02/05/2004

1hr

Engine Mounts

Fitted the engine mounts to the chassis. Some weeks ago I modified and painted the support bracket fro the pedal box. Today I got round to fitting it sealing all the joints with translucent filler.

03/05/2004

6hrs

Front Suspension

Brake Discs

Today was tighten and torque up the front end day. The front end had been assembled for ages but only nipped up tight also I had not fitted the brake disc covers because once fitted I could not access to the back of the discs to keep them clean and stop them rusting. Whilst I systematically checked all the nuts and bolts for correct torque settings I cleaned the discs and then fitted the covers.  After lunch I wire locked the steering arm and brake callipers.  Finally torque tightened the ARB.  I cleaned the front and back brake discs ready to fit the brake pads. I then discovered that the new pads did not have new locating pins and clips. I will have to order new ones before I can fit the pads.  I thought the right rear hub was too tight.  I could turn the left hub and the right one would turn before I tightened up the hub but since then it is stiffer than I would have liked.  I undid the hub adjusted it again and fitted a new split pin to retain it.  It is a little better.  I will keep an eye on it and check it again later.
 

5hrs

Fuel Tank

Seat Belt Support brackets

Gearbox

I ordered the new retaining pins, anti-rattle springs and clips from SNG Barratt yesterday.  They arrived 1st class post this morning.  But I began by positioning the petrol tank and marking where the holes in the brackets need to be drilled.  I discovered that the holes in the supporting bracket did not line up with the holes in the tank brackets. I abandoned further investigation until I could get Mary to help align the tank, and support bracket and clamp it in place.  so I turned my attention to the supporting struts for the seat belt guides.  The left hand bracket was proud of the bottom mount and marked the fuel tank when it was in place. I undid the bracket and chamfered the bottom rear corner flush with the mounting bracket.  painted it and replaced it. The RH bracket was also proud but did not touch the petrol tank but I did the same modification  to it just to match them.  While the paint was drying I fitted the brake pads with the new springs, pins and clips. the Getrag gearbox had been sat in the garage since last June. Examining it in preparation for mating it to the engine I realise the gear lever had been sheered below where the gear knob should fit, leaving only 1/4" of thread. I spoke to Malcolm, who confirmed it did not matter since it was best to replace it with a shorter one. Finally I dismantled the gear lever mount, disconnected the  gearbox from the bell housing, and removed the rear mounting brackets.  I degreased the gearbox casing and left it to dry.
 

08/05/2004

5 hrs

Fuel Tank

Chassis

Hand Brake Cable

Start the day with a success and you will feel better all day. That's what I did.  I fitted the fuel tank and the spreader bar and "G" clamped them in place, last evening. This is straight forward if there are two of you but a fiddly job requiring the dexterity of an octopus if you are on your own. However I did it and left it over night so that I could approach the job with a fresh eye  to ensure the position was correct. This morning I looked at it again and decided the position could be improved. I loosened the clamps, made sure the tank was in the correct place adjusted the spreader bar position to line as close as possible with the holes already drilled in the fuel tank mounting brackets with the holes in the spreader bar mounting brackets. Making sure the alignment was maintained I tightened the "G" clamps.  Then drilled through each hole in turn then inserting and tightening a bolt to hold the assembly together before moving to the next hole. With the tank fitted to the chassis and all the clamps removed it has to be taken off again to permit the body to be fitted and also I needed the tank out of the way to avoid damaging it when I lower the chassis down on to axle stands to fit the engine.  That was my next problem I needed to find  the easiest a way of  lifting the chassis so that I could insert some extra support blocks under it whilst I routed the hand brake cable. By the same token if I can do this then I've also solved the problem of lowering the chassis without giving me and sundry others a hernia.  I had been thinking about this for a while and had decided the best way was to use the engine hoist which is capable of lifting 1000Kg.  Before I tried it I had a good clear up around the garage to give me some space in which to work.  I had some old seat belts from a Renault 12 ( when was the last time you saw one  of these) I unreeled the belt, cut the belt off from the inertia reel end, removed the buckles so I was left with a length of strong webbing. Tied the webbing in place around the rear chassis upper cross member above the diff.  Positioned the crane, hooked up the webbing and cautiously lifted the chassis  Easy , no problem inserted 2 short wooden blocks under the outer chassis member, which gave me sufficient space to work with the hand brake cable. Painted 2 small spacers (ex XJ6 seat spacers) to be put between  the hand brake bracket and the chassis tomorrow
 

09/05/2004
 

2 hrs

Hand Brake

Fitted the handbrake cable bracket and spacers to the holes pre-drilled in the drivers floor pan. Attempted to connect the hand brake cable clevis to the handbrake only to discover the angle of he cable looked wrong. I then realised I needed not only the original clevis from the XJ6 but the fabricated one that came with the hand brake lever, that I had removed. fitted the clevis back to the handbrake and reconnected the cable. lubricating all the moving pars with copper slip.  It still did not look right then I realised I had got the routing wrong in the region of the diff. The cable should be routed across the car from the handbrake to the cable bracket. The spacers are to make sure it clears the prop shaft when fitted. It may be necessary to adjust the clearance once the prop shaft is in place. The cable the passes along the RH chassis rail to the outside, up and in front of the RH chassis up stand. the cable outer is retained by the RH operating lever block with the inner passing through the block. The clevis connecting to the LH operating lever. It may be necessary to remove a block from the LH lever in order to attach the clevis (depending on the XJ6 model and year). Once I rerouted the cable, leaving it loose for the moment I connected up both ends , adjusting the Handbrake clevis to take up  the slack. Operating the handbrake and it works. the handbrake is solid on after the 4th click on the ratchet.  I'll secure the cable tomorrow.
 

