megadodo

Remember to align the brackets in the same plane of movement as the swing arm so that there is no "moment of twist" on the damper.

Just bolt the bracket straight to the swinging arm. The shocks have their own rubber bushes.

To keep weight down, don't stiffen the dash with wood, just brace it against the central chassis tubes with a small metal bracket. My fibreglass dash doesn't even have that, but I only have the 1 Evodash module which is probably lighter than a full ETB set.

GBS were looking at making kits to suit other donors. They were looking at MX-5s and E36 BMW bits. Give them a ring and see how far the have got with that. The certainly had all the running gear from an E36 when I went up there last year and Richard was saying that he saw no issues with making a chassis to suit. There are a lot more E36s around than Sierras or MX-5s nowadays. The M42/4 engine at 1900cc produces 140 bhp and the 6 pots a lot more, there are lots of rusty ones around going for well under a £1000.

I would agree that a regular test is needed and that it's frequency is under debate. The problem is that a lot of bureaucracy doesn't actually address the problem and "appears" to be fatuous in nature. As has been pointed out 1 in 6 cars doesn't have an MOT and I'Il bet those are more dangerous than most cars as their owners don't give a monkeys, what is being done about those? A lot of tested faults have been on the car car for several months with the owner ignoring them so not increase the frequency of the MOT? The addition of tow bar electrics (it's often the trailer and not the car that causes the lights not to work anyway!) and seat runner tests will be seen by many as not required. I despise the "nanny" state and see it only as a way for lots of people especially lawyers to make money and I believe the responsibility should sit squarely with the individual. Where this has been proved to be lacking e.g. driving around in an an unsafe car, untaxed car etc then the individual should be heavily punished. I for one do not rely on the MOT to tell me my car is safe at a particular moment in time. I check mine and my wife's cars regularly for all aspects of safety. How about a compulsory extended MOT every 2 years with fines for those seen to be driving around in cars that clearly have had long term issues? For those unable to check their own vehicles they can book themselves in for MOT style check up as often as they want. I would still want a compulsory annual tyre check. This is a suggestion and I don't state that it's the best solution I am just trying to start a debate. I still can't find anything on t'internet that actually says what mechanical failure caused a particular accident. Funnily enough a friend mentioned that he had a slight accident when his front spring broke and the suspension collapsed! no warning and no sign of rust on the spring! Would an MOT have spotted that, maybe? The other issue I have is the ability of some garages to deliver an "accurate" MOT. This is clearly a sweeping statement and does NOT APPLY TO THE MAJORITY OF GARAGES but the number of times I have seen faults missed or "added" in the attempt to gain work cannot be limited to just me! I know of several people who have had second opinions at local council testing stations where the don't repair and have no incentive to "make up" faults only for their cars to now mysteriously pass!

Devil's advocate here.....discuss! How many accidents are actually caused by mechanical failure. Do we honestly think that if the test went to 2 years that the accident rate would increase significantly? Is the reluctance of testing stations to accept the switch due to the potential halving of revenue? Personally if Germany accepts 2 yearly testing then I suspect their safety stats don't perceive it as an issue. I'm pretty certain 99.9999% of accidents in the UK are driver error and not something breaking or falling off. Anyone know of where that data could be found on gov.org! I would however like to see a yearly tyre check, the number of those that I see bald or near bald is astonishing.

Standard Sierra one does exist! Mine passed it's IVA with one this year. I mounted it at the same angle as it was in the donor in the rear feed line. The fiesta one that is screwed directly into the master cylinder will be easier to fit now though although I can't tell you which model or year you need. It screws in the cylinder on the rear line feed, dead easy. The Sierra column has 2 devices, The concertina (corrugated would be another description) metal tube near the top and the sliding tube in tube triangle section just below the mount. HTH

Bloody funny....... And so true, allegedly!

I don't know the details of the accident but I bet there is a disclaimer at the gates somewhere about "at the owners risk". Secondly, the driver of the car is ultimately responsible for what he hits. The power point didn't leap out of nowhere, did it? If it was hidden in grass then that's a risk you take whenever you drive onto grass. The club didn't force him to come to the show or park in that spot did it? Is the owner complaining on the forum? "Mountain out of a molehill" is the phrase I'm looking for. I span my car on an oily/diesely patch a while back, was it anybody else's fault, possibly but that's life and why we have insurance. (or deep pockets in my case, only third party insurance!)

I have one from CBS and has been on and off the car loads of times and does not appear to be suffering at all! Cost around £35 and fits a 2B nicely.

Apple's own small docking station has 3.5 mm audio out of the rear. You just need a 3.5 mm to phono lead. Use one all the time in the garage.

I have occasional back pain that I put down to crawling around upside down under the dashboards of hundreds of cars while working on them and then leaning into engine bays of the same cars for many years. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the total lack of exercise that I practice or my poor posture that I employ while lounging about, sorry, sat down hard at work! My back care adviser of a wife tells me it's the latter but as she says, I never listen to her properly! Hope you get well soon Darren! Exercise your arms by lifting approximately 500ml of fluid on a regular basis, while keeping a straight back of course and not leaning on a bar!

You need to be able to prove the source of the components used so you will need a V5 showing the parts came from a particular donor. If the examiner is not happy with the provenance of any of the components you will get a Q plate!

