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Pretty sure there will be at least one screw Paul, I really don't think the ring will be held on by the rubber seal, I'm sure there must be a clip or the like as well as the screw, anyone else want to chip in?
TTfN
Mac
Finished welding up the mount for my Ford gen II coil pack the other day
Gave it a coat of etch primer than several coats of gloss black, Dave fitted it this morning whilst I went to to the nut and bolt shop. It also acts as a cover for the hole in the block the now defunct mechanical fuel pump fitted into.
We then fitted the nice custom leads I had to have made by Autoleads as funnily enough leads don't exist that are triumph spitfire one end and Ford Gen II coil pack the other!
Decided I didint like the red spiral wrap around the rear of the loom so we took it off and replaced it with nylon overbraid which looks much more OEM to my eye.
Got all the column wiring apart from the overdrive switch squared away using some nice connectors I got of AES, they mke a neat job, I was hoping to fit multi plugs but the size of some of the wiring and the fact some would have had multiple wires to each terminal meant that these along with forked terminals actually ended up neater.
My trigger wheel has arrived at last! Thanks to Thom at H2O Profiling who knocked it out in about 3 days to my door fom ordering it, and didn't exploit the fact I wanted it in a hurry when quoting.
It fits nicely on the back of the front pully, was hoping to get it welded up but we ran out of time so that will be a job for early next week.
Also had delivery this week of the crank position sensor fom my local ford dealer.
With all these parts now delivered the plan was to fire the motor today but I was nervous about doing it with no oil pressure switch or gauge so ordered a cheap gauge kit off a marine parts supplier down South who swore blind I would have it for the weekend, guess what, not arrived yet...
Dave and I did chat about just going for it but decided that to risk a first start on a fairly hot freshly built engine with not a clue if we had any oil pressure was bordering on stupid :-)
Last job of the day was to cut the parts up to make the rear body support as fitting the body is becoming something I can't put off for much longer.
Cut and profiled some 5mm Ali plate so that it follow the curve of the rear of the body, the piece of Ali box is just to keep it all together and aligned until it's tigged up.
The top plate will be tigged on so that the rear of the cockpit has a good strong surface to be bonded and riveted too, it will also mean that leaning on the rear cockpit edge to get in and out won't be an issue.
Just catching up.
Made the crank sensor bracket out of some 2" box I had lying around, the 3 holes were for puddle welding it to the front timing chain cover:
The welding isnt the prettiest but it aint coming apart.....ever!
Cleaned up the area on the front cover I was going to weld to:
Again not my prettiest welding but it will clean up fine with the flap wheel:
Trial fitted the crank sender, the bolt wont be that long by the time im finished :-)
Welded on the trigger wheel, I found the best way to centralise it was to fix the wheel to the pully using blue tack, I then put it in the lathe and used a tool to act as a fixed point, after a few minutes of repositioning it was as close as makes no difference to perfect, 3 good welds and job done.
A clean up with the flap wheel and a couple of coats of paint and its all coming together.
Put the freshly painted pulley back on, now with its trigger wheel and after a few minutes of washer juggling had the sensor just over 1mm away from the teeth of the trigger wheel which should be fine. Also trimmed back the super long stainless bolt.
Also got my temporary oil pressure gauge rigged up and ordered a replacement threaded tube to replace the one missing from where the oil filter goes on the block, its apparently quite common for them to come off with the filter so ill be using some oil resistant thread lock to make sure it stays put.
Picking up some Morris Lubricants running in oil tomorrow so apart from fitting a junior timer plug to the crank sensor wiring I'm ready for the start up once the threaded tube arrives.......
Michael, thanks I was very please how it all went together.....until today...
Managed a couple of hours this morning before going to a meeting in Birmingham, trying to work on the car in meeting clothes was interesting so thought I would stick to electrics, how messy can you get with wire....
Managed to figure out which way round to wire the crank position sensor plug as it basically only has 2 wires, the right way will work and wrong way wont.
Got the plug all coupled up, flashing lights on the NoDiz told me that it was receiving the crank signal when I spun the motor over on the starter with no plugs in. The motor really spins with the geared starter and no plugs in!
Thought it was all going really well but couldn't get a spark..
Check resistance on the coil pack, all good
Check resistance on the crank sensor, all good
Tried hooking up the monster jump starter in case battery was a little low, all good
Even put the front pulley on next doors lathe and turned the trigger wheel teeth up in case I was getting an inconsistent gap, took less than a quarter of a mm off in total so not far out enough to really make a difference, and it didn't.
