Caterham Build Diary. February 2000

<body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#1010A0"> <H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Caterham 7 Build Diary - February 2000</H1> <br><br> <p align=center> <table width=90%> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Tuesday 1<sup>st</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> Fitted the wing mirrors to the side screens and then fitted the side screens to the car. <br><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Wednesday 2<sup>nd</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> Having positively confirmed with Jon' that my engine head really doesn't have a hole for the temperature sender, I went down to Orchard Supply Hardware and purchased the following items ....<br><br> <li>3/16 titanium drill bit <li>11/32 cobalt drill bit <li>1/8 NPT 27 tap <li>tap wrench<br><br> And set about making a hole ....<br><br> I prepared the thermostat housing by first stuffing paper towel down the water ports and then sealing it up with masking tape. This will prevent shards of cast iron from falling into the cooling system. After drilling a pilot hole in the head just below the thermostat housing with the titanium bit, I then moved on to the "Monster" 11/32 cobalt bit. It only just fitted in my cordless drill despite having a reduced diameter shank.<br><br> In the end, drilling the hole wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be - except at the end when trying to break through. It got quite scary at one point.<br><br> Tapped the hole with the pipe thread tap (tapered thread), making sure not to go in too far. I now have a threaded hole for the temperature sensor - hurray !! </p></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Friday 4<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <li>Finish off the hood and put the popper bases on the body panels. <li>Drilled the mounting holes for the petrol filler in the rear panel and mounted the cool looking "Aero" filler pipe and cap. <br><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Saturday 5<sup>th</sup> February 2000 - My Birthday!</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> After a lie in until 10:45 and breakfast in bed, there wasn't much of the day left!<br><br> Went and bought an NPT 27 pipe die and ran it over the oil pressure sender threads. It makes a slight difference to the fit in the block. However, I am now convinced that the thread in the block is slightly different than the thread in the sender. Never mind, I can get the thing half way in, and I think that is good enough. Nothing that a liberal amount of gasket compound won't fix ....<br> </p><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Sunday 6<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> Another "red letter" day. Today, I put the engine in! First of all, I finished putting the rear brakes on.<br><br> Whilst working on my car one day, a freindly neighbour stopped by whilst walking his dog and was very interested in what I was doing. I found out that he had restored a couple of old Mustangs and had an engine hoist. He kindly offered to lend me the hoist to put the engine in.<br><br> Putting the engine in was relatively straight forward, though I took it very slowly anyway. One of the tricky things is that Caterham advise you to put the engine and transmission in as a completely assembled unit. This is because there is so little room in the engine compartment that fitting the engine after the transmission is more trouble than it's worth. The down side to this is that you have to tilt the entire assembly at quite an alarming angle to get the end of the gearbox to feed into the transmission tunnel. Also, I screwed up when attaching the engine to the hoist. The hoist has a rather nifty support cradle that you can move back and forward on the hook to make the engine tilt. Unfortunately, I had mounted this so that the crank handle fouled the main hoist beam as the engine starts to tilt - DOH!! This meant that I had to turn the engine through 90 degrees, crank the handle to tilt it and then man-handle the engine back into position. Definitely sub-optimal. Anyway, with much delicate pushing and shoving, I lowered the engine into the bay and gently rested it on the engine mountings. One side didn't line up, but Jon' had said that one side would need some spacers because thay had changed the block design in 1969 and the chassis was designed for that year of engine onward. </p><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Wednesday 9<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> Coming down with a cold today, so I decide to only spend half an hour in the garage. End up spending hours out there and getting VERY stressed !<br><br> All I did was put a slightly longer 1/2" bolt in the LHS engine mount!<br><br> This is the story of why it took so long.....<br><br> Went OSH and got a 3" long and 3 1/2" long bolt to replace the supplied 2 1/2" long bolt. This was because I had to put 1/2" worth of washers in to get the engine level, so the original bolt didn't fit any more.<br><br> In the process of putting in the 3" bolt, I cross-threaded the rubber engine mount bush :-(<br><br> <i>"Oh dear"</i>, I thought to myself - well, it was a little stronger, actually, but you get the picture! <i>"<strong>Now</strong> what do I do?".