ahh, i wondered why i had a spare kit around. its all done apart from the bush tubes cos the drillstocks knackered on the lathe, i should have it fixed for the end of next week, providing dunford answer their phone.:mad:

Congrats on the new arrival David!

thanks skov. I had forgotten how hard having no sleep is!!

Congratulations :)

You,ll learn the Knack of sleeping sat upright :eek: :D

All the best to you & your family.

Andy

Congratulations too on the new arrival.......:)
Hope everything is fine and best wishes to you and your family.
Johno

thanks handy andy and johno

Congrats :)


"Alien" is on tv this week, it was the first movie my eldest (toby 7.7) watched with me. :eek:

Aliens was the second, then a series about airline crashes...

Daniel was a dam sight easier and required no late night/morning work!!

TT

thanks twin.

did you manage to get the chassis from john?

Unfortunately I had to work and was not able to make it over.

Pedal Box
 

I got my pedal box from NTS Engineering yesterday and it is all assemled ready to go in.

Here is a photo...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/6711258...in/photostream

David

I eventually trial fitted my engine last night so it feels like I have made some progress with my build!

Today I picked up the phone to protech and ordered my shocks! My build budget has taken a bit of a wack!

I have posted a couple of photos to my flickr account

Nice progress David, getting the engine in is a major milestone of the build:cool:

You,ll soon be taking it for a little spin I,m sure ;)

cheers
andy

Welding nightmare
 

I did a bit of welding tonight . I was trying to tack in my engine mounts but some some reason I cannot get the welds to stick. I must be the worst welder ever lol well nearly. My mate had ago and it was worse. Will give it another try tomorrow evening aghhh. On the plus side protect emailed me to day to say they are going to make my shocks tomorrow and send them out!!

Did you run out of gas and not notice?

Also, when I bought my MIG it was setup for fluxcore wire, when I converted it to Argon/CO2 I forgot to change the polarity. It was awful. Then I realized my mistake and switched it and it has been doing great ever since.
.

There is definately gas coming out. For some reason the tips kept getting welded to the wire. Is this normal as I went through a whole packet of 5. Looks like i will have to watch youtube!!

sounds like a wire feeding issue if the arc is burning back to the tip and knacking them....check for the usual issues like no kinks or tight curves in the torch line, feed mechanism is set right and wire that you are using is clean and free from rust

The wire is feeding out without any issues. would it be worthwhile trying with a faster wire speed?

Turn up the wire speed and make sure the metal is clean that happened to me alot at first.

I usually have my wire speed around 6-7 for horizontal and vertical welding and tacking......I only ever turn it down for thin gauge metal and overhead welding
if it "bobbling" at the end of the wire when you are welding then it is defo too slow.....it should look like it is spraying out the end of the wire

Run some beads on a scrap bit of steel, whilst slowly increasing/decreasing the wire speed.
Too slow and it'll come out in blobs, too fast and it'll feel like a machine gun.
Somewhere between the two it'll feel 'right' and you'll get a nice sizzling (often described like bacon frying in a pan!).

Also make sure the metal you're welding is clean, and your ground clamp is attached firmly, and close to where you're welding.

Hi David,
+ one with all the above.
Definately sort out the welder on scrap plate before doing any tacking.
Too much wire speed will result in the welder back firing as such with pieces of arced out wire all over the place. Setting the "Heat control" as I call it too low will also give similar results but with the wire just arcing and not burning the copper off.
It's hard for somebody to tell you what settings to use as each welder is different.
Basically play about with the settings untill you get a convex (domed) weld with the thickness (parent metal) you are using in the position you are going to weld.
Too higher wire speed and to lower voltage will result in wire just laying on the metal with arc marks here and there.
Too higher voltage and not enough wire speed will result in the wire burning back to the tip and melting wire to the tip and possibly holes in parent metal.
It also depends on what type of shielding gas you are using, and how much is coming out. Too much gas and it will cool the weld too much as you are welding, too little gas and you will have porousity in the weld.

