Bones, balls and sweat

 Pretty quick fix for me, although it was hard work...

So looking at the parts before I removed them, they looked corroded but not too bad:

It took me a few days to get hold of GBS because of the bank holiday but the new wishbone and ball joint arrived next day and then the state of the old ones is more obvious:

Consensus is that the lock nut somehow got loose and the ball joint rod has been vibrating in the wishbone for gawd knows how long; long enough to wear it effectively smooth and so it popped out on a small country lane.

Getting the old ball joint out was much easier than I expected, as was getting the wishbone off - access to the bolts is pretty easy.

However, after that, it went a bit pear-shaped...I thought I'd better check the ball joint screwed into the wishbone - should be simple, yeah? Oh no....

After clearing powder coat at the end, the ball joint initially wouldn't screw in at all. By sheer luck, I had the right size tap for the wishbone thread (M18x1.5) and I ran that down the wishbone. There was some resistance but not much and after that, the ball joint started going in, although not very smoothly. I got about 2/3 of the way down and it stopped. This wasn't far enough down for what I needed so I started putting a bit more effort in (holding the ball joint in my vice and using the wishbone as leverage to turn it). This was, I soon found out, a BAD idea. I tried unscrewing the ball joint but no joy - it was stuck fast!

At this point, I gave GBS a call, to check I wasn't doing anything wrong. I got through to Matt and the first thing he said was, "yeah, we get that sometimes. The thread in the wishbone isn't long enough - we have to chop 5-10mm off the ball joint rod". Well,  thanks a fecking lot...now you tell me.

So I had obviously reached the end of the thread and tried to go further, jamming it in good and proper. I went back in, using a hairdryer and lots of WD40 to try unwind it. After about an hour of sweating and swearing, it finally came off but it was butchered:

I was planning on sending it all back to GBS and insisting on a free replacement as it was their fault IMO but I have a Wales trip in less than 2 weeks and a show on Sunday that I was looking forward to, so on the advice of the SKCC Massif, I had a go at fixing it.

That damaged thread on the ball joint rod was, coincidentally, about 10mm from the end, the amount GBS said I should hack off anyway. The wishbone thread looked like it had some damage in it but the tap went down it OK, so I hacked off the 10mm, deburred it, copper grease to prevent future corrosion and it just went in far enough to match the other side of the car.

After that, it was fairly simple; bushes in (repeating one of the first ever jobs I'd done on Zedster 7 years ago!), wishbone back in, ball joint in the hub, all tightened up and job done:

You might be able to see how badly mangled that lock nut is from being held in my vice while I tried to get the ball joint out.

I've left that IVA cover off and used paint to mark it so I can easily check in future if that locknut gets loose.

The other side seemed pretty solid, so I've left it alone, except for removing the IVA cover and painting the locknut.

Test run tomorrow and hopefully it will all be OK.

The Recovery Truck of Shame

 Yes, for the first time in Zedster's life, he came back on a flatbed...

I was driving back from a work lunch down some small, country lanes when suddenly, the steering went very loose and didn't seem to be doing anything. My first thought was the steering rack had dropped off or something but i noticed the front n/s wheel wasn't...er...upright:

A closer look and it looked like the top ball joint had somehow dropped out of the wishbone:

Scarily, I was stopped on a blind bend, so I had to concentrate on directing traffic around my car. I called the police and they eventually arrived about 45 minutes later but I still had to help out as only one policeman turned up - 3 hours of arm waving was hard work!

The recovery truck finally arrived and brought us home. On the truck, I was able to straighten the wheel and push the ball joint back into the wishbone (it is supposed to screw in! Where has the thread gone?!) and drive Zedster off the truck into my garage.

So looks like I'll need new wishbones (I'm going to do the other side as it might be in a near-failure state as well) and I'll look to fit some sort of pin through the wishbone to prevent this happening again.

We've got a bleeder!

Aarrrgghh,  got a leak of... er... something. Worryingly,  it looks like it might be from the sump but,  strangely,  it seems to be pink,  which is the colour of my coolant. However, I can't seem to find where it's leaking from the cooling system and the level isn't going down in the header tank.

