richyb66

I don't go to many shows either (just Stafford twice in the last 5 years, which frankly isn't much of a show in terms of the exhibitors) as I'm usually up in Wales at the weekends (not many shows in Wales either). However I'm more than happy to pay my membership as I go to as many of the mid-week monthly meets as I can and I'd like to think my membership goes some way towards supporting the upkeep of the website. The information and advice I get here has been invaluable and I think it's the best £15 I've spent on my car. I'm not pointing fingers at any individuals and I won't be drawn into an argument (so if anyone is planning on baiting me then don't bother) but my view is this - the latest club magazine commented on the dwindling membership and my understanding is that the paid members only amount to around 10% of the forum membership. Granted a lot of people will sign up to the forum, visit a few times and then not bother again but there also seem to be good number who are happy to take the free advice or post thinly veiled adverts in non-classified posts. I'd personally like to see the following: The viewing of classified ads restricted to paid up members for maybe a week to give them first dibs before they go on general view (additional incentive to join). Non-paid up members to have their post counts restricted, maybe locked out after 50 posts. Most people would take a while to run up 50 posts - if you're on here that much it wouldn't exactly hurt to join the club. GBSC to pay for a years membership with every new kit they sell - £15 isn't a huge dent in the profit margin on a £5k kit and the club does plenty to promote the GBSC product. New memberships to start from joining date and be available at a reduced price. People buying kits in the latter part of the year won't bother joining if they only get 3 months membership for their £15. Ideally I'd like to raise some of these points at the AGM and if I can get there, I will. The club (and the forum in particular) are a valuable and at times under-rated resource. As long as the upkeep of the forum is financed by the club I think it's important that the link between the two isn't forgotten otherwise we'll be in danger of loosing both.

It was very foggy that day.

I'm laughing at the moment cos my Audi runs on lpg. I wasn't laughing 2 weeks ago though, the lpg near me went up from £0.709 to £0.835 a litre.

There's one or two pictures of mine here: http://www.oldschool...mage=48.jpg.jpg http://www.oldschool...mage=55.jpg.jpg http://www.oldschool...mage=56.jpg.jpg http://www.oldschool...mage=97.jpg.jpg Use thick cardboard as a template and make your mistakes on that first. I just folded over the bottom edge of my panels so they matched the curvature of the lower tube at the back and the front. They don't come anywhere near the tube in the middle so I just riveted them in a couple of places at the bottom where they did meet. I made the cut-out for the track rods nice and big as I wanted to be able to remove the steering rack without taking the infills off. The rack doesn't pass right through, I can move it across through the left hand side and then lift the right hand end up and out of the chassis.

It's at CV7 7HL on the A45 / A45 junction just East of the NEC.

1. Maximum design road speed ( for section 3s on IVA1) 100mph, this is so they can check the speed rating on the tyres. 2. Revs at top speed, not sure thet need this, they need the revs at which the maximum engine power is made (for exhaust noise test). I put 77kW at 5200rpm for a 2 litre Pinto (higher rev figures will make the noise test harder to pass as the engine will be more noisy). 3. See above. 4. Total weight, needed for the brake roller test. I put 450Kg for Axle 1 and 600Kg for Axle 2 in section 3u of IVA 1

No problem, I thought they might be too narrow - which is why they're up on my garage roof and not fitted to my car!

200mm

I've got a pair in Oxford, they're the narrow ones so not wide enough to cover my tyres something I didn't find out until I tried to mount them so they've got small scallops cut out in them and they've been drilled. However, as I've no need for them they're available free if you want them. They're in Tamworth and I'd prefer not to post them due to their shape and because I'm lazy. Could possibly get them taken to Stoneleigh if you're not in a rush. pm me if you're interested.

