Wiring Loom re-routing ... part 1

Sunday 10th January 2010 - Work time = 4hrs ... Build Time To Date = 88hrs
I set about relocating the wiring loom across the top of the tunnel (above the bellhousing).  A simple task you'd think ... after all I just needed to install 2 or 3 cable tie mounts and move the cabling back about 30mm.  4 hours later and I'd still not finished!

I had to remove about 15 cable ties, all the convoluted tubing I'd installed previously and also drill and attach a few more cable tie mounts. 

Here's the work in progress ... still an hour or so required to complete I think!

Engine out again ... in the snow!

Saturday 9th January 2010 - Work time = 5hrs ... Build Time To Date = 84hrs

I spoke to Mark in Technical Support at Westfield earlier in the week.  He confirmed that the engine was in the right place, the adaptor plate was not required but I would need to drill new mounting holes in the chassis mounted gearbox plate and that it would be best to relocate the wiring loom to the side rather than lower edge of the chassis rail over the tunnel.  The power of the internet also helped and I got a blog comment from Robbo in Holland who also confirmed the above.  Robbo also highlighted the need to re-route the wiring loom for the starter motor.  Robbo's Westfield build is at http://westfieldfw.blogspot.com/ (you may need Google Translate!).

With Henry's help it was fairly straightforward to get the engine back out. 

As you can see it's been snowing a lot here ... but we managed to complete the engine removal before it started snowing again.

With the engine bay empty I proceeded to drill the gearbox mounting plate.  Prior to removing the engine I'd marked the mounting holes.  I'm wasn't too happy with the location of the new holes (they're the ones at the right of the plate in the LHD picture) and also the fact that only the rear half of the gearbox rubber mounting would be resting on the plate.  I decided to modify the extra adaptor plate and mount this on top of the welding in plate (see RHD picture).  Note the pictures are before I've painted them to cover up the scuffs etc.  This new arangement will offer a bit more support and spread the load.  It will raise the gearbox slightly but this hopefully should not be an issue.

When the engine was installed I noticed the very limited access from below to fill and check the gearbox oil.  So I marked the position of the filler plug before we removed the engine and then cut an access hole in the passenger footwell.  I tried to use a hole cutter to cut the hole but all it did was make a mess ... good job no-one will see it once the gearbox is back in.  The cover plate is fixed from inside the footwell with small bolts into some rivnuts in the bulkhead panel.  It should be slightly easier now to fil/check the gearbox oil.

Final task for the day was to make a couple of plates to cover the unused inertia seat belt cut-outs in the rear bulkhead panel.

 

5 hours work time ... unfortunately not an awful lot to show for it!

Engine in ... but is it in the right place?

Friday 1st January 2010 - Work time = 3hrs ... Build Time To Date = 79hrs
Happy New Year !
Undeterred by the after effects of a late night before, Andy and myself set about the engine install.  We lowered the chassis onto 4 axle stands with the help of Rob and Henry, with the rear as high as the stands could go.  The theory being that the elevated angle at the rear would make the gearbox to propshaft location easier.
We checked the aforementioned adaptor plate against the gearbox mount and it seemed to line up so it seems we needed to install the adaptor plate in the tunnel. 
Time to hoist the engine.  Some "in progress" shots to demonstrate.

It was a fairly easy task to get the engine in.  We lifted the gearbox with a trolley jack and the connection to the propshaft was pretty easy too.  As with all things that work out too easy there has to be a catch.  

With the engine resting nicely on the near and offside engine mounts it appeared to be positioned a long way back in the chassis.  The top of the bellhousing was almost touching the wiring loom across the bottom of the tunnel chassis rail and the rear most water connection was very close to the bulkhead.  

Also the earbox mount did not line up with the adaptor plate and the prop didn't appear to be fully home in the gearbox.

This required much head scratching ... the engine was alligned correctly with it's mounts and was tight on the bulkhead/transmision tunnel ... but needed to sit back further forward to align with the gearbox mounts yet sit back to be fully home on the propshaft?  So either the engine mounts were incorrectly located and the engine needed to move forward about 1 3/4 inches and the prop needed to be longer or I needed to move the wiring across the chassis rail above the bellhousing and re-drill the adaptor plate for the gearbox mounting and the gap between the prop and gearbox was acceptable?

So we retired gracefully to the warmth of the house and I penned a lengthy e-mail to Westfield Technical Support for much needed guidance.

Propshaft part 2 ... ready for the engine

Wednesday 30th December - Work time = 2hrs ... Build Time To Date = 76hrs
With the brakes fully functional I could now adjust the handbrake and torque up the bolts on the propshaft. 

