Archive for the ‘disc brakes’ Tag
I spent the last two weekends in the garage, getting back to the Coupe Project. It was nice and relaxing to lay on the creeper, under the chassis and working with tools again.
I had to modify the chassis in the pedal box area to allow more clutch pedal movement. This is a known issue in the Roadster forums, but not so much in the Coupe forums. This happened when Factory Five Racing changed the Wilwood pedal box – the old version would actually break. The new and improved pedal box moves the clutch pedal arm over to the left by about an inch or so, and the arm hits a brace, limiting pedal travel.
When the modification is done before the pedal box is bolted into place, it is a simple chore to make two cuts, chopping a small triangular cut into the frame member. This can be done with a reciprocating saw or maybe power jigsaw.
However, if the modification must be performed after the pedal box is bolted into place, the tube must be accessed from below, in an awkward angle. A small grinder tool would be ideal for this, but the only tool I have that will fit the space and the angle is a Dremel tool. It took me two half-day sessions to do this.
In the pictures above you can see the half-moon shape cutout I had to make. This is a view from under the chassis, looking up from the creeper. This will be painted black later. The tube looks normal from the top, so that is good. And clutch pedal travel is doubled, so free play adjustment range should be much better.
Since the brake system is installed, filled and bled, I removed the Clekos and riveted the lines in place. I changed several P-clip anchor points so it complies with my “routing and clipping manual” from the office. Unfortunately, I followed some other builders’ clipping, and mounted several p-clips upside down. Most of them will be under the car, and might be hidden from view when the car is finished. But I know they are upside down.
Here is a picture of how the clips should be mounted. This is the X-member in the front of the chassis.
Looks like I didn’t take a picture of the riveted clips. I will post them later.
Next, I made a bracket to support the ECU for the MSD Atomic fuel injection system for my 302. This plate will secure the ECU and provide strain relief for the cables going in and out of the unit. It is on a plate so it can be easily removed if I have to work on the wiring or the ECU later. It is mounted with 1/4-20 stainless steel studs and nylon lock washers. It was raining so I was not able to paint this plate. Will have to do that at the next build session.
The passenger side footbox is on the left. Three stainless steel Allen head screws come through the wall and into the passenger box. The center photo shown the ECU engine cable going into the engine bay, and the right photo shows the MSD computer and plate inside the passenger footbox. Carpet will cover the interior, so a carpeted cover will be made to hide the ECU and wires when the car is finished.
I am also laying out the air conditioner system components on the chassis. I have to make several brackets and small boxes to mount the A/C components on the chassis.
As I was doing this work, I took another look at the battery box mentioned in an earlier post. It is installed with clecos so it can be removed. I think I want to mount the battery above the passenger footbox. Two reasons for this:
First, it will shorten the battery cables, decreasing the voltage drop.
Second, the “factory location” for the battery – in the rear center – blocks the rear axle pumpkin. So, when I have to change the oil or make adjustments, the battery must be disconnected and the battery and the box must be removed. Sounds like a painful procedure for a simple maintenance chore.
I will make a mock-up of this in my next build session. Stay tuned . . . .
Not much to report on the Type 65 Coupe Project. I have been doing a lot of other things over the last few weeks. The heat has been making me lazy.
I decided to do some work on the A/C unit for the Coupe. I cut and chopped the housing cover for several hours, and then decided it might be easier to just make a whole new cover using fiberglass and resin. . . . I did some research on composites, epoxy resins, fiberglass and boat repair, and lost-foam casting. Interestingly, I am doing the same research for some stuff at work. I will try my hand at making a custom duct for the A/C unit. I have a layout in my mind, but there are a lot more things that need to go behind the dash panel besides the A/C ducts. The new cover/duct will have to make several 90- and 180-degree bends. I hope to avoid the use of too many fittings by making a single duct/top cover for the A/C unit. Maybe it should be called a “manifold” instead.
Here are some pictures of the air conditioner and the “dry fit” of where it will mount.
I also re-installed the firewall. I had to take it off and re-paint it with a higher quality silver paint. I do not have pictures of this, but it does look better than before. The paint is “harder” than the other paint I used.
Next, I removed the “bad” brake hoses originally from the Complete Kit and replaced them with the proper red hose from the third technical bulletin from Factory Five Racing. This is the hose going from the reservoir to the master cylinders. The new hose is much softer and easily slipped over the fittings. I hope they won’t leak. We will find out soon when I fill and bleed the system.
