Saturday 24 April 2010

Alternator Bracket

The height of the alternator bracket needed to be reduced, moving the alternator up slightly, to get any sort of tension adjustment on the belt. After trying four different belts for length, I'm happy I've got one which gives a good tension (880mm). Dayco 6PK880 from Camskill. Moving the alternator up has also freed up some extra room for the steering link mod. I have all the parts needed to carry out the mod and plan to get this done over the next few days.



Sunday 18 April 2010

Manifold & Alternator

The inlet manifold went on today and then I set to making brackets to mount the alternator

I needed to make two brackets, one for the top and another for the bottom of the alternator. The top bracket just bolts onto the end of two manifold studs and the lower bracket is bolted into two spare M10 holes in the side of the block.



The alternator brackets will be taken off again during the week to be given a coat of paint. I'll also replace the standard nuts with nylocs. I need to find a belt now, approx 870mm in length should do it.

Looking at the space underneath the alternator, there is enough room for the steering link to pass through above the oil filter.

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Inlet Manifold

The aluminium inlet manifold from Bogg Brothers arrived today and it looks fantastic! It came with an inlet gasket to suit the zetec, fuel resistant hoses and stainless clips to mount the throttle bodies.



I'm planning to fit this over the weekend and then move on to making brackets for the alternator.
I've also ordered a pair of adjustable runners for the Triton seats. These will hopefully arrive before the end of the week.

Friday 9 April 2010

Wheels

New wheels today, couple of pics:

Thursday 8 April 2010

Alloy wheels ordered

I've ordered a set of Team Dynamics Drifz alloys wheels which should arrive before the weekend. I was 50/50 whether to go for these or black Pro-Race 1.2's but in the end I decided to go for something a bit different and ordered the Drifz.

These are 15" x 7.0" with a 4x108PCD and ET38 offset and come with 195/50 Toyo PX4 tyres. It will be nice to see the Indy with a nice set of alloys on. I probably don't need the alloys at this exact point in the build but I'll definitely need them when it comes to attaching the body work as the donor tyres have a high profile being snow tyres, and I wouldn't be able to line up the height of the front and rear arches properly without them.

Steering link mod idea

I was hoping the inlet manifold was going to arrive this week so I could fit this, make the brackets for the alternator and then look into modifying the steering link bar.

So far I've gathered some parts together which I think should solve the problem with the oil filter. I cut the rubber U/J off the end of the original link bar and found the bar is actually a tube with a 20.5mm ID. I had a mild steel sleeve made up with 20.5mm OD and a 14mm ID. This sleeve will then fit inside the link tube and will support a 14mm shaft. This 14mm shaft passes through a roller bearing which in turn will be welded onto the chassis, exact position pending the fitting of the alternator. This makes up the first section of the mod.

The second section is a length of 11/16" hex bar which has a U/J on each end. Each UJ has a 11/16" hex fitting one end and 9/16" x 36 female splines the other. One end of this second link attaches to the rack, and the other will be welded onto the 14mm shaft from the first section.

A couple of images below which probably explain the idea better, the original link bar shown above in the first image.




Few more jobs

The handbrake cables tended to move towards the left hand side of the car when they were loose and also when the lever was pulled tight. I then noticed the hole in the half moon shaped pulley was off center so this was replaced with the old one from the donor car after giving it a lick of POR15 paint. There should be a pin that fits this to the handbrake arm but I can't find it anywhere so I've added this to the list of items to keep from the second donor.

The back interior panel has been fixed on using rivets and little tiger seal sandwiched in between. Originally a flat sheet, this needed a little fettling to fit and the top and bottom edges were given a slight bend to match the angles of the chassis rails.
I've routed some 11 core cable along transmission tunnel in the top left corner and routed over the top of the differential. The cable gets a bit close to the back of the gearbox but isn't touching. The new gearbox mount should prevent any movement which would cause the gearbox to touch the cable. The cable for the speedo sensor has been attached to the main cable with spiral wrap.

Steering mod:

I've read various posts relating to play in the steering column caused by using the original sierra column bush at a different angle. This has been replaced with a pressed steel flange bearing. Firstly, the indy's original mount for the ford bush bearing needed to be removed so out with the grinder! In typical lee fashion, I managed to grind off some of the powder coating that didn't need be removed, so before the bearing assembly was fixed on, I went over the bulkhead area with some more POR15. The aluminium plate probably isn't needed but I think it looks a bit neater rather than leaving gaps around the outside of the bearing flange plus it seals the foot well from the engine bay. The column now feels nice and solid whilst still allowing the column itself to turn easily.