Build Day 13 - Painting, Cycle Wings, Bits

Today started with a check of the bolts I had torqued or knew I needed to tourque.  I had a realisation that having not tourqued the upper wish bones (because I read it somewhere), then I would now need to remove the ARB to do so once the  car is on the ground.  (Not happy).

I then decided I would put a coat of Hammerite Stone Chip (with waxoyl) on the underside of the car.  From there I moved onto putting the two cycle wings on.  Finally I tackled the cross threaded rear brake unit.

A question was put on Blatchat about bump steer.  Having had a look at my steering rack it appears I have the spacers as part of the brackets.

The oil breather bottle and bracket arrived late which I was not that bothered about until I came to fit it.  Once you have put the coolant overflow, radiator and pipework in place, it is quite hard to drill the frame and fix the bracket.

Job compelte

The first cycle wing took a while as I checked, checked and checked again before I drilled the wing and stays.  After I had finished it was pretty quick to do the others.  After drilling the stays I did paint in the holes and on the stays to prevent rust.  As there will be a lot of spray here it makes sense not to have a freshly drilled hole in steel.

Spent a good hour marking up what was tourqed etc.

The wiring is a very tight fit.  Hopefully I have enough heat shrink, tape and grommits in to pass the IVA

A few weeks ago I thought I had stripped the brass connection.  Caterham said they would fix it during the post build check.  To be honest with some of the posts about PBC costs I didn't want to wait and get a shock charge.  Derek kindly sent me a new brass connection.  However when I stripped it apart tonight I found it was the flexible hose thread that was knackered.  I too a small file to the thread and fixed the connection.  Interestingly if you use a flat washer and anti shake washer then the brass connection meets the nut and does not fully pinch up.  Hence I removed the flat washer.  I hope that is right.

Build Day 12 - Bits and Pieces

I have reached a point where I have 4 boxes left and everything seems to be a fiddly small job.  The lights, tidying the wiring, trim details, breather bottles, lugs, fluid filling etc.  Today was 3 hours of small jobs.

Derek sent the fixings and washers to finish the air intake box.

Derek also sent the lug so I could earth the temperature controller.

Derek sent the red power cable so I could finish the wiring to the solenoid.  I thought I had stripped the solenoid bolt at first as the first few threads were missing but it seems that is normal.   As I cut the battery lug cover with snips I managed to crack the lid.  Superglue.

With the main wiring done, I couldn't resist turning the key.  The immobilisor worked, the fuel pump kicked in, then the lights came on on the dash.  So far everything seems to be working.  

I have decided to give the inside of the wheel arches a couple of coats of the hammerite underbody paint.  I am not 100% sure this will stop the star marks on the fibreglass but it must surely help.  

The handbrake seems off center at the moment.  The left hand side black sleeve is shorter (yellow) than the right hand side (green).  Not sure if that will sort itself out over time.

Spent some time under the car tidying the wiring.  I keep seeing PBC's saying wiring needed tidying.  Not sure how good / bad this is compared to others who have then been told they need to have it tidied.

Derek sent the cat exhaust shield so that went on.

Decided to dinitrol the inside of the headlights before they went on the car.

Build Day 11 - Rear Wheels (Left)

The main task for today was to get the hub and disk onto the Left hand side.  As expected having faffed with the right hand side, the left hand side was much quicker and easier.  Other jobs included :

1. Fit the speed sensor
2. Contralube 770 all the electrical connections
3. Move the axle stands to sit under the de-dion
4. Silicone the edge between the chassis and lowered floor to prvent water ingress.
5. Spray a bit more dinitrol in.
6. Tidy up the caterham boxes and my tools.

When I first put the sensor in the Rear ARB bracket I noticed only half the sensor was looking at the wheel on the driveshaft.  I had read from other blogs that this may be any issue.

2 minutes later, courtesy of the dremmel and the sensor was in a far better position.

