Fisher Fury Build Progress - May 2006

1^st May

Left at 7am this morning for a 2½ hour drive up to Stoneleigh kit car show. It was a bit dissapointing to be honest. The outside part of the show has more of a car boot sale feel to it. It's also got quite a focus on classic cars and less so on kitcars. For example, it seemed very easy to find imperial bolts but I struggled to find high-tensile M12 bolts anywhere. There was little exciting or original on the stands in terms of parts but I guess if you went with a shopping list you could find most of what you wanted there. There is a wider selection of parts on the Internet.

Picked up a few tools, fixings and bits of trim but there was very little in the way of seats on show. Was also after a centre mirror and some harnesses but no luck there either.

It's worth a look at the various manufacturers. There seem to be many replica cars though. Something I'm not a big fan of. The modern trend for throwing horse power at cars was evident though and I reckon that the chassis on a lot of these cars weighs more than my whole car does.

There were some very beautiful looking cars but the best design for me was the Sylva R1ot . This is the first time I've seen one in the metal. It's about as minimalist as a car can be. There doesn't seem to be anything on the car, that doesn't have an engineering function. If I was going to build something like this, I'd leave off all the trim as well. Despite the minimal amount of metalwork, it looks very well designed and very strong structurally. I particularly liked the way the whole engine and transmission was attached to the chassis. To be honest, this is the kind of innovative and intelligent design that I hope Lotus can put in the next Elise. I'd love to drive this car (R1 engined of course) back to back with a Lotus 340R and see how they compare on a track.

2^nd May

Plan For This Month

~~Tighten and check nothing is loose so that the car can actually drive safely.~~
~~Sort out the fuel level sensor which seems to have stopped working.~~
Fix the coolant expansion tank properly (currently held on with tie-wraps). - I'm going to leave this until I've seen where the bodywork goes as I might have to move it again.
~~Attach the clutch cable.~~
~~Fit a proper fuel filler cap.~~
~~Fit the propshaft.~~ (centre mount plate to do)
Rivet the internal chassis panels in place.
Fit the roll hoops.
Order my bodywork.

4^th May

In finishing the clutch set up, I tightened the 6mm bolt clamping the clutch cable to the pedal and it snapped. With a 2.5mm hole through it, there is not enough metal left, so I had to drill an 8mm bolt and remove the pedal to drill out the bolt hole to 8mm.

6^th May

Ordered a fuel filler cap from Burton Power

I picked up some carbon fibre effect sheet at Stoneleigh, which I wanted to use for the small plate between the dash and the transmission tunnel. I decided very early on the keep the chunky hazard warning switch off of my dash and on this plate with some 12V LED warning lights (fan on, helmet comms TX, video recorder on, oil level from engine).

9^th May

Digidash Tacho Feed

Daz

has found a better way to connect the Digidash2 tacho feed to the bike loom, to get a cleaner signal. By using the orange/black wire (ECU pin 8) to the fuel injector instead of the coil feed, the Digidash2 seems to be much happier.

Fuel Level Sensor

I've switched off the fuel level alarm (FLA) warning on the Digidash2 and checked the resistance of the sensor and the wiring. Having put a bit more fuel in the tank, it seems to be working correctly. I'm not convinced the sensor is truly linear as with a tank about 1/3 full, it reads about 14%.

11^th May

Wired up all of my warning lights and tested them.

Fuel cap, hose and other bits arrived from Burton Power .

17^th May

Ordered my propshaft from Bailey Morris

20^th May

Final check over the suspension and torqued up all the bolts.

21^st May

Fixed the problem with the handbrake, where the warning light flashed if I moved the lever. Still need to put something on the chassis to stop the cable rubbing on it though.

Planned to torque up the engine output sprocket but the socket I borrowed from Richard is the wrong size.

Reprogrammed the Digidash2 so that the shift lights are at 1000rpm spacing and the fuel level alarm is switched off.

26^th May

Painted a few bits and pieces. Finding time to get inot the garage right now is proving difficult. Work has become very hectic with frequent trips to London.

27^th May

Torqued up the nut on the engine output shaft (85Nm, 36mm nut) and folded the retaining washer over. This would have been a lot easier with the engine out of the car.

Fitted a stop to the clutch pedal. It's a adjustable and is there to stop the clutch being pulled too far out.

I'm still seeing some issues with the rpm on the Digidash. My initial thoughts were that taking a feed from the injector has fixed it but, I'm still seeing slow updates and spurious results. Having done some more testing the Digidash recorded a maximum rpm of 15,900! I've proved the shift lights work though .

For the SVA, I need to cover this hole with a plate. The fixings for this will also hold the cables in place. Need a trip to my local aluminium fabricator to get some 2mm aluminum plate though.