1 - 4 September
Ecky thump. Where's the year going? September already. Fastened the bellhousing to the engine and started to worry about the gap all the way round the flywheel. Tiger say they never put the thin metal plate on the front of the bellhousing that keeps the worst of the weather off the clutch, but suggest that if I wanted to, I could make one out of a bit of ally panel. I think I might.
Filled the gearbox up with oil and tried to get the plug out of the diff to fill that up as well. Sadly, the bung doesn't want to turn, so that's another 'think about it' job for later.
At the moment I'm waiting for some bits to come from Tiger. They've promised them for Tuesday, so progress should pick up after tomorrow.
I'll need to make sure the distributor is in the right place with regard to the position of the pistons, but I need the crankshaft pulley (I think) to do that. All this timing lark is a worry, because it's all gibbersish, but vital. I'm sure it will all start to make sense when I actually begin doing it for real instead of simply reading the Haynes manual.
I discovered the alternator bracket diagram in the Haynes manual is labelled up wrongly - the alternator bits are marked as the engine and vice versa. That had me confused for a while.
Took the roll bar and front grille to the chrome platers this morning. They should be done in a couple of weeks.
Remade the handbrake linkage yet again. I'd been concerned because no matter what I did, I couldn't get the cables fastened down tightly enough. So, although I can get the handbrake to pull on, the lever ends up sticking straight up in the air at the end of its travel. So, I redesigned it one more time. I got a large eye bolt and made a new balance bar out of some square section steel bar. The eye bolt connects to the handbrake lever and passes through the balance bar. This allows me to use a couple of nuts to pull the balance bar up the eye bolt threads and so tighten the cables. It seems to work much better and the brake is full on with just a couple of notches of the ratchet.
5 September
The parcel from Tiger turned up and Sam fitted the crankshaft pulley for me. Then we put the dizzy in by turning the crankshaft via the pulley bolt head until we could feel the pressure build up in the front cylinder, Then we fiddled around lifting the dizzy up and pushing it back in the hole until the rotor arm lined up with the mark on the dizzy case when everyting was seated snuggly. That's got to be it for now until I get to the starting it up time. Then it will be anyone's guess whether it works at all!
Sam had made a rather fancy gear knob out of an old golf ball. That makes the remote a whole lot safer to have sticking up out of the tunnel.
Spent the rest of the night making that blanking plate out of one of the strange triangular shaped pieces of ally panel that I think goes at the front of the car at the side of the radiator. I'll worry about what I'll put there later. I needed to remove the gearbox from the engine again to put the plate on and for a while it all didn't want to go back together. I thought I'd really knackered my back swinging the wretched thing about while Pat tried valliantly to bung some bolts in holes, but I got away with it and the pieces went back together eventualy. The blanking plate's not a perfect fit, but it should keep the worst of the weather out of the clutch.
Just before bed I put the clutch cable in the new bracket that Tiger had sent. The other end went through the new rubber boot and into the clutch lever in the bellhousing. Sadly the rubber boot is the wrong size and keep falling out of the bellhousing hole, but a quick test of the clutch pedal feels like things are working inside.
6 September
Big day - putting the engine in. It certainly looked smart before we started. All dressed in its best, ready to go. We put the car on a couple of bricks at the front to give us a bit more room, then we slung the engine from one strap on the engine hoist. This meant we could tilt it up and down at the back, but also meant one of us had to hang on to it at all times.
Dad came round to give us another pair of hands and while Sam made the crane go up and down, dad and I tilted, shoved, pulled, kicked and twisted the engine into the gap. At one point a load of oil came out of where the drive shaft fits, and at another point, the whole engine was found to be sitting happily on the alternator fan blades.
But after a couple of hours we got it in. Sadly it did require us to make extensive re-designs of the nice footwell panel by the pedals. I had shaped the panel around the outside of the chassis to give the pedals more room. But we found this means the bellhousing can't go back far enough to get the front of the engine past the front shockers. So a big hammer and a piece of wood were employed to bash the front panel into the footwell. It's not a pretty sight and it did split the ally a bit, but I can patch the hole and when it's all painted black down there, no-one will see.
In the end we have about half a centimetre of clearance between the water pump nuts and the shockers and about two or three milli's between the bellhousing and the footwell panel.
The gearbox bracket had to come off to get the gearbox into the tunnel, then we jacked the gearbox up and put the bracket back on. At this point there is no way to get a drill between the chassis and the gearbox to drill out the mounting holes, but then I remembered a couple of really long masonry drill bits designed to go through two layers of bricks. And they reached. It was a bit wobbly, but they did the trick. I just need a few Nyloc nuts and some bolts tomorrow and it can all be fastened up tight.
Probably the next job is to put the rest of the outside panels on and paint them. Otherwise it will be too awkward to mask everything up.
But for now, I can relax in the knowledge that the engine is in! I must check the carbs fit over the side rail before I tighten everything up.
7 September
Ok, the carbs don't fit. I think I need to raise the offside of the engine about half an inch. I'll see if Phil has any bits of steel plate he'll let me drill holes in to make big washers.
Sam and I get the car back on the axle stands and take the wheels off. Then I turn my attention to the gear stick remote. That's not an infra red remote - that would be flash - it's an extension to the Sierra gear stick to bring the gear shift towards the back of the car. Otherwise I'd be changing gear with my hand under the dashboard. Tiger provide a piece of steel bar which needs cutting in two, then the two pieces of bar link the old gear stick and the new one. So when you move the new one, the old one moves.
I put the gearbox in neutral and stood the new stick straight up. Then I used two mole grips to clamp the two bits of bar to either side of both sticks. Un-bolt everything and carefully take it to the two workmates (one Black and Decker, the other, Pat). Drill two holes, pop in two bolts and Bob's your uncle. Except that the power drill really did die this time. Lots of smoke and a terrible smell. It went in the bin and I'm now the proud owner of a new Bosch one.
The remote gets reverse, first, third and fifth beautifully, but second and fourth seem not to click in properly.
8 September
I think I'm going to have to re-do the handbrake again!!! The new linkage is too good because it was all so tight, the cable locks have pulled through again. I think I'll try opening the cable up and putting some solder into the frayed end.
Spoke to Phil about the big washers and discovered that he didn't have any steel plates, but he mentioned we both knew a man who did. He also said that his GTR chassis was not now going to be ready until the end of September. A bit of a blow as he was hoping it might have been available during July at one point. That became August. Now September. Poor old luv.
The steel plate man was the guy who runs Sheffield Templates - John. I've done some work for him supplying and sorting out computers. Yes he'd got some plate. How many bits, how big, what sized hole? In fifteen minutes I had a fistfull of plates that should see the carbs breathing fresh air in no time.
Didn't manage to do anything on the car tonight, but took Pat out for a meal instead.
9 September
I got on well today. I was on my own, which may have helped, or it may have been a hindrance because I wanted to lift the engine and fit those washers. So, I put the jack under the back of the engine and lifted it off the mounts. Added the washers and dropped it back. Tested the carbs on the manifold and, what do you know, they fit a treat. The gearbox is now pushed up against another bit of footwell panelling, but a thump with a bit of wood and a bit of a prod with a screwdriver sorted that out.
So I fastened up all the mounting bolts, tightened the alternator; put the new rubber boot over the clutch lever in the bellhousing, adjusted the Spax shock absorbers to give a firmer ride, fixed the gear remote by grinding the corners off the bars where they were fouling on the weld (which was stopping me pulling the stick far enough back to get second and fourth); fitted the fuel pump, made a template for the big side panel where it fits over the front suspension; took the boss off the steering wheel and built up the inside with epoxy metal to make the steering lock work properly; filled the inside of the footwell with more epoxy to cover the split that I put in fitting the engine; cut and attached a rear side panel and made some spacers out of hardboard to create the right profile for forming the side panel under the scuttle.
Phew!
I also decided to remake the dashboard. I know, I know. Why? Because I'd been thinking about how I could attach the dash to the scuttle without the fasteners - screws or whatever - showing. I posted a message on the newsgroup to ask for suggestions and they all came back along the lines of 'fit bolts before you cover the dash'. Obvious now, but a bit late. So, nice as it looks, the old cover comes off and a new one goes on. I'm also chickening out of trying to convince the SVA man that the dash has a 19mm radius by adding a bit of padding between the MDF and the vinyl. A padded dash only needs a 5mm radius which I can make by doubling up the foam.
I still need the clamp for the dizzy. I went to the scrappies today, but got there five minutes after they closed. Typical. Never mind, I don't need it just yet.
Over the last few days I've been re-designing the web site again. I've moved the intro screen from being the first page everyone gets (which by now, most people will be fed up with) to a menu choice. I've made a new first screen with a calendar on it - after all it is a build diary. Then you can jump to every month, or day in the month that there's an entry for. Tedious bit of HTML coding, but worth it. Let me know if you think it's an improvement or not.
Matt phoned to say he'd been to North Wales yesterday to take part in a bit of filming for Top Gear (shown at the end of the month). His Cat was in a line up of dozens of other sports cars that Tiff Needell walked past, so he might get a couple of seconds of fame. I must remember to watch for it.
10 September
As I started work putting some mastic into the seams that would shortly become inaccessible, I had two unexpected visitors one straight after the other. Both came to view progress, so progress took a back seat for a couple of hours. Watched the Italian Grand Prix - Schuey won, but a marshall was killed which rather spoilt things.
Had a couple of computers to look at/return and a trip to the hospital to visit my brother-in-law, so it was after tea when I finally got round to the big side panel. The carboard templates I made for the front and rear suspension cutouts just needed a bit of trimming when transferred to the ally panel, but after that it seemd to fit Ok. There's not as much to turn over the top rail as I would have liked, but there's enough.
The biggest problem was getting a clean fold line where it wraps over the chassis. I started by squashing it over the chassis with my hands, then took to hitting it with a rubber mallet, then a rubber mallet onto a piece of wood. The end result isn't as sharp as I'd like, but when the rest of the GRP is on and I'm looking at the whole car instead of just the last bit I've worked on, I'm sure it will be fine. Especially when it's painted. I'm going to take a bit of GRP to the paint shop tomorrow and see how good a match we can get. I've got the primer already, so I could be in paint mode by the end of the week.
I remembered to update the pop-rivet counter. I've been keeping track in the garage, but not updating the web site. Lax of me.
11 September
Three jobs tonight - fit the offside rear panel, re-make the dasboard and fix the handbrake.
I cut the rear panel and Sam riveted it on. While he did that I ripped the vinyl off the dashboard (sob) and drilled it/countersunk it for five small bolts. These were superglued in to stop them turning when I come to tighten it up to the scuttle. The whole thing then got covered in quarter inch foam with an extra layer round the bottom edge of the bit that goes over the passenger's feet. More Evostick and the new vinyl cover goes on. The dials, switches and lights get pushed through and we turn it round to see the effect. Not too shabby, though I think it looked better before. However, this one should pass SVA with no problem and it also allows me to fix it to the scuttle with no fasteners showing.
Then we turned our attention to the handbrake. While Sam untwisted the cable, I pushed a small nail through along with a goodly dollop of flux. Then blobbed loads of solder into it to seal the nail in place. Tightened it all up and gave it a hefty tug. Solid as a rock. I shouted Pat to come and marvel at our handiwork, pulled the lever and one of the nails broke free of the solder an unwound itself up the cable. Damn!
Still, the idea is sound, so I tried again, this time with a heftier staple rather than a nail, which I bent together and soldered. That will stop it falling out if it comes loose. Then we soldered further up the cable to stop the staple from unwinding itself up the cable and for good measure added the 15amp electricians' cable clamps just beyond the staple to discourage it from even thinking about moving.
This time I think we've got it. The brake pulls really tight on four notches and nothing shows any signs of coming loose. Of course, we been disappointed before.
12 September
Played nursey today as Pat had three wisdom teeth out, so I didn't achieve much on the Kitkat front. However, Dad popped round this evening to see how the old girl was getting along (and he asked about Pat as well).
So rather than let him sit idly by, drinking tea, we set about the offside big side panel. The templates fitted perfectly first time (Ok, second) and I had come up with a plan to get a sharper edge on the fold - score it first. We were just about to bang the bottom edge over, when Sam pointed out that we were a rather large hole missing - for the exhaust pipes.
Off came the panel again and onto the chassis went a cardboard panel with the hole from Tiger's template cut out of it. The pipes went in temporarily and the template turned out to be not far from dead right. A bit of a tweak here and there, but not much. Transferred the cardboard template to the ally panel and cut it out, edging it with U shaped strip. It looks great. By this time however, it was too late to be banging around in the garage, so we packed up.
Earlier in the day I'd called in at an auto paint dealers and we'd tried to match up a stone guard with a standard paint colour. There's a Vauxhall maroon that is really close - perhaps just needs a bit more black, but not so different that it looks wrong. So I ordered five big cans of that to give me enough to do a few coats to start with and leave me some for touching up, if needed.
Phil emailed me to say he liked the new web site format and suggested I put in a set of links to various build sections. For example, if you clicked on 'Panels' there would be a set of links to all the bits of the diary that cover the panel work. It's a good idea. I think I'll have a go.
13 September
It was all Dad's fault. He was the one who said that he thought I wouldn't be happy with the bashed in footwell panel by the bellhousing. And he was right. I wasn't. But I'd decided to put up with it. You see it was going to be so difficult to get the old panel out without removing the engine - and I wasn't going to do that!
But I knew it was ugly, so tonight it had to be fixed. First I got my angle grinder in the engine bay and chopped through into the footwell. Then I used a hacksaw blade to cut where I couldn't get the grinder. Then I used a screwdriver to poke holes in the ally where I couldn't get the hacksaw blade, and finally I pulled and twisted the tattered bits of panelling until they tore off.
I wrapped the tatty edges around an upright piece of chassis and used epoxy metal to skim it to lose the sharp edges. Then I pained the epoxy black so it looked like a piece of chassis again and touched up the Hammerite on the bellhousing where it had suffered during the unpleasantness.
That left me with load of clearance between the bellhousing and the chassis, but a damn great hole to fill and mate with the remains of the old panel. Cardboard engineering came to my rescue again and I fashioned of bit of ally from the template that made a rather nice job of it. Only one problem - there wasn't enough overlap of the old and new panels on one of the seams, so I might have to re-rivet that with a splicing piece of ally.
Filled the gaps with grey mastic and the job was done. Photo to follow (I've lent Phil my camera so he can photograph bunny rabbits - don't ask!)
14 September
Having slept on the problem (not literally) it was obvious what had gone wrong with the panel not overlapping enough, so I drilled out the rivets and bent it slightly, then popped them all back in. There's miles of overlap now and the bellhousing has even more room. Photos here from inside and outside the footwell.
Having sorted the bellhousing, I could put the other side panel on. I'd got the bottom edge riveted on when Phil turned up to print out the pictures of his bunnies and give me some guidance on what bits fit where and why on the engine. Then Bob turned up to bring a computer that had gone wonky and he added his valuable ten penn'orth. So by the time we had finished all the theory, there was no time left for practical. Never mind. There's always the weekend. It was meant to include a trip to Donnington, but no petrol!
Bob also applied his attention to shifting the oil plug in the diff. We tried big Allen keys, a chisel, large wrench, hammer, Gladys Stokes. All pointless. One final attempt will be made when Bob has a chance to talk to his mate, 'Dave' who has tools to sort anything. We're hoping for a small pair of Stillsons and a blowlamp. Heat the alluminium casing gently and apply the Stillsons to the bung and hope the ally expands enough to break the seal.
Notice from the newsgroup that Ed and Sue Needham are having trouble with the footwell panel and the bellhousing. Hmmm!
15 September
Matt arrived to bring me a copy of a Webber manual and he stayed to view the handiwork so far. He hadn't been here long before he said "Nice rear panels, but why have you decided you don't need the protection that making them the right shape would provide?" "Eh?" I replied. "Well look." he said and we fitted the rear bodywork. It was obvious then that, with my super design, any road water would be thrown up into the cockpit with only the plywood inner panel to protect us.
It's a good job I bought an extra big bit of ally panelling to remake the parcel shelf. I needed it to remake all the back panels as well. They don't look nearly so nice, but they will be more practical. And it has boosted the rivet count numbers!
16 September
We had hoped to get to Donnington this weekend, but without petrol, that was off. However, Sam mentioned that the petrol station near the newsagents where he worked was selling petrol at 06:00 - no queue so I asked him to wake me when he went to work at 05:00 this morning and I'd see if I could get any juice.
Matt had also emailed me last night to say that a local supermarket got a delivery of petrol at 20:30 on Friday, so when Sam phoned me to say the petrol station near the newsagent wasn't opening until 08:00, I tried my luck at the supermarket. No queues - loads of juice. Donnington is on!
Made a huge list of bits and pieces required from the car spares shop - things like heater hose and jubilee clips, Autosol and wire, nuts, bolts, drills, paint - all sorts of things. Fetched all those, then went to see brother-in-law in hospital.
There I met my nephew, Jim, and he asked could he come round tonight and help. Which he did. Sam and I had been working on finishing all the panelling and Jim helped with the final cutting and bending, drilling and rivetting. We made the new parcel shelf, which can be seen in the new back panel photo above; the top of the tunnel ; and some natty little filler bits to tidy the sides of the seat back panels and fasten them to the side of the car.
I managed to drill a hole in the end of my finger when the drill went through a bit of ally a bit faster than I thought it would, but that was the only disaster. Other than that I'm really pleased with progress. I had hoped to be painting this weekend, but that is perhaps still a couple of days away.
17 September
Went to Donington with Sam. It was a bit quiet on the M1 which was good, but then so was the show, which wasn't. However, we met up with Sue and Ed, saw William, talked to Richard and Jim on the Tiger stand and then got a call from Matt asking where we were. We were stood on the mound watching the Z Cars twin bike engine's machine belt round the circuit at the time, but Matt asked if we wanted to be passengers while he took his Cat for a blast round the circuit.
We didn't need asking twice, so we all paid up and, after the drivers briefing, went to the pits. Sam had first go, but his five laps session was red flagged after two because someone threw their car into the gravel and it had to be recovered. When the session restarted, he had another couple of laps<.JPG/a>, then Matt came into the pits and we swapped over. Matt belted round the circuit and was just going under the Dunlop bridge doing a fraction short of 100mph, when we became enveloped in a cloud of grey smoke.
Turned left into the pits; bonnet off. Just before he started his laps, Matt had put a bit of extra oil in "just to be safe" and we think he overdid it. There was oil all over the engine bay and buring off the exhausts. So we cleaned up and were just about to go out again when the session was stopped as it was time up. Ah well, I got one lap in (almost). I feel sorry for Matt, who paid for a full session which first got red flagged and then dissapeared under a cloud of smoke. I hope he got home OK.
Met Tom Ward in the pits. He'd brought his maroon Cat and paid for the whole day on the track. I took a photo of him dashing past, but it's a bit out of focus. Anyway, here it is.
Tonight we finished drilling and screwing the tunnel panels in place and put the speedo cable in. I think I'll make some small covers to protect it where it comes into the footwell. I think it will go across the footwell and up the inside of the car, across the dash and still reach the speedo, so it should follow a gentle curve rather than try and negotiate any tight bends.
I also fixed the centre of the Mountney steering wheel. The connections for the horn push fouled againt the big nut at the top of the steering column, which made the whole boss rock from side to side - it wouldn't fix in the hole far enough to be stable. So I drilled the connections out and remade the them inside the boss, rather than on the back of it. The switch still works, but the boss doesn't hit the nut anymore.
21 September
Over the last couple of days I've been painting!. It took a good hour or two to mask up all the bits that didn't need turning maroon and some bits proved rather more tricky than others to cover. Masking tape doesn't seem to like to stick to the U shaped trim that goes round the holes in the front panel round the suspension. However, I did have some masking fluid that I bought when I used to do water colour paintings. It's a runny rubber solution that you paint on and wait till it dries. Then you can paint over it and when the paint is dry, rub it with your finger and the masking fluid comes off nice and clean. Or that's the theory. We'll see tomorrow whether it works. If it doesn't I've made an awfull mess.
I painted the parcel shelf black so that when the carpet is on, any bits that don't get covered won't show. However, I've been using some Plasticoat paint and I don't rate it much. It's a bit thick and doesn't dry fast like most car paints. Still, with enough time, it should be ok.
Tonight I put two coats of etch primer on the ally side panels and so far (it's 12:07) five coats of maroon. I'll put another coat (possibly two) before bedtime. That should be enough. Then tomorrow (or is it today, now) I'll take the masking tape off and all the paper. I guess the tape will also take off some of the paint and also reveal where we got it wrong. Patching up could be a challenge.
I'll put a photo of the paper wrapped Cat here before I upload the website.
I have to admit that I was a bit worried about spraying the car. I've spent so much time trying to make it look good, that, never having sprayed anything before, I though I might make a complete cock-up of it. However, by forcing myself to do lots of thin coats and resisting the temptation to use every last bit of paint in the can (if you do, you get blobbing from the dregs), the results are far better than I'd hoped. The next challenge will be to see just how good a colour match the Vauxhall maroon is. If it's terrible, I'll spray the GRP as well.
Sue and Ed emailed me and said they might want to come and check-out progress in the flesh - particularly the spraying. They're not sure whether to spray their Cat or leave it ally coloured. I'll drop them a line later inviting them over.
Check the watch - 12:15. Time for another coat.
12:40 and how things can turn round. I decided to check the whole shell over carefully for any paint runs and found a tiny one just below where the scuttle fits. So I took the finest wet and dry and carefully, lightly rubbed it. A huge chunk of five layers of paint and two layers of etch primer slid off leaving edges that just tempted me to pull. In the end, the entire off side of the car shed it's skin like a snake, leaving behind perfectly clean ally panelling.
Sixty quid's worth of paint is now rolled into a ball in the bin and I'm going to have to get some better advice. I'd spoken to a car paint suppliers and made sure I bought the right primer, cleaners etc, but I must have got something wrong. Ah well, better to find it now than when the car is complete and masking would be an even bigger challenge. To be honest, I want to cry, but I'll console myself with chocolate instead. I think the invite to Sue and Ed might include a suggestion that they wait a little while.
23 September
Well, the chocolate helped. To be honest, I did see the funny side the other night. It was disappointing, but it's all part of the game. I spoke to the paint suppliers to see what I'd done wrong and the answer was 'Nothing'. I guess I just didn't give the paint chance to set hard before I started abusing it.
However, every cloud had a silvery lining and I did realise that, although I'd asked for Vauxhall burgundy, they'd supplied Ford burgundy. So this time I made sure I ordered the right thing. Back in the garage, I roughed up the surface of the ally with fine emery paper, cleaned it all down with de-greaser, applied two coats of primer, then seven coats of burgundy. Strange, it looks brown in the evening light.
Sure enough it looked brown in the daylight as well, so back we go to the suppliers to find that they had misread the mixing numbers and given me a funny Ford colour again. So they mixed me some more, this time a custom colour to try and get it as close as possible. Then back I came to the garage to add a few more layers. It does look much closer this time, so I finished it off with three coats of lacquer. That makes two coats of primer, twelve coats of paint and three of lacquer. If that lot falls off, it's going to leave a dent in the floor! Finally I removed the masking tape.
Not bad! No real disasters. The masking fluid worked really well, peeling off the U shaped trim leaving a clean line round the edge. However, with all that spray paint floating round in the air everything that wasn't totally covered has got a pink dusting. Most of it dried in the air before it settled, so that should just wipe up, but some got in to the footwell, revealing where I'd left the clamps
So, the plan is to leave it all to dry for a while. I'll do a bit of cleaning up the garage tonight, rather than working on Kat. Bob's coming round tomorrow and we're going to have another go at the diff bung.
25 September
Bob turned up complete with blowlamp. No luck. A suggestion is that we weld an M10 bolt to the bung and that will give us a hexagonal head to get a spanner round. However, it does rely on the weld holding - something I don't have much faith in.
Started to clean up the mould marks on the scuttle and found that the gelcoat isn't very deep. I've achieved a beautiful smooth finish, but the colour has disappeared in various places leaving me with strange shaped smears of resin coloured GRP. I tried covering them in a thin layer of gelcoat/hardener and smoothing them off, but that isn't too successful. I think I'll leave it and pretend it's a bit of muck.
Drilled an arbitrary hole and fitted the washer nozzle on the scuttle.
Fitted the scuttle with some beading underneath to hide the less than perfect gap between it and the chassis. Screwed the fusebox to the glove shelf (for want of a better description) and poked all the wires through the holes in the scuttle. Attached the wires to the lights, switches and dials and then tried to fit the dash to the scuttle. Damn. I need to unfasten the scuttle and move it back to get the dash on. It also looks like the dash will foul the lights switch stalk now that it is padded, so I'll have to pull the steering column back a bit. More washers!
The speedo cable doesn't want to fit into the back of the speedo so the screw won't do up. Thinking time.
29 September
Five minutes with a small round file opening up the inside of the hole in the back of the speedo allowed the cable to fit further in. This meant the nut can be done up tightly. One job done.
Routed the loom round the top nearside inside of the engine bay and cable tied it all up tight. Realised I'd missed a few wires, so cut the ties and did it again. Repeat another twice. Buy more cable ties.
