Sunday 29-5-2016.  Onto trestles.  Took wheels off, bodywork off, photographed damage. Removed damaged clutch pedal.  Removed damaged throttle / brake pedal.  Removed R.F. suspension bolts at chassis.  Removed tow point.   After taking dimensions of the damaged area, I need to replace the lower front bulkhead crossmember and towing point, the right front bulkhead vertical member and suspension mounts, the lower front horizontal chassis tube in front of the second bulkhead.  The floor needs to be flattened out, and re-welded.  The clutch pedal needs to be straightened out.  The hinges for the mounting of the accelerator / brake pedal need to be straightened, a new mounting for the clutch pedal hinge fabricated, new “Lexan” panels for right hand side made, and the “Lexan” bonnet repaired.  The special artwork is damaged by brake fluid spilled from the vents on the master cylinders, but it has been rinsed off and can be repainted.  I will have to cut horizontally through the front vertical “Lexan” panel, and make a new panel to go inside and behind it. The side joints will need new splice plates.  I will manufacture complete new suspension A arms with slotted plates on inner and outer attachments.  I will make all new front uprights with heavier wall tubing.  Designed new A arm mounts and “Lexan” fix.

Sunday 5-6-2016.  Cut bent and broken members out of chassis, ground smooth.  Cut new 25 x 1.6 SHS members.  Straightened out floor to be fairly straight.  Tried to start it, battery too low in charge.  Charged battery, and tried again.  Would not start.

Thursday 9-6-2016.  Welded parts to individual members on bench.  Wedged extension bottom chassis member into cut off chassis member.  Tack welded parts, then fully welded members into chassis.  Tack welded new Nutsert into top hole.  Installed accelerator / brake pedal.

Friday 10- 6-2016.  Installed clutch pedal.  Made new mountings for front bonnet, and welded them to the existing mounts.  Spray painted all chassis members and welds.

Sunday 26-6-2016. Made new uprights with 3 mm wall SHS.

Tuesday 28-6-2016.  Made suspension arms jig, and painted it.

Sunday 3-7-2016.  Made all new suspension A arms, and painted them.

Tuesday 5-7-2016.  Got stub axles from Alltype, welded one into RF Disc & hub.  Welded brake calliper mount to upright.

Monday 18-7-2016.  To Cottage Plastics to get new front panel.  $20.  Installed it.

Friday 22-7-2016.  Noticed that the right inner CV joint was not connected to the axle.

Thursday 28-7-2016.  Took RH inner CV off, and balls fell out of it, followed by the cage in 5 pieces.  Took axle out and took CV off it.  Replaced it with a used CV joint. Found that central tie rod mounting plate was bending up under load, so redesigned it.

Friday 29-7-2016.  Made new central tie rod mounting bar, and painted it.  Found that mounting for rear suspension units was badly bent, so took it off and welded a stiffener to it.  Repainted it.

Saturday 30-7-2016.  Fitted rear suspension anchor point.  Fitted central rear tie rod mounting. Zip tied rubber padding around steering rack.

Sunday 31-7-2016.  Put battery on charge.  Topped up coolant, but found it leaking out into drip tray.  Top hose had pulled out of clamp at front of motor, so refitted it with new hose clamp.  Filled coolant. Refitted battery and it started.  Ran for 5 seconds, but oil pressure light did not go out, so investigated.  Oil level low, so started topping it up.  Oil now dribbling into drip tray, and found a pencil sized hole in bottom of oil pan at front. Second hand ones on ebay from UK, Holland and USA range from $60 to $360, but none in Australia. Workshop manual says it is easy to take off, so will do so and patch hole.

Monday 1-8-2016.  Took oil pan off with difficulty.  20 bolts + oil level sensor. Cleaned out oil pan, and pressure cleaned it.  Mixed 2 part epoxy and filled hole with it.  Allowed to dry for 2 hours, then refitted the oil pan.

Sunday 7-8-2016.  QMC4.  Willowbank Raceway.  Fine, warm, light winds.  Test 1 was Eccentric, and when completing the second loop, the right angle gearbox destroyed itself.  Took it home and removed gearbox.  Could not remove input shaft, so photographed gears in place.

Sunday 3-5-2015.  Iron Man Motorkhana.  DEBUT OF CAR. Drove it for about 1 metre, and clutch felt funny, so depressed it only to have it stick.

Tuesday 5-5-2015. Fitted return spring and stop on clutch pedal.  Ran wire from oil level switch through terminal 33.

