Caterham 7 Build Diary: June 2011

Carpet jigsaw– 5th June 2011

Discovered that 8 unidentified bits of carpet were in fact for the boot. Another area where the assembly guide is deficient. Completed fitting of hood & boot cover.

Sidescreens, mirrors & hood all attached. Relieved to find all the hood dot fastenings were already on the hood itself; not sure why Caterham don’t do the same for the boot cover. Just the torneau cover to fit now-with plenty of dot fasteners!

The best seats in the house – 21-22nd May 2011

Returned from Seven club event at Dunsfold all fired up to complete the build. Just a pity that it took place a month too early to participate in my own car.

Zip tied wiring into place & connected up front lights with Econoplugs. All lights & indicators now functioning with the exception of rear fog light. I’ll have to investigate.

Repetitive strain injury from riveting 110 pop rivets for aluminium body panels to chassis.

Replaced nearside rear light cluster with new one which arrived during the week. This has a cable which is about an inch longer so the wiring isn’t stretched taught like a bow string. Apparently it’s common for there to be differences in manufacturing, but it seems like a basic quality control issue to me!?

Installed knee panels but pre-drilled holes in these don’t match up with those already drilled in chassis panelling :-(. As they seem a tight fit I need to ask Caterham if these have to be riveted for the IVA test.

Hoodsticks fiited prior to attempting boot cover installation. Drilled through alloy bar but top nearside harness bolt won’t go through chassis. Might need Caterham to run a tap through the mount when the car goes for it’s post build inspection.

Boys back from a weekend Scout camp so fitted 4 point harnesses & seats. Headrests a struggle to fit & remove even after carefully filing away burrs on the inside of the seat. Boys & I strapped ourselves in & went for an imaginary drive :-)

Lights, camera, action – 14-15th May 2011

Indicator repeaters fitted to front wings & cables fed through the hollow wing stays. This is quite tricky as the cables are a snug fit. Solution was to thread a long length of house earth wire sleeve up from the bottom , push the end onto the rubber connector of the repeater wires then use this to push & pull them through the stay. Unfortunately sharp edges inside the stay resulted in some nicks to the outer heatshrink.

The assembly guide describes a complex process for positioning & drilling the mounting holes in the front wings. In reality a much quicker & easier way is to centre the wings over the tyre, drill the holes in the wing stays using the tyre tread to get the same spacing front & rear, & finally put a pilot hole in the wings by using the holes in the stays as a guide & drilling up through them to mark the wings. You can then flip the wings over finish the pilot hole & drill out to 5mm.

Now that the wings & front & back lights are on it's looking like a real car! Unfortunately I discovered I'm missing the Econoplug connectors so cannot complete the headlight wiring & also realise that I'm still waiting for the hoodsticks. I'll have to put in another call to Caterham (I seem to have had rather a lot of shortages/missing items).

Yes, we have ignition! – 10th May 2011

Major milestone. Finally cracked non starting K series problem.

The Rover assembly guide fails to mention that there's a third brown & red low voltage wire that you need to connect to the starter solenoid, & I only discovered this after calling Caterham. Re-checking the Sigma assembly guide it is covered but as the wire comes with a Lucar connector fitted I'd assumed it was a spare for my installation. Changed the connector to a ring tab, attached to solenoid & vola-it starts!

Video clip shows a very excited Jamie :-)

Will it ever start!?– 8th May 2011

Checked all connections & immobiliser again & tried jump starting off the Impreza but still nothing. Engine turns over when crank pulley turned with a socket so at least it's not seized!

Time out to fit seat back carpet & roll over bar so at least Jamie & I can say we've achieved something today.

Possible I've used the wrong stud on the starter solenoid to connect the positive battery lead & positive from the alternator. On closer inspection there are 3 terminals & now the starter is mounted on the engine I'm not sure I've got the correct one: assembly guide talks about the lower stud. Need to put in a call to Caterham tomorrow.

Caterham gives you wings– 7th May 2011

Good start to the day. Rather than put the whole car back on axle stands Jamie suggested we take advantage in the difference in levels between the garage floor & the drive. By rolling the car out of the garage so the front wheels were in the garage but the rears were on the drive this gave us enough clearance to get under the car to access the gearbox drain plug. Using a newly purchased 10mm racket spanner & a stubby bit of cut down 10mm allen key Jamie managed to remove the filler plug. The gearbox was then filled using a long length of hose attached to the spout of the bottle of gearbox oil. Only about 1.2 litres went in so there must have been some in there already. Re-fitting the filler plug was then straight forward but fiddly due to the tight clearances.

Battery reconnected & ignition switch turned but no action from the starter! Just a click from the immobiliser. Checked all connections but still no joy so moved on to something else.

With Jamie, Adam & me working as a production line team we bent, drilled, riveted, trimmed & fitted the rear wing protectors. After making a cut out on the rear wings to clear the radius arms wings & trim went on. Starting to look like a real car now.

Put Lotus 7 club membership to good use & posted a question on Blatchat re starting problem. The Rover click seems to be a common issue when cables get fried by the exhaust but as this is a new installation this shouldn't be the cause.

Hoping for start up – 2nd May 2011

Unclear from assembly guide that Rover engines need plumbing as for Sigma ones with a T piece to the expansion bottle. Once this was worked out radiator & cooling hoses were easy to install & connect, however, you do need to install spacers on the radiator bobins which is not mentioned. Minor leaks on filling with coolant but quickly fixed by tightening hose clips.

Electrical connections made but as warned in the assembly guide, I do have a few spare wires/connectors! Need to check with Caterham if OK to attach black wire with ring tab to battery negative terminal rather than engine lifting eye mount (bolt too big/ cable too short).

Engine filled with oil ready for start up but even though I'd loosened the gearbox filler plug before installing the engine/gearbox assembly & cut down an allen key I still can't undo the filler plug. Wish I'd removed it! Shame as starting the car for the first time would have reignited the children's interest in the project which is beginning to wane. Guess we'll have to put the car on axle stands to improve access & try again next weekend.

Wednesday, 8 June 2011