Front cycle wings, Brake reservoir, and ECU

Well the problems last week gave me a headache, a proper headache ! which lasted from Friday night till Monday afternoon, so no work done on the car over the weekend. This gave me some time to re-set my thinking on the next few jobs. The front cycle wings needed to be bonded on, and noticed I was low on bond, so took a ride over to GBS for some. At this point I would like to thank all the team at GBS for their help in the last few weeks, I have had several issues and they have managed to get them sorted for me. The biggest is the Brake reservoir, they have got one for me, just needed a bracket making which was done over the weekend. Many thanks.

DILEMMA.....

While trying to get the car finished and ready for IVA sometime in August the Brake reservoir situation was getting rather tight, So while GBS where trying to get one sorted I was also searching for one on the Internet, and found one on EBay, placed a bid, and forgot about it ? BUT I WON IT !.
So now I have 2 brake reservoirs ? which one shall I use ?

Think I shall debate this with my mate Simon ?

Back to the cycle wings, measured, marked and positioned the wings. also slightly bent the carriers over the wheels so that they lined up with the wings better, and made for a better bond. A good bead of bond over the carriers, carefully positioned the wing, then ratchet strap to keep in position.

Alex is now on his Summer Holiday from school, so I'm making the most of him, getting him to vacuum the carpets !

After a cuppa, Simon and myself made a decision on the brake reservoir. We will use the one from EBay, as this requires less drilling and fitting, sorry GBS although you have done a fantastic job, we opted for the easy route.

Cleaned up the reservoir with plenty of brake cleaner, and fitted it onto the master cylinder, so far so good. Filled with DOT 5.1 fluid and proceeded to bleed the brakes, the proper old fashioned way with Alex sat in the car pumping the brake pedal.

Found one small leak from the front pipe connecting to the flexible braided pipe, half a turn and it stopped, all other connections seem to be fine. Wired up the "low brake fluid" warning float, and put on the warning label. Brake lights now working as well, phew ! All set to go I think.

GBS to the rescue again...

Time for connecting up the Laptop to the ECU. My cheap serial to USB lead arrived next day from the Internet and worked ! the laptop recognising the ECU straight away. Richard @ GBS emailed me the "map" a few weeks ago, but getting it to load into the ECU software was proving difficult ? One call to Richard and a few minutes later the "map" was installed. We now have an emissions map installed ready for the IVA.

So a few extra photo's of the Zero coming together.

A better day today, headache nearly gone ! Just got the car away when a bolt of lightning and a crack of thunder sounded in the fields near by. This then continued all night, the smell of plasma strong in the air, then the rain !

One issue still remaining today... the replacement indicator stalk switch is still not working properly, however it is better than the first on, the headlamp full beam/flash now works, the left hand indicator now works, but now the right hand indicator has an intermittent fault ? May have to see Will @ GBS for another ?

Today's build time 10 hours

Total build time to date... 232 hours

Heatwave and more work on the rear end ! Problems after problems

Its now 3 weeks into the British Summer Heatwave, the warmest its been for 7 years according to the news, only 4 months ago it was below zero with snow on the ground, then it was too cold to work on the car, and now its too hot ! ?.

Since starting the car last week I have had a big smile on my face, such a good feeling that box's of bits have all come together to make a beautiful sound, I even came down in the middle of the night just to make sure I was not dreaming ? The weekend came and Spent the time with the family so didn't touch the Zero until Tuesday.... then nothing seemed to go right.

The Rear Arches...

Time for them to go on, once again bit of head scratching, measuring, marking, standing back and looking. Drilled a couple of holes through the arch at the front and rear, marked the bodywork, drilled and popped a couple of rivnuts in.
Problem 1 of the day... broke the rivnut setting tool ! this is the second time I've done this, the tool only lasted 6 rivnuts ! (you get what you pay for). So Left my mate Simon to it, while I went out to find a new setting tool. Halfords... didn't have a clue what the tool was or what rivnuts are ? Useless.
Machine mart... the same as Halfords... Useless ! Then 4 different motor factors, NEVER SEEN THESE TOOLS BEFORE !!, 2 hours later... Cromwell Tools, a nationwide tool distributor, got 5 blokes looking at my broken tool, and not one knew what it was or did, however they did find one in their catalogue... £349 !
Finally found a little tool store that had one in ! it was one that fitted onto a cordless drill, but they had one in stock ! and the very nice lady behind the counter knew more about them than all the other men put together. The name of the company is "The tool academy", Sutton In Ashfield.

http://www.thetoolacademy.com

So arrived back home and Simon had trimmed the carpet ready for fitting in the boot. Back to the rear aches, more drilling, marking, and rivnutting, and the drivers side is on. Now onto the passenger side, and a copy of the other arch, then problem 2... Broke the new rivnut setting tool !!!  AAAARRRR!!!

