310 Encore Build (Colorado)

[hahuang65]

@chrisp993 your blog is very thorough and clean. Well done!

 

I took a video time-lapse blog but the downside there is that there are no up-close video of what I did. To complement that, I just took hand-written notes in a notebook that I'm holding onto forever lol. I'd love to convert that to a blog one day, but as time passes, my recollection of what my notes mean are fading more and more. At the time, given I only had 2 or 3 hours to work every night after the kids went to bed... I just wanted to get the build done and documented JUST enough.

 

Anyways, looking at your pic, I'm realizing that if I wanted to get off the pods, I'd likely have to pull the entire length of wires out of the chassis to remove the pods... re-threading those through the tubing and the chassis will be quite a pain. Not sure if I want to do that.

 

Yeah, I found the spec on the pins but couldn't find anywhere to purchase them without buying 6000 of them. Thank you for the offer to send over some, but your link to Corsa is great. I'll just order a batch myself. Thanks again for being so generous.

 

As far as blacking out those nuts... you could use a Sharpie for now... but given your thoroughness with the blog and build so far... maybe get the same spec nuts, and get them powdercoated, even cerakoted lol... and replace.

 

I think overall I like the look without the pods from afar.... but looking close-up...the headlights look weirdly stood up and strangely tall. I'm un-sure if I'll commit to removing the pods, probably will be an in-the-moment decision when I re-pin the headlight.

[jmaz]

3 hours ago, chrisp993 said:

I also just completed the headlight wiring for my build - long blog post here - but the short version is that I ditched the indicator pods and went with aftermarket LEDs (integrated turn signals) and just took all the wiring through to the engine bay where I crimped on pins to match the factory wiring.

I wasn't aware that you've got a new blog going.  You're doing a very nice job with it!  The option of leaving off the indicator pods entirely hadn't occurred to me.  It's definitely something to consider.

[chrisp993]

Thanks for the complement - like the car, the blog is a work in progress! Hopefully it's a resource for others as I've really leaned on blogs for help. And a record for me as my memory fades!

 

FWIW, tightly bundled in heat shrink - and crucially, without pins - the 5 wires from the headlight were no problem to push through the bracket. I did slide the grommets off and spray silicone lube but I wouldn't worry about doing it again. For me the PITA and most time spend would be the need to replace the pins. OTOH if you didn't want to replace the pins, then the wires would be trickier to to be fed back and I'm guessing could only go through the bracket one at a time? That would also limit heat shrink to just the headlight end, not the full length?

 

Regarding the look ... I don't think I'll really know if it looks weird until I put the nosecone, hood and front wings on. I'll try and remember to report back when I get to that point. 

[jmaz]

47 minutes ago, chrisp993 said:

Thanks for the complement - like the car, the blog is a work in progress! Hopefully it's a resource for others as I've really leaned on blogs for help. And a record for me as my memory fades!

 

FWIW, tightly bundled in heat shrink - and crucially, without pins - the 5 wires from the headlight were no problem to push through the bracket. 

Yep, your blog's definitely a help.  The level of detail (including obscure stuff such as the part numbers for the Econoseal pins) is spot-on, and there aren't many blogs on LHD cars.   

 

I also found that the 5 wires wrapped in flexible, tight heat shrink to be pretty easy to get through the bracket.  Shouldn't be hard to re-do if desired.

[chrisp993]

Quick experiment with some black self-fusing silicone tape .... seems like a clean black out solution? And I know from past usage, this stuff is completely weatherproof.

[hahuang65]

Yeah you're right about the difficulty of threading the wires with vs without the pins. I did it with the pins as that's how it came already from the factory.

 

If I have the wire length, then cutting off and recrimping the pins should not be a big deal. 

 

I'll see how it is when the pins come in and I fix my loose one.. if they work well with my crimper I might just redo it. I should probably heatshrink the wires too (I didn't previously).

[chrisp993]

8 minutes ago, hahuang65 said:

If I have the wire length, then cutting off and recrimping the pins should not be a big deal.

 

Done properly you only need a tiny section of wire, enough for the forward crimp on the pin, so cutting and re-pinning should only lose ⅓"  or so of the wire. In the picture you only need the wire between the green lines ... the section I've crossed out is surplus (my sloppy work, too much bare wire on all the pins!) and in fact occupies the space that the connector's internal catch needs to click into in order to retain the pin.

[jmaz]

A good thing to keep in mind is that on most types of pins, the rear "wings" on the pin are intended to grip the wire insulation and serve to anchor the pin, while the front wings should grip just bare wire.  This helps when looking at how much insulation you want to strip off, and how you want to position the wire in the pin when the pin's being held by the crimping tool.

 

[chrisp993]

1 hour ago, jmaz said:

A good thing to keep in mind is that on most types of pins, the rear "wings" on the pin are intended to grip the wire insulation and serve to anchor the pin, while the front wings should grip just bare wire.  This helps when looking at how much insulation you want to strip off, and how you want to position the wire in the pin when the pin's being held by the crimping tool.

