agent_zed

just thinking about the track rods end rubbing and wondered whether they are on the wrong way if they are left and right handed like the seirra ones. just a thought.

Hi, both my headlights touched the cycle wings on full lock. I decided that having a small garage had meant I sometimes stood on the headlight brackets during the build, and bent them.

I just bent them up a little, and all was ok.

They still seem to be ok after 3 months on the road, and a few hundred miles.

Nick

cheers for the reply, still haven't checked it yet as i found my sump peeing out oil thankfully just as i returned home from a week long holiday. Definitely need to shorten the sump as everyone says

always a job to do...

Who's offering the best insurance deal at the moment for 2L Hood?

my 2b 1.6 pinto is insured through osborne and sons for £202 fully comp limited to 5000 miles which i thought was pretty good as iam 26 with no no-claims and haven't got a second vehicle in my name. i can also drive 3rd party with this policy on other vehicles.

hope that helps

You beat me Tom I've had less than 10mpg on track but there again I do have the economical EFI system

But normal driving (full throttle in all gears) I get around 20-25 I recon but who cares the car is about fun and that big stupid grin not economy. If economy is what I wanted I would have bought a boring little oil burning tin top.

don't worry i still had a grin even with 40mpg. Dartmoor is a fantastic drive, the sun shinning (for once) even with the 40mph speed limit, that i rigidly stuck too .

It was actually the first trip ive made in my 2b after registering it in june this year. Still can't believe how much fun it is even after going to plymouth without side screens or a hood, just glad the weather was fantastic all week.

Still can't beleive how much attention people give the car, could have spent £90,000 on a 911 and noone would give me 1/10 of the looks i get in a £3500 car

Do twin carbs really use that much more fuel or is it more to do with a heavy left foot? If i was to change to a zetec from my pinto would it get worse mpg then or is it purely the carbs that people are using?

i read an article once that said twin carbs were more efficient than a single carb and in theory they should give better mpg ?!.

certainly interesting to see what other people are getting though. thanks for the replies , keep them coming.

Hi,

i was quite pleased after taking my 1.6 pinto'd 2b to plymouth last week as i managed to get 40mpg. It was a trip of 175miles and i went into bristol center and across dartmoor so it wasn't just motorway. I brimmed the tank so i could work it out exactly.

Just wondering what kind of consumption other people were getting.

have electric fan and viscous, no problems with either, both spinning around merrily.

is the electric fan wired continuously or does it have a thermostatic switch?. I was just thinking that you would know if the engine is actually overheating if the fan comes on. If it is the temperature sender that is messed up then the fan will not be on as the engine will not really be overheating as the gauge suggests.

Probably not the same problem but my car was overheating for a while and i found it was a loose pipe allowing a little water to escape so it didn't get up to pressure, just tightened up the offending clip and is fine now.

best of luck

Was the steering rack centered when you did the wheel alignment? You might have more lock on one side hence the issue you have.

hmmm thats sounds like a good idea. think i'll check that before i start bending anything

thanks

Hi,

does anyone elses driver side headlight touch the cycle wing on full lock. Its a bit weird as the cycle wing holders are equal for both sides so iam not sure which bit is out. Might just bend the headlight a little unless any other suggestions.

cheers

i have a 2 l pinto, 32/36 weber carb with choke.

dizzy.points, correct,. timing set at 6 btdc.

when idling the temp is fine, however as soon as accelerate have started to overheat,or so the gauge says as its staright to the top of the red. as soon as back to idle temp drops.

have checked and the coolant levels are fine, oil fine.mixture is fine, have tried making it richer to no avail.

any idea on what it could be?

the temp sender is a black one, do these break ?

any idea welcome

do you have an electric fan and if so does it cut in when it says its overheating?

Hi,

 

Going away in the caravan with the wife and 3 kids on friday to a site in Ashburton in Devon.Its called the River Dart Country Park and yes you've guessed it its next to the river Dart,Whats the rain and flooding situation down there will i need my wellies?Any hoodies living down there give me a first hand weather update.

