pethier

Does the green Elise belong to a guy named Rob? Nice double rainbow.

If I had a nickel for every time that I missed the point i'd ... probably waste it all all on cars. No offense taken or intended, my friend. Good luck to all of us as we continue to tame these cars that are so amazing and so frustrating.

I absolutely agree with your points about windscreen mirrors. In the past I have had several vehicles with vertically-stacked quads. I have switched the lights around so the low beam is on the bottom. Not only is this kinder to other drivers, but also works better in fog and snow. I believe the decision of car makers to put the low beams on the top in vertically-stacked quads was a bonehead decision, especially in trucks. When I was writing about the blue coating, I was not writing about a windscreen mirror. I was writing about the wedge-mirrors stuck to the side mirrors on my Cayman. The scope of these mirrors do not cover vehicles immediately behind me, only vehicles in adjacent lanes close to me.

I have the blue tint on the little convex wedge mirrors I bought for the Cayman. I thought maybe the blue was the tear-off you get on so many products nowadays. Does not seem so. I did not know the blue was supposed to be a nighttime thing. Does not seem to be something you would need in a convex wedge mirror: The convex means the headlight will appear small and that the light intensity is spread-out. The wedge means that following cars not in the danger zone should not be in your field of view. The larger wedge mirrors I have on the F-150 have no blue coating and I certainly don't regret its absence. 7 relevance: The convex side mirrors I bought for the Birkin seem to be working well. The I-assume-stock Birkin windscreen mirror seemed a little low.* I noticed that the ball was higher on the mirror than central, so turning the mirror 180 degrees raised it nicely. *. I'm only about 5'9", but have shortish legs. I therefore sit tall in the saddle. The antithesis of Danny Kaye and Conan O'Brien.

Of course they can be removed. Grab pair of cutters and cut the back side of the block. Don't use a box cutter or the like or you could damage the strap (not as big a risk if you had Diamond Weave straps). Then just bend the block and pull it off the strap. If, after your experiment, you think you need them, just pop them back on. They will function just the same as if you had not cut them. It should be a long time before you need to replace the straps. What usually kills straps is UV radiation. You are going to use and store these straps in an enclosed trailer. I renew my endorsement of the Diamond Weave straps with the European-style friction sleeves from www.autohaulersupply.com. I didn't buy these because my original straps were shot. I bought them because they are better.

Let's start with "It probably does not make much difference due to the friction of the strap". Now, let's neglect the friction for a moment like a lot of classical physics illustrations do. If the straps go straight down to the roller and clip, then the portion of the strap between the two is at the shortest length it can be. The tire can't go anywhere because that would require more strap length. The yellow things are not ramps, but chocks. I believe they attach to the E-track. I therefore suppose they offer more resistance to the car moving forward in braking (or, heaven forfend, a crash). I don't think that strongly-enough to go out and buy a pair. What they are good at is stopping the car while you load it at the exact place you had it last time. Since I use a remote-controlled winch so I can see exactly what I am doing, I don't need permanent stops. Non-Seven sidebar: I have left door on my full-width trailer so I can open my car door. I don't bother with the winch when unloading the car, I just get and drive the car out. Some cars are set up so the car door will not clear the trailer inner fender and the trailer door. I have fashioned plywood risers that key into the E-track. I place two of these on the left track where the tires land. The front one has a wood strip at the front to prevent the car from rolling off the front of the riser if the trailer happens to be pointing downhill when I am winching a car in. These risers tilt the car enough to get door clearance. This is really a good thing, since my Cayman has a dual-clutch transmission, so just like with a conventional automatic, I have to step on the brake to get it out of park. The risers are sized so that I can still get the tire straps to the E-track slots. I don't need these risers with a Seven. I can enter either side of a Seven inside my trailer even if it has top and doors.

You don't need those rubber blocks on wide tires. I stopped using them long ago because they were a right pain on my lowered Elise. You can test the theory by leaving them off on one wheel. If the strap is placed correctly, it's not going anywhere. If it is placed incorrectly, I don't think the blocks are are going to help much. It probably does not matter, but I tend to have the parking brake on and the car in neutral. I use the space behind the car to stack up my race ramps and use a 1" ratchet strap from one E-track to the other to hold them in place. They weigh almost nothing. Ignore the D-rings. The car needs to move on its suspension. A Caterham does not offer much in the way of good places to hook tiedowns: That's what is so good about using the tires. I have a short strip of E-track about shoulder height on the side wall of the trailer near each corner of the car. About 6 slots: three for a tire strap and 3 for whatever else is hanging around. Since I run my ratchets ahead of the car, I generally only disconnect the after clip of the three on the front straps and leave the assemblies lying on the trailer floor while I am driving the car. When the trailer is used for something else, I hang the front straps on the wall E-tracks. With all three clips fastened, the mass of the straps themself is unlikely to cause any trouble. Don't just clip two; you don't want that idler roller swinging around when you are towing an empty trailer. If you need to put the car in the trailer and don't have time to tie it down right then, take one of the straps and put it in the driver footwell of the truck so you you don't come back later and drive the rig away.

Don't think much of the terrain tires on my F-150. The Michelin all-weather LT tires on my Suburban 2500 were much better. On the F-150, I keep the tires at 80 PSI all the time and use the sway-snubber.

Looks like the one in my green Birkin. More about that later. What I think are Bosch numbers in the USA are: Bosch Starter - New - SR7559N Bosch Starter - Remanufactured - SR7559X After success with getting a new starter in the (Birkinized) Caterham, today I install a starter in the green Birkin. These two starters are marketed as different brands with different part numbers. They appear to have been remanufactured in the same place in Mexico. More details after I get this second one in and tested.

Still looking around. I have apparently stored them so well I can't find them.

The substitution of a hex bolt in the Birkin upper location is not going to work. Taking taking a Dremel-type cutting disc to an 8mm Allen-key-type wrench was a great help in for the Birken middle location, but no help for the upper. On the (Birkinized) Caterham, there was plenty of room to reach all the bolts with an 8mm driver mounted on a 3/8" ratchet handle.

I have news. I stumbled into what looked like the right thing at O'Reilly and found one in stock, stuck it in my (Birkinized) Caterham and it cranks. There was one review there and the vehicle shown in the review was a 2000 Ford Ranger, so I went through all the engine choices until I found the one that returned the model that I already know works. Surprise: It's not the Ranger four-banger. Ford part that was in Steve's driveline he sold me: F32U-1131-AA - search for 2000 Ford Ranger XLT - V6 - 3.0L 2986cc 182ci GAS MFI vin U - 2 valve OHV or 2000 Ford Ranger Sub-Model: XLT Engine: 6 Cylinders 3.0L Vulcan GAS =========== Confirmed works, cranked the Zetec in my "Birkin-equipped" Caterham: O'REILLY BesTest Starter - Remanufactured - V613177 =========== Probably works: - Ultima Starter - Remanufactured - R613177 - Ultima Select Starter - New - N613177 Part # N613177 Line: USL - Bosch Starter - New - SR7559N Part # SR7559N Line: BOS - Bosch Starter - Remanufactured - SR7559X Part # SR7559X Line: BOS - Duralast Remanufactured Starter DL3264S - TotalPro Remanufactured Starter T3218 Shop All TotalPro - Raw Power New Starter ES3218S Part #ES3218S - AC Delco Gold Starter 336-1113A - NAPA Starter - Reman - Standard Part #: RAY 2449308 - Starter - Remanufactured Denso at NAPA Part #: DEN 2805104

I have had at least two Lotus cars.

bingo

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/ Birkin in garage, backed up to shop door