steve in stockport

Ken if you're going to convert your spark you can do away with the dizzy altogether and run with the edis and coil pack, with it timed off the trigger wheel and sensor. for injection fuel filter get the one to fit an injection vauxhall cav/calibra - about a tenner from halfords and only a third the size of the ford one Steve

on a serious note BE VERY CAREFUL WITH PETROL in a professional capacity - fireman- i've seen the aftermath of not giving petrol the respect it deserves ranging from minor burns through to death. few that spring to mind are the guy in a back street garage in manchester trying to start a car and flooded the engine, so he took the plugs out to let it breath for a while then went to check on progress with a cigarette in his mouth. kerboom! he ended up with his face and neck looking like allbejays arm! a mechanic taking the electric fuel pump off a mercedes hadn't disconnected the battery and spark set light to the petrol that had escaped when he took the fuel lines off - unfortuneatly a lot of it was on his overalls - burnt his overalls off, very bad burns to his arms and he inhaled some of the fireball just to make life difficult for the hospital staff. back in the early nineties we turned out to a house in manchester where an iranian chap had syphoned some petrol from his car, gone up to the bedroom poured it on himself and set light to it. he then ran around the house before collapsing at the front door. he had 90 odd percent burns and died 3 hours later. why did he do it - his visa had expired and was due to go back to iran. so be careful with petrol Steve

seem to remember that the mini steering wheel was a splined fit to the column and the sierra is a hexagonal shape. Steve

i know at what temp and under what conditions the fan cuts in and out and its usually reliable. its just a reassurance thing really so that i know that ther is power going to it and it will work when its needed. i think the fuse may have blown when i reconnected the battery as i take the earth lead off when i'm going to leave the car stood for a while. Steve

nearly cooked my engine the other day when sat in a traffic jam, i just happened to look at the temp gauge and saw the needle heading towards the red section. the fuse to the fan had blown and as you can't hear it running over the exhaust/engine noise it was just luck that i glanced at the gauge. so i'm going to wire a warning light into the circuit to show the fan is running and place it in line of sight -just want to know if it should be wired in before or after the fan ie ign - fuse- warning light - relay - fan - earth or ign - fuse - relay - fan - warning light - earth if i go for the first option will it just keep blowing the bulb when the fan cuts in, it has a big current draw on start up and is on a 25 amp fuse. Steve

Dan try these people link for all the stuff you need to buid,repair or convert your trailer Steve

just sat here thinking of something different to do and this came to mind. has anyone ever thought of doing the 3 peaks challenge in a Robin Hood? 3 countries - Scotland, England and Wales 3 mountains - Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowden 3407 metres of climbing 400 miles of driving - not including your mileage to start and back home 24 hours from starting the first climb to finishing the last climb anybody fancy it? Steve

Mark you could make your own spacers with some 3mm x 30mm flat bar from B+Q just cut four pieces, 2 per wheel, drill them to fit between 2 studs, shape the ends and the middle to go round the hub nut, job done. flat bar is only a couple of quid for a metre Steve

As Tom says if the shere can touch it the examiner will test it, i used black edge trim on mine, at its closest the manifold is only about 4mm away from the trim but no sign of melting yet. Steve

all i would say is that you know it has a fault and you know that when it gives up it will be at the most inconvenient time and place possible. but various members have used radweld or similar to good effect for me it would be a new rad Steve

self amalgamating tape is classed as a permanent fix as it fuses into itself so doesn't need cable ties to keep it in position, just keep wrapping it round til you can't feel the edges you're covering then stretch to snap it off. for the harness top mounts you can use edge trim - titanfast etc round the top plates, it will go on just needs a bit of persuasion/ hammering to fit Steve

bad luck Richard the list doesn't sound too bad, just hope you can get the info for the fuel pipes ok. seems a bit off when you can use 8mm microbore copper heating pipe and get a pass but get a fail for using plastic fuel lines Steve the first long run is good isn't it!

theres a guy on the locost site selling built up megajolts for £75 or £85 depending on if you want MAP or TPS. he goes by the name PAULF if you go on megajolt jr lite site there is a base map for an xe on there too. Steve

quick test, take the reservoir lid off and turn it upside down (over a piece of cloth to catch any fluid) if the warning lights work ok then you have a problem with the float in the lid. if they dont work ok it may be stuck and a couple of taps might free it up. you have got fluid in the reservoir haven't you? Steve

or try this link to dahboards on the NW site Steve

Ken just looked at your signature, says you are running twin webers. have you got a swirl pot in your tank for the change over to injection throttle bodies? if not the vw golf injection pump has a built in swirl pot so could be worth looking at Steve

Olivier heres my dash, using the sierra clocks, some MDF covered in vinyl for the centre piece. the roll at the bottom edge was made by glueing thin foam (camping mat) over the edge then covering the whole of the dash in another layer of the same foam. about a day to do Steve

Richard apparently you have toe in with rear wheel drive and toe out with front wheel drive, but having said that i set mine up with toe out and had no problems with the self centering at the sva Steve

the cap you want is available from halfords think its part no. 600 in the rad caps book. runs at 13lb and is listed for a cortina, also has the big seal that Jim was pointing out Steve

not that i've got any weather gear but as its made of vinyl it would seem best to get it as warm as possible when fitting. if you fit it cold you will get the hood expanding when it warms up leaving gaps or loose material between fixings. have you got an airing cupboard with a hot water tank that you can wrap the hood round for a bit to get it good and warm and an electric fan heater to use in your garage? Steve

i'm also running a vauxhall pump on efi pinto engine without any probs so far - touches wood and crosses fingers. theres a thread on the locost site about vw golf injection pumps that have a built in swirl pot that may be useful to either you or any body thinking of going down the injection route and wondering what to do about fuel tanks and swirl pots Steve

Andrew i've got a spare one, pm me with your address and you can have it for a quid to cover the postage Steve

i took it as meaning that if you draw a 70 x 40 rectangle and then put anothe vertical line anywhere inside that rectangle the mirror surface had to be able to fit the rectangle and the line where the line protruded, be it 30mm above, 30mm below or any variation inbetween ie 20 above + 10 below, 15 above and below etc etc basically it means that at some point the mirror has to be 70mm high but not for the full width if you cut a piece of paper or card 70x70 and try it on your mirror of choice if you can fit all of either the top or bottom edge and any point on the opposite edge in the surface of the mirror you should be ok heres a pic steve

doesn't come to the edge on mine either but once they are on they look fine steve

Tom the ones i've fitted have a thin rubber gasket on the bottom, hopefully yours have too. i just positioned the mirror pretty much on the apex of the curve of the bonnet/scuttle area, marked through the holes and drilled 2 6mm holes to fix each mirror. bolted them in place with m6 bolts and a nut and washer underneath - didn't go at it too hard in case i creased the bonnet and they just pulled down nicely. the back edge of the mirror base just touches the screen seal and i have swapped the bases over on mine as i fitted them without the screen for the sva and when i put the screen on i couldn't see all of the nearside one past the pillar, but by swapping the bases i could get the mirror closer to the screen, can now see all of it and fortunately the first set of mounting holes are still covered by the base. Steve