I'll keep an eye on it - no knee jerk remedial work until I've identified the source.

I hope it wasn't from my trip on Sunday with the SKCC forum. A 10 hour,  325 mile day out to Haynes car museum in Somerset,  with a detour to Cheddar Gorge.

A great day and I was particularly proud of the fact that my car didn't break down  or fall apart (until today!).

For the first time,  I had to drive in the rain. Having no roof was actually not a problem as long as I didn't have enough to stop. However,  my wipers not working was a problem - very difficult to see.

Finished the other wind deflector:

Will test them out next time I get out (leak permitting).

Pleasantly surprised by the damper settings on the Gaz shocks as they actually make a difference. I turned it up to one click off maximum which stopped the suspension hitting it's limit but made the ride teeth-clatteringly hard. I've dialled it back a couple of clicks and hopefully that will be better.

Zedster makes friends

Got my new video camera,  just in time for a planned trip to the Bentley car museum in East Sussex.

A great drive out,  with about 25 cars including a glorious 800 bhp Ultima which looked and sounded amazing.

I've recently raised the suspension on Zedster to try stop the seat bolts hitting the floor so often but I've now gone the other way; no seat bolt grazing but I've reduced the travel in the shocks and my weight is forcing them to hit the end of their travel. You'll hear the regular 'clonk' in the video:

But a great day out and I'm  impressed with the camera (only cost £40).

Next up is to twiddle with the damper settings on the shocks to see if I can cut down on the clonking (technical term).

Zedster has been skiing

I had a great drive out tonight - I met up with a few of the guys from the SKCC forum and Matt kindly brought his laser tracking kit,  to try help with the tyre squeal.

A few minutes work showed that I had a HUGE amount of toe-in,  despite it looking perfectly straight to the naked eye. Effectively,  Zedster has been snow-ploughing along,  hence the tyre squeal.

A few more minutes with a spanner and I had a slight amount of toe-out instead.  Ideally,  I want a bit of toe-in but I didn't want to delay the others with more adjusting - it's 300% better than it was.

And,  man is it good; no more tyre squeal,  much less kick-back when going through potholes and I've got self-centering of the steering! After all those other things I tried to get that!

As is always the danger of driving in groups,  I didn't want to slow the others,  so my good intentions of running the engine in went out the window a bit. But Zedster sounds awesome at higher revs and quick,  very quick!

Getting better every drive...

The road ahead

Another first yesterday - first drive to work. Zedster looks tiny in a car park next to those huge Ford Fiestas...

Long-term, I am considering commuting to work in Zedster instead of my motorbike, partly because I know I won't get enough free time at weekends for drives out (the wife just won't be happy) and partly because I'm not sure I can justify owning the bike and car, paying 2 lots of insurance and tax etc.

I love my bike but as I get older, I'm getting more conscious of the dangers and the hassle of getting changed at work every day is beginning to get irksome. The advantage of Zedster is that at least my wife will be a passenger (unlike my bike) which may get her to come out with me. Having said that, the drive home from work was crap - trouble on the M25 meant all the local roads were clogged and it took me 40 minutes to get home instead of the 20 minutes it would have been on the bike.

So with a few drives under my belt, a few concerns to be checked/fixed:

1. Wipers - I had a spit of rain yesterday but they wouldn't move correctly. Need to try and sort this at some point.

2. Suspension setup - my tyres squeal like a 70s American cop show at any speed in a corner. I don't know if this is just because they are so new or that all cars do that and you don't normally hear it but I could do with a pro going over my setup. Comfort-wise, Zedster is great, much more so than I expected, except when going through potholes - then you feel it and the car gets knocked off-line (although not sure much can be done about that).

