Steering Wheel and Wing Stays

Kind of childish, but I had to get the steering wheel on. Attached the steering wheel boss, tightened the nut and fitted the horn wires through an hole. Then bolted the wheel directly on the boss. When checking the boxes to store them, found fitting instructions that stated that I should have placed an adapter plate between the boss and the wheel. Undid it all and tried to fit the plate. It wouldn't fit for anything. Bent the part just trying to get it all to fit. A waste of time. Threw the plate back on the box and bolted the steering wheel directly on the boss again. Unfortunately, the steering wheel bolts were a bit "soft" and the allen key destroyed the inside of one. The bad thing was that the bolt was half-way in. Had to use pliers to undo it. And scratched the wheel. Oh, well... Where will I find a replacement bolt like that?

Grabbed a wing stay and read very carefully the instructions provided by Steve from Aries about how to bend them to suit my wheel size. He said on his message I should take my time and do this carefully, checking how it looks, to be sure it gets properly done. Using two pieces of wood from the crate where the car came, I bent the two stays from the (front) right wheel. I have to say that bending that iron plate is pretty hard! I still feel my arms tired. But in the end I have that stay bent. The instructions stated that I should dry fit the wing to check it but I had the wings at home.

The wife and kid showed up. The kid was all happy playing with the steering wheel and it was picture time (trying to steer and use the pedals at the same time, probably not the best driving position). Then a neighbour showed up for some chat and I ended up packing and going home.

Next steps will be to bend the other wing stay, trim the edges, drill, paint and get them on the car so that I can close the brake circuit. Also put the engine airbox and the exhaust pipes. Finally, assemble the battery, charge it and wire in the ignition key. That will allow me to start the engine and see how it goes. Also need to check what I need to put the drivers seat in (bolts and nuts, I guess) so that I can later on drive the thing.

On a side note, saw on the locostbuilders forum that a MK Indy builder had a fireblade engine with the original airbox fitted and just had to make a small cut on the bonnet. That validates my decision to use the original airbox.

On The Floor!

Time to put the car on the floor, since I need that to bend the wing stays and then to, well, try to make it work and move around!

Fitted the wheels all round, hand-tightening the nuts. Then placed the jack in the front chassis, under the radiator. With it full up couldn't reach the chassis, so I placed some wood under and jacked the car up. Always careful not to get under the car (in case it suddenly fell), removed the stays and jacked it down. The rear was harder, since the suitable chassis rails were too high. So, jacked on the side and dropped the stay height one "hole". Jacked down, went to the other side, jacked up, dropped 2 "holes", jacked down, repeat to drop 2 holes, change side, repeat to remove stay, move side, remove stay. Now... my... arms... hurt...

Then went around tightening the wheel nuts, since now the wheels did not turn when more force was applied. Well... The car would start to roll a bit, but my boot under the wheel would make it stay put. Placed a couple of wood blocks under the rear wheels to hold the car in place, since it still does not have breaks. Need to take care of that soon...

The car is a bit lower than the Mazda MX5 currently sitting next to it... It will be fun!

Then I went for the steering wheel boss. Noticed I had forgotten the nut at home (I carried it to the hardware store to get the correct fitting for it's size, to be able to tighten it). But since the wires for the horn were not long enough to get inside the boss, spent some time (and wire) making extensions. I'm feeling a lot more confident working with the electrics now, which makes me very happy!

Next time will be following Steve's wonderful and detailed instructions on how to bend the wing stays so that I can then paint them, fit them on the car and after that close the break fluid circuit.

Engine Wiring (mostly) Done

Last week I mailed all my wiring doubts to Steve from Aries and he replied with detailed instructions for where wires should go. During the week I also bought the missing terminals for the wiring work. With that email printed out and the terminals, I was confident that I could finish the engine wiring.

Before working on the wiring, I drilled four holes on the chassis to bolt my fabricated battery holder. This time I placed masking tape on the chassis, marked drilling stops with a pencil on the masking tape and then drilled over it. They were spot on and I guess this is what I need to do for all my future holes, to avoid my usual issues with "drilling with an offset". The hardest part was using my big rivet pliers under the car to rivet the part in place. But I (barely) managed it.

