|
|
|
|
Then the clutch was fitted. What I though was a problem with the three alignment pegs on the flywheel wasn't actually a problem - it just needs to be a tight fit to ensure that it lines up exactly. When the bolts were tightened up it pulled the clutch onto the flywheel very easily. The friction disk was lined up as central as possible before the clutch was fully tightened, and hopefully it will line up with the gearbox correctly when that is attached...
Threadlock was used on all bolts to ensure that they don't shake themselves loose.
3/7/2000
Short trip to see Brandon Forster to borrow his engine hoist (and
engine lifting brackets which I didn't get with my engine) and have
a look at his 90% complete Cat. Looks very nice indeed, and he is
now just waiting for a set of carbs to go onto it and then the
engine can be started for the first time.
One main difference with the Cat is that the chassis has two small brackets to support the gearbox mount on either side, whereas the Storm/Six has two bars that go across the tunnel that the gearbox mount sits in. This rules out putting the engine in from underneath, as the distance between the gearbox mount bracket and the front chassis rail is a lot less than the total length of the engine and gearbox, so it will have to go in from above. Most of the oil has been drained from the gearbox anyway, so hopefully not much will come out when its angled down to go into the chassis.
The enormous engine hoist (which is strong enough to lift up Brandon's Cat without the engine in, as it was apparently built to lift big American V8s) just fitted in my brother's car with inches to spare (his Fiat Uno is fractionally longer inside than my Micra which it probably wouldn't have fit in at all), so we will be attempting to get the engine in tomorrow night...
4/7/2000
Had lots fun fitting the engine....
First the engine mounts were attached to the engine. The four holes in them don't line up exactly so a bit of filing was required, and I only have 4 bolts the correct length, so longer bolts were put in the spare diagonal holes just to provide a bit of extra support until I can get hold of some the right size. They should be enough to support the engine when its just sitting in the chassis, but once its running I'll definitely want four of them in.
Attaching the gearbox to the engine was no problem - it lined up with the clutch friction disk perfectly. Had to scrape the paint off the two mounting pegs on the engine, and needed to use the bolts to pull the bellhousing onto the engine, but it was a lot easier than expected.
Next it was chained to the engine hoist using the two lifting brackets, and lifted up to the hoist's full height. Unfortunately this wasn't quite enough to clear the front of the chassis, so the engine had to be put down onto axle stands, the chain shortened, and then lifted up again to gain a bit of height. This still wasn't quite enough, but if it was lifted up any higher then it wouldn't go down far enough to rest in the chassis properly, as the lifting range of the hoist wasn't quite enough.
So, to gain a vital few extra inches of clearance a couple of wheels were borrowed from my Micra (which just happens to have the same fit as the golf wheels), which have a smaller diameter than the 15" alloys, and most of the air was let out of them as well. This was enough to slide the engine over the top front chassis rail, though there was almost no clearance between the underneath of the front of the chassis and the large legs of the hoist. The hoist clearance also ruled out lifting the back of the chassis to reduce the angle needed for the gearbox, as with having the big wing thing on the front (unlike a Six or Cat) the clearances are reduced a lot. The tyres were then pumped back up to lift the chassis a bit once the engine had cleared the front rails.
The next problem was actually fitting the engine into the chassis. I don't know if its the top front chassis rails or the ones at the front of the tunnel that are different to a Six chassis, but the available space just isn't enough to fit the engine in. We got it as far as having the propshaft end of the gearbox resting in the middle of the gearbox mount chassis rails, the front of the sump resting on the top chassis rail, and about 5mm of clearance from the top front of the tunnel to the top of the gearbox. There is just no way at all it will fit in like that, so what we ended up doing was taking the top plate off the gearbox, and this gave just enough clearance with the tunnel to be able to lift the end of the gearbox up and slide the whole thing into place. The alternative was to take the sump off, but the gearbox plate was much easier to gain access to, and it had less bolts in it.
Once in, it was positioned as best as possible. The problem found here was that with a decent amount of clearance on the right side of the bellhousing to the tunnel, the left engine mount was against a chassis rail and the rubber engine mount would need a huge lump chopping out of it as well. So, a new hole was drilled in the lower plate of the left engine mount, allowing the rubber mount to sit closer to the engine giving a bit more clearance to the left side of the chassis. The holes were then drilled through both lumps of wood used to support the engine, and then the rubber mounts were fitted. This has left just over 5mm clearance between the right side of the gearbox and the front vertical tunnel rail. I think a bit of the gearbox can be removed to increase this clearance by a couple of mm, but it will still be very close.
Another problem is clearance between the chassis engine mounting plate and the sump - there isn't any. For some reason a rectangular bit of plate has been welded to the chassis in front of the normal curved mounting plate on the left side only. The edge of this rests against the front side of the sump, so a bit of this will need to be chopped off to create some space.
There wasn't time to drill the holes for the gearbox mount, though as there is nowhere near enough access from the top to be able to drill vertically through the two rails (without a foot long drill anyway), these holes will have to be drilled from underneath, which will be fun...
Over 4 hours from start to finish, but we got there in the end even if it isn't fully in place yet.
6/7/2000
Tidied up the garage after the chaos caused by fitting the engine,
and then chopped a hole in the ally bellhousing blanking plate for
the starter motor to go through, as I had forgotten about it.
9/7/2000
Gave the modified sump a coat of primer.
Shortened the front left brake line, as where it went into the master cylinder it was a bit close to the side of the engine. Remembered to keep the union on this time as well when I reflared it!
Riveted the front two brake lines in place - was a bit awkward now that the engine is in, but I found out that a couple of the holes I had drilled for the p-clips were actually covered by the rubber engine mounts, so it wouldn't have all gone together if I had fixed them in before putting the engine in anyway...
10/7/2000
Had another go at labelling the wiring loom before thinking about
putting it into the car. Much better this time, and I got pretty
much everything apart from the dashboard wires identified.
11/7/2000
Painted the sump and both petrol tanks with black hammerite (I've
almost run out of green, so I'm saving that for other bits that will
be seen).
12/7/2000
Lined up and drilled mounting holes for the steering column,
but even after extensive measuring and checking they were still
in the wrong place... Got most of the dashboard wires labelled.
15/7/2000
Trip to the show at Braintree early in the afternoon, as I wasn't
able to go on the Sunday. Didn't expect too much from it as most
people seem to be going on the Sunday, but it was much quieter than
I thought it would be. The only owner's car was one Cat that turned
up outside while I was there, but I got a decent look round the
engine bays of the Super Cat and Super Six that were inside. The
clearances round the bellhousing in the Six were very different to
the Storm - either the engine is further back in my chassis, or the
front tunnel rails are further forward which I think is more
likely.
With the help of my brother, the car was put up on axle stands so that the holes for the gearbox rubber mount could be drilled, as there is no way they can be drilled from above. Measured up the holes from above, transferred them to marks underneath as accurately as possible, and then drilled through the rails on both sides. Not the easiest of things to do, especially since the drill's handle was touching the floor, but they ended up being fairly well lined up, only needing a little bit of filing to allow both bolts to fit through.
Next, the old standard sump was unbolted and removed (it was very clean inside - no gunk in the bottom at all, which is the complete opposite of the modified sump I got...), and the chassis engine mounting plate was trimmed with a hacksaw. Would have been much easier if the engine wasn't in, but we managed to trim it enough so that it wouldn't be touching the sump at all.
16/7/2000
Took Brandon's engine hoist back as I don't expect to need to use it
any more. He has now almost finished his Cat, with a pair of twin
carbs now attached, but was having some problems getting the engine
to keep running. As I don't really know anything about engines I
couldn't really help...
22/7/2000
Lots of little jobs done after a week of being too ill to work on
the car...
Painted the last side of the petrol tanks, finished fitting the steering column (which involved a bit of filing so that the drilled holes lined up properly), sealed the footwell panels with silicone, attached the Sierra pedal box (the 7" brake plunger seems to fit well enough), attached the bellhousing blanking plate, swapped over the normal and shortened oil pickups (the top bolt is really awkward to get to with the engine in the car...), and temporarily attached the shortened sump with the 6 sump bolts I got with the engine - will be fitted properly once I have a full set of bolts.
26/7/2000
Sealed the drivers side tunnel panels. Would have been much
easier if I had remembered to do it before putting the engine
in, as the gearbox really gets in the way...
Finished labelling the wiring loom - there are still some things that aren't mentioned, but I think they are mainly the column and stalk connections and various other things like the red/white battery cutout etc. Hopefully will make sense once its in the car.
27/7/2000
Drilled the hole for the handbrake cable outer through the plate on
the passenger side of the tunnel. Riveted the front to rear brake
line into place.
28/7/2000
Temporarily fitted the mechanical fuel pump so that the front of the
fuel line could be cut to length, and then it was riveted into
place.
29/7/2000
Trimmed the front right corner of the gearbox top plate to increase
the clearance to the tunnel.
When the handbrake cable is attached to the handbrake, the end of the metal loop on the cable is at the same level as the plate on the chassis for the handbrake outer. This means that most of the metal collar end of the handbrake outer has to be trimmed to allow as much movement as possible in the handbrake cable. The threaded end of the cable was removed, and the cable threaded through the outer.
Laid the loom out in the chassis - not really sure how its going to go, so will have to figure out where everything it connects to will be and work it out from there.
Total hours this month -
31
Total build hours -
222.5
bravenet.com