Vic, according to the NGK chart it's 1mm (0.040") for the Endura E ohv engine (still looks like a Kent though) and on the ohc Duratec it's pre-set on the plugs (so not much help there then). Rich. quick edit - the Duratec plugs should be 1.3mm gap

In an attempt to finally sort out my poor running, I decided to book some time on a rolling road. Basically the car would struggle to rev above 3500 rpm, lacked power towards the upper end of the rev range and seem to be worse under load. The engine is a standard 1982 2.0 Pinto (a replacement engine fitted to the donor), 32/36 DGAV Weber, RH 4 branch and a CBS silencer. The engine was straight out of the donor, just an oil change, a cambelt, a few gaskets and a coat of paint. I suspected ignition problems, mainly because it seemed worse under load and I fitted new leads, dizzy cap, rotor arm and ignition amplifier in an attempt to sort it out. I'd also fitted a new mechanical fuel pump (as a precaution) and tried a different dizzy (which made no difference). Following a recommendation from another area member, I phoned Steve Walford Motorsport on Tuesday and dropped the car over this morning to see if they could sort the problem out. I wasn't that interested in wringing out every last bhp, I just wanted the car to run smoother and be more driveable. I wasn't disappointed - the issue was mostly carb related, running lean so with a few adjustments and a bit of tweaking Steve got it sorted and it runs a dream. It's now running around 95bhp at the wheels which is probably 110/115 at the flywheel which isn't bad when you consider that a standard 2.0 Pinto is only around 100 bhp at the flywheel so all in all, a good result. The driveability is now a big improvement, much smoother tick over and will pull cleanly through the whole rev range and now there's no need to keep dropping down a gear to get it to pull a bit better. I can highly recommend Steve, nice friendly bloke, knows his stuff and very enthusiastic. You can contact him as follows: Steve Walford Motorsport 10 Middlemore Road Northfield Birmingham B31 3UP Tel: 0121 694 0740 Mobile: 07976 731 187 http://stevewalfordmotorsport.homestead.com/index.html

The stuff I suggested from CBS already has a bead of adhesive inside it. You only want to fit it once though, it's not that the adhesive is strong, just that is you remove the trim it tends to pull the adhesive out of the trim and leave it on the panel (easliy removed though).

Just for the benefit of anyone that might not have seen this before: http://www.beardmorebros.co.uk/website%20pages/reliant_kitten.htm

I used this stuff on the edges of my nosecove and mudguards for IVA: http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/product/10_x_8mm_Satin_Black_%27U%27_Channel_Edge_Trim_TRMSBU Not the cheapest stuff around but it's fits very easily, forms round tight radii , stay put and looks good.

I don't ever recall seeing on MOT tester measure the pedal effort when he's doing the test and then take measurements at 5 different percentages. That's why I implied theIVA test was more comprehensive.

Commer TS3 had a 3 cylinder, two stroke, supercharged diesel. The Rootes RO34 blowers became popular with rodders for supercharging V6 and V8 petrol engines. About 25 years ago me and a mate used an RO34 on a Essex V6 engine, it made a stonking motor, 2 bar boost and had a brilliant whine from the 2" Fenner belt that drove it. The main disadvantage was how high it made the engine once you'e got a 4 barrel Holley carb and air filter on top if it - made forward vision somewhat limited. http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Commer_TS3 and for someting a little larger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Deltic

They weigh the car to get the actual weights at the IVA test, the 1050Kg is used as a design gross weight which they use as part of the brake calculations. The actual test is pretty involved including brake pedal effort, so far more comprehensive than an MOT. They take all the readings at the test then stick all the figures in a spreadsheet which decides whether it's a pass or a fail.

The 1050Kg figure quoted by GBS is the figure used for the IVA test to calculate braking efficiency - it's not the actual weight, which is around the 750-800Kg that Tim mentioned. Also the 450Kg figure is for the rear axle, not the front.

Pointless, but very funny. http://rosskempfolds.tumblr.com

happy new year to everyone.well this meet will be the regular dinner meet i would like those coming which will be the last weds as usual to drop your names on here so i can get a head count please.. me + partner.. Richard and Jackie