3. Tighten up the windscreen screws - they do look crud from the drivers seat - big gaps between frame and bracket.

And then there is the list of upgrades (in order of importance):

1. Roof (on order). Need to lower seats (maybe just the drivers side?) for this as well.

2. A clock - amazing how annoying it is not knowing the time.

3. Doors - I have a cunning plan/design in mind. Not sure if it's feasible but I'll keep you posted.

4. Decals, graphics, badges - ok, I've ruled out flames but I want some decals on the car, maybe a stripe down the bonnet? But I am artistically-challenged so it could easily come out a mess - I need to get expert advice (wife, probably). I have a vague design for a rear badge but I need to get to grips with 3D software.

5. High level rear brake light.

6. Glove box - storage is a problem and there is a large open space on the dashboard which could have a small, traditional glove box built into it.

That should keep me going for a while...

Non-stick carpeting

Having said the front of the car was finished,  I just had to plug in the front indicators - surely a job of seconds,  I hear you say?

Two (yes,  2!) hours (yes,  hours!) of swearing later and it's done. Jesus.....

The problem is that you can't plug them in without putting the nose on first but once you've done that,  it's very difficult to get your hands down into the nose to get at the plugs,  especially on the O/S where the throttle body is in the way. In fact,  to do the O/S, I resorted to extending the wires by a foot,  so I could pull it all the way out the nose and connect it up.

The stickers arrived for the aux panel and I labelled the various switches. Also adjusted the handbrake and bent the metal switch arm so that the handbrake light came on correctly.

The rear lights are a bit trickier than I thought - I seem to have somehow got the whole assembly the wrong way round,  so I might have to take them off fully and swap them over - annoying.

I broke out the carpets and tried to do the main rear panel piece but I couldn't get the glue to flow. The tin says to use between 5 and 30 degC and it wasn't that cold in my garage,  about 10 degC,  so not sure why it didn't move. Next time,  I'll put it in front of my fan heater to warm it up.

A concern I've had for a while was the body height - from the back,  the car has not been level. Today,  I adjusted the shocks so that they're about halfway up their travel but I still have a wonky chassis height; 135mm on the O/S and 125mm on the N/S. Maybe the weight of the exhaust? I've asked the question on the GBS forum.

Update: I'm told that the height issue is not unusual and the suspension should eventually settle but will probably need some adjustment.

Fog on the Mole

I realised I hadn't actually checked my newly installed fog light worked,  so battery connected up and... nothing! Spent 20 minutes panicking before I realised I hadn't connected the switch to the loom! All working fine and so is my main beam flash button,  which I'm very proud of - means I'm getting the hang of the electrics.

However,  the handbrake warning light isn't working.  There is no power to the handbrake switch and I'm sure one of the wires should have a positive voltage - I'll have to check with GBS.

Dashboard off to try tidy up the loom. I could only find space for one big P-clip on the firewall and managed to re-use a hole in the firewall to fit a cable tie holder - those 2 hold the bulk of the loom in the centre. I just used cable ties to hold the rest in various strategic places - hope that's OK for IVA?

I wanted to replace the hub pinch bolts for longer versions so I could get a nylocs on the end. Some people say this is now required for IVA but I can't see anything in the manual and at least 1 person got through IVA without it but for the sake of a few quid,  no harm. No harm,  as long as you order the right bloody bolts! Ordered half-shanked versions but there is too much shank and it gets stuck in the threaded part of the hub. New,  fully threaded bolts on order...

A bit of bounce

After the euphoria of my last entry,  it's been a quiet week.

I tried to make a start on the reversing light but,  as so often happens,  I haven't got the right length bolts - they're on order.

I did manage to get the Emerald software to talk to my ECU by installing it on my work laptop but I gassed the house out by running the engine for a minute in the garage,  so that will have to wait until I roll her out the garage next time. However,  I need to sort out some proper ramps for the garage - the lip is just too high.

I also went round all the bolts on the rear suspension,  loosening them a little to try get some movement. One in particular was very tight and took a lot of effort to loosen but I do now have some movement,  thankfully.

