57: Tuesday 27th October 2009

Had a bad cold for about the last 2 weeks, so didn't really get anything done (apart from a lot of coughing). I am back to work tomorrow, so I thought it would be theraputic to paint the gearbox red. It worked, I was completely relaxed as I was bored with watching tv all day and coughing. I could only do half of it as I need to turn it over when this half has dried. Hopefully I can get a hoist this weekend and assemble the whole unit then put it in the car. Big moment again!! The blog is up-to-date now, so I will probably stop numbering the posts now. Everything I do now will be posted the same day with photos when I have them. Enjoy.

56: Sunday 11th October 2009

I mounted the flywheel onto the shaft adapter and hub for the motor, then fitted the clutch. I got the clutch plate centred then tightened the pressure plate and slid it all onto the gearbox. I then mounted the gearbox adapter plate to the gearbox ready to drill the holes for the electric motor and adapter ring. I decided it would be easier to align the spacer ring to the hub as it protrudes through the plate. I used some cable cleats to centre the spacer ring around the hub (they happened to be about the right size). Then I ran a hand drill down the 10mm holes in the spacer ring to mark the plate. I took the gearbox adapter plate off and finished the 10mm holes on my pillar drill. I then offered up the plate and spacer ring to the electric motor to check the bolt holes and they were fine. Need to borrow a hoist again to put it all back together in the car.

55:Saturday 10th October 2009

I got the gearbox adapater spacer ring back with the lip made slightly bigger and drilled. I also got the gearbox plate back with the burrs removed and smoothed, good job. Offered up the template to the plate and drilled holes for all the bolts to go through. Tried it on the gearbox and had to enlarge just one hole and everything marries up riggid.

54: Thursday 1st October 2009

Today I picked up half of my gearbox adapter. My friend has the plate for the gearbox cut out, but it needs drilling and a bit of tidying up. I have seen this too. The way the shaft hub is mounted with the centre adapter for the flywheel is bolted from the motor side. Therefore I needed the outer adapter to go clear over the centre adapter so I can put the centre adapter (without the flywheel) on first, then the outer adapter. So I could not take advantage of the collar on the motor where the motor shaft comes out. So this part of the outer adapter has a lip to locate on the outside edge of the motor.

It sounds a bit complicated, but it is really quite straight forward. Anyway it doesn't quite fit, so the lip needs to be taken out another millimetre. Then I can mount the centre hub and adapter on the motor, the outer spacer ring onto the motor, offer up the gearbox plate to the motor, and fix the flywheel on. So the gearbox plate will be loose and floating. Next mount the clutch to the flywheel and centre it. Then slide the gearbox through the clutch and bolt the plate to the gearbox. When everything is then centred, mark the plate with the outside edge of the spacer ring. Then take it all apart again. Using the marks, the bolt holes for the plate and spacer ring can be drilled then the whole lot can be mounted on the motor side as a complete assembly. Once the flywheel and clutch is added, then the motor can be offered up to the gearbox and fitted. Everything should then be bang on centre.

I think I am going to need to do a cartoon strip of photos to explain this properly.

53: Sunday 6th September 2009

Cleaned up the final cross member and the plastic splash plate. Used a wire brush drill bit to clean up the rusty bits on the slam panel. I had to remove some trim and then I painted it with red Hammerite smooth paint. Built a unit for our DVD etc. while I was waiting for the paint to dry. Gave the slam panel a second coat of red. I painted the gearbox mounts after giving them a good brushing. I chose black for the mounts. Finally I re-assembled the trim onto the slam panel.

52: Saturday 5th September 2009

Finished up wiring the PAS switch. The switch has a light in it, so I wired it to the key 3 ouput so that it only lights up when it is on. Tested all the circuits and everything works o.k. I had a check of the other wires and found the temperature gauge connection. I can't remember if it was good luck or foresight that made me keep this wire, but now I can workout how to mount the old engine temperature sensor. The ADC FB4001 motor has a dead end hole with a 5/8 UNC thread in the side of the body. I can get a 5/8 bolt and drill into it then use some liquid metal to mount the sensor inside the bolt, then just screw it into the motor. Then I can keep an eye on the motor temperature. I took the speed sensor out of the gearbox and removed the gear drive from the end. Connected the speed sensor to the loom and attached my battery drill to the shaft. I got a friend to operate the drill while I watched the speedo. I can confirm that my drill, with a flat battery goes 14 MPH. I then spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the gearbox mounts and the cross member. I have one more cross member to clean.

51: Friday 4th September 2009

Connect the 12v power cables. The control box worked fine but the handbrake switch and fan blower diagnostic connection were not reliable. I used the redundant AC switch as the heater switch and mounted a flip switch for the PAS pump control. I finished the heater control wiring, but it got dark and started raining so the PAS control still needs to be finished off.

50: Thursday 3rd September 2009

Routed & taped up the new wires under the hood. Mounted and connected the control box to the new 12v control loom.

49: Wednesday 2nd September 2009

Tidied up the looms around the fuse box. Wired up the stop button etc. Thats the inside done for now.

48: Tuesday 1st September 2009

Connected key2 from a spare wire at the fuses that came live when the key was in position 2. This was the feed to the emergency stop button. Mounted the forward / reverse switch and the stop button in the centre console.

47: Monday 31st August 2009

Removed the tape from the starter loom and cut out the main starter cable. Re-routed looms together and taped them up. Traced wires for key 2 and key3 at cruise control module as this is the easiest place to access them. 3rd pin = key2. Couldn't find key3 so looked at the immobiliser loom and found a wire hanging out of the 'secret' key switch. I picked up the key3 12v from there and run a new cable through the engine compartment. I ran out of daylight so I called it a night.

46: Sunday 30th August 2009

Moved my batteries and other bits that I didn't need for a while into my neighbour's garage. I tested the control box and found a problem with the PAS control circuit. Although the pins are laid out the same as the relays I had used before, the new ones is different. Swapped the wires for 2 connections and it worked fine. Next job is to mount the control box and connect it to all the cars devices (PAS, VAC & heater) etc.