Getting colder again.....

Old and new lower radiator covers

Coils and starter solenoid now in place

Its been a slower start to the week this week - lost my way a little earlier in the week I think, and needed to focus on specific tasks. Still, I have managed to source the gearchange lever and fit it after cutting off the end (which is surplus to requirements). With my newly jointed gear lever linkage, it appears to be a much better arrangement than the turbo which had a slimmer gear lever arm at the gearbox shaft end, as this slopped around within the two pronged end of the gear linkage mechanism provided for the car.
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I've now managed to source a water transfer pipe which exits the water pump. Dire warnings have been issued by various people about getting the fitment of the pipe into the water pump housing anything other than exactly square. There appears to be two schools of thought as to where the rubber O ring goes. Some say between the ridges of the transfer pipe, and some (my expert included) says before the first ridge. I think I'll be canny and fit two O rings - one before the first ridge, and another between the two ridges - just to be safe. Talking of water pipes, I've spent a bit of time looking for 22mm internal diameter water hose on the usual car builder web sites, only to find that with the exception of a couple of bends, 22mm seems something of a scarcity. I eventually found one company - AP Motorstore - a range of not-too-expensive silicon hoses that will do the job nicely. As I've used blue for the shock absorbers and gear linkage, I've decided to go with blue hoses too.
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I've never been a great fan of Hammerite, but having decided that the floor of the car needed a coat of paint, and as I happened to have a tin of hammered silver grey, I gave it a go. Big mistake! The paint has not dried properly, even after 24 hours, and has brush marks everywhere. Looks like a sand down and repaint will be necessary.
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As promised, the exhaust downpipes turned up, together with the "blister" that provides more foot room by the accelerator pedal. I looked forward to an afternoon's session in the garage fitting the downpipes. Unfortunately, the afternoon's work was a lot shorter that I had expected. When I offered up the exhaust pipes, they wouldn't tighten when the clamps were butting up against the heads - there was still about 6mm fore and aft movement. Several attempts at removal and refitting produced the same result. Having had no previous experience of the standard 500 cc engine, I began to wonder if there were some bits missing. Unable to reach the supplier that afternoon, I looked at photographs of standard CX500 exhausts on the Internet. All seemed to have a much deeper flange that the 6mm or so flange on my new pipes. A final check with the ever-helpful UK CX500 forum resulted in a photo of a standard exhaust downpipe with deeper flange, and the observation that at least one after market exhaust system uses spacers. This seemed the most likely solution - spacers to pack out the gap. The following morning I contacted John Z and sure enough, he said I needed spacers and that he could provide them. I wonder why he didn't ask if I needed them 7 weeks ago when I ordered the downpipes?
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I've made up part of the aluminium cover for the lower part of the radiator that sits below the bulkhead, but am waiting for two dash type vents to arrive from Car Builder Solutions before doing any more as I need to cut holes in the aluminium to house them, and this is much easier done on flat sheet rather that the assembled box. Fortunately, the dash vents arrived in the post on Thursday so I braved the cold (-3 C) of the garage on Friday and finished making the unit. Whilst not wishing to brag, I do feel that my new cover is an improvement on the previous one (see photo).
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Having turned my attention to the exhaust again, I was concerned that might not be able to use the Dunstall silencers I bought last year as the ID of the silencer inlet is 44mm and the new exhaust pipe is only 38mm OD. However, EBay came to the rescue with two sets of reducers that will pack out the silencer to take the smaller diameter inlet pipe. Although the silencers were at the limit of their forward travel on the existing fixing bolt I rummaged around in the roof of the garage and eventually found the two metal straps that were supplied with the silencers. By using these I can attached the silencer to the bolt that holds the rear reflector in place which is some 100mm forward of the previous fixing point.
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By now I was getting enthused again and dug out the various throttle and clutch cables that I had for the turbo. Not one of them fitted, so now I've bought a clutch cable from David Silver (Honda agent), but I'm a bit bemused by the availability of a throttle opening cable as well as a throttle closing cable. I need to speak to my expert on this before I buy one.
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A little bit of despondency crept in again - everything I attempt to do cannot be completed because either the turbo bit is different, or because my lack of experience of the standard 500cc engine results in me hitting another "ignorance" wall. Quite why Honda found it necessary to re-engineer relatively simple parts for the turbo version is a mystery. Another example of the differences is the fixing of the coils. On the turbo, these were mounted on a simple aluminium frame that attached to the engine casing. That appears not to be the case with the standard 500cc engine so I've had to make two aluminium brackets - one for each coil - and mounted the coils on the diagonal chassis cross members. Similarly, I've made a bracket for the starter solenoid which I've mounted on the vertical chassis member that supports the radiator.
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The elusive water transfer pipe turned up on Thursday too so I need to get this to Sam Day (who is also warning me of dire consequences if this isn't fitted absolutely square) for modification. This is doubly important on my installation as the pipe will be cut to allow a 180 degree return behind the engine back towards the radiator, rather than running down the side of the engine (where there are supports cast into the casing) and round the front of the engine, as this seems an unnecessarily long route.
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I'll be picking up my tested CDI unit on Monday which will allow me to start the (dreaded)rewiring in earnest.
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Roger

