JOINED UP

An email to Arthur and his response, put me right, the brake line to the rear brake wasn't too short, I had just taken it the long way round, that sounds about right for me, but I do get there eventually.

I re-routed the line, as instructed to the rear of the master cylinder, P clipped it to a conveniently placed riv-nut, at the top of the pedal box, almost certainly placed there for that very purpose. The line will drop into the top of the transmission tunnel and I clipped it to the underside of the top rail where it neatly connected to the bulkhead fitting, job done.

When I last visited Arthur he gave me two large nuts for locking the swing arm bearings. The nuts were the same size as the dome headed ones I had to undo on the bike, for those I had bought a 30mm socket, so I was pleased that I would be using it again. I had previously adjusted the bearings to give the right amount of play, but I knew that when I tightened the locking nut it would probably also tighten the bearings, I marked the end of one of the bearing and observed how far it had turned after I had tightened the lock nut, I released the lock nut, returned the bearing to it's correct position and backed it off by the same amount that it had moved on. I re-tightened the nut and my mark was back in the right place. The same on the other side and another job bites the dust.

Last job for the day was to fit the little locking catches to the rear cubby-hole doors. CBS had been able to supply me with three locks all with matching keys, the other lock will be for the glove box in the dashboard. One of my special cutters made exactly the right size holes in the doors, these cutters are going to be great when it time to fit warning lights and switches to the dashboard. The locks were quickly fitted, but I was scratching my head as to how to make them latch securely, there was a 3-4mm gap between the latch and the back of the panel, but a short length of thick rubber tubing slipped over the latch, solved the problem, I am sure there must be a neater way of doing this, like cutting and sticking something of the equivalent thickness to the back of the panel, but my quick fix will do for now.

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BRAKES ON

The last thing to connect to the pedal box has been the brake cylinder, I was waiting for a clevis to arrive by post. The helpful chap at CBS told me that the thread on the rod is M8. most connecting rods have a 5/16 UNF thread, but I found a supplier on Ebay and a M8 threaded one arrived yesterday. I had to shorten the rod and cut a bit more thread, but it is in place now.

I attached both front and rear brake lines to the master cylinder and clipped them to the side of the pedal box with riv-nuts and bolts, but the line to the rear brake appears to be about twelve inches short off the rear bulkhead, so I will need to order a short length of line and a connector. As I don't have front suspension yet there is nothing to connect to, but hopefully I won't have to wait much longer.

PUMPED UP

I had to do a bit of re-organising under the bonnet, probably the first of many such exercises. On my petrol tank, the outlet is on the right side whereas on Arthur's demonstrator, the outlet is on the left. I had fitted the  coil pack on the right, so between that and the pedal box it was going to be a tight squeeze to get the fuel pump in. I decided to separate the coils and remount the left one on the left side, this should enable me to mount the pump and get a relatively straight run for the fuel hose.

 

I had used rubber bobbins to  mount the coils, but for the pump I decided to use rubber riv-nuts, which I thought would give a neater installations, but still reduce vibration. As with the steel riv-nuts I had used for the petrol tank I tried out which size cutter I needed on a piece of scrap, Having got it right in practice I marked and cut the two holes, a little filing and the two rubber riv-nuts were pushed in. You need longer bolts as the threaded portion is set well down into the nuts, but I had a couple of hex headed 6mm bolts long enough to do the job and all was secured .

CBS give good tips in their catalogue and one is how to cut braided hose, I followed the tip and it worked a treat. wrap masking or insulation tape around where you want to cut,  clamp one end in a vice, apply tension to the other end of the hose and with a disc cutter in an angle grinder simple cut through. I wound insulation tape either side of my mark and cut between the two bits of tape, leaving both ends neatly wrapped. Any stray bits of braid can be snipped off with cutter, and Bob's your Uncle. The last bit of advise is to flush through the cut hose with thinners to ensure that no rubber or stainless swarf is left inside the hose.

All is now connected, but I need a few more hose finishers to complete the job, these hide the jubilee clips and the cut end of the hoses. I also need to re-route the clutch and throttle cables to pass under the fuel pump, I think that will be neater, see I said that there will be more re-organising required.

