enforcer

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7f0_1340976270 The end cracked me up!

Do these help? The strip of perforated steel (you can get this from B&Q) is a sort of wedge fit between the rail on the lower edge of the bonnet and the centre bonnet join line where it is bolted to the bonnet join. I stuck a strip of foam between the metal strip and the underside of the bonnet to prevent damage / knocking. The wiper and supporting bracket are not fixed to the bonnet at all, with the exception of the centre line fixing.

Well we've finally taken delivery of "Spridget" and have wasted no time on stripping her down to reveal the first of what I'm sure will be many horror stories! Admire the delicate wiring around the (broken) fusebox - I'm amazed the whole thing didn't catch fire when the seller ran the engine for us! All nicely fixed up now with a new fusebox in the post. The more we strip away the more confident I am in the solidness of this little car and its potential to go back out onto the road. We've decided to prioritise in getting it roadworthy again (just to present it to my tame MOT station) before spending any time and money on body and brightwork. This has to start with making the electrics safe, then it's on to the brakes (brand new dual clutch and brake master cylinder just cost me £120!). This is such fun!

Looks like I've found a few brains to pick then! I was thinking of going back to the original twin carbs, but may stick with this one Steve if you think it's a good upgrade. Strangely a former owner as cut a nasty hole in the bonnet as the top of the carb just fouls it, but it would have been simpler to grind off a few millimetres off the carb cap! I'd already decided that we would convert to simple electronic ignition, but thanks for the tip regarding the metro stuff. Its just occurred to me that I haven't got any 'old money' spanners, so a trip to Machine Mart is on the cards! Few more photos ...

Concert was superb. Didn't care much for the Thames Pageant thing .. did feel that the royal barge and the flippin royal rowing boat were a waste of money, but everything else really was something special, and yes we do need something like this to lift the nation at the moment. I don't resent the majorty of the money that has been spent on the Jubilee celebrations; 60 years service and still going is an incredible achievement. It's the Olympics that is really getting on my nerves, and the shameless spending that comes with it. Why, for example, did there need to be 8000 Olympic torches? Surely the idea here is to pass the torch along the relay, not to provide thousands of greedy 'do-gooders' with the opportunity to make a fortune on Ebay. Why paint the flippin plane gold - how much did that cost? Grrr...... I could go on but I'm not allowed to be political in a public forum...

Well after my son passed his test and we realised the futility of trying to find insurance for him on a car without spending at least £2000 he decided that he would wait a couple of years to get himself on the road, and is off to Uni in the Autumn anyway. Anyone who knows Alex will be aware that he spends every last penny he earns on AvGas in pursuit of his rather expensive flying habit (would be cheaper if it was a heroin habit), so he decided for once he'd like to have something to show for his money and asked me whether I would help him do up an old banger, "Wheeler Dealers" style. He fancied an old MG Midget so we spent a few days looking around before I tried to persuade him towards a mini. Until I saw that even old shed minis are going for silly money. Then we found this little beauty: It's a 1966 Austin Healey Sprite Mk III which has been upgraded with the 1275 engine. The high spec for this model includes 'wind-up' windows! This car is going to be so much fun to restore. It's absolutely solid and with the exception of the bonnet which needs work, the remaining panels and the underside are all fully sound. The engine starts first time and runs well and we haven't found any horror stories yet! It's never going to be concourse, but I think it will scrub up well and I'm particularly looking forward to the interior. It'll need a re-wire to be on the safe side, and work on the brakes (tandem brake and clutch master cylinder is knackered), but all in all we're really pleased with it. It's a lot of classic car for just over a grand, and will be tax exempt of course. Insurance for me (when we get it on the road) will be about £75 with FP! And of course it will have to (legitimately) have pressed steel silver & black plates! Car's being delivered on Saturday and I've spent the last few days 'space-saving' in the garage ... thank goodness I had the sense to buy a house with a double garage otherwise the 2B might have ended up outside! Anyone with any experience with these or expertise with the 1275 that I can come to in times of need???!!! Rich

Sadly, the historic network of copper wire has already been dug up, nicked, and flogged for scrap