I also started to look at engine hoist options – I want to drop the engine in SOON!
It’s been a long time since I posted an update on the Factory Five Racing Coupe. Here is an update in pictures and captions . . .
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Type 65 Coupe complete kit brake reservoir bracket location
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Polished stainless steel brake reservoir can, Type 65 Coupe, Complete Kit
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I added a plastic grommet from the hardware store electrical section to prevent chafing the brake fluid hose.
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I followed the hose layout as shown in the current Roadster build manual.
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I used a big socket (35mm, I think) in a bench vise to bend my brake lines. Nothing fancy.
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Brake lines are bent into rough shape, then taped in place along its route. Final bending is done on the chassis by hand.
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Brake line held in place with tape, More adjustments are done by hand. Notice the way the excess lines are curved – this allows flexing in two planes – up and down and left and right. This is a 40-inch, pre-flared line I bought at a local car parts store. The supplied 60-inch line was way too long.
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I start my brake line layout by marking the center of the span. This is the large rectangular tube going across the rear. The white wire (number 12 solid copper house wire) is used to make an extremely rough approximation of how the line will run.
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Here you can see the white wire mock-up next to the steel brake line. The roughly Ohmega shape is centered above the IRS pumpkin.
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I decided to run the rear brake line on the inside of the firewall. It will look cleaner in the engine bay and will help keep the line cooler.
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I got lucky. I used a 60-inch line from the rear master cylinder, down the inside of the firewall, and ended up under the driver seat area. A second 60-inch line goes from the union to the rear brake tee. No custom length needed.
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Here’s how the line goes up the support next to the lower rear sway arm. It will be slightly bent away from the chassis and held in place with the insulated line clips to prevent chafing.
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Going up to meet the rear brake flex line, driver’s side.
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A peek into the pedal box – I am still not quite sure how this is going to work. The sheet metal on the right is going to be covered by the Coupe body, so this will be riveted – or screwed – into place. The open side on the left is going to have a one-piece cover. Will this provide enough access for brake balance and clutch cable adjustments?
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Inside the pedal box, showing the front brake line going to the master cylinder. Not as pretty as some others I have seen, but I can always re-do this later, right?
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Here is a view of the rear brake line going to the second master cylinder. I drilled out one rivet fastening the sheet aluminum to the firewall and replaced it with an 8-32 stainless steel screw. It holds the line clip as well as the firewall panel.
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Next on the to-do list: Wiring
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Next on the to-do list: Fuel tank.
For some reason, things on the Coupe take much longer than I expect. I decided to practice running the brake lines today. I used some scrap number 12 wire, cut into five-foot lengths. The copper wire is much more flexible than the brake lines, but at least I can do a mock-up before I bend the real thing.
I am using the “FFR Type 65 Coupe build site,” by cbergquist1 on Flickr.com as a reference – click here to see Chris’ section on brake lines. http://www.flickr.com/photos/51103049@N00/sets/72157622122325431/
Just like Chris, I drilled and tapped holes for screws to mount the flex brake line mounts. I used 8-32 stainless steel button head screws. The Allen heads almost look like rivets.
Here are some pictures of my front brake line mock-up. . .
This is something weird. One of the mounting holes (on the left) was not punched out. I used an automatic center punch to knock the slug out.
I took a time out to modify some monitor stand mounts for my office computer. The mounts were designed by monkeys, since they are useless and cannot be used out of the box. Actually, I should edit that statement, since I am not sure if the monitors or the monitor stands are wrong. In any case, some substantial cutting had to be done with my Dremel tool. I should have taken “before” and “after” pictures, but I wasn’t thinking. Here is a picture of the after-cutting operation. . . .
I forgot to add notes and images from the IRS (standard width) brake installation. Here are some images, plus a link to a YouTube video…
As you can see in the picture above left, an open end wrench can go onto the caliper mounting bolt. This was a button head Allen screw in the past. The emergency brake cable seems very tight and has a sharp bend, but this seems to work OK.
The vintage Halibrand replica wheels fit nicely over the axle-hub-brake assembly, but I don’t have tires yet.
The rear wheels are 17-inches by 10.5-inches, and the tires will be 275 / 40ZR17, probably BF Goodrich g-Force Sport Comp 2, but not sure yet.
