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IIRC the Birkin recommended offset was different than the typical Miata-based wheels that most people used when they upgraded from the stock wheels. The stock wheels on my old Birkin were quite a bit heavier than the RPF1's that I replaced them with. I remember several Birkins that used the same Kosei wheels that you have on your car. If you have the 38mm version of the Kosei it could be that they added the 1/4" spacers to get the offset closer to the Birkin stock recommendation. I think stock was around 30mm but it's been a long time since I played with Birkin wheels so I could be mistaken.

I am presently restoring an 1984 westfield aluminium bodied car in the UK. And curious, that they maybe be many more in the USA ?

Well, it's autocross eve. It will be a bit chilly tomorrow. A little warmer on Sunday. For reasons I don't understand, there were 1/4-inch spacers under the back wheels. I took them out. There were no spacers at the front. The hub on these wheels just clears the front caliper. The studs in front would not be long enough for spacers. So it goes. You buy a Birkin that has who knows how many owners, you find stuff.

Yeah mine are sikaflex or similar on so ideally I wouldnt have to remove them. But it might be unavoidable. I also thought about elongating the hole where it’s mounted to the upper an arm thereby pivoting it more towards the car. I feel like I could get enough clearance without wildly making it out of level.

Maybe I'm a crap driver but mine does that when turning or if i hit a bump

It's like they say, no two 7s are alike.

Looks good Charlie, but I think your concern of rubbing on track will come true. When I went to 13" wing stays I had very little clearance between the tire and the stay and knew that on track they would rub. I had the fenders off and was able to make two bends to get enough clearance where it doesn't rub. The first bend was in the area circled in yellow to get enough clearance on the angled section of the stay to the tire. I think I ended up with about a 1/4" of clearance. I was able to bend that relatively easy by hand using an aluminum drift stuck in the end of the wing stay. The second bend was made in the area circled in red to get the top surface of the stay parallel to the tire tread. I had to put a block of wood between the tire and the angled portion of the wing stay to maintain the clearance. I used the same aluminum drift stuck in the end of the wing stay and bent the top section back down to get that surface parallel to the tire tread. At first I thought I was going to have to heat up the stay to make the bends, but it ended being not too bad of a job just doing it by hand. It did take a fair amount of time to bend all (4) wing stay sections though. My wings are held on with cable ties and those bighead fasteners so that made it a lot easier to remove the wings and bend the stays. You could probably do it with the fenders still attached but I'm sure it would be a lot more difficult. Hope all this makes sense. Hoosiers will definitely be a little wider than the R888R's and will reduce the clearance even more so keep that in mind.

It may only be live axle thing, But I was surprised at how a 7 will skip around the road laterally.

So baby got some new shoes. I couldn’t wait for nova to get their act together so went with the Toyo r888r. It’s tight on the fronts. Went for a quick test drive and didn’t see any contact. I think the real test will be on track. Deflection might cause contact. I did feebly try and bend them in situ with a block of wood and a hammer. Not sure they moved at all. Might try ratchet straps when I take the nose cone off to give me a little more room. I have a set of Hoosier r8 sitting in my shopping cart. They are very close to the diameter of the Toyos but I think the fronts are wider and will likely foul. Any insights on creating some space would be welcome, ideally without removing the fenders from the stays. I have little to no room on the outside so I don’t think spacers will work. but the new tires are on and work, at least ripping around town. ps to give you an idea of how close it is. The tire pubes contact the stays

This is when I miss working on cars with a group of guys standing around making comments while I bust my knuckles on a bolt that won't move! Turns out the bolts are 5/6 20, which is the correct spec for a 1990 Caterham with seat belts not harnesses.

I'm laughing *with* you, really! I can recall sharing that joy many times.

I think TomC has had good experiences with Typhoon ECU’s

Just remember, I can only vouch for the original owner/operators, Bruce and Margaret, I have no real information other than what I posted above. Maybe stop in one day and scope it out. Bill S.

This is a much better engineering solution (vs just let the cable flying around). Thanks for sharing.

