17 May 2021 Bolted the power steering fluid reservoir in place and connected up the remaining pipes, some of them needed trimming. Fitted the radiator pipes, just need to find a pipe for the rear of the engine where the heater used to be connected, and I can add coolant. Topped up the differential and gearbox with new oil. 18 May 2021 Ordered a pre-bent pipe and some silicon hose for the last of the coolant pipes. I started looking at the wiring and realised I had not ordered all the connectors I need for the fusebox so that was frustrating – placed the order for the missing bits. Pulled some more wiring runs out of the loom (brake and fog lights) which seemed to take a long time. 19 May 2021 Made up the earth straps and bolted them in place. I used 25mm cable and crimp rings. I used an anvil style crimper which worked really well in my vice. I put straps for the fuel tank to chassis, power plant frame to the chassis and engine to chassis. Tested that the earth connections are all good with a multimeter. Loosely laid in the looms I will need to get the engine started, cooling fan, alternator, starter main and solenoid feed, fuel pump. Buzzed out the wire for the fuel pump and fuel gauge sender as they share the same connector and labelled them. 20 May 2021 Terminated the wires for the alternator, ECU power, Cooling fan power, I'm really pleased with my label printer which prints heat shrink tubing. Still waiting for a suitable ring terminal to arrive for the main battery feed in to the fusebox. Annoyingly if I had looked closer at the original fusebox the wire is actually terminated with a ring but I didn't see that before I cut it out. Had a look at how to add earth points and have ordered some bolt on earth bars. I'll have one on the front chassis, one on the rear chassis and one under the dash I think. 21 May 2021 Tried fitting the cooling pipe, I think it will need a bit more fettling before I'm happy. I couldn't get one exactly the same diameter as the engine pipes so it needs to be bulked out a bit with some self-amalgamating tape. A bit more messing about with wires and figuring out how to arrange the fuse box. I;ve bought a modular fusebox so I have modules for relays, flasher units, large fuses and smaller fuses. My power distribution diagram tells me what needs to connect to what but I need to translate that into physical connections. Not been able to spend as much time in the garage this week as I've been on dog sitting duties, Honey had major surgery and is at home recovering.
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10 May 2021 Finished painting the water pump pulley. Fitted the catalytic converter section of the exhaust which has the O2 sensor in it. I found the centre silencer section and bolted that up and then tried to figure out where the exhaust back box might go. It's not a standard back box but a centre exit Powerflex unit which I picked up last year cheap. It will need the centre pipe modifying to join up, but I'm not sure how the exhaust needs to sit in relationship to the rear bodywork. Posted up a question on the Facebook book to see how others have positioned their exhausts. Good news and bad news, got notified I was going to be made redundant from work (bad news) which means I will have more time to work on the kit (good news), at least in the short term until I find another position. 11 May 2021 Popped over to see John Ham and look at his Jetex exhaust box, it fits really well with the box held up nice and high in the boot space. I think the centre exhaust box I have will cause clearance problems. Will look out for a second hand one for now but will probably have to bite the bullet and buy new. Need to also take a close look at centre pipe, it's quite rusty so might need to look out for a better secondhand one. Also looked at the rear body mounts and how the dash and body sit in relation to the chassis which helped me understand a bit more. Back in the garage, the replacement clutch master and slave cylinders arrive so I set to mounting them, made up a bracket to support the pipe on one of the starter motor bolts, waiting for the paint to dry before I can fit it. I fitted the water pump pulley wheel, I applied thread lock to the bolts. Fitted and tensioned the belt. I put some paint on the power steering pump bracket, and cleaned up the pump and associated hardware. I primed the steering column support bracket ready to be painted the same colour as the chassis. Had a look at the power steering pipe to understand how it is going to join to the rack but need to study that some more. 12 May 2021 P-clips arrived today so I finished off securing the engine harness. I refitted the clutch pipe and added a clip to secure it to the gearbox. I fitted the radiator, which was a straightforward task once I had figured out where the radiator needed to sit and how the brackets would be attached to the chassis. I spent a long time with blocks of wood to get the radiator in the right spot, checking the position of the brackets. I used steel M6 steel rivinuts in the chassis rails to secure the brackets. I practised on a scrap bit of steel first, I drilled the hole in 3 stages, 4mm drill, 8mm drill and then out to the required 9mm with stepped drill. This worked really well and the brackets all lined up nicely. I had to slightly bend and twist the offside top bracket to make it sit correctly but I'm very happy with the result. 