Mate, I'm not sure you really need to take advice from the forum to answer that one. Your speed isn't going to get you into trouble, it's going to kill someone - and not necessarily you. Kit cars are inherently less safe than tin tops. Some more so than others, yes, but still much less safe. You can survive surprisingly heavy impacts in modern production vehicles, but in a seven? The fire service are going to be cutting you out in pieces. It's not worth imagining what the front suspension of a seven would do to a pedestrian. While I was at Stoneleigh I dropped in on the JZR stand and spoke to a few members of the Pilots Association. Seeing their cars took me straight back to the scene of a fatal RTC I'd supervised a few years back. It was a gorgeous early sunny morning, in a beautiful part of the world, and on one of those picture perfect windy country B roads linking village to village. He was about 60 years old, driving the beautiful car he'd built, and had set out for a day's touring. His sandwich box and flask were still in the car. He was not. He had been caught out on a deceptively sharp bend and lost the back end of the car, which flipped and threw him out. He was lying face down in the carriageway, about 20 feet away, having hit a dry stone wall. At least his death was instant, and he'd died doing something he loved. I've dealt with and attended many fatals, but that one still gets me. Really because I could relate to him and equate to myself. When the collision investigator turned up he had me sit in the car and establish what gear it was in etc (he wouldn't have fitted in!). I admired the quality of the build, the components he'd used and the ingenious way he'd adapted the CX500 gear selector. I could see the edge trim he'd applied to get him through the SVA. I'll never forget that one. And everytime I get a little excited and let the engine surge, or get a bit too enthusiastic on the bends, I remember him. If you can't overcome that urge then I'm afraid you should let the car go before the tragedy. Sorry. Drive safely folks!

AL, you only need to worry if your wrists are that small

Haven't posted for a while, been very busy at work and I'm now weirdly addicted to running marathons, so currently training 50 miles a week ahead of the Milton Keynes marathon on the 29th April. However I have managed to get a little garage time in, having been treated to a KOSO XR-SR digi-dash for me birthday. These chunky little units cost just under £120 and give you a Speedo, Tacho, Fuel and Temperature gauges as well as warning lights for indicators, hazards, oil pressure, dipped beam, main beam as well as 'Neutral' and 'High Water Temp Warning' which I haven't used. The main installation headache was that the perfect dash position meant that the substantial cable coming out of the unit had to go straight through the chassis tube. However a 12mm hole soon sorted that. These units are designed for motorcycles so they only come with a handlebar mount. However this is attached to the unit with three threaded holes and once I'd cut a template these were perfect for securely mounting to the dashboard. The speed sensor signal can come directly from the gearbox with an accessory cable, but I wanted to keep the original clocks as they are a real feature of my dash, so I elected to mount the magnets and sensor on the front offside wheel (for ease of access easier than the prop shaft). All this needed was a simple bracket to fix it to the ball joint / nut from the steering rod end. Then it was down to a couple of evenings with a soldering iron and a multi-meter. All simple enough really other than I can't get the oil pressure warning light right: it comes on with the ignition as it should but doesn't go off when the original warning light does? The other issue is that I can't use the fuel gauge without changing the Sierra fuel sender. I'm not bothered about this though because you can set the unit up to display either fuel or temperature on the smaller display to the left. I also had to purchase a spare speed sensor just to butcher it up to double the length of the original sender cable (again, designed for bikes so wouldn't reach the wheel. This and a temperature sender adaptor set me back another £35 although they were cheaper to buy from Germany). All in all I'm really pleased and impressed with this unit for the money. I just hope this weather holds for a few more days until I can get back on the road next week ... roll on Stoneleigh!

Ouch! Only kidding buddy

Tsk. Trumpton!

Gotta get me one of these! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=939_1328403664

Might well be Nigel, and whilst the clutch kit is cheap enough it's a bit of a job getting to it. I'm going to rule out any other possibilities first but I may well end up having to replace it. I'll look into the slave cylinder this weekend.