Monday 18-5-2015.  Charged battery and started engine in gear.  Drives wheels.  Started motor in neutral and ran it for 30 seconds.  Tested kill switch and it cuts the motor.

rear foot brakes.

Sunday 7-6-2015.  Bled rear brakes by pressure.

Monday 8-6-2015.  Dropped car onto wheels, and measured ground clearance front and rear.  Both are now 60 mm.  Checked camber on all wheels.  Left front 1 degree negative, right front 4 degrees negative (reset it to 1.5 degrees negative), left rear vertical, right rear vertical.

Tuesday 23-6-2015.  Tack welded right angle drive gearbox to its mounting plate.  Refitted fuel pump, tank and lines.  Re-wired fuel pump.  Made bracket for throttle cable at pedal, and riveted it to pedal.  Drilled and tapped alloy bar and connected it to bracket.  Fitted cable connector to throttle pedal.  Refitted pedal into car.

Tuesday 30-6-2015.  Charged battery and started motor.  It still does not rev over 3000 rpm approx., and cuts out completely.  Found exhaust gas sensor was not screwed in, so did so and tried again.  No difference.

Thursday 2-7-2015.  Took car to Yamaha at Alderley, and the new service manager did not know what to do.  He recommended that I take it back to Marty who is now at Moorooka Yamaha.

Tuesday 7-7-2015.  Took car to Team Moto Yamaha Moorooka and left it on trailer there for Marty to fix.

Monday 13-7-2015.  Throttle position sensor fitted, and high idle was caused by air screws set at 4 turns out instead of ¼ turn out, problems fixed at Team Moto Yamaha Moorooka.  Oil leak from Left Side stator cover, exhaust leaks around headers and mufflers.  Coolant leaking.  Sensor $300.  Total $610.01    OUCH !!!!

Friday 24-7-2015.  Drained oil.  Took left side stator cover off.  Difficult.  Sprocket and shaft came out with it.  Tuesday 28-7-2015.  Degreased stator cover around damaged area, and dried it off.  Squeezed clear silicon into split from both sides.  Let it set overnight.

Wednesday 29-7-2015.  Trialled fit stator cover, then put blue gasket goo on seam.  Installed cover, and tightened it up.  Topped up oil to top of glass gauge, and started motor.  No oil leaks.  Topped up oil again to top of gauge.  Started it again – no oil leaks.

Tuesday 18-8-2015.  Car onto wheels, Charge battery.  Test drove it under house, and clutch not working correctly.  Reverse not being selected by gearlever, even though blue light says so.

Monday 31-8-2015.  Took Lean Angle Sensor off, and took it apart.  Drilled hole in bottom intending to screw the counterweight so that it would not turn, but bottom of weight is magnetic.  Decided instead to simply masking tape the counterweight so that it cannot rotate.  Re-installed in car.  Charged battery.  Tested voltages again.

At rest 12.0V.  Master switch on 12.0V.  Ignition on 12.0V.  Starter engaged 9.0 V.

Sunday 13-9-2015.  Tested voltage between Lean angle sensor and earth and it is 1 volt – what it is supposed to be.

Thursday 7-1-2016.  Connected lost wire from O2 Sensor to wire from ECU.  Tried to start – would not fire.  Tested power to F.I. Relay – OK.  Tested power from F.I. Relay – OK.  There is power at terminal 29.

Friday 8-1-2016.  There is constant power at terminal ECU 7.

Sunday 17-1-2016.  Fitted replacement ECU and tried to start it.  Then used “Start Ya Bastard” and it fired only one cylinder once.  Charged battery.

Wednesday 9-3-2016.  Took car on trailer to Team Moto, Alderley.

Friday 18-3-2016.  Got car back from Team Moto.  One of the wires to the injectors did not connect properly.  Reverted back to original ECU, because replacement is said to be faulty.    $605.00 cost.

I topped up the radiator, and it took only 2 cups to fill.

Sunday 20-3-2016.  DROVE IT FOR FIRST TIME.  Clutch is extremely touchy.  Fully engaged in 2 mm of pedal travel.  Drove it for about 200 metres, turning left and right.  Accelerated and backed off, when a different gear noise occurred.  Checked, and the outside bearing on the input shaft of the right angle drive gearbox had worked out of the housing, and the gears were badly misaligned.  Put it back on the trailer, and brought it home.  Took right angle drive gearbox off, and took apart the input shaft.  Cut a piece of 21 ID tube to same length as the shaft collar.  Reassembled box, and installed it in car.  Worked it by hand, then started car in gear and ran the gearbox.  All seemed to be OK

Wednesday 23-3-2016.  Designed larger right angle drive gearbox using larger gears and 125 SHS.