I know it sounds complicated but as long as you practice on scrap metal first it should be OK.
You want a nice "crackle" to the weld when it's set up right like you're frying sausages.....LOL
If you are burning out tips turn up the wire speed or turn down the voltage. Too much voltage and too higher wire speed will not burn out tips normally.

Johno

thanks for all the help.

I dropped the parts off with my mate this morning who is an offshore welder! he did find my welds amusing but is going to do them properly for a couple of pints of stella!! bonus. I am still going to master welding though as i am bound to need to do some more somewhere on the build.

David

Hi David,
Nice feeling when you drop the engine in, big grin factor time for that mile stone....:D
It's a sad day when you gotta take it out again though to put other stuff in...:(
I guess it's all woth it in the end.

Looking good there David.......Johno

When installing the fuel lines I am going to use 8 mm micro bore pipe, however is this the ID or OD? I want to buy the right size p clips.

Thanks

David

Usually fuel lines are listed by the size of the bore not the od.

Just measured mine - it's 8mm external diameter.

Thanks for the measurement skov.

I am about to put in place my suspension. What height should I adjust the chassis to? Is it the same front and back?

David

Updated pics
 

My mounts were dropped off yesterday by my mate. Really pleased with the quality of the welding. Much better than my effort. Just need a coat of paint then to stick them back in the car



I have also installed my suspension but it will need to be adjusted. If I compress the spring will the chassis go up or down (probably a stupid question)

Why won't my pictures show?

Works for me :) Builds looking good.

bob

Because you need to paste the address of the image, not the picture's flickr page. You can get at it by clicking on the magnifying glass, then view all sizes, then picking the right size, then right clicking on the image and "Copy image location".

My engine is in (again) ! Hopefully it will never have to come out again lol. Mounts have been cut, welded and painted"
!

[IMG]<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67112582@N03/7489946612/" title="IMG-20120702-00030.jpg by Davidbolam, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8011/7489946612_9e5661aa9a.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG-20120702-00030.jpg"></a>[/IMG]I have uploaded more pictures to my Flickr account

David

The http://farm9.staticflickr.com... part is what you want between the img tags:

Thanks Albert

Should have measured twice!!
 

took my propshaft down to cps in team valley today and for a very reasonable price they shortened and balanced it. They did a first class job and phoned me after an hour of dropping it off to say it was done......however I should have measured the size required as its too short... Lots of b's and f's in my garage earlier!!!

We get the ones on the busses at work done there asked last time I was there and they quoted me 85 quid so will be taking it down with a load of bus ones at some point

They did mine for 35 plus vat. I asked about a new one but the mx5 fittings are not available. They have a strange flange and universal joints. Looks like I will be going to Rowland's gill to get another one and back to cps!! At least his one will be easier to measure as I can draw around the shiny bit!

David

Electrical help required!
 

I've started trying to lay the loom over my car to identify some connectors that weren't labelled on my loom.

The bit I am really struggling with is the battery end. There positive terminal has 2 wires coming out. One of the has been cut and the other appears to go to the starter motor then to the fuse box. I cannot work out what the cut on is for. There is also another black and yellow wire ( which I am assuming is the negative but the connector looks like it could fasten inside of the positive terminal.

Here is a photo showing these? Any ideas ???


Also......

To the rear of the fuse box there are 2 wires. A white on that seems to com back from the alternator and a black one. They both have rings on the end. Where do these go?

What year is your donor I have mazda electrical wiring books for a few of the years 1993 94 and 95.

At a guess the black and yellow is negative, the cut wire don't worry about it's for optional stuff I think. The black and white wires are for the main fuse I think. Only know that as I blew the mainfuse minutes after handing over cash for my donor. I will confirm that if you give me your car year.

The year is 1991. I have trawled the Internet but only managed to find a 1992 diagram and that doesn't make too much sense.

The cut wire seems to be. The main attachment to the terminal connector?

Do the black and whit wires go in the fuse box?


David