Took the dash down to garage and cut the chunks out for the
steering wheel. Fitted the wiper motor in with a a bracket I made
up held on by some rivets through the front of the dash unit.
These shouldn't be too visible as they'll be hidden under the
bonnet. I may also put the chassis number plate there to cover it
up. Fitted the funnel-like assembly for the demisters.
23rd March
Off work ill, feeling awful so sit in bed and trim the dash panel.
25th March
Bought a 5 speed gearbox from the local breakers, total cost 58
quid, not at all bad. They did say that I might need a slightly
different clutch plate.
I've also made enquiries about a new prop shaft and Dunning and
Fairbank seem to be the cheapest at £45.
Went karting in the evening on a 2.5 hour team endurance,
qualified 1st, were leading for most of the first 100 or so
laps. Then we let some of the sales guys from work out, 1
wrecked kart, black flag and numerous spins later we were 17 laps off
the lead and well out of contention. Hohum. We could've had
it, even the race director commented in the post race
presentation that he was surprised we hadn't walked it. Bloody
sales people!
26th March
I do indeed need a new clutch centre plate. New clutch kit from
ford main dealer £58 +vat. Hmm almost as cheap to get a new
engine.
Success, I think. The breakers had an 8.5" clutch on an engine,
ok so 7.5 is what I have at the moment but the 8.5 is a lot more
common on the 5speed boxes and should be ok. Just to make sure
I've not only got the complete clutch assembly but also the
flywheel and release bearing as well, and all for £10
+vat.
27th March
Fitted the new flywheel and clutch in around about an hour, not
bad going really.
28th March
Another trip to tiger, got all the bits I'm waiting for bar the
correct seatbelts but they gave me some temporary inertia real
ones to get me through the MOT. While I was down there I met up
with a couple of guys who had just finished their cat. I decided
they were a little better equiped for this sort of thing when they
said that getting the engine in was easy because they cut out a
couple of chassis members and welded some new ones in elsewhere.
Hmmm. Anyway apparently they had a similar problem to me with the
fuel tank. Looks like we both got given the wrong sort of tank.
There is no way I'm getting mine out now to swap it so I'll just
have to bodge it as I was going to.
Arrive back in cambridge and start looking at the gearbox.
Realise that I'm not in fact going to manage to get it in
without having the engine out so dash to HSS to hire a hoist.
Get back and enlist some help, fitting the gearbox is not easy,
it has to be lined up perfectly and when the engine is dangling
on a hoist and the gearbox is sitting on top of the chassis this
isn't nearly as easy as you might think. Once we had the
chassis lined up we realised that because we've changed the
flywheel and bellhousing the starter motor will now live in a
different place and the gasket that it fits through is wrong.
Abort gearbox installation and work on the dash instead.
29th March
The dash is now glued and screwed onto the scuttle, had to remove
some material from the dash so that the main beam stalk can move
forward and lock out, moved the column down slightly to help as
well. Hopefully that should do it.
One stone guard on and labelled up all the loom for the dash,
should make wiring it all up a lot easier. Unhelpfully the
wiring instructions list the illumination wires as being red
with a white stripe. There are no Red/white wires, however
there are plenty of Red ones which must be what they mean. The
ignition is also said to be pre-wired and therefore has no key.
However my loom just has 3 spade connectors. Guess on them for
the moment, hopefully they wont be too difficult to change
later.
30th March
City Ford claim to have a gasket in stock and they're only 93p+
vat. If that is correct then they'e a bargain.
Wrong gasket the right one was £25 +vat. The breakers
however had one for a quid although they said that usually
they don't bother with them and they haven't had any problems.
Dashboard now fitted, next the loom
Spent 45 mins after work mating the gearbox and engine. Seems
much quicker and easier when you don't have people helping. It
might just have been because I'd done it before...
1st April
I was hoping to get the engine/box in today but lack of assistance
precluded that. Instead the last few bits of the loom were
labelled up and spade connectors were crimped on all the
instrument wiring. Tip for next time: put the connectors on
before you fit the dials, feeling around the back of the dash
isn't easy. The loom doesn't quite reach over to the far side of
the dash where a lot of my dials are so I'm going to have to make
up some extension cables. Job for another day.
2nd April
Had some help from William putting the engine in, with the four
speed box it was quite happy going in with the alternator attached
albeit loosened. With the 5 speed it was a few mm bigger in one
direction or other so the alternator had to come out.
Fixing the engine in isn't a fun job, with the car up on axle
stands there is just enough room to get underneath with a drill
but of course you can't then see where the holes in the gearbox
mounting are. An assistant is required to peer around from
above yelling "left a bit", "back a smidgen" while you shuffle
the drill bit around, start drilling and watch the bit walk
somewhere completely different. Due to the lack of space you
have no idea if you are drilling straight or not. In the end
one hole drilled in approximately the right area served as a
good guide for a second accurate one. There is very little
margin for error as the 8mm hole needs to be as close to the
edge as possible. Eventually though it was finished, although
I had managed to drill the thread off one of the mounting holes
so it had to have a nut and longer bolt.
