August 2007
This section shows the build process during August 2007.
Summary
Made reasonable progress this month. Got the front suspension on, and started preparing the engine bay for the engine to go in. Haven't spent as long as I'd like on the car due to work commitments, but it's a reasonable start.
5th August 2007
I continued with the front suspension today, but concentrated on the left hand side. The dampers and uprights went in a lot easier this time, having learned a bit from the right hand side. However, I have a slight concern over the connection of the upper wishbone to the upright. The upper wishbone ball joint is tapered, and looking at it now, I'm not sure if it is in correctly (on either side). Also, I am yet to fully tighten the fixings to the correct torque level.
This is a picture of the front of the car with the front suspension mainly in place.
I still need to fit the front anti roll bar. However, as I have mentioned, I have been advised to follow the Ford build manual. Before fitting the front anti roll bar the Ford build manual quotes:
"The inner radiator cowl is located inboard of the anti-roll bar and must be fitted first, refer to section 6."
I spent quite a long time (around 2 hours....!) searching for this, as it is clearly mentioned. I thought it was missing from my kit and was going to contact Caterham to ask them to send me the part. However, I checked the Rover build manual and the "inner radiator cowl" is not mentioned at all and is not shown in any of the photo's. I've asked a question to BlatChat who say that the cowl is not needed for K-Series cars (I wonder if this is something that I should just know??). I've emailed Caterham to confirm, but it seems I probably can continue. I wonder how many other instances I should actually be following the Rover Manual.....? It again confirms how invaluable BlatChat is going to be!
A bit of a childish thing to do, and I'm almost embarassed to admit it, but I sat in the car today. Obviously, no seats are in and a large amount of the front end is still required to be done (including the simple job of fitting the engine...), but it got my heart racing a bit....can't wait to get this thing on the road, but a long way to go yet.
9th August 2007
I actually woke in the night worrying about something to do with the car, as it was something that was supposed to be one of the first things to check in the order. As an option, I had requested to have the drivers side floor lowered on one side. However, on checking this morning, it hasn't been done. I called Sean at Caterham and he went away to check my order. A few minutes later, he called back saying that he agreed it was indeed part of my order and was very apologetic. He said that it can be lowered at the end of the build, and I should continue as normal. Phew!
Attached the front antiroll bar and the right hand brake hose.
This is a picture of the bits that make up the front anti roll bar. The instructions make the installtion of this sound very simple and looking at the small number of bits I thought
it was going to be. When I did an initial dry run I realised the orange cotton reals were a very tight fit. Getting it all in place didn't take all that long,
but a fair amout of rubber lubrication was required to make it all fit together.
Front anti roll bar fitted.
Fitted the left hand brake hose, which is relative simple job. The important thing is to make sure that there is no fouling of other parts. There are a couple of bits missing for the right hand brake hose, so Sean is sending those out and they should be with me tomorrow.
Brake hose fitted (view from outside the car)
Brake hose fitted to brake master cylinder (view from inside the car)
Didn't do much else today except look ahead at the next stage of the process, which the main aim is to fit the gearbox to the engine. Obviously these are bulky items, so I may need to get some assistance in this area. For this, I need to flip back to the Rover manual. Reading ahead there are sentences such as this:
Insert the clutch arm over the first motion shaft with its inner end located over the clutch arm pivot pin and the outer end protuding through the slot of the bell-housing to accept the cable, Fig 3 refers. Clip the clutch release bearing into place. Push the yellow plastic cable bush into the hole provided on the bell-housing from the front.
To be honest, I had to read that several times, with the various bits scattered out in front of me, in order to understand what it meant. Having said that though, once I worked out what it does actually mean, I think it is fairly well explained....
Accrued about 19 hours so far. See Excel spreadsheet for a rough break down of where the time so far has been spent. I've no idea if I'm doing well or badly, but I'm not really clock watching. I'm purposefully trying to take my time and trying to enjoy it....
17th August 2007
Had a few days off as have been waiting for a few pieces to turn up from Caterham. They hadn't sent me the correct engine fixing pack (they had sent me one for a Ford engine and not a Rover engine). Anyway, that's all here now so at the start of the day I had hoped to attach the bell housing, clutch cable, release fork etc to the gear box, and then attach the gearbox to the engine. Didn't manage to do all that as from taking a proper look at the position of the clutch on the engine together with how the engine is positioned on the rack, I'll need an engine hoist to safely and easily attach the gearbox.
Continued with what I could today. For the gearbox, there are some instructions about fitting a speedometer drive, but this has already been done on my gearbox. There is however a brass "top hat" that needs to be located over the oil seal on the speedometer drive, which is held in place with a circlip. I had a go at doing this, but wasn't able to as I haven't got circlip pliers. I'll a pair at a later date and get this in place. Should be a two minute job with the right tool.
Bellhousing and gasket (not viewable) fitted to gearbox and torqued to correct setting.
Bellhousing, clutch cable, gator, release bearing and clutch release fork in place. This wasn't too bad, although one simple sentance saying "Clip the clutch release bearing into place"
took around 30mins as it was a pain to line up with the release fork.
It would have been at this point that the engine should have been attached to the gear box, but as I said earlier I would be happier doing this with an engine hoist. There are various other things that need doing before the engine and gearbox can be mounted in the car, so I made a start on some of these.
Fitted the two engine mounts to the chassis. This one on the right hand side of the car also has the earth lead attached.
As well as this I managed to fit one of the two horns. This should really be a 10min job, but to make it easier to connect them up, one of the nuts at the centre of the horn needs to be loosened to allow the horn to rotate. However, no matter what I did I could not get this nut to move! Various sizes of wrench being 'tapped' with a hammer, together with securing the horn in a vice and attempting to move the nut did not work. I'm going to have to lengthen the wire to this second horn, but I haven't got the connectors to hand to do this as yet.
Before the engine and gearbox can go in, the washer/wiper bottle needs to be installed, and various hoses need to be attached to the engine. The Rover manual mentions that the washer bottle bracket should already be in place on the right footwell, but it isn't on my car. Checking the Ford manual, it says that I would have to attach the bracket by drilling 3 small holes and rivetting it in place on the left footwell. Emailed Caterham just to check this, but it looks like it should go on the right side as the connectors seem to be near there.
That's it today. Not a huge amout of progress, but hopefully the engine will be in in the next 2 weeks or so, time permitting.
18th August 2007
Bought a rivet gun for attaching the water bottle bracket. I'll also need it for fixing carpets and other items.