agent_zed

Have you cut the end of the sliding guide of yet? you will If you do a 45 degree cut with the saw dropped over (using the rear angle adjustment not just a normal mitre) if you don't move the sliding part of the fence out of the way you chop the end off at 45 degrees! Luckily it's only light alloy and the blades cut metal but annoying for a minute or two, until you realise it doesn't really matter. My blade got blunt from only cutting wood and laminate so i replaced it with a titan one but this only cuts wood. Was on the specials bench and was £5 so couldn't pass that up. The only problem was the spigot reducer was the wrong size so i had to get a stone in the drill and run it around a few times to get it to fit. I am quite impressed at how accurate it can cut for a relatively cheap machine. It i ever try to make a locost i would imagine it would be great for cutting all the tubing. There is a youtube video with a chap cutting a huge piece of RSJ and the blade still cuts plywood afterwards. Right now i need a saw bench as my dads one decided to pack in this morning... christmas is coming

If you do want to change the cam you will need a clear path to the rear of the engine. The cam slides out to the rear and if there is a scuttle in the way you won't be able to. Not sure on the s7 if the scuttle is all part of the tub or at what stage your car is but thought it might be worth a mention. I fitted the 2ltr cam to my 1.6 although mine is the e-max which is a longer stroke under-square engine so not as revvy. Seemed to make a difference to me but we aren't talking major power. Only cost £10 for an old cam so was worth it for a bit of tinkering fun. From what i understand the 2ltr cam is slightly higher lift and longer duration. I think the longer duration is the more important bit on pintos, the inlet is already pretty huge so i don't think lift is the problem. But i could well be wrong. I bounce back and forth thinking about changing my engine for something with more power or more modern but most of the time i think it is actually pretty good fun being able to thrash the hell out of it and not be worried about instant licence removal. I've tried to concentrate on the other parts of driving and I've got pretty good at gear changing and carrying speed through a corner. Cars tend to catch me on the straights and i leave them on the bends. I enjoy the sound of the pinto makes. Power to weight is also in your favour. I worked out that my 1.6 (75bhp) 2b was the same if not slightly better power/weight than my bmw 316ti (114bhp).

Something else you need to check which could be your problem, as i've had similar... These carbs have 2 venturi. The second one opens only when there is need and is controlled by a diaphram responding to vacuum (or i think the older one just opens at a certain point). My guess is that when you hit around 3k the second venturi opens but the jet is blocked so it is only adding extra air and no extra fuel. So you are diluting the mix when you need it most. Take each jet out and check they are clear. Remember which order you take them out (one at a time is safer so you know the right one is put back). The jets pull out of the emulsion tubes so you can hold up to light and see it is nice and clear. hth

I welded my exhuast manifold and entire exhaust in stainless with my Mig with stainless wire and Argon. As mentioned you should really use co2/Ar between 3-5% Ar. This is hard to find in disposable bottles so i used pure argon. I am certainly not a pro welder but i get significantly better welds than pictured with decent penetration. Haven't had an issue with corrosion. Welds aren't shiny but certainly not rusting or anything. From my limited knowledge a weld sitting proud like that likely needs more heat i.e. higher power setting. Hope you get it sorted.

signed in person or digitally?

My understanding is that Metalastic bushes should in most cases be bolted up tight and the movement is then in the rubber bushing. Things like the shock absorbers should be fitted and then only tightened fully once the car is sat back in it's normal position so the bush is no 'pre-loaded'. Poly bushes running on a metal sleeve should again have the tube done up tight and the bush then rotates on the metal sleeve not the metal sleeve on a bolt. The sleeve should be a mm or 2 wider than the bush so the bush is not clamped when the bolt is tightened. at least that is what i've always done. hth

Easy is difficult to define. Prior experience can make things easier. I have taken things apart and mostly put things back together for as long as i can remember and when i came to building my 2b that helped me a lot but i had to also learn a load more. That was the fun for me. I still have my car which has been on the road for 10yrs and i am now looking at re-doing quite a lot of it. Most cars that age would be scrapped. Someone asked if i wanted to sell it the other day... not a chance was my reply. When you get stuck and become disheartened go watch a few car shows like 'sin city motors', 'fantom works', 'a car is born'. Remember you don't have to buy the most expensive stuff, beg borrow and steal (well maybe not the steal part). There are loads of nice seats on ebay that are dirt cheap you dont have to start off with brand new leather bucket seats, same with engines etc. I managed to put my car on the road in 2007 for just over £4k and it's probably still worth around £3k. I built my car. Very few people (present company excluded) can say that. Give it a go!

the superspec grp wings were designed to sit lower. If you do a google image search of a superspec you'll see they have a larger infill panel above the wing. Something i've thought about doing to disguise the gap a little is to add 'spats' to bring the top edge down a bit without moving the actual arch. quick google search to illustrate what i mean https://i.ebayimg.com/i13/07/i/000/a7/22/f5b9_35.JPG. If it was just a black spat or even carbon fibre looking etc it might just work as a 'feature' my car isn't particularly low but still had too much camber and toe-in so recently fitted camber shims and it's much better now.