A Silent Movie: Rear Brake Installation
Oh – almost forgot. Here is a silent movie about the rear brake installation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVcX8-Nnqfo
Not much Coupe time this weekend. The rear brake adapter plates and spacers from Factory Five Racing finally showed up – Saturday delivery via FedEx.
Since these are raw steel, I decided to prep and paint them, using gloss black Appliance Epoxy paint. They look much nicer now.
I removed the rear spindles from the last build session and did a dry-fit to see how these get assembled. Once again, the assembly manual and the actual assembly are different. Instructions say to use some button-head Allen bolts, but there aren’t any.
Here are some pictures of the “RH” side of the assembly to see how this goes together. The adapter plates are not painted in these images.
I will bolt these components in place in the next building session.
A Color Decision
I decided to paint the engine bay white. I know this sounds scary, but after thinking about this for a while, it just makes sense. It will match the body color, it will have nice contrast against the black chassis and the engine and other components, and – I can use Appliance Epoxy, which is pretty durable and washable. I will be painting only the outside surfaces of the panels because all of the inside surfaces will be covered with Thermo-Tec Cool-It sound and heat insulation mat.
Some Body Parts, More IRS Conundrum and a New Microwave Antenna for KH6WZ
Inspired by a post on the Factory Five Racing forum and the dry and sunny weather this weekend, I decided to paint some of my body mounting parts. I am using gloss black Rust-Oleum Appliance Epoxy paint for these pieces. I have used this paint for my electronic and radio projects with good results. The paint dries very hard and is waterproof and washable, perfect for these parts.
Surface prep is easy for this paint, I scuff the surface with a 60 grit sanding disc on my random orbit sander. For the hard to reach nooks and crannies, I use a wire wheel chucked in my hand drill. Then I use liquid dish soap and water to wash off the grit and any oils. No primer is needed for this paint. Then I apply two or three light fog coats first, and then blast a thick coat for the fourth or fifth and final coat.
Here is a “before” and “after” picture of the front nose mounting hinge.
I did the same with the door hinges. Here you can see some weld splatter that will interfere with the mounting bolts, so I used a Dremel tool to grind those weld balls off.
Although many of these parts will not be seen, I do not want them to rust. Other parts will be painted in the same way, and include the door frames, the rear glass hatch hardware and the emergency brake mechanism.
Meanwhile . . .
After spending some time fiddling with the factory-supplied accelerator pedal, I decided to buy an aftermarket gas pedal instead. I ordered one of Russ Thompson’s gas pedals earlier this week from Breeze Automotive, one of the Factory Five Racing Forum supporters. I was amazed the box arrived on Thursday – that was fast!
The new gas pedal is really a machined aluminum sculpture. Pictures on this will be coming later, since I need to get the engine mounted before the gas pedal goes in.
IRS – Finished – Sort Of . . .
The IRS section is now fully “dry-fit” completed, and the bolts will be tightened to specs in the next work session. One thing that is putting this assembly step on hold are the mounting points for the lower control arms – see the gold color on the right of this picture? That is the mounting bolt and as you can see, there is a lot of empty space between the mounting ear and the thin washer (the manual calls them shims). This cannot be correct, and I need to find what is wrong here. . . .
Just after I ordered my Type 65 Coupe kit, I came across a lot of posts on the forums about the IRS shafts (CV joints) coming apart. Those messages made me worry, but when my kit was shipped, the CV axles were on back-order. I called Factory Five Racing technical support, and they assured me that the problem has been fixed.
I am happy to report that my IRS system assembly went very smoothly, after the pumpkin was in place. The CV axles slipped right into the differential, and it felt just like many posts said – you can feel it lock into place. No hammering, no drama and no R- and X-rated words necessary.
Once again, Chris comes to the rescue by posting images of the IRS knuckles and which part goes on the left side and which one goes on the right side.
Here are some additional pictures of the IRS components and system . . . . “R” is for Right side of vehicle (passenger side in the US)
Above left: The IRS upper control arm has another pair of small mounting tabs that are not mentioned in the assembly manual. No pictures are included in the manual, either. After a quick search on the Factory Five forum, I found out the smaller set of tabs point downward, and are used for quad shocks – used to minimize wheel hop during acceleration.
