2nd October
Went to collect missing battery tray from Amtrak and fiddled around
getting that to fit, 3 holes and a file! With the battery in place there
is no room to fit the nearside brake pipe under the chassis frame as
I have done on the offside, not sure what to do. I want to use the fixed
bracket to connect the flexible to the hard pipe and by bending it, it
should be possible but how to route the pipe there?
Abandoned that for now and tipped whole chassis on its side to have a
go at the front to rear brake pipe.
Eventually sorted this but needed to partly install the rear suspension and the diff to know what needed clearance. I put the suspension on and off a few times as I realised I was trying to put the LHS on the RHS and then which way was the front of the car!! Dohhh!
I got the brake pipe on to the rear 3-way union and then thought that the
rear drive shaft would foul, hence the need to try in the diff. Indeed, where
the pipe was would have fouled it so took it off again and tightened up the
180-degree bend into the union and all sorted.
Then started to think about installing the two fuel pipes but being unsure as to where the steering column would come through the footwell panel, it was time to get the hole for it done.
I used my 1 1/8th inch hole punch and a file to get a snug fit for the column and then bolted it in. Why 35mm bolts were needed is beyond me, just spent ages winding the Nyloc nuts up the thread. All in all, reasonable progress today.
3rd October
Set about installing the two fuel lines, one for flow one for return and this went OK. I pop riveted in the p-clips but this was tough at times as the clips, being for ¼” pipes, were thicker than those for the brake pipes and where I went into the cross rails for the seat supports, the rivets were barely long enough. Anyway, sorted it and all looked very neat.
With the chassis now back on it’s stands, it was time to finish
off the rear brake pipes; this went OK but broke a few pipe clips and am
now a bit short for the one remaining one at the front.
It was now time to make the car look quite different by installing the front and rear suspension. This is a little messy as Copaslip is needed on all the bolts, and even messier when you have to take them apart again because you have forgotten to fit some of the washers! Anyway, by the end of the day, I felt quite satisfied as good progress had been made over the weekend.
4th October
Yesterday, I had tried the upper ball joints in the upper wishbones but the threads were very tight. This hadn’t happened with the rears even though the manual had said the powder coating could be a problem. It seemed there was some corrosion in the threads. I had called Steve from work to see if he had an M18x1.5 tap and he called me back later to say he had a taper but not a plug one of the correct size. He brought in to work today and it worked fine. It wouldn’t go to the end of the thread but it went far enough. This then enabled me to put the front uprights on which I wanted to do to check on the brake pipe route. PROBLEM! The flexible brake hoses are nothing like long enough. Measurements show them to be shorter than specified in the manual. Also, I then checked the rear ones and they too must be wrong as they terminate in a female nipple adapter when there is a female hole in the calliper. E-mail sent to the helpdesk!
The uprights and discs look good – especially when I put them on their
correct sides! I thought 20 degrees of negative camber was a bit excessive!
10th October
A Sunday build-fest, quite a hard day but satisfying. Got home last night from a day at Ellen & Jonathan’s to find a little box on the doorstep. This included new flexible brake hoses for the front, a bush for fitting the rear diff to the chassis and a rubber boot for the CV joints on the rear drive shafts. As has happened before, when I know what the bits look like, I find that I already have them!! Added to the box of bits to take back sometime.
After a couple of conversations with the Mark Walker substitute at the
factory, I think the manual has been remiss in regard to the steering column
in not mentioning the need for a spacer between the chassis bracket and
the lower bracket on the column. This was a shame (to be polite) as the
hole I had carefully cut in the footwell panel would need to be extended.
I tried the plastic cover, to be fitted later, that is shaped to go over
the column and, indeed, the column needed to be lowered for the spacer
to fit.
In the end, it doesn’t look too bad but I need to think what
to do about it.
With
the correct brake hoses, I at last fitted the front nearside brake pipe,
a struggle, but managed it. I needed to remove a bit of the battery tray
to let the pipe through but, with Jan’s help, we made it and ALL
THE BRAKE PIPES ARE FITTED!!
I then decided it was time to really finish
something, so I fitted the steering rack, the track rod ends and torqued
up all the front-end suspension. And to cap it off fitted 2 wheels too!
