Popular Post Adoom Posted February 14, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 14, 2021 Yep, it needed a kink put in it. Even like this it just misses the corner of the chassis rail by 5mm. Not sure if I will need to relieve the chassis rail by taking the corner off it. I'll see if I can get the engine to rock enough to hit next time it's in. Hopefully it doesn't, the urethane engine mounts are pretty stiff. I've still got to fill in the blanks on this side. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adoom Posted February 20, 2021 Author Share Posted February 20, 2021 Did a bit more. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted February 21, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 21, 2021 A some more. This shit takes fucking ages. It took me literally four hours of going from engine to bandsaw to sander to wire wheel to grinder to welder to sand blaster to wire wheel to engine to bandsaw to sander to welder over and over and over just to make this small bit. 20 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted February 27, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 27, 2021 Managed to fit it all in. I had to put the v-band flanges in the lathe to make it shorter. Need to scribe around it, then cut those spot welds and whittle out a hole 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted February 28, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 28, 2021 Sprayed myself with sharp metal filings whittling the hole out with the die grinder. I also welded it on the back side of the head flange. But it was shit and bubbly... probably should have cleaned it. I'll have to grind it out and do it again. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted March 7, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 7, 2021 Done. I suppose I should do some kind of leak test since there are eleventy billion welds on this thing. I also learnt that if you use the cordless drill on the nut for the v-band clamps, and there is no lube, and they are stainless, the thread eventually galls and welds itself on. Fortunately, my original design was going to use more clamps, so I had a spare. But still, they aren't cheap. I put a drop of oil on the threads now. 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted March 20, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 20, 2021 Leak test identified that the rear v-band on the drivers side was not sealing. I tried cutting and realigning with no luck. I changed the design to use only one v-band. Hopefully it's all good now. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adoom Posted April 28, 2021 Author Share Posted April 28, 2021 I had some areas of bare metal where I had made repairs or modifications. They kept getting minor surface rust, so I thought I should really get around to painting them with epoxy. The prep around the firewall was awful. All the seam sealer was bituminous tar stuff. So there was many hours of heat gun and scraping and rags soaked in kerosene and manual wire brushes to remove it. Then I needed to remove the paint because there were areas with surface rust and others where rust was creeping under the paint. So that was more many hours of knotted wire brush on the grinder. And the 3M abrasive pad thing on the grinder. And chemical paint stripper on the larger flattish areas and more scraping. Then there are lots of narrow spaces and gaps and corners I can't get into with the grinder. I found some reasonably priced little wire brushes at mytools.co.nz that were rated to use in a die grinder at 20000rpm without exploding. I also used small abrasive pads in the die grinder. Then I dusted it off with the air gun and wiped it all down with a cloth soaked in prepsol. And dried it off with the heat gun. And brush painted it with protec 408 epoxy primer. The engine bay has had two coats, the repair in the boot has only had one. I have some modern seam sealer to use. Hopefully it hasn't all gone hard... I think I might have bought it a couple of years ago. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted June 12, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 12, 2021 Sorted out the filter mounting. I later realised that the hoses were the wrong way around(when I sprayed myself with oil removing the filter to check if it was circulating). I'm going to mark it with bright paint so I don't make the same mistake again. I had initially intended to point the fittings at each other, so the hoses could be really short, but that didn't work out. When I weld the front panels back on the car, the filter is shielded by those. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adoom Posted June 20, 2021 Author Share Posted June 20, 2021 So I've been fighting for clearance for the steering off the rear stud for the exhaust manifold. I first tried replacing the stud with a bolt so it was lower profile. I still had negative clearance. The universal joint has a bolt that goes right through with a nylock nut which sticks out a fair bit. I looked at my starlet, and there is no nut, one side of the hole is threaded so you just use a bolt. I decided to replicate this method. I drilled and tapped it to the next size up UNF thread(I didn't want to mix and metric and imperial in the same assembly). But now the U-groove in the end of the steering column was slightly too small for the bolt to slide through. So stripped down the column and put it in the lathe. Fuck all needed to come off, it's now just the right size to thread the bolt in by hand. I painted it and regreased the bearings too. That got me down to zero clearance... you can turn the wheel, but the corners of the bolt heads just clip. Time to get drastic...er. Move the lower mount of the steering column over. To avoid making a mess of the panel behind, I used the flap disk until it was wafer thin then peeled it off. This intact lower mount is from the rusty car. I also kept part of the panel from the other car to use as a cutting template, and later I'll make a filler piece from it. It only needed to move a little bit, less than 10mm. Using a set of drill bits to measure the gap, the closest it gets is 9.5mm. The intermediate shaft now touches the chassis rail. When the engine is out again I'll make some room there. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adoom Posted July 8, 2021 Author Share Posted July 8, 2021 So I started looking at the Triumph wiring loom to work out how I will connect the Link ECU loom to it. Lucas, the prince of darkness apparently did not believe in fuses or relays. There are 3 fuses and a relay for the horn, that's all. I've found some dodgy repairs to the instrument wiring. And someone had put in a relay for the headlights, but it's really old and gigantic, I had assumed it was an external voltage regulator before investigating. A section of loom has also been lengthened, with different colour wires... I haven't worked out why. To sort out the dodgy repairs I've had to unwrap the whole loom to decipher the how and why, so since I've gone that far I may as well modernise it a bit and put in a new, larger fuse box and some relays to take the current load off the old switches. The OEM wiring for the Oil and Brake warning light is LOL. (The brake warning is if the front/rear circuit fails.)The lights are wired in series for power, but each has its own earth through their sensors. There is a description of how they work in the factory service manual... Ignition ON engine not running: Oil light "ON FAINTLY", Brake light "ON FAINTLY" (apparently so you can check the bulbs work) Engine running: Oil light "OFF", Brake light "OFF" (Yep) Engine running brake circuit failure: Oil light "OFF", Brake light "ON BRIGHT" (Cool, makes sense) Engine running low oil pressure: Oil light "ON FAINTLY", Brake light "ON FAINTLY" (Ummmm. What!? I know they are "faint" because they are in series, but surely there was a better way to do this.) It does literally say "FAINTLY", which in real life is probably so dim you can't tell it's on, because Lucas. However, I've got a oil pressure sender for the ECU, so the oil warning light will be controlled by the ECU. I am undecided if I will retain the brake warning light, as far as I can tell many models didn't have it. I also had trouble finding a wiring diagram that included the light and sensor. Some diagrams listed the light and sensor as items 51 and 52 but they were missing from the actual circuit diagram?! I eventually found it in the factory service manual under "Left hand drive models only"...??? If I decide to keep it I have loads of spare inputs/outputs on the ECU, so I could connect the sensor to the ECU and get it to control the light as well. 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted August 23, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 23, 2021 I've been doing the wiring. It's not an exciting thing to take photos of. I need to relocate the battery in the boot and I'll run the cable inside the car, so I decided I wanted a through-bulkhead stud thing so I had power right beside the fusebox/ecu and in the engine bay to connect the starter cable to. Googles through-bulkhead stud thing. $50!!! I'm sure I can make one for less than that. So I spent $26 on a short bit of 20mm brass bar. I tell myself I'll have lots left over for something else. I already had a big big of acetal I could use for the body. So I spent maybe an hour on the lathe making round things and round things with holes in. To cut the thread... I initially attempted it with my cheapo 'Frost' die, because brass is 'soft', right. And it was entirely useless, Massive amounts of effort required to cut a single thread. So I spent $24 on a volkel die.... plus $6 shipping. I've said it before... damn these are good. It's so fucking sharp, I could just about start the thread holding the die in my hand! It was too big for my die holder... so like a barbarian I used vice grips. Those small screws are countersunk so they don't end up being made live. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted September 5, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 5, 2021 Turns out... lead is easy to melt. This was the first attempt. I pulled real hard on the other end of the cable and it pulled out. Second attempt, I preheated the mould with the heat gun and also untwisted the cable so the wires were all separate and splayed them out. This seemed to work, seems much stronger. Glued an extra appendage on the triumph pedal so the toyota cable bits fit. I did check that it opens the throttle all the way. More than all the way... But the pedal has an adjustable stop, so I adjusted that. 23 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted September 11, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 11, 2021 Sayf Tea No leaks. Didn't die. No fire. Didn't want to start though. It would just do a random cough every 2 or 3 seconds. I assume it should run, the tune is from Sheepers 1UZ when it was still standard. All I've done is modify the config for COP. I guess it's the timing??? Maybe... But I don't have a timing light. I didn't leave the fuel in the bowl. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted September 12, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 12, 2021 I revisited some of CarTuneNZ's videos. Extremely fortunately for me, he has a series of videos on wiring and configuring the ECU for exactly my setup. The issue was the base timing, it needs to be changed for the COP setup. I also hadn't configured the idle control So now it runs! Quite loud because it's only got headers. I can't really run it till it warm because I've got no cooling system. It sounds like it's running a bit rough. Maybe some of the injectors are sticky? It has been sitting for several years... 12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted September 19, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 19, 2021 There were indeed two sticky injectors. I ran the injector test again, and two of them were real quiet. I tapped them with the socket extension a bit and they freed up. So now it runs way better. I took a video of me fumbling with the ignition one handed to start it and make vrooming noises. I also installed the 'rest' of the exhaust, so now it reaches about halfway down the gearbox. https://youtu.be/K9sr3xajSOE I thought about using the original copper radiator, but when I had a better look, I found that the fins were disintegrating. So I've ordered a radiator from Fenix. Ouch, my wallet. After lots of looking at radiators for specific cars and having no luck, it turns out their universal medium radiator is within 5mm of the oem radiator. It also has the same type of mounting flange down the sides, I just need to trim it and drill the holes, then I can use the factory mounts. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted October 8, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 8, 2021 Pieced together the radiator pipes. SO. MANY. CLAMPS! It was actually slightly cheaper this way than buying some random rubber pipes with the right bends and cutting them up. It was still far more than I was expecting. I have cranked the clamps up as tight as I can but I still have leaks when the engine warms up. A bunch of leaks. It seems to be sealing okay at the engine and radiator connections. I'm thinking that since the joints where it is leaking are almost never going to need taking apart, I'll squirt some silicone sealer between the pipe and hose, then put the clamps on again. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted October 18, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 18, 2021 EDIT: In the discussion thread... I solved the leaky clamps by spraying silicone spray between the hose and clamp allowing it to be tightened without pinching the hose. I found the oil leak eventually. When I welded on the AN fittings to my remote filter adapter plate, I had to machine a relief into the weld for bolt clearance. Doing this had created a tiny little pin hole, I could barely see it but when I removed the bolt and ran the engine I could see a weep of oil coming out of apparently nowhere. So I bathed it in acetone, stripped off all the paint, spot blasted the weld area with the sand blaster then bathed it in acetone again. Then dried it with the heat gun. Luck seemed to be with me and I managed to get a puddle going without it turning to a pile of slag. The weld on the left didn't obviously leak, but it had a suspicious looking dot, so I remelted it just in case. Forgive the welding, I am still a tig novice. This fix is probably only the 3rd time I've welded aluminium. The engine bay part of the loom wrapping is basically done, I used that expanding sleeve stuff. I wouldn't say I'm ecstatic with the result, but I suppose it's acceptable. I also sorted out the wiring for the alternator so the charging circuit works now. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adoom Posted October 24, 2021 Author Share Posted October 24, 2021 Made a fan shroud. Also made some clearance around the radiator cap, the radiator needed to move forward a little more. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adoom Posted October 30, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 30, 2021 Finally at the back again. Made cross member MK2. Used some 1.6mm steel for the sides, 2mm for the top. The vertical metal bandsaw is right up there in the favourite tool list, it makes cutting this stuff up a piece of cake. Zip zap welded it together. Blurry photos. I really hope I worked the heights out correctly. This should give me ~70mm bump and droop from ride height. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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