I've got lpg on my Audi S6, I do about 650 miles a week so it makes sense as I only get around 23mpg average but even on lpg it's still a big fuel bill. So far I've done about 20k miles and it seems generally ok apart from having to replace air flow meters (twice), which seems to be something that isn't unknown on lpg. They still worked fine, but I couldn't clear the check engine light so I replaced them. Both time they went was after giving the car some serious welly so now if I'm in that kind of mood, I tend to swich over to Super Unleaded first. The system is made by Bigas and uses 8 injectors on 2 fuel rails. There is a difference in power on lpg, but as the cars got around 350bhp, I can live with a drop in power for the 95% of the time I'm pottering around on lpg. I agree with other peoples thoughts on getting a properly installed system, unless the car is very basic then I could see self-installation being a real pain. Only stuff I've done to mine is swap the lpg filters which were about £25 for the pair from here http://www.tinleytech.co.uk/acatalog/tt-shop.html who seem to sell everything, including complete kits. A complete kit for mine is over £2k fitted, so I bought a car already converted and saved taking the initial hit on the installation but if you've got a specific car in mind, this probably isn't an option. Downsides are the availability of fuel and limited range (200 miles on my car on lpg). I now plan my re-fueling so I use places with cheap lpg and if I do run out of gas, I've still got petrol in the main tank. Also, my tank is in the spare wheel well so my spare is in a big bag in the back - not really a problem as it's a big car and on the odd occasions I need the space, I take the spare out and carry tyre weld. The car is great but it is still very, very costly to run (I didn't expect it to be cheap) but if I was sticking in super unleaded, my fuel bill wouldn't be affordable. I have had thoughts about swapping if for something more economical (diesel?) but as I'm currrently getting close to 45mpg diesel equivalent and I like a big, practical, performance car, I can't really see anything to beat it. For lower motoring costs, I basically need to do less miles.

No, it wasn't my first choice of possible causes because I'd had the old clutch to bits before to inspect it when the engine and box were out of the car. It looked fine and tbh, I couldn't justify just changing it then because it looked fine. The only thing I will probably do is remove the plating over I did on the 55mm quadrant as it lifts the cable up where it comes through the metal tube in the pedal box and now it's chaffing slightly on the edge of the tube.

The new clutch seems to have cured the problem, it now goes into gear easily wit no snatching. The old friction plate wasn't visibly worn, the pressure plate looks normal and un-damaged and the release bearing was only slightly worn. I can only presume that the diaphragm in the pressure plate wasn't working correctly but the main thing is it's now sorted.

I've gone for the nuclear option and decided to stick a new clutch in. On Sunday night I decided to see if I could drop the box out, the prop won't come off with the diff in place so I unbolted the prop, lowered the diff and this would allow the box to move rearwards. Sadly it wan't enough to get the box out and I had about a 3" gap between the bellhousing and the block and I did manage to unbolt the pressure plate and drop the friction plate out. After a bit of lateral thinking, I decided to remove the flywheel so I could get the pressure plate off the input shaft and then remove the release bearing and clutch arm. Re-assembly was pretty straightforward, fit clutch arm to box, fit release bearing to clutch arm, slide pressure plate over input shaft, bolt flywheel on, slide friction plate on input shaft, assemble pressure plate to flywheel with friction plate in position. All I needed to do then was rotate the engine and see that the outside of the friction plate was concentric to the outside of the pressure plate (easily done) and then bolt the pressure plate up. The box was then jiggled back into place on the engine and the bell housing bolts were re-fitted. Tonight I just have to fit the gearbox rear mount and gear lever and re-fit the diff. From start to finish I reckon it's taken me about three and a half hours, no fluids drained, no gearbox oil spilled and the only tricky bit was unbolting and re-torquing the flywheel. Hopefully this will sort the clutch issue out, if it doesn't then I obviously need more travel on my clutch pedal.

I've plated over the clutch quadrant and modified the pedal to get more travel. as suggested. Now I get 40mm of cable pull for the full travel of the pedal which I'm assuming is enough? I've tried a load of different adjustments of the ratchet adjuster and various thicknesses of washers to space out the outer cable - no noticeable improvement is any state and first gear is essentially impossible to engage with the engine running. I'm coming to the conclusion that the clutch itself is the issue (either the pressure plate or the release bearing) so I spent an hour trying to drop the gearbox out but (as suspected), it's not possible with the engine in. I've managed to unbolt the pressure plate and frop the friction plate out which confirms it's an 8.5" plate so I can at least order a clutch and once I've got the parts I'll slide the engine forwards the extra inch I need to stick it all back together.