One thing you are likely to find is that the clutch pedal is quite high (assuming they used the sierra pedal box). This is 'normal' and once you get used to it is not a problem as you can normally put your foot underneith if you need a stretch. To add photos you have to use a third party site. You can use something like photobox etc where you will need and account. I tend to just use tinypic.com as you don't need an account and it's dead easy to use. It just won't remember your photos like photobox etc. As above most RH's are pretty unique in one way or another and you can just tailor it to you, that's the fun bit

I've always sprayed my panels outside. You always get a bug land on the very last coat which you have to flat out but i have achieved a pretty high gloss finish. The main problem this time of year will be temperature and humidity. Although when it is really cold the humidity often falls. Ideally you want to be above 20c. I am lucky i am far away from neighbours so the smell doesn't affect them. I use cellulose as it was the safest for home use, although water based paints seem to be the norm now but they require more heat as water is harder to dry than solvent. ALWAYS WEAR A CHEMICAL MASK obviously i only ever paint my agricultural machines with cellulose as it's illegal to paint cars with it, although my tractor looks a bit like a 7

i might be mis-reading your post but just to clarify both the spit/suck and pressurised expansion vessel system are pressurised. The only difference is that the spit/suck reservoir is not pressurised and there will be no air in the system. The pressurised tank will have air in it. Both systems will have a pressurised valve set to a specific poundage they are just in different positions in the system. If you aren't running either type of reservoir then the radiator is acting as the pressurised reservoir, which as mentioned will reduce the amount water in your radiator and potentially allow air to be pulled into the engine if the water gets too low as air could be pulled down the narrow tubes and create bubbles. Putting in a reservoir in its simplest form makes sure there is enough water in the radiator to prevent this happening.

I would agree with Brumster. It is just a pressurised vessel in your cooling system at the highest point. Pretty much every modern car is this setup so pop the bonnet on your tintop and have a look is one option. As long as the pressure vessel has a pressure releasing cap then the radiator shouldn't really have a pressure releasing cap. I guess if you can't get a non valved cap i guess just getting a much higher poundage one than the pressure releasing cap on the expansion tank will do, as the expansion tank will in theory always vent first then. I cant see the need for a catch tank as no modern car has this. You just have a plastic pressure tank with a cap. Just to add as far as i am aware both spit/suck and an inline expansion tank are both pressurised systems. The spit/suck one just doesn't have a pressurised expansion vessel, the cap has valves for both direction so once 13lbs (or 16lbs or whatever you have) etc is reached it will vent to the expansion tank and any trapped air bubbles out and when it cools negative pressure opens another valve and pulls water back in if needed. A pressurised vessel has air in it so it just pressurises the air and the water level just rises and falls a bit, i assume there must be a 2 way valve as well so air can be pushed out when pressure is reached and pulled in when it drops. I think 13lbs raises the boiling point to about 110degrees from memory (could be wrong) so 16lbs will be higher again. The higher the pressure the more problems you will have with keeping the water in. So if you can improve cooling and run a lower poundage it will be better. hth

If you can't follow the wires by eye, most multimeters have a continuity tester so you can just touch the wire under the dash and the other end touch whichever wire you think it is and see if it buzzes (sorry if you already know this). hth

I'm just doing that same as my bottom hose blew the other day, thankfully as i pulled into the drive after returning from work. I've found that most of my connections are 32mm but the water pump seems to be about 38mm. It's always been like that and nothing i can do about it as the radiator inlet and outlet is 32mm. I am going to replace all of my pipes as they are all pretty old but annoyingly i am going to have to buy various bends and straights and a reducer for the bottom hose to be able to replace what i have. I'd rather have less joins but i hey ho. If everything is 32mm i'd use 32mm.

Clearly that is a pirate hat that you have to bend to shape and join the 2 bits together, Flat plate to put your Tea cup on whilst making the pirate hat and a tiny set of canoe paddles for a very small canoe (possibly inflatable which is possibly what it is sitting on) which then gives you a vessel with which you can use the pirate hat. . . . Sorry that isn't actually very helpful. Can't even guess what they would be for.

makes sense. will give that a go thanks both

it might not always be the case but from memory the red springs were 180lb as said above and the green zimmers were 320lb. I think there were blue springs as well but not sure what poundage they were. I would guess 350-400 as they were used on the rear of the 2b which needs somewhere round there. hth

cool. only trouble now is the pinto water pump outlet seems to be about 39mm. so do i go 40mm or 38mm?

