Slonie

Thanks for the tips. I'll get in there once again and see what I can do, hoping to be able to work on it in-situ even though it's a pain (but maybe less of a pain than removing the throttle body, for now?). I did not realize there were return springs inside the throttle body itself but looking at a photo of one off of a car I can see what you mean. Would you recommend a dry lube for them? I did a search on lubricating spherical bearings and came up with "unless they have grease fittings, don't lube", but open to suggestions. In any case, reading Vovchandr's experience with Borla's rebuild costs has me definitely wanting to try and resolve this without sending it in. Although I might add, the dual return spring was a standard feature on all later units shipped.

Do y'all have a price list?

I'm gonna try and resolve my throttle hang issue yet again, and find a replacement dipstick as mine broke off in August or September (somehow, it hung on and did not get lost in the bottom of my sump though!)

Ooh, another local 7! Let me know if you ever want to join in on a drive once you've got it built up!

Thanks for the intel on LEDs for our cars. The Morimotos look pretty decent, and the Union Pacific are definitely a lot more affordable than the Caterham-branded version. And also, worlds are colliding here as I have an Outbound light that gets used every week (and so do two of my night ride friends, after seeing mine).

I did my longest freeway drive yet a couple weeks ago and spent some time thinking about this as I was being punished by wind buffeting above 50mph. Pushing the wind deflectors out by an inch or two on their hinge pins actually seemed to make a significant difference, so bending them to make it stick out further or even making a spacer to push them out has merit. Maybe something that snaps into place on one of the tonneau button snaps, as rube goldbergian as that might end up. A couple of local guys with GBS Zeros have a similar style of wind deflectors but they're much larger. I haven't ridden in their cars but I bet they do a better job. If I was going to start bending/customizing the OEM Caterham ones I'd strongly consider just fabricating new ones in this style.

You can also order OEM Caterham parts through a US-based dealer. I'm partial to Josh at Rocky Mountain Caterham because he's great to deal with and has a lot of stuff in stock. Shipping will also be reasonable as it's coming from inside the US. https://rockymountaincaterham.com/parts/

I've been fiddling with my throttle body linkages lately and I was surprised that many of the lock nuts were loose, so I tightened them. Is that what happened to you here? (note that this did not fix my own rev hang, but from your example, it was definitely was worth doing!)

Note that any vitriol in these replies is not directed at the OP, I just want people to understand that it's AI slop before we get too deep debating whether it looks good (I mean, the one in the OP was a lot less bad than the red one I posted)

It's all in the little details, lines that don't line up, parts that are hard for the models to draw. I am now declaring complicated wheel designs to be the "hands" of AI models asked to draw a car. I admit that a lot of fakes can fly by at first glance on a small screen, which makes them spread faster on places like Instagram... When I said we were screwed earlier I meant that they're gonna get harder and harder to immediately spot in the future, with much worse outcomes than people being fooled by a fake car. The voiceovers and scripts used in these videos scream AI to me too, but that too will get harder and harder to spot...

Here was the other one I saw posted. Again, a total fake. I do wonder what's driving this though, the AI chum accountholders seeing an uptick in google searches for Caterham 21 and generating the content to suit? Oh, and it gets better. Accounts churning out new videos every several hours (note one doesn't even have views yet). We are so screwed.

Terrible, but don't worry as this is an AI generated video top to bottom. The craziest thing to me is not just that this video exists but that it's the *second* such video I've seen posted (one by an Instagram seven account). That one was much worse though. We're really going to be in trouble once the AI learns to spell or draw wh eels though...

Hi all, I've got 4-point OEM (Luke?) harnesses in my Caterham which have a provision for accepting a 5th/6th crotch strap in the buckle, but the stock seat bottom has no hole for them (nor is actually attached to anything, as we all know). Besides swapping to Tillets or the like, has anyone cut a hole in the stock seat bottom to allow it? I suppose my other options for anti-submarining would include Schroth Rally Cross or even OEM inertia-wheel seatbelts. I was thinking the former may be the best bet with the stock seats. (I actually used to use them in my old track car with buckets but and still have one set, although it's ancient now)

When I refilled I just used Prestone green/yellow that claims to be compatible with all formulations. (Reading the Ford Motorcraft chart for which one to use for a Zetec literally changes *mid-2001* and since that’s right around when my car was built I had no idea which to pick)

Possibly more exciting pics or videos to come from drivers who had on-board cameras, I didn't get a GoPro roll bar mount in time to record any driving footage.

We had a total of four 7s as well as ab Exige from the Lotus group show up. No cars or people overheated (too badly, anyway) despite the hot day. Great folks, we had relatively smooth driving until the coast despite the holiday weekend, and the fish and chips were delicious indeed. Looking forward to seeing more local 7s out in the future, and for cooler temperatures to prevail.