Wheels firmly on the ground

Fan with top of the ducting removed

Gradually getting back to normal

One or two of my purchases have turned up this week - some aluminium sheet, a pair of coils, a flasher unit, a pair of exhaust collets - that have enabled me to rattle of another few jobs on the list that never seems to diminish.

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The aluminium sheet was needed to build the box/duct to carry hot air from the radiator to the side of the car. I've fabricated the duct and fixed the fan in place. As can be seen I've angled this to direct the hot air towards the side of the car. Now I need to make the box that fits under the bulkhead to complete the "anti-roasting" work. I have found a suitable nozzle type vent with opening/closing vanes so that heat can be directed into the car if required (Car Builder Solutions for the vent). I also need to seal the duct to the bonnet but I'll leave that until later.

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The exhaust collets were in reasonable condition but a quick polish up has them looking quite shiny. I checked with John Ziemba on the delivery of my downpipes and it appears they should be with me very shortly
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I'm little disappointed with the condition of the coils as they are very dirty and a little bit tatty, but they appear to be sound if not exactly looking like new! I need to make some brackets to attach them to the diagonal chassis members that connect the longitudinal chassis legs to the bulkhead on each side. My local hardware store has a suitable length of aluminium strip for this.

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I spent most of Friday morning getting the springs replaced onto the shock absorbers. Having done the rounds of my local garages I found that their coil spring compressors were too big to handle the dainty coil springs from the Cortina. In the end a very helpful mechanic at A&M Motorcycles in Letchworth used a motorcycle spring compressor to reassemble the coil over shocks and gave me an Olins C spanner for the final adjustments. Once I had set the spring height at its old level I refitted them - looking rather less "in yer face" than the previous red and yellow livery.

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With the springs and shocks refitted I tightened up all the suspension bolts and lowered the car off the axle stands. I shouldn't need to jack it up again now and can manoeuvre the car around as I need to.

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I managed to source a gear change lever using an Internet based network of motorcycle breakers. That just leaves the water transfer pipe to source and it appears that my recent joining of the UK Honda CX500 group has been fruitful as one of the members has a spare that he will sell me. I've decided to route the water pipe to the rear of the engine - that is to take the shortest route, rather than run along the side of the engine, across the front and back along the other side to the radiator.

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I've removed the gear linkage to give it a coat of paint and to adjust the fixing points to ensure ot doesn't foul the bodywork (just moving washers from one side to another really)

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It looks like I'm getting closer and closer to the rewiring which does make me slightly nervous.

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Roger

Engine in - now I need the bits that are missing

Tap washers worked a treat

Engine now installed

Having received the radiator back from its testing and minor repair, a quick coat of paint was in order. I'd looked through a Frosts catalogue and seen that special radiator paint was over £12 a can. Having questioned the radiator repairers about what they used, they suggested the use of smooth black Hammerite, and as I happened to have a tin of satin black, then a few ££s saved there.
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I had noticed that one of the rubber radiator mounting bushes was missing when I dismantled the car - in its place was a rather crudely cut down suspension bush. Whilst I don't doubt I could have eventually found the correct rubber from a breakers, it hardly seemed worth the bother. So, instead I went to my local hardware store and bought 4 rubber tap washers for just under £2. Two of these were larger and fitted fairly well in the opening in the radiator shroud. The two smaller washers acted as spacers between the shroud and the fixing post. Once the retaining bolt was tightened the washers expanded and filled the shroud hole quite nicely. I have to confess that I am a little bemused by the position of the radiator, and its "occupant cooking" capability. I'm thinking of fabricating an aluminium shroud to cover the lower part of the radiator but have some sort of shutter that can be opened/closed to act as a heater when needed, but to stop getting some of the heat in the car in summer (that's the less cold, rainy period between May and September for non UK readers). I still need to fabricate a couple of brackets to support the bottom of the radiator - I think attached to the bulkhead will suffice.

