February 2010
Wednesday 24th February 2010
I've finally received the front suspension from Kustom Engineering. And it looks well worth the wait. This is the race spec version, which is fundementally different to the road going version, in as much as it does not use the original Ford Fiesta bottom balljoint. This kit uses a spherical bearing in the TCA instead. Its a work of art, and I'll have it fitted to the car over the coming evenings.
Friday 19th February 2010
The dashboard wiring has now been completed. I've crimped all the pins on the ends of the wires, and they just need inserting in to the 19way connector. The dashboard housing is now mounted inside the car. Slight change of plan with the stay under the front, as I've now used two stays which support the front of the dash, and fix to the steering column bracket. I've had to use another piece of steel tube, notched to fit between the two vertical stays, to prevent the dashboard from wobbling around. But its all ready to be painted, and I'll get some shots up next week.
Monday 15th February 2010
The dashboard is now mounted in the car, using some prototype brackets. I've made a steady brace for it, to support the front, and the rear is mounted on the steering column mounting bolts, via an alloy bracket. I'll make the final bracket from thicker aluminium plate tomorrow evening. I'm using rivnuts in the dash, glued in with araldite for extra adhesion. I dont like working with carbon fibre though. The carbon dust is terrible when you drill or cut it, and it gets everywhere.
Thursday 11th February 2010
Bought a Stack ST-200 Clubman 0-4-10.5Krpm tacho from Demon Tweeks and its now installed in the dash. I've almost finished wiring everything up, and I've connected it to the battery to make sure that it all works, and it does of course. The tacho is in Demo mode, which would be cool for shows, but they dont mention how to get it back in to demo mode once you've cancelled it. Anyone have any ideas? All the control box crimps are done, and I just need to insert them in to the Neptune connector. I've been distracted by the dash, but it needed doing.
I've also updated the web site to use CSS for positioning, instead of tables. This gives far more flexibility over things like style changes, and the printing of pages is now taken care of using a print style sheet, which hides the left menu and footer. I hope you like the new style. I've just got all the archive news pages left to udpate, all 132 of them! And I'm now using Lightbox for the scripts to display images when you click on them. Free and very easy to use.
Wednesday 3rd February 2010
Mocked up the dashboard by fitting all the instruments and LEDs, switches etc. The three switches along the bottom are for Launch Wet/Dry map, Traction Wet/Dry map, Traction On/Off, and Launch On/Off (Push button). The dial is for the traction aggressiveness, which uses the 11 position switch I put together last year, and gives from 0-100% traction aggressiveness. I've been busy crimping the pins for the control box loom, with just a couple left to do. Then I can test the power circuits and start on the ECU connectors.