Hey Bay Area folks! I just got the details for the 7/7 drive this Sunday. Hope to see you there! Here’s the details from our organizer (who doesn’t have an account here). 7/7 Fish and Chips Run!!! Sorry for the delay but here’s the route and timing for the Inaugural 7/7 Fish and Chips Run. Pre-stage at the Foothill College #1 parking lot at 10:30. Please fill up before hand and be prepared for the drive at the pre-stage meeting point. We will roll out at 11am, following the route to the halfway point, stopping at the La Honda Country Market for a 20 minute break, and some photos. We will continue from there to our lunch stop at Flying Fish Grill in Half Moon Bay. There’s a gas station on the corner there so fuel is easily available if needed. Route information here Looking forward to seeing everyone!

The replay of yesterday's Youtube Live stream is available. Duncan's run starts around the 4 hour 19 minute mark, this timestamped link should work. There are definitely a few other runs I'd like to watch as well though!

Also note: As promised by many people who've been down this road, the Stack LED-lit gauges are incredibly bright, I don't have a dimmer switch or resistor on it to bring it down, that's filed under "maybe once I replace all the gauges with matching units"

Incidentally, did you ever figure out what was causing your rev hang when off-throttle? I seem to recall you mentioning it in a post in this thread from probably many years ago. I've searched all over the internet and had a quick correspondence with Borla (ex-TWM) on the matter, but interested to hear what you found. My behavior is the same as many people seem to have had with them, which is once warmed up, I come off the accelerator pedal and the throttles hang open just enough to idle at 2500-3000rpm or so. A quick blip of the throttle will cause them to reset. When I googled this, I feel like I found somebody identifying the causes as bent shaft(s) on the throttle butterflies, but didn't get a confirmed answer. The solution, via circa-2005 Honda-Tech members was to just add another spring to help pull them shut. TWM/Borla later added a dual return spring, and the parts are available to retrofit mine. I'm going to do that as a matter of safety (after all, dual return springs are better), and it may fix the symptom too, though probably not fixing the root cause. Uploaded a video showing the behavior. Apologies for the excessive camera movement.

Got the new 'stat installed last night. A few observations. 1) The stat I just pulled was also 92c but marked 92-102 and not 92-106. It was a current Motorcraft part (as noted above: Motorcraft-RT1150 (ford p/n F8RZ8575CA ) 2) I went for about a half hour drive in admittedly cooler temperatures than my previous drives since the sun had gone down (71F ambient instead of 78F the last time I took note). First impressions are that my cruising temps went from 96-98 indicated to 88-90 indicated, never climbing above 90 as long as I was moving. Exactly the kind of improvement I was looking for. 3) When stopped with the fan off, temperatures would again creep back to 102 indicated before the fan kicks on. But it took longer and wouldn't get there at the average stoplight, I think. 4) When I stopped and let the fan run, temperatures would continuously go down (to about 92). Previously the fan would slowly bring it from 100-102 down to 98 but I never saw lower. So, with the caveat that I need to drive it on a hot day to be sure, I'm calling this a success. I still wouldn't mind having the fan kick on a tick earlier, but a future override switch should take care of this. Thanks again @MV8 for the encouragement to try it and the part number. Now I've got a lot more confidence to go back to some real driving this weekend and next... Photo: Idling in front of my garage with lower temps than I could get while moving at 40mph before:

New stat arrived, Gates 33338, funnily enough despite being a Gates package the thermostat itself was marked Motorad / 0422 so I guess that’s two parts cross references into one. Hopefully I’ll get it in this weekend and be able to report back with lower temps. It’s gonna be a hot one (forecast is in the 90s…).

Josh at Rocky Mountain Caterham has a couple of them on consignment right now, although I think the green one might be sold or soon to be sold to another member here... I'm really into that Super Seven 1600 even though if you asked me any other day I'd say I wanted cycle wings. Like Vovchandr said, the weekly round-up thread here usually has some good prospects as well... https://rockymountaincaterham.com/inventory/

At the risk of committing thread nercromancy (oops, too late)... @Kitcat, did that M10x1.5 work for you? I've been considering buying the Quaife knob and they show 3/8 UNC as the Caterham-specific thread. Although I also see that 1) Some Caterham shifters have adaptors on them 2) M10 x 1.5 is very close to 3/8 UNC so maybe they still thread on. More pertinently, Quaife UK seems to be about the only place to get the 3/8 UNC version of this knob, and their shipping cost from the UK is astronomical. Maybe they're not used to shipping anything smaller than a differential or gearset. If folks were interested in a stateside group shipping buy... (or if we could find a Quaife distributor to bring some in)

I found this section quite interesting too: Currently around one-fifth of production leaves the factory with a little 660cc Suzuki three-cylinder turbo engine, and the rest feature two-liter Ford Duratec units in various states of tune. Those are now out of production, but thanks to the financial backing from Japan, Caterham has bought enough for the next three years.” “After that “We are looking at five or six different engine options form four different manufacturers,” explains Laishley. “And we have completely shifted from buying old engines at the end of their model lifecycle to something that is not even in production.” I was surprised at the take rate for the Suzuki models, but that probably speaks to the strength of Caterham in the Japanese market. Interesting times ahead with lining up a new engine supplier in the next 3 years.