Easter Weekend - Marathon Update

So this weekend there is a lot to do.

  • Finish back axle assembly now the shims have arrived
  • Set up rear brakes
  • Basic first fit on engine
  • Test clutch
  • Engine Bay Fuel system
  • Engine Bay Cooling System
  • ECU & Dash sensor set installation


Axle
JB Engineering came up trumps with the axle shimms, their local engineer managed to whip up some shims at short notice. 2 x 1.7mm shimms for each side. Shipped overnight last week meant we could get onto this first thing. They worked a treat and we were able to box back together the rear axle and get the hubs re-assembled, brake drums etc.



The armour plating on the tank worked a treat and with a minor adjustment to the hand-brake bracket there is space for movement with minimal risk.



Basic Engine First Fit
OK so this could be complicated or not so complicated. Either way this was not going to be a simple job. On reflection it could have been a lot more complex.

So... first thing was to look at the engine mount situation ont the engine side, secondly we need to check the bell-housing dust plate for bolt pattern and coverage. We happened to have a 1.8cvh to Type 9 dust plate and on Thursday a quick re-direct on a Cornwall to High Wycombe journey via the Morgan Factory sorted a set of rare aluminium 1800 Zetec blacktop engine mounts.

So first up - checking the engine end.. the engine mount on the Off-Side was an easy fit straight on. just need to sort a set of bolts.



On the Near-Side things were going to be more complicated. The aluminium castings were missing one bolt hole and on the Back Top block there is a manufacturing tab which sticks out. Having thought about how to tackle this we decided to manufacture some custom spacers to hold the bracket in the right place. First up, drilling the final hole.



You can see the spacers in the picture below...



Once the upper brackets were mated to the engine the lower brackets need to be located into the engine bay and some way of connecting them together.



In the end we decided to re-use the new engine mounts we put on the car last year. however having lined the engine up in the engine bay at the correct height they were slightly too short. So I cut out 6 Aluminium spacers and put 2 on the bottom and 1 on the top to create the height required. Dad drilled and helicoiled the aluminium to make maximum use of the shape of the lower mounts and the existing holes already in them.