Rear wheel bearings

I decided to replace the rear wheel bearings on the seven as they were making a bit of noise. To make life easier i knocked up a stand for the rear of the car which means I can stick it on the stand rather than using floor standing axle stands or a trolley jack to support the car. This proved very useful.



The theory is you remove the hub, and undo the bolts that hold the bearing in place, and use a slide hammer to yank out the half shaft. Not having a slide hammer compounded this, but the first one came out with a few stern blows with two hammers on a back to front hub (providing me with something substantial to hit.)



The other took many hours of smacking with hammers, chisels, heat and general swearing before it gave up. I cut a groove into the bearing itself, and then used a cold chisel to break it off, this worked pretty well. The new bearings are now ready to fit, and will get pressed into place by my local garage.

Fuel tank and wheel bearings

I've had nothing but bother with the fuel tank since I had it made to my design by a company in the UK. First they forgot the order, then when it finally arrived it leaked fuel all over the place, and to top it all they over charged my credit card by 100 pounds. I still haven't had a refund for the difference let alone the leak stopped. This all came to a head last week when I went out for a quick drive and could smell petrol. I turned around and went home, when I arrived I could see a steady stream of fuel dripping out the rear of the car, the weld had failed in the swirl pot.



I decided it was time to get the fuel tank out and fix it properly, before doing so I drained the tank and filled it with water, I could see it driping out of a seam at quite a rate. I took the tank out at this point (which requires dismantling most of the rear of the car.) and decided to pressurize the tank a little so i could find all the other little leaks too. At 5psi the tank burst along the top seam. The welds are terrible, and not very deep, which left a 9" gash along the top.

I didn't want to waste any more summer driving time, so I decided to fix it myself. I borrowed hans' TIG welder and set about learning to weld with it, its not easy, and for some reason I seemed to get electric shocks off the welder very regularly, but I did manage to get to the point where I could run a consistently deep, if not very tidy weld, so moved onto the tank. I welded in a bit of right angled aluminum along the top as the gap was too big for me to weld up again, and welded up the seam at the bottom of the tank all the way along. It stopped leaking streams but it still leaked a drop here and there at 10psi.

I've now sealed the tank with some Tapox tank sealer, so hopefully this should do the trick, over the winter I'll probably get a new one made up as I don't trust this tank any more.

Interior Finished

I finished the interior of the car this weekend. I was being held up mainly as I had to wait on some parts. I had to fit the on/on/on switch for the wipers, however in some fit of mouser madness I misread the part number and whilst it is an on-on-on switch, its actually not any use on its own, as its positions are Z+X X+A A+B which means I still need to use a relay. So I just broke, and wired up a relay that breaks the park circuit when the wipers are on. They wipe, and seem to do so pretty quickly.



I fitted the replacement flasher, which flashes, and checked all the switches function as they should. They did, so I bolted in the dash, its pretty solid, and fits just the way it should. I think it looks really good, and am very pleased with the end result. It was definitely worth all the mess. I cleaned the interior with an air gun, hoover, and fabric cleaner, and routed the internal wiring, and stuck down the side carpets. The immobilizer stopped working because the sensor was too far away from the fob, so i need to move it somewhere else, but I'm not sure where yet.



I then trimmed down the seat belt tails to a more sensible size, i went for six inches past the buckle. Next up was to trim around the windscreen. My plan here is to use alcantara, with one edge tucked under the windscreen ever so slightly (should be fine since its bonded in place with copious amounts of PU) and the other is held down with some U trim which also puts the required radious on the edge of the windscreen surround. I then used contact adhesive in the bits in the middle, so hopefully it will all stay up there. It was fiddly and took forever, but looks pretty good now.



I bolted up the hideous sierra steering wheel, and checked everything worked, it did so had a celebratory drive around the car park, gear change is crappy since there is no tactile feedback from the lever, but this will be easily remedied post IVA. The car is pretty quick, first gear is pretty tall though, i'm hoping the 3.21 diff was the right choice afterall. The interior is now finished, I'll need to start covering it when i'm doing messy jobs to try and keep it nice and clean.

