J400 GED Chimaera Chassis refurb

J400 GED Chimaera Chassis refurb

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Discussion

mach2

226 posts

233 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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Good luck Ged and nice work so far.
Thread added to the favourites bar to follow this one thumbup

Engineer1949

1,423 posts

143 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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Great days work there keep up the good work.

John

Cokes

475 posts

113 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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Looking like you'll beat me wink
Keep it up mate.

J400GED

Original Poster:

1,202 posts

236 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
quotequote all
Today's work was underneath the car:
Top tip today is: Wear safety glasses or goggles!

First up was the anti roll bar. Special note was taken of the orientation and sequence of the nuts and washers on removal - especially the drop link upper fixings.





Next up, the exhaust. front Bracket to engine block, then the 6 17mm bolts for the main mounting plate, then slide it out rearwards off the rear hanger.




The 6 bolt holes can clearly be seen in the above pic.
On removal of the exhaust I found the source of an annoying rattle I had - The innards of the silencer sound like they are no longer fixed in position. A job to be done whilst the chassis is away.




Here it is over my "Anti-pit" with the exhaust off.

With the exhaust out of the way, access to the handbrake and gearbox was much improved.



Following another top tip from Engineer 1949, I removed the handbrake compensator clevis pin - split pin out first then push out the clevis remembering that there is a washer above as well as below.
The main reason for this is that the hand brake adjustment should be undisturbed for when I come to rebuild the car. Re-assembly of the compensator may be a bit fiddly, I'll let you know in due course. wink
Next were the handbrake switch - 2 spade connectors, noting the orientation of the wiring - and the reverse light switch multiplug.





Now the potentially dangerous part - draining the fuel tank.

The process was to undo the pump bracket to allow me to remove the rear end of the hose between the pump and the pipe from the fuel tank.
Prior to starting this I gathered together a jerry can and some fuel hose of the same size as on the car, I put one end of the hose into the jerry can and had the other end to hand. With the pump bracket undone I removed both the jubilee clips on the rear hose - this allowed me to rotate the hose to unstick it. Then - with my latex gloves and safety glasses on (obviously, that wasn't all I was wearing! yikes ) - I removed the rear end of the hose and pushed the hose from the jerry can on. There was some spillage as I pushed the hose on but the main thing was to not panic.
A word of caution here, the fuel did not drain all in one go even with the filler cap off and a vent in the top of the filling point!
The first dollop of fuel to come out of the tank amounted to approximately only one pint - I was starting to think my gauge was very optimistic.
This is where it is handy to note your Fuel Gauge reading before disconnecting the battery - mine was showing 1/4 of a tank and I got 3 gallons out.
my final test that the tank was empty was to pump some air back down the hose and listen for bubbling in the tank. No bubbling, no fuel left. cool


That'll keep the lawn mower going nicely through the summer.

The only other thing I did today was to undo the seat fixings under the car.

This was lunchtime and at this point Dad's Taxi was pressed into service for the rest of the afternoon/early evening, so I will have to leave the lower electrics until tomorrow at least.

Oh, I will disconnect the speed sensor from inside the car and leave it with the chassis.



Cokes

475 posts

113 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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Grafting on Ged, looks like I'm playing catch up again smile

J400GED

Original Poster:

1,202 posts

236 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Today's update:

Started off under the car again. First up was the oil pressure sender and then the multi-plug to the front loom - noting the tie-wrap positions and the loom routing.


]

then came the fuse link front connection


then disconnected the starter, and tie-wraps to chassis again noting the routing.



Drained the clutch pipe to slave cylinder
|http://thumbsnap.com/IZFAEL2D[/url]

That was it underneath today.
Now to start on the engine loom from above.


First was the P-clip on the water pump housing



followed by the oil low pressure warning switch



and then the engine front earth point
|http://thumbsnap.com/eH0JsXbv[/url]


I then started from the left side of the engine, first up removing the tie-wraps along the crank breather hose.


then the Vacuum advance hose
[/url]|http://thumbsnap.com/p4kr0krG[/url]


then the crank breather hose


Next was to disconnect and remove the coil, then noting the routing of the "coil loom" as I call it


Then the alternator connections and remove the alternator
This was followed by the coolant temp sensor lead and the plug on the side of the dizzy, this then allowed the "coil loom" to be fed out across the front of the block.



Working on the Right of the engine, next came the RH O2 sensor, the injector plugs and the tie-wrap at the rear of the fuel rail.



This took me up to lunch. Suitably refreshed, next was the throttle pot connector in the LH loom


Next was the plenum, I had to remove the stepper motor from the rear of the plenum to allow it to be lifted off with the throttle cable still attached, which I disconnected later.



Then came the ECU coolant sensor plug, fuel rail plug, the LH injector plugs and the LH O2 sensor.



Then came the tie wrap holding the loom to the fuel pipe near the pressure regulator.




Followed by the earth at the LH rear of the engine.



