Clutch cable replacement

Lovely run out last weekend, 88 miles, and then within around 50m of home - mid gear change, in neutral and the clutch pedal drops to the floor.

15 minutes later, with the help of a neighbour the car is pushed back to the garage to check for damage.

Just before Ireland reverse and first started getting sticky, just after I had adjusted the tension on the cable, and a good 500 miles on the clock since. It wasn't the cable that snapped - more the mounting flange/end arrangement. Clutch itself feels fine/smooth and free - so I'm putting this down to long term fatigue and misalignment on the top bracket.

The outer cable has effectively pushed through the top-hat end cap and gone on to slide through what is left of it.

I couldn't get a large spanner in to tweak the bracket behind the plenum. This scrap bar with a bolt and washers was perfect though. Let me adjust fore aft and swivelled through 90º left right alignment.

The new cable in place aligned as much as I can.

While the car was on the stands I changed the engine oil and filter - moving now from annual changes to 10k mile changes, the oil coming out is black but very serviceable so this should be fine.

I'm hoping it was more age/fatigue than anything specifically after Ireland, need a few long test drives to check it out and monitor, I also need to order another spare cable!

Potential for another European trip later in the year so want to get this stable and be able to trust it again. Perhaps something a little different - something to sit over the top and engage with the end of the cable rather than all the force through that flange?....

Wet feet, Pedal box mod

Whenever it rains I get a leak over my right foot.

I've never definitively worked out the water route, I don't think it is puddling or coming in via the scuttle since I had rubber moulding in both locations, it also leaks when the car is just standing in the rain or being washed.

Strongly suspect the hole in the pedal box lid combined with my rear edge bonnet vents is the culprit.

So, while checking and re-adjusting the clutch cable, designed and made a simple waterproof flap which should stop any direct downward ingress while still providing access. The front edge is weighted to stop it lifting.

Afterthought - the cover may benefit from a couple of simple pleats in the front corners so it moulds more closely to the shape of the break fluid reservoir beneath. Need some rain to test it.

Pedal box cover final fit

Fitting the pedal box cover for the final time, 

The brake reservoir line is secured & trim added to make sure nothing chafes:

Pedal box & scuttle area is now complete, with the removable central panel installed & my home made VIN plate sitting on the offside (The VIN can be mounted anywhere obvious - chassis number must be front offside though):

Rear loom & Pedal Box Cover fit

Rear Loom

More time than I expected to finish off the cable routing under the boot space; including wiring up the fuel pump - which would have been much easier before the boot panel was in place. All set now - I'm leaving the boot floor open until I have adjusted the handbrake:

Pedal Box Cover

Rivnuts to hold the lid on - notable here is no rivnut on the front offsite to allow clearance for the accelerator cable (of course I only realised that after drilling the holes, but luckily just before I installed the rivnut :).  An extra rivnut on the front edge to make this rock solid since the accelerator cable outer pulls against this during operation. Not forgetting 4x holes on the back tabs ready to attach to the firewall panel.

I had already fitted and done most of the adjustment on the cover, and this time it only needed a little taken off the outside edge to sit snugly against the side panel. The rivet holes and final fit was all marked up and drilled with the cover's lid in place too.

Bonded and riveted in place:

Making doubly/trebly sure the accelerator pivot bolt holes are in line:

Clutch cable

GBS said its possible to notch the bellhousing to get a locking nut either side & hold the clutch cable in place. I decided to notch a nyloc instead; partly because its a lot easier to access than the bell housing for cutting & mostly because its more reversible - i.e. If I make a mistake I am only destroying a nut worth pence.

The M10 nyloc plainly can't be tightened as much as when it was whole - but its a good tight fit on the threaded rod:

The extra nut just helps hold the cable in place. Now there should be no chance of this end flexing when the pedal is not pressed & letting the end of the cable come out of the clutch release lever:

Update - while this works to anchor the end of the cable, its laborious to take off - unscrewing the lock nut from under the car along a couple of inches of fine thread.

Accelerator pedal & cable

The accelerator pedal is to wide, so both ends of its pivot tube need cutting/grinding down. I used appropriate stainless & thick BZP washers to get everything mocked up. The clevis as supplied is too narrow to sit astride the pedal top & too wide for the clevis pin to sit on one side. I adjusted/bent it into a more useful shape:

Slight adjustment, bending, of the front of the pedal box cover so the cable takes a straight route from pedal into its tube. When moving the pedal it pulls at the front of the stainless pedal box, so this will definitely need rivnuts along the front edge when fitting the lid to keep everything rock solid: (That nyloc is not tight at this point - this will be dismantled before final assembly)

Final, belt and braces, a 2mm cable clamp just incase that screw type clamp comes lose:

The route, for now, appears to be along the outside chassis rails with potentially a fixing point on the top chassis rail & again on the diagonal to avoid any contact with the steering column - for now its just offered up:

Arrival at the air intake butterfly valve on the front of the plenum, simply clips into place. The cable adjuster/stop needed winding out considerably to ensure full throw of the valve is possible:

All mocked up and cable route identified - check
Final fitting will only be when the sides are in place.

