Caterham 7 Build Diary: April 2011

Saturday 23 April 2011

Heart transplant complete – 22nd April 2011

All I can say is that it’s an incredibly tight fit!

Installing the engine & gearbox took about four hours of slow, careful manouvreing of engine & gearbox suspended by hoist above chassis. Centimetre by centimetre the assembly was lowered into the chassis & the engine hoist pushed towards the car.

Nervous moment when Jamie accidently dropped the engine from about 5 cm on to the front chassis cross bracing but fortunately the carefully applied bubble wrap meant we got away without any damage. Difficulty in getting the prop shaft to engage with the gearbox, however, by applying a strap & lifting the gearbox tail from within the car it suddenly slid into position J. Having overcome this obstacle the engine got caught on the alternator (unfortunately causing scratching to chassis even through the bubble wrap) requiring loosen to clear the chassis members.

Once the engine was finally resting on it’s mounts the challenge began to get the bolts in the gearbox mounts. This necessitated all engine mounts being loosened to provide valuable millimetres of wiggle room. Jamie finally got the gearbox mounting bolts in place but the engine then had to be pushed & shoved, moved up/down with the hoist, to enable the mounting bolts to line up with the rubber engine mounts.

To tighten the left handside engine mount to block I thought I’d remove the oil filter to make access easier. Wrong! Oil filter wouldn’t budge & strap wrench just bent the filter.

Gearbox & engine ready for installation – 17th April 2011

By propping up gearbox assembly on blocks of wood & gently twisting managed to align the gearbox with the clutch plate & attach to engine. Bolts provide attached to engine & description in Rover assembly guide bear no resemblance but pretty sure we’ve got in right. Starter motor installed but once again the description in the assembly guide did not match up with reality & the parts provided! Battle to slide heater hose on to joiner despite using plenty of silicone rubber lubricant so ended up having to file off the ridges on one side of the joiner. Jubilee clip to attach the larger hose to the thermostat housing is too small so will have to visit local motor factors to get a larger size.

Slightly concerned at small nick to insulation of cable going to ECU temperature sensor but Caterham assure me it can be replaced later if necessary so I patch it up with some epoxy resin.

All set for putting the engine & gearbox in next weekend. As it’s a bank holiday hope to get plenty done.

Chassis 70042 stands on it’s own four wheels – 10th April 2011

All wheels fitted. Children very excited (not to mention their father) at this momentous moment. Progressively lowered the car a corner at a time until all wheels were resting on the ground. Jamie sat in the car whilst Adam & I pushed it out of the garage for the first time.

Bolted gearbox bell housing to gearbox & fitted clutch pivot arm, thrust bearing, clutch cable & speedo drive.

Saturday 2 April 2011

Finished rear suspension – 2nd April 2011

Filled & bled brakes (again) & checked for leaks. One leaking at rear calliper & another on the 3 way union on the de Dion axle leaking so gingerly tightened them which seemed to do the trick. With Jamie stretching to press hard on the brake pedal the rear hub bolts are finally tightened to 270NM torque. Jacked up car & re-positioned axle stands under the de Dion tube so that the rear suspension is loaded & the A frame bolts were then torqued up.

Rear diff filled with oil using Jamie’s solution of a funnel with long flexible nozzle. This was made easier by removing both the ply wood & aluminium boot floor. Took advantage of car being up on axle stands to liberally squirt Dinitrol ML penetrating rust protection into all areas where aluminium body is riveted to chassis.

Brakes complete – 23rd March 2011

Took advantage of time between jobs to fit the rear brake callipers. Managed to use bike bottom bracket tool to rotate the calliper pistons to align with the brake pads then with spacers in place mounting the brakes was a simple task. Handbrake cables attached but not adjusted as the hand brake needs to move to the vertical position to fit the trim to the transmission tunnel.

Rear brakes – 22nd March 2011

Drive in Caterham hire car to Wakehurst Place near Ardingly provides a taste of things to come J This was a Roadsport 1.6 SV so a bit wider & heavier than ours but with similar performance. Even my wife had a grin on her face after our blast!

Whilst at Caterham confirm that spacers found in small bag marked “Axle” (along with rubber grommets) are, indeed, the correct spacers to fit between the brake calipers & de Dion ears. Also queried having a floating caliper with rigid brake pipes but was assured that the amount of movement is only about 2mm & insufficient to fracture the rigid brake pipes.

When I went to re-fit the brake pads in the calipers that was removed they won’t align with a cut out in the caliper piston & the piston won’t revolve !

Rear disks/hubs – 18th March 2011

Confirmed speed sensor brackets not required for Rover build so set about fitting disk/hubs Filled brakes with fluid & bled using Ezibleed to check no leaks. Brakes binding on disks & not sure if hubs are fully seated or missing spacers to align brake disks in centre of callipers. Can’t undo or do up hub nut as Jamie can’t hold on the brakes so Graham comes round. Brakes leaking at 3 way union & rear calipers but need to remove callipers to sort out brake/hub/disk alignment issues. Nuts removed & hubs/disk are seating OK. Conclude that either have wrong parts or missing a spacer.

Rear suspension continued – 13th March 2011

Realised by comparing text & photos from the Sigma & Rover build manuals that we’ve fitted the handbrake cable with the adjuster on the wrong side of the chassis ( should be on the left hand side) so had to correct this. Not as easy second time round now the diff’s in.

Installed de Dion A frame, driveshafts & de Dion ears but held off fitting disk/hubs & brake callipers as unclear if speed sensor & bracket(s) are needed & don’t want to have to pull the disk/hubs off again. Rover manual doesn’t mention them but Sigma manual does; need to check with Caterham.