Wipers and Intercom

Fitted the windscreen wipers, these have a 95 degree sweep, so I've mounted the offside one just to the right of the steering wheel center, and the other about 5" to the left of where the tip of the blade finishes. Finding the position was easier than I expected, using a protractor and the arms and some tape I put them in various positions and checked that the were not missing anything in my field of vision.



Fitting the wheel boxes to the motor on the other hand was endless frustration. The theory is simple enough, there is a corrugated flexible bit of wire that runs through some copper tube from the motor to the wheel boxes, the wheel in the wheel boxes is turned by the teeth on the wire, the wire is pushed and pulled by a crank on the end of the spindle.



I measured and cut the tube, and used a mandrel to bend it into the right shape, offered it up to the wire, and of course, it didn't go in. The wire is about 8mm, as is the ID of the copper tube. I de-burred the edge, and tried again and it got as far as the first bend, where of course it was too narrow to go any further. I spent a good few hours trying smaller radius bends, before finding another roll of ever so slightly larger tube that allowed at least some movement.

I then flared the end, before noticing that i hadn't put the nut on yet, after remedying that I offered up the rather inflexible assembly to the wheel box. This is located under the windscreen, above the electrical tray. It fits in there with a bit of bending, but removing the nuts on the end require the patience of job. These nuts are used to clamp the copper pipe in place, the wire then goes through the wheel box, and into another section of copper tube. I spent a good hour wiggling, and eventually managed to get the wire to pass over the lip on the clamp, another eternity tightening it up, before i (thankfully) had the good wisdom to test it worked, because as soon as i pressed the button the fuse popped. Tried again with a slightly larger fuse, and it pushed the flare out the motor end, i yanked on the wire and it was locked solid.

I assumed this was down to the cable being crushed, but after removing it, it was obvious that you have to thread the wire through the wheel box, as there is not enough of a gap for it to sit home if you don't, so basically when i tightened up the clamp i was just locking the wire in place.

I decided at this point, that things were getting too complicated, so i decided to use 10mm ally tube, and move the motor inside the car to eliminate the need for tight bends in the tube, this should allow the mechanism to run smoothly as well as making it easier to fit.



I drilled out the brass nut on the motor to 10mm, and put a flare on the tube, put the nut in a vice and screwed in an alloy boss which sits in the motor housing and is clamped in place by the cover of the motor. Of course i over tightened it and it sheered away in my hand. This was turning into a bit of a bodge, so after a bite to eat, i decided the best option was to make a new boss. (its simply a T shaped bit of metal with a hole in it) I did this by taking some alloy bar, turning it down so it had a lip on it. I then brazed the alloy tube to it using durafix, and some air of professionalism started to return to the finished result.

With it all bolt in place, the mechanism moves very smoothly, and is rock solid, which was pretty much what I wanted. I can now keep myself awake when i sit in the car by being slapped in the face by the wiper arm until I get round to sorting out a windscreen.



Next job was to fit the intercom. I've mounted it on the sidepod to my right, just at the end of my arms reach under the dash, to make the wiring tidier, i drilled a series of holes in the back of the casing and routed the power, and comms wires out there, leaving just the inputs for the music/gps etc at the front. The wires for the headsets will run along the outside of the sidepod to their rubber mounts.



The side repeaters are also fitted and wired up, along with an indicator switch and working hazard switch (Using a conventional way of doing things.) which will do until SVA, although for some reason my flasher wont flash, i tried a different flasher, and it flashes, but at the wrong rate due the LED lights, so i've ordered a replacement LED flasher unit.



I made a very crude, and tbh not very good shift lever by extending a momentary on toggle switch with some alloy tube, this will do until I get rid of the ginormous sierra steering wheel (Post IVA) and can fit a proper flappy panel wotsit behind the smaller momo one.

