Big Jim

You have a monocoque car so you cannot start cutting the tunnel about without the possibility of seriously weakening the strength of the body tub. Monocoque cars are narrower than the 2B's, and the early monocoque cars are the narrowest of all. Sell the seats that you've got, buy a tape measure and check the seat width before buying, also BEWARE, the passenger side is even narrower than the drivers side, so if you're looking for a pair of seats you need to go off that measurement. There are VERY FEW aftermarket seats that will fit your car.

make a note of vehicle wiring products website, in case other electrical bits are required. http://www.vehicleproducts.co.uk

i run a redtop in mine, and I went for the SBD ignition only mappable set-up, complete with wiring, throttle position sensor, coil pack etc. It's easy to wire up, if I remember correctly, you only need to connect 2 wires to the small loom they sell. It's been ultra reliable and i can recommend it. I've no idea how much it would cost now though.

Sorry to harp on about this again, but there was only a short run of Robin Hoods that were called the S7, due to Cateringvan putting a stop to RH using the "7" in the model number, It's always best with the early cars to refer to the donor used, ie. Dolomite, Cortina, then we get onto the various sierra models, mk1, mk2 , mk3, mk3A, Then when SVA came about, we go to the 2B sliding pillar, then the 2B wishbone, lightweight, superspec, Zero, etc. Plus there were a few odd-balls thrown in, especially early on. With seats, the early cars were quite narrow, so most of the aftermarket seats will not fit, the Mk 3 are slightly larger, with "Clubman" type seats fitting "At a push" The 2B's were however much wider, made to fit the original sierra seats in without the various handles on the sides though, you need to measure the width of the cockpit and compare with any seats that you're thinking of buying, also beware that the passenger side is again narrower than the drivers side due to the dif being offset so the tunnel is.

If the tracking is close, how much tread is showing on each end where the track rod end fits? if they're something like the when fine tuning the tracking, use the one with most thread showing if you want to put more toe in (ie, screw it into the track rod end) and the one with less threads showing if you want less toe in. (Ie screw the rod out of the track rod end) When first installing a steering rack the best way is to centralise the steering column on the rack, then get the wheels roughly pointing straight ahead, and float the rack left - right until it's central. It's difficult to explain in words, but I'll try. Ideally to set up the steering rack, firstly disconnect the track rod ends so that the rack will move without being coupled to the wheels. Now turn the s/ wheel all the way to one side to the end of the rack travel, then with a piece of masking tape, mark the top centre of the steering wheel, then turn the wheel the opposite way until it stops, counting how many turns of the wheel is required for full travel. now halve that number of turns and that is where your steering wheel should be for straight ahead.on the steering rack. So if it takes 3½ turns, if you turn the wheel back 1.75 turns, that's the steering wheel set on the rack central. Now with the steering wheel set on the straight ahead position of the rack, you need to get the wheels pointing straight ahead, Hopefully the lengths of threads showing on the track rod ends will be very similar, if not then you may have to move the rack over slightly so that they will be.

If you search for a local auto electrician, it takes only minutes to check if the alternator is ok, but as you say, if both look to be giving the same fault, it's more likely the wiring. So the feed from the alt goes via the starter, I'd remove it from there and run it directly to the battery, and it does need to be at least twice as thick os normal wiring (my lad would tell me what spec, but he's not here at the moment) The earth straps need to have really good contacts, and they should be as thick as the main wire that goes to the starter motor. You need to check the wiring, just pieces of ordinary wire are not good enough.

You need to say what engine you have fitted, and better still what alternator. But basically, the main feed wire from the alternator should be considerably thicker than the normal wiring, and should go directly to the + ive side of the battery. Also make sure that you have a good CLEAN earth strap from the - ive side of the battery to both the chassis and the engine. When you say you've changed the alternator, was it for a known good one? What engine revs are you using when taking the readings? you really need to be up around 1500 rpm or above when trying with lights on.

That's good pressure just on the starter, but that is the pressure in the various oil galleries, remember that there are many parts of the engine that rely on "splashed" oil, or run off oil, these will only get that oil after a few minutes of the engine running, so take it easy.

Also, I believe that you've just fitted the engine, have you fitted an earth strap?

Check the simple things first. Ignition timing, are you on the right stroke? does it all line up with no 1 piston on The compression stroke, check by looking at the rockers on No 4 cylinder, they should be "rocking", ie, exhaust is closing as inlet starts to open, get this happening on no 4 cylinder, and it confirms that No 1 is on compression. the rotor arm should now be pointing towards the no 1 cyl HT lead. Check the valve timing, line all the dots up on the cam gear when crank is at TDC. Check correct firing order, you've already got No 1 lined up whilst checking the timing, and that you're turning the engine the correct way, ie. in the rotation of the rotor arm, it's 1-3-4-2 Pull off the fuel line to the carb whilst someone turns over the engine, is there fuel coming out of the pipe? You should be able to pump up the fuel by hand, but you may need to move the engine over so the lever works, if you can't get fuel up, then you've obviously got a plumbing problem. If all this is correct, and it's still not starting, run a temp wire from the battery to the coil (the opposite terminal to the one that connects to the dizzy) remove this wire when finished trying, danger of burning the coil out if left on too long. If it now starts with the temp wire on, you've either got a wiring problem with feed from the ignition switch, or possibly the ECU. If it still doesn't start, we need to know more information. Are you on points? electronic ignition? 12v or 9 v coil? PS. If you keep cranking & cranking, you are also in danger of knackering the starter motor.

Similar happened to me when I had the disco, and the cloned car was collecting speeding fines all over Blackpool, not to mention a minor fail to stop bump!, Blackpool isn't a long way from my place as well. It was only because I could prove to the old bill when they came knocking, that I was elsewhere in the car at some of the times that it was up to no good.