13 May 2021 My new air filter and pipes arrived today. It's a generic kit so I wasn't sure exactly how well it was going to fit. In the end I cut the throttle body end off the Mazda intake pipe off and joined that to the new tubing and the air filter. I want the filter to be down to the right side of the radiator to get cool air, hopefully there will be enough space behind the bodywork. I was able to drill a hole in the pipe to fit the intake air temperature sensor for the ECU, the rubber pipe holds the sensor nice and firm. 14 May 2021 Spent a lot of time reworking my wiring diagrams, comparing it to the wires I have pulled out of the loom, particularly around the ignition switch. Finalised the fusebox layout, fuse values against the bulbs and relays. Then I placed an order for the fusebox, fuses, relays, warning lights, and some other things I will need like body mounts and fuel filler cap. I've also been thinking a lot about steering wheels and seats, Theres a steering wheel on Car Builder that I like which is 17” in diameter, after playing around with the MX5 seats and steering wheel testing getting in and out I decided that 17” was just too big. I think I will go for a 15” steering wheel, there are plenty of options for that and I don't need to make a decision now. I had another look at the column light controls, and unscrewed the wiper stalk that won't be needed, I cut the wires where they go into the connector on the steering column. Decision made I am reusing the MX5 light and indicator stalk. 15 May 2021 I did some trial fitting of the power steering cooling loop that runs in front of the radiator. There are mount points already on the chassis that are designed to pick up the old brackets, I had taken mine off to paint the pipes and they were not looking great. I tried several different angles and eventually settled on a position that looked like it would work. I needed some new brackets to support the pipes, for the far end I could use a p-clip, for the middle and where the pipe goes round the radiator I drew up a design for a bracket in Fusion360 and printed it off on my 3D printer. 16 May 2021 Thinking about seats, all the aftermarket ones seem very expensive apart from the BB range but they only have a few with headrest and little choice of material. Had a chat with a friend of mine who is rebuilding an E-Type and he mentioned that he's putting some MK1 MX5 seats in his e-type as the originals don't have headrests. Got me thinking that maybe this is the route to go and I could recover them in the fabric I want rather than taking what is offered. Might have secured a pair of seats for £50 which I can strip and see how they are put together and try my hand at seat upholstery! My 3D printed brackets worked great for the power steering pipes, and I was able to secure the pipes. I used a bolt through the lower radiator bracket and then epoxy glued and compressed riv-nuts into the pipe mounting points in front of the radiator for the others. The pipes needed a bit of bending so they didn't touch the anti roll bar, another job ticked off. I then had a look at the throttle cable, the old brackets bolted on to the intake manifold easily, I needed to make a square hole in the firewall to allow the bulkhead clip to fit. I drilled a 12mm hole and then filed it out to a rectangle with some needle files until the clip fitted. 3 May 2021 Stripping the wiring loom has made me think again about what components I want to reuse from the MX-5. The column stalks are OK but unless I can remove the wash wipe stalk somehow I will have an extra stalk that did nothing. It's also quite a bulky unit. I also don't want to use the Mazda steering wheel so I've been browsing the options – there is a nice looking one on CBS and they also have boss for the MX5 column that would work. Not sure how the horn connection works with the Mazda column so will need to give them a call to discuss. I'm leaning towards replacing the stalks with a single aftermarket one. 6 May 2021 Did a trial fitting of the inlet manifold, I think I will need to wire up the injectors before fitting the top of the inlet manifold to the car. That made me think about the other connectors for the ECU. Might be sensible to start looking at that soon. Put the EGR blanking plates on the inlet manifold. Started cleaning up the power steering cooling pipe. I put my new flexible clutch pipe and also the clutch slave cylinder in place, I will need to add a clip for the pipe probably using one of the bell-housing bolts. 