Hi Chris..:)
I must say all your plumbing looks very neat and tidy there...:cool:

Couldn't find one over here for less than £13 so I made one.:)

Cheers John you were my inspiration, thanks for all those pipe clips skov. :cool:

All plumbed in now.

Air system................check
Fuel system................check (when I get hold of 8x fuel clips)
Exhaust system................check (kind of, it's that comedy exhaust I made)
Cooling system................check

Even connected an engine earth last night.

Still got to come up with a gearbox mount and then it's wiring. I want to fit the battery in the back above the diff like the mx5. Can anyone tell me if the IVA manual mentions fuel tank proximity for the battery??

Edit: I can't find anything!

No worries Chris, I see you've made good use of them, all looking very neat :cool:

Just tried to reply to your PM, but your inbox is full :rolleyes:
The answer is yes though - fuel goes into the front of the fuel rail and comes out of the back where the regulator is.

Cheers John.:D

Haha! Been working on the wiring!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmH8dBwU3C8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4ORH3Ee8fg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVDkHgjw3d0

All works, tappets settled down after it warmed up, fan kicked in after 10 minutes and sorted the fast idle, it was the carbon canister air supply!

Very pleased chuffed it works! Loom just needs shortening and everything positioning.

Good job well done

That exhaust sounds really sporty :)

Nice one Chris :D

Seems it's the time of year for engine firing....

Ran mine a couple of weeks back just to check it still did run.

Your all making me want to get stuck in a again. Think I will tidy up abit today

TT

Thanks people. Now I need to sit down and make a new, longer list! Shouldn't the lists be getting shorter?? :eek:

Exhaust is just a temporary item, does sound good though! Barks almost! :D

yep ...the sound of that exhaust is really nice and raspy Chris .....seems like we are all having first engine starts, keep the good work up mate;)

It does Kevin! :) Good job on yours too.

Well just come in from the garage after starting the job of chopping up the loom and soldering it all back together again. The chopping happen on Saturday I think or Friday and now the soldering of a much shorter loom with no joint connectors at all has finished, and f*** me it still starts, how surprised was I? I did weld a loose lighting wire to the chassis by accident at first which was a bit scary but yep started first time! Yet to do an led diagnostic on it yet but WOW. Must of spent 40+ hours in the garage over the last 4 days, thanks to the long weekend, lots of late nights and every spare hour out there with 2x 1kw heaters but worth it now. Couldn't sleep last night as I was having paranoid wiring dreams! And I have a cold!!:D :mad:

JUST?? PFFFFT!!!!!!!!

Well done Chris!

You did better than I did - I managed to swap two wires over when I shortened mine, and it took me chuffing ages to figure out why and get it running again!

Cheers John, I couldn't quiet believe it, but it gets better! Been out the garage this morning and put together an led kit using an old immobiliser and no fault codes!! Big grin on my face!! Had to do it 4x as I again couldn't quiet believe it!

Any chance of some photos showing fuse box location and where youre running your cables?

Cheers
Stot

Here you are stot.

Wire for rad and maf run down the engine with the other engine wires.



All engine wires come together at the back of the engine before a few of them go to the main engine earth point and the fuse/relay box.



The rest of the wires, of which there are a lot, go down the side of the gearbox before coming up behind the imaginary dash.



They then go to the instrument cluster, ECU, Ignition module, condenser thingy, diagnostic port, fuel pump relay, ignition barrel and, for now, eval valve thingy. They then go off to the back of the car for the tank and battery although I may move the battery to the engine compartment if I can. The loose wires are for the lighting system and will get waterproof connectors when they arrive.

Keeping all the wires for the engine etc to the center of the car, for me, was the simplest and easiest solution, I've removed every single jointing connection and every wire joint is soldered and heatshrinked, works great and was very cheap to do but if I do get a fault I would't want to be the one to try and find the fault. Some of the locations may change a small amount but not much. All the wiring pipes are from the MX5 saving more pennies!:D

Great stuff thanks! :cool:

Cheers
Stot

Well done Chris...
It seems nearly everybody is working on something electrical just lately and accomplishing a major mile stone with their build.:)
Glad to hear you your car is running fine and I bet you are well chuffed....:D

Cheers Johno,

Been very busy lately. And it only bleedin' well moves under it's own power1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDTQ2vjzJ-s

Picked up a 90˚and 70˚ bend in 304 52mm stainless steel and a flange from a local exhaust maker. Cost £35, bargain.







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MKd2ajD2l0

Got sick of trying to fit the mx5 seats and really lost interest in them so saved up for two of these, as modelled by my 5 year old. I fit in nice and snug, just! Sit very low now with my lowered floor which I like a lot might even ned to trim down the areo screen!

OK I bought ford escort track rod ends for my steering and they never seemed to sit snug. I ignored this issue for over a year as the car wasn't moving around much and though once tightened they would be fine. I was wrong. They also seemed to be pinching over squashing the joint boot due to the angle of the mx5 steering arm. People have used mx5 track rod ends (TRE) and I think Nathan has done something with another trackrod end fitted from the top rather than the bottom. But after some measuring I realised the taper was correct for the escort TRE it was just that the hole was too deep making the hole too big at the bottom. The depth of the hole was 20mm, the length of the taper on the escort TRE was around 14-15mm. So I set about modifying the track rod end masking exactly the area that needed removing and giving it a light dust of spray paint so it was very obvious.



