Spaghetti Junction

Started today with sorting out the fuel rail - GBS suggested swapping the fuel regulator from one end to the other,  and hacking off most of the long fuel line currently on there.

The result was actually much neater than the original:

.... and fitted on neatly:

Also fitted the engine earth strap and prepared the rivnut for the main chassis ground,  making sure I removed the powder coat around the holes (I'll paint over them with Hammerite later) :

Finally,  taking a deep breath,  I opened the bag of wires:

I have bought the flying loom from Emerald,  which has the main plug pre-wired with the basic connections. It looks bad mainly because they have provided enough wire to do the QE2! I'm going to end up using a fraction of it.

I had previously spent some quality time with the GBS pin-out diagrams and the Emerald documentation,  to see where the 2 meet. So,  initially,  I bunched and labelled those wires:

These need to be soldered together and heat shrunk.

Next step was just to label up all the wires pre-installed in the flying loom:

I've added a couple of others - the flying loom is excellent for this as Emerald have provided spare wires with pins attached.  They just push fit into the main plug...superb.

Next step is to start making up connectors for the various sensors...

Puppy love - not.

The puppy is supposed to be for my wife really but blimey,  it's hard work. Wife is knackered cleaning up after it all day so I'm not allowed to 'waste'  time in the garage when I get home - I have to look after Eddie and give her a break. Very PC but damn frustrating when I've got so much to do... 

Finally sneaked some time in this evening and first,  filled the gearbox with oil. 

I then cut off the original reversing switch plug and made up a new connector to the loom:

I did try to test the switch still worked using a multimeter but as I haven't got the clutch correctly adjusted,  I couldn't get the gearbox into reverse to do the test - I'll have to hope it's OK. 

After clarification from GBS about where the oil pressure sensor goes,  I removed the bung in the engine but the sensor is the wrong size to fit in. The sensor came with my Smiths gauges,  so shouldn't it fit? Back to GBS.... 

I then loosely fitted the plenum and fuel rail - looks much more engine-like now:

I think I've decided to not put any stalks on the steering column - I've got some Sierra stalks but no plugs or wires and I can't find anywhere to get them either. I also quite like the idea of lots of switches on the dash - I'm not really into minimalism,  I prefer lots of buttons. 

So,  I've spent a long time building up a shopping cart of warning lights,  plugs and rocker switches for lights, hazards, indicators etc. I just need to sort out which bits I need for the cooling system and I'll order them all. 

Looking online,  there are several different layouts for cooling systems and I've put a few posts on  forums to try work out the best. Below is a nice simple example I hope I can duplicate:

My weight in Emeralds

Not had time all week to get into the garage,  what with cleaning up after the puppy! It's like having a baby wandering around without a nappy on...

Anyway,  had a delivery of the most expensive single item (pound for pound) of the whole build -  the Emerald ECU. A box half the size of my laptop with no screen, keyboard or hard drive but costs almost 3 times as much! It should be made of emerald for that price...

Didn't even do much tonight - finally shortened and fitted the gearbox mount bolt,  adjusted the quickshift to make the lever sit vertically when in neutral,  tightened up the steering rack and spent ages staring at where the loom has to go.

To save money,  I'm going to make up part of the engine loom myself.  I've bought a flying loom from Emerald which has the main plug pre-wired with the basic wires (injectors,  ignition,  temp sensor etc) and a load of extra wires if you want to add other stuff. With a printout of the GBS loom pins and ECU pins,  I've mapped the 2 so I have an idea what connects to what.

I had also ordered an engine plug from GBS which was supposed to be the male of the 'engine link' plug on the main loom but it arrived with a female plug! Called GBS and it seems the whole consignment they ordered from another supplier is like that.  They apologised profusely and will send me out a correct one when it's done.  I spent ages trying to find just the plug itself (the GBS one also comes pre-wired) but they don't seem to exist in this country.  I could have got it from the US but would cost a small fortune. Wish I knew where GBS got theirs from...

The radiator,  fan and brackets are also now here so I can start thinking about the cooling system as well. Again,  to save cash,  I'm not using the water rail kit - I'll just use the standard Ford thermostat so I need to buy some piping,  silicon tubes and a header tank and then decide which one of the 5 different layouts I've found online to use!