I personally would love to just own one...i just don't want it to occupy the garage floor space when I use it once every 3 years lol

I’m constantly vexed by the fact that I won’t touch Meta with a ten foot pole, and now it’s absorbed even the Craig’s List section of the internet. I can’t easily shop for a used one nearby. I’m a menace to my HOA because I demanded a non-Facebook group for the neighborhood. (I promise I’m not as much of a pain in the ass as that paragraph makes me sound like!) New one at Harbor Freight is $370. Maybe I could rent mine out for $50 a month to local builders when I’m done… I just don’t know if I have a long enough stretch of time to get it in over a weekend, and then believing I wouldn’t need it again.

It's certainly less anxiety if you own. You never know with a project how long you need or if something might go wrong. You could end up spending $300-$400 on a rental if something goes wrong.

I found mine (NAPA Evercraft) https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7761236 on Facebook Marketplace. I bought it for $250, still in its box. I figure I should be able to sell it for $100 or so, later on. Renting is certainly a reasonable option but having one of my own allows me to work at my own (slow) pace. I thought I'd be able to easily rent one from Autozone or O'Reilly's or the like, but when I checked, none of those places actually had any available to rent.

@williamwashere Yeah Sunbelt rentals. They have a very transport friendly one that fully disassembled into straight rods and beams pretty much. It fit in my wife's SUV. It's the one pictured on their site. They may however try to give you one that's not disassemble-able like they did with me. Just call and make sure the location you're going to has that one (if you need it to be disassembled). If you have a truck then it's not a problem. IIRC it was like $150 for the week. Quite affordable. What wasn't feasible was when I had to pull the engine and have it out for an indeterminate amount of time while I diagnosed my issue. Was also too lazy to rent it, and take it back and rent it again.

I had no idea this place existed. I may be taking my 7 there. It is relatively close.

Hi All, Alternator was purchased, not needed (my car has a different plug and setup). They do not accept returns as it was a special order. Link below: RAC676 Alternator Assembly, with Internal Fan

@hahuang65 did you rent one from someone nearby? I’m debating buying one vs renting one. None of my friends are cool enough to have one.

Yep. As I noted, 1-ton may have struggled to provide the necessary height. Lowering the chassis a lot might have worked but then it's hard to work under the car. Plus there's the concern of having a lot of weight potentially extending out past the ends of the hoist's legs. My hoist was on the higher-priced side, even as a Facebook Marketplace purchase, but the design, including the action of this hoist's hydraulics was very smooth, which helped with positioning. Another feature that's useful is to have the built-in T-handle on the frame. This helps with making slight adjustments to the lift's position and angle - important for getting the engine+trans in the right place

I had a 2 ton for my initial install that made it cake. I had a 1.5 ton when I had to pull the engine to crack open the transmission bell housing... Barely made clearance. It's the length of the arm and the height of the lift that was the issue. 2 ton is the clear choice here for no hiccups

Chassis protection and engine in I went whole hog on trying to protect the chassis, but I found that the transmission bell was so tight in the front of the tunnel that I had to remove all of the protection in that area. Mainly cardboard. In hindsight, it might have been better to just tape some plastic sheeting over the heat shielding in that area. As the blogs recommend, I'd also wrapped the entire transmission and gearbox in plastic. The install was easier than I expected. Blogs and guides suggest keeping all of the bolts loose (the engine-attached mounts, the rubber frame mounts, and transmission bracket), and then gradually shifting the assembly around until things line up. I had a really good helper who grasped the need to take work very slowly and carefully. It took us about 3 hours total, including final torquing of the bolts. The load leveler I've got is longer than most. That extra length gave me more leeway for adjusting the tilt of the assembly. The lift is a 2-ton version. I don't know if a 1-ton lift would have provided enough lifting height in this case. The only extra prep work I'd found necessary was to run a thread tap through the frame bolt holes at the rubber mount locations. In the end, everything was a very tight fit. How do people fit a Duratec into an S3?