steve_d

I have the Dakar for playing slowly off road. An Ultima GTR sports car for playing fast. And an insurance write-off (£440) Peugeot 306 turbo diesel with different colour body panels. The 306 is cheap to run, cheap to insure, gets very little in the way of service and has more than paid for itself. Steve

No matter what they cost they are worth doing. Steve

Not sure about your relay. A relay with 87 and 87a is a change over relay so only one of those pins will connect to pin 30 at any time. I suspect the relay you have actually has 2 pins both marked 87. Worth knowing before you go to buy a replacement. Steve

From the last photo it looks to me as if the bush is shot and likely has metal to metal contact hence your vibration. Replacement with a standard bush may be all you require. Steve

Silly question. You are only filling to the fill level in the header tank and not right up to the top? The air gap in the tank is to allow for expansion. Steve

The wording goes.... blah, blah, blah by you or by someone on your behalf who is not in the business of building motor vehicles blah, etc. I think they would regard a 4x4 specialist/garage as being in the business of building motor vehicles. Steve

I replaced a 3.5 with a 3.9 and included a copy of the receipt. This was not good enough as the receipt was not on headed paper. They said a report from a garage would suffice. The report was actually in the form of an invoice as the garage did not have a headed paper format. The wording was:- Inspect engine installation on Dakar 4x4 XXX 59X and confirm that a Rover 3.9 engine (number xxxxxxxx) is fitted. £10.' This worked. Steve

Is there any indication of what the insurance company want the report for? I ask because it is likely all they need to know is what mods have been done or parts fitted so that they can asses their liability in respect to a claim for loss or damage. It may be that they are not interested in the stress analysis side of things. A report of all the parts/mods that deviate from a standard vehicle plus a generalised report on the standard of workmanship may be all they require. Steve

Don't forget, loads of build photos and make sure they don't give the impression of a business workshop as you will be wanting to declare this as an 'Amateur build'. Steve

I have totally failed to get the idle valve working and have currently given up. It would glitch and jump about and screw all the other dials on Megatune. Now the whole idle circuit is dead so I suspect one or more components have melted. I have another ECU in build (for another car) so will try that when it is done. Steve

Sorry, you can't be allowed get away with that. Steve

I use paste. Steve

If you tighten after thread locking the lock is broken. Afraid its one or the other. As said before the gaskets will compress so if it were me I would forgo the thread lock and just tighten them from time to time until they bed down. Don't forget the bolt which will resist bedding down the longest is the one most difficult to get at. Steve

Those gaskets do compress. When they do they release the load on the bolt which can then spin loose. Similar gaskets on my Chevy engine did the same thing and were tightened three times to bed them in and have stayed there for 5 years now. Steve

I think you will find they are loose because the gasket is compressing over time. Just keep nipping them up until they arrive at full compression of the gasket. To replace the gaskets now will just start the process over again. Steve

You can pull the rocker breather apart which just leaves a stub about 4mm diameter which takes a piece of rubber vacuum hose nicely to adapt to a breather pipe. Whatever you do make sure you maintain the very small hole in the breather or you will allow to much air in which will screw you idle control. I agree the oil filler should be OK. Auto dipstick also needs sealing if you have one. I would imagine the brake servo also needs something but have no idea where the vent is. Steve

Took a journey Yesterday in my 87RRC based Dakar. About 2 miles into the journey the brakes began to bind and very soon were being applied quite hard and the pedal was rock solid. I stopped and smoke was coming from at least the front offside but I assume the others were the same as the braking was even and the pedal hard indicating (to me) that it is a master cylinder/servo issue and not something happening to a specific wheel. On later analysis I realise that the issue may only apply to one of the dual systems. I pumped the pedal hard a few times and the pedal eased so I started off again but they again progressively applied (without having touched the pedal). Before I got to the point of having to stop again the problem cleared and was OK for the remainder of my 40 minute trip. The same thing almost to the letter happened on the return trip and again cleared. Any ideas? To me it seems as if the servo is holding the vacuum and not releasing it. I had hoped that there may be a servo vacuum release valve I could inspect or replace but my Haynes makes no mention of one. Many thanks Steve

Actually no. It is well known that most knife type accident happen because the knife in use was not sharp enough making you have to push or pull too hard then the slip happens. Did have a close call when building a model aircraft. Knocked the scalpel off the bench and quickly swung my legs out of the way as the scalpel stuck vertical into the floorboards........10mm from the end of my Springer Spaniels nose. He remained fast asleep as I moved his nose out of the way before pulling the scalpel out of the boards. Steve

I had to do this with my Dakar. Was only replacing the dead 3.5 with a 3.9. Had my MOT garage inspect it for me and write a report. Steve

I use a surgical scalpel for those sorts of job. Much sharper to give a clean cut. Also if you slip that clean cut I mentioned is much easier to sew up in A&E. Steve

I have a £50 one that has done me well. I built a kitcar with mine the whole chassis is ali skinned with rivets every 30mm so a fair bit of use. http://www.northerntooluk.com/products.asp?partno=15761E Steve

Rather than ploughing through large official tomes the IVA or SVA manuals have it all in a table with diagrams of the positions. Also of importance is the angles from which you must be able to see the lamp in question. I made a mistake on this with the Dakar. Nicely positioned all the lights then later fitted the bull bar which nicely obscured several lights. Steve

Look up local engineering or sheet metal fabricators and just bowl in and ask. Just blagged several offcuts of stainless sheet for now't. Not saying you will manage the same but at the very least you will avoid the postage. You may also get them to stick a couple of bends in it for you. Steve

Was that for me? Just painted the Dakar chassis but the same may apply for a galv in that I had to grind back to bare metal to do the stamping. Even so both the DVLA and SVA inspectors had trouble reading it. I then varnished it. Steve After thought....It might be quite convenient if having to do this meant that the chassis number later rusted away!!!!!!

Form a full radius to the end of the bar then get a piece of door seal, cut off the seal bit leaving just the bit that clips to the door frame (often material/canvas covered) this can then be run along the top, round the end and along the underside. If it is reluctant to stay in place a cable tie behind the mount should do the trick. Steve