I then set about "wrapping up" the chassis bars in the engine bay to protect them whilst installing the engine.   You can also see in the picture above a trapezium shaped peice of metal ... this is a gearbox adaptor plate but it is unclear in the manual whether I need to fit it for my engine/gearbox combination.  Need to do some reasearch!

Bleeding Brakes ... easy with the Ezi Bleed !

Monday 28th December - Work time = 2.5hrs ... Build Time To Date = 74hrs
Armed with my Ezi Bleed system and 1.25 litres of Dot 5.1 Brake Fluid it was time to bleed the brakes.  This was not something I was particularly looking forward to as I had read many WSCC Forum posts and Build Diaries explain the pain and suffering caused by bleeding brakes on a Westfield. 
Following the various advice given and the Ezibleed instructions I set about the task.  I pressure tested the system with no fluid first at about 18psi and then filled the container with fluid, reduced the pressure to about 15psi and started bleeding each corner.  I managed to use all but about 350ml of Brake fluid.  I bled each corner twice just to be sure.  Disappointingly the pedal was still a little spongy so I decided to proceed with the Westfield method of pumping the pedal several times and then wedging the pedal down and leaving it overnight.

Another tip I read was to elevate the rear ... theory being that the air bubbes slowly rise.  So I enlisted Henry to lower the front onto the axles stands.  The front end being a little lighter than the rear I thought this would be an easy task for the pair of us.  Not so ... we got the front onto the axles stands and alarmingly the whole chassis starting sliding forwards (this gravity thing is a bloody nuisance!) until the rear was resting across the rear wishbones.  I then went to the rear and tried to shuffle the chassis back with Henry holding the front.  At this point the frame slid forward again and landed on Henry's foot.   We then reverted to the original configuration and put the front back on the build stand.  A quick look at the front chassis and fortunately there was no damage to the frame ... Henry meanwhile limped off to the house! 

I removed the wood prop this morning and was extremely pleased to see that overnight the "brake fairies" had spun their magic and the pedal was no longer spongy.  So moral of the story ... Ezi Bleed does what it says on the box and then leave it to a length of wood and the "brake fairies"!

Engine & ECU Loom ... getting bored with cable ties!

Sunday 27th December - Work time = 3hrs ... Build Time To Date = 71.5hrs
Fitted the engine and ECU looms today. To start with I needed to do the usual Westfield approach and remove some stuff I'd already fitted ! ... more precisely the main loom that I'd put in convoluted tubing and cable tied so neatly around the engine bay.  So what should have been a relatively short, simple job turned out to take 3 hrs.  It was worth the time though as it's all neat and tidy again.

Father Christmas lived up to expectations and delivered my Ezibleed system so it's brake bleeding time tomorrow ... wish me luck !

Front Brake Pipes and ECU plate fitted

Wednesday 23rd December - Work time = 4.5hrs ... Build Time To Date = 68.5hrs

I spent about an hour and half sorting out the Webcon ECU wiring loom and Westfield engine wiring loom during the week.  The wiring diagram wasn't as good as the main loom and it didn't seem to completely match the actual wiring in the ECU loom?  So there was much head scratching again!  Finally got the looms all labelled ready for installation. 

Three hours spent in a rather cold garage today.  Got a few responses from the WSCC Forum on my handbrake adjustment issue.  Consensus was that I need to complete the braking system, fill it with fluid and then bleed the brakes to obtain a little pressure in the system to push out the caliper pistons and take up some of the slack.  So first job was to fit the flexible brake hoses on the front.  I had to complete the bends on the brake pipe ... I'd forgotten how difficult it was to bend the pipe!  Here's the completed job.

Now I need to get some brake fluid (Dot4) so I can start the bleeding!  This will have to wait a few days as I have heard that Father Christmas may be bringing me an EziBleed brake bleeding kit as recommended by various posters on the forum.

Next task today was to fit the ECU above the passenger footwell.  This took a little longer than expected as I fitted some rivnuts to the top fixing so it could be easily lowered for access (the manual suggested self tappers but I prefer the rivnut option)  The manual also said to mount the ECU on the plate with velcro.  I wasn't too happy with this option so found a couple of brackets and rivetted them to the plate and bolted the ECU to the brackets. The underside is fairly clear with just the rounded rivet heads as I'm sure the IVA test will be checking there is no sharp edges in the passenger footwell.  I'm quite pleased with the results.

