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February 20 Why my alternator wasn't chargingSo we moved the alternator housing around 180 degrees because my powerspeed exhaust had previously melted the connection into the alternator, which in itself had caused problems getting the engine to idle, not a big deal and been done before... however when i went to start the car I got no charging circuit, the car would start fine and run however. Suspicion focused on the alternator and that either 1. the re-wiring was bodged up or 2. the alternator didn't like being changed in this manner and as such wouldn't charge however on closer inspection when we took the alternator off, So hopefully I will be able to get this specific part from a Bosch distributor Part number F 00M 145 206 rather than have to buy a new alternator. UPDATE - a quick call to Camberly Auto Factors with the part number and I have one coming tomorrow, 37 quid with the dreaded so better than the cost of a new alternator, lets hope it works :) Rob :) Technorati tags: caterham January 26 What Eibachs?Previusly mentioned that I was goign for some soopa doopa Eibach springs, however the nice people at Nitron rang me earlier in the week to let me know that they don't actually do them in the size/rating I wanted....so it is back to the standards ones that they supply. Will i see a difference, probably not and now i have a 100 quid to spend on something else :o Rob :)
January 18 First part of Winter upgrade doneDone the easy part and ordered my main winter upgrade...
Went for 250 fronts and 150 rears on the spring rate.
I did ask on blatchat if the springs where worth it, and although I get the theory at a high level behind it I am not so sure I will notice any difference over the standard springs which Nitron use, whihc I believe are Falkners. But as someone said If you don't get them you will always wonder what if... so for the minimal extra outlay and the the premium bond win I thought it would be best ;) I had a good conversation over the phone with Nitron who where very friendly and knoweldgble about what i needed based upon my requirements. Hopefully they will be in my hands within the next 2 weeks, am in no hurry but am looking forward to them. Plan will be to sell the AVO's and recoup some of my outlay Rob February 08 Engines BackLast night I picked up the last major component for my winter upgrade which was the engine from DVAPOWER where it had its winter upgrade and refresh.
I had a spare standard K head lying around so was able to leave it with Dave and get it in his queue so I could stilld rive the car. I took the egnine less all ancillaries up to him before christams and got the nod it was finished a couple of weeks back.
So what did I have done...
plus all the other ancillary bits and bobs as well as dave taking it all apart and then putting it al back together
bearing in mind the restrictions on what engine mods I can do for my sprint seriers i thinkt his is about as far as I can go for now.
A recent engine on a similar spec I know made 148.7bhp@7363, 115.8 lbft@5724 on Dave Walkers (Emerald) rolling road
So lets hope i can improve on my times from last year, otherwise it may have been an expensive winter...
Only have ot put everythign back together and get it run in befor first event at Longcross on the 23rd April :) January 24 GearboxingSo Stage 1 of the winter 'upgrade' looks like it has been completed. Just got off the phone with Road & Race Transmissions, who have been servicing my caterham 6 speed box, and it is ready for collection :)
My main winter project was to have my engine rebuilt and slightly tweaked by DVAPower, so i took the opportunity to have the gearbox serviced at the same time as I hadn't been 100% happy with the gear change on it.
The original gearbox for my superlight stuck in 6th gear on a trackday at Castle Combe, and it was replaced under warranty by caterham, due to there being a 'manufacturing fault' they wouldn't tell me what the exact issue was! The replacement box was originally very knotchy in gear changes, but over time it seemed to loosen up to a point where I was happy with it, however when other people drove my car they commented on the poor/knotchy gearchange , and when I drove other 6 speed cars it was apparent, especially at high revs that it wasn't perfect. An oil change to Redline MTL (what Road & Race recommend for the caterham 6 speed box), seemed to make it better but not for long. So after only 12,000 miles (of which at least half have been on track I guess) I decided it was time to have it looked at.
The main problem was getting from 2nd up to 3rd at very high engine revs (6,500 plus), and as i struggled I started over compensentating and either grabbing 5th :( or worse going back to 1st, which at 6,500 rpm wasn't doing the engine much good, and it was worse for my times. At virtually every event this year i had at least one run that would be ruined by a fluffed gearchange. Now of course a bad workman always blames his tools, but it was very frustrating and I was conscious of the gearchange every time. In fact towards the end of the year rather than the snick-snick-snick gearchange I was used to I was coming out of second and letting the gearleaver self centre and then going up to third, which was probably costing me at least 0.25s a change and also the associated loss of speed (sprinters excuse #145). My confidence in getting a good slick gear change was shot , and I am hoping I can get over the mental barrier for this year...
I dropped the box off at R&R before christmas to have a service and to see what they could do about the change action, Phil suggested moving to an 'uprated' or slightly stiffer spring combination which should allow the gear level/selector to centre quicker than before. They do 3 options, road (which I already had), medium (which I am goigng to try) and a race setting which we thought might be too stiff for my usage. I was also going to have the race breather system installed but this seems to have been missed out, but I am not that concerrned about it, and I won't be charged for it.
As well as a generally service and check over I have had 3 synchros replaced as they where worn? not sure if this was causing my gearchange problems or as a result of my fluffed changes...Not sure how many sychros there are in total (6?), or how bad they where. Instead of the redline MTL I am going to try some Silkolene race gearbox oil which was recommended to me by Simon at Opie Oils, and we shall see how that goes.
Now just have to get the gearbox back, and the engine and bolt everything back together, and the new wings, and the data logger and the .......
Road And Race Transmissions don't have a web site AFAIK but they can be reached on
Road & Race Transmissions The Bullock Shed Filston Farm Shoreham, Kent TN14 5JU tel: 01959 525105 mobile: 07836 333882 October 21 Car Technical SpecsOK - here is the technical spec of my caterham as much as I can recall
The car is largely standard caterham superlight spec so
at time of ordering I ordered the following 'upgrades'
with the additional of
am sure I have missed some bits out...
rob |
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