JohnCh

Let me help you with those two items. Based on feedback provided in this thread, the Downloads section was renamed to the more intuitive term, Library, and it was elevated to the top-level navigation to make it easier to access. See red box in screenshot below: There is no General Discussion forum. There are several forums bucketed under the heading General on the Forum home page, and there is a General Sevens Discussion forum. As per that page, it is defined as being "For general Se7en-related topics that don't fit elsewhere in the forum." Keep in mind that this forum heading layout has been in use since Mazda (aka Slngsht) launched the forum almost 20 years ago. It is a convention similar to many other forums. That doesn't mean it couldn't be clearer, but changing all the navigation and associated terminology of a site with this much data and this many users can have significant, negative implications for the community at large. If creating a general "How to navigate the forum" Help Guide is of value, I'm happy to throw that together.

Firstly, things aren't always as simple as they seem on the surface. Without unlimited resources, all work must be prioritized from the standpoint of the business needs, or in this case the forum. From my perspective, the time I spend dealing with scammers and spammers, is more important than time making the UI better; i-e. I need to optimize for fixing things that are broken not to improving things that, while not optimal, are good enough. As time frees up, those less important items can be addressed provided they meet the objectives of the site. Case in point, it was suggested that we make this a paid-only forum as a means of deflecting the scumbags who register. Would that barrier help with the sleaze who don't also steal credit cards? Sure. Would it be pretty low effort to implement? Yes. But closing down the forum to only those willing to pay $20 is 100% counter to the mission I mentioned earlier. Therefore, although it's a good idea under some circumstances, it's not for this forum. Secondly, this is our community. The easy way people help make a great place is through their posts. Staying on topic, providing insight to questions, and some banter to create connections between us, builds that community spirit and creates value for members. But the other way is through the articles and Library. Although we receive a lot of submissions from the community for the latter, there has not been a single one for articles since the forum redesign launched nearly 3-1/2 years ago. Not one. Do you have a long thread that you've looked at and thought to yourself "if we had a club magazine, I'd turn that into an article and submit it for publication."? Then do it. That's the point of the articles. They are a place where interesting stories can be shared without the back and forth that comes with a thread. We do really well with threads, but we could do a lot better with articles. So how about thinking through where you can add value to that section, and start with something simple like providing some vendor links and descriptions to @Croc?

@Croc made a great start but it currently isn't prominently displayed because it is a work in progress. As he mentions, if you have a supplier recommendation, let us know. Contribute! Actually, from a laptop or desktop, it's Home>Browse>Articles>Looking for a Se7en?>Useful Resource Links Found on the Internet for Se7ens. When you are going to be sarcastic to make a point, don't undersell it. Also, when you are going to make a point, please take a minute to think about how it will be perceived. I receive random PMs from people with ideas, or complaints about how things work. Most of are respectful and polite. However, there are a few who come across as the petulant customer dealing with a business; "I'm going to be the squeaky wheel and get what I want!" Those people lose sight of the fact that neither Croc nor I have a financial interest in USA7s. We volunteer our time because we are both passionate about the space and want to enrich the ownership experience and get more people behind the wheel of a Se7en. We aren't asking for thanks or praise, just be cognizant that we both have real jobs and other things vying for our time. Squeaky wheels are typically ignored. In life, we all have a choice to be part of the problem or part of the solution. Throwing ideas over the wall, then expecting someone else to do the work, is not the solution -- and no, I'm not referring to MV8's post; this is a general rant. Do you have an idea for an article you wish to write? Then follow the steps on that page and contact us to discuss. We'd love more community involvement in that part of the site. It benefits all of us. Lastly, there are some potential navigation changes that might be coming that are similar in nature to the change made to Downloads. Stay tuned!

I just had a member reach out to me to identify a potential spammer, who was subsequently confirmed as a scumbag and banned before he was able to bother anyone else. This reinforces the importance of contacting me immediately when you are PMd by a suspicious person.

Good list above. I also carry self-fusing silicon tape for hose leaks, and a very small multimeter, some wire, crimps and crimpers. Oh, and duct tape. When all else fails, duct tape.

Birkin also makes a larger version similar to the SV: https://birkindirect-usa.com/ss3sx/ Are you looking for a new car or used? -John

Thanks @MV8. @mr.vman I fixed the images for you, but please read the help guide MV8 pasted above so you can do this yourself in the future. Thans, John

Also, it's not free. Only paid club members may create an ad in the Cars for Sale forum.

I've opted to hide the prior thread on scammers I started in 2019 and replace it with this new locked sticky thread. Given the importance of this subject, I want the ability to easily update it without requiring people to scroll through multiple comments made over the years to discover those additions. Background Scammers continue to prey on forums, not just USA7s. They join, find someone who is looking for a part or is selling a part, then either send them a PM, or reply innocuously to the thread to start a conversation. Although we are all on high alert for scammers when selling something expensive like a car, we tend to let down our guard when it's a $200 part. Scammers know this and take advantage of that relaxed due diligence. How to spot scammers When you're contacted by someone you don't already know on the forum, please check them out first by doing the following: Click on their user name to visit their Profile page and take note of their join date and post count. If someone recently joined or joined a while ago but has no posting history, be extremely wary. If they only have a handful of posts, scroll down the Profile page to the Activity section to read the previews. Want to read the full post? Simply click on the post title and you will go directly there. Then ask yourself: does the person sound legitimate or do they sound like someone who is posting just for the sake of upping their post count? In the example below, although I love Fangio, I would put him in the be-extremely-wary bucket. He joined a long time ago but never posted. What to do if you suspect a scammer If you suspect you've been contacted by a scammer, please reach out to me. I may have additional information that may support or refute your concerns, and if that information supports them, I can take action to ban the user and potentially save other members some grief. Thanks, John

Dave has been banned for scamming someone. I've added a new sticky post on the Parts for Sale/Wanted forum in an effort to bring more attention to this issue. If you are contacted by a new member who offers to buy your part or sell you one that you are seeking, please proceed with caution.