Getting the upper ball joints tight was fun! In the end I stood on the upper wishbone and waggled the torque wrench until it bit. Having the wheels on, even temporarily is quite satisfying. After lunch it was diff-fitting time. Even with Jan & I on the job this took the best part of 2 hours to get the studs, washers and spacers all in line and knock them through with Mr Hammer. The rear brake pipes all had to come off to make room to swing the hammer and then put them back. The male unions that Westfield had sent were the wrong ones so that had to wait and so the torque reaction link was next to be fitted and then a bit of a rest after quite a hard day.
Later on I had a sort of dabble with the rear drive shafts only to find the drive shaft splines would not go in to the CV joint inners. Time to shut the garage door!!
11th October
After a call to the returned Mark Walker – he’d been on his hols – I
assembled the left drive shaft. The answer to my difficulties was a good
old engineering one – hit it harder! And it worked. Getting the rubber
gaiters on was tough too. They only needed expanding a little to get over
the splines and the shoulder but phew, hard work.
Should get the other one done quite quickly tomorrow now.
12th October
Half an hour of productive work to make the right hand drive shaft and another half-hour trying to find the lost spring from the circlip pliers. With the knowledge of the first shaft, this one went together easily. I also tried a dummy fit of one of the shafts before I fill them with sticky grease.
14th October
After going to Belfast for the day yesterday, I went in late to work today
and greased the drive shaft CV joints – messy!
And then installed
them. The nearside went in OK without removing any of the suspension, but
the offside needed the upright removing from the bottom wishbone to install.
I held this back to the springs with a Tyrap temporarily, bolted the drive
shaft to the diff output and them swung it back to bolt it to the outer
drive shaft. It still seems a bit wobbly, as I need a 41mm socket to do
up the big Nyloc nuts. A high torque is also needed which may need to wait
until it can be reacted with it on the road wheels.
Just for the fun of it, I put the discs on, but as there’s nothing to hold them in place, they looked a bit odd. The correct missing unions for the brake callipers turned up but with the wrong sized copper washer. I think I’ll try and source these locally!
17th October
Right! A Sunday build-day! Torqued up all the back suspension except for the CV joints, and spotted with paint to confirm. It was now time to turn to fitting the rear brake callipers. The cap head bolts go through the uprights into threads in the casting. On the RHS I felt that the threads were tight and that the tightening torque was not giving the required end load. On the LHS, I chased the threads through with a tap and they felt much better. I have put thread lock on these bolts. I think I may remove the RHS and chase those threads out too. I offered up the wheels and found the studs were too long. Either I will need spacers or shorten the threads but I won’t know until I get the body. I made up some spacers from copper tube to push the disc up to the hub for now.
With the callipers in place I finally connected
the hoses. I managed to get some copper washers from the car spares place
at Allenton where I also got a copper washer for the diff filler bolt.
Hence I was able to put
just over a litre of nice smelly EP oil into the diff and tightened the
bolt.
When I was buying the oil from Halfrauds I looked at the brake fluids
and came away confused. I posted a thread on the WSCC forum – seems
DOT5.1 is what I need!
Next job was the handbrake. Fixing the lever to the chassis was easy but the cable…………….well I think it was alive. The nipple ends seem all wrong for the levers on the callipers, see photo.
I also had a struggle to get the cable anywhere near the eye end of the
handbrake lever.
‘Twas time to shut the garage door!
19th October
I spoke to Mark Walker yesterday about the rear wheel studs and the handbrake. As I suspected, I may need to cut them down when I get the wheel arches on. I have fitted the wheels for now with the copper tube spacers to hold them up to the discs. I also measured the rear track.
The handbrake nipples, he admitted, are not ideal but work. To get the
lever’s
rod to meet the compensator he said to remove the lever, connect clevis
pin then lever the handbrake back in! Sounded a bit naff, but it has worked.
The nipples still look a bit odd, but they’ll do for now.
I also Tyraped the brake cables to the suspension and placed the blue sleeves against the edge of the uprights using Tyraps to hold them in place.
Then I got the wiring loom out of the bag……………………..looks
like something from “Alien”.
Shut the garage door again!!!
25th October
After a bit of a break it’s half-term holiday and a week off to get
on with things. I have not been looking forward to this bit – the wiring!
Laid it out on the floor and read the manual instructions a few times. There
are 2 diagrams supplied, a very schematic one in the book and a couple
of A4 sheets which look like the spec for the loom. Working between the
two and with Jan’s help we labelled up every connector with the reference
number from the manual. There were one or two “funnies” but
I think we have worked it out. We then had to label, dismantle, poke a
zillion wires through a hole and re-connect the two fuse blocks. As the
screws and spacers are missing (in the post tomorrow?) they are hanging
in space at the moment.