Checked continuity of the wiring between the nodiz and the coil and the nodiz and the crank sensor ...all good
Checked I had 12v on the centre pin of the coil all the time whilst cranking, all good.
Several calls later to Simon and Nodiz had me taking the front plate off the unit and hey presto, big old scorch mark around one of the coil drivers!
£&&);/:;?!!.?!>$<~%%+}+#>€?~€~>~€ ell!
So the Nodiz is on the way back already via special delivery, they are going to try and turn it around and get a replacement or mine fixed and out tomorrow for delivery Friday so may still be on for a first start at the weekend, especially now the missing thread tube for the centre of the oil filter housing has arrived and I have 5 litres of Morris's Lubricants Golden Film running in oil in the back of the van.
Quite miffed but can't blame NoDiz as I got it at a reduced price as it was a beta unit and from the conversation I had today I think they will just send me out a new current model that has some improvements so guess I'll be better off in the end....
Not a bad idea!
On a positive note I forgot to mention that the headlamp trim ring conundrum has been solved, user error, there are in fact 2 small plastic tangs on the edge of the plastic bowl that the trim rim hooks over, I couldn't see them clearly with the gasket fitted, ill post pics next time I'm up the workshop.
TTFN
Mac
Michael, Yep once I had found them it was obvious!
Had a delivery thus morning of my bulkhead connector for my bonnet sub loom, basically the 5 wires powering the indicators, side and headlamps will terminate at the bulkhead and the bonnet will have its own sub loom so that if it needs removing you can do so with a simple twist of the coupling.
I got it from trigger wheels.com and it's described as Mil Spec, have to say I think only the Chinese military would use one in a military application but its plenty good enough for an automotive application and at a tenner I don't think I can grumble.
The electrics on these cars are fairly basic and the race car runs full data logging electronic dash etc with a battery roughly this size and has no issues. I'm running a hi torque starter which in my experience tends to make starting up something you don't have to worry about as it spins over very quickly meaning there is little danger of killing the battery trying to get it started. On top of that I also have a brand new dynamotor so all the electrics are basically new. It also means I don't have to worry about making a battery well as it will bolt straight onto the bulkhead horizontal surface.
HTH
Just an update
Spoke to Matt at Nodiz, can't fault the customer service as he called me from home where he was on his death bed! He agrees with my diagnosis of a faulty coil pack and is going to try and get the blown coil driver replaced and the unit back to me ASAP. I have ordered a new crank sensor so that I can rule that out and also a new coil. I'm sure it will fire easily as soon as I overcome this issue, it was almost running on 2 cylinders with the timing out 180 degrees so with all four firing and the timing sorted it should burst into life with not to many dramas .....
On a positive note my gauges have now shipped and I have been tracking their progress, they arrived at the Birmingham depot of DHL at 05:27 this morning so may even get them today? Hmmmmm shiny stuff, just what I need to lift the spirits!
TTFN
The guy in the Triumph garage also mentioned switching to a hi torque starter motor when I asked him about using the manual solenoid switch that Mister Towed fitted.
Unfortunately, I think the battery you are ordering would look small/odd in my "new" battery box. Which means I clearly should have asked this question before I made it.
Cheers, Paul.
PS
Good luck with sorting out your own electrics, it does sound like you are nearly there now.
When it comes to starting first time every time, once you've got a solenoid or switch that connects the (new) battery to the (new) starter motor reliably, the issue isn't really how fast the motor turns or how long the battery can keep turning it, but how efficient the ignition system is.
Assuming your carburettors/fuel injection are delivering a suitable mixture into the cylinders and the valve clearances and timing are set correctly, what you need is a powerful spark to light the fire.
With all that lot fitted, my motor fires within two seconds, first time every time, unless the engine's really hot when it can take up to four seconds. Not bad for an engine that's older than my wife.
In the clip below you can hear that the battery's a bit weak and the starter turns fairly slowly, but just time how long it takes to fire (from cold) - I'd say it's less than one turn of the crank:
I agree with everything you say T, I have gone for the high torque because my engine is not very standard, high compression, bigger valves, hot cam etc etc etc. I know from my racing that high compression engines can be a pig to start when hot, for instance when you've spun off and stalled, not that I would know anything about that of course.....
The high torque starters have come down a lot in price in the last few years and personally I wont run anything but now as I don't see the savings over a standard one as worth it.
TTFN
Mac
That makes sense Mac, my engine is bog standard and I think it's only running about 8.5:1 compression. Once (if?) I have the head skimmed and/or the block decked I guess I might need a more powerful battery.