A furry distraction

Garage time has been limited following a new arrival yesterday:

Say hello to Eddie - he's a cocker spaniel and very cute.

After tearing myself away,  I started on the air inlet manifold. I loosely placed it in position and realised it didn't get in the way of the alternator so I tightened that up first and fitted the belt:

Next step was to attach the plenum to the manifold piece I'd filed down. As I had done the filing myself and the manifold didn't fit absolutely perfectly (and someone has had air leakage problems at this junction),  I wanted to put some instant gasket between manifold and plenum. This is the stuff applied and the pieces clamped and left to dry:

Before I fit this,  I need to fit what I think is the oil pressure sensor which is just below the plenum. But just waiting for confirmation that that is what it is and I may need to buy some sort of socket to remove the existing Ford version:

I've also bitten the bullet and ordered the Emerald ECU,  radiator and a few other bits from GBS. I will call Emerald tomorrow and order the fly leads they sell and the great wiring extravaganza can begin.

Under starters orders

Brief visit to the garage to fit the starter motor (15 minute job) :

... and then the alternator:

This took a little longer trying to work out exactly where the bits go but this blog entry really helped (although I found it after I had filed off the wrong section of powder coat).

It's only loosely attached for now as I think it may have to partly come off for the manifold.

UPDATE: after 1200 miles of actual driving, this cheap alternator died on me. Spend the extra cash and buy a Denso (GBS actually only stock the Denso now because so many of these other crud ones came back).

While I'm here,  this is a pic of what the sump under the car looks like and shows quite clearly the bell housing sticking out about half an inch below the sump:

Hopefully,  that won't come to haunt me when the cars on the road...

The hangover

After the excitement of the weekend,  I went into the garage tonight to check that I hadn't done anything stupid - and it wasn't too bad.

I'd forgotten to tighten the bolts inside the engine mounts,  the end where the rubber bushes fit in. I also hadn't tightened the main bellhousing bolts but I also realised there was a spare hole at the 9 o'clock position on the bellhousing,  which is great - I feel much happier with an extra bolt at this junction. Knowing my luck,  I'll have to remove it for some future item but I can't see what at the moment.

I also realised that I could simply turn round the propshaft bolts with the small shank as the holes in the propshaft aren't threaded,  so the shanked end fits in there fine. But,  would you believe it,  the nuts I ordered (from the same damn company!) seem to be a different pitch size - they won't screw on. However,  I couldn't get the bolts out because the gearbox was still in gear and I couldn't turn the propshaft to allow room for the bolts to be removed.

So,  I connected up the clutch cable just enough to get the gearbox into neutral - yup,  I sat in my car,  depressed the clutch pedal and moved the gear lever into neutral! I'll admit to just sitting there for a few minutes,  dreaming of a country road on a summers day...

One other issue - the reverse switch on the side of the gearbox is going to be a bit tricky to get to - I should have got it ready before installing the gearbox. Ah well...

So many things to be done now... starter motor and alternator first,  I think.

Milestone 2 - Engine in

Busy day today...

I had planned to bolt the gearbox to the engine and then install but I couldn't get the gearbox into gear,  which I needed to do to make sure I could rotate the shaft and help it slot into the engine. So,  I fitted the quickshift:

But this meant I wouldn't be able to get the engine and gearbox in in one go. Yes,  I could take the quickshift off again but I don't like too many things off and on.   Not a big issue but meant the gearbox had to go in first.  With the help of a chum (thanks Dave) it was easier than I expected,  although we did have to take it out to hacksaw off a couple of pieces off the bell housing.  They weren't really in the way but just looked to be too close to the tunnel panels and it was only a 10 minute job.

Dowels in,  shaft greased,  it was time for the big moment - the engine.

I moved one axle stand to be in the middle of the car and removed the other one,  to allow the engine crane to fit under the car,  with its legs straddling the axle stand. My garage has a one inch drop down to a sloping,  gravel driveway -  not ideal for a stand and why I never planned or needed to get the car onto its wheels and push it out the garage. With the stand and engine halfway out of the garage,  we pushed it sideways and swung the engine over the bay:

Then pushed forward and slowly lowered. To get the mounts in, Dave pulled the engine up on one side so the other mount could drop below the top chassis bar,  then engine lowered and pushed across allowing the other mount to squeeze through (hope that makes sense?).