The other problem with runners is, that they lift up the seat an inch or so, and unless you're a short-arse, you could find yourself with the top of the windscreen frame right in your line of sight.

Instead of keep reposting trying to get it to work, why don't you "EDIT" the original instead of clogging up the system?

If no-one on here can personally recommend somewhere, in conjunction with cb750's post, check out places on here. https://www.goodgaragescheme.com/

Before you start buying a new battery, check everything else first. REMOVE the earth to the engine, clean it up and refit it. Checking with a gauge would only show voltage, so do not rely on that, it will show voltage even if only 1 strand of wire is making contact, but it's current that you need as well & lots of it, so you need ALL the wires (ie the eyelet) to make a good clean contact. Remove the terminals from the battery and clean them up. Remove and clean up the large feed wire to the starter. Now charge the battery up overnight and take it to your local motor accessory shop and get them to check it with their battery load tester. If it proves to be ok, and you've cleaned all the terminals etc. you now have a starter motor problem. Obviously if it proves duff, you now know for certain that you need a battery. I have one of these, but you're not near enough to borrow it. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Draper-100Amp-Battery-Load-Tester-PN-BLT100-/291759026260?hash=item43ee317054:g:H~gAAOSwYmZXL7RE

Going back to your original post, be very careful about changing the seats, there are only a few types of seats that will fit, most of then either having too much cushion to sit on, so you finish up looking through the top windscreen bar, or there's nothing at the sides to hold you in. Also the passenger side is narrower than the drivers side. The tunnel and sides are also part of the monocoque chassis, there's nothing you can do to reduce them, but you can cover them to make them less obvious. If the front top suspension wishbone pivot hasn't got a grease nipple fitted, that's definitely a job that needs doing. Check that the pivot bar here has been anchored somehow, this is to make sure that the wishbone pivots on the bar, and not the bar pivoting in the chassis. The rear anti-roll bar if fitted to original instructions, only sits on the boot floor, with U claps clamping it to the boot sides, I would suggest strengthening this up. I had "bungs" machined up and welded them into the ends of the roll bar, these bungs were tapped with a decent size hole in the middle (can't remember what size, long time ago!) then the boot floor was sandwiched between 2 large plates (approx 3-4") and bolted up to the roll bar, as well as being clamped to the boot side, which in turn was also strengthened under the wheel arch.

We need to know which model of what you've got. according to your profile you don't have a car.

I was the person who put the article on the NW web site, the car being done on both diff job and discs job is mine. The only noticeable difference with fitting an LSD is that on a hooligan drive off, with the open diff you leave one long black line when one wheel spins, with the LSD you leave two shorter lines as both wheels spin. With the LSD until you get used to it, again when driven hard, on hard cornering you can get a feeling of understeer as it wants to push you in a straight line, but you soon get used to it.

Now you need to fill in the gap between the rad & the nosecone so the air can't by pass the rad by going around & over it.

If you go to the very first post by myself at the start of this topic, there is a link to the page from the testers manual.

I've looked through loads of stalks on ebay, the nearest that I could find were Rover 600, but they were the opposite way around. good luck

Somewhere on the switch assembly there will be a part number, usually on the back side. find this and Google it, that should tell you what vehicle they're from. Probably either a Ford or Rover part.

If the hazards work then it's not the flasher unit. Basically inside the indicator switch there are 2 separate circuits that join up at the output from the switch to the respective left & right wires. Your fault is in the indicator switch, you can take it apart and clean it, then hopefully it might work. I had exactly the same problem after my car had been laid up for 4 years, I cleaned the internals of the switch a few times, but never got the indicator side working properly, hazards worked fine though. I finally had to find another indicator switch and that cured it. Check the wiring circuit for the switch in the Haynes manual as separate from the main wiring dia.

You need to know how much room you have between the carb flange and the underside of the bonnet, then you could get the appropriate one of these.................. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RAMAIR-Carb-Air-Filter-With-Baseplate-Weber-32-36-DGAV-25mm-Internal-Height-/391071306538?hash=item5b0daa932a:g:3boAAOSwFMZWr3SE 25mm height. probably the one that you require. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RAMAIR-Carb-Air-Filter-With-Baseplate-Weber-32-36-DGAV-65mm-Internal-Height-/391071306537?hash=item5b0daa9329:g:UTkAAOSwKtVW1Xlg 65mm height. probably too high. You could even put one of these on, then have a remote air filter built in the gap over the radiator, but again you need to know if it'll fit under the bonnet. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Weber-Carb-Carburettor-Air-Filter-Plenum-Kit-32-36-DGV-DGAV-38-DGAS-90-Deg-/272350861880?hash=item3f69605a38:g:Yd8AAMXQTghRJ4R3 With a filter like this (depending on size of hose) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GEE-3-High-Flow-Air-filter-Universal-Cold-Air-Intake-Cone-89-90mm-Inlet-Blue-/251966690115?hash=item3aaa629343:g:YoUAAOSwrklVXDbY I would advise that you DON'T get one like this, unless you really want a pair of dimples in the bonnet made by the fixing nuts. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/56-9071-K-N-CUSTOM-AIR-FILTER-KIT-FOR-SINGLE-TWIN-BARREL-WEBER-CARBS-/391373969901?hash=item5b1fb4d9ed:g:CHwAAOSwa-dWqeL~

I know that he's messaged, you, and I've emailed you, It'll be that English channel, the bloody Frogs will be stopping everything. Yes, Neils bought a "new mark 3" that amongst other things, needs a pair of camber wedges fitting. I'll leave you to communicate with him. I'll give him a lift to fit them when they arrive. Cheers Jim