7 May 2021 Stripped a bit more of the wiring loom, the ignition switch circuit/power distribution loom/starter took quite a bit on untangling and identifying all the links to circuits it connects to that I won't use (AC/ABS/Immobiliser/Windows/Wipers). Painted the power steering cooling pipe. 8 May 2021 Put the ECU loom in place checked where the wires need to route and what they are going to connect to. The loom from Canems is lovely to handle and the wores are spot on for length. I am thinking about running all the sensor wires with the injector wiring, I will need to find something better than the plastic conduit that Mazda used for that. Put the exhaust manifold on and torqued it up with the cooling pipe that runs down that side of the engine. Put the crank sensor in place and set the gap to the flywheel, ran the cable up the timing cover and secured it with a p-clip on one of the cover bolts. I put the lower half of the inlet manifold on the engine and torqued that up. I re-attached the throttle body to the plenum top as well as the throttle position sensor. I cut the end off the EGR pipe, so I can use the nut that bolts on the exhaust manifold to blank off the EGR on the exhaust. 9 May 2021 I crushed the EGR pipe in the vice and then filled it with some metal putty to seal it fully. I applied some exhaust sealant between the nut and pipe as well and screwed it to the manifold. I decided that the injector wiring was fine as it was and bolted some p-clips to secure it. Then I could fit the top of the plenum. With that in place I ran the wiring for the various sensors (crank position, intake air temperature, intake air control, throttle position sensor, VVT control). I wrapped the loom in some spiral wrap to protect it and roughly positioned it. I've got a selection of p-clips on order so I can secure the wiring to the cam cover. I put the spark plugs in and added the coil packs and connected those to the loom, secured with small p-clips to the cam cover. I connected the coolant temperature sensor, cam sensor and the earth connection at the back of the engine. I mounted the alternator, which meant taking the intake support out again! I connected up the alternator control lead which is part of the ECU loom. Then I ran the last piece of fuel hose from the damper to the fuel rail. I was not happy with the orientation of the damper as it meant the fuel lines were crossing each other. I removed it and re-orientated it which meant remaking the hose from the feed to the damper which took way longer than it should. I was going to fill and bleed the clutch but I could not get the master cylinder to pump any fluid even after taking it apart and checking it. I suspect the seals are gone so I've ordered a new master and slave cylinder which was less than £50. The water pump pulley has been primed, ready for coat of paint. 26 April 2021 Started to work on the rigid fuel line which I am doing with 8mm copper tube. Started by straightening it our from the coil and then feeding it into position from underneath. I had several goes at different routes but finally settled on something. At the rear I originally wanted the pipe to come out and around but I couldn't get the bend tight enough without it collapsing which would restrict the fuel flow. So I settled on finishing it under the rear transmission tunnel and I will run flexible hose from the up to the fuel filter and secure it with p-clips. 27 April 2021 Finalised the front end of the fuel pipe near the damper, I turned the damper the other way up and with a right angled connector foitted a short piece of flexible hose. The final pice is from the damper to the fuel rail and I test fitted a bit of hose which looks to be fine. I will get the inlet manifold fitted before finalising that. I cleaned up the starter motor and fitted that to the engine, finished torquing all the bell housing bolts. Got the alternator loosely fitted to the block and put some primer on the adjustment bracket to clean it up. I got the oil pressure sensor and coolant sensor for the gauges fitted along with the coolant sensor for the ECU. 30 April 2021 Finished off the remaining fuel hose at the back and added p-clips to support the hose. Refitted the petrol tank to the mounts. Had a look and a think about the inlet manifold, forgot the manifold support hadn't been cleaned so gave that a going over and a coat of etch primer. Checked where the power steering reservoir and cooler pipe need to go. Gave the reservoir a going over with a wire brush to get the worst of the rust off and then appied some rust treatment, it will be painted once that is dry. The cooling pipe that runs in front of the radiator needs cleaning up as well, but first need to let any remaining fluid drain out otherwise §1`z it drips everywhere. 1 May 20201 Painted the inlet manifold support and the alternator bracket. Then I spent a couple of hours stripping the tape and conduit off the wiring loom. I plan to find the plugs I will need (handbrake switch, fuel pump, ignotion switch etc) and cut them out with as much wire as possible. The rest of the loom I will cut out the wires and hopefuly reuse them. I am hoping to reuse the fuses and relays if they will fit into standard holders. 2 May 2021 Finished stripping the wrapping of the reminder of the loom. Started to race out the circuits using the wiring diagrams. Once I identified the wires for a particulat circuit I decided how to seperate it from the llom, either by cutting wires or extracting pins from connector. I labelled the wires I disconnected with a labeller, stating what they connected to. Each circuit was bundled up. So far I have extracted the front/rear side light, reverse switch, indicator, cooling fan circuits. |
AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
November 2023
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