Another build thread

[AshG]

forgot to mention your steering wheel is way too high its almost at eye level looking at it.

[skov]

Originally Posted by AshG

skov i cant belevie you scrapped your donor in that state. the roof/wings bumpers and boot lid would have netted you another £400 then the lights and loom plus the subframes another £250 odd. your a mad man!

To be honest, I was getting peed off with it taking up my parking space, and the neighbours making snide comments...
The donor looks loads better in the pics than it really was too. The bonnet was full of dents, the wings full of rust, the hood full of holes, and the bumpers full of cracks!
Plus it was all badly painted by what I can only assume was a monkey with a rattle can.
I paid £500 for it and got £750 back so I'm happy enough
Still got a few bits I could sell, but I've lost interest now. I might get round to it next time build funds are running low

I'm not quite happy with the steering wheel height either. Not sure how to get it lower though
If I go any lower the column hits TR9, and if I go below TR9 there's no room for my legs.

How high is the sierra steering wheel? Can someone measure from the centre of the wheel down to the floor for me please?

[CTWV50]

Build it as it is for the IVA then lower it and use a smaller wheel and get rid of the thick mx5 steering column and switch gear. Maybe then you can use a removable steering wheel to get in and out.

[AshG]

go above tr8 by putting the bearing above tr8 that will bring it down and give you enough deflection in the steering shaft not to worry about having a collapsable mechanism in the column. i would do it now as it will be a pain in the ass to sort out later. how it is now will never pass iva as your column is dead straight from the steering rack up to the wheel which is lethal in a crash

there is about 3mm between the column on mine and tr9 so i think you can still get it a bit lower without mods

[skov]

Originally Posted by AshG

go above tr8 by putting the bearing above tr8

I think that's my current plan. I ordered this variant of the bearing today, so I can play about with it sat on top of the rails:



I've got about a 5 or 6mm gap between the column and TR9 at the moment, so could drop it a little more without mods, but not enough to get the wheel where I want it

[skov]

I popped out to the garage last night with the intention of spending 20 minutes or so playing with the steering wheel position.
I may have got side tracked, and emerged a couple of hours later with my build looking like this:



I'd been speaking to Spud earlier that day about moving the whole steering column above the top rails and he made the very good point that I need to be careful about the shaft interfering with the alternator and engine mount.
So I thought I'd better stick the engine in there!

If anyone is wondering:
Yes - you can put the MX5 engine on the table, then drop the chassis over it.
No - I would NOT recommend doing it that way! Particularly if you're short on space to manoeuvre, and don't have anyone to help...

It did go over the engine just, but involved a lot of faffing, swearing, grunting, sweating, and removing bits off the engine with one hand whilst holding up the chassis with the other

Hopefully I'll have time to fabricate the engine mounts, then finalise my steering system over the next few days.

All the recent MX5 talk on the forum is really getting my enthusiasm going

[CTWV50]

Bloody Hell John!!!!

[CTWV50]

Is that the engines installed height and position?

[skov]

Originally Posted by CTWV50

Is that the engines installed height and position?

No, it's just sitting rougly in position in the photo above.
I'll take some more pics when I've finalised it and made the engine mounts.

[skov]

Time for a quick update.
Since getting the engine in the chassis a couple of weeks ago I've made a start on the engine mounts, and added some plates for the handbrake lever to bolt on to: