5 May 2006
Yes, its May already! I haven't done a lot on the car over the last few months but that's about to change as I have now received some more parts; Courtesy of Fluke Motor Sport, Raceleda discs and Calipers.
Wow, sexy, or what! 4 Pot calipers!I have had the hydraulic inlet thread converted to M10 fine. Standard is 1/8" NPT. These calipers are made of billet and only weight 1672grams each.
And the other half of the story, the Raceleda grooved and cross drilled discs. These weight 2815grams each.
I cannot wait to get these on the car, they will look fantastic, they are functional and light, what else could you ask for.
6 May 2006
Session 70 - Installing front brakes, discs, calipers and hubs
Okay, I admit it , labels matter! Cosmetics are important, no I do not mean lipstick and such, I mean, the way something looks is very important to me. I have been thinking about the front discs looking so nice being grooved and cross drilled and then the rears being completely solid. Yep you guessed it I have bought some grooved and cross drilled rear discs. I only ordered Thursday and I was woke up at 07:45 this morning (Saturday) to my surprise by the delivery man! I was curious how much lighter these would be but guess what they way the same as the stock items. I also received some rose joints that I ordered for my top wishbone rose joint conversion kit.
I needed to get some parts from Westfield so that I can install my discs onto the hubs and calipers onto the uprights, i.e. the bolts, washers and locktabs. I also decided to buy the battery tray and negative lead for the battery. The next little job.
Only spent 1 hour in the garage. Basically removed my uprights from the front and put into the freezer in order to shrink the stub axles so that I can install the hubs. The bearings are an inference fit (i.e. close), freezing the stub axles will only shrink by a microscopic amount but is standard practice and makes the job easier. Leave in the freezer for about 24 hours. I can imagine when I try this tomorrow that my fingers are going to stick to the uprights and that I will get frost bite.
I have installed the front discs onto the hubs not torque tightened yet, looks good. I shall take some photographs tomorrow when there are done.
7 May 2006
Session 71 - Installing front calipers, discs, bearings, uprights
Yes, today is the day, sort of looking forward to this but in way I am not. Back in March when I bought my wheel bearings and Hubs I looked into the procedure for installing the bearings. You remember I detailed the procedure here.
It took me three hours from start to finish, basically which involved:
- Installing the brake discs onto the hubs with 4 bolts and two locktabs per disc. Also used lock tight 243. Torque up to 38ft/lbs.
- Greased inner and outer bearings very well indeed!
- Inserted the inner bearing and then oil seal over the top (soaked in oil over night).
- took out the uprights from the freezer! and yes they do stick to your fingers, be careful!
- Pushed hub over the stub axle, which was a snug fit, even with temperature differential between the parts, a good tip.
- Squeezed grease around the stub axle and cavity in the hub between the inner and outer bearings.
- Inserted the outer bearing with locking washer and castellated nut.
- Fitted brake calipers to upright (trial fitted only).
It actually sounds more complicated than it is. Quite enjoyable really, whilst watching the F1 on television. A tip here, when torquing up the discs on the hub to gain leverage place the hub with studs through the front of a wheel, which is laid flat on the floor and grip the wheel between your legs whilst operating the torque wrench.
Very pleased with the result, here are the pictures as promised.
I think I am starting to get sad, believe me, when I say this, for me this is better than looking at Page 3 in the Sun, not that I have done this for a while! I don't read the Sun anymore, I am far too intelligent, broad sheets only for me!
That the near side front, here is a picture of the offside front as seen by the driver's door.
As I said, I decided to purchase cross drilled and grooved discs for the rear to match the front. Here is a picture.
You will notice I do not have the rear calipers yet, that's the next purchase.
8 May 2006
Session 72 - Rose-Joint conversion
Remember the rose joint conversion kit I picked up from Stoneleigh. I bought the required rose joints and nyloc nuts to complete the kit. So tonight I decided to tackle the rose joint conversion.
I had a little problem as the M18 bolts that were supplied in the kit had a thread length of 57mm, the same as the transit ball joint M18 thread but the transit ball joint thread has a locknut and with the required 5 threads exposed as per the construction manual fitted into the wishbone 47mm tube. Armed with my vernier calipers depth gauge I set about calculating the maximum thread length I needed on these new M18 taking into account that the only thing between the bolt head the wishbone tube was a 3mm flat washer. I needed to remove 18mm of thread from the end of the bolt, making the thread length 39mm, quite a lot of material. I had sent an email to the person I got the kit from to double check and he said this is okay, but the westfield wishbones must have had a design change.
Anyway, I spent three hours in the garage taking these measurements and removing the old upper ball joints and installed the rose joint conversion. I actually think the ball joints look better but rose joints provide better suspension geometry, action and easier and usually more adjustment.
Below is a photograph of the transit upper ball joint , i.e. the before photo.
Here's a photograph after the conversion as demonstrated by Scrat; who is available again now. He was unavailable for a while due to his commitments with the making of Ice Age II.
The other side
You will also notice that a sleeve is located between the rose joint and the upright, this is a Westfield supplied conversion as the ball joint is tapered, this converts the upright taper to a 7/16 straight bore.
Here's an intermediate photograph showing the installed M18 bolt which was cut down to size to fit into the wishbone tube section. This bolt has a 1/2 " bore which is threaded to take the rose joint.
9 May 2006
Now be prepared to be excited what I done tonight. Fitted the small hubs that cover the hub bolt. Ran out of patience last nigh trying to fit them they were so tight that I could not tap them in straight, kept buckling out on one side. The problem, bloody paint/epoxy coating, I had to remove it from the edge of the hub cap and I mean completely and only then would they go in straight and correct. Took me about 1 hour!
10 May 2006
Spent 1 hour in the garage tonight putting on the wheels and doing some odds 'n' ends, double checked that the thread length between the lock nut and the track rod end, should be 13mm which it was. Nipped up the upper and lower upright bolts. Did some cleaning, well brushed some dust off.
See photos below showing state of progress. You will see that wheel studs come to the end of the open ended nuts just like the rear ones did, those many months ago.
In theory I could lower the car to the ground now, it's a rolling Chassis But I don't want to do this yet. I still need access underneath to install the front to rear connecting brake line. A fuel line and its return line. Once I have done that then I will lower to the floor. On sunny days I could roll it out of the garage and pretend to drive it!
12 May 2006
Got a new toy today, that I wished I had acquired much sooner, a right angle air drill for getting into tight spaces. I bought this so that I could install some loom bridges in the upper foot well for the brake light switch. Boy you try drilling under there even with such a small drill it took me over 1 hour to drill the four holes and rivet the bridges in! I also received a new front-to-rear brake line, so been pondering the bends I need to make. Hoping to do this tomorrow, not looking forward to it to be honest. This is going to be very tricky, but more on this tomorrow.
13 May 2006
Session 76 - Front to back brake line, trial fitting
Spent about 1 hour trial fitting and calculating the loops, bends and angles I need to make. Used plumbers' solder as a trial brake line. Created three sections, one for the front, the run under the floor and the one for the rear. I used string to calculating the length of the bends, loops, etc. Totaling up all the lengths and then compared to the length of the steel brake line, wow! Anyway it would seem that I would have 2cms left over! I adjusted a couple of the bends to take up the slack. I shall tackle the real brake line tomorrow. I am not looking forward to this, as you know with brake line you only get one chance to get it right as you cannot bend back or re-make bends!
14 May 2006
Session 77 - Front to back brake line for real!
Spent 2.5 hours in the garage tonight apply the bends to the steel brake line. Very slow process as the line is so long and that first bend to go under the floor has to be calculated taking into account the curvature etc. Once I formed this bend it was a clear run to the back, well almost I decided to follow the profile of the body so needed a light bend half half down, this keeps a nice consistent distance along the edge of the floor.
The next tricky bit was bend at the rear bulk head and forming various angles around object, such as suspension bolts, wishbone mounts, loom, hand brake cable etc. Each time had to remove the entire length of line and form the bend a little and then re-install line and take off again, so on and so on, quite literally must have re-installed the line around 20 times.
Next thing is attaching the brake line to the car. I retired to watch some television. Call me obsessed but I was wondering if the brake line would installed without fowling the edges of the chassis by the front and rear bulkheads, as it looks very close. I decided to go back into the garage and make a start.
Well I spent another 3 hours installing, getting the line just right and adjusting slightly. Also working out the best position for the bolts as these would be visible from the car interior. Carpet will set over the top but still wanted to make sure that I did not installed the small bolts under where my feet would be. Also wanted to make sure that I attach to as many structural members as possible, not just the floor panel. Anyway I have taken some photographs showing what my hard work has achieved, I think the result as worth it, and I hope I never have to do this type of thing again!!
Picture of the font bulkhead from the driver side, note, right hand side is the top! You can see the brake line running down and underneath the floor (right of the photo).
Here's a photo underneath the floor, left hand side is the front of the car.
Here's a photo of the rear bulkhead, without fittings at the moment, it was late so I decided to leave this until my next session. This photo is the right way up. You can see the line come up from the floor and then proceed to the left at 45 degree angle and then disappear under the wishbone mount and underneath, around and up to the brass t-piece, which is located to the right of the differential mount.
And the important stuff, the interior floor is not too bad. It will be covered with carpet and most of the fixings are under the seat or into chassis members.
16 May 2006
Session 78 - Brake lining finished!
About time but I have finished all the brake lining. I only spent 30 minutes finishing off attaching the rear of the front-to-rear brake line. I cannot believe that I have spent over 22 hours doing this now, most of this time was spent thinking about the routes and performing trial fitting with old brake line or plumber's solder. If I have to do the brake lines again, and I hope I don't! then I am sure it would take a quarter of the time.
I think if I was buying the kit again I would take the ready installed panels and brake/fuel lines option offered by the factory. Although I think if I was going to build another Westfield I would actually not go for the ali panels, I would go for carbon fibre, which then means I could not take these options anyway.
Now I wonder how long it is going to take to plumb the fuel lines!
17 May 2006
Attempting to order rear calipers from Westfield the other day and was told that they could not get any for at least 2 weeks. 2 Weeks! I cannot wait that long! I looked around for alternative supplies and found a small company that remanufactures sierra calipers, fraction of the cost of new ones as well. They are as good as new as the pistons, seals, nipples and handbrake level and spring are all replaced. I even managed to talk them into painting them black to match my front raceleda calipers.
I received this today, quick! Anyway, I have now discovered that there is a bracket called a slider that is required in order to fasten the caliper to the upright, doh! I shall have to source these now.
Today I spent 1 hour in the garage painting the edge of one of my brake discs with black caliper paint. A little obsessive my why not, I have plenty of time.
I am going on Holiday soon so no more work on the kit car. I phone Footman James today to get build up insurance sorted out so that I can relax on my holiday. You know what it is like whilst tanning on the beach, the mind wanders! They seem quite cheap, only cost £57.00 for 12 months cover with a value of £8,200.
Go to June 2006