Will have to return that in the morning.

(I did return it, and they are getting me a new one for tomorrow under the warranty )

Next job... Load up the ECU with a map ready for the emissions test on the IVA, while Simon was doing that, I was getting the rear indicator/brake light clusters ready for the arches, these needed to had a 4 way connector block fitting with spades crimped instead of the bullet type which came with the units, and then mark out the arches for drilling.

ANOTHER PROBLEM !!... Number 3... The Com's lead supplied with the ECU is the old serial type and my laptop is USB only ... AAARRRRGGGG!!! Now I need a conversion lead.
PC world, don't do serial connections anymore, useless.
Maplin's do a lead but its £29.99... way too expensive !
So back onto EBay, next day delivery £1.79... that's better !

Looked up the spec on the positioning of the rear lights, and basically the min height for the lights is 350mm from the floor, there are some other measurements in relation to positioning to other lights but a photo will be more useful. So I set the lights at 400mm so that's plenty of room for adjustment of the ride height.

Sorry for it saying "Westfield" on the back, but its one of the better photo's I could find on the Internet for British IVA.

So Light clusters fitted and connected... PROBLEM NUMBER 4 ...
Left hand indicators working, right hand NOT ?  Today is a real test ! big scream, sweating with the heat, and now a proper headache coming on !
Too cut a long story short spent the next 90 minutes testing and following the wiring back to find the fault, and ended up at the indicator storks on the steering column. Looks like the switch is not working very well. Taken off and these will be returned to GBS tomorrow.

(I did take the switch assembly back to GBS, Simon in the workshop tested them for me and found that there was a fault with the switch, so now waiting for them to get more back in stock... this is another set back to the finishing date, while there enquired about the brake res and cap as I have been waiting now for 9 months for this item, they have it in stock, but need to manufacture a bracket for it, hopefully it will be done for next week... UPDATE - YES ! WELL DONE TO KIETH AT GBS, MANY THANKS FOR COMPLETING THE BRACKET :-) )

Alex arrived back from school, and gave his time to help, mainly bending down to pick up things because both Simon's and my back was starting to hurt, been up and down on my knee's all day so they where shot, time to call it a day I think ?

The build will continue later this week, I need a day off to get issue's sorted !

DAY OFF THE BUILD...

Spent the day sorting out the previous day's issues, then having a lazy afternoon in the sun, unfortunately the afternoon planning went pear-shaped when my boys returned home from sports day with a pile of washing to be done !

DAY TWO...

Started on a positive note, Simon got "stuck in" to the boot carpet... seriously sticky stuff, same glue as the cockpit carpet but at least the car is outside so won't get that "high" ?
I started on the nose cone, chrome surround with a black honeycomb mesh as the grill. Measured out the cycle wings for the repeater indicators and drilled.

All going rather smoothly until...

Reverse light ! When we did a brief test on the gearbox last week when we started her up for the first time the reverse light failed to come on. Tracing the fault back from the light it looked like the switch on the gearbox was at fault. Sorry for the language bit this was a bast**d to get too ! Simon spend a good 40 minutes getting the 2 bolts out. Once out we tested it with the multimeter, yep - not working.

Internet search, and the first company we call has one in stock ! Other side of town we quickly sped, only to find its the wrong kind of switch. (unhappy face).
Off to another parts emporium... puzzled faces of bewilderment greeted us from the other side of the counter ?
Lastly the "Ford" dealership in town, this was not looking good, none on the "system", the parts manager phoned the local warehouse, none in stock, the went on the "nationwide" database, no new parts available in the UK !!

4 hours of searching and nothing ? This is going to be a headache !

Now reached breaking point, I am just a few days work away from completion and now hitting the smallest, but biggest issues of the build.

