Grim

The south yorksish meet for February will be at: Red Lion Inn, Todwick, South Yorkshire Usual time of 7:30 on weds the 3rd Andy

The critical point is the rubber doughnuts can only cope with small misalignments. If you're confident your engine/box is mounted near perfectly straight with respect to your propshaft, then they are fine. Personally i wouldn't use them, with the manufacturing tolerances of the average robin hood.

Might mate well with a 3.14 or a 3.38 diff, but this will increase the cost significantly

The bumper bar below the nosecone was something produced by robin hood to satisfy the SVA requirement that there must be a chassis member forward of the steering rack to reduce injuries in accidents. Pre-SVA cars wont have this.

castrol do a synthetic GL4: http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-739-castrol-syntrans-multivehicle-75w-90-fully-synthetic-mtf-replaces-smx-s-75w-85.aspx Bought something similar a while ago, haven't got around to trying it yet

My understanding is that gl5 oils are not to be used in boxes containing brass components. I'd recommend comma, who make a specific gl4 oil.

the varta battery you have is one of the better conventional batteries (high CCA). Deep discharging batteries ie leisure batteries wont cope with the high currents needed to start a car. Without connecting anything to maintain charge, I suspect you're best fitting the biggest battery you can (rather than a lightweight race style one) and a geared / high power starter.

why do you need deep cycling? would it not be easier / cheaper to use a trickle charger or solar charger to maintain its charge?

40A at max capacity. If you find yourself in the dark in traffic, you may find that at idle you car cannot produce the power you need to run the headlights, rad fan, ecu etc. I have a voltmeter fitted, and even with a 80A alternator, it barely maintains 12.7v with all those running. But if you're only going to use the car on bright sunny days, you're fine.

The south yorksish meet for january will be at: Red Lion Inn, Todwick, South Yorkshire Usual time of 7:30 on weds the 6th Andy

the gauge will have a +10v in (from regulator) and an output to the sender in the block. Voltage regulators are around a tenner on ebay.

sierra sender and smiths or aftermarket 10v voltage regulator works fine.

these months are flying past! The south yorksish meet for December will be at: Red Lion Inn, Todwick, South Yorkshire Usual time of 7:30 on weds the 2nd Andy

i've had trapped air in my system a few times You probably have air in the top of the engine, trapped behind the stat To clear it, i fill as well as i can, refit rad cap, start and let it warm up, park it facing downhill to allow water to hit the thermostat. As soon as the temp gauge drops (stat opening), i turn it around, facing uphill and let it cool. This usually lets out a huge gob of air. Refill coolant, repeat if necessary. I also have a bleed location in my heater hose, which helps get more water in.

Would it not be better to cut sparks rather than fuel for traction control? Cutting fuel would lead to a partial fuel load injected, and a more dangerous lean condition. Perhaps cut both is better, no fuel igniting in the exhaust then.

washing up liquid contains a lot of salt, so would lead to corrosion of the inner part of the bush. Silicone grease would be my first choice of lubricant as it doesn't seem to react with anything. Moly grease or even a lithium grease would probably be ok, as i doubt the polyurethane of the bush would be badly affected. Copper grease would worry me, as adding a 3rd particle between two surfaces vastly increases wear (3rd body abrasion). Andy

Congratulations! Are you changing your name to John now driving?

That might well be the wiring to the air flow meter, check its earth (it has one of its own) and the rest of the wiring from ecu to it, using the haynes manual or the injection troubleshooter on nw.rhocar.org. Also check the pins in the air flow meter plug, they can become dislodged.

typical failure of an air flow meter is a worn track, and will cause a big stutter at certain air flows (rpm/throttle combinations). The air flow flap moves a finger across a resistive track on the circuit board. If you take off the black plastic cover (which is stuck down well) undo the screws on the circuit board, and elongate the holes on the board, you can move it to one side, so that the finger runs across a section of the track that is not worn. Andy

Haha! I'm away the rest of the week, so figured it's best in advance.

to go off on a tangent, you should not lube your clutch cable. It attracts dirt, which gets tracked in, scratches the liner, and makes it very stiff. Replace the cable, use a dust boot on the gearbox end to stop any dirt getting to the cable, and route it avoiding the exhaust. I used to bust a clutch cable every couple of years until i put that boot on! Andy

The south yorksish meet for November will be at: Red Lion Inn, Todwick, South Yorkshire Usual time of 7:30 on weds the 4th Andy

Well, to repeat Rob's post (#7): You must not drive the vehicle on the road if it fails the test, even if the MOT hasn’t run out, except to: have the failed defects fixed a pre-arranged MOT test appointment You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition. https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test I think it's unfair, but if that is the guidance the government is giving out, that is what we have to work to.

Steve, i suspect your tps is not at fault. Disconnect it, and try to start the car. A pinto efi with a tps disconnected will still run. Download the injection troubleshooter from nw.rhocar.org (or search my post history) to try and find the fault. What are your symptoms? I hav spent many hours fault finding the pinto efi!

A good compression test or leak down test wont eliminate a faulty oil control ring will it? Perhaps something to check out after you've eliminated everything else.