This has worked extremely well and you can see from the image that Mazda seemed to have left more casting than is necessary for some reason. If anyone is reading this and thinks I'm an expert I certainly am not. I'm taking a calculated risk if you think this solution may be for you then be aware you're doing it at your own risk. There are probably better solutions but I'm happy and confident with this one. I've yet to do the other side, I'll take more pictures to show better detail.

After browsing around in halfords I spotted a dinky little battery that seemed a good option for my build to get the battery in the engine bay rather than the boot but it was £70. After some research I found this. (H)181x(W)127x(L)187





It's tiny and only 200amps CCA but it starts the car fine which is all I really need. It was £43 delivered from www.justcarbatteries.com

http://www.justcarbatteries.co.uk/in...r-battery.html

Actually while I was typing this I had a thought! :( Would the ball joint have any movement left in it at full suspension droop? The answer? NO! Using ford escort track rod ends is a VERY BAD IDEA! I bent my steering rack extensions testing this theory! A bloody lucky escape I think!:rolleyes:

It's hard to tell by a photo but your exhaust silencer looks at least an inch if not more below the chassis, my bell housing is an inch below as per book and regularly gets fettled by speed bumps!

I have to drive over 3 whopping speed bumps to get down my road and as the back and front wheels are either side of the hump my silencer is mm away.

Maybe worth moving it up a touch if its not too much trouble to save it getting scuffed up.

Well done. The exhaust looks really nice. Does it sound any louder in real life? I am hoping mine will frighten the odd granny at bus stops lol.

I am going to change over my track rod ends to mx5 ones and buy the extension from phil at talon or gilham said he would add them to his shop as well.

Keep posting the pictures and videos its motivating me!

David

Hi all,
I didn't realise some people were using a different steering track rod end to that of the MX5, is this because of the extensions you already bought?

One problem you now might encounter is the steering arm fouling the lower wishbone on full lock if using the Saturn design wishbones.
Skov and myself have both had the same problem regarding this.
I remember Nathan saying he had no problem regarding this and perhaps he used non Mazda parts as well.
Just a thought.

Nathan used Ford TREs but tapered the MX5 upright to take the TREs from the top (not the bottom as Mazda OEM).

I reckon mark 2 MX5 uprights will solve at least part of the fouling issue with the SSC design since the TRE fitting is 7mm higher than the mark 1 upright. This is how Keith Tanner has done it after trying to get the mark 1 upright to work. Or Phil's front wishbone design would also allow you to use the mark 1 uprights.

Spud made me the bottom wishbones and sold me all the steering gear before everyone realised it didn't work! I thought this was just a minor clearance issue not a new wishbone or major failure issue! Little bit annoyed that I was sold stuff that just doesn't work, it's not as though it was hard to figure out that it wouldn't work. :mad:

Put me on a bit of a downer but I think I'll just order some mx5 rod ends and speak to phil about extensions.

Exhaust looks low but it's not supported properly yet.

Thanks David, I've not done anything on my car for about 8 months but something made me get in the garage about 6 weeks ago and I've been at it ever since. Made some good progress but might take a bit of a breather now and just tackle some little jobs before stripping it down to finish off the chassis and paint it. Glad the progress has spurred you on with your build.:D

Yes the exhaust is a quiet burble on idle but sounds much throatier when giving it some. iPhone made it sound really tame and farty somehow!:)

From what I've seen from the photos that Johno has taken of the problem, it is at a fair amount of lock (almost full) and at full droop.

If you look at skov's build and mine we have both used limiters in the rack. The only issue with clearance is if you use lots of lock.

If you use limiters ( B&q) then it should be ok with mx5 ends.

Ok thanks for that. I'm sure it will be fine, doesn't look like there's any simple solution to the front hub issue. But less steering lock seems a good compromise.

It might be worth fitting the headlights and the front cycle wings and see if the rack needs limiting anyway for this reason. You may kill 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak.

That's correct Dave,:)
At full lock with full droop on the suspension the rack extension just fouls the wishbone. I did consider skimming down the extension to get the clearance.
In the end I opted for a redesigned wishbone to get over the problem (had some tube spare).:eek:

So just to update, handbrake cable mounts, brake hose mounts front and rear, all seat belt mounts, lowered passenger floor, exhaust mount, battery located and cable terminals, headlight mounts and sump-guard mounts all done! Running out of things to weld on to the chassis!



I've used mx3 rear hoses on the front and standard mx5 rears on the rear. Bit of extra work but they were only £11 each and £16 for the right rear which includes a t-splitter. Bargain!:)

Oh gearbox mount finally done at last!




Just a section of 100x50mm box shaped slightly to allow easy access to the nuts and bolts with holes drilled in the right place and studs welded in again for easy locating. the actual mount is from a mini a'la skov!

Darth Vader approves!



exhaust mount

Someone's been busy :D
Looking good Chris. I'm liking the colour of your nose cone, is it staying that colour?

It is a nice colour but wings, scuttle and aero thing are all black so it'll look a bit odd. Not sure what I'm going to do to be honest, in fact this morning I was thinking matt black with two white stripes! I can manage that myself with spray cans and some thick masking tape! :D

Ideally I want it to be a deep red with white stripes. How acheivable that is I don't know! Like this.....



Is yours going to be black John?