going to happen ), and a circle with a "P" in it - Dry clean, Any Solvent Except Trichloroethylene. These would seem to contradict Stu, and other empirical evidence that it can be machine washed, but ignoring that, I need a detergent with no bleach. I'm still not sure which specific products meet that need, but the Persil website suggests that the Persil Small & Mighty range does, which ties up with what you say. So – unless I’m completely wrong I will machine wash it at 40 degrees, with the Small and Mighty non-bio I already have. Sure, the suit’s blue, but I’ve not found that S&M n-b fades stuff that much, and it will only get washed once a year anyway as I only do about three track days a year. Edited by - Farmer_Terry on 30 Aug 2014 16:48:17

I have read a previous thread on this subject, and a similar one on pistonheads, and it seems pretty clear that you can wash a nomex suit in a machine. However, there is a definite need to use a detergent rather than anything else (powder?) I am new to this washing business having been recently widowed, and I am not at all clear what is a washing detergent and what isn't. In particular I use Persil Small and Mighty non-bio liquid for most of the wash - will this do? If not could I have a couple of specific product recommendations from anyone please? I realise that mumsnet might be a better place for a sensible answer to this question, but I have got the words race suit in it which I hope qualifies for posting here.....

That's what I thought. I appear to be able to get another one locally for under £10 so I guess I will just replace it and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks.

I have an Escort Mk II back axle, and yesterday at Oulton on a brand new brake slave cylinder, the seal failed. ☹️ ☹️ 🙆🏻 My question is this – was that likely to be just bad luck or, after a fairly fast session, did a standard cylinder not take the heat? If I do need something special in the way of slave cylinders – could anyone point me to where I might get one please? Many thanks for any advice.

Hi All. Right – take a look at the image here. The problem is simply that if the gap at the top of the shoulder is too large, the rubber seal can be forced through it allowing the oil to escape. I can’t speak for every after market filter available, but the two which we had fitted by racing engine mechanics were both after-market and both had too small a shoulder – thus too large a gap was left, and the rubber seal blew out. The Ford parts we have fitted have very high shoulders - you can see the difference when they are side by side. When they are (correctly) fitted the gap on the Ford parts is virtually zero. Virtually zero – there is still no actual contact, but it clearly going to be much harder for the seal to blow out with a very small gap, than it is with a large one. I hope this explains the problem I believe we had, and what to look for if when you come to fit a new filter on a Zetec engine - one with a high shoulder that more or less touches the engine/back plate. Does that clear it all up to everyone's satisfaction? Millssn - we got the remote filter parts from here I think - they were quite helpful. Farmer Terry (and his car)