I had,  to my eyes,  too much negative camber on my front wheels. GBS confirmed that I should really have set the distance on the top rose joint to 50mm instead of 48mm that everyone else seems to mention in other blogs. Doesn't sound like much but after I'd partly dismantled the front suspension and wound the rose joint out a couple of turns on each side,  negative camber was down to about 2deg, which I believe is about right.  Definitely looks better...

The Beast Awakens

One of the best days of my build so far...

The plan today was to get the wheels on,  roll the car out,  clear out the dump that is my garage and try get the engine tuned to run better. 

Firstly,  tidied up some tunnel wiring:

I had to cut-out a small piece of the dash support piece on the side where the Carling switches are,  to enable the dash to be fitted in place:

Only 3 holes line up with the rivnuts on the dash support -  I will need to fettle the others at some later point. 

With that done,  out came the wheels for the first time and simply bolted on. The next step was getting the car down off the axle jacks, which was trickier than I expected; the rear wasn't too bad as my jack could go up enough to lift the car,  removed the rear stands and lowered the car to the floor. The front was more difficult as my jack wouldn't extend up high enough to get under the front chassis rail - I had to use an extra piece of wood and,  after removing the front stands,  then I lowered the car too quickly,  trapping the jack underneath! Luckily,  a neighbour came to the rescue with his own jack,  which I used to recover mine. 

So,  the car was on its wheels for the first time! Damn,  it's low... 

Now to get out my garage which has a 2 inch lip down... my son in the driving seat to work the brakes,  my neighbour pushing from behind and me at the front checking nothing grounded. I used a couple of wood pieces as ramps and slowly,  she rolled out to meet the world - and looked amazing:

Absolutely love those wheels!

My garage looked a state:

... but a bit of work and tidiness was restored:

The one bit of bad news was that I couldn't get my ECU to talk to my laptop - I recently had to overwrite Windows with Ubuntu (because of a virus) and it doesn't seem to recognise the USB port. Not sure how to fix that... 

I left the engine running for long enough for the fan to come on,  which is great to know that works and my thermostat seems to work as all the coolant pipes got hot (and didn't start leaking). Brake lines all still leak-free as well,  all my electrics seemed to still be working and all the gauges do something - wonderful!

Even the handbrake works well without any adjustment (although I should maybe do some to make it come on with less travel). 

Even the wife,  dad and dog got involved:

But best of all (after a weekend of great things) was DRIVING MY car!! OK,  2 metres forward and several back but IT MOVES! Like a real car! 

Spent a while having to adjust the clutch cable (and still needs fine-tuning) but all gears were easy to select and power goes to the wheels. 

Which is lucky because I had hoped to reverse the car back into the garage,  which I was able to do,  with some wheel spin,  lots of fumes and wonderful noise. 

I am a very,  very happy chappy. 

There are some issues to be addressed; the horn didn't work and the wheel alignment needs work and I may have done the rear suspension bolts up too tight all those months ago; there is no give in the rear at all,  even with my weight on it. 

But it has been a weekend of great import and I am,  as the kids say,  stoked! 

Suspend belief

With the arrival of the IVA covers,  I was finally able to finish off the nearside front suspension:

I was all prepared to bolt the calipers on but,  shock,  horror,  I haven't got the right bolts!

I wanted to put a cable tie over the clutch cable end,  to help keep it in the slot on the clutch arm. This is not absolutely required but seemed a simple job - until,  of course,  I went and bolted a bloody great sheet of metal underneath the bellhousing,  obscuring the clutch lever! I spent 30 minutes  trying to get my clodhopper arms down to the cable but couldn't manage it - will try with my sons help at the weekend,  maybe.

Skid mark

Well,  finished the skid pan/bash plate (whatever its called) and,  to be frank,  it's poo.

This is what I was trying to cover up:

But without being able to get the car high up in the air,  it's very difficult to get the holes drilled in the right place. The result doesn't actually look too bad:

But it singularly fails to do its main task - there is still 5mm or so gap through which debris can get to the bellhousing gap. OK,  it's better than it was and it feels very solid so might help if I do hit a speed bump but still the worst piece of work I've done so far. Fortunately,  it is out of sight and it isn't a critical part of the car in any way.

