Day 35- Throttle Cable, Brake and Clutch Bleeding, and Reg Plate Light
Throttle Cable
We have decided not to do as instructed and bend the throttle pedal, and follow the advice of my Cousin, who used to work for Arch Motors constructing Caterham chassis' and has since worked on many Caterham rebuilds and repairs. His advice, as he had done this many times, was to remove the plastic from a chocolate block connector and and clamp the metal clam to the throttle cable either side of the pedal.
We cut the end off, passed it through the hole, then connected one block before then two after.
Brake Bleeding
This is fairly easy but time consuming, and requires 2 people, unless one has an Eezibleed kit. Did this as instructed in the order:
Left Rear
Right Rear
Left Front, Inside
Left Front, Outside
Right Front, Inside
Right Front, Outside
This was going well until we managed to get air in the system from not topping up the fluid regularly enough. We did find that taking a rubber mallet to the callipers did wonders for dislodging pockets of are trapped in parts of the calliper. This was all going to plan up until the third circuit, where we ran out of fluid, so had to stop there.
Our Apparatus
We found that these surgical clamps were useful in reducing spillage of the brake fluid.
We have also bled the clutch, which was very hard without a proper bleeding tool (with the cut out in the hollow socket tool, allowing for the tube to pass inside the tool onto the bleed nipple. However we did manage to use a pair of needle nose pliers to give enough grip to close the nipple enough to then remove the hose and not create a leak.
Registration Plate Light
On our car the earthing for the light didn't seem adequate enough so we improvised our own. We started by removing the bracket the light sits on, then created a strap which passes from the self tappers to the light fixing. After attaching the light plate the bracket was re-attached and the power cable fed through the back of the bracket.
Earth strap fitted.
All slack pulled through. This is not required as we don't have the wheel carried option.
The power wire was cut to length then the bullet connection was crimped on the end and connected.
Light fitted with the fog and reverse light, and the fuel filler cap, which had all been removed for the application of the PPF.
Finally a finished layout for the coolant pipes, with all sensors and earth straps attached.
Thanks to Derek for his quick reply with some pics, shown below, we were able to fit the front brake hoses tonight with the use of the photos he helpfully sent. So as I cooked dinner dad finished the job.
Hose to calliper
Hose through body
Brake line connection
Heater Fitment
After dinner we decided to quickly fit the heater. This was very simple and I can imagine was made much easier by having two of us. We started with the sealant around the edge, then slotted it into place ensuring the cable was through the vent holes then put the vent face plate into place, passing the bolts through.
Thin bead of silicon around the edge of the heater panel
After the panel is in place more silicone is run along and around the edges to ensure no water is able to run through
When the vent plate goes on make sure the ducts for diverting air down towards your feet, or "Horns" as they seem to be called, are downwards, which is the other way up than it arrives.
Today we aspired to finish the front suspension, however this didn't happen as it was a lot more fiddly than we first thought.
First we sprayed some Dynax inside of the De Dion tube.
Coats well but goes everywhere...
Naturally can't work while ignoring the F1
We then continued to finish the upper and lower wishbones. This continued to be a little fiddly, however with a little persuasion (with a mallet) they slid into place and were bolted as per the manual. We then moved onto mounting the front disks. As these were the ventilated disks and quad piston callipers they lower right in and do not require to be built. We soon found that it would be impossible to have the top and bottom wishbones bolted to the brake uprights and then tighten the special milled nyloc on the underside of the lower wishbone. This was due to there not being enough clearance for any of our sockets to fit on properly. To fix this we disconnected the top wishbone from the upright then tightened the nyloc to the required torque, but to get enough leverage for the torque setting, the disk had to be secured. We did this by clamping two lengths of wood either side of the disk.
Wood in place
After this the top wishbone was attached and all of the nuts tightened to the required torque settings.
The angle of the bottom upright can be seen here. All bolts torqued and marked.
Cycle wingstay fitted to centre of the upright.
Premier Digital Torque Adaptor, can be used to test accuracy of existing torque wrenches or used as a torque wrench itself with a socket set and drivers.
Dad trying to work it... instructions are worse than the build manual...
Just a quick bit of lunch then back to finish the left side of the front suspension.
Finally the finished front suspension
Just a little free time for dad to quickly pose for the camera...
Annoyingly the GoPro ran out of battery without us realising so only the first half of the day.
To finish off the night we decided to fit the brake lines, which proved to be a bit too much today... This was all due to the brake hoses being completely different to the ones shown in the manual. The fittings are not the same and there are fewer parts supplied than described. This discovered we decided to to call it a night and email Derek for help and to enquire as to why the grill in the nose cone had not been painted, despite being, sold, bought and paid for.
