Ian7

Not yet going in to the (any?) pros and (many) cons of a locked diff on the street, my first thought is that a backlash that gives 60 degrees of rotation may suggest a problem much greater than can be 'cured' by simply welding up the diff....

Having driven everything from a 1965 Beetle to a competition Ferrari 430 Stradale, I'm PERFECTLY content with my 120hp Classic Caterham :-)

oops, forgot to add, the red outlet should feed into a catch tank that you can drain occasionally, or just secure it to the underside of the car for auto-rust-proofing :-)

Looks at first glance to be a complex air/oil separator breather device. The two lines off the side of the rocker cover are the biggest hint, with the "air blowing out while engine is running" is second clue. Does the small alloy tank look like it has a drain, or even better, a removable cover maybe to clean out the 'filter' (or whatever else might be inside)?

how hard to make it look uniform texture? how long to do first time? how often do you repeat? thx

oh, I am in LOVE with this idea... any photos of the end result ???????

yeah, sorry to seem like I'm throwing rocks, not my intent, but live axle wind-up and lateral load transfer under engine torque produce vastly different (although combined) effects, even though they result from the same drive torque. ever see "Bullitt" ? remember the chase scene where he overshoots the corner, and reverses back at max throttle? now THAT was axle tramp !!

excuse me? not entirely correct... engine torque must be reacted by something touching the ground, and that's the front and rear wheels, (with reactive force distribution F/R determined by many factors). What the dedion doesnt do relative to a live axle is "climb the ring gear" which causes the axle to want to rotate around its axis and bind up the suspension. having said that, I also dont sense a huge dedion benefit relative to my live axle in a street use situation.

I knew you weren't, was just nipping that potential thought in the bud :-)

I agree that a complete xflow without carbs should be in the 5000 range. But, having run FFords since the 80's.... the LAST thing you want is a Formula-Ford-specific engine. They are tuned for max power at max revs, make no torque down low, and are built loose and sloppy (read as short-lived) to minimize drag losses. I used one of our scrap FFord engines to build a lower revving, overbored street engine with decent driveable torque. Second but however, I did that cause I had access to it, wouldnt be my first choiice in hindsight if I had a few more bucks at the time. Go zetec or newer.

"How is the floor lowered? Can you do the same thing in a Birkin? Are there other ways to lower yourself in a Birkin?" Depending on your skills, wallet, or both, you can do pretty much anything you want to a space-framed car with alloy skins and floor, especially if you're starting with a naked kit. Move tubes fore and aft a bit, custom bend a floor pan with a pocket under your bum and voila!, lower seat.

Here's my $.02 on spacers.... only use them if you cant afford narrower tires or rims with different backspacing. Depending on your hub and wheel design, the spacers will possibly defeat any centering action between the hub and wheel center, which induces bending loads into the studs. Also, depending on the studs and spacer thickness you choose, you may have less than ideal number of threads engaged. Dynamically, you are widening the rear track on a car that generally understeers to start with, and this will only get worse. Undoubtably, others will jump in and say "I've used spacers for years...". :-)

Not sure that bushings are your primary problem. If the axle is moving laterally under cornering loads, then so is the hub and wheel center by an equal amount, no? Is the tire rubbing on a piece that moves laterally with the axle, or a fixed point on the sprung part of the chassis that doesn't move laterally under load? I think what you are seeing is a wider and possibly more flexible sidewall that is now hitting where the previous one didn't. If the Avon's have more grip than the hoosiers, then this will be exasperated by higher cornering loads, making deflections greater, etc etc. You could go to a lot of trouble and expense to replace the bushings to cure a 1/8" deflection and still find it rubs. How about rigging up some kind of a tell-tale pointer to measure axle deflection first before going to far with this?

oh, I know that "gotta get one" look..........

Here's a guess from another Canadian L7IS car... he's likely saying "inspired by" to avoid getting grief from the Fed's over having a "Kit car". Ridiculously contradictory / inconsistent rules up here. Easiest thing to do is convince them you buiilt it from scratch nudge nudge wink wink. I'm guessing there's a lot of standard parts from someones k** in it. Price isn't out of line for up here. What buyer is paying extra for is not having to go through all the grief himself, cash-and-go. For same reason, my 7 wouldn't fetch 25k down there, but I turned down 35k up here last fall.

Oh, that is beyond cool ! Imagine cruzin in that thing... 17 litre 6 cylinder, assume a square bore/stroke, gives a 6" dia piston !!

well, depends on your viewpoint, not funny at all to me. SHE'S ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC !! Imagine her in moving traffic, or worse, a moving emergency situation...

hey, is this Seth behind the new webname? Just bought a condo on 1st ave around the corner, look forward to being neighbors. cheers, Ian

I keep saying I'm going to do this:

Before taking the plunge, check with Taylor Race Engineering in Plano, TX. They do both Elite and Quaife, may advise you to go Quaife in a street car. (Thats what I chose). Elite's had some durability issues in Formula Enterprise chassis'.

Mick, if I'm there, you're welcome to try my live-axle Classic series 3. (Trick will be getting me out of the Exige.... )

Well, easiest way for you guys down there is to buy a car more than 25 years old, and it's a no-brainer. Younger than that I can't comment with certainty.... (up here its only 15 years). Shipping is WAY less than your number if you can tolerate an "at their convenience" schedule. I had a car shipped in 2003-ish for just over a grand canadian (137.52 us back then?), including drive-to dock, plus shipping, plus train from east coast to Montreal (600 miles). Maybe a month total, but not sure how wide that window could be, maybe I got lucky?

A thought on lighter, possibly cheaper, and likely even easier to deal with.... how about the Jabrock we use under the formula cars?

Well, you have to put that advert in context... It's NewEnglandClassicCar; there's been SO MUCH stuff written and spoken about this .... dealer? ... by people who have dealt, or thankfully not dealt with him.