12/05/2004

3 hrs

Hand Brake Cable

Chassis

Yesterday I worked out how to secure the handbrake cable. Malcolm had recommended using a spring from the donor XJ6 hooked in to the same hole as the handbrake return springs.  The spring I had was too short to do that. I decided to make a bracket, rivet it to the upper cross member and hook the spring round the cable with the other end hooked to the bracket. I discovered the spring was slightly too long to do this, In the process of trying to shorten it I broke it.  However it was a simple matter to heat the spring with a blow torch and then it was easy to bend.  and I could tailor the spring to the correct length.   I still have some more tidying up work to do on the handbrake like adding spiral wrap to the cable where it passes between the bulkhead and the chassis up-stand. Also it looks like I need longer spacers under the front bracket

Today Greg came over. Working alternately  back and front we lifted the chassis to  remove the trestle stands, using axel stands on building blocks and bricks to support it. Then  alternately we lowered the chassis by adjusting the axle stand and removing bricks and blocks  axle stands  one at a time  until we has the chassis down to a point where it is supported on fully extended axle stands on top of  a 4" building block.  I had be worrying about this for a while because although it was great to do all the chassis work without bending stretching crouching and so on the weight was increasing where we were in danger of giving most of my neighbours a hernia trying to lift it down. In the event the two of us and the engine hoist managed it easily.
 

16/05/2004

4hrs

Fuel Pipes

Gear Box

Hand Brake

A weekend of glorious sunshine. Being dry and warm it was ideal for paint to dry. I had split the bell housing and the Getrag box a while back. This weekend I finished cleaning them up and after a coat of etching primer sprayed them silver. I also put spiral wrap around the fuel pipes where they pass through the chassis cross member. The bracket I made to hold the restraining spring for the handbrake cable was also dry after painting so I riveted it to the chassis and attached the spring. The hand brake front bracket will need to be remounted on slightly larger spacers. I have found the XJ6 seat spacer recommended by Nostalgia and will fit them once the paint is dry.  At the end of the day I refitted the bell housing to the Getrag box and started work on assembling the clutch forks. We made a new fulcrum pin a while back and this is slightly too large in diameter. I have yet to work out what to do about it. In between doing all this I managed to mow the lawns, put up the gazebo, walk the dog and wash the cars as well as start tidying up the garage, ready for assembling the engine and gear box. 
 

17/05/2004

1hr

Gearbox

Clutch Forks

I removed the bell housing and took it, the clutch forks and the fulcrum pin to John Hopkins. John is an engineer and very experienced restorer of classic lotus cars.  John had made the replacement fulcrum pin. It wasn't much oversize but I did not want to force it and it was very tight in comparison with the old one. We had determined the old pin was nominally 1/2" in diameter. In fact it was 0.0022 under. The new pin was exactly 1/2". Rather than remove metal John decided to see if it was just dirt preventing the fit. I had already tried this with a 1/2" drill which fitted easily. Measuring the drill we found it was 0.001" under size.  Applying lots of WD40 to the clutch forks we found we could work the new pin in about half way and lots of dirt came flooding out but then it stopped. It looked like there was a burr where the retaining screw had been drilled in to the forks.  John had a 1/2" reamer which we worked through past the retaining screw hole and out the other side.  The pin however was still tight when we tried to fit it. Each time, however ,it got better and by liberal use of WD 40 and keep working it through  we eventually got it to fit and rotate freely on the forks.  We turned our attention to the bell housing and using the same technique of WD40 and keep working the pin in to the clutch fork mounting bushes. we cleaned out the dirt and got the pin to fit comfortably with nice free rotation

2hrs

chassis

Today I removed the building blocks and lowered the chassis down so that it was just supported by the axle stands. I worked out the size and length of bolts needed to bolt the bell housing to the gearbox.  Generally reoriented myself with jobs that need to be done on the engine before it can be fitted, like tightening the pulley belts, fitting the fan and fuel components.

4hrs

Gearbox

Fitted the bell housing to the gearbox, secured it with 7/16" UNF x1½" bolts , shake proof washers and thread lock. Fitted the clutch release forks and bearing.  Worked out which bolts were required to fit the clutch to the flywheel. Painted the clutch slave cylinder. Although it was "new/ refurbished"  I'm not sure which it was rusty straight out of the box.

23/5/2004

1hr

Not much got done today. The prospect of Jenson Button winning the Monaco Grand Prix took precedence. Alas, it was not to be but a creditable 2nd place was OK.  I had realised that I needed to talk to Barratt's re the Speedo drive on the gearbox. So I made a list if the components I thought I needed.

24/5/ 2005

1hr

Fetched some UNC bolts from Unimaster. Just a few to replace rusty ones on the engine.  Ordered the Speedo components from Barrett's.

25/5/2004

2hrs

Gearbox Speedo Drive

The Speedo bits arrived today, Speedo drive, housing, oils seals and cable.  All pretty easily fitted with the exception that the Speedo oil seal needed to be pressed in to the housing.  Achieved using the bench press.  I discovered the Speedo cable won't fit the housing the threaded coupling is too small.  The same is true of the right angle drive from the old auto box.  I'll have to contact Barratt's to clarify the problem  and get the right parts.  fitted the fan to the engine again. I had already fitted it but I was concerned that the securing studs did not engage the nyloc nuts fully. Refitted the fan with plain nuts and shockproof washers.  Progress towards fitting the engine seems slow at the moment.  We are very close but there are lots of little jobs that need doing before the engine can be fitted.

26/05/2004

1hr

Total hours to date = 572.5