1967 S3 (Millington XE 2.0L and Sadev)

[Rosteri]

And a warm recommendation for everyone using copper washers - heat treat every one of them prior to assembly to ensure they are soft enough to seal. Butane torch, glowing red and drop into water.

 

 

One hose had to be extended by 20 mm. AN4 for master to slave and AN3 for bleed.

 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

The GCU and the valve block found their place as well

 

 

 

 

Sadev GPS is a hall sensor and I could not find information on the pin-out in the right manual. Some other Sadev box had this info, the connector pins are labeled A-D:

 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

Good progress again. I made the gearbox loom last night, it looks so innocent, but it took 6-8 hours, even when I had the chassis and ECU loom prepared and ready to go with connectors:

 

 

And testing all functions was a positive surprise - the CAN connection, ECU connections and gearbox sensors all worked without issues.
 

The gears are now calibrated on both the ECU and GCU and AIM displays the selected gear nicely via the ECU can stream.

 

 

Marko from MME also recommended to use the pneumatic actuator as the end stops of the gear shift and not the gearbox, and once I have that adjusted, then the gearbox and engine are ok to be installed into the car.

Summer, here we come!

 

Edit: Adjusted pneumatic actuator stroke to 23 mm.
 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

And its in. And it is tight. I still need to connect the shift lever cable and I can’t even reach the point with my hand, so I need to lift the package back up a little. 

 

Now would be a good point to consider the stick flip…

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

Stick position as delivered:

 

 

Installed backwards with the pushrod shortened by 38.5 mm:

 

 

The pull direction is much better.

 

This is the only other Sadev to Caterham thread that I found:

 

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=101&t=1425357&p=1

 

It was extremely valuable (I copied a lot of the tricks) and it was the main trigger for me to consider a Sadev in the first place. 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

Pneumatic hoses are now connected - next is a bracket in front of the valve block for the gear position sensor connector, also my clutch hose is 10 mm too short, so that needs to be redone. Once the clutch is bled and leak free, then the rest of the hoses and starter go back on next. 
 

 

The Geartronics gear display arrived today and I’m not impressed. A basic Molex pcb connector that is preassembled. I need only 3 of the wires, and I can’t get them out, while my ocd permits to just cut them off... Also no features are present for mounting the case. And the case is fake carbon.

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

The bottom output was anyway a problem with the gear display, so I removed the connector completely and soldered my 3 wires directly to the pcb, which allowed a back exit. Bracket next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

Bracket day, Project Binky would be proud… gear display:

 

 

Gear position connector:

 

 

 

Bracket to secure relays so they stay in place:

 

 

And a Ram Mount for the phone attached to the underside of my electronics tray (right of shifter):

 

 

The gear display feels a bit too bright in darkness despite its light sensor, so I think I’ll take the scuttle off once more and add a hidden switch for it.

 

And to delight Porsche owners - have a look how the carbon weave aligns! Unfortunately I don’t have any colored stitching on the dash to really make this car something crazy… 😎

 

 

And the Ecumaster ECU datalogger arrived - I just need to decide where to place it. My engine loom has the unused connector for VSS, so I could modify the wiring for the logger. It came with a 4GB memory card, which should be good for 120 hours of data. 
 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

A few small things today… my water pipe was rubbing a little on the engine mount, so I made a bracket, that clamps to the engine mount. I just need to weld a boss to the water pipe and I can then support it:

 

 

And I made a tiny adapter so I can mount a second microswitch for the clutch on top of the brake switch:

 

 

And the engine logger is wired and mounted under the dash with adhesive velcro. The lights are blinking continuously like crazy… I guess I’ll just tape them over or something.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

Fluids are in, the oil system primed and the oil pressure checked ok ->the car is ready for a first engine start 2022.

A suggestion for anyone doing a custom instrument panel -> I combined the alternator light to the start button illumination. It works perfectly, as it goes dark when engine is on and all ok.

 

 

And a short video on throttle blipper for downshifting, it is quite violent:
 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

I mounted the boot cover, which has been waiting for the right inspiration a year now. Also warmed up the engine, no issues, apart from a wash and the weather the car is now all set for the upcoming season. 
 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

A nice start into the day today, as I managed to figure out how to machine a Caterham logo from a vector file to the spark plug cover for a fellow 7 owner. I imagine this will be a usefull capability later on.

 

 

[Rosteri]

I now have the first part of the shakedown behind me - first oil change (50 km) on the Sadev is done and around 200 km driven in total. I have shifted both manually and with the paddles, however only with the clutch at this stage. The paddles are amazing and stop and go traffic is actually super relaxing, as shifting is now totally effortless. Manual gear shifts require quite a bit more force than my Tracsport type9, the sound levels are relatively similar when moving, but the box makes a very loud clunck/bang when a gear goes in. Part throttle etc feel all the same, so for me this box is perfectly usable for my ”everyday” driving.

 

We have not noticed/heard the compressor running during driving, which is great.

 

The only issue so far is my throttle cable gradually slackening, thanks to the pneumatic blipping on downshifts. I need to fix that.

 

Next we will do the first shift tests under power. MME has full logging features built-in, so we should have good visibility of what is going on.

[Croc]

2 hours ago, Rosteri said:

.....the box makes a very loud clunck/bang when a gear goes in. 

 

 

How much of this will be from the gearbox changes not being calibrated with the engine via the ECU/gearbox control unit?   Everything I have read about the sadev used with paddle shifters says that it needs setting up via drive testing.  

 

I know when I have driven a sadev with a manual shift lever, it is not happy if you are just pootling around - it prefers that you are on it and then the shifts become very crisp and clean.  

[Rosteri]

I am just referring to how gears go in in general - the stick movement is converted to barrel rotation and it makes a loud clunk when gears are changed, even when the engine turned off. So this is not yet about the tuning or manual vs paddle. 

[Rosteri]

Rollcage pads - again one if those jobs, that I kept pushing into the future, as I couldn’t find any decent way to attach them. I went for cable ties, but tried my best to at least recess the heads. With a custom fabric cover they will look fine.

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Rosteri

[Kitcat]

Cable ties: Sounds like this Caterham is done! Nice job on the recessed roll pad. I just pulled on my cable ties until they disappeared into the foam:). Far less professional looking than yours.

[Rosteri]

Hah, I tried that and no luck - FIA pads are much too hard!
 

Unfortunately there is still stuff to do, the main item for this summer is a missing throttle pedal stop. So far I have been using a stop at the TB end, but I think I now know the movement range and can figure out a final arrangement so I don't rip the cable off in the heat of a battle... 

Edited May 9, 2022 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

Well, after a few hours of staring, I decided to re-use the alternative pivot points meant for the throttle pedal to mount the stop. My first idea was to use the floor, but I just could reach there anymore…
 

 

[Rosteri]

Working on the shift settings for the paddle - especially the downshift has been quite interesting to configure. We start to be ready for the first track day.