Hi, so just looking to replace all of my radiator hoses as one went pop i am assuming the same age for the others and don't want the same to happen to them. Just sanity checking that the ID of the hose will be the main part of the metal joint not the diameter of the ridged part of the joint. If you see what i mean. For example on the thermostat housing output on my pinto the main part is 32mm but the ridge to stop the hose slipping off is a few mm's bigger ~35mm. I assume i use 32mm and stretch it over the ridge. Is that correct? thanks

ah ok will have another look. cheers

So i think someone is testing me by throwing little challenges at me..... Sorry this is long and rambling. So back a couple of months ago my bmw failed mot on air-bag light (and a few less important things) so i thought i'd take it to bmw and get the air bags replaced as there was a recall notice on them. This didn't solve the problem. The bmw garage washed the car for free and when i picked it up they handed me the mirror glass that had fallen off. I don't know why they didn't put it back on as it was fine when i left it but no big deal as such. This didn't solve my airbag light problem so i bought a seat bypass thingy. That didn't solve my problem. My brother had an ecu reader but i couldn't get it off him so i bought a elm327 bluetooth one off ebay. This connected to my dads citreon, but not my bmw or GFs polo. I can only assume it speaks french not german! So i bought a usb cable version only to realise it was for flashing the ecu not diagnosing a problem. So wasted more money there. Finally got my brothers one and cleared all errors but didn't cure the problem. Oh it also failed on emissions but i think i sorted that as it had jumped a tooth on the inlet cam. I managed to wangle it back into place. but this doesnt help as the above is still broken So i started using the 2b for comuting work but this needed the head taking off as it wasn't running correctly. Discovered bent valve as i'd dropped a nut in the manifold last year when i fitted the 2 ltr cam and had the head off, so replaced valve and new head gasket. New head gasket leaked along the seam as it was cheap and naff and i shouldn't have used it. So off with that one and on with a new one. was an idiot and didn't check oil so oil light came on a few times on commute as low oil. hopefully haven't done any damage. Running better but carb is a bit messed up so was running rich for a long time. Ran out of fuel on way home 0.5mile from garage no fuel cans for sale brother came to rescue. filled up with fuel next day and returned home after work. smelt petrol... leaking around fuel filter. New fuel pipe over the wknd. Back to work running well on way in and way home until... 0.5mile from home notice temp rising a bit. Pulled into drive ... PSSSSHHHHHHH steam from bonnet and water spraying out of lower water pipe split. This was this week, so a job for tomorrow so i have a car for monday. Bought new car (to replace bmw not 2b) brother works for car auctions so got a good deal on a peugeot 3008 should have picked it up today... brother noticed a new dent after the auction some idiot moving the car around the lot must have bashed the bottom of the door so that is being mended before i can have it. So instead of picking up new car i went to put the new carpet down in my kids room carpet was meant to be 3m wide but only 2.7 so doesn't fit has to go back. But the underlay is down and the spare piece was big enough to go under the rug in the lounge to stop my little boy bashing his head on the floor if he falls over This evening my little boy decides to throw up for only the second time in 7.5 months (can't really complain as he is pretty awesome generally) over the rug and some goes through to the new bit of underlay. So had to vax carpet clean the rug and underlay this evening. Working on the central heating today and i noticed the timer for the immersion doesn't now seem to be working I am now wondering what else lies ahead for this wknd. perhaps i shouldn't try and tempt fate and do any wiring or anything else remotely dangerous. still got to smile

Hi, sorry it's not a car question but someone on here is sure to know. So i have a water tank with 2 immersion heaters. I have one working and the other is spare. I have a gas boiler plumbed into the tank that i haven't yet wired up. (gas boiler runs the central heating also so that works fine etc). It is set up as S-plan. So for the gas boiler to heat the water in the tank i need a thermostat to tell the zone valve to open etc So my question is can i use the thermostat that is in the second immersion to turn on the zone valve? It's a fully covered tank so i can't use the strapped around tank thermostat and it seems messy to have one fitted to a pipe when there is an un-used thermostat free that sticks directly into the tank (so should be more accurate). Is that a bad idea? against regs etc? any thoughts? thanks

I bought a 500w einhell drill press. Works pretty well for what i need it to do and 500w is bigger than most of the cheap ones. Had it for a couple of years. The only slightly annoying thing is having to manually adjust the table part by sliding and locking rather than ones where you can wind it up and down. but i don't think you'll get that on any of the budget ones. Oh the arms occasionally unscrew but a bit of locktite would sort that if i really wanted. hth

yeah was a nice day over here too. had to change a fuel pipe as got a leak on the fuel filter so nipped to motorworld this morning (only place around here that was open) and got the new pipe installed. Then took her for a couple of miles around here for a test run as need it for the morning commute.

can't vouch for this particular car but i'm 6'1" and my 2b is more than big enough for me. My head is significantly lower than the roll bar and i have plenty of leg room. Part of the trick with the 2b is putting your foot under the clutch pedal as it is quite high up so you can stretch your leg out if needed. hth