</i> I took the 3 1/2" bolt and cut grooves in it to turn it into a crude 1/2" tap. I used this to get the bush threads back into some sort of shape and was successful.<br><br> However, when I tried to put the 3" bolt back in, it still wouldn't go, even though the 3 1/2" bolt fitted fine. I checked the threads on both bolts and they looked identical and undamaged.<br><br> <i>"OK, I will just use the 3 1/2 inch bolt then ... "</i>, I thought optimistically. Unfortunately, the 3 1/2" bolt is half an inch too long. <i>"No problem"</i>, I thought, <i>"I'll just hacksaw off half an inch ...."</i>. Only problem was that the hacksaw went completely blunt (we're talking <strong>no</strong> teeth at all) about half way through the bolt - aaaarrrgh!!<br><br> After really abusing a bench grinder for about half an hour, trying to grind my way through the remaining half, I finally resorted to a sledge hammer to break off the 1/2 inch stub clinging tenaciously to the end of the bolt. This not only succeded in breaking off the stub, but it also relieved some stress! After another half an hour cleaning up the end of the bolt with the grinder - a job it was much happier doing - I finally had a 3" bolt that fitted - so I fitted it, and went to bed ... </p><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Thursday 10<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> Cold pretty bad, so just did some easy stuff. Got quite a lot done ...<br><br> <li>Installed the gear stick. <li>Installed the throttle cable. <li>Fitted the clutch cable to the pedal box. <li>Fitted all the cooling hoses. <li>Installed the coolant over-flow bottle. <li>Connected up most of the electrics. <li>Installed exhaust down-pipes. <li>Fitted speedo cable to the back of the speedo. <br><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Friday 11<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> Fitted the exhaust system, though the bracket mentioned in the assembly guide that is used to attach the rubber mounting at the back of the car doesn't exist!! It will require a right-angle bracket to be made and bolted to the small plate that does exist down there on the chassis.<br><br> Fitted the steering column, which should only be done after the engine and exhaust have been fitted. Attached the track-rod ends to the track rod and wheels. I can now turn the wheels with the steering wheel - yipee!!<br><br> Fitting the "Cheese wedge" that goes over the steering column under the brake master cylinder is near-impossible. I wish Caterham had fitted it before putting the master cylinder on. After much scratching of the head, I decided to drill holes from up inside the driver's side foot well and put the rivets in from that side too. Easier said than done, but I managed it - phew! </p><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Sunday 13<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <h3>The day I breath life into my car.</h3> <p align=justify> Despite suffering from a heavy cold, I was determined to get the engine running this night. My brother had come over to help out and there didn't <b>seem</b> like the was a lot to do! What I thought initially was only going to take about an hour, took over 3. "All" we had to do was .... </p> <p> <li>Fill the differential with oil. <li>Fill the gearbox with oil. <li>Fill the engine with oil. <li>Fill the engine with coolant. <li>Check the static timing. <li>Lower the car to the ground. </p> <p> What I didn't appreciate was just how difficult the first two items were, and how long I would spend checking everything I could check before I took that bold step of turned the ignition key. However, at about 11pm I took that step and hung on for 9 agonising seconds listening to the starter motor turn and turn before finally the engine sprang into life! To say I was stunned is an understatement! The thing just <b>WORKED</b> - first time. I literally screamed a very hoarse scream (remember the cold), turned off the ignition and went to bed on cloud 9 .... </p> <br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Tuesday 15<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> Ian came round and we "bled" the brake system for the first time. Once we checked the brakes actually worked, we took turns driving the car to the bottom of the driveway and back - all of 20 feet - whooohooo !!!<br><br> I left tyre marks on the garage floor :-) </p><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Thursday 17<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> Started late, so just put on the left rear wing and mounted the headlight assemblies. Mounting the wing is a little tricky because it involves putting "darts" ( dressmaking term ) in the PVC beading that goes between the wing and the body in order that it goes round the bend without kinking. Easy, but time consuming. </p><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Friday 18<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> Put the RHS rear wing on the car. <br><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Monday 21<sup>st</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> Torqued up the front suspension bolts. What a job!! Now that the engine is fitted, most of the bolt heads are all but inaccessable. Also torqued up the the rear driveshaft nuts to 200lbs/ft using a length of pipe and my own weight ....