Brooklands February

Well, last week started well with the engine going in, however nothing else got done as I had a late night
working on Tuesday and then got this bug that's going around. Fortunately I felt well enough to go away for
the weekend - we'd booked a country hotel for a couple of nights.

Anyhow, Sunday evening and back to reality. At 4 o'clock I "just went in the garage for an hour", she came
and winkled me out at 10pm just as I was getting into my stride :-)). I started by drilling a hole for the
clutch cable and fitting it. It was a bit of a struggle as you're working at an odd angle but it worked OK. I
then started to build up the front calipers, trying to remember how the anti-rattle springs fitted. Unlike
"normal" car calipers, the 2CV ones are supposed to break in two halves and you have to fit a seal when re-
building them - they also have the handbrake incorporated. I also managed to create an LHM fountain by
pushing back the piston on one of the halves which wasn't drained! Aaaarrghhhhh.

I then set up the handbrake cables and adjusted them (ad infinitum) until the pull was right. Next job was to
connect the underdash handbrake to the remote. This is achieved by means of a long narrow metal plate,
which in this application is too short, so I made up some extensions and fitted roughly to test and it all
worked OK.

I'll take some photos tonight so that you can see what I have been blathering about.

Got in the garage for a couple of hours last night. First job was to sort out the
handbrake - the extensions I'd made didn't look right (you can see them in the
first photo on the right). It ocurred to me that Phil must know this is an issue
and sure enough, in my bag of parts was a replacement handbrake extension
strap. Making the slot in the bulkhead was hit and miss and it mean't cutting up
into the bulkhead/parcel shelf flange and removing one of the rivets.

Next job is to look at the gear lever. This is a cranked rod that runs through an
outer tube to the gear lever attached to the gearbox. The rod is located by
retaining the outer tube. The difficulty is that the tube can't be fixed solidly
in one position as the cranked design of the rod at the gearbox means that the
front end of the tube needs to go up and down, depending upon whether the
gear lever it self goes forwards or backwards. This is simple enough as there
is a tab (which is quite thin metal) on the bottom of the tube that can be
attached to a mount of some description and act as a pivot (nad note that this
means the gear knob end of the lever will also rise and fall, albeit less as it is
closer to the fulcrum).

The problem is that to select reverse or first, the rod itself is rotated, thus
pushing the gear lever to one side, and then pushed or pulled accordingly. The
gear lever resistance exterts an opposite sideways force on the outer tube,
which results in a sideways twisting force at the fulcrum. As this is a thin
metal tab I wonder how long it will last

What is needed is a mount at the front of the outer tube which will resist the
sideways forces (and thus remove the twisting forces at the fulcrum), but allow
a vertical motion of roughly 50mm. Just to make it really easy, it has to be
something I can make with the tools I have to hand.

I have a couple of ideas, the main issue is handling the friction/wear in the
vertical motion without resorting to a large dollop of grease!

Got out into the garage and started working on the gearlever mounts, Tried some aluminium for the rear
mount but it didn't feel strong enough, so I resorted to a bit of steel angle suitably fettled. Painted it and
left it to dry whilst I worked on the front mount. I had some feedback from the Pembleton Forum and I
realised it was easier than I'd thought. Essentially it's a plate rivetted to the side of the glovebox with a
wide slot in it.

I've also started thinking about gauges. I want to keep an eye on the engine and so want oil pressure and
temperature gauges besides fuel, speedo and tacho. The first issue is the space available for all of those on
the dashboard, although I have an idea about that. More difficult are the senders for the oil. The only way
I can see to fit an oil temperature sender is to drill and tap the sump, although it may be possible to replace
the sump plug with a sender. The oil pressure sender that is there now is just a switch. Checking it last night
with a thread gauge and calipers, it looks suspiciously like 3/8" 16tpi, which is interesting as everything else
on the engine is metric!

Only got a few hours in this weekend as I haven't been well since
getting back from hols - reaction to relaxation I suspect. Anyhow,
after fighting a losng battle with my new caravan's electrics (shock
horror, a caravan and a Pembleton - strange brew!) and having to
take it back to the dealer for them to look at, I was able to get in
the garage.

First order of the day was to sort out the gear linkage., which was
duly done by making up a bracket which was fairly well braced, and
then adding extra vertical plates to provide a flat surface against
which the outer tube can press. This will minimise wear by
spreading the pressure, there is also a small amount of play which I
will take up with a thin nylon tube around the outer, the type you
can get to put around radiator pipes to save you painting them.
Trying the gearshift it works a treat, and the clutch is abviously
doing something as it's much easier to engage gears with the clutch
pedal depressed.

I then decided to tackle the front brake pipes, something I had
been putting off as they need a lot of bending. Got them in place
(note the double clips holding the loop created by linking two P clips
with a rivet and backing washer. Finally added the brake fluid
reservoir.

There is a madness in my method - I want to a) test out the brakes
before putting the rear shoes on, and b) I need the brakes so that I
can torque up the hub nuts.

Also note in the photo's that all of the rivets come into the engine
bay so that the dome head is in the cabin - a necessity for SVA and
a pain in the **** when you want to secure a P clip, such as where
the brake pipes are secured to the bulkhead!