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On the subject of radiators, I had removed and dismantled the small 5-bladed fan (14 mm diameter) that had been rather poorly attached to the radiator shroud with a battered metal support frame. Knowing that overheating had been a problem for some Honda engined JZR owners, I wanted a more efficient fan as the turbo engine had two radiators, both with fans. Looking through the various kit car accessory catalogues, it appeared that the smallest fan I could buy was 7 inches in diameter. This would be too big for the space available so I opted to buy (Ebay again) a second hand 10 bladed fan from a big Triumph motorbike that had good fixing brackets so that I could easily secure it to the bulkhead behind the radiator. A couple of other thoughts come to mind - as I'm doing away with the rather dangerous (and never used by me) front mounted petrol tank, I have a hole in the bonnet where the filler cap poked through. I'm thinking of enlarging that hole and adding an air scoop. This will benefit the engine cooling, and could possibly be used to get colder air to the carbs (more on that later). I'm also wondering whether I can fabricate a duct to take the hot air from behind the radiator to the sides of the bonnet where I already have vents.

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My can of engine case paint had arrived by post so I set about giving it a good coat of satin black. Having donned the mask and opened the garage door to get good ventilation I managed to get most done before the light starting fading. Its probably not best to try painting when you can't see what you're doing but fortunately, an inspection on the following day revealed that I had only missed a very small area which was soon "touched up".

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Now that the engine had been painted I could set about refitting it. The use of an old piece of carpet was an excellent substitute for a more sophisticated means of moving the engine from the front of the garage to the workshop area at the back. With the block and tackle in place, the engine was wrapped in some old foam sheeting and the lifting straps wrapped around that to protect its new coat of paint. It didn't take long to get the engine up and over the steering rack and into position. I placed the rubber boot around the drive output shaft and jiggled the propshaft to mate with the splines. It all seemed too easy, and of course, it was. After getting the front mounting bolts in place and manoeuvring the single, long rear bolt into its locating lugs I discovered that the propshaft had jumped out and was sitting beside the output shaft. After a quick swear the engine was lifted, swung forward and then dropped back into position, this time ensuring that the propshaft was properly engaged. It does take a little jiggling using a jack under the engine to get the mounting bolts lined up, but it is a simple process and was done in a few minutes. Good, its looking more like a JZR again - time for a cuppa!~
With the engine in place I could take stock of the bits that I still needed - the gearchange pedal arm was missing and the turbo one doesn't fit; a water pipe is needed for the nearside of the engine; one jubilee clip is missing from the carbs (is there really no other fixing other than clamping to the inlet manifold extenders?. I may have to find a means of securing them rather better); all other water pipes are needed as the plumbing on the turbo engine was entirely different; tachometer drive cable needed as the turbo had an electronic one. I'm sure there will be more but that'll do for now.

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My new gearlinkage was delivered today, so I've fitted that. It has much improved joints - not rose jointed, but the next best thing.

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Roger

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Suspension reassembled; engine being prepared

With the delivery of all the suspension ball joints I was able to start putting the front end back together. This should have been a relatively simple job, not made easier by finding that the lower suspension arms were effectively handed because the locating lugs were in different positions on each side of the chassis. The offside lugs were 7 mm further part than the nearside. A quick removal of the already-fitted nearside suspension arm and a quick check found that one lower arm was slightly narrower than the other so a bit of force was applied to fit this one in the lugs that were closer together. From then on it was plain sailing to complete the job. However, I have been slightly concerned about the tracking and the camber not being to specification so I've left the upper ball joints finger tight at the moment before making sure the camber is closer to that required. I'll have to wait for the tracking to be done prefessionally once the car is running again. ~

Having painted the pedal box and pedals, a quick clean up of the pedal shaft and a bit of lubrication, and the box was remounted - looking somewhat better for its coat of paint.

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I had spent much of Saturday afternoon cleaning the remainder of the paint from the engine. Not sure what paint it was but it certainly stuck to the casing - even after a dose of Nitromors stripper. In the end a wire brush on the drill removed the remainder and a quick spray with etching primer made the engine look a tad tidier. I've ordered a can of satin black engine casing paint so will finish the job off during the week when it arrives, and then refit the engine.

