Hi there,
I took last week off to put some time and effort into my shiny new Caterham.
Hence the reason why there havent been any further posts on the progress....
But here goes....
By Thursday the car had had its suspension fitted along with the steering
rack and front uprights. Thursday evening after getting back from work,
Juliet (my girlfriend of nearly 3 years) asked me who I was - I took the
hint. I spent the evening with her.
Friday :
Got home from work with a whole week of shworking (smiley happy working) to
look forward to. I torqued up the rear suspension after lifting up the rear
end of the car with the engine hoist to get the bushes in the right places. I
fidded around with various bits. Ate a large pizza with lots of beer :-)
Saturday :
Put the wheels on the car :-) Took the car off the trestles and put it on
the ground, yeaahh. Wheeled it back and forth steering and making vroom vroom
noises. Assembled the gearbox - bellhousing - engine lump. Went to a party.
Sunday :
After much thinking and planning decided to put the engine IN THE CAR ! I got
the engine and gearbox nicely angled on the hoist. Juliet was manning the
hoist, Alastair was guiding the gearbow output shaft onto the prop shaft and
I was running around directing the whole campaign.
Ben : "Down a bit..."
Juliet : " OK."
Hoist : "THWWACCKKK"
At this point I decided that turning knurled knobs a LITTLE bit was not
Juliet's strong point. I therefore apointed her
chief-assistant-engine-hoist-pusher-and-puller-but-not-up-and-down-person.
After a bit of gentle "down-a-bit" and "forward-a-bit" Alastair reported
sighting the gearbox from his observation point halfway along the
transmission tunnel. All was going nicely when........it carried on going
nicely ! The engine took all of about 15 minutes to get into the car and the
gearbox and engine mounts tightened up ! I started the engine bay wiring. All
the wires coming out from the loom were even the same colour as the build
manual thought they should be. This took about an hour. I then decided to
call it a day and cleared up.
Monday :
Finished the engine bay wiring and started the lighting. This involved
fitting the front wings ! After a couple of hours of this I had green
and mauve, red and orange wires all over the place. But the front lighting
was finished !
Tuesday :
Started the rear lighting. This involved fitting the rear wings and the rear
light clusters. By now I was getting pretty bored of wiring !
Wednesday :
Finised the wiring and all the lights WORKED. By now the car was really
starting to look and feel like a car.
Thursday :
Bought the necessary fluids, oils, in order to get the car going. Filled the
diff, gearbox, engine. Bled the brakes and adjusted the handbrake. Finally I
fitted the exhaust. Put the battery on charge. Went to bed knackered.
Friday :
Checked the car over and put a gallon of petrol in the petrol tank. crudely
adjusted the twin DCOE webers according to the recommendations in the build
manual. I disconnected the electronic ignition put a small bit of oil in the
cylinders and turned the engine over until the oil pressure came up.
Reconnected the ignition and turned the engine over. Nothing happened but a
slight smell of petrol. I took out a spark plug and smelt for petrol -
nothing. I decided to turn the engine over a look for petrol. It fired - WOW
- it fired. I put the sparkplug back in and turned her over - whrir - whir -
bang - whir - bang - whir - bang - bang - whir - VROOOOOMMMMMMMM. YESSSSS.
IT WORKS. Wow what a feeling from nuts and bolts and lots of cardboard boxes
this wonderfull object had emerged. I watched the tempreture and started to
tinker with the carbs. I soon had the car running quite nicely, ticking over
at about 900 rpm and idling nicely. I REVERSED the car back into the garage
and we all went out for a meal.
Saturday :
Installed the interior, and colour-tuned the carbs. The engine is really
humming now. I then tried to fit the roll-over bar. With the gentle help of a
six-foot scafold pole it fitted.
I am now waiting to get it registered and she should be on the road by the
end of the week ! From deliverery to vroom in three weeks ! I cant wait to
actualy drive it on the road !
TTFN,
Ben Hodson.
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| Ben Hodson, | Email : hodsonb@prl.philips.co.uk |
| Philips Research Labs, | Tel : 0293 785544 ext 5750 |
| Crossoak Lane, |-------------------------------------------|
| Redhill, | I'd rather push a Triumph than drive |
| Surrey, RH1 5HA. | an MG, but best of all I'd vrooooommm |
| England. | in a seven. |
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