Crane pushed forward a few more inches,  engine e lowered level with the gearbox and then an inch or 2 forward so the gearbox shaft was vaguely in the clutch. A slight rotation of the propshaft and kerching - the engine and gearbox slotted together like star-crossed lovers (to paraphrase Shakespeare). Lots of whooping and high-fives ensued - naively,  I thought the hardest bit was done.

No,  the hard bit was just starting - trying to get the dowels in! We spent ages raising the engine,  lowering the engine,  twisting the engine, bashing bits with a rubber mallet - we couldn't get the dowels to go in. With the MT75 gearbox,  there are only 2 bolts between the engine and bellhousing (GBS have confirmed this is right) and they are at the top of the bellhousing only. So even as we tightened these bolts,  it didn't want to push the dowels in -  very annoying.

Eventually,  we decided to use a G-clamp to squeeze the dowel in - success! (great idea Dave).

Now I haven't mentioned the other problem we did have - none of my bolts were right! I had decided on bolt length by putting a screwdriver in the holes,  measuring the depth and thus deciding on bolt length. However,  it seems that none of these holes actually have a thread going the length of the hole so the bolts were a few mm too long.  I had to cut down the gearbox bolts before I could fit them properly and I still haven't done the gearbox mount bolt which has the same issue. And the bolts I ordered for the propshaft link weren't fully threaded (they were in the picture online) - they had a small,  5mm shank but that was enough  to prevent them fitting properly. So they need replacing as well! Seriously,  bolts have caused the most problems in this build so far...

Amazingly,  drilling the holes and bolting in the mounts was very simple. I'd earlier marked the centre of the cross-member on the chassis and I lined this up with the flywheel bolt and simply lowered the engine onto the plates where the mounts were to go. I specifically didn't drill pilot holes because whenever I do that,  the drill always wanders a tiny bit and the final hole is then a mm or 2 out,  which I didn't want with the mounts. So,  using the weight of the engine to keep everything still,  I just drilled through the mount holes - simples!

Cleared the swarf,  popped the bolts in (supplied by GBS so they were the right thing),  torqued up and Bob's a close relative.

The engine. Is. In!!

A physically and mentally demanding day but,  God,  it feels frigging AWESOME!

Many thanks to Dave (and Paul who turned up only 5 hours late but did find the mount bolts after I'd spent 20 minutes frantically searching for them).

Metal Gear Solid

In an early post,  I encountered the hardest metal I'd ever personally come across,  the inner tube for the pedals. Well,  today I came across something even tougher - the dirt shield I bought to try block off some of the gaps around the bell housing.

I ordered the dirt shield without talking to the company,  which was a mistake. They had 2 on their website,  one for the type 9 gearbox and one for an RS200. I assumed the latter would fit my MT75 (I don't know why) but nope:

So I decided to cut it up and use separate pieces and this is where I discovered the amazing hardness of whatever its made out of! My trusty hacksaw was getting through it but at an almost invisible pace,  I destroyed the blade of a coping saw and finally had to resort to my jigsaw. It was quicker but the noise was unbelievable.

Anyway,  I've got 3 pieces to use when I come to joining the engine up. Below is an example of one of the gaps I want to block up:

I also sawed off some more of the bell housing around the starter motor as others have found they needed to do this.

Hopefully get the engine in at the weekend...

Light bulb moment

I had a bit of a Eureka moment last night about the electrics.

I've been most concerned about the plug on the main  GBS loom labelled 'engine link'. The pin-out from GBS suggested connections for relays,  tachograph etc,  which was confusing me. I assumed this plug should have wires to the various engine sensors but there was nothing on the pin-out list for TPS,  air temp etc. And then I couldn't understand why the engine sensors would need to connect to a relay?

All very confusing - and then it dawned on me,  the ECU would need links to the relays to switch on the fuel pump,  for example. So that plug mostly takes connections from the ECU and the engine sensors wire into the ECU - really,  that plug should be labelled 'ECU link'.

I could yet be proven wrong but it feels much more sensible and has cheered me up no end.

