nelmo

I was measuring resistance, not voltage. Turns out that 750 ohms was fine (according to Honda mechanic at the dealer). I put the diode back in, wiggled a few more connectors and suddenly it fired up - must have been a dodgy connection somewhere...

OK, many thanks...

I'm having a problem with my motorbike not starting. The troubleshooting guide in the service manual asks me to check continuity on the neutral diode, saying there should be a 'small resistance' between the terminals, with the diode out of the circuit (no voltage). I've measured 750 ohms - is that considered 'small' or is it broken?

22mm ID

Sorry, you're right - missed your description of 'driver's side'. I'm not using a heater so that outlet is just blocked off for me...I'll try remember to go out tonight and measure it if you haven't already got your answer?

I bought 32mm but I can't remember if that is OD or ID...

While talking to a specialist tuner about getting my Emerald ECU mapped to my Zetec, he said that a Lambda sensor is essential; not necessarily to get the required emissions (although he said it would be much easier) but to protect the cat long-term. He reckoned i'd kill the cat in 'no time' without a sensor. Is this true? I haven't got one fitted at present and I wasn't going to, mainly because I don't understand what it really does or how to set it up. I thought you just had to adjust the map through the Emerald software.

It's the toe I'm most concerned with. Also, it occurred to me, when I first put my tie rods on, I just had the steering rack centralised by eye - is that OK? Doesn't feel right to be honest...

I have finally got my car on wheels and moving but I'm pretty sure the front wheels aren't correctly aligned with each other. I think I have the following options to correct this: 1. Use some fancy electric/laser gadget/aligning kit (i've got the technical terms sorted). 2. Use some straight bits of wood/metal/string. 3. I'm guessing the answer to this final option will be 'Good God, are you mad!?' - Halfords/Kwik-Fit alignment service? Assuming option 3 is crazy, is option 2 accurate enough? Or any other options?

Yes, I saw that eBay item but that diagram actually shows 2 of them... I'll try go to a dealer, as you say...

Does anyone know what item B in the diagram below is called? I know it says 'thrust washer' but I need to buy them and I can't find anything when searching for 'thrust wahsers' related to Ford. Or does anyone know where I might be able to get them?

The only ones I could find for under £400 were from CBS (about £250) but they didn't look great IMO. Went for the GBS ones eventually at about £400. I did see a quite nice set from VDO for about £300 but they were only available in the US and I got no response by email from a US shop that said they offered international delivery!?

Interesting town hall you must have...:-)

Oh yeah, I forgot about Gimp (https://www.gimp.org) - free and does layers but horrendously complicated. I've never got on with it but maybe worth a go...

I had to make the switches from a combination of boxes and circles, they're not a standard shape. But when you do the lines, you select the start and end and the software routes the line as best it can and you can fine tune it. If you then move the object the line is connected to, the line does move with it.

Yeah but mines got colours and looks impressively complicated to the layman ☺. Below is a link to a screenshot of what KT is referring to (it looks better in Excel - I'm doing this from Android) : https://goo.gl/photos/vfsX3QwcExXNieWq6

I just used the drawing module of OpenOffice (https://www.openoffice.org). Not perfect by any means but does most of what you want and it's free. If you look on the 'electrics' page of my blog (link below), you can see what I produced.

I called the DVLA and they mailed me back with all the required docs and a guide on how to fill them in.

I'd probably want it to set fast, otherwise it would flow down to the pointy end, no? I think it's too high to grind down and get a decent slope on it. Digging down is going to be tricky - what do you reckon is the thinnest I can have the bottom of the ramp? Is 1 inch too little?

Thinking about it, my drive is not solid - gravel above very compacted earth/soil/rock and not perfectly level, so trying to drill anything down is going to be tricky to keep level - I might just go the concrete route. My main concern with concrete is making the bottom of the ramp too thin, so it cracks. Will need to try dig down a little to get some depth at that end, although not sure how easy that will be.

Doh, ali, why didn't I think of that! Thanks for the offer Jaimo - if you can find yours, let me know but don't knock yourself out, there are several companies on eBay who will make them to measure. I might try do it myself although I don't think I have the equipment to bend ali that thick...

Please be gentle, I work in IT so know nothing about what I'm about to ask (apart from the brick bbq I built a few years ago)... My garage has a one inch lip down to a slightly sloping drive. When rolling my kit out of the garage for the first time at the weekend, I used a couple of wooden planks but when reversing back in (under power), the planks just shot out as the wheels turned on them. Reversing up without the ramps, I think my bash plate hit the lip. So, I was thinking of building a simple concrete ramp using the ready-mixed stuff from Wickes (or similar). But looking online, a ramp may not be as simple as I thought. Has anyone done this? Is it doable? Or is there something I can buy (plastic?) that won't shoot off when I reverse in? I want something I can leave in place. Any suggestions?

I need to get the VIN number stamped into the chassis. I don't have a welder so I can't do it on a separate plate and I've read that the manual stamping kits are a bit iffy and could deform the chassis rail. One person said they engraved it with a Dremel - anyone done this? Anyone know where I can get a stencil for that (assuming I can't do it freehand)? Or any other methods?

Thank you all for your help - really useful and I guess it's better to find this out now than at 70mph or IVA Is it OK to leave the single flare joints (so the ones in the MC and in the rear 4-way) as they are male ends or would it be better to do them double's anyway?

Watched a video of making a double flare - definitely not what I've done. Bugger.