Goggles were essential to keep the shards of metal and muck off
the gearbox from falling into your eyes, as it was buring hot,
sharp shards were falling all over your hands and face. Once I
got home afterwards it took 4 washes of my hair to get all the
muck out, then a fair quantity of Mr Muscle to clean the
bath.
3rd-15th April
No updates for a while I'm afraid... The dash is now all fully
wired in, the filler cap and funnel now join up, albeit not too
well. Unfortunately the hose I cut down so that it was short
enough to go round the tight radius is now too short to reach to
the funnel. I had to cut a fair bit off the funnel so that it
would clear the tank pipe but it all seems to be ok now.
Windscreen surround is now on and the screen is just waiting to
be dropped in place, shouldn't take more than a few minutes.
I've started wiring up the engine, new oil filter, fuel filter
HT leads to come... Radiator seems to be plumbed in now with
the exception of a couple of jubilee clips it should hold
water. Plumbing the engine in seems to be the most complicated
bit so far. The manual says nothing and haynes just tells you
how to replace things, not what connects to what etc etc.
The gear remote is also up and running, however it doesn't want
to go into reverse despite me having removed the plastic
spacer. I think I may need to remove a bit of material off the
end of the stick to get that going.
Have pondered the heater a bit and I don't think I'm going to
bother with it for now, if I find I need it later then I can do
it then.
Exahust is all plumbed in now, making the hole the right size
and shape is a real job and I've had to move the brake pipe to
get decent clearance.
16th April-2nd May
Pressures from work have stopped all work for a while now.
Hopefully now things have settled down a bit I can get back to the
car. The only thing done recently has been the windscreen which
required a fair amount of trimming (only 5mm or so but filing down
glass is a worrying business, especially after breaking 1 screen
already). The frame also needed trimming down and new holes
drilled, I had forgotten to allow for the surrond uprights being
longer than the frame is tall.
3rd-5th May
Forewent the stonleigh show on the grounds of needing to work on
my cat and not wanting to spend too much money. Went shopping
instead returning with the Haynes book of carbs, for some guidance
on which hoses go where and general care, various hoses,
connectors and clips for the cooling system.
Returning to the garage I discovered that the carb I originally
had on the car wasn't cracked and held together with a jubilee
clip. In fact the clipped on bit was a mount for the air
filter, it was broken all the same. The carb book also revealed
that the carb had come off a 950cc fiesta! William had
suggested that it was an after market power upgrade...
With the aid of my tubing, hose joiners, jubilee clips and
manuals managed to plumb in the fuel system - Return hoses don't
go back to the tank, they join at a T-piece back into the supply
line somewhere before the pump. Wiring up the vacuum lines is
interesting as you don't need the brake servo feed from the
manifold, I just blocked the unused lines off with bolts and
jubilee clips. Howevere there doesn't seem to be any
documentation anywhere which lines need valves and fuel traps
and which don't, I just guessed - fingers crossed.
All the cooling hoses, expansion tank etc are now all connected
up as are all the electrics bar the starter, horn and fan
thermo-switch. The latter two were mis-labeled on the wiring
diagram but a quick call to tiger sorted that out.
Sorted out the castor problem on the front drivers side wheel,
after hitting the ball joint repeatedly with a hammer the
locktite loosened and I was able to remove the ball joint. I
probably should've sent the tubes to tiger to have the cycle
wing mounts welded on but in the end I decided it would
probably be easier to get someone locally to weld the bits on,
after removing the wheels of course.
6th May
After speaking to tiger the last two remaining sets of unused
wires were identified. The build manual seemed to have the horn
and fan sensor mislabelled, much as I had expected it should be
P+P,BR for the fan sensor and P,PB for the horn. Fitted spades on
the revevant wires and attached them. Still need to fit the horn
but that shouldn't take a minute.
Fitted the last stone chip guard, would have been easier if I
hadn't already fitted the exahust right in front of it D'Oh!
Brought the prop shaft into work to send off for shortening.
Phoned up Dunning and Fairbank to find out that I had taken the
wrong measurement. Will have to get that tonight.
Stripped some of the surround off the throttle cable so that it
was the right length and drilled holes in the mounts for it to
pass through. Came up with a cunning way of fitting the cable
to the pedal which involved drilling out the knoble on the end
of the cable and putting a bolt through it, thereby stopping the
knoble from passing back through the hole in the pedal.
Stage one drill hole in the knoble. Now the knoble being an
awkward shape is difficult to hold/clamp anywhere so I just held
it merrily in my hands thinking "I really ought to be wearing
some gloved and clamp this down to something". I carried on
thinking this for a second or two as I watched the drill bit
catch as it came out the far side and jank the steel cable round
the fingers of my left hand. In the process it slightly
cut/bruised three of the fingers and decided to have a real go
at the forth. By the time I looked down the end of my finger
looked the exit hole of a bullet with small streams of blood
spidering round the nail and knuckle. Rather shaken I decided
to call it a day. The moral of the story should be obvious, not
that anyone will take any notice.
