Saturday, March 19, 2011

Clutch Cable and Front Disks

Spent some time slightly shortening the bolt that should hold the clutch cable on the peddle because it was a hard fit. Later went to the car and used it. Steve from Aries had told me not to tighten the bolt too much because it should have some play, otherwise the cable would suffer. It's such a tight spot that I can't tighten the bolt. Need more small tools for it, since I bet Steve meant "don't over-tighten" and not "make is so that it will come apart after 2 red lights"...
Then, and after seeing pictures from another friend builder, I fitted the other end of the cable on the engine clutch lever. It looks nice! Unfortunately, I probably did something wrong since when I step on the peddle the clutch lever doesn't move all the way and then it doesn't go back to previous position when I lift my foot of. Will have to ask for help on this.
Grabbed the front disks and bolted them on the front flanges. It's only hand-tightened since I forgot to take with me the allan keys. This has been happening almost every time since I have to carry all tools around to the car, no matter how much planning I do.
I took with me a wheel to trial fit it on the rear hubs, that are basically done. Glad I did so. On the right side it went well and looks marvelous. On the left side it didn't work as well. The shaft that runs through the hub and is threaded on both ends was not centered. When I tightened the bolts last weekend it stayed bigger on one end than on the other. It's so off to the rear that it rubs the wheel inside. I tried to un-tighten that nut and move the shaft a bit forward to make it centered but the nut does not move and since both nuts tighten on the same direction, the other one can't help. I'll have to try again armed with some WD40. Otherwise, will have to ask for help on how to do it (cut off a bit of the shaft?).

Last bit was checking the ally panel to put on the passenger's footwell. I need to slightly trim a bit to make a better fit. My plan was to apply the PU adhesive and fit it so that it would dry and stick and tomorrow I would go with the driller and apply the rivets. Ends up I didn't have enough time for that.

EDIT: Later in the night I was still thinking about the clutch cable issue and suddenly I had an idea about how to make it work. The cable runs inside a bigger tube and the tube has nuts on both ends (as visible in the photo above). If I used the nuts to pull the tube away from the two ends, it would make the route longer. Today while showing the car to a cousin, I made the adjustment and I now have a fully functional clutch peddle!

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