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 4th gear from Output Shaft.
Sunday 22-6-2014. Removed Input Shaft. Removed 3rd gear from output shaft. Removed all gear linkages. Installed Input Shaft with new thrust bearing, synchros for gears, and installed 4th 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 4th 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.