11Budlite

Congrats Jon, enjoy the ride! I hope I can check it out in person someday.

Mike, Robert, etc - Sorry to hear about your misfortunes but thanks for entertaining us! :smilielol5:

:iagree: Lucky guy too!

I thought I'd drag this thread up to let owners of the USA7's/Mission trailer (Al, Jeff, Shotgunslade, etc) know of a small issue I had with my trailer. My trailer spends most of the time stored outside and I had been noticing that under some conditions I'd have a fair amount of water trapped in the front center frame rail. I usually store my trailer with the tonque raised (so the deck would drain when it rained), but when I lowered the tonque water would come out of the front of the frame. I crawled under the trailer and noticed that all the frame rails had drain holes in them except for the rear of the center frame rail shown in the attached pic. I drilled a 5/16" hole in the frame rail and about a 1/2 gallon of water poured out. I'm sure the amount had nothing to do with all the crap rain we've had in the month of June! :banghead: If any of you guys keep your trailer stored outside it might be worth checking to see if your trailer has a drain hole in that location and make sure the other drain holes are not plugged up.

Hi KB. I wasn't planning on changing the dash covering, but the previous owner melted part of the original vinyl when he was soldering a wire to the wiper switch! :banghead: I had some spare vinyl from the interior kit for my '64 MGB so I decided to use that. It's not the same color red as the original Sevens used, but it looks ok to me and the price was right! I also didn't like the thick foam used behind the vinyl so I replaced it with some dense 1/16" foam. The Enkei wheels have an ET35 offset which is the same as the TSW wheels that originally came with my car. In order to get the offset correct, I had some simple 5mm spacers made up. I ended up replacing the rear studs with some ARP studs and used 15mm spacers in the back. Here's a thread with a little more info on the wheels: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2557&page=3 I know there's a few ET30 4 x 100 wheels out there. Team Dynamics, Rota RB, and I'm sure Panasport as well.

Rick - Here's the original thread on that 1961 project car. It's a RHD car that originally came with a 948cc Sprite motor: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3101&highlight=cosworth

I agree with you John. That was one of the features that I thought would be useful after trying to adjust the sites just off idle last year.

Welcome Rick! Check out this thread, there might be a few links to search that you don't already have: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3729

Thought I'd give a little update on the changes I made to my car over the winter/spring. The biggest improvement was the new Raceco silencer I bought from England. http://www.raceco.com/ I was originally going to get a Burns Stainless silencer but I liked the fact that you can get the Raceco standard with an offset/angled inlet and a side outlet with a real sturdy mount that fit perfectly on my car. The only changes I had to make were a slight bend in the rear silencer mount, and I had to make a new bracket that bolts to the frame to move the rear rubber mount/bobbin back about an inch to get it to line up. I ended up cutting off the last 4 inches of the collector and it slipped right on and bolted down with the supplied stainless clamp. The sound is much deeper and quieter, there are no more fumes like I had with the rear exhaust, and I haven't felt the need to wear ear plugs unless I'm driving on the highway or really having some fun! Yes, it was expensive and the shipping wasn't cheap either, but to me it looks better than the stock exhaust, it's lighter, it's repackable, the quality is top notch, it installs with minimal hassle, and should last a lifetime as long as I don't rip it off. It should also flow better than the stock exhaust that went from 2.5" collector down to a 2" silencer. The second and probably the smartest mod I made was installing driveshaft safety hoops. I ended up bending some 1.5" wide steel around an old Lucas generator I had sitting around, cut off the legs to fit closely against the fiberglass trans tunnel and welded it to the frame. I'm surprised that Birkin didn't come from the factory with them, but I'm sure I've seen some of the later models that have them standard. I've been very pleased with the Enkei wheels I picked up last year so I decided to sell the stock wheels to a guy who's going to use them on his BMW. I like having a spare tire for certain drives so I ended up picking up a 5th wheel/tire to mount as a spare. Well, since I'm running 205/50-15's instead of the stock 195/50-15's the spare wouldn't fit in the spare tire carrier. So I cut off the center mount and replaced it with a small piece of 1.5" round stock, drilled/tapped/welded/painted, and everything was good to go. I also sent my Emerald ECU back to the factory for the latest K3 upgrade. http://www.emeraldm3d.com/em_k3.html It has 3 switchable maps, adaptive mapping, and some other new features. I had to do a bit of rewiring and I had to mount a 3-way switch in the dash, but this should be a worthwhile upgrade to play with until I can get my car on a dyno. I still want to do something with the seats and harnesses and I still have to fix the trans leak and replace the clutch, but that'll have to wait until funds and time allows. Here's a photo of the new silencer:

I hit "Go Advanced" and I still see the same 14 smilies we've been using for a while now. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks Skip. The data link connector diagram from the factory manual matches the Ford info from your OBDII link so it could be hooked up if I got a connector from a junk yard. The only other potential problems might be codes that could result from the other items not used in the Birkin installation. Thankfully CT doesn't require emission testing on component cars!

I wanted to start a separate thread from Kyle's "Car for Sale" to try to ID the stock ECU/induction that used to be in my Birkin. The date on the ECU is 5/24/96. Per the factory manual, pins #13, 15, and 16 go to a data link connector. Looking at the harness connector I have, those 3 pins were clearly used at one time (the sealing has been pierced) but no longer have wires/pins going to them. The harness also has connectors for both front and rear O2 sensors. Is there any way to know for sure if this ECU is OBDII? Here's a photo of the label on the ECU:

"Zetec engine with raceline rail, upgraded cam and other internals, dyno = 190+ HP" Kyle - Can you provide any more details on the engine. Is it a ZX1? What cams? Compression? etc, Thanks

Yikes!!!

Very sorry to hear that Kyle. Just a thought if you were interested. I have a stock intake/TB/ECU and harness from a 95 or 96 Contour (I can check the date on the ECU when I get home tonight) that were originally on my Birkin if you wanted to play around with it. I also have the factory wiring/vacuum book for reference. I don't remember seeing any plug on the harness but that could have been removed. Let me know if you want to give it a try.

It would have been great to see you again, you could have taken the Birkin for a spin! I agree with you on the roads around the Lime Rock area. My grandfather had farms in New Milford/New Preston and a cottage in Kent, and I had an Uncle who lived/worked on an apple farm in Bantam, so I was able to spend a lot of time playing around in the area when I was a kid. Routes 341, 45, and parts of 7, are all favorites. Another road that I enjoy on my trips to the area is 109 from Thomaston to E. Morris. The first part is somewhat straight but as it gets near the reservoir it's really fun!! Here's a short write-up I did last August on a trip Nancy and I did in the Birkin: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2841

Just rec'd my August copy of the mag and there's an 8-pg feature on "Lotus - Britain's Lightweight Masterpieces". Well, on pg 24 where they discuss the Lotus Seven there's a picture of what I believe is Scott N's Series 4 taken at TOTD. I'm assuming it's from TOTD because of the green #7 on the drivers side headlight. It certainly looks like this car from my photos:

I've gotten Dorman studs at my local NAPA store but if you want to do some research online you can view their catalog here: http://www.dormanproducts.com/catalog/2006_hardware.htm Go to section #10 for wheel studs and then it's just a matter of going through all the pages to find something that will work. ARP also makes some nice wheel studs but they're pretty expensive. Check out pg 66: http://www.arp-bolts.com/catalog/Catalog.html They also have a recommendation for the clearance between the stud and hub depending on hub material. Cast iron/steel hubs are .005" and aluminum hubs are .007". See it on pg 9: http://www.arp-bolts.com/FAQ/FAQ.html Have you measured the ID of the hub holes that are loose and compared them to the other ID's?

I agree with Martin. Congrats Rune!

I thought all his posts were?? Congrats Jon!

I agree! Enjoy your day!

Wouldn't that be a blast! Now on Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/brunton-lotus-7-clone-super-stalker_W0QQitemZ220438249300QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item335324bf54&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A317%7C240%3A1318

No affiliation, etc: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lotus-Seven-MK-IV-3065-Hot-Rod-BMW-EFI-Turbo-7_W0QQitemZ150351650092QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item2301a81d2c&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A317%7C240%3A1318

Not connected to the Lotus factory, but it'd be nice to see the name in F1 again...especially if they were competitive: http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=20058 Hopefully they'll find a sponsor featuring BRG and yellow colors.

Nice video on Jay Leno's Garage of Jason Len's modified Jaguar XK-120: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_player.shtml?vid=1110181