Propshaft & Upper Steering Column ... well almost a propshaft

Saturday 20th December - Work time = 1.5 hrs ... Build Time To Date = 64 hrs
Next job on the list ... fit the propshaft.  A straightforward task ... 4 bolts, one propshaft, a torque wrench and some thread lock.  Hmm it's funny how the seemingly straightforward tasks turn out to be the the most difficult! 
The manual states that the prop can only be fitted and the bolts torqued when the handbrake is operational.  The handbrake was already fitted but I had failed to check that it was "fully operational" !  To cut a long story shorter the handbrake was not fully applying the pads to the discs so the wheels were spinning when I was trying to torque up the prop bolts.  After the usual head scratching I still couldn't figure why the handbrake wasn't clenching the pads enough ... perhaps there was some adjustment required to the calipers?  perhaps I need to fill the brake system and bleed the brakes first?  Hmmm a quick post of the Westfield forum to get some views seems required.
So with the prop now removed I turned my attention to the upper steering column.  This had arrived unexpectedly in the post the other day from Westfield.  They have had some issues with the original design resulting in a product recall so they held this part back when I collected the kit.  It was a bit fiddly to fit the column ... requiring a hole to be cut in the front bulkhead.  Lining up the position of the hole was tricky and because I didn't have a drill big enough I needed to expand the hole with a round file.  Unfortunately I got a bit carred away with the filing as the photos below show ... I'll need to get a suitably sized grommet to fill the gap!

So next step ... whilst I await a response from the forum re the handbrake adjustment ... is to sort out the ECU wiring loom and engine wiring loom.  More wires and more labelling!

Fuel Tank, Pump & Filter ... rear end almost complete

Sunday 6th December - Work time = 3.5 hrs ... Build Time To Date = 62.5 hrs
According to Westfield's estimated build duration I should now be halfway through having clocked just over 60 hours.  Things are progressing well but me thinks there is still more than 57.5 hours of work left!

Todays task to fit the fuel tank.  Before I started though I needed to finish a few outstanding jobs:
1.  Top up the diff with some more oil
2.  Finish covering the handbrake cables with convoluted tubing and secure to the wishbones.  Fortunately the eBay order arrived in the week so I could complete this task also.

Next job fit the fuel tank.  No issues with this ... just a bit fiddly to tighten the nuts securing the straps at the front ... there was not a lot of space between the tank and the rear bulkhead.  Fitting the fuel pump and filter were also a challenge.  After a bit of head scratching and consultation of a few build site photos I worked out the best options and routing for the pipes.  The fuel pump bolted through the rear chassis rail with a couple of spacers to push it away from the chassis rail and clear the left rear wishbone mount.
After drilling through the right hand diff chassis rail to fit the filter backet I realised that I didn't have any M6 bolts long enough to go through the rail ... doh!  So I fitted some M6 rivnuts instead ... will need to fill the unused holes on the over side somehow! 

Routing the fuel hoses was a little tricky too and I mdae a couple of attempts to fit the hose between the tank and fuel pump.  My first attempt looked good until I realised that when the car was on the ground and the suspension loaded that it would probably get trapped between the wishbone and the chassis!

I put convoluted tube over the full lengths of the hoses (I now have 5 metres of each size coutesy of my eBay order!).  This looks neater but I'm not sure whether the IVA inspector may need to see sight of the labelling on the hose to check that it's proper fuel hose ... may have to remove a bit of tubing at the test? 

At this point I must make a special mention for the huge contribution from both Sandra and Amy who popped in and out at various times this afternoon and acted as "drill trigger pusher" whilst I routed/held the flexible drill drive shaft to drill holes in various places for the cable tie mounts to secure the hoses.

I ran out of 5/16" hose to complete the filter to fixed fuel pipe connection.  Another trip to the motor factors!

Fuel Inertia Switch ... Fitted / Removed / Fitted Again!

Friday 4th December - Work time = 2 hrs ... Build Time To Date = 59 hrs
Just to set the scene ... it seems a common practice to fit things ... flick a few pages forward in the manual ... and then find you need to remove it again to fit something else. 
I fitted the inertia switch one evening this week.  A fairly simple task ... a couple of holes in the bracket behind the diff.   As always I stood back to admire the work.

It was then just a case of tidying up the wires once the fuel pump was installed.  However a couple of days later I read forward in the manual and the build photos showed the inertia switch on the other side!  Off with the switch and back on again, this time on the correct side.  The change meant I also needed to reroute the wiring loom to the front side of the chassis rail ... removal of more cables ties!

I then spent the rest of the time sorting out the various bits and pieces ready to fit the fuel tank, fuel pump and fuel filter.  A job for the weekend !