Steve Walker

Somewhat late to this topic, but this was something that I looked into some time ago and, as far as I can tell, the requirement for type approved towbars only applies to type approved vehicles - so singly or individually approved vehicles should not need type approved towbars.

I made and fitted one. There is a pair of 2" square tubes spaced just wide enough to clear the diff, with another tube connecting the outer ends (far enough out to clear the spare wheel) and carrying the hitch. Where the tubes pass under the back panel, there is a smaller tube across them (most of the width of the back panel), bolted through both the back panel lip and a reinforcing tube above the lip. In front of the diff, two more 2" tubes continue forward (stepped inwards and overlapping the rear pair), making the front 4" narrower than the back. The gap between the front tubes is just wider than the tunnel and they are bolted through the floor to the harness reinforcing plates either side. I don't know how strong it is, but I can jump up and down on it and I weigh 18-1/2 stone. I did get a few odd looks when it was temporarily the only car I had access to with a towbar and I used it to take rubbish to the tip! I did wonder about the rules regarding EU testing and approval of towbars, but it turns out that they only apply to type approved vehicles and hence not to kit-cars.

Some time ago, we arrived home from a week's holiday and couldn't find the keys. We had a young child (12 months) who was not happy waiting and we had to call out a locksmith to break in and replace the lock barrel asap. Six months later I found the keys ... my wife had dropped them in the car and somehow they had managed to get right under the middle of the seat and were hanging over the wire for the seat occupied switch! How the hell did that happen?

Well you seems to have got to the probable cause now, but as regards gauges, just look on ebay for "dial test indicators". There are plenty there and many are pretty cheap. SteveW

I can't see why the valve would have any effect on SVA/IVA. The valve limits the rear brake pressure, by the movement of a ball under the effects of deceleration (hence the angle of installation being important), but during SVA/IVA brake testing, the vehicle is static on rollers and the ball willl not move or does someone know something that I don't here? SteveW

Good job it's the Hood and not a company car - it's illegal to smoke in one now Seriously, it does sound like there's a short somewhere. I'm intrigued by the clicking noise, that's probably a relay and if the engine died a couple of times, it could be the main relay that powers up the majority of the cars electrics (I'm pretty sure there is such a relay in the standard Sierra fusebox, but it's 10 years since I wired mine). Is it a single click or a series? It may be that when you turn the key to position 2, the main relay switches on and provides power to the short and the high load drops the voltage enough for the relay to drop out, the voltage rises again and the cycle repeats.

Just a quick point. You mentioned the front dampers being a pain to get out, well they are and they aren't! Once you get the nosecone off (mine's fitted with nuts and bolts so it's very easy), access to the dampers is simple. I had mine off to replace the bushes a couple of months ago. The only problem I had was that the bottom bolts had rusted to the inside of the spacer tubes and couldn't be removed. They're too deep down to get a Dremel to them, too surrounded by other metalwork to get an angle grinder or even a hacksaw in - in the end I had to play it a bit dangerously: I turned down a large washer to fit in the centre of a 7" abrasive disk, put a washer each side and clamped it in place with a 10mm nut and bolt, then held the bolt in an electric drill - the disk was just small enough to get into place and just large enough to reach the bolt while the chuck cleared the steering rack (I forgot to mention, I couldn't move the steering rack out of the way as those bolts have siezed too!) Out of interest for anyone that needs them, the bushes for my Spax dampers are the same size as for the Zeemerides and I managed to get some at my local motorbike shop (good old fashioned type, specialising in BSAs).

Best mod is tie-bars instead of the anti-roll bar, some decent dampers and 130lb springs. This transformed my ride without me touching the back end at all.

Mine's on the right of the dash, on the vertical section that runs down to the main body, but mine's a Series III, I don't know if the 2B has anything in the way behind there.

I found that after a few thousand miles, the rear hole where the top arm pivots had become oval - I made up a rectangular plate out of a small piece of 4 or 5mm stainless plate that I had around, drilled the plate, drilled though those holes into the existing suspension mount and bolted it in place. It spreads the load nicely. As you can see, the car needs a good clean-up, but I'm doing some work on it at the moment, so it can wait! Take a look at the North-West Hoodies site for cracking issues and strengthening - I've had no problems there as it happens. SteveW

I run a 2 litre pinto with a standard cortina rad behind the inboard suspension of a series III. I once drove from Bristol to Manchester on a very hot day with no fan and was fine at 70+ or indeed anything that didn't involve traffic jams. Once back, overheating when crawling or stationary was solved by placing the biggest fan I could get behind the rad (it's actually just too big and can't fit directly to the fins of the rad, so I placed an aluminium frame and sheet over the radiator, with a circular cut-out, so all the air the fan sucks has to have come through the radiator). Due to the proximity of the water pump to the radiator, I had to have an unusually thin fan and bought it from Europa Spares - it's only 52 mm thick - it still sits uncomfortably (to the eye) close to the pump, but it has never touched. SteveW

Weird, my wife's insurance is with Tesco (which is apparently Direct Line) and when she took her car off the road recently (due to illness) I called Tesco, told them I was a named driver on the policy and asked them to suspend the policy - they did, no problem. I've also dealt twice with them when her car was hit (once parked and she was still in it and the other time by a bus that she'd stopped to give-way to), again no problem. On the other hand we have the Natwest bank!!! I'd banked with them for eighteen years and when we got married, we wanted to make the account joint - having her passport (in our married name), numerous documents in her maiden name, but with her old address and our marriage certificate and both of us there wasn't enough, she had to have a utility bill in her name with our address on, but she'd only moved in when we married and all the bills were in my name only! Her driving licence had not been updated (the old address was still a valid contact address for her) and her mobile phone was on contract with mine and in my name. After much argument, we left, went to Lloyds TSB where she had her account and added me to that one. A few years later, I happened to ask in Lloyds what they thought of our problems with the Natwest and they said that for them to add someone to an existing account simply required the accountholder to vouch for them! SteveW

It's not a problem at all. It's a feature of the monocoques that because they are formed of folded and welded steel or stainless-steel, the positions that you would want to mount the belts to are thin and a bolt would be likely to pull through - therefore spreader plates are needed to distribute the load over a larger area. There's nothing wrong with that and the plates/angle were provided as part of the kit (or at least they were with my series 3). Where you have a chassis, it will probably be designed so that strong mounting points are included as part of the chassis - I don't know about the zero, but would expect that this would be the case. On the series 3, the floor is just flat plate with no additional support, therefore it was necessary to include angle (in my case welded frames), both to spread the load and to transfer it to the rigid areas. I don't know what provision has been made on the zero, but as there is a chassis, it would probably be easy to weld additional rails to cross the points where the seat bolts will be and ensure a very solid anchorage. SteveW

The seatbelt mountings always required spreader plates, box section or similar, there's no change there - IVA may be more specific in some areas, but in practice most is the same as examiners were already requiring. The "monocoque problem" seems to be a new thing though and it'll be interesting to see where it goes. Prehaps your best bet would be to try and talk to the examiners at your local test station and see what they have to say - they should be able to say if there is a problem and suggest solutions that would satisfy them.

Whoops, just spotted it a few threads down this section of the forum!