ibrooks

Will stick it in a parcel tonight and post it tomorrow. Iain

Which bits are you after from the Metro? Engine aside there are a lot of other differences between Rover and Austin Metros so a Rover would liley be no good for anything. 1.3 Austin Metro's tend to fetch a premium as Mini owners want the engine and box. 998's tend to be more reasonable. There was a 998 on Pistonheads for sale which was supercharged.... I would imagine it would be a giggle in a Kaig. Iain

Got one - or what I think is one. I've a feeling it's still got part of the switch in it. PM me your address and I'll post it to you and you can see if it's of use or you can throw it in the round filing cabinet. Iain

Think I came across one in the garage the other day and I don't have a type-9 gearbox any more. Will check tomorrow and let you know but if it's there it's yours for postage (can't see it being much to send in a jiffy bag). Iain

An old neighbour once had this sort of thing happen. He'd had a conservatory built and arranged to pay in three large instalments (which should have tipped the company off really that he wasn't the usual customer). Part of the agreed work hadn't been completed so he stopped the final payment and told them that on completion of the work he would send the money. They started getting snotty and it culminated in a phone-call where he told the caller that he would happily pay up but that the relationship between himself and the company would cease. Once again - she should have had alarm bells a such an offer. However she was thinking that they would get paid and not have to complete the work so she said that would be fine. This was when he informed her that he owned the company that made all their plastic extrusions and that at any one time they tended to owe him around half a million quid. How would she like to pay the outstanding balance? Someone arrived that afternoon and completed the work. Another guy arrived the following morning to try and do it again and a third guy appeared the following afternoon to have yet another go at finishing the work that had already been done. Oh how I would have LOVED to be able to see the face on the other end of the phone when he imparted that little gem of information. Iain

Just buy a bleeding kit from your local motor factors. Not likely to cost more than a few pounds and then you've got it for next time. The hoses they come with are usually silicone and very flexible so they'll fit a wide range of bleed nipples. http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_204703_langId_-1_categoryId_165469 Iain

Couple of times I've watched bits of that and wondered how I could get someone to fund/pay me to do something similar. I know for damn sure I could do a better job of it than that muppet. Iain

Threw his rattle out of the pram in a fairly big and personal way. Battery in the boot is no problem from a technical point of view so long as you account for a couple of things. The battery cable will need to be beefy as the longer the cable the more voltage drop there can be and if it isn't heavy enough it can turn into a fairly effective heating element. That big long cable is always going to be live with no fuze so it needs to be VERY well protected and routed carefully as damage could expose the conductor and result in fires in seconds or worse in hours (i.e. long enough for you to have walked away from the car and be in bed). Iain

You can certainly get the square ones used on most seats seperately. My first port of call would be Whit at Motordrive - he doesn't use them on the seats he manufactures but he's got contacts pretty much everywhere in the motorsport industry and can get hold of most stuff like this. Iain

From what I've seen you would get good money for all three if you advertised them to the Sierra owners. Iain

These things are very under-rated. Sound quality is excellent subject to decent speakers being used and the volume is just unbelievable given the size of the things. You have to understand that they are a digital amplifier to understand how they manage it. Spend a couple of quid extra on efficient speakers and you will have a perfectly acceptable stereo system for buttons. I've also got a small box that has an SD cards reader and USB socket that provides the audio source for mine and it's remote controlled. Total cost I think was well under £20 for both items, they both run from the car's 12v supply and take up far less room than a conventional head-unit. Iain

Nope - sorry. Mark had them. Iain

Keep an eye on your statements - I personally wouldn't believe anything from Flux if it came written in the blood of the managing director. Insurance companies are a dishonest bunch at best but Flux are one of the worst of the lot. Iain

Can you get away with just lockwiring a bias bar now then? Last I heard they had to be welded for IVA - seemed a bit extreme to me so I'm hoping they have relaxed it as it's one of the bigger areas of concern on my 200. Iain

I wouldn't touch Flux with a barge pole anyway - have a quick search on here for problems many people have had with them. The auto renew is an increasing trend and not just with insurance. My mother had one with the Post Office where they were the best quote by hundreds of pounds but it specified that they would keep her card details and automatically renew after 12 months. She paid all in one lump and then told them that she wanted them to cancel the automatic renewal but they said they couldn't do it - few days later she "lost" her card and when the renewal letter came through at the end of the year she ignored it. They phoned up complaining that they couldn't take the money and got a fairly short answer. We need to start digging our heels in and making it very clear to them that this is not a popular practice and they are losing business through it before they will stop. Iain