7th May
Finger now thoroughly patched up I finally managed to get the prop
shaft measured up and sent off. Also adjusted the steering column
with the aid of a couple of thick washers so that you could
operated the full beam stalk without fouling the dash. Finished
off fitting the throttle cable, it will still need a cable lock on
the other side of the pedal to stop the slack in the cable falling
throught the hole but its working now. Put the key in the
ignition to release the steering lock, only to find that the hub
fouls somewhere. Removed it, the paint had rubbed off where it
had fouled so quickly filed it down slightly then tightened it all
up again. The knuckle on the rack fouls the master cylinder cap
slightly, removed a bit of material but it still brushes against
it. Will have another look at it later. Also discovered that my
repositioned brake hose was taught after only 1.5 turns of
steering lock. Hmm, thought that that was going to be ok. I
think I've found somewhere that will be ok now, only its a bit of
a git to get to, oh well nevermind.
8th-11th May
Visit at short notice by my parents in their new MX5 prevented any
work on Sunday but did mean I got a quick drive in the MX5 -
Mmmmm... The only thing I don't like about the car is the
staggered pedal layout but that would probably be something you
would get used to.
In the mean time the Headlamps are fitted but not wired in,
they'll need aligning but that should be pretty easy. Horn is
fitted and all the engine wiring is now done bar two long white
wires with red stripes that are down near the gearbox and don't
appear on the wiring diagrams.
Discovered that one of the reasons that the steering was seeming
a bit heavy was one of the exhaust pipes fouling the steering
shaft, this was probably also the cause of it fouling the master
cylinder. Removed the exhaust and refitted it twice before I
was reasonably happy about it. While I was fiddling in that
area repositioned the brake pipe (again). Hopefully it will be
ok this time. Fitted the HT leads and new spark plugs. The
order on the dist is 1234 rather than firing order isn't it?
Haynes doesn't say just that 1 is indicated.
Ingnition and coil loom was made up pretty easily with parts
from the breakers, finding somewhere to mount the coil etc was
more difficult, in the end I settled for the most easily
accessible place rather than the most aesthetically pleasing.
The sump arrived on monday so the pickup is back on the car but
the sump can wait till I'm dressed for grovvelling around on the
floor and until I have borrowed some ramps.
12th-22nd May
Fitted the sump, this meant removing the starter and I ended up
shearing one of the bolts off. Hopefully the rest will be
sufficient to stop me losing significant quantities of oil.
Filled up the engine with the vast array of fluids it seemed to
want.
Fitted a battery, tried to start it... nothing. Not a sausage,
after loads of wiring checks I traced it back to the what I
initially dismissed as being irrelevant. The build manual
suggests connecting the battery to the starter motor solenoid
and the main loom +ve feed was connected to the starter motor
itself. This meant that there was only ever power to the car as
a whole when the starter motor was operating. Of course without
power the solenoid wouldn't work either.
Once there was power it was evident that some of the electrics
aren't working, namely the indicators/hazards, wipers and
washers. Discovered after leaving the ignition on for a bit
that the wiper motor was getting a bit hot (too hot too
handle). Disconnected that to investigate later. Lighting to
the dials and seems to work and the tacho is moving with the
starter motor, reverse, fog and the left hand brake light also
work.
Now the engine is turning over the next milestone is a starting
engine, this was hindered by the old mount from fan banging on
the springs. After much fiddling and a call to tiger I removed
the washers from the securing bolts and shaved a bit off the
bolt heads, this seems to be just enough to get them clearing
the suspension. Fuel seems to be the next stopping point, it is
getting sucked out of the tank but doesn't seem to be getting to
the carb, I think it may be getting as far as the fuel pressure
regulator but no further. I'm not yet sure whether this is
because I've got the return pipe connected via a Y piece back
into the inlet to the pump. The alternative is removing the
breather on the tank and laying a return line from the engine
back to where the breather came out. Alternatively I could just
block off the return but I don't know how wise that it. Aha,
another call to tiger, they just leave the regulator off, Paul
seemed quite baffled as to why anyone would every want to fit
one. Hohum.
Late may - mid june
Loads has happened recently and I've been too busy to do anything
much to the webpages. Anyway, here goes.
Sometime in late may I got the engine running, positively
roaring into life, loads and loads of smoke, mainly labels
burning off the exhaust and the trim around the exhaust melting.
Because the council are renovating all the garages, including
mine the car has had to move onto my driveway under a tarpaulin.
I still have no brakes but the car is fully trimmed now and is
at the garage having a few adjustments and its MOT.
We are expecting to fail the first MOT and use it as a check of
the bits that need adjusting. Likely candidates are the flexi
brake hoses on the front which can brush against the lower
suspension arm. The gaitors on the steering rack being touching
the bodywork where it comes through. The throttle pedal is off
centre and the cable is not firmly mounted on the securing
stay. The lack of exhaust gaskets means that the fumes leak
into the engine bay and also into the footwells slightly.
The garage have already done the tracking, headlight alignment,
pressure bleeding of the brakes and given it a tune. Hopefully
anything else it fails at the MOT will be stuff that I can fix myself.