Took the de-greaser to the ignition control unit, then decided it would be easier to rip off the existing mini-loom and make a new one with just the wires I need sticking out and the ones I don't disappearing inside. I also had to repair the earth wire on the dizzy that had somehow got broken. Fastened the ICU to the nearside triangular ally panel in the engine bay.
I wired up the steering column lights switch (remember I decided I'd use that instead of the Tiger supplied dashboard mounted switch). I was working from a diagram that Mick sent me. Unfortunately it wasn't quite right, so I switched to the layout that Giles had suggested. Sadly, that didn't help either as Giles has red and violet wires and I've got brown and blue ones and they clearly weren't interchangeable. To my mind (and my circuit tester) I needed to use connections in the switch that Tiger were using for the wash/wipe controls.
I phoned Richard at Tiger and he confirmed that there was a bit of a problem with the switch markings in the manual. The drawing was wrong, but the numbers and wire colours were right. So I took the switches off the steering column to get a better look inside at where the numbers were moulded into the plastic. I also used my trusty circuit tester to identify exactly which connections were made with the switch stalks in all their positions.
I must have some strange switches, because according to mine, even the numbers are different from Tiger's. I've included a drawing of the back of the switches here in case it's of any use to anyone else. I've marked that the horn connections aren't used because I've used the push button in the middle of the steering wheel, which connects to a brown wire that comes from the connector brushes in the steering wheel boss. Connections H and H30 are for the horn buttons that are on the end of the indicator stalk, which I haven't got.
Now that I was confident I had the connections worked out, I fitted a headlight to the offside front wires and switched on. Success! Side lights work. Dip works. Main beam works. I tried the indicator and the dippped headlight flashed. Wait a mo. That's not right. Checked the connections. Tried again. Yep, something is terribly wrong.
After another day spent trying to find what I might have got wrong from the Haynes wiring diagram, I'm sure I have it right. So I took the dip wire and indicator wire off the switch connections and applied the circuit tester. Sure enough, they are connected together somewhere in the loom. They shouldn't be, so they must have either shorted out and fused together, or simply have a couple of nicks in the cable which allow them to touch. Whatever the reason I have to cut one of the wires out and replace it. The indicator wire was thinest, so I chose that. (A mistake, as I later realised.)
I routed another wire along the loom, tying it in as I went. Hooked up all the connections and switched on. Everything works as it should, so I went to bed.
As I nodded off, it occured to me that having chosen to cut the indicator wire I also needed to run a new wire to the back of the car - something I wouldn't have had to bother with if I'd cut the dip beam wire. Oh well. Another job.
On Tursday (28/9) I set about re-fitting the dashboard, this time making sure I could get it fastened together without it fouling the stalks.
They're fine, but the petrol gauge fouled the vent tube that feeds the winscreen vents. Five minutes with the hot air gun and I bent the plastic back about a centimeter - all I needed to get the thing to fit.
I Superglued some of the small beading trim around the edge of the dash as I fitted it to the scuttle and the result is very tasty. It takes your eye away from the resin marks that peep though the gell coat.
Everything was fastened down, so I switched things on. The lights work great. The dials light up, although the fuel gauge lit when the lights were off and went out when the lights came on. Awkward sod. It also showed I had half a tank of fuel which was nice as I hadn't put any in. By putting my feet on the roll bar mounting and lowering myself in backwards, I could get my head and shoulders under the dash (literally - I'm not talking shampoo here). Then it was easy to see that in chuffing around avoiding the vent pipe, I'd got complacent and attached the wires all wrong. Once I'd put them right, everything looked good. The rev counter looks a bit dim, but there have been some emails on the newsgroup about that, so I'll search them out and work out what's wrong.
The oil warning light and the oil gauge weren't working, (well the gauge was showing full pressure with the engine off, which was clearly wrong). It seems I'd managed to lose the wires in the bit of loom I had been fastening and unfastening to the engine bay. Once I'd liberated them and connected them to the sensor, the light and gauge worked Ok. I also found the temperature sensor wire as well, so I attached that. Berk!
Tried the wiper switch and the little wheel boxes rotate back and forward - at two speeds. Tried the heater fan from the ancient Cortina and, once I'd got the wires the right way round, that spins well. The horn parps nicely. Tomorrow, I'll fit the washer bottle and try out the water pump. I'll pop Sam into the driver's seat and ask him to try the switch. Of course, I'll be standing at the front of the car to make sure nothing goes wrong.