Fury Todo List

Its mainly little jobs now, in no particular order these are:

• Interior
• Fit the dashhboard
• Mount the dash
• Mount the T-Pull handle for the fire extinguisher
• buy and fit a working flasher relay
• Fit (Temporary) buttons for dip/mains and horn
• Make and fit temporary shift lever
• Fit the heater hose from the dash to the heater
• Fit the heater hose from the heater to the driver footwell (Exhaust should keep the passenger warm.)
• Fit a working switch for the heater fan
• Fit the intercom
• Order and fit switch for wipers
• Stick down carpeting
• Carpet around the windscreen aperture
• Engine:
• Make an airbox to get through SVA
• Adapt existing air filter to sit 180 degrees from its current location and make hole in bonnet
• Remove AIS system and turn it into a breather system
• Order and fit a catch tank
• Change the O-Ring on the sump for a yamaha part
• Order and fit alloy tubes as current ones seem to be porous
• Bodywork:
• Glue rear lights in place
• Use some PU to fill any gaps
• Fit front air dam
• Buy and fit some mirrors
• Wash clean and polish
• Buy and fit rear diffuser
• Fit side repeaters
• Windscreen:
• Buy and fit windscreen
• Fit windscreen wipers
• Fit washer nozzle
• Brakes:
• Set the brake bias
• weld up the bias bar for IVA
• Remove the bias bar adapter
• Wheels
• Balance the wheels as a couple of the sticky weights came off
• Fit all the wheel nuts, and cut down the front studs if required
• Suspension
• Book and appointment to get suspension set up and corner weighted

Bonnet pins and rollbar

Bonded in the bonnet pin mounts to the side pods, but i think it will need to be bolted, i'll bolt them in at a later stage when i have a good reason to faff with the side pods.



Put a final coat of black on the roll bar, and bolted it in only to find out i'd ran out of m10 nylocs, managed to find one, which is enough to hold it in place, with the other bolts just screwed into nothing. Will pick some up on Monday and finish the job.

This didn't stop me from adjusting the harnesses and fitting them, with the adjusters in the right place they are a lot more comfortable and of coarse, a better fit, whilst very comfortable the seats are tight to the bone, to the point i can actually feel the seatbelt through my jeans. Must lay off the pies.



I spent the rest of the evening tidying up the garage as i hadn't really put anything away since before I left for spain. The seven needs some post-trip-love, or at least a wash, so i might try to get started with that tomorrow. Its dripping oil on the floor so i'll put of washing the floor (which is now a little slippy) for a bit longer, or until i slip and crack my head properly.

Next up in the fury is to finish of the electrical parts. Until I can get a circuit board manufactured for an affordable price, i'll use a normal toggle switch for the indicators. The hazards need to work with the ignition off, which presents a problem, with the ignition off, and key removed, i can turn on the hazards, this is run from a permanent live feed. However, the indicators, work from the ignition feed. If i have the hazards on, and turn on the indicators then the ignition circuit is live too as power can flow back up the feed from the ignition circuit. I'll put a nc relay in there to cut the power for now. I also need to find myself an on-on-on dual throw toggle switch for the wipers, for now i'll just leave the wires ready to attach.

If all goes well with the wiring i'll have a go at fitting the wipers.

10% of the progress, 90% of the time

I'm down to the predominantly little jobs. I picked up the shifter arm when I was last in the UK, so I fitted that to the flat-shifter solenoid,



I need to finish the wiring, and there is now nothing in the way of this, so i've been out with my soldering iron, loom tape, and zip ties. The engine bay is now complete, with the flat-shifter-max wired in, and connectors ready for the rest of the flat-shifter post IVA.

All the engine loom is tidied away nicely, however I think i will need to make a support for the bike loom as its a little too short to sit on the bulkhead nicely.



Next up was the bonnet catches, these are aluminum cases with locking pins, these look pretty nice, and are strong enough, however the bonnet has a pretty poor fit around the side-pods, as the pins are not locked, I think they may end up coming loose due to the side pressure.

To stop this happening, i've bonded and riveted in some plates to the bonnet, the plates have a pin in them which goes vertically through the side pod, this keeps the bonnet in place horizontally, whilst the locks keep it in place vertically.



