That vids quite good for a cheapo camera;)

Post a link please I am looking for one for use on my bike.:cool:

Was good to see the finished article in the flesh last night John!

Looks s great and I'm well impressed with your sewing skils ;)

Thanks again for lending me the timing light

Ayjay, just search for 'md80 camera' on ebay. :-) £4.99+£1.99 shipping!

Cheers James! If only my metalworking skills were as good as my sewing skills :D

Yep, that's the one. I don't have a link handy, but there's loads of MD80's for around £7 delievered on ebay.

You know when you've been tango'd
 

Popped over to Porkchop's last night and came back with one very orange diff!



The picture doesn't do it justice, it's far more vivid and 'orangey' in reality!

Great to meet you last night Porkchop, and thanks for diff!

You know when you been tango'd !!!! Lol:D

It was my pleasure John - cheers for bringing the stuff over for me :D

That pic makes the diff look totally different, I had to wear sunglasses when I removed it!

No worries Dave. I've just about got over the trauma of my GPS packing up whilst trying to find your house!

I think my car's going to look like something out of fast and furious with the orange glow coming out of the bottom :D

In other news I was well peeved off last night.
I got Northwest propshafts to fix my propshaft. They couldn't repair the original UJ so had to fit a brand new one along with a brand new tube (at great expense).
Offered it up to the diff and the new flange they fitted doesn't clear the chuffing nut on the end of the diff. One is not amused...




EDIT: I'd just like to point out it's the same with the old diff too, so I can't blame porkchop or the technicoloured diff!

That's annoying!

Very not good!

John's right, it's a lot more orange in real life...:eek: :eek:
Well it's been sandblasted then at least two coats of etch primer and a couple of coats of polyurethane so should last a while.
Not good news about your prop John..:(
I got mine shortened at Dunnings and Fairbank which in the end wasn't a bad price I guess at £69 shortened, balanced, painted and delivered.:o

Got hold of Northwest Propshafts, they were a bit surprised saying they had never seen that problem before.
They're sending a courier to pick it up and will see if they can rework it to make it fit.
The front diff mount's taking me a bit longer to fabricate than I had planned anyway, so hopefully the propshaft issue won't set me back too much if at all.

Handbrake cables
 

I have spent some time trying to adjust my handbrake cables so they clear the rear bulkhead. I think I have made them even worse.

I have shortened the bracket and pulled the cable up attaching it to the diff hangers.

Skov / stot? - how much have you chopped out of the bracket?

Any ideas of how I can increase the clearance.......

I am starting to loose the will to build my car. Once this is done I will commit to paying for bodywork and the last few bits.

David

Don't lose heart David, you've come too far to give up now!

I chopped about half an inch out of the brackets, and bolted the cables to the diff bracket things and that was (just!) enough to pull the cables away from the chassis.
I also raised my rear ride height slightly for the re-test to give me that little extra clearance ;)

I know that feeling, I'm approaching hibernation once again.:D

I am selling an engine and tidying the garage, which means there will be another small push soon....

TT

I've been out in the garage again....

I now only have one knuckle with skin left in it but my rear cables are now well clear of the rear chassis.

I will post a photo in my build

Thanks for the inspiration to keep going!!!!!

David

On mine in the photo you can see where the old hole was.



The slight change of angle helped more than how much I took of to be honest. I will likely take them off again and fill that hole with weld and grind it so that it butts up all the way along as it could swivel a bit if the bolt came loose.

Cheers
Stot

Finally got my propshaft back yesterday. It fits this time which is nice :cool:
Just bolted it all up with my new front diff mount and Stot's solid diff arm mounts.
Here's some pictures for what it's worth:







I'll report back when it breaks (assuming broken wishbones or the awful handling doesn't put me in a ditch first).

Great, lets us all know if it feels any different.

looks solid, certainly an improvement

Looks good mate, I'll doing the same to my diff.

Just had a quick blast. The diff survived which is a good start.
Can't say I notied any additional vibration.

