xflow7

Are you saying that membership is required just to view Tech Talk, or to post? I seem to still able to view it without any problems. As for posting, it's been members only to post for a long while now (maybe 10+ years?) Dave

What's to say that the people responding are knowledgeable enough about current events to understand what was being asked of them? If that was the only question asked, and it was asked to individuals regardless of their awareness of world events, then I would wager a substantial sum that the results are a reflection of a minority of respondents not knowing what ISIS really is. I can very easily see a respondent who is not up on world events hearing the word "Iraq" in there and assuming that they are being asked about their support for the nation of Iraq. It's very easy for those of us who follow current world events to assume that everyone has at least a basic understanding of what's going on and who the players are, but it's never a good assumption. Throw in potential second-language effects and you could *easily* have lots of respondents who answered a different question than the one they were asked. Dave

The best (read: worst) part is that he suggested to the court in proposing the payment that it be used to build a new world-class race track in Germany.

I'd bet your voltage regulator is acting up allowing the charge voltage to go too high. They can get damaged from exhaust heat. This happened on my first one within a couple thousand miles. But my second one has been fine for the last 16k miles. You should get it checked and if necessary replace it, otherwise you may find your battery boiling over, or the regulator eventually packing it completely which could leave you stranded. Edited to add: If you have a voltmeter handy you can check it yourself. Just measure the voltage across the battery as you or a helper revs the engine. If the voltage goes above about 14.5-5V, replace the regulator.

May also want to check out Waytek Wire. They have a lot of industrial and automotive stuff: http://www.waytekwire.com There was a UK place called, I think, Automotive Wiring Products that we used to buy stuff from at my last job. Can't find it on the web now, though. Dave

Okay now, S2K7, you can't just drop a picture of that in here without telling us a little bit more about it.

I've had my car registered in 3 states (OH, NY, VT) that require front plates for a combined total of ~8 years. In that time I've never mounted it and never had a problem. That said, YMMV. Dave

Any pictures of your canoe? That dugout project sounds like it would have been amazing; it sucks when our bodies elect not to keep up with our aspirations.

I hadn't heard of that book; sounds interesting. It's dangerous for me to estimate any time scales on a project like this; my track record sucks. Anecdotally from people who have built these, an average amateur build seems to be 600-ish hours. I'm more of a n00b than most, so I expect it will be more for sure. I also elected to loft the plans to full size from the lines and offsets which is technically not necessary for this boat because the designer makes full-size patters available. So that added something. Net, I figure an order of magnitude more effort than the Seven build. I would like to think I could finish no later than 2 years from now, but the reality is that in my first year, my average hours per week was abysmal due to life and Other Projects :jester:. But I'm optimistic that I'll do better in the year to come. Dave

12-ish years on from building my Seven I have embarked on another, more ambitious project. It's not Seven or car related, but my experience is that folks that gather on forums like this tend to share more than one interest. In that vein, I thought it would be fun to have a thread of other projects we have on the go. So here's my contribution: I've started building a sailboat which has been a lifelong dream. What I'm building is called a Sooty Tern, designed by Iain Oughtred. Essentially this boat, stretched about 18": http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oVZqV2SAiRY/TB-_bVEEdwI/AAAAAAAAEBg/qiLicQy_NyA/s1600/P7130378.jpg Construction is glued marine plywood. I've been working away at it very slowly over the last year, so I don't have much tangible progress to show, but I do have a blog which I've updated sporadically to share my progress (currently nearing the end of making the temporary molds around which the boat will be planked): xflow7.wordpress.com So, what projects do all of you others have on the front (or back) burner? Dave

Mike. LOL, anytime everyone wants to trek to the middle of Vermont you're welcome. Although, it's true that between Doug Fraser (dougf) and I, Fairlee probably has the highest Seven-ownership rate in the country at better than 1 in 500 people. Steve, thanks. Life is good. I am enjoying the space while I have it and have an interesting project on the go in there. I'll start an OT thread on it to avoid derailing this thread. Dave

I haven't noticed much change in steering effort. It's a bit harder to crank the wheel when parking, but is not objectionable. I have a 5-spd with the "standard" (i.e. too short) 1st gear and a 3.62:1 diff. The nominal diameter is quite close to a 185/70-R13; 22.7" vs. 23.2" or about 2.2% smaller. So if your current highway cruise is 3k rpm, now it would be nominally 3065 - again not enough to bother about, IMO. I haven't done any autocrossing or anything on these tires. But in spirited driving I haven't had any problems with rubbing. Here the slightly smaller diameter may actually be a help as my old tires would drag the clamshell edge if I really leaned on them with a passenger in the car. Dave

Others may have your answer re: State Farm, but I'll chime in to say I've been generally very happy with Hagerty. They insure only pleasure/classic/collectible cars and do so on an Agreed Value basis (as opposed to Actual Value, which is what most mainstream auto insurance is). They *will* ask how many miles you will use it and if it's over 3,000/year or so, they won't take you. However, there is no actual limit written into the policy. This basically means that, yes, you are subject to limited use. But if your car club organizes a cross-country rally and you have an accident at the end of the year you're not going to get denied because you happened to break 3k miles that year. My car was heavily damaged in a deer-hunting () accident some years ago and Hagerty came through. The only minor aggravation was that the adjuster that came to look at the car was more familiar with muscle cars and body-on-frame construction so was a bit out of his depth in assessing a Caterham which is closer to aircraft construction. This led to more back-and-forth between the shop and the adjuster/claim representative than might otherwise be the case, but in the end they never balked at the $12k repair bill and it had no effect on my premiums. That, plus my customer service experiences with them have been uniformly positive. When you call them and say you want to insure a lightweight British roadster called a Caterham Seven they respond, "Cool!" rather than "WTF is that?" Dave

LOL. Yes, I suppose so. My fiancee busts my chops because we have this out-building which, at 30'x40', is *way* larger than I'd hoped to find when we were house-hunting and yet I've expanded to fill it all.