Next job is to fabricate the mounts on the sidepod that secure the bonnet to the car.

Seven engine rebuild (again)

Well after a disasterous start to the year, it was time for a new engine. The root cause of the failure was the lubrication system possibly caused by a blocked oil cooler.

I got a short block from Jem Engines, its a 711 crossflow bored out to 1700cc, with fully balanced internals. The engine is fitted with ARP con rod and fly wheel bolts. I reused the Kent 244 cam, and burton stage 3 head.

The first thing to do before building anything was to thoroughly clean the head, as the bearing failure had likely resulted in a lot of crud going around the engine, I stripped it completely and used pipe cleaners to go through each oil passage, and cleaned it with gunk degreaser and compressed air.

Afterwards I painted it black (it was blue) to match the block. I used hammerite and so far it seems to be doing the trick.



Next was time to do the ARP bolts, Eric gave me some ARP Lube, so I torqued them up to 40 ft lbs.



I can build a crossflow in a couple of hours from memory alone now, I could even remember the number of degrees to set the cam to, although this didn't stop me from making a hash of it the first time and having to re-time the engine after everything was built up.



I used a competition gasket set from Burton, Eric recons the best way to get a dry seal on the sump is to evo-stick the gasket to the block, then use a little blob of silicon around the rubber seals on the end, and tighten it up gently.



I tried this, the result was an enormous oil slick on the garage floor after the first drive so I'm back to experimenting with silicon... The engine was back in the car in less than 4 hours, ready to start, or so I thought.



It fired up first time, but made a noise that left me clutching my wallet.



It turned out that the oil pipe was ever so slightly grazing the con rod bolt, this thankfully was easily fixed with a gentle tap from the hammer and it finally ran smoothly. Getting the sump off in-car is a real pain, however if I loosen off the engine mounts and replace the gearbox->engine bolts with longer ones, I can use a crow bar to seperate the engine from the box about an inch which is enough to get to the rearmost sump bolts.

The fury lives

After two destroyed wiring looms I finally got the engine wired up properly in the fury. The trick is to completely ignore the wiring diagram in the owners manual.

The first time, I wired it up based on the colours and connections indiciated in the manual by shortening the loom, and things were very confused. After an enormous amount of faffing i got the ECU to intermittantly function.

The second time I got exactly the same results but with no functionality by wiring it directly from the wiring diagram. The reality is that there are quite a few additional connections, earths, shared VRef feeds etc, that are not indicated on the diagram, as well as a few circuits for the ECU that are simply missing, immobilizer for example.

What I did in the end was wire up ll the sensors, get the ecu to report fault codes, and work as expected, then on at a time removed things that were not connected up to anything. This left me with a minimal loom, including relays, fuses etc. I then followed each wire to the fuse box, and cut it at the fuse box end. The cut wire was then re-routed, and extended/shortened as required to the engine feed wires.

Each time I did this, I turned everything on and made sure that things were still functioning, this made it easy to find any problems if I introduced any.

The result is that I now have a handful of wires coming out of the bulkhead to power and control the engine, these are tidily spliced into the engine loom which also goes through the bulkhead to the ECU.

The end result was that I could start the car, it fired up first time, with no fiddling which was just what I'd hoped for. I let it tick over for a while checking for bad sounds, leaks and any problems.

Things got pretty smokey as the heat wrap burned off all its chemicals, but settled down nicely, the side pod gets pretty hot, above the manifold where there is no heat shielding, but stays pretty cool everywhere else which I hope will be fine. I think I will make another hole in the rear of the pod to let the air out when driving though.

Hans came over so we fired it up again and had some fun with the loud pedal.

Since then I've taken it for a quick spin around the garage car park, this is going to be great when its on the road.

Crossflow Rocker Gaskets

I think I finally found the cause of all the oil leaking everywhere. It seems that its pouring out of the rocker cover flange. I have an alloy one, and its always somewhat awkward to fit it. There is a cork gasket which invariably isnt quite the right shape, when its tightened up, it has a habit of being squeezed out.

