Before I started on the installation of the new engine and subframe, I wanted to clean up the engine bay.
First thing was to cable tie some of the wiring together to make it easier to move them out of the way and to give me access to the bay for cleaning.
One of the parts I couldnāt remove (and fortunately, didnāt need to) during the removal of the engine - is this the tubing for the air conditioning? I know the heater pipes are the ones to the left as you look at it from the front of the car.
As you can see it looks like someone has tried to remove this before as the metal is twisted. I tried but the metal is quite soft and began to twist again. If anyone has any bright ideas, let me know! If it is for the air conditioning, I am going to be removing this anyway, so I could cut the pipes and not worry about it.
Hereās a before shot:
Hereās an after shot:
Part of the reason for degreasing the engine bay was to also check for any rust or damage. It looks to be in good order thankfully
Yes those are the two pipes that come out of the A/C evaporator, if youāre not keeping the a/c (which I suspect not) then just cut the one thatās left off, then go under the dash and you can remove the evaporator and replace it with a short piece of plastic pipe. It frees up lots of room under there and removes a few kg in the process.
Another weekend - hurrah. Unfortunately, the MS was playing up on Friday night so I didnāt get as much tinkering and running as iād hoped for.
Anyway, I managed to get quite a lot done again over the course of this week.
Iāve begun the strip down of the subframe. First up was to remove the shocks and springs.
Having put a lot of thought in to the brakes, iāve decided to go down a well trodden path and save a bit of money at the same time and simply upgrade my 1.6 brakes to 1.8 brakes with very good pads. As such, I need to replace the brackets on my 1.6 calipers (I can use the calipers), so I removed those:
As I mentioned, as part of the Rocketeer build you have to remove the aircon durng the install process. Mine had already been degassed, either accidentally or deliberately and I wonāt be refitting it. After unbolting the condesner and piping, I found it impossible to remove, so todays job if I get round to finishing it will be to remove the dashboard.
First things first, remove the glovebox. Depending on the state or tightness of the bracket screws, it might be easier to remvoe the bracket like I did.
Then, at either end of the dashboard where it mees the door, there are two plastic screw covers which you need to remove to access 2 12mm nuts.
Once youāve done that, there is a nut in the centre of the dashboard where it meets the windscreen and then two bolts either side of the centre console.
To make it easier, unbolt the steering colum from the underneath of the dash.
I removed the carpets to give me full access to what little space there was down there and came across lots of horrible brown powderā¦luckily it looks like a blocked drain at some point as the floor is sound, its just the foot plate rest:
I managed to get the dashboard off and remove the air conditioning units - itās looking quite bare down there! Well, in that particular area anyway! I am also struck by how much of a mess it all looks now!
I am now left with a large number of old and redundant parts:
Most of it will just be scrapped I guess - the gearbox has already been set aside for someone. However, the following are available if anyone wants them:
1.6 Engine
Propshaft
Original Wheels with almost new tyres
Many apologies for the delay in updating this; suffice to say iāve worked on the car every day since but just havenāt been able to get online to update you all.
So where to start?
The aircon system was removed:
Now the time had come where I could think about what was being added to the car rather than constantly taking things off it! It was time to start looking at what was supplied with the subframe in more detail.
The process is split up in to 25 different stages, each with their own pack:
Some of those had already been completed because I purchased the engine from Rocketeer. So that meant I didnāt have to:
Install the engine mount brackets
Install the clutch
Install the clutch adapter plate
As I have mentioned previously, the Rocketeer instructions are limited. At best. I think I can see why the kits were not offered as a self build option for a while. The trouble I have with the approach they have taken is that it means the customer (i.e. me) is more likely to have to contact them to get a full understanding of each bit - and as they are only (I think) a 2 man team, replies to emails can be slow. If it were me, iād have gone overboard on the instructions, covered as many eventualities as possible.
To give you some idea, to install the water pump, the instructions basically say āInstall the water pumpā. Aside from the drawing which shows how to mount the pump to the adapter, there is no drawing or photo of how or where on the engine it mounts.
Anyway, I digress. Before we get to installing the water pump, I decided to de-power the power steering. I chose to do this for a number of reasons. Firstly, I always preferred the steering feel on the manual rack. Secondly, the power steering rack takes has a quicker ratio; by depowering the power rack I keep the quicker ratio with the benefit of the manual rack. And thirdly, why not?
I used this video to help me:
Once you have remove the rack from the car, the tie rod ends needs removing. To do this you have to use a flat ended screw driver and a hammer to remove the clips from the end of the main shaft as below:
Then you need to unthread the inner tie rod from the rack. This can be tricky, and you need massive wrenches! Hold the rack with one of the wrenches and use the other around the large nut we just removed the clips from. I replaced one of the boots because it was knackered.
Then remove the UV Joint.
Then relieve the tension from the pinion. Again youāll need two spanners, one for the outer large nut and one for the inner nut.
Now loosen the bolt on the bottom of the pinion with a 21mm socket. Once you have that off, there is a 17mm bolt to remove.