 

Cheers Andy

have you seen this website

http://www.ashburton.org/weather.htm

seemed to be what you are after. Ive been to dartmoor a few times and if you haven't been before you should know the weather can change quickly on the moors, so be very careful if you go walking etc. Be careful around the rivers there can be flash flooding i'd stick to the high ground in this weather and you will definitely need wellies. It is a fantastic place though. hope it helps. have a good time

I was advised not to weld the end on by an engineer as he believed that there is the possiblity of the joint being brittle, probably aslo difficult to weld as the arm may be hardened and have a zinc coat etc. The earlier 2b with optional front wishbones (like mine ) had to have "rack extenders" which were tubes of metal with internal thread cut to screw onto the track arms and then a piece of bolt bar in the other end that screws into the ball joint. I had new ones made as i believe the RH ones are too short and slack on the threads. The new ones cost me £10 from a local engineer. If, as john says, you get the engineer to cut an external thread on a bar to screw into the track rod end and an internal thread the other end for the track rod end then you won't need to use bolt bar and it will look neat too.

Thanks for replying. I've checked all the connections etc and all seem okay. The ESC is bolted to the firewall albeit I will add heatsink compound this evening. In all the car has just done 300 miles in total between the SVA and small local runs and everything was okay until Saturday. The car started okay again last night and I left it running for about 20 minutes without any problems, and she was really hot. What I don't understand is when it first happened switching off and on the ignition seemed to cure the fault?

 

I've booked the car in for a rolling road session on Saturday but don't know if I'll make it without breaking down again ;-(

 

CAn you buy / replace the ESC ignition system?

 

Andy

just reminded me that my dads 2ltr pinto transit does a similar thing. I believe it has the ecu with a vacuum pipe. But it will begin to shudder after a long time of driving but if you switch it off and on again it cures itself. We have had it for years with it doing this and its been fine just have to turn it off and on occasionally. Hope you get it sorted.

If its not the ignition, i would check that the fuel hasn't got water in it. I had a similar thing a few years back where it got worse as more water got sucked into the carb from the tank. Mind you i did take 1 litre of water out of the tank!!! and seeing as it hadn't rained when this happened i blame my local tescos petrol. Just a thought.

almost any car amp will do the job, what to watch for is the output voltage of the mp3 and the input voltage for the amp are simlar and then you will adjust the gain control to get enough volume output.(most cases you will be fine)as it is to be used in the hood you will require a decent volume so i would advise a decent pair of speakers as you will drive these pretty loud and you dont want them just distorting.to connect you require a 3.5mm jack to 2 phono for most amps but some newer ones come with a 3.5mm jack on the amp.

is there a volume control or bass/treble on car amps? or would you control it from the mp3?

havent seen any 12 v pc ones that was what i was thinking to start with that way the volume balance etc could be used where have you seen the 12 volt ones

I managed to get my hands on one that iam going to use in my car thats made by Boston and my brother has one on his computer that is made by cambridge soundworks. Both of which are 12v and are a sub and then small satellite speakers so iam making a guess that the larger sub based systems are 12v but i really don't know for sure. I haven't looked for a while but misco.co.uk has some and there are loads of other computer parts websites.

hope that helps.

thinking of puting in asmall amp ( 100w) max with just a jack socket to plut in am mp3 player has any one else done this and if so what did they use

yeah i was thinking of doing this. I was going to use a computer speaker setup as you can get powerful sub +speaker setup for £20-£30 and ive seen ones that are 12v. They are also designed to take a jack plug from something like an mp3. let us know what you do.

cheers

Thanks for the pictures Jon

 

Have you got any pictures of the subframe mounting points ?

 

From the video I only see four bolts, two on the diff and two on the outside trailing arm fixings.

 

Is this correct or did you add others ?

 

Paul

The subframe also attaches on the rubber mountings that it attached to the seirra (the front end of the subframe arms). Put some big bolts through the bush with some nice big plates over the rubber bush underneither. I also cut up into the subframe just behind the bushes to put bolts up through the chassis plate. Bolt it all down tight and you are done. The SVA man specifically questioned me on this and was happy with what i'd done. Oh i also welded the handbrake angle iron to the subframe and then bolted it to the floor and tunnel to stiffen everything up.

hope that helps

Hi,

not that this will be the problem you have but when i was building my 2b with the optional wishbones i found that the steering arm extender joining thing that rh supplied was loose on the threads of the steering rack arms. I didn't like this so got new ones made up that were at least twice the length so i could wind it right to the top of the threads which turn out to fit better as the rack tapers (presumably poor machining). You may think iam worrying too much but RH actually sent me 4 sva bonnet catches in compensation for making up my own joiners after i sent theirs back !!! I can only assume they could see the problem as well. The new kits seem to have a fitted rack now but i would consider having new ones made if i had the old ones. Mine cost me £10 from a local engineering comp.