Front suspension mostly complete but just need the IVA cover for the tie rod (ordered from GBS).

Not my Finest Hour

Spent the last couple of garage sessions trying to make a skid plate. Not normally needed but I bought a sump from Tiger,  which leaves the bellhousing an inch or so lower that the sump itself,  with the flywheel visible and,  in my eyes,  susceptible to road debris. No-one on the Tiger Owners forum seems concerned and there are no reports of issues but I don't like it.

I ordered a sheet of ally 3mm thick but that was a mistake - it's too solid to work easily. I've made a right pigs ear trying to get it to work; left 2 extra holes in my chassis rails I really don't want (although they will eventually be covered by the plate but it grates on me). I've re-ordered a 2mm thick sheet so I'll try again. I got this far:

You can probably see the extra holes... I'll use this as a template for the thinner sheet. I don't want this to protect the bellhousing but more as a dirt shield and for that,  I need to bend the edges. This 3mm sheet is just too thick to bend,  even with a hefty lump hammer.

Added most of the front nearside suspension but,  as usual,  halted by lack of nuts and washers. I need to find the elf in my garage that keeps stealing them...

Hercules done ok

Off-side suspension mostly on and tightened up,  with IVA covers on:

Finally unboxed the front discs and started putting some black Hammerite on the boss and edges,  as I did for the rear (I hate the rusty look that discs get) :

Looking less and less likely that I'll be able to use the original Ford thermostat. I spoke to Emerald today to try work out what size the adaptor is for the temp sensor - they weren't sure but did say it wasn't metric which rather ruins my theory and is a waste of about £20 of M16 taps I've been buying!

The guy suggested I make my own adaptor and when I said how,  he asked if I had a lathe! When I laughed,  he asked if I had a friend who had one which made me laugh even harder.  Says so much about his world and mine :-) Most of my friends don't even have a screwdriver!

Trial of Hercules

Probably the most frustrating evening yet in my garage,  just trying to fit the front suspension.

Having said the side panel was a good fit,  I may have put it 10mm too far forward as I had to file that much out of the panel to get the top right wishbone end in.

I had previously loosely put the front suspension together but it was proving too difficult to try fitting washers with the weight of the hub like that,  so I had to virtually dismantle it.

Once in pieces,  getting the washers between bushes and chassis was a nightmare; less access with the panels and other parts in and the mounting points are much more restricted anyway.

Two hours of mostly swearing and it's on but not even torqued up - and I've still got the other side to do. Joy!

Action at the Front

Finally had something delivered that I could actually use - tap for the front wishbones and tie-rod extensions. Finally able to complete the front suspension:

I've torqued up the parts that won't need to come off again,  which is everything except the 4 wishbone bolts and tie-rod ends. Like others have done,  I plan to get the wheels on,  lower the car onto them,  shove the engine and gearbox in and then get all the engine bay done while the side panels are not in the way. When done,  the front suspension will all come off to get the side panels on and then I can finally fully torque up the front wishbones.

Sounds almost organised,  hey? Obviously,  it will never happen like that...

Should hopefully get the damn 42mm socket in the next day or two and I can crack on with the rear brakes etc.

Crawling on

Starting to get really annoyed with this hub nut socket. I thought I'd measured it to be 40mm and so ordered that size socket. Arrived today - too damn small! Aaarrrgggghhhhh! Now have to go through the hassle of trying to return it and exchange for a 42mm socket. Yet more delay...

Steering ball joints arrived (hurrah) but can't fit them because I need a M18 tap to get the powder coat out of the wishbone thread (boo) - more delay.

Loosely fitted the steering rack to get a feel for it:

The steering column was a bit close to the brake pedal,  so moved the spacers round so there is a whole 3mm between the pedal and column - hope that's enough. As always,  I'm missing bits - this time tie rod extensions. Never heard of them before but pretty essential. Ordered from GBS,  along with some IVA covers for these parts.