To make it easier to fit, I usually use copious amounts of loctite gasket sealer which bonds the cork gasket to the rocker cover, making it easier to assemble. It seems that this is still not good enough, I've always been aware of a small amount of oil on top of the inlet manifold, which I assumed was mainly runoff from when I'd filled it, however on closer inspection there is actually quite a lot of oil running out and down the block.

I've since dispense with the cork gasket all together, and cleaned the alloy back to bare metal. I've applied a fair bit of loctite 5922 flange sealer, hopefully this will be the end of the leakage. On a better note, this seems to be the only leak that I actually have, although its hard to say as it gets everywhere.

Engine

I thought I was all set to start the engine in the Fury, the last time I did anything with the engine, i was unable to get the expected output on the original bike clocks. I put it to the side as actually starting the engine was a long way off.

Since then I've plumbed the engine, and lengthened/shortened the loom to fit the car installation, the prop shafts are connected, the wheels are on, and the controls are connected up. It was time to have a go starting it.

I put the engine fuses in, filled the engine with 3.8l (Total oil capacity according to the service manual) and wired the bike clocks up permanently, it took a while to work out which wire did what for power and earth. It immediately registered a few error codes, i reduced this down to one for the EXUP motor, which i am not using.

I turned the engine over, and the digi dash registered a tach signal, and the injectors were firing, and the fuel pump was running when turning over. The engine had oil pressure, it was time to start the car.

I pushed it outside, filled it with fuel, and went to start it up, for some reason the bike dash was no longer displaying any error codes, and i had no sparks, no fuel pump and no injector firing. I spent the rest of the day trying to find the problem, it seems to be related to the wiring, and the relay box. I think the fault is somewhere between the ECU and the Relay box, related to either the immobilizer, or the relay box itself. I think the ECU is not receiving any indication that it should run.

I also found a minor wiring problem, in that i'd wired up the connection between the ECU and the #1 injector to the ignition live. They both use the same color wire. It does make me worry what other mistakes i've made though. I also noticed that I could hear a relay clicking when i leant on the wiring loom. I expect that this is probably the root cause, and is either a break int he wire, or an intermittent short somewhere.

Wiring

So, to finish the car, I 'just' have to:Fit the windscreen wipers, and windscreen

Fit the gauges, switches, vents and dashboard (all part of the same job.)

Fit the rear lights

Make an under tray and flat floor.

Powder coat the rollover bar (Painting this has been a series of disasters.)

Wire the whole thingFill with oil and waterStart. Drive. Smile.

The windscreen and wipers will be the last thing I do, as it will restrict access to everything else once it is in there. Rear lights are on order, and im still deciding over the gauges and layout of the dash, so the logical thing to do now is the wiring. I'm going to make my own loom, although there are a few off-the-shelf options that are very appealing. Premier Wiring make a great Lucas based loom, Alan the chap who runs Premier Wiring will do more or less any length/combination of clips etc, but there are a few fundamental things that are suboptimal about the loom. Mainly the proportions aren't quite right for such a small. I always find i'm

cutting out things and faffing around to make it tidy. For the money though, the quality is outstanding and its very well made.

Stafford Vehicle Components also do a 'Rapidfit' Loom and some others, these are more expensive versions of the Premier wiring loom, and whilst these look well made, ultimately are not going to be quite what I want, especially as I'm aiming to save weight, and have some specific requirements for lighting and accessories such as camera/intercom etc which all must be powered and require non-12v feeds.

The front of the loom will be supported by a tray underneath the dashboard, this will keep everything tidy. Instead of fuses I will be using circuit breakers, I hate fuses, they have a really annoying habit of blowing when i've run out, and I find them generally fiddly. Circuit breakers work pretty much instantly, which is also a good thing, but can also be reset easily and give a clear indication that they have tripped which makes fault finding simpler. Where possible I shall use Lucas color codes.

The main power control is via an FIA master switch close to the battery, this feeds the ignition key which is the main on/off switch for the car. I will fit this after IVA.

