Friday, 16 April 2021

Week 27 - The Build

 This last couple of weeks has been another interesting time in the project. I earlier showed the tools for bleeding the brakes and the pressure method seems favourite. Problem with my kit is that it doesn't seal satisfactorily on the master cylinder so it ejects fluid over everything. I bought a spare cap for a Fiesta on eBay and adapted this to fit the kit. That leaked badly as well, but not as badly! It was possible to bleed the brakes being careful not to empty the master cylinder reservoir each time. Flushed with success I went on to finish off connecting up the cooling system. That all went well with 7litres of water poured in.

I'm thinking of getting it on wheels and going for a little drive now!!

A number of issued became apparent. 1) the cooling system leaks somewhere up by the heater. 2) the engine is very reluctant to start without the help of squiting something flammable into the air intake (electrical contact cleaner came to hand!) 3) the clutch doesn't operate. 

Of these I think No 3 is the most urgent issue. I'm hoping its the hydraulics and not mechanical. If it is mechanical then we go back to a very low numbered square. I had previously bled the hydraulics using the vacuum method but perhaps there is an air lock. The best method is the pressure at the master cylinder method and I spent many hours trying the effect a good seal for my kit to the reservoir. Every attempt failed but even with it leaking it provided enough pressure to blast the air lock out.

The water leak was fixed by tightening up one of the 27 jubilee clips in the system. I haven't got it up to temperature and under pressure yet so I'm sure there will be more leaks!

I don't understand the engine starting issue. Once running it seems to go fine.

Anyway, flushed with that success here is a little video of the pto shaft stopping and starting as the clutch is operated. 



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Week 57 - The Test

 Got all the paperwork off to register it as a car now to test it as a boat!! Here are a couple of videos and some photos of it in action....