don't mean to scare anyone, just thought it may be useful info.

cheers

Hi

I bought a part built 2b last june, it was advertised as needing only a couple of weekends work to ready it for the SVA.It has cost me £1800 to buy and between £300-£400 for parts. This is still very good value but to be honest I have invested so much time in getting it SVA ready( almost there now) it is time that would have been better spent with my family. Also it would be far more satisfying to do a build from scratch (a build you can call your own) I believe the 2b kits are now cheaper than ever!

My advice would be if you want a compleated car, spend more money and buy one with both SVA and MOT. If you dont mind the work and want total satisfaction from your efforts build one from scratch. best wishes Roger. ps if anyone is in the south wales area with sva experience please give me a call I could do with some advice it would be appreciated thanks Roger 01495 711578

Hi

where in south wales are you?

Hi , thanks everyone for the huge response. I'll have to have a dig behind my dash to see what plug i have. Just for interest heres what my dash looks like at the moment.

thanks again

Nearly. You will have to check the order of the wires in the plug for the old and new dash, (ie. oil light wire might be number 3 in the old and number 7 in the new so you have to get them in the right order.)

 

Then add a wire taken from the negative terminal of the coil to the rev counter via the dash plug of course.

 

Nigel

cool thanks, just have to hunt around for a cheap set of clocks now. Can't have a sports car without a rev counter can i

thanks

Hi,

sorry if this has been asked before (couldn't find it in a search) but what is needed to change the clocks from a seirra with no rev counter to one that has one. Is it as simple as plugging in the rev counter clocks and it works on the wiring that is there or do i need an extra loom? My 2b has a standard pinto 1.6 carb and wiring from a H reg lazer.

any advice appreciated. thanks

I reckon you'll get about 100mph and 0-60 in about 7 seconds, maybe a little more. They aren't as aerodynamic as a Sierra even though they are lighter, this has a dramatic effect on the top speed but you should get more than 70mph!!

 

My car is a 2L, 135bhp and runs 0-60 in about 6 seconds, haven't had it over a ton yet though, I lose the ability to see at that speed, lol.

 

Rich

hi, thats kinda what i was thinking. Top speed is not a prob for me as i prefer acceleration to top speed and as you say i imagine its pretty windy at higher speeds. I think its time to get my engine tuned properly.

As for loosing the ability to see i find returning from the sva test in a very heavy rain storm with no roof has a similar effect on vision albeit a little wetter. i also learnt that windscreen wipers don't work on the inside of the windscreen

thanks for the info.

Hi, I got my MAC on thursday and dropped documents into DVLA on the way home at Stoke Gifford, how long before you got your build up inspection apointment and registration number etc?

Also what things did they check at DVLA?

 

Dave

Hi, i hassled them (in a nice way) to get registered as my insurance with osbornes and sons only lasted 2 weeks !!! from the date i started which included the sva test. I managed to get past sva in 1 week. failed on the thursday - booked for retest the next wednesday and thankfully passed. Went to DVLA on that friday and filled in lots of stuff and booked inspection for the next thursday (the chap only worked on thursday in the office at bristol) had to attach an extra chassis number as i only had a riveted plate which wasn't good enough, so i got a garage to inspect and stamp a form to say it had been done. Returned the form on the friday and then had to wait til the next wednesday to get the reg number. so all in it took 21 day/3 weeks from start of sva to on the road. thankfully the insurance had got my address wrong so i managed to wangle that extra week with no probs as i couldn't register without certificate. If you have your chassis number attached correctly and your insurance cert then you should be able to get it sooner.

the chap at bristol didn't really look at much and was stone faced and had little interest in the car, hope you get someone better. He checked the engine number and the chassis number and that was about it but asked about the axles etc being from the seirra.

I can't understand why vosa couldn't do a check at the sva test time to say that the car is new/age-related or Q plate so we don't have to pay a grumpy man at dvla with a torch to inspect my car for 5 mins. rant over

Hope that helps, feel free to ask if you need anything else.