Give Me a Brake – Again
Now, the rear brakes are another story. Seems the Factory sent me the wrong rear brake kit. So now I have to wait for the correct parts to arrive, and then have to send the wrong parts back. . . Stay tuned for more . . .
Another Box Arrived this Week – a 10 GHz Slot Antenna
I received this nicely machined antenna for 10 GHz earlier this week. It is made by fellow SBMS member Dan, W6DFW.
Here’s a picture of this omni-directional microwave antenna. The background is the radiation pattern plotted by another SBMS member, Chuck, WA6EXV.
I am planning on using this to make my roving 10 GHz station even more portable, perhaps getting on 10 GHz FM mobile. More on this item and possible applications at station KH6WZ later.
Since the engine is in the middle of my garage, I really need to accelerate my building, or at least, get my chassis ready for engine installation.
I looked at my cookie sheet heat shields and the mounting locations filled with 8-32 riv-nuts, and thought – shoot, the riv-nuts actually have a shaft that might be used as stand-offs for the shield plates. So I checked the length, and the threaded shafts are about a quarter-inch long, enough to be used as a spacer between the firewall and the heat shield. I may add another quarter-inch in certain places, if there is room.
So I spent a few hours removing all of the riv-nuts I installed a few weeks ago. Good thing I bought several hundred from McMaster-Carr. . . .
At least I am an expert on installing and extracting riv-nuts now.
Rivet Nuts and the Rivet Nut Tool
Here are some pictures of the riv-nut tool from McMaster-Carr and how it is used. Riv-nut fasteners are very handy if you need a threaded hole installed into a blind location, or when you do not have access to the back side of a mounting surface. I will use these fasteners for hatches and compartments in the trunk area of the Type 65 Coupe.
McMaster-Carr information
Wrench-drive rivet nut installation tool for 10-24 and 10-32 thread: 96349A203
Wrench-drive rivet nut installation tool for 8-32 thread: 96349A152
Wrench-drive rivet nut installation tool for 6-32 thread: 96349A101
Aluminum heavy-duty rivet nut, 6-32 internal thread, .080″-.130″ material thickness, packs of 25: 94020A315
Aluminum heavy-duty rivet nut, 8-32 internal thread, .080″-.130″ material thickness, packs of 25: 94020A323
Aluminum heavy-duty rivet nut, 8-32 internal thread, .020″-.080″ material thickness, packs of 25: 94020A319
Above left – a picture of a properly installed riv-nut, viewed from the reverse (back) side. At right, a riv-nut improperly installed, viewed from the face (front) side. This one must be removed by drilling the riv-nut out. Below left, use a twist drill slightly smaller than the mounting hole, in this case, a 1/4-inch bit is being used to drill out the riv-nut. By slightly rocking the drill, the riv-nut will break apart and, usually, just fall out of its hole.
Give Me a Brake: The Wilwood Pedal Box
The pedal box is a challenge to install with the Factory Five Racing Assembly Manual, revision 3E, July 2011 – since there are no assembly instructions for the Wilwood Complete Kit pedal box.
Fortunately, a dedicated Type 65 Coupe builder named Chris has an excellent photo album of his Coupe build, with many detailed images. Without his documentation – it would have been impossible to assemble this part of the kit. Take a look at cbergquist1’s photostream on Flickr.
Here are some pictures of my pedal box, including a trouble spot I ran into, and how I had to fix it. . . .
This is the clutch quadrant adjuster (above). This Nylok had to be ground down to fit properly. The hole in the adjuster plate is too close to the master cylinder mounting plate. A better solution would be to eliminate the Nylok altogether and thread the small plate. Then the lock nut and Allen bolt are used to make clutch travel adjustments.
Now I have to find a place to mount the master cylinder reservoir. There are some rare posts about this, but most of them are for the Factory Five Racing Roadster.
I think I will mount mine at or near the peak of the driver’s side footbox/firewall. This location should be away from too much heat, and should be in the clear for fluid bleeding, checks and re-filling. We will see. . .
The Gas Pedal
Part of the pedal box area is the accelerator pedal. Again, instructions are very skimpy on how to put this thing together. Here are some pictures of the gas pedal parts and how to dis-assemble the unit as it comes out of the box, and where it mounts onto the firewall area. Adjustments for the pedal box and accelerator pedal will happen later.