 

 

On the Econoseal pins it's a bit different - and I got it wrong! I was doing a little digging into pins and seals - specifically why I had grey seals vs. stock yellow and whether this made a difference - quick answer on that is that colors do correspond to wire sizes, but they aren't that consistent and the important thing is to choose a seal that is "snug" on the wire. But in going down this rabbit hole, I found that on Econoseal, the rear wings are actually meant to grip the seal and not just the wire insulation. This is shown in BigCol's excellent post on Fitting Econoseal Connectors - scroll down for the picture and you'll see what I mean. I think my connectors are OK, but pinning them in the proper way ensures the seal gets pulled into and really plugs the connector. And now, my OCD exists in this world where my connector seals are not quite 100% 

Edited May 7 by chrisp993

[CBuff]

If you are worried about wire bulk.  I took my first dive into wiring to add some auxiliary power in my 420.  It was over kill but I used mil spec wiring. I was shocked at how thin the wires are. (And it is not cheap. But short runs shouldn’t be too bad ). 
 

a quick search showed the headlights draw up to 5amps which 22 gauge wire should handle.  But if you go up to 20 gauge I think that’s rated up to 8.5amps.  The wire is super thin and won’t bulk up with multiple runs.  But it is stiffer than regular wire.  
 

but please do your research on sizing the wire correctly.  not that you likely want to rewire the entire assembly 
 

https://www.milspecwiring.com/22AWG-Solid_c_400.html

 

[jmaz]

The build continues to progress at a very gradual (comfortable for me) pace.  No problems so far.  Steps completed to date include front suspension, engine+trans, roll bar, steering, heater, throttle cable, front lights (although not yet connected to the Econoseal connectors), other engine electrical connections, 4-point belts (will install crutch straps when I get them from Josh at RMC as part of my original order), Next on the list is radiator+fan install and engine plumbing.  Here are a few things I've noted with some of the recent work:

 

Headlight Wiring:  I could have done a much better job of making the wires a more even length prior to heat-shrinking everything.  At some point, I'll probably re-do the pins to shorten and even out the wiring into the Econoseal connectors.  I'm debating whether to put the stock headlights in place or spend the money now for LED upgrades before final headlight assembly (I'm considering the Morimoto Sealed6 lights, wired for turn signal + DRL function).

Steering Centering:  Trying to center the steering (in the process of installing the steering column) by counting steering U-joint rotations between full left and right lock didn't seem precise enough, so I used the method shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEPW0Zz8qoU which involved sliding the boot(s) off the steering rack, and then measuring the distance between the steering rack stops.  It might be enough to measure the distance at full stop in one direction and then just divide by two, but I measured both sides of the steering rack to play it safe.  The maximum travel was 10 cm on each side, so I set a distance of 5 cm per side to center the steering.

U-joint and Steering Column Alignment:  It's recommended that, if necessary, the steering rack be rotated on its long axis to get as straight as an alignment as possible along the steering rack U-joint and the lower steering column.  Even with the rack mounting brackets very loose, I was having trouble rotating the rack until I realized that I also needed to loosen the lock nuts at the tie-rod ends so that the rods could rotate along with the rack.  Probably should have been obvious, but I'm finding that, for me at least, I'm saying "duh" to myself quite a bit during this build. 

Upper Steering Column Bush:  Most people note that it takes some force to push the rubber bush with its white insert into the dashboard opening for the upper steering column.  I struggled with this for awhile until I noticed that there were some small spikes of powder coat in the dashboard's bush housing.  After lightly sanding those off using a Dremel with a drum sander bit, and also using the suggestion of inserting a 1/2" ratchet extension through the bush to provide something to push against, the bush went into place with moderate force applied (https://caterham420detailedbuildblog.co.uk/2020/01/29/steering-column/)

Battery Cables:  the kit came with two black (ground) battery cables of different lengths.  I wasn't sure which was meant for which grounding point, but only one of the cables (the longer one) has a fitting with a big enough hole to fit one of the transmission tunnel bolts through if you decide to use that as a grounding location. 

[chrisp993]

1 hour ago, jmaz said:

Steering Centering:  Trying to center the steering (in the process of installing the steering column) by counting steering U-joint rotations between full left and right lock didn't seem precise enough, so I used the method shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEPW0Zz8qoU which involved sliding the boot(s) off the steering rack, and then measuring the distance between the steering rack stops.  It might be enough to measure the distance at full stop in one direction and then just divide by two, but I measured both sides of the steering rack to play it safe.  The maximum travel was 10 cm on each side, so I set a distance of 5 cm per side to center the steering.

 

Jmaz ... I just installed the steering column and your post gave me one of those "I'm so dumb" moments. In my case, I reasoned that since the tie rod ends were 12 turns out ... I *assumed* that meant they were both the same distance from rack center and by measuring the wheels straight ahead (ref. rotor edge to front lower wishbone bolt) I could set the wheel straight and then insert the lower column in the rack at that position. Done. But, of course there is that assumption in there ...

 

Long story short (the detail is updated on my blog post) based on your comment I went back, taped a zip tie indicator to the steering hub and looked for how that ended up when at full lock each way. Sure enough it was almost (but not quite) even; full lock right was about 15deg right from vertical whereas full lock left was about 5deg left from vertical ... I was close, but no cigar. So, disassembled (hey, loctite works!) and moved the lower column one spline CW and, bingo, I was there!

[Dave W]

When you get ready to set the toe, to keep the steering wheel centered, fab a simple fixture to clamp the steering wheel to keep it perfectly align while adjusting the rod ends. With a DIY alignment methods there is too much friction at the tire surface.  

[wdb]

1 hour ago, Dave W said:

When you get ready to set the toe, to keep the steering wheel centered, fab a simple fixture to clamp the steering wheel to keep it perfectly align while adjusting the rod ends. With a DIY alignment methods there is too much friction at the tire surface.  

 

Yes do lock the steering wheel in place; I use a scissors jack and some protective material to push up on it from below. As to friction at the tire surface, there are inexpensive means of reducing it. A piece of plastic sheet under the tire is one way. Another one I've heard about is two pieces of linoleum tile with some grease smeared on them. That one sounds a bit messy. I'm sure there are other ways just waiting to be discovered. And of course one can always get alignment plates...