Night Train

It is worth talking to a friendly locksmith about those barrel cylinders. There are two types, IIRC, 7 pin and 11 pin. The 7 pin version is supposedly easy to pick with a made up cylinder and the 11 pin is a bit harder to pick. Anyway it is something like that and a locksmith will advise better. You could try electrical dead locks on a key fob or some internal deterants.

My 1991 Toyota MR2 mk2 rev1 has an electric power steering pump. It is often used for electric car conversions and, given the MR2 is a bit of a rust bucket and gets crashed a fair bit, the pump should be available from scrappers. Some of the later versions had an integral pump and rank but I believe the early ones, like mine, were separate units. Have a look at this one. See also this thread on a forum.

Have you had a look at look at The Centre For Alternative Technology? They have many decades of living off grid and only recently acquired a grid connection as a means of storing their excess of electricity to stabilise their supply.

You could make one. Use a planetary gear set from an autobox or a set of hefty spur gears so that it is like a Land Rover overdrive but with the shafts in one end out the other. Look for industrial gear boxes, usually on the front of a motor and gearing down so run it the wrong way to gear it up. A tractor gear box?

Someone at the battery Vehicle Society may be able to help. The forum is a little slow moving but someone will respond. Alternatively look at DIY Electric Car forum. It is over the pond but there are also UK and European folks on there.

That is a fair amount of power to transmit There are Jag overdrive gearboxes that may be able to handle that sort of power and torque. Also some of the big Fords from the 70s and 80s used a similar overdrive and are a lot cheaper then Jag ones. Is it worth describing what you are doing in more detail? Is it a vehicle or a machine? Is there drive speed variable or fixed? Will there be any shock loading or start up load? There may also be agricultural, marine and industrial gearboxes that may be usable. A search on Ebay brings up lots of potentials. I even found a straight cut spur gear box from a tractor that would probably run backwards (turning it around would still load the gears the right way) and a part stripped Unimog box that might have enough parts left.

How much power and torque do you need to transmit? you could get a Laycock overdriveand build that in line. It would be electrically switchable from direct drive to overdrive. You would need the input to it so maybe getting the gearbox and overdrive together would make things easier. Just cut the back end off the gearbox and mount a flange on the left overs of the mainshaft.

And make sure you specify two channels welded. I forgot once and I got two large radius folded angles welded on the corners.

Another qualified electrician here. I would say do nothing, touch nothing. It is the landlord's responsibility to make that safe and to provide a safety certificate to cover it. Also the landlord may only want to do the minimum and so won't want to be fitting sockets etc to the garage. He might if you were paying for it but a responsible landlord would want their own contractor to do it or if you got your own then they would have to be able to certify that the work was safe. I guess how much effort and money you put into it depends on how long you intend to stay there renting. MICC isn't always bullet proof either. I remember having to repair and replace the MICC wiring to a load of fluorescent and discharge lights ouside a block of flats. The MICC had acted like a long thin capacitor and exploded during lighting up. Granted it was still working but it was in bits with bare conductors along its length arcing in the rain.

I don't think it was a cheapo bodge job on the bumper just that even the most costly chromed plastic looks like chromed plastic on cheap toys. Your S1 would look better with a polished ali finish.

Could have been I suppose. We were heading away from the Mancy United ground but as I don't do footy I would know him, could have been City I suppose. All I saw in my mirror when he was behind me was black guy driving wearing a white baseball cap back to front and and an older white guy next to him. He seemed quite a courteous driver though.

I saw this coming out of Manchester today. Tried to take a photo while waiting at the traffic lights but it moved off before the camera clicked so I only got the bum end of it before I had to move off also. It says Revere on the back and has a double R back to back badge on the front. The rear bumper was the only bit not chromed. The front bumper looked like the chome you find on toy cars from China.

The copper looks nice when it is polished and lacquered.

Thanks, I will get back to you on that one at that price. I am waiting to see if Simonr's batteries come to me too and also a lathe down south to make it a good round trip collection.

I installed a kit of copper brake and clutch pipes with Aeroquip SS braided flexible in a race prepped MGB in 1989 and it was fine right up to when I sold in 2006. It was in regular use with alternate years of being in storage.

I guess the electric traction motor was so quiet you missed it. With an electric drive the clutch could be dispensed with as most of the time it will only need the one gear. Generally somewhere between 6:1 and 8:1 as the motor to wheel ratio. It could then run at urban speeds on low range and, when required, be shifted to high range if there are motorways. The motor would be quite happy in either gear moving off from stationary. Anyway it is a drawing board idea to get around the adaptation of conventional 5 speed transverse gearboxes where only third and forth are of any use. First gear can even lead to motor damage due to overspeeding due to lack of load. I was thinking of something like a sand rail where the locking diff in the transfer box would then be an added benefit for a bit of off road play.

Cheers Steve, I might just take you up on that if this project moves in that direction. How much are you looking at for it?

Not quite but I have an idea developing on the drawing board. I am looking at the options around a simple two speed transaxle. If you place a motor next to the T box and then join the two with a simple enclosed chain or spur gear to achieve the desired ratio then you get two speeds and a diff lock. The ratios can then be changed if needed. The output flanges could be redrilled to fit CV joints on the drive shafts. It could go at the backend of a sand rail type vehicle without the length or overhang of the usual VW transaxle or in the front end of a fwd vehicle. Also looking at the option of an inline epicyclic gear train straight onto the shaft end of a motor. That would produce a geared reduction motor that can connect straight onto an axle diff or prop shaft. If it is done right then the epicyclic gears could also provide a geared reverse. I was looking at the old Laycock type overdrives that went on MGBs and the like. I'm sure someone could make a sideline of manufacturing something like this.

Excellent stuff, thank you. I have looked up the specs to it and it is remote mounted and quite compact which is what I was looking for. Cheers.

Hi, just a quick one. I am planning a new project and just wanted to know what the width and height of the glass on a series rear door is please. Thank you.

I am working on a new project and playing around with some ideas. I was wondering if there is a small permanent 4x4 transfer box that is common and easy to find. Something Suzuki sized is really as big as I want to go but must have a centre diff. Remote mounted is also good but don't mind if it has an attached gearbox. Over to you knowledgable chaps. Thank you.

I'd love to see what you'd come up with if you decided to muzzle the dogs instead! My dogs were quite well behaved, never chewed anything in the car, just insisted on sitting in the driver's seat instead!

I usually use E-Tyres for my car, not sure about land Rover size rubber though. I used them as their contractors come on time to where ever I am, work or home, to change my tyres.

I had a pair of them on the front of the 6x6. The lugs were cut off and they were welded on in line with the chassis legs with the pin horizontal. Worked fine for me both as winching and towing points with a bridle and also for an A frame for rigid towing and also made good jacking points for the hi lift.

I got mine cheap as a four pack on Ebay so accepted whatever came with it, the handles cost more then the plugs so I didn't bother with them! Mine is kept inside the vehicle so no concerns about dirt. Also I only use in light bursts with the winch and, eventually, the trailer hydraulics so there shouldn't be any over heating problems. The other reason I soldered was that it gives me the option of desoldering at a later date and reusing the cleaned crimps properly on full sized cable.