NOTE - Now that the engine is running and I can check the speedo, I found that even though I had moved the sensor to be more aligned with the teeth it was not good enough.  I ended up removing the sensor bracket and adding insome washers between the bracket and ali block.  This pushed the sensor to the center of the teeth and suddenly I was able to register speed.

What are these and do I need to use them ?  Can't see a use for them just yet.

Found a use for the above items.  It turns out right at the back of the manual there is a picture showing them located in the rear brake caliper.  Must be something to do with stopping the brakes squeaking or making sure the disc springs slide on a clean surface.

The left side completed.

I thought this may be useful to others.  I kept using the M10x65mm when I should have used the M10x55mm.  

As above.

Suddenly there are very few Caterham boxes left in the garage.

Build Day 10 - Rear Wheels (Right)

The plan today was to get both the rear wheel hubs on.  However thanks to the loose manual with the way it fails to say which bag each bolt comes from and indeed at times suggests the wrong bolt then it took about 4 hours to do just one side.  If I took things off once, I took them off 3 or 4 times.  I managed to get the right hand side on and I will do the left hand side tomorrow afternoon.  I suspect it won't take as long.

I was surprised to find no watts linkage or RARB in the kit of parts.  I had read it was standard although when searching BC tonight it appears that it is now an option.  Equally there seems mixed feeling towards all the stuff anyway.

I couldn't get this connection to bite at all.  I had enough slack on the fixed pipe to dress it neatly but it wouldn't start threading.  When I took a closer look there was no thread in the brass connector.  Not sure how that one gets resolved.  I don't know if I will have to make a new pipe or ???

So the on/off journey begins.  I thought I had cross threaded the bolt into the de-dion as it was stiffer than the other side.  It started ok but went very stiff about half way.  My head kept saying take it out to check and when I did it was ok (phew).  It was still stiff to go in again but at least I have the comfort of knowing I didn't cross thread the de-dion.

Again the manual lacks clarity as to which way the 'p' clips should be riveted onto the de-dion.  As it happens the nearest pipe could only go that way or it would not reach the 3 way union.

The notches in the brake caliper must line up with the green line.  A pair of wide pliers with a gentle squeze was enough to twist the piston.  Why it is not lined up ready I don't know.

The notch is at the bottom of the brake disc.

Piston lined up as required.

The right hand hub connected.  

Make sure the wasted side of the bar faces outwards to give the caliper more room.  You also need to bend the brake pipe yourself.  Make sure you put a wide radius on the pipe and not a sharp kink.  Also don't forget to install the 6mm spacer.  I found I had to open up the spacer internally a little with the dremel as it would not slide all the way down the M10 bolt.

A close up of the washer / spacer arrangement.  Why can't Caterham use some colour photographs ?

The completed side.  

Build Day 9 - Back End

After the engine big day, the diff is the second big day.  I guess starting it up will be the next big day.  So today I put in the propshaft in, the diff in, the handbrake, the de dion, the rear dampers and drive shafts.

1. Put the prop in first.  Luckily so many people had told me, I learnt the easy way.
2. It is possible to lift the diff from below on your own so long as you have a wife or friend or indeed both, to put some allen keys into the upper bolt holes while you centre the unit and fit the lower bolts and shims.
3. The dark grey covers on the BMW diff are dust covers.  I had a tinny squeaky one but thanks to BC a small screwdriver bend the cover from the unit and solves the squeak.
4. To get the BMW drive hubs out you need to get a screwdriver between the housing and the dust cover.  I suggest prising the top a little, then go underneath, then back on top etc.  Trying to do it all from above doesn't work.
5. The brakepipes on the dedion are next to pointless.  They are supposedly bent to shape yet leave a lot to the imagination.  May as well just send them in the box as straight items.  I had to open up the holes in hte dedion to get the rivets in.  I also sprayed loads of dinitril 3125 inside the dedion tube.
6. The rear dampers went in before the roll bar as per the manual.

It seems a shame to have bent the dust covers in removing these.  Are they of any use to BMW owners ?

