Well over the last weekend I've got an awful lot done, which is good. but pressure of work means that I'll have to cancel my test at Mallory and test closer to the Brands meeting on the 20th, which is less good, although it does relieve some of the time pressure.
No 1 and most importantly I've finally got a complete and working braking system and managed to fit the new 14" alloys to all four wheels for the first time. The hassle necessary to get the various combinations of calipers, disks, offset, calliper mounts, spacers, 14" wheels, leaky master cylinders, alloy bells, rotors, suspension bolts heads and brake pads into a combination that allows the car to both move without the brakes\calipers\pads binding and stop properly when you push the middle pedal is simply incomprehensible. Take my advice If you ever..... ever EVER build any sort of racer or kit car choose one that uses standard uprights (the bits that hold the hub,bearings and calipers) and standard caliper mounts. Then you can choose a known, working off the shelf kit where somebody else has invested the necessary blood sweat and tears. If you have to fabricate or sort any of this part of the car out yourself be warned it is a seemingly endless trail of frustration and woe.
The latest in a long stream of issues was that the pad depth on my Mintex 1144 pads was too thick to fit across the new 9mm rotors, what this means is that you a) have to grind slightly one edge of the pad backing pad and b) reduce the thickness of the friction material a bit using a file simply to get the pads to fit over the disks and then to get them both to fit in the caliper slot. And this despite me ordering calipers with a slot specifically tailored for 9-12mm rotors. I chatted to Hi-spec about this and they said "yeah!.... we're having lots of trouble with the pad manufacturers altering either backing plate designs or pad depth..... file em to fit".
Bah filing pads every time I need to change them seems like a job I don't need.
Hmmp, anyway after an inordinate amount of frustrating tomfoolery (which also included me copiously testing my garage floor paint's immunity to brake fluid) everything was finally fitted and ready for bleeding. Bleeding the system identified a couple of leaking unions (one of which was on a master cylinder which then had to be replaced). But eventually we got there. And I finally have a working brake system. Due to replacing the master cylinders and cleaning the pedal in the last post I probably need to adjust the pedal rest position to allow me to heel and toe properly but compared to getting to this point that should be a doddle.
It was only later that I noticed a slight leak on the front left caliper that I'll need to investigate next week.
While I spent a "pleasurable" few hours sorting out the brakes Duncan was fitting the exhaust more permanently. Tony Law had done a good job of fitting it, but had failed to account for the fact that the Diff slides backwards when the chain is tensioned. As a result when the Diff was in it's final position the CV boot rubbed on the exhaust can. The solution was to cut off the existing slip tube which formed the exhaust joint, and add one about 3 inches longer. This allowed the Can to be positioned further back away from the CV joint. With this sorted out he then set about fitting an axillary support to both the can and rear body support frame. By his own admission he wasn't very pleased with either his welding or the fact that he designed the whole thing "in peel". Still it is at least sturdy enough for one or two races so I'm not going to worry about it now and as always I'm more than grateful for the help.
Other stuff that got done today or in the last few days included.
Torque the front hub nuts, finalise and tighten the gear linkage, tap and fit the new gear knob that Dave T had made for me, renew rear suspension Nylocks, flush the diff with petrol and fill with new gear oil. Lock wire diff drain plug, change a couple of CV joint boots, fit new brake lights connector and replace the temporary plastice cable ties with nice stainless steel ones. Tighten rear sprocket bolts, bolt check suspension and fit new calipers.
The other major piece of work that got done in the engine bay was to complete and fit the airbox. This required connection of the secondary fuel rail to the main one via a -4 bulkhead fitting and wiring the electrics via a suitable grommet. Plus I needed to make a new cover plate for the rear of the box. I made this out of clear perspex and finally got to discard one of the last vestiges of the fire... the old airbox cover.
So now the engine bay is complete bar one little job (I'm going to re route that fuel hose left on the which looks to be in peril from a flailing chain) I have to say I'm pretty proud of it. It looks neat and tidy and properly designed.
At the end of the day, Duncan got his just desserts and had the honour of driving the beast up and down the drive.
