Appletree Works, 26 - 30 Glenfield Road
Ashford, Middlesex, TW15 1JL, U.K.
Tel: 01784 - 241466 Fax: 01784 - 250915

Caterham FireBlade
Archive

Sloppy ‘Race’ Preparation = No Brakes!

Pictured right is a steel hose clip that was so positioned and tied that it chafed into the soft copper brake pipe. The second picture shows the hole worn into the copper brake pipe.
Attention to detail is very important!

Foam Baffle problems, like brakes, also seem to be a regular theme. The two pictures (left) are of the sump and oil pick-up pipe from a car that came through the workshop. This car started to indicate a drop in oil pressure at a track-day. Fortunately it was a wet day so it wasn’t possible to push the car too hard. On removing the sump it was discovered that all of the remains of the foam baffle were jammed in the oil pickup. Only time will tell if permanent engine damage has occurred.

More Horror Stories! The Sequel Here

Pictured right - This is a Rover foam baffle which was broken up to such an extent it caused a zero oil pressure situation. Luckily the customer took note of the gauge, and extra oil pressure light, and stopped before any damage was done. The baffle had supposedly been changed less than a year ago! It is advised to keep a good record of when baffles and belts are changed.

Brakes are becoming a bit of a theme in the Horror Stories section!
Be careful where you tie your handbrake cable, preferably not to something that moves. In this picture (left) you can see that the handbrake cable was tied to the brake fluid pipe union on the de dion tube - so as the de dion tube was moving up and down the cable was sawing into the union. You can see that where the union should be round, it has a ‘cable’ sized groove worn into it.

Cam Belt - a close call.

In the right of the picture is the back of the toothed cam belt and the item in the left of the picture is the cam cover soft rubber seal, which is hollow in section. The cam belt was found to be slack and centrifugal force caused it to rub on the seal, so much so that there is a deep groove worn into the back of the cam belt - right through to the root of the teeth on the front of the cam belt.

The things you find!
Two loose washers inside the bearing dust cap for example.