The IVA requires that the side (Parking) lights can be on with the ignition off. In order to remove any ambiguity over what qualifies for the Ignition, I shall remove the FIA master switch for IVA. Some cars disable the headlights when the ignition is off leaving just the sidelights on even if the dipped headlights are still switched on. This is handy as it means you are less likely to run the battery flat if you leave your lights on, but the simplest way is simply to wire all lights via permenant live.

I am using toggle switches for primary light control, these are rated to at last 24 Amps at 12V, this means I can power the lights directly from the switch. However I'm using a momentary on push button and a bistable latching relay to control dip/main beams. This enables me to have a button on or near the steering wheel so that I can dip the lights quickly when driving at pace without moving my hands from the steering wheel.

The push button will also flash the main beams if the lights are not switched on. There is no requirement in the IVA for this, however it is my personal preference.

I'm doubtful if the generator on the bike engine will be able to cope with driving lamps, however I will wire these in regardless. (I want to avoid splicing circuits at a later stage.) This will be done through an off/on/on toggle switch. When set to off, the driving lights will remain off regardless. When set to position 1, the lights will illuminate with main beams. When set to position 2, the lights will light when the dipped and main beams are on. The load from these lights in combination with the headlights may be too much for a toggle switch, so I shall wire these through a separate r

elay.

The IVA states that the fog light must come on when selected and when the dipped or main beams are on, it is wired through the main lighting circuit, there is no need for a relay for this.

Brake and reverse lights are wired via the ignition switch.

I'm using a lower power, constant rate flasher unit, this has a feed from the permanent live, and goes to the indicator control box, which i've designed to use single push buttons on the wheel. the control box also controls the hazard waring lamps, which must work with the ignition off.

There are separate circuits for comms/cameras, auxiliary devices (both perm and ign live) dashboard electronics including heater/fan, windscreen wipers, and the engine.

The engine loom is completely seperate with 7 wires going back to the main loom for fuel pump (switched live.) fan, (Switched earth), Permanent Live, Ignition Live, Run, and Start (Switched Earth)

Little Jobs

Refitted the steering column, this was quite fiddly as it needed to be adjusted so that I can get in and out, as well as enabling me to get the dashboard on and off. If I ever take it off again I'll make up a set of shims rather than using about 20 washers to give the right spacing.

The dashboard was drilled to accept the rod for the gear change, and a final coat of glass matt on the underside where the brackets are. The brackets bolt to the bulkhead to give strength to the top, the front will bolt to the metal bar. I added some filler to some of the areas with imperfections. It is now ready for final fitment. I can't do that until the wiring is done and ideally not until after all the buttons/gauges/dials are fitted.

I noticed that there are a couple of drips from the coolant pipes so i may have to get some proper joiners made up.

I cleaned up the engine bay with the air line and blew out all the dust and fiberglass remains that had found there way in everywhere. I think the wiring will be the next major job to do will be the wiring as this is going to be the bottleneck for a few other jobs.

I started with some ideas for the rear lights, more to come on that another day.

Interior Trim

I started with the interior trim in the Fury, anything that I'm likely to come into contact with, which is basically the horizontal panels on the inside are lined with foam sheet, and then covered with Alcantara. The other visible panels will be covered in Alcantara.

Progress is quite quick on this, but I've run out of glue so no more progress until after new year.



First I cut the foam to size, then covered the foam in Alcantara. For removable panels the aluminum was bonded to the foam, however where the foam fits up to the GRP I will use velcro or trim fasteners to hold it in place.



Once the foam was cut to size the alcantara was then attached to the foam using contact adhesive.



The Alcantara has a very nice feel and I think it is a good contrast against the orange tubing.

Engine Rebuild

I stripped the crossflow into component form, leaving the pistons and crank shaft well alone though. The bores are showing no signs of wear, but there was rather a lot of carbon deposits. I de-coked the engine as best I could and cleaned it thoroughly including the oil channels and water galleries. The kent 244 cam was installed and timed, using a timing disk.





