Today I took the gearbox off again so that I could check the orientation of the clutch plate. Removing the gearbox is fairly straightforward as there is plenty of room around the engine, and the clearance underneath is fine once the car is up on my axle stands.
With the prop shaft disconnected, the gear stick removed, gearbox fixing plate unbolted and finally the bellhousing unbolted, I slid the gearbox back and out it popped. Remembering from just a few weeks ago how heavy this thing is I made sure I was ready for the weight. Over these weeks I think the gearbox has put on weight as it seemed much heavier than I seemed to remember. Anyway, with the box off I slid it out the way so that I could see the clutch plate. The pressure plate doesn't allow much of a view but I had other thoughts today at least.
The first thing I wanted to do was to remove the clutch to eliminate the possibility of the clutch plate being stuck to the flywheel. I undid the bolts holding the pressure plate in situ and the clutch plate almost slid out from between. That immediately eliminated one problem of it being stuck.
Before removing the clutch plate I noted which way round it was fitted and then consulted the Haynes manual once more. Turns out that I had fitted the thing the wrong way round. One side of the clutch plate is flat, the other side has a spring loaded plate. It was the flat side that I had original placed up against the flywheel. I have since been told that this is wrong, and the Haynes manual seems to confirm this. Only having seen the clutch in my GSX-R before this was something new to me. I called my father-in-law, John, to ask his opinion as he has stripped and rebuilt engines more times than he has had hot dinners, and he agreed that I had it the wrong way round. Well, if that is the case it probably explains the problems I've been having. The Haynes manual also mentions that it is the shorter hub that fits to the flywheel. Time to re-assemble.
It took me all of Saturday to get the gearbox back in place. It was dark by the time I finally pushed the car back into the garage. The problem I had was, in trying to get the gearbox to mate to the engine, unless the clutch plate is centered (aligned) then it is impossible to get the main drive shaft into postion. After hours of trying I finally took a different approach and within minutes this reaped dividends.
First thing I did was unbolt the bellhousing from the gearbox. Then I unbolted the pressure plate and hung it and the clutch plate over the gearbox far enough up the drive shaft that I could see the end of it. I then fitted the gearbox into the engine as I could actually see what I was doing. Then I moved the clutch plate and pressure plate up to the fly wheel and bolted it in place. Now I know that the clutch plate is aligned. I slid the gearbox out, attached the bellhousing and then offered it up. Within minutes the gearbox was mated and bolted in place. Then came the nice job of reassembling everything.>
By the time I had finished putting everything back together it was dark. I was tired and ached all over. I tried the engine. It started. I tried to engage gear. It failed. Damn. I know the problem is that the clutch is simply not disengaging enough when I press the clutch pedal. I did notice that under the new assembly the clutch pedal was a lot lighter. It seems almost as though the thrust bearing is not moving far enough to put pressure against the pressure plate so that the clutch plate can disengage. This probably means that the clutch cable needs adjusting. I'll try this over the next few days. I read on the Cobra Replica Club that Danny Mann had successfully done this with a Halfords supplied clutch cable. If I get no joy from the cable I have then I may try the same cable as he.
I'm off to Stoneleigh tomorrow and hope to meet up with a few of the CRC crew. I'm also going to see if I can get some cheap lights. Should be good.
Stoneleigh was OK yesterday. I met up with a few people that I knew, and some that new me (via this page). I met up with Bob Findlow who I have called frequently to ask questions. He and I are at similar stages of our builds and are building almost identical cars.
I met Steve W who came along in his Cobra (C8 COB) and had just got his clutch cable replaced. Shame the mechanic put it on upside down though, eh Steve.
I also met up with another chap (apologies, I forget your name) who asked if I was 'Tony from the Web Page?'. Nice to hear that real people actually read this dribble that I put here. I hope it is as useful to you as it is fun for me.
I took a look around some of the cars althoug the majority of Cobras had turned up the day before. They had better weather too, but at least it wasn't as cold and windy as it was last year. There was a nice nitrous Cobra that I noticed. Too much for me to even contemplate at this point in time.
I managed to collect some indicators and rear stop/tail lamps and also picked up the dashboard warning lights. I took a look at how people went about hanging their exhaust pipes. They have pretty much confirmed how I intend to do mine, so they shall be fixed more permanently soon.
I also looked around the dash layouts to see how close the light switch came into contact with the top of the dash and was hit by a sheer bit of genius. The problem I have is that when the light is in the on position (main lights, not side lights) the stalk comes into contact with the top of the body shell. For now I have them fitted in a twisted fashion. That is, I have rotated the steering column, not that I've actually fitted them with blue tack or something. I had thought previously that if I extend the steering column further then this would bring the light stalk clear of the body shell completely when all I really need to do is to drop the height that the steering column hangs at. This is quite easily done by fitting some additional nuts between the steering column fixing bracket and clamp. See the pictures as they explain it better.
Here is how I had the column fitted normally and here is the clearance it gave. Here it is with the additional nuts fitted and here is the clearance now. Much better.
Well it's been a fun few days. My kids both came down with chickenpox and so I've been playing nurse to them. My Carlton has also decided to give up the ghost - a small problem with fuel starvation. Hopefully it's just a problem with the fuel pump relay and not the pump itself. After trying to bypass the relay and melting part of the loom I decided to give up on the Carlton and pay a little more attention to the Cobra.