Almost worth not getting to sleep until 3am for :-)

Low Life

Continued with the seat preparation by sticking paper to the floor,  putting the seats in position and marking on the paper where the runners were. I then removed the seats and measured as best as I could the locations of the holes:

I can almost guarantee the holes won't match up so I've drilled them with a 9mm bit rather than 8mm, to give me a tiny bit of leeway when it comes to bolting them in.

I then added the runners to the passenger seat:

... but I've not done the floor yet because I haven't put the tunnel panel in yet and that will alter where the seat goes.

While the seats were out,  I decided to do the rivnuts for the top tunnel panels:

Again,  that rivnut tool I mentioned a few posts ago came up trumps - took 15 minutes to do 12 rivnuts. Drilling the holes took far longer...

Finally for today,  a minor Milestone - time to get the car off the high trestles in preparation for fitting the engine,  hopefully next weekend.  To do this,  I made use of the engine crane to support the rear of the car:

... and with the help of a friend,  raised it enough to pull the trestle out (not before time,  it was looking very wonky),  placed axle stands below a couple of suspension points and slowly lowered the rear of the car onto them.

The front,  being lighter,  was much simpler - I held the front of the car up and my trusty assistant,  Dave,  pulled the trestle out and placed the other axle stands in the right spot and I lowered it down. Job done and it feels SO low:

Best of all,  I could,  for the first time,  sit in my car and make vroom-vroom noises:

The seat isn't fully in position,  so hopefully my head will end up below the rollbar :-)

I'm a saddo - help me.

No,  my blog hasn't been hacked - I asked my son to suggest a title for today's post and that's what he came up with. Obviously,  he's very impressed with my work...

To be honest,  he may be right as I spent large parts of the holidays talking/thinking/researching about my car (I worked 3 days this week and it was dead,  so I spent most of my time on the web).

I've been concerned about my seats as I realised that in the IVA manual,  if the seat belt rests on the slots,  then that becomes the load bearing point for the tester to check and a piece of plastic and vinyl is probably not up to it. As my seats aren't the GBS ones and are a bit higher,  the mounting points are below the level of the slots and the belt will rest on the seat. Panicked (as usual) and then learnt that it should be OK because it depends on how they sit with you in the seat and they should be clear of the seats in that situation.

My biggest worry now is the electrics. I'd love to save the money and do my own engine loom but I'm not sure I'll be able to work it out. GBS have kindly sent me pin-out details but at the moment,  they aren't helping me. If a pin says 'tachometer signal',  I'm assuming that's for the rev counter but where does it go to? On everyone else's blogs,  the electrics are an hours work to plug the marked up connectors together. Doing it manually is going to be much longer but it grates on me to have to spend £500 or so on the GBS looms. I'll have to think about it a bit longer...

Back to some actual garage time - I was going to make up a blanking plate to cover up the gap between flywheel and sump but then I realised that there's also a bigger gap higher up,  so for £23, I ordered a dirt shield from RetroFord which goes all the way round the bellhousing. Obviously being this time of year,  it hasn't arrived yet so I can't consider putting the engine and gearbox together.

All I could really do was the seat runners,  so made a start on them. For some reason,  there are no instructions about how to fit them anywhere and everyone's blogs seem to skim over it so I'll try be a bit clearer.

I decided the best way was to attach the runners to the seats,  then put some masking tape on the floor,  put the seats in (mine are such a tight fit,  there's no sideways movement possible) and mark on the tape where the runners are. Then remove the seats,  measure where the holes need to be and then drill through the floor.

Great plan but hit a slight snag when it took me an 2 hours to screw in 4 bolts.  Or,  to be precise,  just one bolt. One runner went in ok:

... but the second one wasn't playing. Firstly,  the holes didn't quite line up so it took 30 minutes with a small file extending it a few mm. Then,  the thread was rusted and I couldn't screw the bolt in. And did I have an M8 tap? Nope. Amazingly,  most of the shops were open and I finally found a branch of Toolstation that had a cheap tap and die kit containing an M8 tap. Short trip out,  tap bought and thread cleared,  second runner in. But now it was too late to do any more -  kids wanted my attention,  so maybe more tomorrow.