I'm starting to see mild valve seat recession which is alarming, so I expect that by this time next year I will need to have new seats fitted, at the same time I will fit hardened seats which mean I can run pure unleaded. I may use this as a chance to rebuild one of the spare blocks and heads to give me a running spare.



I fitted new valve springs and fitted stem seals, the originals do not fit as they foul the internal spring, ones from an MG metro do fit however so these were installed. I fitted a new rear oil seal and gaskets and should hopefully now have a leak free engine.

All bolts where assembled with threadlock. I also fitted a T-piece in the top cooling hose to insert the Coolant temperature sensor for the microsquirt box.



I must now weld up the sump, or find a new one before putting it back in the car. Once in the car i'll need to run it at 2500rpm for about 20 minutes to run in the new cam, and at the same torque down the head again.

Lockwiring

I'm pretty sure I don't need to take the prop shafts out now, so today I fitted the bolts for a final time. This is something you want to get right, as the prop shafts turn at very high rpm. If they come off, the end that comes off will flay around. This is a bad thing. Sometimes its just a case of new panels, other times it can sever the fuel lines causing the car to catch fire or if it breaches the floor, the car could be jacked up, causing it to rollover, or if it breaches the panelling into the cockpit it can cause injury to me or a passenger.

Bike engines produce a lot of vibrations and this has a habit of causing things to loosen off. In addition, there are two prop shafts, and a sprocket adapter which is three times as many things to fall off as on the seven.

My plan therefore is to use three things to stop the bolts coming off:

1. Tighten the bolts RFT.


2. Use threadlock on all bolts


3. Use lockwire or a locking tab on all bolts.

The sprocket adapter bolt is a tricky one, as it is enclosed by the prop and the adapter, this is tightened to 86nm, with locktite, and it has a locking tab which i've hammered down. The problem is however, that I cannot see this bolt visually to check periodically. What I will do initially is retighten it after 100 miles, if it is loose then it will just have to be done regularly or i'll drill a hole in the adapter and lockwire it. To give me an indication of any movement, I've put a line of paint at the joint, if the bolt is coming loose there will be a gap (however small) betwen the line of paint and the adapter which should give an early indication. The bolts are M8 cap head grade 12, and are tightened as tight as I can get them, threadlocked, lockwired, and marked.



The reversing box uses M8 bolts, these are grade 12, and tightened as tight as I can get them with the spanner, again threadlocked. These are lockwired in pairs and marked with paint.



The rear flange uses nuts and bolts, again grade 12 bolts, with nylocs and threadlock. I've lockwired the bolts and used a locking tab on the rear which is bent over the nuts to stop them turning. Again they are tightened as tight as I can, and marked for security.

Floor Painted

After Morocco, the car is in need of some love. Half the Sahara seems to be inside of the car, so as the weather is cold and wet, I've started with a proper clean.



I removed the seat belts and anything else in the way, got out the wire brush and grinder and cleaned up all the floor back to painted metal, and in some places back to the metal itself. Two coats of hammerite later its looking pretty good.



The seats were maukit, so I cleaned them up with detergent, and some vinyl polish, they came up pretty well.



I Also painted the roll bar, and a few other bits of the chassis which were exposed to daylight and have faded a little.

Todo

Seven

Engine

• Fit and reinforce engine mounts to ensure they wont fail in the same way again.
• Fix or replace sump, either shorten the existing one or just stick a non-battered one on, whichever is easiest. Potentially make a sump guard.
• Change crank shaft end seal for one that doesn't let oil pour out - some people find a bit of oil acceptable but I find it embarrassing so it needs to be sorted out.
• Since the engine will be out I want to change the cam, I'm relatively happy with the piper 285 cam, it has lots of torque from low RPM, and reasonable high end power so changing it is a bit of a gamble. I've decided on the kent 244 cam, its a high lift cam, and should give improved top end power, with a loss of low end torque. To compensate I'm going to be running fuel injection, which should enable better fueling at low RPM and pull the torque up a little.
• Remove cylinder head, de-coke, and examine engine for wear- I'm interested to see the state of the valve seats after 7000 miles using additive, its also a good time to change the head gasket, its got pretty hot a couple of times, and I'd like to ensure there are no failures in the gasket.