Going through the email Steve sent with the replies to all my doubts, I started crimping terminals on the wires lacking any. I also cut off the terminals I crimped last week to connect the fuel pump and replaced them with new terminals, since I didn't have the female type for the males that came on the loom and those I crimped were not right. Later on I cut the white that feeds the pump and used another terminal to add a new piece of wire, effectively splitting that white into two. The second wire connected to the Ignition Control Module power-in wire. I also had to replace the terminal on the loom to connect to the fuel gauge sensor, since the one that came wouldn't plug on the ETB's sender.

All that remained was to wire up earths. Using pieces of wire, connected earths from the senders and from the Ignition Control Module and Rectifier. Then linked it all to one wire with a terminal that was riveted on the chassis, together with the loom's earth. The oil temp/pressure ally casing had a small connection to wire an earth. The ally casing for the water temp didn't have such connection so I improvised a bit. Looks kind of a quick hack, might revise this later.

It's a bit hard to take relevant pictures of this work without going into excruciating detail. These two give a general look of the work. The first was taken from the front of the car, before earths were connected. The second was taken by the end of the day, from the side, showing up the earths riveted on the chassis and the fabricated part that will hold the battery. It's a pity that with this work done I feel that the engine bay is looking a bit of a mess, with all those coloured wires going everywhere... Maybe the fact that I haven't yet ripped off the tags on each wire doesn't help.

All that is missing, in the engine bay, is putting in the battery, connecting all lights and the two wires for the brake oil pressure. On the rear it's all about lights. This leaves the dash wires to crimp and connect to instruments. The lights will be done (a lot) later. The instruments, I'll have to see the minimum to run the engine.

Preparing to put the car on the floor, wanted to fit the steering wheel boss and wheel. Unfortunately, I don't have a socket big enough for the steering column bolt. Will have to go shopping for that. At least the tin-top socket driver has the correct size for the wheel bolts and has a connection point to add other sockets.

Running the engine is not far and then driving the car inside the garage space...

Riveting in Parts and The Wiring Work Begins!

Yesterday was a holiday and today I spent a vacation day to make a long weekend. This provided me with much needed car time! The first task of the day was to bolt the parts I fabricated on the chassis. Then bolt the coil packs to them. Bolting them to the chassis required some work with the drill because I needed the bolts to go on an angle different from the previously drilled ones, otherwise I couldn't put the nuts in place. In the end, it looks better than I thought, although it's not a great fabrication work. But it gets the job done!

Then I riveted the horn and engine oil gauge case in place. Both required enlarging the holes since I had drilled with the 4,75Ømm and the rivets were 4,9Ømm... Note on the pic the brace that holds the oil gauge's case: it has rubber to absorb the vibrations. The oil pressure sensor is very sensitive to vibrations and would collapse otherwise.

Following this, unpacked the radiator fan and took some time looking to it and the bits that come with it to hold it in place. Other people brace it to the chassis, a bit away from the radiator. I'm a bit afraid of doing that since air temp is a lot hotter here than in the UK. So I looked into getting the fan "bolted" to the radiator. For now, and since I don't know if the blade is spinning in the right direction or if I'll have to take it apart to switch, I just braced the fan with a pair of plastic wraps.

No more excuses to hold me back from crimping some terminals on the wires... That was the task I've been afraid of doing and been dragging my feet to delay. But no more!

Crimped spades on the radiator fan cable and connected it to the loom. Also connected the already crimped connectors from the loom on the brake light switch and on the horn. Then crimped the rev. counter loom wire and the matching wire that leaves the ignition control module. The wires from the fuel pump were also crimped but these will have to be redone. I believe I used too small terminals and I need to buy bigger ones, but I only understood that a while after crimping the thing.

There were a couple more wires I could have done but I need to buy more connectors. Since I knew nothing about this kind of electrics, I bought a box with some assorted connectors. Turns out they are mostly "red" (small) ones and I need "blues" of one type and "blacks" of another (wonder if these colours are the same in all western countries).
There are also a bunch of wires I don't know where to connect of switches I don't know which wire should take. Next week I expect to take the Friday as vacation again, by then I hope to know what to do. Might even get around to put the wheels on the car and get it on the floor!