You can see some at www.keepmoving.co.uk - click on CCTV on the menus at the top and then select your area and you can pick cameras to view. Iain

There's no offence specifically related to snow on the roof. What you would be charged with is transporting an unsecured load and it's not a new regulation it's just that we haven't had much snow in recent years so it's been largely forgotten about as relates to snow which is the case where most of us would run across the problem. Sorry if you think it's too far but I wholeheartedly agree with it and to be honest don't think it's enforced enough - it's not a nice experience to have lumps of snow and ice fall off the roof of the car in front when you're doing 50 on the motorway. The absolute worst is the lumps of ice that collect on the roofs of artics which fall off when they go around a sharp corner like a roundabout and those sat waiting to join get clobbered with 2 inch thick lumps of ice from the puddles that formed on their roof and froze overnight. On a car almost everyone is tall enough to sweep it off with their arm and if not get a stool and a brush. If you've got a van then buy a step-ladder. It's not hard, it's not expensive and it's not rocket science. It's also not an excuse to say I can't comply with the rules of the road - if you need to buy something to let you drive safely then stick your hand in your pocket the same as you do when it comes to insurance and tax-disc time. Iain

Suppose that answers Mowerman's question about how easy they are to assemble. If you can tell red from yellow you should be OK. Iain

http://www.jaycar.co.uk/productView.asp?ID=KC5442&CATID=25&form=CAT&SUBCATID=347 Hand controller http://www.jaycar.co.uk/productView.asp?ID=KC5386&CATID=25&form=CAT&SUBCATID=347 Might also be of interest http://www.jaycar.co.uk/productView.asp?ID=KC5443&CATID=25&form=CAT&SUBCATID=347 I've heard good things about this too being used as an aid to home tuning a Megasquirt kit. http://www.jaycar.co.uk/productView.asp?ID=KC5195&CATID=25&form=CAT&SUBCATID=347 Iain

Got a pair of these for sale http://www.force4.co.uk/6636/Force-4-5-Louvre-Large-Capacity-Vent.html Brand new - never fitted just been sat in a drawer. £20 plus postage or come and collect from Darwen. Iain

In order to fit a manual box to an "auto engine" you will need to remove the torque convertor and fit a flywheel. You'll also need to put a spigot bearing in the end of the crankshaft - usually the cranks are no different from auto to manual and the bearing can just be shoved in (usually about £7-8 ). The trick here is going to be whether the DOHC torque convertor will fit a Pinto crankshaft - don't know that one. Iain

I'll add to the start again from scratch argument. I had similar issues to you with the GTM - the wiring always looked a bit frightening so whilst it worked I left well enough alone. When something finally went duff and I had to actually do something with it I spent a few evenings trying to simply find and fix the problem before throwing my hands up in disgust and pulling it all out. I then took a Mini loom to use as a basis for a replacement and wasted more time by trying to unwrap as little as possible (some wires that go forwards in the Mini need to go backwards in the GTM). Once again it turned out to be far faster to simply unwrap the whole thing and then re-wrap once all the wires were heading in the right direction. Iain

2wd Sierra Cosworths use a T5, not an MT75. The bell-housing looks like the V6 pattern so you'll struggle to find a 2wd replacement in this country - there are very few 2wd V6 MT75 boxes in the UK (apparently they are quite common on the continent). They are quite sought after by people who want to put a Scorpio Cosworth engine in a Sierra but don't want to go 4x4. It's possible to make up a hybrid box using the front half of the casing from a V6 4x4 Sierra and the rear half from a 4-pot 2wd but you need to mix and match the guts too in order to use the longer V6 input shaft. I've also heard tell of Scorpio diesel gearboxes being suitable as they also have the longer input shaft but I don't know if you still need to use the front half of the casing from a 4x4 box. This is also quite popular on Scorpio Cosworth transplants as the Cosworth V6 doesn't spin to particularly high revs in standard form and the Diesel box got a longer 5th gear which gives more relaxed cruising and a silly top speed. Of course if the guts of your box are OK then you should just be able to get a 4x4 V6 box and use it's front casing. Iain

Greavesy7 was first in line so I'm waiting to hear back from him if he's still interested with the new info but if not then you're next in line. Iain

Had an enquiry about this and it's prompted something to be dredged up from long term memory storage which might be relevant. The manifold is a chunk longer than the usual Weber DCOE setups that are used on sevens so it might not fit between the side of the engine and the bonnet/side panels on a Hood. Iain