The next problem is to get the wiring into the front part of the car. There
are several problems here, amongst which the major ones are where to mount the fuses and whether to route the loom
above or below the battery shelf. After much faffing about (I took hours doign this, weighing up the possibilities)
I decided to go under it, although it was quite tricky to get at.
I have mounted the fuses (and relays) on the front of the battery shelf, but one problem here is where everything else is going to go. The bracket in this photo is made out of lots of aluminium angle (from the offcuts bin at Mackays, a place of great wonder) and a collection of rivets. It's about time I got some argon gas and aluminium wire to try my hand at aluminium welding, but it's probably as difficult as everyone says.
Unfortunately, I will have to find space on the battery shelf for rather a lot more stuff:
- Battery (not surprising on the battery shelf!)
- Fuel regulator (this isn't necessary but there seems to a view that it's a useful addition)
- Fluid reservoir (actually, I think this will go on the front of the scuttle itself, but it still takes up plan space on the shelf)
- Cooling system expansion tank. (I need to get one from somewhere.)
- Washer bottle, although I think this will probably best go on the front of the passenger's footwell.
I've noticed that I'm hardly referring to the build manual at all at the moment. This isn't really a criticism of the build manual, just an observation based on the fact that it's a different sort of thing from the Westfield one. The Rush manual is just an indication of what can be done, backed up by quite a lot of rather good drawings. The Westfield manual is a step-by-step series of instructions, but without the same sort of technical quality drawings. On the whole I think I prefer the Rush one.
Mind you, I much prefer the quality of the powder coating on the Westfield chassis. I really wish I had got the Rush chassis uncoated, and then waxoyled/painted it myself. Oh well, next time...
I spent a long today making very little progress with the wiring, mainly because
I spent a long time thinking about where things were going to go on the battery shelf. The problem is, I still
don't really know because I really need to get all the rest of the bits.
However, I did manage to mount the washer bottle (which I bought from Europa) down low on the engine compartment side of the passenger's footwell. I had originally bought a cheap washer floppy bag-thing, but eventually decided that it wouldn't fit anywhere.
I also separated all the wiring into left and right sides and re-wrapped the wires in loom tape so that I could attach it to the chassis, as shown here, with the inevitable tie-wraps.
Talking of tie wraps, I have been trying to find some butch dimensioned ones, which I think I'll need to control the position of the handbrake cables. I finally located some in the Screwfix catalogue, of all places, but I had to order a bag of 100 which should keep me going for a long time yet!
I carried on with the wiring, wrapping the front loom and taking it forward to closish
to where it needs to go. Along the way, I put in several spurs for things like indicator repeaters, the starter
motor and the connections to the brake light switch. (Why this has to be right at the front of the car for brake
lights which are right at the back is beyond me.)
Along the way I wired up the starter solenoid,
not the main power feed for which I need the battery tails but the drive side of the starter solenoid and the wiring
to the alternator.
One possible problem is that I can't detect any impedance of the solenoid itself. As far as I can see, this should be possible so it's just feasible that the starter is duff. I think I'll take it out and along to Lucas in Cambridge. I'm pretty sure that they can set such things there and it would be rather better to do this before getting the car completely together. Perhaps I'll ask them to test the alternator at the same time.
in case you've got to this frame directly and can't get out, go here.