No 1 and most importantly I've finally got a complete and working braking system and managed to fit the new 14" alloys to all four wheels for the first time. The hassle necessary to get the various combinations of calipers, disks, offset, calliper mounts, spacers, 14" wheels, leaky master cylinders, alloy bells, rotors, suspension bolts heads and brake pads into a combination that allows the car to both move without the brakes\calipers\pads binding and stop properly when you push the middle pedal is simply incomprehensible. Take my advice If you ever..... ever EVER build any sort of racer or kit car choose one that uses standard uprights (the bits that hold the hub,bearings and calipers) and standard caliper mounts. Then you can choose a known, working off the shelf kit where somebody else has invested the necessary blood sweat and tears. If you have to fabricate or sort any of this part of the car out yourself be warned it is a seemingly endless trail of frustration and woe.
The latest in a long stream of issues was that the pad depth on my Mintex 1144 pads was too thick to fit across the new 9mm rotors, what this means is that you a) have to grind slightly one edge of the pad backing pad and b) reduce the thickness of the friction material a bit using a file simply to get the pads to fit over the disks and then to get them both to fit in the caliper slot. And this despite me ordering calipers with a slot specifically tailored for 9-12mm rotors. I chatted to Hi-spec about this and they said "yeah!.... we're having lots of trouble with the pad manufacturers altering either backing plate designs or pad depth..... file em to fit".
Bah filing pads every time I need to change them seems like a job I don't need.
Hmmp, anyway after an inordinate amount of frustrating tomfoolery (which also included me copiously testing my garage floor paint's immunity to brake fluid) everything was finally fitted and ready for bleeding. Bleeding the system identified a couple of leaking unions (one of which was on a master cylinder which then had to be replaced). But eventually we got there. And I finally have a working brake system. Due to replacing the master cylinders and cleaning the pedal in the last post I probably need to adjust the pedal rest position to allow me to heel and toe properly but compared to getting to this point that should be a doddle.
It was only later that I noticed a slight leak on the front left caliper that I'll need to investigate next week.
While I spent a "pleasurable" few hours sorting out the brakes Duncan was fitting the exhaust more permanently. Tony Law had done a good job of fitting it, but had failed to account for the fact that the Diff slides backwards when the chain is tensioned. As a result when the Diff was in it's final position the CV boot rubbed on the exhaust can. The solution was to cut off the existing slip tube which formed the exhaust joint, and add one about 3 inches longer. This allowed the Can to be positioned further back away from the CV joint. With this sorted out he then set about fitting an axillary support to both the can and rear body support frame. By his own admission he wasn't very pleased with either his welding or the fact that he designed the whole thing "in peel". Still it is at least sturdy enough for one or two races so I'm not going to worry about it now and as always I'm more than grateful for the help.
Other stuff that got done today or in the last few days included.Torque the front hub nuts, finalise and tighten the gear linkage, tap and fit the new gear knob that Dave T had made for me, renew rear suspension Nylocks, flush the diff with petrol and fill with new gear oil. Lock wire diff drain plug, change a couple of CV joint boots, fit new brake lights connector and replace the temporary plastice cable ties with nice stainless steel ones. Tighten rear sprocket bolts, bolt check suspension and fit new calipers.
The other major piece of work that got done in the engine bay was to complete and fit the airbox. This required connection of the secondary fuel rail to the main one via a -4 bulkhead fitting and wiring the electrics via a suitable grommet. Plus I needed to make a new cover plate for the rear of the box. I made this out of clear perspex and finally got to discard one of the last vestiges of the fire... the old airbox cover.So now the engine bay is complete bar one little job (I'm going to re route that fuel hose left on the which looks to be in peril from a flailing chain) I have to say I'm pretty proud of it. It looks neat and tidy and properly designed.
At the end of the day, Duncan got his just desserts and had the honour of driving the beast up and down the drive.
True to form this small test identified another little job, the reverse select T bat does not provide enough mechanical advantage to make selection reverse\forward easy and so this will need a lever fabricating.
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