I would have to strongly disagree! I have run a self installed LPG system on 2 cars in the last 2 years and a friend has run LPG on several cars in last few years with very few issues. I bought a kit for £700 after much research and it took me a day to install it a Renault Scenic 2 litre at first. I added the valve lubrication kit as the valve seats in the Renault are soft. Valve regression where the seats wear and the valve "sinks" into the head is the big issue for LPG conversions and there is plenty of info on the web about which cars suffer from it and which don't. The install while a bit fiddly in places was straight forward enough and the system was set up on a computer within 10 mins. I ran this for a year. Petrol MPG on the Scenic was around 32 and 28 on LPG and yes while the top end power was slightly down it wasn't a big difference and you had to thrashing it to notice. In that year I had the LPG injector rail fail with a leaking seal which lead to a lumpy idle, this was fixed under warranty by the kit supplier. At the end of the year I did get get one valve start to to regress (probably not enough valve saver for mileage, I used about half what I was supposed to) which was fixed by re-shimming the valve. This time last year I changed cars and got en E36 BMW 318is on to which I transferred the kit. 38 MPG on petrol and 34 on LPG. The power difference is less on this car (even though the car is more powerful). The injector rail failed again and as this time it was out of warranty I replaced it with a £40 one from ebay and even though I thought the idle was OK the new rail makes the engine even smoother. The new rail is quieter as well although I wouldn't say the old one was noisy, just noticeable when the radio was off and the engine was at idle. Real pains are losing the filler cap several times (now wired to the car) and the filling is slower than petrol. Is it worth it? it depends on your mileage so do the sums! It was for me, big time! If DIYing then I would get it certified of course!

Apart from the nice power gains, how are enjoying the car overall? I bet Webcon contracts with "authorised" installers and tuners also prohibits then from releasing the software to the plebby public! Perish the thought we can use what we have paid for!

Your mention of "snaking" has just brought me out in a cold sweat! That's how I lost my project BMW, the tow car and nearly the bloody trailer, I hate viaducts and crosswinds!

"like wot I've got" ........ like wot I've got? What sort of English is that Stewart, surely you mean "like wot I has"?

Commiserations on you family's loss and best of luck with your speedy recovery. Stents have excellent outcomes nowadays. Have you got a good rhythm post stent?

Alan's post has reminded me of another effluent based story The dangers of working from "below"! My fathers house is joined to a communal "pit" that is in a neighbours garden. The over flow for that was above a river that runs through the area at about 12 feet up a 45 degree slope. It was a hot summer and the neighbour in whose garden the pit is, had complained that it was beginning to smell and my father had said he would "look into it" as he was the "pit" expert for the neighbourhood. He of course forgot until he was reminded by our neighbour mid dinner party one hot evening! Being quite drunk my father and several of his male guests said they would attend to it straight away. The rest of us watching from above on a bridge overlooking the river had the pleasure of seeing 4 drunk dinner jacket clad men struggling up a river bank to shove rods down the outflow! Eventually the blockage decided to move and at first a tube of solid brown much started to emerge from the pipe and it was at this point the 4 men realised what was about to happen but alcohol confused the situation and none got way before the tube turned to a shower of sh!t! The women folk of the party apart from one poh faced sober driver proceeded to further humiliate their husbands

When we moved to our current house nearly 20 years ago the survey revealed a dropped sewer pipe leading to the cesspit. The "drop" is near the end of a 70 foot run to the pit from the house. It has at this time every year started to back up and sometimes cause the drain inspection cover at the house end of the run to lift! This is is cue to stuff the drain rods down the pipe to clear the obstruction! Normally this is easily achieved and the drains run clear again. Occasionally it takes a little bit of effort to shift the blockage and even less occasionally I do it before the blockage occurs as preventative maintenance!!!! So, come Saturday morning the first signs of dampness around the lid caused me to don my overalls, whack some gloves on and go and fetch the drain rods. This time it took a lot of pushing, shoving and swearing but eventually the drain ran freely again. Proud of my "job well done" I went to make a cup of tea to be greeted by a malodorous pong in the house. What I had failed to remember was the new toilet installed at the far end of the house whose drain pipe meets the long run about 30 feet from the end of the main drain run. The hydraulic action of the drain rod had forced the dirty water down the new loo run and up a 12 foot stack and into my daughters bathroom! There was sh1t and dirty water everywhere! . Luckily, both my wife and I saw the funny side and had to sit down for 10 minutes laughing ourselves stupid! An hour of hot soapy water, disinfectant and the wet and dry hoover had it all nice and clean again!

I could lift the bare chassis, just, so I doubt it anywhere near 250kg! It's nearer 100 I'd guess?

You need a bar that goes from one chassis rail to the other. I used 30mm by 30mm right angle bar. The ends are bolted to the outer chassis rail on both sides and the seats and inner belt mounts are bolted through the floor and this bracket, although separately. The outer mounts in the chassis by the subframe plate are what I used for the outer lower belt mounts.

Track control arms! Steering rack to track rod end bits. One had play in it, not much but enough to warrant replacement, no play in the other but as they cost me £6.61 each only it seems pointless not to change the other one as well. I may do the wishbones next month but I did the bit I coud find play in! The brakes judder has gone today, even when I stamped on them, no judder!

1 track control arm later the judder is almost gone, will change the other next week and get my tracking done, again!

Yes, you posted when you got your 2b! I'm sure I welcomed you to the Robin Hood gang. I'll post my findings!