The loom is basically disconnected and just needed feeding round to the LH rear of the engine bay, remembering to feed up the starter solenoid cable with the loom.


Once the loom was out the starter feed cable came out and the fuel feed and return hoses were fed down behind the air ducting at the rear of the engine bay.


To finish off for today, the clutch pipe was disconnected from the block, but as this was routed over the top of the air ducting and down to the slave cylinder, I had to bend it back out of the way.




So, at the front of the car, all that is left is:

Steering column shaft
Brake lines
Two front mounting bolts

Jobs for next Friday are:
Brake lines
Two front mounting bolts
Fuel tank


Edited by J400GED on Sunday 1st March 21:50

ClassiChimi

12,424 posts

148 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
quotequote all
Excellent work,,, I like your numerical index,,
You must be well chuffed,,, she's moving along at pace,, excuse the pun.

J400GED

Original Poster:

1,202 posts

236 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
ClassiChimi said:
Excellent work,,, I like your numerical index,,
You must be well chuffed,,, she's moving along at pace,, excuse the pun.
I keep a written log of every step as well - numbering matches the numbers on the tags - what could go wrong? laugh

JWzed

185 posts

124 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Nice work. I do like your methodical approach. Am currently doing a body off refurb on mine and will hopefully be getting the body back on in a few weeks. A big undertaking but you'll reap the benefit in knowing and being able to prove the provenance of your car. I'm sure you are already doing it, but make sure you take loads of pictures of everything, even the most obvious things. You will be surprised when doing your rebuild how many times you will need to go back and refer to them. Also good for boosting confidence in your work in times of doubt. Keep it up. It's definitely worth all the effort.thumbup

Cokes

475 posts

113 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
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Fairly marching on Ged. I think we're about level pegging with work completed.

robsco

7,822 posts

175 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
Tremendous approach, good work. A proper TVR owner. I wish I had the skills to take on a job of this magnitude.

ClassiChimi

12,424 posts

148 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
The photos are a must,, everything from cable tie locations to wiring,, I cleaned up the front half of the chassis on mine and boy the photos helped when putting it all back together.
I still sometimes go through about 150 pics just to remind me of the fun I had doing it.

Is it Brett on here that says he enjoys working on the car as much as driving it,,
Never thought id agree with that but by eck the mans got a point,,,
It's our kit car and putting your signiture on the car is a great feeling.
I didn't really know anything about my car until I took it apart !

J400GED

Original Poster:

1,202 posts

236 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
quotequote all
JWzed said:
Nice work. I do like your methodical approach. Am currently doing a body off refurb on mine and will hopefully be getting the body back on in a few weeks. A big undertaking but you'll reap the benefit in knowing and being able to prove the provenance of your car. I'm sure you are already doing it, but make sure you take loads of pictures of everything, even the most obvious things. You will be surprised when doing your rebuild how many times you will need to go back and refer to them. Also good for boosting confidence in your work in times of doubt. Keep it up. It's definitely worth all the effort.thumbup
Thanks mate - definitely got more pictures - posted approx. 50% of them

J400GED

Original Poster:

1,202 posts

236 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
quotequote all
Cokes said:
Fairly marching on Ged. I think we're about level pegging with work completed.
I'm not so sure about that mate...

Have you got a body dolly sorted?

J400GED

Original Poster:

1,202 posts

236 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
quotequote all
robsco said:
Tremendous approach, good work. A proper TVR owner. I wish I had the skills to take on a job of this magnitude.
Thanks mate, if you can snip a tie wrap or undo a nut and bolt, you can what I have done here. Just be methodical and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Cokes

475 posts

113 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
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J400GED said:
I'm not so sure about that mate...

Have you got a body dolly sorted?
Nothing made yet but I've get the wheels/casters and I've started pricing up wood.

GTRene

16,367 posts

223 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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that must be a very old multi-belt, look at all those breaches...its worn.


J400GED

Original Poster:

1,202 posts

236 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
GTRene said:
that must be a very old multi-belt, look at all those breaches...its worn.

My thoughts exactly Rene! eek
Don't worry though, that is not going back on the car. smile

J400GED

Original Poster:

1,202 posts

236 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
Cokes said:
Nothing made yet but I've get the wheels/casters and I've started pricing up wood.
I'm going to use a/some heavy duty pallet(s)- if they can hold a ton of bricks, they can hold the body! I've blagged 3 of them and I am just going to bosh some castors on it/them. smile

The reason for possibly more than one is for best fit supporting as much of the main tub as possible.

Cokes

475 posts

113 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
quotequote all
J400GED said:
I'm going to use a/some heavy duty pallet(s)- if they can hold a ton of bricks, they can hold the body! I've blagged 3 of them and I am just going to bosh some castors on it/them. smile

The reason for possibly more than one is for best fit supporting as much of the main tub as possible.
Never thought about pallets, I also can get them free thumbup