Went for another blat inteh caterham yesterday befor all the forcast rain. and had a couple of minor issues,
1) When i cornered around a left had bend at any speed there was a metal sound on the outside of the car - turned out to be the exhaust had turned and was now facing more downwartds, so when the car leaned in the corner the beveled end of the exhasust scrapped the floor... must have been when i replaced the engine... so tightned up and all is good.
2) I took a passenger for the a drive the other day and any large dip in the road means that the rear grounds out on to something at the back of the car... not sure what. I now need to look into loading the suspension, or looking waiting for a full car set up once the car is properly loosened up... not sure what to do here...
 ---    --- ---   --- any advise?????

Just to let you know, my car is going in for Caterham to repair the paint issue caused by the brake fluid leak in January, so hopefully that will be the end of it.

When i was looking at the gearbox leak last week I noticed that the paint on the underneath of my car was pealing off.... mainly around the rivits and the holes in the underneath of the chassis. 
The paint flaking was mainly on the passenger side, but there is some on the drivers side too.. 
I spoke to Caterham about this, as I beleive that this was due to the leak that ws caused by the manual requiring a washer that means the front brake pipes do not close properly (see my build diary). 
I am now waiting for Caterham to agree that they will do this work uner warranty as this is caused by the changed specification and not updating the manual.... not through my ability to build the car... i do hope that this is sorted very soon...  

About a week ago i had a letter from Caterham racalling the rear brake calipers because of a failure on the IVA test. I am told that the Calipers were not of the standard that is requried by Caterham, and could cause impalance between the two rear wheels in some cases (my interpretation from a conversation).

Fairly easy to do, ~I changed the rear calipers very quickly, it is basically draining the fluid, two bolts for the caliper, the brake pipe nut and of fitting and then filling and bleeding the brakes (all 4 of them)... simples !!!!

So i have got my new calipers and have today changes them,  and put them on the car... now it is time to test them ... Wish me luck !!!

post script - I have had a couple of chats with people who have had thier kits recently and the guys i have spoken to have been told that they have been provided with calipers which do not have the problem my batch had .... but it is always worth checking if you are not sure.

Well I have invited a friend over (pictured ... thanks Del) and we are gonna get the engine out, but without the gearbox. The plan is to remove the engine without the gearbox and fix the gearbox leak in situe....
I spent most of Friday getting the nightmare bolt out and finally succeeded to remove the "starter motor" bolt that is closest to the engine... to do it i had to get a half inch flexible extension (looks a bit like a snake) and a ball jointed 17mm socket... then by feeding the socket and extension over the top of the oil filter (from underneath the car), and accross the top of the starter motor i managed to finally get enough torque onto the bolt to get it removed....
Now the rest is simple (ish)
1) undo all the bell housing bolts
2) Remove the exhaust
3) remove all the wiring connections (and the 100's of cable ties)
4) get the engine hoist back into position
5) Drain the water and remove the hoses
6) undo the gearbox mounting bolts (but not remove them)
7) remove the engine mounting bolts (and engine mountings)
8) lift the engine out... 

    "Simples ! ! " ...... Actually it was fairly easy.

Now for the Gear box....
1) remove the bell housing from the gear box (four bolts and a couple of taps with a rubber hammer)
     - note there is no need to remove the clutch as the bell housing can simply be placed on the scuttle at the back of the bay.
2) we ended up removing the "nose" of the gearbox and the metal plate too.. and using the gaskets (and sealant) to replace them as my gearbox was leaking from the bottom of the nose.
3) before replacing any of the gaskets we had to make sure that there was no gasket left in place, so a long cleaning process was used to scrap off the sealant from all serfaces (making sure not to scratch the metal face).
3) we put a bead of silicone sealant around the "selector rail" at the top of the gearbox, and then a bead all the way around where the paper gasket will sit
We put on the paper gasket onto the front of the gearbox, squashed it onto the sealant and place another bead of sealant onto the paper gasket... now the messy bit..
4) put the bell housing back and tightend the bolts to torque

Engine went back ok, only trick was to put the gearbox on the jack and lift the bearbox up as high as it could go, so that the engine could be lined up early in the lowering process (more room so the engine can be pushed back to allow the pulleys at the front of the engine to clear the top chassis rails).
Below are a few picks of the gearbox.....

Well some bad news today, my mysterious gearbox leak has come back, worse than before. I took the car out earlier today and gave it a few more revs than I had before, and in First and Second gear I started to smell some faint gearbox oil odours.

So when I got the car back I looked under the car and there was a leak, which is self-evident from the pics…



I called Caterham and they said it could be a couple of things… 


1)  It could be that I did not put enough silicone around the “selector Rail” when I put the gearbox together
or
 2) They had had a gearbox  which had a badly fitted seal on the front which had caused a leak as I had described

Either way it was time to take the engine out of the car and get the leak sorted. Caterham are sending me the gaskets I need to sort the gearbox out and I will have a go at the  weekend.

 Not good !!!

I went rhough my check list of all the things i new were not complete or wrong when i handed in the car for the post build check, and yesterday i suddenly realised i had not mentioned that the Wheels were un balanced.. so i had to call them to let them know.
Seemed a little strange that three of the wheels had no weights on them but one fo them did, when i spoke to sean a couple of weeks ago he said occassionally they get wheels sent in which were not balanced by their suppliers. but they should have been. So caterham will do the changes as a part of the post build checks for me.
Monday is D-day, and i am starting to get a little nervous about getting the car into the IVA test centre and hopefully passing the test. Tomorrow i will do some prep and make sure i have everything i think i need liked
- proof of insurance
- proof of test date and time
- tools to do any alterations
- cable ties
- Tape incase they think i have to tape something

I may just give Caterham North a ring and make sure that i have everything they would normally take to the centre.

anyway wish me luck.......