Clutch cable - second try

My second attempt with the clutch cable. The bracket is now lined up square so the cable is in line as it emerges from the outer into the pedal box. I also decided to open up the slot in the pedal box and fit the large round grommet which comes with the cable:

The route under the plenum & in front of the engine mount isn't great though - I would really prefer to run it behind the engine mount (bottom of picture) but its not quite long enough:

Its really hard to see from other builds the best way to do this; its just not feeling quite right at the moment - left or right of the chassis tube, infront or around the engine mount...

The current cable is 36" long (inner) and 32" outer. A 37" cable would be perfect - if I can work out where to get one.

Consulting RHOCar & thinking on it...

Confirmed this routing is correct - just needs some cable ties to hold it in place.

There is also an option to notch the bell housing to allow the locking nuts to sit either side, I might do that in due course - alternatively - a cut through a nut would allow it to slip on the threaded end to the same effect.

Pedal box

A little change from the wiring, but also in the vein of creating fixed end points for things; I started to think about the firewall, and with it the the pedal box.

Firewall

The firewall sits flush with the chassis tube on the rear edge (I think - by deduction - unable to find other references), i.e. other side of this picture - I've marked out the drill points on the masking tape; but its waiting for M6 cap head bolts before I go further:

Next up was fitting the pedal box, as it stands all the folds on the box are somewhat open/large radius and it doesn't really line up. The accelerator pivot goes through one side so this - with the position of the firewall provides a datum for mounting.

Pedal Box Cover

The pedal box cover needs bending in the middle. I don't have a metal bender so setup some scraps of wood, fixed everything in place with clamps & gradually pushed it into place by hand:

Next the top edge isn't bent at all; this needs a 90 degree bend which is achieved using some scraps of timber to hold it in place and more timber as a 'soft' lever to push it over followed by some light hammering to tighten the bend:

Pedal Box

The box itself sat to high as it was and would not let the accelerator pivot bolt slide into place. Taking care to line everything up & take account of the panels it will sit on, i.e. the box sits against the firewall & partly on the scuttle tray, I tightened up some of the bends. I used the fixed 'true' corner on my bench, clamped in place with scraps of wood then hammered over the bend with a claw hammer. I went along both edges to make sure the resulting corner (bottom to back edges) was still square:

This is the result, pedal box sitting in place with the accelerator bolt now able to sit squarely through the side hole into the chassis hole. I also cut out a recess bottom right so the box sits square around the clutch cable support:

Final check was to install the brake reservoir (a little brake fluid on the rubber grommets required to allow it to push fit into the master cylinder). The pedal box cover currently sits on the reservoir; when I drill the cover fixing bolts I'll make sure to give it a little clearance:

I also went around all the exposed edges with a small grind stone on the Dremel to remove the worst of the laser cut sharp edges.

I need to think through which parts of the scuttle & battery tray will be removable - it would be good to leave access to under the tray without leaving obvious long joints which will allow water/weather to get in.

Issues

1. I need some M6 x 20mm cap head bolts for the cover & firewall mounting; waiting on Screwfix until Tuesday (picked up 20th Sept)...

2. The accelerator pedal is far too wide to fit in the pedal box, its pivot tube is long by a 10mm at least, need to double check before cutting it, but presumably I can just cut it down to fit.

3. All these parts, pedal box, battery tray etc are located according to the notches in the side panels so nothing can be fixed at this point

Pedal grip

Simple 10 minute job before Sunday lunch, I cut out and glued on the brake & clutch pedal grip with EvoStick. I used a paper pattern impressed on the pedal to get the right shape then transferred it to the grip paper & cut out before glueing in place:

Clutch cable

The clutch cable hits the plenum whichever way it is routed. This position looks possible - i.e. for straightest line route for the main cable and square as the inner cable emerges and goes through to the pedal.

The bracket is not quite at the correct angle though, so the clutch end 'flange' doesn't sit square against it. I can't bend the bracket, but I may be able to make an offset washer to tidy this up a little.

Needs a little more playing...

The flange is 30mm outside diameter, 14mm inside. Either some pipe - which doesn't seem to come with thick enough walls, or some aluminium bar to turn/drill a hole through might be possible.