<br><br> d = (200lbs/ft x 12 inches) / My weight = (200 x 12) / 160 = 15inches.<br><br> P.S. I had to prop up the end of the socket so it was supported. </p><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Tuesday 22<sup>nd</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> Fitted both front cycle wings. The car now looks like a finished car. Took about 1hour 15mins per wing. Lots of measuring, marking and drilling to do. </p><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Wednesday 23<sup>rd</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> Finished up a whole bunch of stuff I have been meaning to do for a while ...<br><br> <li>Fitted the dust cover to the bottom of the bell housing. <li>Tightened the rear roll-bar mounting bolts. <li>Ty-wrap secured all sorts of wires and cables in the engine compartment. <li>Did first-pass adjustment of headlights. <li>Fitted dashboard trim strip. <li>Torqued up all the wheel nuts. <br><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Thursday 24<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> Today, I was taught a very spectacular lesson in the danger of working on a car's electrical system with the battery still connected. I had noticed that the battery voltage seemed to be dropping and that the "not-charging" light never went out when the engine is running. After talking to Jon' about this, he told me that the most likely cause was that I had connected up the wrong wires to the alternator. The problem is this. There are three wires in the loom and only two connections on the alternator. The guide is not very explicit about which wires go where other than that the great big fat charging wires go to the big fat connector spade terminals on the alternator. Unfortunately, of the two thinner wires, I had connected the brown/black one instead of the brown/yellow one.<br><br> <i>"No problem"</i>, I thought, <i>"2 seconds work to just swap them"</i>. Had I taken the 2 seconds to disconnect the battery, I would have saved myself from having to almost watch my car go up in flames. There is - or rather was - a metal clip around the wires to stop them coming off the alternator if they work loose. When I pulled the brown/black wire off, it pulled the big fat charging wires off too which then contacted the clip. I watched in horror as the brightest, bluest electrical arc I had ever seen proceded to vapourise the clip. I fully expected the wiring loom to start smoking and catch fire, but by some miracle, the clip vapourised before that happened. What was left was the remains of the clip, still glowing orange hot.<br><br> Now the battery was pretty much done in, so I took it out, put in on charge and only then did I go back to the car and connect up the correct brown/yellow wire to the alternator. I won't do <strong>THAT</strong> again ....!! </p><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td background="Date_bar.jpg"><font size=+1>Monday 28<sup>th</sup> February 2000</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> <p align=justify> Start the long process of trying to get insurance. I hear every excuse in the book ...<br><br> <li>"We will insure the car, but not you" - I have only had a California driver's licence for 13 months. The fact that I have been driving for 10 years, have a completely clean UK license and have never had an accident doesn't seem to count. <li>"We will insure you, but not the car. We don't do kit cars". <li>"We will insure you, and the car, but both you AND your wife must have alternative transportation". <li>"We will insure you, but I am affraid a Caterham 7 doesn't count as a classic car because it wasn't made by Caterham". - What the... !!!!!!<br><br> Finally, after many days of looking, I manage to get a quote from the nice people at Geico. It's expensive - $2100 a year - but I don't really have any choice until I have had my California driver's licence for another 5 months. </p><br></td> </tr> </table> <P> <A HREF=index.htm>Back to the ganimede home page...</A> </P> <hr width=50% size=2 noshade> <P ALIGN=CENTER> <A HREF=diary_jan_2.htm> <IMG SRC=small_back.jpg align=center BORDER=0 ALT="Back to January, part 2" width=57 height=60></A> <A HREF=ganimede.htm> <IMG SRC=small_gan.jpg align=center BORDER=0 ALT="Ganimede page" width=57 height=60></A> <A HREF=cgi.htm> <IMG SRC=small_ball.jpg align=center BORDER=0 ALT="Computer Graphics page" width=57 height=60></A> <A HREF=ballooning.htm> <IMG SRC=small_bbac.jpg align=center BORDER=0 ALT="Hot Air Ballooning" width=57 height=60></A> <A HREF=quake.htm> <IMG SRC=small_q.jpg align=center BORDER=0 ALT="QUAKE!" width=57 height=60></A> <A HREF=unreal.htm> <IMG SRC=small_unreal.gif align=center BORDER=0 ALT="Unreal" width=57 height=60></A> <IMG SRC=grey_7_logo.jpg align=center BORDER=0 ALT="My dream car" width=57 height=60> <A HREF=mars.htm> <IMG SRC=small_mars.jpg align=center BORDER=0 ALT="Mars page" width=57 height=60></A> <A HREF=profile.htm> <IMG SRC=small_prof.jpg align=center BORDER=0 ALT="About me" width=57 height=60></A> <A HREF=diary_mar.htm> <IMG SRC=small_fwd.jpg align=center BORDER=0 ALT="On to March, and beyond ..." width=57 height=60></A> </P> <hr width=50% size=2 noshade> <P ALIGN=CENTER> &copy 2008 Wayne Young. 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