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Sam Day arrived on Sunday having decided that the engine should be turned over to circulate the oil while he was here. We whipped off the rocker covers and took out the plugs, and then suitably armed with a large battery and leads Sam turned the engine over until oil appeared on the rocker shafts. The process was repeated again with the plugs back in place. All seemed fine.

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The principal reason for Sam coming over was to review the wiring of the car. That didn't take long because there wasn't much wiring left! We did agree where the CDI unit should be located, together with the regulator/rectifier, and the coils. As for the coils, Sam announced that the two sets I had were of no use as they were both only suitable for the turbo engine. Looks like another hunt on Ebay tonight. The other bit of buying I need to do is for the brake lines. Following suggestions from various sources I will be getting flexible hoses made up to avoid the problems of the copper pipes fracturing that have been reported on some cars. This will take in the master cylinder to T piece, and the connection between the nearside and offside T pieces.

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The weekends jobs were completed by the application of a final coat of chassis black on the front hubs and new ball joints, and a clean up of the shock absorber bolts which had been painted the original red colour of the chassis. As the bolts are stainless, a quick clean with the coarser polishing mop had them back to their natural state within minutes. Unfortunately, the springs are painted red and the shock absorbers they surround are painted yellow, so I need to dismantle them and repaint them - not exactly sure on the colour scheme yet. Trouble is that we moved to this house around three months ago and not everything has found a proper home yet. Hunt as I did, I could only find one spring compressor in the garage so another more concerted attempt is required during the week.

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As I have very little wiring left in the car now, I need to rewire everything. Most of the basics are in place with the wiring and the connectors for the engine, CDI unit, and regulator / rectifier, but the lighting, horn, neutral light, stop switch and so on need to be sorted so I've bought a kit of motorcycle connectors and a crimping tool (Ebay again). Much careful studying of the wiring diagram is called for I think!

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Roger

Even the good bits are bad......

....with apologies to the Tremeloes (you need to be a certain age to remember that song!)

With a second coat of POR 15 on the chassis, I turned my attention to the front suspension which I had assumed was in good condition, but I was wrong. On lifting up the nearside suspension unit to dismantle it I was surprised to find some significant play in the lower ball joint. Examination of the bottom joint showed it to be moving up and down by about 3/16 inch. By tightening the nut I could lose the free play, but the castellated nut was by now so far below the hole in the ball joint shank that it would have been pointless to fit it. I guess a couple of thick washers would solve that problem, but once the ball joint was removed it was apparent that it was virtually seized. I checked the upper ball joint and found a split in the rubber cover. On checking the other side I find that a captive nut is used with no provision for a split pin. Definitely new items required here I thought, and while I'm at it, I'll get two new track rod ends too. Reference to Fred Martin's excellent JZR manual gave me the information I needed to order parts, so a quick check on Ebay resulted in the purchase of pairs of upper and lower ball joints and a pair of track rod ends - all Quinton Hazell and at very reasonable prices. Just as a footnote - I had purchased a Haynes manual for the Mark IV Ford Cortina, just so that I had technical information about the front suspension. Unfortunately the manual does not show the lower ball joint or appear to make any reference to it! That was (another) wasted purchase.

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Another day and the front chassis is now finished with a final coat of black chassis paint. Time to turn my attention to the suspension.
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Sam Day had managed to deliver the engine before Christmas, strategically choosing one of the few snow-free days. I keep eyeing up the engine as it sits on the garage floor and debating with myself what colour to paint it. It needs a bit of cleaning up first - that is the removal of the old paint. I think I'll opt for black on the engine but polish up the ally bits to match the rocker covers. Saying "remove the paint from the engine" sounds very simple, but in practise it turned out to be a very long-winded job. The paint on the engine was rather sporadic - some here, some there, but not completely covering the casing. I tried a sample patch with my trusty Nitromors only to find that it turned into a paste and then hardened again. Never seen that before! Plan B sounds necessary - whatever plan B is.

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Sam had suggested that I get the radiator pressure tested whilst it was out of the car so a quick visit to my local radiator specialist and a £10 fee should determine whether it is OK or needs refurbishment. Knowing that overheating can be a problem if the cooling system is not in top condition, this seems a sensible investment. After 24 hours the radiator was declared sound from a pressure test point of view, but a small amount of soldering was necessary where the shroud had parted company with the core.

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All the suspension parts ordered through Ebay turned up on Friday so it looks like a busy weekend for me as I can start to reassemble both suspension units, and the newly refurbished pedal box which looks a little more presentable in its new black livery.

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Roger