I then had to feed half a zillion wires and their connectors through another
hole that takes the wiring behind the dash panel.
It was then a matter of routing part of the loom round the engine compartment
so that connectors end up somewhere near not existent bits, such as the
horn, lights, alternator, starter, ignition etc etc. Where access to the
frame was possible, I could Tyrap round it but then I needed to drill holes
to take the Tyrap supports. It was now late afternoon and called Mark Walker
with a load of questions I had generated during the day, but he’d
had to go early! So tomorrow for that.
26th October
Not a lot done today as advantage was taken of some reasonable weather
to tidy up the garden, but whilst I was filling a box with weeds I realised
it was a discarded Westfield box that at one time had contained the wheels.
It had a description on the outside that I thought may be of use so…………………………
I think the “e23” bit is to do with the offset and the “4x108 73” to do with the studs holes. I also snipped a few ends off Tyraps.
27th October
I have just noticed that I have passed halfway in the claimed 120 hours build; therefore I am halfway……………….oh yeah! Drilled the chassis in several places and clipped the loom into place around the engine bay and partway down the tunnel. The latter is not easy lying on your back drilling upwards and then fighting a rivet gun. For these few rivets it does not seem worth getting the compressor up and running.
Where the earth stud went on I cleaned up the thread with a die.
28th October
Not a lot of visible progress today but reasonably satisfying. I began
by making a crane! Purchased from Machine Mart last night on one of their
VAT free evenings, together with a 2kW heater, sling and shackles.
It took two hours to make the crane, some while to fathom out how to hold
a washer and a nut down a square section tube out of reach of my fingers.
A socket spanner and gaffer tape did the trick in the end. When assembled
it had to be tested of course, but when the jib was in its highest position
with the ram fully extended, it refused to come down. After much faffing
about and a coffee break, it suddenly dropped down and seems fine now.
After that, I finished off clipping the wiring in place and tying the loose
wires up temporarily.
I fitted two bits, the handbrake switch and the LH engine mount now that
Westfield have sent the bits.
I also fitted the air temperature sensor to the inlet assembly to the injection, warmed up the air filter so it would go over the end and then jubilee clipped the whole thing to the engine. It may need to come off again when the engine is installed though. To round up the day, I thought I would torque up the CV joint bolts but as each one needs to come out to be cleaned and thread locked, I only managed the LH side, so the RH side is first job tomorrow, then the prop shaft then the engine…………………
30th October
Well, 8 weeks today since kit was collected. Looking at the first entry in October, I see I was still installing pipe work, so I think quite reasonable progress has been made, though the ”end” whatever that is, still seems a long way a way! I finished torque tightening the RH drive shaft today and then decided to look at the RH rear calliper attachment with a view to re-doing it. When I installed this, and torqued up the 2 bolts, I was not happy about it as the thread in the cast iron part of the assembly was tight and I was not convinced that the correct end load had been achieved, the bolt felt to be torsionally twisting. When I did the LH side, I cleaned the calliper thread out and it went together much better. Anyway, on dismantling, I found one bolt’s threads were damaged. When I cleaned out the female thread and reassembled it, the bolt just rotated – the thread was partially stripped! I accept that it is mostly my fault for not being careful but I think Westfield should use a 50 lg. bolt rather than 45 lg. one since, with a 1.5mm spring washer under the head, full thread engagement cannot be achieved, which will increase the risk of stripping the thread like I did. A new calliper assembly is £170 but hopefully I can get the cast iron part that is separate from the aluminium part. I shall also get some 50 lg. bolts. Since they are grade 10.9 socket head, the torque is higher than a normal grade 8.8, but this is pointless if it’s going into a weaker cast iron. After finding all this out, I put it all back together, just to be tidy more than anything else, and installed the prop shaft. I cannot torque up the UJ to diff flange, as I need a working handbrake to react the torque, but that’s in bits at the moment! I think I may need to temporarily remove the grease nipple to get the torque wrench on too. Posted a long thread on the WSCC boardroom about my blunder. Had a bit of a go with my crane too, the sling is a bit long but I think I can re-route it and lose some length, but the shackles I have are a little too small, perhaps I can take them back and swap for the bigger ones. Looking at the engine installation, I again find I am a bit missing that I shall have to wait until Monday to sort out. It’s a cup that goes under the LN engine mount so that the rubber doesn’t extrude itself through the slot in the mounting bracket. An 8 week progress photo:-