Once youāve done that there is a dust cover and a snap ring to remove. This was an absolute pain, as I didnāt have a snap ring removal tool, but I got it out eventually.
Then you can free the pinion, hurrah!
Then remove the bearing
At this point its important to note that all of these components need completey degreasing and then regreasing as they most likely havenāt been greased since thirty years ago!
Next pull out the inner shaft from the rack.
Now, this bit is basically the entire reason we did all of the above. The inner shaft has a seal on it. It seperates the hydraulic pressure of the power steering rack from left to right. Because we arenāt going to have power steering, all it will do is cause drag. So we have to chop it off!
I used a dremel and a cutting disk:
Once you have done that, clean everything up, re-grease all the components and do everythnig above in reverse. Done!
As it was my first time, it took a 2/3 hours in total as I was rechecking everything. But once you know what youāre doing, its actually a pretty easy job. Watch the video above for detail on how to calibrate the stiffness of the steering rack turning.
Next job was to refurbish and modify the engine mount cups. They were partially covered in surface rust, and due to limited space with the new engine in, the drivers side cup needs to be cut to give greater clearance for the steering rack.
I used a cmobination of a wire brush on my drill, along with various grades of sand paper to remove the old rust and paint.
I then took my trusty dremel and cutting disk to follow the photo in the Rocketeer instructions and remove a diagonal section from the cup.
I painted the cups with Hydrate 80 and then used a rust preventive satin paint on top.
I also took the liberty of buying new rubber mounts whilst I was at it; as good as new
Now for the installation of the Rocketeer subframe!
This was a very exciting moment.
As per the instructions, I was to loosely bolt the subframe in to place to make sure everything fitted correctly and the chassis rails sat correctly in the rear of the subframe. The bolt holes need no modification, and the subframe mounts exactly the same way as the OEM one did.
All went smoothly until it was time to attack the steering rackā¦the bolt holes were the wrong size. This really was one of those moments where you are so disproprionately frustrated because of how far youāve come!
Having spoken to Bruce, I decided to get a tap set and gently recut the threads so that the bolts fitted. Having never done this before, I went gingerly with a first which was actually all I needed to get the bolts inā¦phew.
Once the steering rack is in you can tighten those bolts, so now it looks like this:
In part due to the inclement weather, I decided to move ahead and get the engine in to the car, on the subframe. Originally I was going to get the suspension components refurbished and the gearbox mod done first.
However, my temporary garage is not copletely waterproof obviously, and some of the screw heads and things on the engine have started to show signs of surface rust (very minor), having been sat in my garage for a month. So, onwards with getting it in to the car.
The bloominā gravel driveway and the weather didnāt stop us and I am eternally grateful for my parnter for her assistance.
I look relaxedā¦
Apparently this was No. 17ā¦
Phew!
It really is a tight fit, but itās in.
I am surprised about how much the engine is able to move forwards and backwards, but then it is currently only mounted on both sides and is yet to be connected to the gearbox/exhaust and so on. Its currentlt still supported by the hoist so that I donāt overstress the mounts.
So, next step is to mount the gearbox to the back of the engine - unfortunately, the kit was missing the template to make the gearbox modification so I canāt go any further until I get that.
Since I had nothing else to do, I ordered some BC Racing Coiloversā¦
ā¦and have been slowly refurbishing the suspension arms and brakes.
I also ordered some new suspension bushes which I am going to attempt to start fitting this weekend using the following method:
Hiya, Iāll definitely wish you luck! not that I think youāll need it? This is an epic thread and much respect to you. Iām more of a tinkerer than a mechanic and have to say that this job is not something Iād take on? The end result will be great Iām sure. thank you for posting progress of the build.
Well, iāll be honest - there have been quite a few times where I have thought āwhy didnāt you take up gardening?ā
Iām more of a tinkerer too - someone right at the beginning advised me that no matter what the situation was, to always keep momentum and at the very least spend some time with the car every day, even when things arenāt going so well. So thats what I do! That and I watch a hell of a lot of YouTube videos of people who have a lot more skill than me
Yep, Iāll second that.
Having built a couple of Frankenstein cars over the years thereās nothing like the satisfaction of the first start up.
From experience itās the little things that cause the biggest headaches, but at least doing an established conversion thereās info available. And the Internet, which wasnāt when I did mine.
Btw the hard pipe for the clutch should be very easy to make, or have made. It helps if you have both end unions, or just get a braided hose made to go from master to slave cylinder with no hard pipe.
Absolutely loving this thread, doing a rocketeer conversion is definitely a dream for me but given that my experience is limited to oil changes and topping up washer fluid, the goal seems a very very long way off.
You are an inspiration for many reasons, I will continue to lurk with interest.
Vauxhall/Ford, Caterham/Vauxhall and Sylva/Ford.
All road cars and used as dailyās, although the Chevette did get pressed into the occasional tarmac rallyš.
.
thank you for posting progress of the build.
you are more than welcome to visit to take a closer look.