The non LSD BMW diff in place.  Luckily I had the same number of shims either side to get a 1mm tolerance on the centering of the diff.  These new metric machined chassis, takes all the guess work out of it.  The long bolt for the top also had a 45 degree chamfer on there already.  I am spoilt.

I was surprised that these required so little effort to go into the diff and also surprised they do not have dust covers like the BMW.  They seem exposed at the diff end to me.

Dampers in.  De Dion in, Drive shaft in.  Not a lot else to say really.

Handbrake in.  I have set this low as I don't want it in my way when changing gear.  I may regret that once the tunnel cover is in and I can't lower it.  I got covered in dinitrol doing this as I have caked the tunnel in the stuff.

A view from below the car.  It looks very neat underneath and it all seems to line up.  I was surprised there were only 4 bolts for the prop shaft to diff plate.  I used loctite on them.  As others have said, put the car in gear, then do one of the bolts.  The out of gear to rotate the prop, then in gear to do the next bolt etc.

The end of the day.  Three more boxes cleared from the garage but I do have a lot of half used packages on the work bench.  Tomorrow I aim to finish the back drive system and brakes.

Build Day 8 - Cooling

Ok, so today I will do the coolant.  I set up a 1 minute time lapse as I worked on the front.  It was quite funny to watch as I had the radiator off 4 times as I tried different ways to get the radiator, brackets and fan in place.  Tom's schematic did the job for the plumbing.

The important thing with the brackets is to put the aluminium inside the lug welded to the chassis.  If you put them outside the lug then the holes are too wide for the radiator.

In the cooling pack there will be 4 plastic clips, you need these in order for the metal U shaped bracket to fit.

After 4 attempts putting the radiator on and off.  This is how I settled up with regards the black bracket in relation to the radiator and aluminium bracket.

The black clips mentioned previously.

The car with the radiator and other cooling pipes.  Suddenly the engine bay looks very full.  I would hate to have to fit all that lot into a series 3 Caterham.

The manual is quite specific about the direction of the outlet pipes on the expansion bottle.  To get the outlet pipes to face the correct direction I had to put my mounting bracket on sideways.  I think this is ok and the bonnet will still close.

Expansion bottle and pipes in place.  I am missing the breather bottle and bracket.  A little annoying.

With all of the pipe work I have tried to think ahead of what else will be installed and make sure the hex heads of the pipe clips are all accessible from above or below the car at a later date.  I do seem to have 2 pipes and some clips left over.

This is the most awkward bit of seal to fit in place and worse still the manual makes no mention of it.  I just came across it and thought what is that 300mm long seal for then figured it could only fit here.  I am also missing the 6 screws to fix the air box lid down.

As many others before me.  The MG Rover throttle cable is too long and so it required a screwdriver sticking into the throttle pedal and bending it towards the driver.  It is a very very poor solution and Caterham should sort this out. 

Build Day 7 - Exhaust & Steering

I headed to the garage today thinking I would put the cooling system in.  Tom Woodis has created a great schematic which simplifies the confusion created by the manual.  However when I got there I found myself doing some wiring and odds and sods.  A quiet day really.  The main red wire was missing so I couldn't finish that.  Also the manual is woeful in explaining the specifics of this car.  I didn't have wires they suggested I had and did have wires they make no mention of.  I have sent e-mails to Caterham and hopefully they will clear it all up in the new year.

I dinitolled everywhere I could.  I used two cans of 3125.  I warmed it up as recomended by others and it worked a treat with the way it ran into the gaps.  It's not a tidy process and it gets on your hands afterwards so I will probably need to put a bit more in after I finish.

Put the exhausts in.  Easy enough.  Just follow the install order.  The numbers on the exhausts didn't match the instructions or the parts list caterham sent me for my car.

Once the exhaust was in I put the steering in.  Sat in there and turned it a few times :)  Bit of a pain sliding the upper shaft into place without knocking the white sleeves out.  The upper white / rubber sleeve is a bit tough to get in but then again you don't want it falling out.  The lower white sleeve came out a few times but clicked back in place nicely.  A bit of grease helps when doing this bit.