Sunday 3-4-2016.  Fiat Nationals.  Tested car – broke weld on driveshaft flange.  Re-welded it at home.

Sunday 24-4-2016.  QMC3 at Willowbank.  Could not fit ATS front wheels on car, so had to run rain tyres.  It would not go back into neutral after selecting first gear.  Clutch is still savage.  .  When trying to run Test 2 the weld in the driveshaft snapped.  Brought it home, and prepared shafts for welding.

Monday 25-4-2016.  To French Car Care to get Noel to weld up the prepared driveshaft and re-weld the flange.  Straightened it in press.  Home, and fitted it into the car with the mounting plate re-welded back onto gearbox.

Wednesday 4-5-2016.  Made gaskets from an old mouse mat, and installed them.  Started it, and sound was less harsh.  Made triangular door for RH side, painted it and fitted it.  Made number panels and “G” lettering from “Contact”, and fitted them to both doors.

Sunday 22-5-2016.   HSCCQ Khanacross.  Fine, warm.  Had to put 3.2 mm spacers on rear wheels to get them to clear the brake callipers.  Ran the first test at cautious speed, and noticed that after strong acceleration the car would dart about when the throttle was closed, and slow down quite rapidly from compression braking.  It sounded slightly flat still, and ran fairly well through the rev range.  When I stopped in the finish garage the left front brake was very hot, and smoking.  The rear ride height had dropped significantly, and was only 10 mm from the surface.  The clutch was still dragging, but I managed to get it into neutral to re-start it in the finish garage.

On the second run, it seemed to be able to go through the chicane very quickly, so on the return through it, I went quicker.  It felt slightly loose on the turn in to the first chicane, and at the central chicane suddenly turned left into the concrete barrier and hit it nose first at around 70 kph, then spun anti clockwise to a halt with the rear of the car close to the barrier.  It took quite a while to get out of the car because my shins were very sore, and my Bakers Cyst was very painful, and then when I tried to walk I nearly collapsed because my left leg would not support any weight.  I was helped to a waiting car and driven to the timing tent where it was noticed that there was a lot of blood soaking into my left trouser leg.  It was revealed that I had a deep horizontal gash in the front of my shin right into the bone, and a 45 mm long gash above it.  These wounds were cleaned and two bandages put on them.  Meanwhile I had given my car keys to someone to go and get my car / trailer to pick up the damaged vehicle, but before that could be organised, Noel used the icecream van and his big trailer to go and with help get the damaged car onto the trailer.  I was then driven back to my car, and the big trailer driven up beside it.  The damaged car was taken off the big trailer, the broken right front top ball joint replaced, and manhandled onto my trailer.  I then changed wheels over, and fastened it down to the trailer.  The damage seemed to be the broken rose joint in the upper right front suspension, the left upright broken where the steering arm connects, the bottom right front chassis tube pushed back about 75 mm, and bend downwards, and the left rear lower suspension anchorage broken at the weld.  I surmised that this breakage was what caused the crash.  The “lexan” nosecone was smashed up, and some other broken pieces picked up from the track where it happened.  The car had been enveloped in a cloud of smoke when it stopped, but there was no oil spilled.  I believe this might have been tyre smoke because of how quickly the car stopped.  The left rear wheel brake was leaking at the connection to the calliper, and this was probably caused by the wheel moving further that the hose would accommodate.

The only photo that I have of the car in competition is this one – ironically only 0.25 seconds before the impact.

Geococcyx from chassis paint to debut.

Thursday 9-1-2014.  Set up and finalised painting.  Loaded everything into boot and trailer and brought it home.

Tuesday 14-1-2014.  Reinstalled pedals.  Lowered chassis onto floor, and dropped motor into place.  Installed engine mounts, and lifted it back onto trestles.  Finished installing engine, most electrical components, and most cooling pipes.  Installed electrical mounting board, and clutch master cylinder.

Wednesday 15-1-2014.  Re-painted exhaust manifold, and installed it onto motor.  Installed steering rack, steering shaft and steering wheel.  Installed dashboard.  Painted clutch operating shaft.  Painted gear linkages shafts.  Installed warning lights onto dashboard.  Installed switches onto dashboard.    Glued acrylic labels onto dashboard.

