Rats' Nests

A parcel full of shiny things arrived on Friday from series sponsor and all-round nice chap Andy Bates of AB Performance.

The package on the left contains uprated clutch springs that, allied to new friction plates and steels, should mean that I am able to transfer motive force from the 16 valve Yamaha engine to the wheels via the gearbox, prop, differential etcetera.  On the right is a billet oil sandwich plate that will divert lubricant through the 25-row front-mounted oil cooler.  Judging by Austen's experience, the sandwich plate may need a touch more machining yet.

As suggested in the previous post, I think I've reduced the bike loom down to what I need.  The picture below shows roughly what's been involved.

The jumble of wires on the left is, broadly speaking, what I'm retaining to run the engine.  The jumble of wires on the right is what I've removed.  If you're eagle-eyed, you'll notice that the fuse box and relay assembly lie within the junk pile.  There are a number of reasons for this.  Firstly, I want to make fault-finding  in the paddock as simple as possible - as simple as possible for me.  While I can sit in front of a wiring diagram and suss-out that the clutch switch needs to be earthed and the tilt switch needs to be glued-up etc, the fact is that its all a bit of a bodge that I'm likely to get very befuddled by when I've got a short amount of time to solve the problem before the next race.  Hence, the relay assembly has to go.  I've actually done this before on a R1 without any major problems - albeit the R1 in question was a 2001MY 5JJ where the number of wires in the loom was about 1/3 of what is present on the 4C8.  Next, I wanted one fuse box that covered all circuits in a logical and easy to understand fashion.  The problem that I did have when I built the loom for my R1-engined MNR was that I struggled massively to put together a fuse box assembly that was neat and safe.  Help is at hand in 2013 however thanks to Car Builder Solutions and their wiring module, pictured below:

The unit above is pre-wired such that you generally just need to run the relevant wires from the other components.  The really appealing bit for me is that it sorts out the power distribution to each of the fuses which is where I struggled in the past.  The downside is that its relatively heavy but I'm more than prepared to compromise here for the sake of getting the wiring bullet-proof.  Of course there are a couple of small deviations that I'll be making., this is my car after all.  For example, I'm letting the ECU determine when the injection fuel pump should be powered-up as on the bike.  This therefore requires a relay.  There are two relays on the wiring module.  Nominally one is for the horn and one is for the fan.  Thankfully, since the bike horn is so small and efficient that it can be wired direct, I can use the 'horn' relay to switch the injection pump.  Ta-dah.  The other benefit of the wiring module is that the abundance of fused circuits means that I can split most things out onto their own circuits and hence make fault-finding easier again.  Others will probably have started from scratch (a bit beyond me) or have extended the bike loom (scrappy in my eyes) so I feel that I've made the best decision for me as the builder AND user.  It just needs to work now, which brings me to my final point on the wiring.  The original circuitry contains a zener/diode assembly to protect the ECU from voltage spikes.  I sort-of understand how this works and with the help of a couple of the chaps on Locostbuilders have hatched a plan to replace the assembly which was contained within the yucky relay box with a couple of electronic components.  I've also got to 'trick' the ECU into thinking that the tilt switch is still present using a resistor so as a result have a few small components to wire-in.

Tomorrow is chassis collection day which is exciting.  I just hope that I feel a bit better as I've felt dreadful all weekend - too weak to be able to remove the oil filter on the engine which is frankly pathetic.

Happy New Year by the way.

TC

Christmas is looming...

The chassis is powdercoated.  Sadly, I couldn't get away from work before the chap left for a couple of weeks in warmer climes so I can't collect it until the 7th Jan.  I myself head for a few days in Tuscany on the 8th so its not ideal.  Never mind.  In the meantime, I'll continue to thin-out the loom.  I think I'm nearly there to be honest.  I might even break the monotony by carrying-out some of the mods to the engine that will hopefully prevent it from going bang.  I've got a sump baffle plate so that can be sorted out.  That'll leave me with the breather mods and replacement of the damaged covers.  I also want to replace the clutch.  Hmm... sounds like plenty to be getting on with actually.

Nadolig Llawen.

TC

JFDI

The chassis has finally gone to the powdercoaters - www.azcoat.co.uk.  Before it left I did my very best to degrease it.  Regular readers may remember that in November 2010 the chassis was thoroughly oiled and put into storage.  As a result I thought it was worth going over it with acetone and a rag to try and get it ship-shape before blasting.

One other job pre-painting involved drilling some holes for the bonnet pins.  These can be seen below.

Fourteen holes took forever as my drill bits clearly need sharpening.  I was also left wishing that I still had a mains-electric drill.  Anyway, I got there in the end and popped a bonnet pin in one of the holes to check that all was well,

Another job done.  I've mentioned in a couple of previous posts that the chassis was going to be painted grey.  That is still true, at least to an extent.  However, I decided that plain grey was all very well but a bit common and not necessarily in-keeping with my retro theme.  So, after procrastinating for long enough to be uncomfortable with my lack of decisiveness, I bit the bullet (hence the 'JFDI' title) and went for Grey-Beige or RAL1019.  Middle-aged before my time?  Probably.

So an unusual colour for an unusual car.  SNAFU then.