At the moment I have just 3 major issues....

1. Brake reservoir and cap, still waiting from GBS - SORTED

2. Faulty switch on indicator stalk, waiting for new stock from GBS

3. Reverse light switch for MT75 gearbox, is there a second hand one in the UK ?

So I've put her away in the garage for a few days, need time to think this over, So close yet so far away ?

Build time for this week ... 25 hours ( mostly spent on the phone, on the internet, driving to tool shops, or scratching heads and looking for tools we put down somewhere ? )

Total build time now... 222 hours

IT STARTS ! A New Milestone. Blog includes videos !

Since the last blog done several small jobs over the past 2 weeks,and now that the weather has changed to summer its a joy to wheel the Zero out of the garage and work around it with more space under the car-port. This however has attracted everyman and his dog to stop and chat about the build and the "good old days" when cars were cars and not a collection of plastic bits ?

Changing the headlamps...
Unfortunately GBS were out of stock of a few bits, one of which was the headlamp sub loom. However a fairly simple procedure of making one up, just took a couple of hours (mainly due to dog walkers stopping for a chat ! ). But this did save quite a bit of money.

Wiring up the Smiths Oil pressure sensor, this has to be wired into the loom along with the Ford sensor as well. Managed to get a Ford plug for the sensor so a single wire just needed a spade connector for the loom. (again GBS did not have one of these in stock :-(  )

Soon making our way through the loom connectors, connecting everything up we came across a 5 way grey connector with no label on it ?? anyway its for the wiper motor, a job after the IVA test.

Another label "flasher".... mmmm... think we need a flasher relay ! IN STOCK AT GBS !!  :-)
Quick fit.

With a helping hand today, left Simon to pop on the Transmission tunnel tops and other connections around the scuttle area.

I glued the "tadpole" trim to the rear arches. Then re-wired the ignition wiring as this was too short, slight confusion as the wiring schismatic said 2 x yellow wires ? and I had only 1 ?... we shall see later if this is important ?

Next small job, change the end connectors from "eye" style to "spade" on the fuel sender, re-crimped and connected.

Simon finished his job, and now for the dash to go in, a dry fit and we found out a little trimming was required around the steering column. A drum sander made short work of this.

My son, Ben, has now finished his GCSE exams and school for the summer, so today asked if he could help ? got him to help Simon with the dash and the instrument storks instillation.

However think he was missing something ?

Purchased a quick release steering wheel system, unfortunately a "cheap" one, we have fitted it but its useless ! going back on the Internet tonight to find a better one, not a cheap Chinese copy ! Sooner spend a few pounds more for quality. A warning to all.

Filled the cooling system with a 50/50 mixture of water and coolant, took 4 litres after lots of bubbling noises and squeezing of the hoses, see if it needs more once the engine has been run.

Besides a few issues today, which were mainly silly things it all went very well, So much so in the last hour decided to connect up the battery and test a few things.

So we turned on the ignition....it worked as shown in the video below.

Ooh... Sexy start up !


Horn works, rear fog light including the switch light, side lights, dipped beam, but no full beam ?? will have to look at that later. No indicators as these are not fitted yet.

Shall we turn the key 1 more turn ??.... Why not, will she start ?

Big grins and smiles all round.. she's alive !

However oil pressure warning light remained on and gauge said "No pressure" ?... Check the dipstick !

After a bit more oil in the engine we got a good oil pressure reading, water temperature rising, Volts rising and when the engine is rev'ed it rises and falls, Rev counter working, but only 5 litres of fuel in the tank so gauge not indicating much. So all gauges seem to be working.

The exhaust was changing colour very nicely, a golden purple colour, sweet ! The fan started at 50 degrees on the gauge so that's another item working.

As we still have no brakes, still waiting for the brake reservoir and cap from GBS ? we wanted to test the clutch, so very carefully we selected all gears, and engaged the clutch slightly, feeling the car pulling in each gear against the handbrake was a big wait of our minds that we fitted the clutch, clutch arm, bearing and pin correctly all those months ago !

Long day and now feeling completely drained, another couple of hours clearing and putting stuff away and the day is over.

Many thanks again to my mate Simon for his help today, greatly appreciated.


Total build time for the past 2 weeks.... 25 hours

Total build time to date...197 Hours