pethier

Thanks.

Have not yet received the Mintex pads from Demon Tweeks. Meanwhile, I have received Green Stuff pads via Amazon. I don't have the car here at the moment, as my tuner has not yet stuffed an engine into it. See my build thread.

NOW you tell me!

I can't think of a single advantage to putting a gate on a shifter.

Not my first Caterham. At the 40th-anniversary party weekend for Donnybrooke/BIR in 2008, Bob Cox told me that he had been to see a 1979 Caterham in Appleton Wisconsin. He was very impressed, and recommended it to me. I bought the car directly from the private party. My present Caterham is a 1991 that I got off BAT in the late fall of 2022. When I arrived at the law office of the seller in central Illinois, he offered me several Caterham cars. I drove two candidates and chose to stay with the one from the auction. So far I don't recall that I blame him for any misinformation on this car.

I know that one. When I bought my first Caterham, the seller told me the rear axle was Marina. I bought a Quaife diff and a set of 4.11 gears. Nope. The axle was Ford. The vendors were wonderful; sending out the Ford parts and accepting the Marina parts with a minimum of hassle.

And therefore a Zetec-powered model Mercury had in North America.

Like my photos show.

What about the Mercury Mystique?

What's the URL for looking that up?

In my recent misadventure with oil pump damage on on a 1996 Contour engine in my Caterham, I picked up what purports to be a VCT engine from a 1999 Contour. It has the electrical connection on the cam cover for the cam changeover. I am unlikely to use this engine, since I also picked up what seems to be an identical 1996 Contour engine (without the headwork my ailing engine has had) to get me by for the remainder of the season.. I don't know how to test the solenoid or if there is a market for it.

After consultation, Ron and I have agreed to use both the block and head of the bought engine. This saves Ron from having to clean the head. Alternator and other parts are different in the Birkin. There a few aluminum Ford pieces that are not used, and other pieces have been created to support the different configuration used for the Birkin. The result of using the bought cylinder head is not likely to give as much power and torque. Steve had made some changes to the head to improve the flow. With luck, I will have a useable engine for now and all winter to clean up the "Steve" engine and have it back in the car for next season. Apparently all this is because the other shop missed the importance of the simple clutch-travel limiter right there on the bell housing. Ron spotted it. My guess is that Steve never needed to use it because the pedal layout in the Birkin stopped the travel before the throwout could cause trouble.

IMG_9128 seized oil pump Apparently, the oil pump runs concentric with the crankshaft. It seems to have taken the brunt of the abuse of the unrestricted clutch travel. The original block and head will need to be thoroughly-cleaned to remove all the shrapnel.

Thanks! Not finding anything in the USA, I have filed an order with Demon Tweeks in Wrexham.

Good question. I will soon visit Ron's shop and ask what he knows.

Update! Ron texted me. It was not the thrust bearing that locked up the engine. The oil pump grenaded. The engine was essentially at idle when the incident occurred. If I had been on the freeway at 3000 RPM, the damage might have been a lot worse. In the interest of getting this car back on the road for LOG, Ron is not going to clean the engine for shrapnel, but use the block from the engine that I just bought.

MGB533 gives me nothing on Moss.

Deserves its own thread.

I sent you a message via USA7s.

I had a Renault-engine Europa. The calipers were seized. Back then, you could order calipers for a Spitfire at a regular parts store. While I was at it, I bought stainless pistons and put them in the new calipers.

This is not a new rebuild. This is an experienced engine. Ron may be onto something with his thrust bearing theory. Remember that the engine has lived long and well in the Birkin so the problem would likely have to do with the change to a Caterham. I have never heard of this problem, but Ron has. At this point I only believe one thing: I will be at LOG driving my truck. Whether it will have a trailer attached is not yet certain.

Wednesday. Drove to Ripon and bought a Zetec motor which reportedly passed a compression test.