I made up some new brackets to hold the side pipes in place and so set about fixing them on. They are yet to be chromed up but I needed something in place to hold the pipes off the floor. The new method of fixing them up has worked a treat. They seem almost strong enough to stand on without falling apart. Just need to get some nylocks to keep them permanently in place, but not until they've been chromed.
Having asked the question on the CRC page it was agreed by all that my clutch plate was the wrong way round. I managed to swap this over with help from Matt, a soon to be ex-neighbour and ex-mechanic. With his help we managed to remove and replace the gearbox within about 1.5 hours. Thanks Matt. Having swapped the clutch plate over it was time to try it. When I started the Cobra it promptly ran out of fuel. A little more fuel later and I tried to start it again, only this time to find that the battery had gone flat. Fortunately the battery was out of the Carlton, having just been charged, so I used that instead. The engine started up beautifully only I could still not change gear. This is now making me believe that I could possibly have a duff pressure plate or perhaps the release bearing/carrier is incorrect. It also means that the gearbox has to come off yet again! I'm getting very close to asking someone else to fix the problem for me...
With all this going on I haven't really made much progress on the car overall. With the clutch problems persiting I will now leave that for a while and try to concentrate on getting the rest of the car put together. I still have my lights in the bag from Stoneleigh. Time to fit them methinks.
Well, the lights have finally come out of the plastic carrier bag that they were in and some have actually made it onto the rear of the car. The one thing I was concerned over, for SVA, was the height that the lights needed to be fitted. THey must be minimum of 350mm from the floor to the base of the light, must be 400mm from the edge of the car and must be a minimum of 400mm apart. They must also match. This in mind, the rear lights went on with no problems. The front lights are, however, a different story.
With the wieght of the engine at the front and the suspension not setup at all, the pre-allocated space for the indicators at the front are about 35mm too low. This means that the suspension needs setting up so that I can fit these things in place correctly.
On the video 'A Car is Born' it shows Mark Evans running an extra wire into the lights in order to supply an earth cable. This is because most lights are fitted to metal bodies which are earthed. This is not the case with this Kit as it has a fibreglass (GRP) body. The indicator lights that I have purchased have both a supply and an earth wire fed into them and I'm wondering if I need to cater for this additional wire. Time will tell.
I gave up trying to find the problem on the Carlton and passed it over to the local Vauxhall garage. They noted that the water pump had literally fallen apart and wanted £250.00 for the privilige of replacing it. I told them that I was more than capable of replacing the water pump, and setting the timing afterward (it is most likely this that is causing my starting problems) and asked them to leave the car as is. I obtained a new water pump (it was under warranty) and will replace it tonight. Hopefully the problem should be sorted.
One strange thing happened. I took one of the rear indicators out of the sealed bag only to find that no bulb had been fitted inside. Not to worry. This is one of the smaller troubles I have just recently.With nothing much else to do, I started removing the flash lines....
Well I had a phone call from the Vauxhall garage on Monday and they told me that there was a strange noise coming from inside the cam belt housing and they suspected that the water pump bearing had gone. That being the case I told them I'd replace it as I had done this just last August and the pump should be covered by warranty. I told them to leave the car where I could collect it, paid up and then collected the car later that night.
Getting the Carlton home, I stripped the front off so that I could remove the cam belt cover and sure enough the water pump had fallen apart. This had upset the timing a little and hence the reason why it would not start. I called the guys that supplied the pump to me last year and they still had details of my invoice and so replaced the pump under warranty. I fitted this new pump on, reset the timing and the car started first time, no problems! Brilliant. Now just to reassemble the thing and move on with the Cobra.
I called Tony Holmes today to see if he could offer me any advice on this cable clutch conversion. He mentioned there was a different clutch pedal quandrant that could be used in order to get a little more movement on the clutch cable. He gave me the Ford part number and then I called the local Ford dealer. They had 12 in stock. They now have 11.
When I got the part home, I removed the pedal box and replaced the quadrant with the new one. I had broken one of the plastic retaining clips on the one that was fitted, so it needed replacing anyway. After reassembling and refiiting the pedal box, it was time to try the clutch.
It worked.
Trying through all the gears from neutral I was able to move the gear stick into every gear, including reverse. Just to make sure that changing from first to second would work I took the car up the road for a little test drive (naughty, naughty). Managed to go from first to second en route so I was pleased. I did note that with the handbraket fitted where it is, it did interfere a little with the gear change. May have to look at changing that setup, but later with that.
Having fixed the clutch problem I continued with the dull job that I started late on Sunday evening - removing the flash lines on the mould. I must say that so far I am very pleased with the results. Using the Stanley blade method had reduced the flash lines to nothing. Then 1200 grade wet and dry has smoothed the panel off very nicely. The only piece to do now is to get some rubbing compound and polish the shell to a shine, but I may leave that until all the holes have been cut and so on. I'd also like to, for now, polish the whole of the car as there are some minor scratches that have appeared whilst builing has been moving along.
I ordered my seatbelts today. They should be here before the weekend. This means off with the fueld tank, drill the holes required and fit all bolts. Then put the tank back on. I'm on holiday next week and between the football and Jubilee celebrations my wife has planned, the seatbelts will be fitted.
I wired up the indicators today to see if they would work and if I would need that additional wire that Mark Evans had fitted. It seems that the extra wire that is in place provides me with the earth that I need. Having connected the indicators front and rear I then tried the switch. Nothing. Tried the hazzard lights and just the rear lights flashed. Methinks I have some investigtion to do....
