Steering, Handbrake, Speedo

It's amazing how the pace of the build has slowed of recent. Most jobs now being done are the things that are not immediately obvious......So, the car sort of looks the same as it did a two months ago. However, I've not stopped, and have a few updates to report.

Lets start with the steering..........The IVA has some requirements surrounding the safety of the steering column. There are a number of ways to tackle this. If you can have more than 10degrees of angle between the column and the shaft that connects to the steering rack then this really helps. The J15 set up is boarder line, so I opted to use the Puma UJ that also has a collapsible component. This required a small shaft to be machined up that went through the front bulk head and onto the steering rack. OK, straightforward.......well, not really. Although it sounds obvious, by adding another UJ in the system, you also introduce some sag in the column. This sag manifests itself to the shaft flying around all over the place with you turn the wheel....Most certainly not ideal!. The 'simple' fix was to introduce a bearing to hold the shaft in position. I won't bore you with the details, but this turned out to be a bigger job than first expected due to the proximity of the bolts associated with the steering shaft.

Anyway.....with bearing installed with a stand off, all now works nicely with no play and a smooth action.

The handbrake (which has been mentioned before) has also been updated. I made the main cable up from the rear calliper cable from a Golf. The local yacht rigger (Jerry the rigger) has swagged the eyelet and M6 Thread onto the cable. The rear connection was removed from an Audi A4, and is simple in design. I need to trim the rear cables (from a Renault Megan), and that job should then be finished.

Finally for this update, the speedo sensor.....

As you may be aware, I’m going to use a small digital dash…this comes with a sensor that is magnetic. The basic theory is you find somewhere on the car that is connected and revolves directly to the wheels (but has a magnetic high point), point the sensor at it and program in the amount of pulses per 1 revolution of the wheel (you also program in the tyre circumference). I found a convenient place on the drive shaft with three high points…..Hopefully, that should be the last time I need to think about the sensor placement….we will see!.