250 miles on and the diff is holding up so far...

Some new roadster related goodies turned up in the post this morning.
I got mixed reviews from other road users on the way home, but I think they were mostly positive :D



Chocks away!

Wow huge goggles! Must of given everyone a good laugh! :D

Think it might be small head rather than big goggles, and yes, hilarity did prevail :D

Looks like "The fly":D :D

Glad to hear the "Tango diff" is holding up.:)

Do you think the failure was purely because the rubber mounts where in shear like you say?
Obviously a bit concerned as I'm using the same mounts but in compression and tension.
What did you wear before your new goggles?

Yes, I'm pretty sure it failed due to my half ar5ed job using rubber mounts in shear :rolleyes:
I had a look at your mates chassis when I visited Porkchop's and I can't see your diff going anywhere the way you have it sandwiched with one in compression and one in tension at all times.

Before I got my rediculous hat and goggles I was switching between sunglasses and a full face motorcycle helmet.

These are the shades I use (PM me if you want a 20% discount code):

http://www.uksportseyewear.co.uk/pro...-biker-glasses

They're great for short trips and slow/town driving, but I find the bike helmet much more comfortable if I'm going to be driving above 40mph for any length of time.

My odometer passed 1000 miles today!
Only one major malfunction during that time can't be too bad can it :o

That's good to hear:)
You've said in another post you have changed you're shocks about. What setup are you currently running.

I'm currently running 400lbs on the rear and 250 on the front.
The rear feels about right to me, but the front is a tad too soft.

I'm going to fit some 325lb springs on the front next week.
I was going to go for 300lb, but I managed to pick up the 325lb springs second hand (but unused), for less than half the price of a pair of new 300lb springs :o

Ah ha, I found my old build thread! Time to resurrect it.

My tax ran out on the 1st of January, and I won't bother re-taxing it until spring, so it's winter rebuild time.

I did have a list of things I wanted to improve, but seeing as it's been burning a litre of oil every 100 or so miles I'd better fix that first :rolleyes:
Not 100% sure what's wrong, but googling suggests I probably need to replace my oil control rings.
Started tonight by unbolting various bits from the engine in preperation for removal.

Just need to decide whether to rebuild it, replace it with another 1.6, or replace it with something a little more potent.

Supercharger or turbo charger!

David

I've got a turbo, a spare manifold, and some bigger injectors sat under my desk at work as it happens :cool:
Don't want to stick it on an engine that's already burning silly amounts of oil though!

Sounds like a good plan. Have a look at the mx5s running in the ma5da cup. They manage 250bhp reliably from their 1600s

Ooooh I'm getting all excited! :D

I was always told that it's cheaper and better to swap engine to something bigger than turbocharging smaller engine...
But... I turbocharged my BMW with M50B25 6 cylinder engine ;) I'm still glad I made it... with old Volvo 850T5 turbo, without lowering CR... great experience...

But... if your engine needs rebuild or similar it's easier to swap than rebuild and turbocharge it...

Eh?

Both Ma5da (when it was still running) and the BRSCC equivalent run near standard 1600s.

The torque equivalent of 250bhp would be about the limit for both the gearbox and the conrods. Plus I wouldn't want that much torque going through a 90-93 1600 diff, it will, more likely than not, break.

Personally, I'd rebuild rather than replace. The youngest 115bhp 1600 will be 21 years old after all. The chances of finding another engine needing some form of rebuild will be more likely.

That's what I thought :confused:
I seem to recall they're only allowed a head skim and a bit of porting, and have to run on the standard ECU.
I'd be surprised if they got 150bhp, let alone 250!

My thoughts exactly! I can pick up a 1.6 for less than £100, but chances are it's going to need a load of work too.

The other option I was thinking of was sticking a 1.8l Mk2.5 lump in there (~150bhp standard).
That's going to be a fair bit of work though, and even those are 10 years old and starting to go bang now...