Here are a few. Forgive the mess in the background and the crap focus of the last one.

185/70R13 performance tires are basically impossible on this continent unless you bring them over yourself from an overseas supplier. And even then, they're typically not DOT approved, so not technically legal for road use here. But if you want to try that route, the Yoko A021 from some years ago is well-regarded on BlatChat as a performance road tire for Sevens. I had 185/70R13's that came on the car from new (and were junk) and I really wanted to stick with 185's if I could, but I just couldn't find anything in a 70 series and didn't want to sacrifice ground clearance. I ended up getting a set of 205/60R13's Toyo RA-1's for my classic. They have tons of stick. Probably a bit too much, actually, for the archaic front suspension on a Classic and stock springs/ARB's. But I'm happy with them. Not too spendy either at $125 a pop or something. The main thing is that I don't expect to get many miles out of them as they are really a competition tire (though DOT legal). I also considered the Vredstein Sprint Classic which is available in 205/60R13 as a longer-wearing road tire. But, as it seems to be marketed mainly to the vintage car crowd as a period-correct tire, I wasn't sure if it would have enough performance. It's also *way* more expensive. Dave

I don't have a part number, but I'd think this would work (the Merkur XR4ti used the T9 gearbox): http://www.merkurmidwest.com/catalog/i15.html Alternatively you could phone up Caterham US. Dave

I was also wondering if Honda would pick it up to become a factory (or feeder) team. The thing is, though, I believe it's been stated that Honda's agreement with McLaren has McLaren as an exclusive customer for 2015. If true, that would seem to indicate that there wouldn't be a second team racing Honda machinery. Of course, then your thought turns to, how valuable might it be to have a modern F1 team at your disposal that is not enrolled in the World Championship in your first year and is thus not subject to the various testing restrictions... So it's certainly possible. Having said that, someone mentioned Colin Kolles who has now basically flunked out of sportscars and may want to scab his way back into F1. And he evidently had a big falling out with Mercedes.

Nothing confirmed, but a bit more info here: http://adamcooperf1.com/ I can only presume if it doesn't affect the GP2 team it doesn't affect CC either. Also from @willbuxton: and

Those poor differentials!

I'm curious about this. When you say bad motor mount, do you mean one of the mounts for the starter motor itself to the bellhousing, or the engine mount? It's hard for me to see how an engine mount would have any effect on the pinion engagement given that the starter is rigidly mounted to the bellhousing which is rigidly mounted to the engine. Dave

As above, replacing the bushings is common. I think frequency probably depends a lot also on your tolerance, annual mileage, and how much your diff leaks (gear oil is nasty for the bushings). You can get an A-frame that takes a spherical bearing to replace them. I very rarely dump it in 1st gear out of kindness for my half-shafts, but mine also steps slightly to the side. It could be that other bushings are a bit worn, but also keep in mind that there's a lot of suspension movement going on in that scenario even if the bushings aren't worn out. The reaction torque will cause one side of the suspension to tend to compress and the other to tend to rebound (think dragster). On top of that, the rearward weight transfer will tend to compress both sides. These movements will cause the ends of the axle to move fore/aft a bit, and not necessarily together, which can put a bit of steer angle into the axle. And to further complicate things, depending on jounce/rebound damper valving, the rate at which the two sides respond may be different. So, net, it can't hurt to replace aged bushings, but I wouldn't assume that a small step sideways under a hard launch indicates anything amiss with the bushings. You may be able to tune some of it out by playing with rear ride-height, but it will have a corresponding effect on roll-steer and balance, so I'm not sure I'd mess with it if the car is otherwise handling well. Dave

Cool. "Keep Duckworth poor" gave me a laugh. Interesting to contemplate how some of those rules would have been morphed for today. Minimum torsional stiffness, for instance, is probably at least an order of magnitude higher for current F1 and Prototypes. Similarly for installation stiffness of the suspension, etc.

Thanks for pointing that out. I did not intend to imply that the information there was the be-all end-all. I also don't think the 30mm chokes, in and of themselves would be a problem. Rather, just pointing out that most 1700 engines of that spec run 32's and so the OP may have an easier time finding jetting combinations that work well. Checking the ignition is a good idea, too. I have heard good things about the hypojets, but I will say for the OP's benefit that my 1700SS runs very well with stock Weber parts, and doesn't stumble at provided I keep the carbs balanced and idle mixture set properly.

Any particular reason you are using 30mm chokes? I think normally a 1700 SuperSprint-ish spec would use a 32mm-34mm choke. Here is a link to a reference for sizing chokes: http://7faq.com/owbase/ow.asp?HowDoI%2FTuneWeberCarburettors I think I have my jetting (for a 1700 with, I think, 32mm chokes) posted somewhere on the interweb, but I haven't managed to find it just now. If I come across it I'll post it here. In the meantime, can I assume you've already gone through the basic setup of syncing carburetors, lean idle mixture, etc? Either of these being out by much can cause all sorts of off-idle misbehavior because of the idle position of the butterflies not being correct with respect to the progression holes. Dave