[I intended to post this last night (Tuesday) but my internet provider was having technical difficulties.] Pride goeth before a fall. Got the car all buttoned-up Saturday evening. Went out for gasoline. Car was driving FANTASTIC. The Isanti crew must have disconnected the steering somewhere along the line, and put it back together one notch off. The wheel is turned a bit to the right when driving straight, but I don't think the alignment has changed. There is nothing loose up there. The temp gauge does not work. I am not too worried. Putting fuel in is a pain. Facing the car downhill helps. I may have to bring ramps to the station... Figured I would take it on the freeway on the way home. Pulled out of the gas station, easy on the power, nothing outlandish. Ready to short-shift into second, the traffic light changed red. Put in the clutch and shifted to Neutral to coast to a stop. Engine died. No noise, jerk, or commotion. Just died. That's weird. It has been idling beautifully. Turned the key to restart. URK. What? It started with no trouble a minute ago. A couple of guys tried to push start it. Fifth gear. Two guys running pushing on the roll bar. Let out the clutch and the car stopped on a dime. Called son-in-law. He showed up with jumper cables. URK. Disconnected my battery and attempted to start it using only his running car. URK. He took me home and I got my rig. Still don't have the remote on my trailer winch replaced, so ran back and forth from the button to the steering wheel to the button. Took it home and went to bed. Up at six Sunday morning, tossing tools into boxes. Made it to the event and checked in. Didn't walk the course. Conscripted angelic autocrossers to push car. URK. Theorized that starter was stuck. Counter-evidence is "why did it die", but started to try to remove starter anyway. Needed an 8mm Allen on breaker bar. Winched car back into trailer. Went home. Got 8mm Allen from my shop. Safest way seemed to be to leave the car in the trailer and keep the straps over the back wheels. Jacked up the front and shoved the race ramps under the front tires for safety. Removed starter. Bolted and taped the cables together, taped up the solenoid wire, secured everything with cable ties and went back to the event because I had no other way to test this. Conscripted more angels to push. URK. Went back home again. Parked rig and jumped into Cayman. Arrived back at event. Found more angels: My XU competition and the eventmaster let me run in two heats to get my six runs. On the drive home I got the idea that I must have dropped a valve. Had supper and collapsed watching footie and F1. Wrote a note "Scope Seven" and taped it to the bathroom mirror. Monday other chores then on to the Seven. My scope has an articulation on the camera so I could look backwards and see all 4 valves in each cylinder. Nothing wrong there. Rats. It's in the block. While I had the plugs out, I put an 18mm socket on my 24" breaker bar and checked to see if I could turn the engine with no compression. When it seemed I was tightening the bolt, I stopped. No point breaking something. Did a quick measurement of piston height. #1 and #4 were the same height. #2 and #3 were the same height. Not a broken con rod, then. Tuesday. Ron the tuner is back from vacation. I towed out to his shop and reported that I had done my homework and that the car had run great. Then I told him the rest of the story. We pulled the car out of the trailer. Ron yanked off the timing belt and it looked perfect. He easily rotated each camshaft. It's in the block. Ron says there is no knowing why without a tear-down. Fast way to get back on the road: Get another engine and take off the head. Install it. Put on the head with the trick cams and the Hayabusa injection. Then figure out how to keep it from happening again. Ron thinks that MAYBE it is the thrust bearing at the front of the engine. The throw of the clutch pedal is longer than it has to be. Since Birkin pedals and footwells are not the same as Caterham pedals and footwells (and it was changed from cable to hydraulic), that could be correct. Mounting a block in the footwell might be an easy prophylactic. I had already considered this sort of thing when rearranging the throttle cable. I had adjusted it so the pedal hit the footwell when the throttle shaft hit the stop. Technical question, and the answer may be different for different cars: With Zetec engines, does it matter whether the donor car had a manual or automatic transmission? The donor car for this Birkin was a 1996 Contour. I'd expect that most of those cars were automatics.

It is a great idea. It came from IamScotticus.

I have located what I assume are the original Caterham factory mounts for my 1700 Super Sprint (which I assume is the same as other Kent motors). They may or may not be the same as a Lotus mount. In any case, they have been sold with my 1700 Super Sprint engine el al, pending delivery. You will note that the engine interface is quite unlike the Zetec