Adjusting the bracket

The bracket will actually bend - I just needed a couple of metal offcuts to prevent marking the powder coat and a large adjustable spanner to carefully change its position and let the clutch cable flange sit square against it.

Routing

I'm also offering up clutch cable, HP fuel lines & engine loom at the same time to work out the best way for them to co-exist in this area. Ideally I want to run the fuel & loom on one side of the chassis tube and clutch cable the other - the clutch cable will flex in use & this way it would avoid any chance of it rubbing/chaffing on the other services.

Engine side of the round chassis tube:
    Top - Engine loom
    Bottom - Fuel lines

Other side of the round chassis tube:
   Clutch cable

Steering column - prep for rolling chassis

The steering will all be setup for rolling chassis, but not permanently attached. Steering column is going in next for its final install.

Upper column bush

I have seen a couple of builds with this pushed in from the engine bay side, so double checked with Richard when I was at the Newark show. The inner nylon bush sits inside the rubber grommet from the inside of the car, it effectively locks the rubber grommet into the chassis opening and means it cannot work itself lose during use.

This is how (I believe) the outer bush fits in the grommet:

The grommet goes in the chassis hole first, then the nylon bush is inserted. This is incredibly tight, and notwithstanding I had inserted it before I could not get it to fit. I cleaned out the chassis bracket to remove powder coat and eventually it went together:

Bulkhead cover plate

I modified the cover plate, I think its meant to be attached from the engine side of the bulkhead, but I found it impossible to install the grommet & bush when it was in that position.

I fitted the cover plate from the inside, cutting the top edge off and adjusting the steering column cutout & putting a slight bend in it to ensure clearance from the bush. Bonded and riveted in place, this will all be carpeted when completed.

Brake pedal alignment

The brake pedal was very close to the fluted part of the column when in its forward adjusted position, noted on day one of the build. Advice from Richard was to either pack it out or bend the pedal. Bending the pedal wasn't going to work - I don't have the tools or indestructible bench & vice needed.

I therefore dismantled and re-worked the pedal box. Cut the nylon bush into two parts, and reduced the length of the pivot tube so I could get the pedal as far out of the way as possible while still cleanly operating the master cylinder:

Plenty of clearance now with the upper column in all its adjustment range, and the column 'washer' moved down to stop the inner bush riding out of the outer bush.

I need to check there is room for the accelerator though. Checked - plenty of room, but the accelerator mounting bolt goes through the pedal box panel - so will have to wait & the end of that peddle bolt might need to be shortened too.

What I thought might have been a simple job turned out to take a reasonably long time getting everything where it needed to be, especially the upper column bush!

Little bit of everything...

Panels

1. Drivers footwell panel
    Fitted, drill panel, cleanup, drill chassis - not installed yet

2. Passenger footwell panel
    Fitted - ready for drilling

Note:
    Interesting note on both these front footwell panels, the laser cutter puts in a radius 180 degrees out producing an external curve rather than internal, filed away easily enough though.

3. Main seat back panel
    Fitted - ready for drilling

There is method in the madness - I wanted a good job lot of panels ready to fit before opening the bond - I'll aim to have the drivers site tunnel ready then bond/rivet all these in place.

Pedal box

Fitted this multiple times until I got it right; The bushes were persuaded in with a little filing to remove the powder coat (i have bought a drum sander kit before I go near the suspension).

The tube through the pedal bushes took an age to hand size with emery paper. Now, if I had a lathe it would have been easy, tried to jury rig the drill to rotate it while I sanded but couldn't mount it in the chuck so simply resorted to manual sanding until the pedals had a tight fit but can move under their own weight.

Note:

  Need to play with the steering column setup - it seems very close to the brake pedal right now & I'll have to make sure they can't foul each other.

Note:

  All three pedals had the wrong size cable/pushrod hole, which I only noticed after they were mounted.

  Accelerator needs 5mm, Brake 8mm, Clutch 6mm.

  All sizes I only had old drill bits for - but got there eventually

Master Cylinder

Simple fit & gives me a fixed point for the brake lines - I think I have cut the push rod bolt too short though - I may have to replace and rework it. (Turns out its just an M8 bolt)

A little adjustment required here, the flange on the column fouls the brake pedal right now:

Brake Lines

Just unrolled them for now - a bit of practice with bending them and unrolling from their packed state.

Routed the cylinder to back end line, it seems too long right now - I'm going to double check the routing before anything is fixed.

Note:
  The 4 way brake line connector for the rear end comes with a rivnut, however I appear to have a much larger hole in the chassis to mount it, needs a little research.