Sunday 15th - New Rev Counter

My rev-counter had developed a fault at the end of last summer. Under acceleration the needle would bounce around either side of the actual reading. Once you were up to speed and used a constant throttle, the needle would settle down and indicate the correct revs, but it did make taking the engine into the higher rpm areas, interesting.
I had hoped to sort something out but it was one of those jobs that I couldn't get interested in. I looked into the reasons and it appears the problem is an internal spring. This can break and the needle is no longer damped so darts about.
I had a stroke of luck when a meeting regular, Ben Long, put a barely used on up for sale on the club Forum site. I snapped these up and went over and picked them up on a Friday evening (catching all the rubbish traffic at the Newbury bypass :( ).
It took me a couple of weeks whilst I was finishing off Jason's car to get my act together. The new rev counter has a 6 pin connector on the back and an intragal lamp which is on the PCB. My old one had a separate bulb that pushed into a boss on the back. Simple enough to re-wire, if I knew which wires went to which pin, and where to get a suitable connector from.
I had a look at the manufacturers website and whilst they had the wiring details for colour/purpose, it still didn't give me which pin was which. I e-mailed the technical department and explained what I was trying to do and got an incredibly helpful reply with the offer of a connector/mini-loom and instructions. I duly replied with my address and the following day I got a jiffy bag as promised. Wow - it is so rare these days to get service like that, that it is really worth shouting about it. Did I mention that it was all done for free, and that I didn't buy anything from them, only my original dials via Caterham way back in 96...
Anyway, I found an hour to have a go at the wiring and simply put some spade connectors on each of the new wires and they all plugged straight into the current connector blocks/bulb wiring. It really was very simple. A quick test of switching on my ECU gave the normal 3k rpm throttle pot indication so all was well.
The only slight down side is the fact that it doesn't quite match my speedo now, having a domed edging. I bought a new speedo from Ben at the same time, but as it is only showing 78 miles and I'd need to wind it on to ~19k, I worked it out that it would take me over two weeks at the speed of my drill, and that was doing it 24-7. Errm, perhaps not then huh.

Monday 2nd - Airbox Final Fitting (try 2) - Jason's Engine

A quick visit and the use of some glass fiber resin ensured the studs are not going anywhere. The trumpets were fitted for the last time, the airbox slipped over the top and the bolts fitted (with threadlock).
All finished.

Note: Jason is now running his car everyday again and seems to be enjoying the extra power and added lightness. You can read his final write up here

Now for some sleep!

Sunday 1st - Airbox Final Fitting (try 1) - Jason's Engine

After modifying the airbox to clear the clutch cable (see here) I popped over today to fit the thing for once and for all. Unfortunately the epoxy I took with me to use on the trumpet studs took rather longer than we had to go off, so I had to leave early and leave the final assembly to Jason.
As it turned out, the stuff refused to go off and another visit was required.