Moved the 4-way brake splitter up 5mm or so - much better:

Yet another extra hole in my chassis 😊

The front calipers are finally done - not quite as good as the rears but OK from a distance:

I'm actually starting to run out of parts,  although frustratingly,  most of the parts on the car are not finalised; just loosely attached awaiting other bits. Actually quite impressive for me,  I'm normally very impulsive and would just throw everything on. I'm consciously trying to think ahead but not sure if I'm overdoing it at the moment.

JNIT

JIT is the commonly used industrial system which stands for Just In Time, meaning you ensure that you order parts so they arrive just as they are needed. This ensures that you don't have to waste space storing stuff and you don't lose valuable building time waiting.

I am using the less common Just Not In Time (JNIT) system,  whereby you start something and then realise you are missing a fundamental part,  stop,  go indoors,  order the part and wait 3 days for it to arrive!

GBS are,  I'm afraid to say,  partly to blame here. I ordered brake caliper carriers and rear hubs from them,  for example - is it too much to ask to at least tell me when ordering which nuts and bolts I need for these,  rather than letting me find out when I come to put them on? Also a bit sneaky that I had to pay for them as well - why not include them in the hub costs?  They also forgot to send the main hub nuts but at least they sent them promptly when I called. Now I find that I don't seem to have the top front wishbone ball joints anywhere.  I've got the bottom tie rod ends,  so why not the top? I'm going to be pretty hacked if they try to charge me for them. And I seem to be missing 2 bolts for the front suspension...

As you can tell,  I tried to start on the front suspension this evening but because of these problems,  I could only get this far:

All just loosely in place before I consider how to continue.

I've vaguely done the rear brake lines:

Pretty much everyone else has re-sited that 4-way brake splitter as it is too low and I may do the same.

.... but I can't go any further until I get (yes,  JNIT again) a 40mm socket to tighten the hub nut,  then I can get the calipers on,  then the flexible brake lines...

I've been a bit remiss with the front caliper painting - I still need to do the other side. Did a coat tonight...

Bouncing on

Well,  turned out I'd left a penny washer out of the lower wishbone to hub carrier bolt,  which is why it was sinking in to the bush. No harm done apart from the time needed to take it out and re-do it.

A good piece of advice from GBS when tightening this all up is to disconnect the shock from the upper wishbone.  Before tightening,  the hub/upper and lower wishbone combination should move freely -  in fact,  it will drop down under gravity alone.  Then tighten one bolt at a time,  checking that you can move the combination by hand. The suspension may stay in one place by this point but still be moveable by hand. I just then tightened it as much as I could (within reason),  checked it was still moveable by hand,  reconnected the shock and job done,  finally.

Last little job was to use a paint pen to mark all the bolts.

Oh and another good piece of advice is to make sure any bolts that come close to where the rear panel will be,  is to make sure they are put in with the nut end nearest to the panel. This means that,  one day in the future when the rear panel is on,  you will still be able to remove the bolt without having to make a hole in the rear panel. Hope that makes sense...

I've started on the next job of preparing the drive shafts:

They're directly off an old Sierra,  so I just want to replace the boots and clean them up a bit. Taking off the old boots produced a large amount of old grease which has made a right old mess of my workbench. Not done any more for now as I need to work out what to degrease it with and what sort of grease to put back in.

For a laugh,  I took the handbrake kit out of its bag but not a great move -  I have absolutely NO idea how it fits in. I fear poor Simon at GBS will be called upon again...

Groundhog Day

Spent the evening putting the new crush tubes back into the suspension and rebuilding it all.

This is the slight difference in length (rubbish photo,  sorry) - very little and maybe it wouldn't have been a problem especially since I've tightened it all up with the new tubes and it seems... er... just as tight.

I've also tried to torque up one of the bolts. I asked GBS what torque setting to use and the guy said he never torqued bolts (apart from major engine bits). I suggested 90nm (from a website he had recommended) and he said that sounded right,  so that's what I tried. Problem is,  the washer is getting squeezed into the bush without getting to that torque level. Another GBS question...