THROTTLED BUT NOT CHOKED

Having safely returned from a weeks skiing, I had a trip down to CBS (Car Builder Solutions) in Kent end of last week, fortunately the flooding had receded otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get passed Yalding, I returned with all sorts of essential bits and bobs.

First job was to drill holes for the riv-nuts that would take the six M6 bolts that would secure the petrol tank to the chassis. I hadn't had to fit rev-nuts yet, as Arthur had ensured that all the important ones were in place when he delivered the kit. I had though, bought the special cutters that would drill very clean, burr free holes that the riv-nuts required and also the special tool that would set the riv-nuts into those holes.

I tried out the tools on a bit of scrap aluminium and when happy I set to work on the car and fortunately I managed to get the holes in the two flanges of the tank to line up with the riv-nuts. I applied strips of self adhesive 6mm thick foam to the underside and the back of the tank to reduce vibration and bolted it down .Part of my purchases from CBS was stainless braided fuel hose and a fuel tap, a short length of hose was used to attach the tap to the hose-tail which I screwed into to the tank ready to connect to the fuel pump and the carbs at a later date.

I turned my attention to connecting the throttles to the pedal. The cables from the two carbs become one, but that was far two long, so I cut back the outer cable and re-threaded the inner cable through an adjuster and using a screw on nipple, job done. The excess inner cable was neatly coiled, but will probably be trimmed back at some stage once I am happy with final  adjustment.

I still have to connect the choke cables, but can't do that until I have the dashboard, then the head scratching will begin in earnest as I decide where the instruments, warning lights and switches need to be positioned.

RACKED AGAIN

Racked, but this time it's steering. The front louvred plate bearing my RAC and AA badges had to be removed to expose the steering rack brackets and Arthur had conveniently provided a small piece of packing material to be placed under the near side of the rack to level it up and that was fine. When I went to pass the bolts through the rear holes in the clamping bracket, they fouled the front engine bolt. This was because I had temporarily used the old bike bolts, which at the front, is too long by about four inches and the overhang got in the way. Fortunately I had recently placed an order with Westfield Fasteners which included the correct engine bolts. Once again the engine crane was deployed to take the weight of the engine whilst I changed the front bolt, the first photo shows the nut attached to the new front bolt just allowing clearance for the nut of the clamp bracket. No problem now, the rack was firmly bolted down and level.

I quickly realised it was easier to join the two sections of the column together at the middle UV joint, before passing it down through the cockpit and loosely bolting the sheath to the chassis brackets. It took a bit wriggling to get the bottom UV joint onto the racks splined shaft, but eventually it slid in and the bolt was passed through the groove in the splines. I tightened the four bolts at the brackets, adjusting the column so that it passed centrally between the clutch and brake pedal, but one of the bolts securing the mid UV joint kept knocking against both pedals as the shaft was turned.

I took it all out and cut off the protruding excess threaded part of both bolts with my disc cutter, cleaned up the ends and passed the column back in again, but it still fouls the break pedal, not ideal. I will try adjusting the brackets to see if a slight angle solves the problem, if not I will move the pedal box back an inch or so as I had placed it as far forward as it can go, allowing for my long legs.

That was yesterday and today I took it all out again as the front foot well bulkhead had to be riveted in place first, so that the steering column could be passed through the hole in the bulkhead. Once that was done, when I reinstalled the pedal box I moved it back a tad and the break pedal is now in front of the UV joint nut and there is no interference. There is, as the photo shows a large flat flange on the pedal, I imagine that this is to increase stiffness of the pedal and I see no reason why I couldn't grind a little away to allow clearance should I need all available leg room, but it might also be, that when the break system is pressurised with hydraulic fluid, the pedal won't depress anywhere near as far back as the UV joint, we shall see.

Final photo shows the bulkhead glued and riveted in place, despite putting the tube of adhesive sealant on top of the hall radiator overnight, it still took a mighty effort to squeeze it out of the tube. It obviously cooled off very quickly, maybe whilst in the garage I should keep it in a bucket of very hot water, that might be the answer on these cold mornings.