Thursday 16-1-2014.  Painted gear lever handle, air cylinder for gearshift, coolant tubes, steering shaft, fuel pump mount etc.    Fitted start / cutoff relay, tilt switch, fuse box, fan relay, fuel injection relay.  Connected clutch operating rod.

Friday 17-1-2014.  Fitted gear lever and linkages.  Works perfectly.  Fitted air temperature sensor.  Painted mufflers.  Started putting RF suspension arms onto chassis.

Saturday 18-1-2014.  Finished assembling front suspension members.  Installed first muffler, but not exhaust probe.  Partly installed firewall.

Wednesday 29-1-2014.  Installed rear suspension arms, uprights etc.

Sunday 2-3-2014.  Installed side “Lexan” panels.

Tuesday 11-3-2014.  Installed rear brake callipers for both foot and turning brakes.

Friday 20-6-2014.  Drained oil from VW Golf Gearbox, and removed outer housing.  Removed Input Shaft.  Removed 4^th gear from Output Shaft.

Sunday 22-6-2014.  Removed Input Shaft.  Removed 3^rd gear from output shaft.  Removed all gear linkages.    Installed Input Shaft with new thrust bearing, synchros for gears, and installed 4^th gear on shaft.  Made 13 mm long spacer for selector shaft to stop selector falling all the way off synchros.  Installed chain sprocket on Output Shaft, and 4^th gear onto shaft.  Tried to install ½” chain of 24 links, but it fell short by one link.  Checked that the sprockets were the correct number of teeth (12 & 15), and of ½”size.  Chain does not sit on 15 tooth sprocket correctly.  It seems to sit proud of the teeth.  It sits on 12 tooth sprocket correctly.

Monday 23-6-2014.  Took Input Shaft out to check on chain wrap.  The chain does not sit correctly into sprocket.  Took it back to Mergard Engineering, because 12t was ½” BS sprocket, and 15t was ASA sprocket.  ASA chain does work on BS sprockets, but BS chain does not work on ASA sprockets.  They cannot re-machine the ASA sprocket to be a BS form, so suggested using an ASA chain on the both sprockets.  Found some old ½” ASA chain (used), tried it out over the sprockets, and it fits.  Fitted a BS chain link to it, and re-assembled everything.

Wednesday 25-6-2014.  Painted F/R Gearbox with silver Hammertone.

Thursday 26-6-2014.  Weighed F/R Gearbox without oil.  Winched gearbox into chassis, and bolted it in.  Installed right angle drive gearbox, and driveshaft.   Installed cover plate. Installed half shafts, and bolted up inner CV joints.  Installed toe link rods.  Installed rear damper unit mounting to gearbox and chassis.  Installed rear suspension units.  Installed F/R air cylinder, and connected it to gear lever. Installed lower cross brace into roll bar.

Friday 27-6-2014.  Replaced air filter element and cover.  Riveted air reservoir bracket onto chassis, and fitted air reservoir cylinder into it.  Connected air lines up.  Installed second muffler.  Installed fuel tank bracket and fuel tank.  Installed fuel pump and lines.  Installed rear cover plate. Spray painted overflow bottle bracket, and installed it.

Thursday 31-7-2014.  Plumbed brake lines to foot brakes on 4 wheels, and from turning brakes to lever area.

Wednesday 13-8-2014.  Winched  car onto concrete, and sat it on some tube to get the exact centre of gravity.  Measured it at 886 mm from outside of rear bulkhead.

Thursday 14-8-2014.  Fabricated lifting lug cross frame and lug.  Welded it into chassis.  Painted it.  Calculated 35% on Front Wheels, 65% on Rear Wheels, empty.

Friday 15-8-2014.  Winched car up with central lifting lug, and placed it on tables.  Made 3 mm thick alloy plate for Turning Brake Mechanism.  Drilled chassis tubes and inserted RIVNUTS.  Bolted it to chassis, and bolted turning brake mechanism to it.

Thursday 21-8-2014.  Started wiring up Reversing switch from warning light, & to solenoid.

Friday 22-8-2014.  Finalised wiring to reversing solenoid.    Works properly manually.

Friday 5-9-2014.  Mounted fuel pump  lower in chassis, then lowered fuel tank the same amount.  Now fuel return hose does not touch spring/damper unit.  Ran hose from oil breather to overflow bottle.

Tuesday 9-9-2014.  Wired up fuel pump.  Fitted front footwell side “Lexan” panels.

Sunday 14-9-2014.  Trimmed “Lexan” front side panels, and fitted tie bars to them.

