nelmo

Actually, there's no reason you can't do the RBR (http://www.roundbritainrally.co.uk) - basically, in about March, you get sent a list of clues to landmarks all over the country (about 2 per county). You decipher the clue, drive to the landmark and get a photo of it with your bike/car. At the end of the year (October or so), you send in all the photos you've managed to get - winner is person(s) who get to most landmarks. I've tended to get the list and then plan a couple of weekends away, finding as many landmarks as I can find on each trip. The landmarks are almost all in really interesting places that you would never normally go to. I've never bothered sending in the photos because I've never got more than 20 or so - I just enjoy the trips out. Highly recommended.

That software only kicked in when the car detected it was being tested (high engine revs but no steering movement, for example), so doubt it ever affected the car in normal driving anyway. If anything, it will make the car easier to get through an MOT If everything seems OK, I wouldn't bother - the dealer will only take it as an excuse to find something else 'wrong' with your car which they can charge you for EDIT: honestly, me and agent_zed weren't conferring

It's strange that with so many more cars around, there are none of these types of rally. There's a whole load of them for bikes: https://www.nationalroadrally.co.uk/2017/index.php http://www.clivemcc.co.uk/wnrforms.php http://www.roundbritainrally.co.uk which I do every now and then and they're brilliant - a great way to see parts of the country you might not otherwise, bit of a challenge etc. I might try and organise something for 2018 if I find the energy :-)

Thanks, that does look interesting but I'm not sure my car will be ready for April - depends on IVA dates (and number of failures!).

I'm hoping to have my car finished in the next few months and I've always wanted to do a car rally - the sort of thing where you set off, try to find checkpoints until an end point. I've seen the London to Brighton run which looks great although not keen on the £95 fee but I can't find any other, smaller events. Does anyone know of a website that might list them or any other way of finding out about them?

Nice one... some nice holiday reading... :-)

Doesn't look like mine (http://zerokitcarbuild.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/thors-hammer.html)... I got mine (the gearbox) from Road and Race transmissions in Kent (no website) - maybe call them and see if they can just do the arm? On a separate note, I'd really like to read your blog but you've got it setup with all entries on one page, which makes it almost impossible to read unless I do it all in one go. If you get any time, it would be good if you could change it to a different layout (put a 'blog archive' gadget down the side, for example).

Yup, I think we'll find that 2016 is the just the start but every year from now on will have lots of celebrity deaths, just because of the huge increase in famous singers/bands/TV and film actors that started in the 50s and 60s and who are now getting to old age. Sad but inevitable...

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.