Ian7

I know staggeringly little about how the internet actually works (:lol: ) but my impression is that slow-to-load websites tend to have too much data on the 'top' page. A site I visit often (www.apexspeed.com/forums) has an option on each level for user-selection of how many of the previous days postings it will display on initial request, which again I believe affects the speed of displaying on my computer. (I explained badly, go see what I mean...) cheers

I'll add that I often click on this site, and give up waiting for whatever page to load...

Haven't been myself, but if its anything like the PRI show we go to each December, then yes, you'll need to prove you're "in the business"...

Very nice car. I've only ever seen one 7-type-car with a Miata engine in it. It was a mid-90's model, a South-African make called an RM8. It had maybe an inch and a half of clearance between the sump and the street. How does this car compare? cheers, Ian

Those prices are in line with what I recall mine costing back in the mid-90's. At $130, yours was a steal. Hope you get around to it. Cheers

not the worlds most advanced camera, but here it is: http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1159500186_caterham model.jpg

Hi Bruce, From one who's done it, open those packages of parts at your peril. Once started, it becomes an obsession. The quality of the kit is so good that you'll never talk yourself in to any shortcuts, and evenings and weekends completely evaporate... I'm going to try to photo mine and post it. cheers Ian

"The wheels are 13". The tires are Sumitomo HTR200 205/60/13." Thanks, how wide are the 13" wheels for these 205 tires? I've got 175's on 6" wide.

http://www.etamiya.com/shop/tamiya-10202-tamiya-112-caterham-super-seven-bdr-cycle-fender-out-of-stock-p-5175.html I have one of these that I spent 200+ hours building, it's beautiful. kit was about $400 at the time. It's no longer available; can it possibly be worth $3,800 as suggested in this link above ??? If so, make me an offer, seriously....

OMG, there are no adjectives positive enough to describe that !!!

Thanks. As an aside, I think I posted this elsewhere: one of the most humorous aspects of this problem was my phone call to Aldon earlier in the summer. They confirmed that I did have the correct-as-specified-by-Caterham distributor, but in the opinion of Aldon, its inappropriate for the application !!! Certainly the built-in advance curve is too short; maybe the 'dwell equivalent' is also less than ideal cheers

Hi Geoff, Nice car, same spec as mine (see left). What size wheels/tires are those? they seem to fill the rear wheel-well better than mine. cheers Ian

Here's what I found: static resistence across coil engine off = 3.6 ohms key at run position, have 12.1 volts at neg terminal of coil; a few mV at pos terminal when cranking, see about 9.5V at coil neg terminal (seems about right) when running at idle and slightly above, still only 11.8V at coil negative; engine dies if you put the voltmeter across the coil pos when running (no surprise?) didn't see that 20-40 volts at the coil neg terminal that I have the fuel pump running off of; would the voltage at the coil neg post rise with rpm maybe? thx

seems 115,000 british pounds isn't too much for at least 8 people !!! yikes http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/16/all-eight-115-000-caterham-rs-levantes-sold-out/

Thanks Skip, Sounds like you had a more productive exchange with Aldon than I did. Both the people I spoke to on the phone over there felt the best thing for me to do was return the dizzy for evaluation. Hmmm. I would definitely prefer a mechanical fuel pump. Since its late and I don't want to type much, and leaving out the story of an entire day of total comedy with myself and my engine builder trying to figure out why the damn engine wouldn't run. Short answer is : camshaft he put in doesn't have a fuel pump drive lobe on it. !!!!!! I took the engine to him in late March for a freshening; he found the cam lobes wiped out, and after 22 weeks of waiting ( @#$%^%$#&^%$ ) for the engine, I sure wasn't taking the motor back out again. Hence the electric pump. Voltage checks tomorrow, stand by... Thanks as always.

looks like too much front toe-out

wiring diagram is a literal blur, not a figurative one :lol: stay tuned

" Do you have or can you get a wiring diagram for the bike engined Caterham? " yes, they sent me the entire wiring system shown on an 8x11 sheet, clearly a copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy-etc. Can't make out any of it. " For the fuel pump, I would find another source for it as when running, point, condenser and coil systems typically show 20 - 40 volts and this would certainly not be conducive to long pump life. " that would certainly explain my 'bad luck' with two short-life fuel pumps. pardon my ever-deepening ignorance, but how does the low tension coil spade connection that the fuel pump is connected to see up to 40 volts without back-frying other components in the system? "Whether or not the voltage is jumped up by the condenser I would still suggest you find a new source for the pump." no condensor (of the sort I'm familiar with) is evident in the system, unless it's potted into the mystery box that makes up the 'points' in the dizzy... thx as always...

Yes, and let me reiterate: Caterham confirmed this chassis was intended for a bike engine application, and since it came pre-wired and loomed, I've pretty much learned to assume things are INCORRECT until proven otherwise. :-) wiring loom near the coil has a pigtail that sprouts off it with 4 identical "white with black stripe" wires coming out; these are paired into two identical factory spade connectors, simply marked as "coil" on both. connecting them to the coil one way allows engine to run; reversing them on the two coil terminals - engine does nothing, how about this - I start engine, and while running, pull off one 'pair' of coil wires at a time to see if one is redundant? any side effects foreseen? damage to electrical system? electrocution of idiot owner? here's an added bit, perhaps showing my complete electrical ignorance: as a stopgap measure, I'm running an electric fuel pump off of the live terminal on the coil as a convenient source of electrons, but have been since long before the first coil failure; potential source of problem do we think? cheers

Camera won't focus that closely, but it's a blue Bosch, part number unreadable (box is in the shop, will check later). Two terminals on top, plus HT lead obviously. Thinking out loud, you know I'm saying the coil is fried purely because the car is exhibiting the early signs of the same symptoms that a new coil cured the last time. Could be secondary effect of a different problem I suppose. There are no mystery boxes or connections in any of the car wiring I can find, just battery, starter, alternator, distributor, and coil. The only bit not totally familiar to me is that little bakelite box inside the dizzy where the points would be on an "old fashioned" dizzy.

Thanks Skip. VW Beetle went 12volt in 1967 (we had one). I'll give the voltage test a try. Other feedback I'm getting is that I may have a ballast resistor in the coil by default (depending on brand), but certainly I don't find anything resembling one externally in the car wiring. Stay tuned... thx Happy Thanksgiving and/or Columbus Day

scannon said: "the coils for 12v cars actually ran on 6 volts using a ballast resistor." so what's the difference then between these "12volt" coils I keep frying, and the "6volt" coil on my friends 1965 VW Beetle ?

Thx. In such a system, what would that ballast resistor look like? where typically? Given the erroneous mix of components that came from Caterham, this might be the real answer. (Ordered a kit for a Kent, received mostly bike-engine-intent components...)

... and this one's not ugly (at least if you ignore the lower nose) way nicer than an X-bow. I'd buy one I think. http://www.autoblog.com/photos/elfin-type-5-clubman-1/1092179/

#$%@$%&%$# not again !! so, maybe 200 miles after changing the coil, it appears to have fried again. latest coil was a Bosch blue, no previous mileage, but maybe 3 years old before installation. as before: coil is vertical, mounted to a chassis tube in the right-rear corner of engine bay (non-exhaust side) Kent x-flow with an Aldon electronic-points dizzy (but not a full electronic ignition) Ideas? thx (That $5000 zetec conversion I baulked at a few years ago is looking better all the time...)