Tuesday 16-9-2014.  Fitted throttle cable to system, and put heavier spring on return cable.

Sunday 21-9-2014.  M12 Rod ends in top front uprights.  Checked fluid in clutch master cylinder.  Brake fluid into turning brakes master cylinders.  Brake fluid into foot brakes.

Tuesday 23-9-2014.  Replaced kill switch with Narva 60094BL push/push on/off 16A 12V red LED from Bursons.

Wednesday 3-12-2014.  Cut steering shaft shorter.

Thursday 4-12-2014.  Lowered car onto wheels, out into sunshine, and photographed it.

Sunday 7-12-2014.  Painted front suspension arms.

Saturday 20-12-2014. Used vacuum device to drag fluid through lines to rear brakes, but it left air pockets at callipers and at the steel fittings at master cylinders.  Swapped fittings on turning brake master cylinders to be on inside of car to clear the brake lever.

Tuesday 30-12-2014.  Fitted M6 Nutserts for Fire Extinguisher, and bolted the bracket on.  Installed extinguisher.

2015.

Thursday 1-1-2015.  Sprayed steel mount for clutch master cylinder.  Sprayed mount for turning brake lever and master cylinders.

Wednesday 7-1-2015.  Bought new seal kits for VW Golf Mk 1 Girling brake callipers, and fitted them to car.  Bled system.

Friday 9-1-2015.  Coolant into radiator, gearbox oil into VW Golf box.

Saturday 10-1-2015.  Oil into motor.

Monday 16-2-2015.  Made another new 20 dia steel brake fitting for LR brake.  Ran air injection breather hose into overflow bottle.

Tuesday 10-3-2015.  Hoisted car down onto its wheels, and did wheel alignment.  Almost no movement vertically with 100 kg applied to chassis, so maybe the rockers need to be re-engineered.  Put it in gear and pushed it along to unlock motor, and it turned over OK.  Right angle gearbox seems to make a lot of noise.

Thursday 12-3-2015.  Connected battery, and turned on ignition.  Tested forward/reverse light and it works.  Fan does not turn.  Took fan off and tested it, and it works.  Deducted there is a wiring problem to the fan.  Hit starter without plugs fitted, and motor turns over well.  Soaked up ‘Redex’ from cylinders with rag, and fitted plugs.

Thursday 19-3-2015.  Removed throttle bodies complete, and cleaned them with WD40.  Suddenly they work, so must have been stuck with dried fuel etc.  Reassembled throttle bodies, and then ram tubes and air filter.  Connected accelerator pedal, and it now works the throttle.

Saturday 21-3-2015.  Rewired fan and ignition through new fuse box, and now fan works.

Tuesday 24-3-2015.  Tested power at coils and leads, and it is OK.  Could not find the trigger sensor that Yamaha had told me about.  Built towing eye, painted it, and installed it.  Charged battery.

Wednesday 25-3-2015.  Onto trailer and taken to Team Moto Yamaha.  They checked wiring, and asked if I had power at the coils.  We checked all that, but there is no sparks.  They then asked me to take out the trigger sensor, while they stole one off a police bike, and we swapped them over.  Still no spark.  They tested circuits, and found some were earthed correctly, and some not.  They could not work out why.  So we made a common earth for lots of circuits, and tried the starter, and we got spark.  Connected them better, and tried to start.  They advised that my fuel pump is only 4psi, and I need 40 psi for fuel injection, and so it would not run properly with only that much fuel.  So they got some aerostart, and sprayed it into the intakes, and the car fired up and ran.  Even revved up a little.  Took an hour and a half to find the problem.  We then swapped over my trigger for the police unit, and mine works perfectly; so it was the earthing problem causing it all.  They also advised that I do not need such a long set of ram tubes, and they work quite well with pod filters on the short tubes.  The air temp sensor does not need to go inside the tubes, just hanging about in the area of the intake.

Tuesday 31-3-2015.  Bought new fuel pump, 12 mm to/ 8 mm hose tail, ½” hose and clamps.  Made bracket for new fuel pump.

Friday 3-4-2015.  Made recessed aluminium mount for 40 psi fuel pump, and fitted it.  Fitted new fuel pump.

Saturday 4-4-2015.  Wired up new fuel pump.

Monday 13-4-2015.  Made new right angle drive gearbox with welded on bearing holders.

Sunday 3-5-2015.  Iron Man Motorkhana.  DEBUT OF CAR.