It sounds like I should have included a smiley face. My comment was intended as sarcasm, not a correction. Regardless, calling them has always proven far more effective for me over the years.

I believe @GLBaxter has already found a car, but I'll look to him to confirm Give you are a paid club member, posting the photos here is fine, but if you were not a paid member, this would be viewed as an end-around to avoid paying the $20 membership fee and your photos would be removed. We need to be fair to those who do specifically pay the so they can sell their car. When you are ready, simply create a thread in the Cars for Sale forum.

That's your mistake. Chris (sales) and Peter (technical) are incredibly helpful, but they are challenged with email correspondence. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's a downright painful blackhole of silence. The best way to work with them -- and I've been buying parts from them since 2003 and as recently as last year -- is to pick up the phone and call. It might take a few tries, but once you get a hold of them, they should get you sorted, or at least help you understand your options.

There seems to be a lot of interest in this setup on BlatChat, so thought I'd give this a bump. If you don't have a high-level brake light, you should. And if you want something plug and play, this seems a worthwhile option to consider.

Just remember the rule for dealers: you must do you utmost to convince the buyers to join the forum and post photos We'd love to see an MK build thread.

Calling @MK Sportscars USA In case he misses it, their website is https://mksportscarsusa.com/

If you would like the final parts list uploaded to the Library, please send it via PM to @Croc and me.

Go to advanced search (do a search with an empty field), then click the Member Search tab, and enter Rotus in the Se7en field. However, for that to work well, people need to put that data in their profile. As seen in these search results, only three people with a Rotus have done that. I'd love to see everyone fill out that field as well as their location, as both bring a lot of benefits, but people have a right to decide what they choose to share publicly. BTW for those of us with two different brands of se7ens, you can enter them both in your profile and search will figure it out if someone only searches for one of them.

I don't want to break the forum up like this. You do it for one make, and you have to do it for all of them. Then we suddenly have sections for Rotus, Caterham, Burkin, Westfield, WCM Ultralite, Stalker, etc. Some people will naturally ignore a make-specific forum even though they may have insight that's helpful. The goal of this forum is to bring people together given our shared passion for se7ens, not segment us into small user groups. It's not necessary given the effectiveness of search. If you have something that is very Rotus specific, put Rotus in the title to aid future discoverability. A quick search just now for Rotus in content titles returns quite a few posts. https://usa7s.net/ips/search/?&q=rotus&quick=1&search_and_or=or&search_in=titles&sortby=relevancy

Most likely Bob Yarwood in OR. He built a few in CA but I believe those were much earlier than this car which looks like it's from the mid 90's.

I used the Ford factory water pumps for my last two engine builds, and both arrived fitted with metal impellers. I'm not sure how much the material matters, but I don't think the price between budget water pumps and factory water pumps is that significant.

I guess this would be a bad time to mention I'm changing the forum's color theme from shades of blue to shades of yellow. But I digress. The Simpson looks like an option: -John

That is the belt tensioner which is self-tensioning. Put a box end wrench on the nut then use the wrench as a lever to push the pulley towards the block and release the tension. The bolt won't rotate. There should be some videos on youtube showing this if you're unclear (search for water pump removal in Ford Focus with Duratec.) One tip is to attempt to loosen the bolts on the water pump pulley before you remove the belt. The tension should keep the pulley from rotating as you break the bolts loose.

Just to be clear, you hate yellow so much that you wouldn't consider Shroth's like CBuff's even if they are only in the car a few days per year? I believe Simpson and RaceQuip both offer yellow-free versions.

A few updates. Now that the low-level fuel feed issues have been resolved with a proper positive displacement pump, I swapped out V2 of the in-tank fuel assembly setup for my original version. Those keeping track at home may recall there were initial concerns that those fuel feed issues were due to additional plumbing restrictions in V1 which used a remotely mounted Hydramat attached to the tank floor. In contrast, V2 used a smaller Hydramat attached directly to the bottom of the pump but that placed it slightly above the tank floor. Unfortunately, I don't have good photos of either setup but these will give an idea of the difference. The top photo is the outgoing V2 with the positive displacement pump alongside, and the bottom photo is V1 but without the fuel sensor installed (the long silver tube in the V2 picture). While doing that job, I decided to map the Centroid fuel level sensor's output by slowly adding fuel to the nearly empty tank and taking voltage measurements after every gallon. I could then update the 0-5V sensor map used by the AiM to ensure accuracy throughout the range. What I didn't realize at the time is the sensor has a built-in empty to full detection capability triggered when certain conditions are met. I appear to have unintentionally met those conditions, creating all kinds of accuracy issues such as reading full with less than 3 gallons in the tank. After redoing it a couple of times with troubleshooting assistance from Centroid – whose support was excellent – things seem to be sorted but they did advise to watch for future anomalies as there remains the possibility the sensor has a random issue. During the mapping, I was also able to confirm the SV tank really does hold 41 liters. With the Hydramat, I should be able to access nearly all of it, rather than just ~35 liters as with the factory setup. This weekend I had my first opportunity to drive the car in hot weather. I'm happy to report the factory heat insulation works just fine. After one hour of driving in 90F weather with a very strong sun, temps were similar to the Westfield which has never had an issue in this regard. The unused fastener holes for the 3-point seat belts have been bugging me; they look unnecessarily unfinished. To rectify, I printed some plugs (don't worry, they add under 1.9 grams each) and popped them in place. -John