My go-to car builder friend Spider Larry once again came through for me. Using a Mapp gas torch and a piece of pipe, he separated the ball joint from the top mount for the passenger side suspension. Here are some pictures from the dis-assembly and re-assembly process on the Type 65 Coupe IFS, passenger side.
Here is the correct passenger side upper control arm and ball joint assembly:
The driver side looks like this:
So you MUST ignore the manual when it says to create a “left and a right unit with the ‘solid corner’ pointing to the front of the car.”
Footbox Heat Shields
I located, dry-fit, and drilled mounting holes for the driver and passenger footbox heatshields. The material is cookie sheet steel from the local grocery store. They have a nice rolled edge and will help deflect heat from the engine bay coming into the car interior. I am using riv-nuts and spacers to mount these sheets – er – heat shields to the footboxes.
I used BBQ paint for the shields, but may decide to powder coat the engine bay sheet metal parts, including the heat shields.
But I have to decide this quickly, since the engine is scheduled to be delivered within a few days!
Here’s the driver footbox with riv-nuts installed. All aluminum panels for the engine bay will be powder coated, the others will be painted.
Air Conditioning
Here is a picture of the air conditioner unit and where it will go. It fits behind the passenger side dashboard area, where a glovebox wold normally go. I need to allow space for the ducting and the windshield wiper mechanism, which mounts in the same area. A box to house the A/C unit will have to be fabricated.
The IRS – Independent Rear Suspension
Note to builders: This procedure is quite difficult, even with a helper or two. It is highly recommended to keep small children away to protect them from hearing rated-R and -X words and phrases loudly coming from the underside of the chassis and to keep them safe from thrown objects.
Since my ham radio friend Larry was going to stop by for a visit, I decided it would be a great time to get him to help me boost the rear differential (pumpkin) into the rear suspension cage. The Factory Five Racing assembly manual calls this unit the “IRS center section.”
There are many posts on how difficult this step is. The manual says, “It installs from the bottom with the driveshaft flange pointing straight up and the axle holes lined up front to back with the chassis.”
Err. So that means the giant 70 pound, lop-sided bowling ball like thing must be pushed up sideways, 90 degrees from the way it mounts onto the frame, and then must be twisted 90 degrees in the opposite direction to drop into place. This cannot be done safely with just one person. I found out that this is actually impossible to do with two people.
After several long hours and a phone call to Spider Larry, the pumpkin still refused to go into place.
I began to think about getting a grinder and removing any offending protrusions on the differential case and chassis to make this thing fit. My ham friend Larry had to leave, but a neighbor showed up, who also happened to be a car builder. I put Phil to work right away…
We tried a different route, maybe through the X-member at the rear of the chassis could work. So we used the jack to lift the differential high enough to check. We made a few measurements. No way.
We measured again, and noticed that no matter how you turn this pumpkin, it will not fit past the rear cover mounting plates.
We decided to remove the rear cover.
After unscrewing ten Allen bolts, and giving the rear cover a light tap with a rubber mallet, the cover popped off, very much like breaking an egg. To gain another inch of clearance, we removed the two plastic dust caps from the axle holes. Verifying that the diff does NOT have to come apart to mount the rear brakes, we put it back on the jack. Modifying the instructions, we lifted it with the driveshaft flange pointing up and the axle holes at a 45 degree (not 90 degree) angle, and pumped the jack. Now it went past the offending rear mounting plates, and into place.
Of course, now the differential must be re-sealed, so we tried a dry run with the rear cover. Yes, this will work. I currently have the pumpkin suspended above the mounting location, held in place with the jack, a 2×4, and a nylon strap. I will finish mounting this beast at the next build session.
Here are lots of pictures of the wrong way to do this. A video of this procedure would be most helpful, but I am sure most builders will have enough in their hands to not have a camera operator getting in the way.
So – take my advice, save at least 6 hours and lots of non-child-approved words and thrown objects, and remove the differential rear cover before you install your IRS center section. . . .
The rear mounting tabs (with the nice “5” logo laser-cut into them) are too close – use the threaded rod-expander trick to make it fit.
By the way – anyone else missing two nuts and bolts for the pumpkin mount? My parts list is correct, and yet I am still missing two fasteners for the standard width IRS differential.
I discovered I have the wrong adapter plates for the rear disc brakes, These are for the non-IRS version of the car. Jason at The Factory is sending the correct parts to me……
wayneyoshidakh6wz 