Fueling

• Fit the Mega squirt (Microsquirt) for full fuel injection.
• Buy and Fit a larger fuel tank - 20 liters just isn't going to cut it, I feel I'm constantly refueling.
• Fit larger fuel lines with a return to the tank, for fuel injection I will need a fuel return, standard sizes seem to be based around 10mm for fuel feed, rather than 8.
• Fit the in line fuel filter and buy and fit injection pump
• Fit the throttle bodies from the GSXR 750
• Permanently install the wide-band LC-1

Bodywork

• Remove the scratches from the bonnet, remove the nuts and bond it into one single piece rather than the Sort out the bodywork, fill up the hole where the aerocatch doesn't fit due to the intake system and make it orange again.
• Make a new boot box, i'll need this because the fuel tank will be a different shape, and wont fit within the current one, it is also starting to rot a little and needs to be made out of something non-wooden.
• Fit a new drivers side mirror as the current one is beyond service.
• Paint the interior where the paint has worn and touch up the rest of the car as appropriate.
• Make and fit ally floor covers

Electrical

• Accessory wiring needs to be rewired, with heavier wire, and a smaller, dedicated fuse.
• Decide on a data logging solution that is compatible with the mega squirt

Other

• APK is due in December.

Fury

• Fit alcantara cloth I got for the interior
• Finish dashboard buck and make dash
• Wire engine completely
• Fit passenger seat and seat belt
• Paint and refit roll over bar
• Make car bottom from ali and fit
• Fit the prop shafts with grade 12 bolts
• Fit steering wheel and boss
• Figure out the dash layout, and the logic design for the indicators on the steering wheel.
• Figure out the appropriate adaptors needed for the oil pressure/temp senders
• Decide on the dat logger I want to use
• Get the rear lights and wire the rest of the car

Garage

• Fit car ramp, wire in new motor or inverter as required
• Enlarge mezzanine as appropriate.
• Do a full clear out post-sanding.

Prop Shafts

Phoned Dunning and Fairbank about the prop shafts, latest estimate is early next week.  This reminded me I need to order some high grade bolts to install them with, so will put an order in at Namrick later.

Fuel Injection

Decided to go for Megasquirt and bike throttle bodies on the seven.  Whilst fitting this I will solve the oil leak.  This is a nice project, and saves faffing around with new engines.  Should increase fuel economy.

I've had some issues with the seven over the last few hundred miles, they are:

• Grinding noise I can't place that I'm sure never used to happen, possibly from rear wheel, bearing perhaps.
  
• Starter motor failing - it grinds now as well as jams, so need a replacement or recondition this one.
  
• Oil leaking out of oil pump - seems to have a crack somewhere, very annoying as its new.
  
• Oil leaking out of sump - noticed some spots on the ground before i'd actually started the engine so can only assume its leaking out the sump somewhere.
  
• Oil possibly leaking out of main seal - need to confirm this.
  

I want to get the car ship shape for a road trip this year, planning on using bike throttle bodies and megasquirt. For the conversion I will need:

• Fuel Pump - generic injection pump, 8mm push on tails if possible.
• Pre-pump filter - sytec generic one
• Swirl Pot - low pressure feed in, no return (will get one blanked off in case it causes problems.) return from regulator, feed to high pressure pump.
• Throttle bodies - not sure which ones yet, preferably individual units with 38mm bore and largish injectors, single butterflies and a sensible looking airbox.
• Manifold - I will hopefully use my existing one if I can.

The existing DCOE manifold will be cut down, I will then make the ends match the diameter of the hose required to connect the two, if needed I will make some ali inserts that are completely round if I can't get a seal.  I will use alutight or other ali weld to seal the joint. 

I want to use a throttle body with built in regulator, vacuum take off, and TPS.

Needs to be done in the next 6 weeks or so.