Chapter 7 with a Caterham SVT

[redursidae]

22 hours ago, pethier said:

You need to tighten your Bimini. 

Ha. I've tried, but it only has two velcro straps to tighten it, and they're maxed. I need to have someone sew some anchors I could attach to the rollbar until I get hands on a Soft Bits for Sevens top.

 

 

Thanks for the info on those gauges. I like them a lot and I bet the quality is top notch too. I'll give it some thought, but the LED illumination may be the deal breaker for me at this time, because although the brightness could be tamed it would still be brighter and different color than the stock gauges (the pro version does have switchable LEDs which is nice). I guess if I were replacing them all at once that would be fine, but I'm not in a place to do that at this time. My temperature gauge does read low, so maybe some future man math may happen . 

[pethier]

On 6/22/2026 at 11:18 AM, Austin David said:

Note also that the bell housing is not much higher than the pan;

Not the case with my first Caterham.  My 1979 car had a crossflow 1600.  The dry sump looked like an inverted straight-ridge roofline.  It stayed WAY above the bottom of the bellhousing.

[Slonie]

14 hours ago, redursidae said:

. I'll give it some thought, but the LED illumination may be the deal breaker for me at this time, because although the brightness could be tamed it would still be brighter and different color than the stock gauges (the pro version does have switchable LEDs which is nice). 

I hear you. And this is how I end up with $1500 worth of Stack gauges eventually 😆 (I’m pretty sure their digital dash is actually cheaper than buying all those gauges separately)

 

Actually, I’d probably buy their fuel gauge tomorrow if it would actually give an accurate reading for these cars (iirc it’s programmable in some way so it actually might be as good as it gets for Caterham’s weird fuel level sender but I haven’t researched it deeply)

[redursidae]

Got around to fixing the torn CV boot. I wasn’t sure how complex it may be, and was glad it was easier than expected. I failed to take pictures of the process, but generally was:

 

1. Remove caliper
2. Remove axle nut
3. Remove brake disk
4. Remove DeDion ear
5. Slide ear and bearings off the axle
6. Slide axle off differential
7. Remove clamps on outer boot and slide the boot back
8. Remove the cup off the CV axle to expose the tripod
9. Remove retaining clip
10. Use 3 jaw puller to remove tripod from the shaft
11. Replace the boot and use new clamps
12. Dressed and greased the splines of the shaft and tripod
13. Reinstalled the tripod on the shaft by lightly tapping with a hammer and an impact socket that fit over the snout/shaft/splines
14. Install new retaining clip
15. Generous application of grease on the needle bearings and cup
16. Reinsert the cup and install the boot over it
17. Crimp the new clamps
18. Chase the threads on the DeDion tube, DeDion ear, caliper, and bolts
19. Clean old sealant on DeDion tube
20. Apply new sealant around tube
21. Install axle
22. Install DeDion ear and bearings (re-greased the bearings too)
23. Install brake disk
24. Install caliper
25. Install axle nut

Axle nut torqued to 200 ft-lbs, and everything else to 35 ft-lbs

 

Bonus step:

Wonder why this nut and washer are missing a piece.

 

 

 

 

After making sure that there isn’t anything actively contacting the nut and washer or the new boot, I put the car on the ground and went for a cruise. All went well with no new noises, only the usual ones.

 

Next up will be the engine mounts, the oil pressure gauge (that I still haven’t ordered), and having a side exit exhaust made so I can fit 13s. But I really need to work on the Miata's motor first, and itching badly to drive the Cat in the mountains, so maybe no further work this weekend.

 

 

 

 

[JohnCh]

It's hard to tell from that photo, but I wonder if it could have been done to increase clearance to an older wheel rim? A wide 13" wheel can get a little tight in that area. 

[Austin David]

1 hour ago, redursidae said:

After making sure that there isn’t anything actively contacting the nut and washer or the new boot, I put the car on the ground and went for a cruise. All went well with no new noises, only the usual ones.

 

I usually ride around with very effective earplugs, which means the first ride w/o earplugs is a bit of "is that normal".  I highly recommend taking a pre-ride before big changes to be sure you know what "normal" sounds like

[redursidae]

22 hours ago, JohnCh said:

It's hard to tell from that photo, but I wonder if it could have been done to increase clearance to an older wheel rim? A wide 13" wheel can get a little tight in that area. 

 

That's the closest guess so far. The driver side doesn't have this piece missing from the hardware. I'll refit the borrowed 13s sometime to check, but it sure was tight around there with those. As far as I can tell this car was built with these 15" wheels and the PO didn't mention having 13s fitted before.

 

22 hours ago, Austin David said:

 

I usually ride around with very effective earplugs, which means the first ride w/o earplugs is a bit of "is that normal".  I highly recommend taking a pre-ride before big changes to be sure you know what "normal" sounds like

 

Haha yep too accurate. I haven't really driven it in a couple of weeks and the engine noise alone threw me off a bit at first.