IanS

The battery voltage changes and this affects the guage readings. The alternator regulator prevents the battery over charging but does not stabilise the voltage. Just after starting a cold engine the voltage can fall below 10 volts for a short time. A fully charged battery will be about 13.2 volts. Dolomite guages expect a 10 volt energisation. Smiths instrument regulators are available from many of the vehicle electrical suppliers at shows or by mail order.

One wire should be an earth. Fuel senders have thier body earthed often through the tank mounting but if you rubber mount the tank then you need a seperate earth.

This also happened to my Exmo just over a year ago. I think it more likly to happen to stainless than zintec. This is because zintec streaches a lot before tearing. Be warned when this happens it happens fast. At 38 thousand miles my suspension tops were OK, I had the tops off as I removed the wings to do a small repair to the fiberglass. At 38700 miles the struts punched through, the suspension does not go splat it sinks giving time to stop, and even drive slowly home about 30 miles. Ian

This has been done before. It has slight efffects on snap opening and closeing of the throttle. Otherwise provided you get it gastight and dont restrict the passages there should be no problems.

The Facet pumps are good for more than 6 psi. Delorto dont like more than 3 psi. This could be the problem see if you can get a presure guage to check this.

I have had sticking valves do something like you describe. When head and valve cold the valve moved OK. As the exhaust valves warmed up the stem got bigger and the cam had to work harder to open valve, But the spring could not work harder to close the valve so the piston closed it. There were some interesting marks on the piston when I took the head off. I also had inlet manifold gasket leaking coolant into a cylinder cause odd problems. The engine apeared to run OK cold but as the coolant warmed up and the presure climbed it got into one cylinder, on strip down that piston had a perfectly clean crown where the water had cracked all the gunge of the piston. These were 2 cars about 20 years apart. Ian

No the correct way is like mine pointing down at 30degrees so that the meter gets a nice echo off the ground Ian

I have made a mental note to post the date of the next meeting here. Ian Sumner

If I was doing my loom again I would make it in 2 bits with connectors between. The break would be where the loom meets the dash, indicator stalks etc. Getting a neet transition from dash wireing to body wireing proved a long job.

It has to be bigger than 1 ltr because this is the rule. It will be measured at SVA and a pass requires it to release at least 1 ltr of water.

Some of us are trying to start up a North Wales, Cheshire meeting. We are going to meet up at 8:30 at the Fox and Grapes Hotel Hawarden near chester on Wednesday 2nd June. I have built an exmo so am several generations past in build problems. http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?pc=CH5%203DH Ian

The filler neck goes through a gasket salvaged from the donor tank. It is made of a rubber type material and should form a petrol tight seal even after the neck has been removed many times. Ian

They only need one type because the spark requirements of 6000RPM 4 cylinder engines are just about the same no matter what engine. The major change was from points to stabilised electronic ignition, this required a change of coil. All 2l sierras were electronic ignition, the later ones were also fuel injected and engine managed but this did not change the spark requirements. Newer engins have gone to electronic switched multi coil packs as with ever cheeper electronics this now cheeper than a singal coil and mechanical distribution. So the only difference between coils for electronic ignition distributor is in the conectors which can be bodged. Then there is the problem that as new cars have coil packs fitted the presure on spare part makers drops (ford would soon switch from a supplyer that had lots of breakdowns) and so quality tends to drop. Ian

Temp guage high and fuel guage low are out electrically in opposite directions so a voltage regulator would struggle to help. Most tachos are fairly insensitive to voltage. A good check is at MOT time when emissions are being checked the tester will have a good tacho built in, just ask and the tester will normally compare readings. Ian

The very first question should be what voltage is your system regulated to? A meter from the Guage live (positive wire) should average 8 to 10 volts. If a modern reg is fitted there will be a steady voltage, if an old reg is fitted then the voltage will switch from 12+ volts to 0 volts every 1 to 5 seconds. The symptoms suggest that no voltage reg is fitted in which case the guage will always read high. You can fit the old lucas bimetal instrument reg or you can fit a modern electronic one. If you fit the modern one you will probably have to do some assembly work as mostly they are integral with the instrument cluster. Ian P.S I too have a ford sender and a Dolomite guage and they work properly together with an old lucas instrument reg.

To add to Jims reply. The very first Robin Hoods 7 type car was Triumph based. This could be dolomite or TR7 for the mechanicals. These started as spaceframe cars. Then came the Cortina based cars with the reversed front subframe and monocoque construction which evolved into the single donor sierra based S7. This does not include the various cars that were only ever shown in prototye form like the Little John for the larger driver and the GO that used the sierra rear screen as a heated front screen. I am certain that I have missed out many more. Ian

The voltage from the coil is normally 0Volts. As the 4 pointed star thing approches the pickup the voltage will move one way(depending on which way round the wires are connected) the volts goes back through 0 as the pickup lines up and then goes the otherway before returning to zero. The whole 0,+,0,-,0 wave takes about 12 to 15 degrees of crank movement. The trigger threshold is on the positive going part of the cycle so if the wave goes + first the timing happens early. If the wave goes - first the timing is late. Ian

These wires to the pickup will work either way round. BUT swappping them moves the spark timing about 7 degrees. Ian

When cutting carbon fiber always use a good breathing mask and a vacume used only for CF. I am working with airbus who use CF and they treat the dust as carcinogenic. In the end you could mould your own to suit, if you are not realy bothered by weight you can lay it up similar to fiberglass. The resin used is epoxy as its thermal expansion coeficient is similar to the carbon fibers. I beieve that small quantiies are available from a firm in Southport that advertises in most kitcar mags. The finish will be as good as the mold that you use. Have fun ian

Wheelnut yes I only tried to expand a bit on what you said.

Replying to Wheelnut. The breakdown voltage of a spark plug is proportional to the plug gap. Double the gap double the volts required. All other things being the same. The breakdown volts are inversly proportional to the presure in the cylinder at the time, in other words close the throttle and get a low manifold presure and you require not many volts, Floor it giving atmospheric presure in the manifold and a high presure at the spark and you need lots of volts to make a spark. On looser fitting engines (read worn rings or valve stem seals) and the low presure sucks oil into the cylinder, This coats the plug and often stops the spark. Ian

Earths. Run a wire direct from the tacho -VE (often the body) to the engine and see if this helps. Check that the engine to batery to body earth is large enough. Check that the ignition module earths are good. Ian

The only way I can think of to get an valuation is to ask one of the kit car dealers that advertise in the mags. But I would expect a low valuation from them as this is the price they buy in at. Other way is to list asking prices (it would be interesting to know the final sale price) of similar cars for sale in the mags but will this be aceptable? My experiance of agreed value is that come a write off the insurance started negotiations at 1/3rd the agreed value and took 14 months to come to a final value that was still short of the agreed value. This was on a modified range rover and they listed all sorts of short comeings to escape the agreed value most of these were very minor or almost non existant or indeed some had been declaired in the proposal. If you dont have an agreed value based on my experiance you are no worse off.

The next meeting is this wednesday 7th April. 7:30 onwards At thge George and Dragon pub on the A34 Stone. I hope to see you there Ian

The first video was for the batch2 EXMO. Exmos were produced in 3 batches from 96 to 97. The series 3 launched after the Exmo (therefore it has a video) and the series 2 launched before the Exmo and therefore does not have a video. Ian