TC

Date and Weight

The draft race calendar is out and can be seen here.  I can't see the car being ready until May so I will sadly miss Rounds 1-4 at Donington and Brands.  That means a debut at Snetterton on the new (to me at least) 300 circuit.   My previous visit to the circuit was a bit disappointing and its a bloomin' long way from home but we'll book the Friday test and see how we get on.  A date to work towards should hopefully provide some real impetus.  The chassis is ready and heading for coating next Thursday.  We managed to get it on a set of scales - its 60kgs which, considering that it includes so many of the fixings and brackets to construct the car, is rather pleasing - its the same as a Locost chassis.

I'm still working on the wiring.  As soon as I've got that sorted I'll start working on the motor - I want to change the clutch, fit some upgraded springs, replace the damaged covers and carry-out the necessary mods to the breather system and sump.  

TC

Z-a-p-p, C-r-a-c-k-l-e & P-o-p

The big weld-off with Dave at Track Developments happened as planned this weekend.  Here's the man in question wielding his TIG torch:

The modifications and additions to the chassis are too numerous to even think about listing.  If nothing else, it's unique.  Here it is inverted, with Dave moving too fast for the camera:

If you look really closely you can see the reworked portion at the rear of the tunnel; this is where we had to make changes so that the prop shaft didn't make contact with the chassis.  If it looks a bit lightweight here it's because the photo was taken pre-gussets.

The plan for one evening this week is to crawl all over the chassis with a torch looking for any missed welds. Assuming all is well, I'll give the chassis one last tidy-up before it goes for powdercoating (in grey).

In other news I've been identifying connectors on the loom.  I think I've got three to still find a home for.  Next I need to decide what to get shot of.  There is some really good information on the web relating to the wiring but nobody has removed the bike's relay assembly which I'm really keen to do.  I really don't fancy fault finding amongst that lot.  Therefore I am minded to invest the time now to make it a bit easier later.  This has been my train of thought throughout the chassis mods too.  Let's hope it pays off when it comes to bolting the thing together.

TC

Multiple Trauma

I knew that the centre tunnel was important for providing stiffness.  The theory was proven to be fact when we cut a portion out of it last weekend.
R-E-W-I-N-D...

My Gemini is going to run a rear ride height that is about 40-50mm lower than most.  This doesn't sound like all that much perhaps and you might well assume that it should be relatively straightforward to achieve.  However its thrown up a number of problems already and I now have fears about the rear tyres fouling the rear arches.  I've already had to reshape the rear of the car to prevent the panhard rod from interfering with the chassis, or rather the other way around.  Another issue was just around the corner.

The plan for last Saturday was to fabricate the mount for the prop centre bearing and to get the last tabs and sundry bits of steel tacked into place.  

Problem #1:  We couldn't get the prop into the car with the engine in place.  

Thankfully the solution to this was easy - split the prop at the sliding joint.  Happy days, or it would have been except for...

Problem #2.  The rear half of the prop is too long.  We have no idea if the issue was the measurement or the manufacture as I've lost the sketch.  Annoying but not the end of the world as the remedy should be pretty cheap and quick.  So all is not lost, except...

Problem #3.  Err, the prop looks a bit close to the top of the tunnel, even at ride-height.  Full bump is going to be an issue.  So, we replaced the 'dummy dampers' that have been suspending the axle at ride height with the 'dummy dampers' that suspend the axle at full bump.  Sure enough, it's not going to work.  Why-oh-why-oh-why is nothing straightforward and why-oh-why-oh-why did I start this daft project? 

I had two options.  Either cut-out most of the tunnel and replace it, which would have rendered the nice rear cover that I'd had fabricated absolutely useless or, remove the offending tube and replace it with thick plate and then add gussets to build the strength back in   Assuming that it all goes to plan, we're going to go with the second option.  Dave Gallop is looking after the gussets and fillets when he does the final welding.  It should be fine but it did raise my stress levels a bit.

Once a plan was hatched I then went ahead with all the other planned jobs; essentially the chassis is ready to be finished-up.  Hopefully this will happen by this time next week.

Since the weekend I've started to look at another potential source of stress, that is, the wiring loom.  Ay, Caramba! 

TC

Another chapter...

Its been a busy time: I've got married (amazing day); I've bought a new house.

It's not all change though as progress on the Gemini has been at its usual sloth-like rate.

I did have a good day on fabrication with Track Developments' Dave Gallop however.  I'll include some photos for my benefit but I don't expect any of them to go viral.  Yawn.

Crotch-strap mounts, devised using the very helpful Schroth website for guidance:

Exhaust mount and tab for the lockwire that will ensure the tailpipe doesn't fall-off:

Front ARB mounts:

Finished front-end showing the angled plates at the top corners that will eventually support the bonnet catches that hold the front bodywork in place:

The chassis to-do list looks like this:

• Prop Centre Bearing Mount

• Finish Prop Catcher.

• Hand Brake Cable Bracket - have the basis of this but needs sand blasting.

• Earth points

I collected the prop yesterday so this can hopefully be finished-off next week and then all welded up the week later.  I then need to decide whether to powdercoat or paint the chassis.  Hmmmm.

TC