Thanks guys There is no pedal travel adjustment at either end of the system. The pedal returns all the way back to its stop. The slave cylinder is mounted on the outside of the transmission, but the piston and gaiter are inside the bell housing (the end of the piston presses against one side of the clutch release fork. I'd need to remove the slave cylinder to examine it for leakage and functionality ... which is probably going to be the next course of action. Rich

Yep, operates fine, just very low biting point. It's a hydraulic slave cylinder mounted externally on the transmission casing operating the clutch release fork. No creep and no fluctuations in the idle when the clutch is engaged and disengaged in neutral. No sign of any fluid leaking anywhere in the system. The only place I haven't checked is at the end of the slave piston (inside the transmission). No slip either.

Thanks for the replies folks ... keep 'em coming! Robin I read through that thread, thanks and strangely enough when checking the clutch pedal master cylinder I noticed that the clutch pedal switch was connected, but removed from the pedal ... it was just hanging down??? Now according to the guy posting on that thread, the switch adjusts the bite point. I can't believe that's true though since it is a two wire on/off switch and now that I have replaced it and checked the wiring it hasn't made any difference. I've had a look online and it seems that the clutch pedal switch informs the ECU that the clutch pedal is depressed. This (apparently) disconnects the cruise control (I don't have it anyway), prevents over-revving while the clutch is disengaged and does some other stuff to the revs when changing gear. Nothing about the bite point (if only it were that simple). Since the clutch is a simple master cylinder to slave cylinder affair the low bite point can only be as a result of the 'throw' of the slave cylinder being too short, either through air in the fluid or a defective slave or master??? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? Or am I just barking

Greetings vehicle gurus ... Can anyone help with this one? Just replaced the wife's VW Bora 1.6 with a charming little 1.2 12v Seat Ibiza (Mk IV 2002) so that it's a little less painful for my son to insure on. I think the car is basicly a re-shelled VW Polo anyway. And there appears to be one whole cylinder missing as well The clutch does its job perfectly well but the biting point is very low (about an inch off the carpet). I've read the Haynes and perused the forums and this afternoon I have had a good go at bleeding from the clutch slave cylinder. There are no obvious leaks at either end and I'm sure I got a few bubbles out, but no improvement. We could just drive it as it is, but for a young chap just learning to drive it's hard enough mastering the clutch biting point without it being an inch off the floor! I read somewhere that the only way to fully bleed a slave cylinder is to press the piston hard back into the cylinder when you've finished the main bleed (in order to dispel any air left in there). I haven't tried this yet as I thought I'd pick a few wise old brains on here first (and I'd have to remove it from the transmission casing first). I'm thinking the following as possible diagnoses: Air remaining in the Slave? Fault in the Slave? Fault in the master? I'm loathe to put it in to the garage yet .. I'm sure they'd replace everything!!!! Apart from this one issue the car's in superb condition and only done 53k. Grateful for any advice or observations!!

Just like GP2 they'll alternate which channels they run the F1 on so you have to subscribe to the whole package. And then there's the adverts .... Breaking news ... Rupert Murdoch states he is 'touched' at the messages of condolence left on Amy Winehouse's voicemail ...

Oh it's a good one! Clicky

Lovely news! Thrilled for you both ... life will never be the same again. Just make the most of the time when they are little - it goes by in a flash. My 16 yr old has moved on from his airfix spitfires and is now half way through his PPL!

IIRC it's a non-endorseable for excessive noise.

Depending on whether you use the RH coilovers or the original sierra rear springs and modified macpherson strut you can lower the rear end by moving the spring/coilover mount further into the rollover bar tube, redrilling and bolting.

I used one of these: Snap Off Boss Only about 1 1/4" thick and looks smart, but I had to buy a different boss to mount it to the sierra shaft. Just didn't fancy cutting and welding this! Looks good and works brilliantly.

Stu Best bet would be to go and 'try' some bikes for size at a bike shop to get an idea of what frame size would suit. I would suggest a hybrid bike with no suspension - doesn't necessarily need to be a 'ladies' frame. 18 speed as a minimum but 24 would be better and try to get an aluminium frame rather than a steel one. Don't need disc brakes, and no chunky tyres - they sap your energy and increase friction. A wheel / tyre such as a 700 x 32 would be about right. If you search 'ladies hybrid bike' on ebay there are loads. Something like this would suit ebay bike Although it does have front suspension it looks like the type that can be locked. Tyres are a bit fat, but you get the idea Rich