Pedal Box & Steering Column

Column Fitted

A bit of brute force was required to get the column to fit in the upper bracket. I bent the steering column brackets a few mm in a vice, and then I was able to slide the column into the chassis. 

Once in, I was able to line up the bottom plate with the bottom bracket. A couple of washers at the upper bracket made sure the plates aligned. Then I marked the hole positions in the steering column and drilled them off. I was advised to have the column as low as possible in the bracket to ensure the instruments will be visible.

A few temporary bolts fix the column in place so I can get on with routing the brake pipes to avoid any clashes.

Will paint the column before I reinstall for a final fit.

Push Rods In

Pedal box: I bought a new fork end and pin from GBS Kit Spares. I drilled a new hole in the brake pedal to align with the brake MC and cut the bolt to size. Brake pedal appears to operate nicely but will need to fiddle a bit once I know the driving position. 

I re-used the clutch fork end and pin from the MX5 donor. Unfortunately the donor clutch MC appears seized, so I can't tell if the pedal operates well. 

I re-installed the scuttle, fire wall and pedal box to check clearance. I think I may need to trim the fire wall a little to ensure good clearance to the brake reservoir. Unfortunately, the pedal box lid is not a good fit with the pre-cut holes. I will need to go back to GBS to sort this. At least now I can get on with routing the brake pipes.

More clearance?

Steering Column Saga Pt1

Nice and flat steering column end

First job on the steering column was to cut off the lower brackets of the upper column and grind off the flanges to create a nice flat surface to mate with the chassis. Cracked out the new angle grinder and made lots of sparks. Easy enough. Holes will need to be drilled to fit the chassis, but first to attack the top part of the steering column.

 Upper chassis bracket - not  fitting at the mo!

Next was to address the upper chassis bracket. A lot of cutting and grinding later, it has become clear the steering column is wider than the chassis bracket.

Flanges ground off

I then went to town on the flanges with the angle grinder and got them flat as a pancake, but still the steering column doesn't slide into place. Looking at several blogs, there has been a need to space out the distance between the column and the chassis at the upper bracket location, but I noticed from facebook posts that was not the case for everyone. 

Not sure what to do yet but I expect it will involve a call to GBS....

Also need to think about tidying up the column and getting some paint of there, it looks a bit tired.....

 

Pedal Box Part2

Pedal Box Sorted

The pedal box has a bit of lateral wobble on the brake pedal. After a good chat with Kevin Broomhead of GBS it became clear I needed to get fettling the poorly sized nylon space as the pedals should be solid in the lateral direction. Plenty of fettling later, lots of copper grease and a bit of colourful language, and the pedal box is nice and tight.

The clutch pedal hole aligns nicely with the clutch master cylinder axis but my clutch MC seems to be stuck in the closed position. It also needs to be spaced out from the chassis bracket by around 30mm at first estimation - spacers on order..... May end up buying a new aftermarket clutch MC, leave that until later.

I noticed even with the brake master cylinder at its highest in the chassis the hole in the brake pedal is misaligned. A few different solutions presented themselves across different blogs and forums, by far the neatest is drilling the hole in the brake pedal lower to avoid grinding the chassis. Having ordered a new fork end and push rod, I need to wait for that to arrive before finally installing it.

When the clutch MC is spaced out it's clear that the reservoir would clash with the fire wall. The same is also true of the brake MC reservoir. Cutting the rear lug off the clutch MC allows me to spin the reservoir around. I can also spin the brake reservoir around and this avoids the clash.

Now just waiting for the push rod to complete the job.