Day 25: oils and brake bleeding

I intended to start the engine for the first time today. But... shortages got in the way. The bottom LH corner of the radiator is missing a drain plug. I hadn't even noticed it when I put it on the car, it's not mentioned in the Assembly Guide, and Derek at Caterham was surprised it wasn't there, as they usually just arrive in place.

Oh well. So, nevertheless, I filled the gear oil with about 1.3l, and the differential with about 1.5l. The gear oil is easily reached, although the drain hole is very hard to access.

Like many other builders, I made my own tool from a piece of 3/8" steel, gripped by an old 3/8" spanner.

Dremelling off a section of 3/8" square bar from an unwanted socket set 3/8"-1/2" convertor

Gearbox overflow tool. Narrow enough to get between the tunnel wall and the gearbox

The diff oil is best attacked from above, removing the wooden and honeycomb floors. However, now that the rollover bar is in place, I can't remove the honeycomb floor section, so just propped it up (covered in masking tape, as it is very sharp and easily could damage the paintwork).

Filling the diff oil

Brakes
Then onto bleeding the brakes. I went for the traditional 2-person method, rather than use my Eazibleed. No real reason, other than I wanted to work on it with one of my kids, who sat in the cockpit for ages pumping the brake pedal.

Couple of things worth mentioning:
- it takes a long time
- there are two bleed nipples on each front upright. I only remembered this when I removed the front wheels to see why things were not improving. I bled both
- as the bleeding process goes on, the handbrake starts to be able to move, having been jammed on in the lowest position earlier

I think the brakes are due another round of bleeding before I'm happy with them.

So now, I'm just waiting for:
- stainless rear wing protectors (wrong size delivered)
- radiator drain plug

Day 9: clutch and exhaust

Now the engine is in, you can really feel the project coming together. There are much fewer boxes and bits on the garage floor!

Fitting the clutch cable is straightforward. The cable lock nut provided is quite different from the one in the Assembly Guide - it's smaller, and feels less capable. I'm checking with Derek @ Caterham that I've got the right one.

Cable lock for clutch. One tiny grubscrew doesn't feel enough

The exhaust is surprisingly easy to fit, from the manifold out to the end of the silencer. A couple of things to watch for:
- the catalyst and downpipe is sharp and awkwardly shaped. Good idea to leave on the pipe-lag around the chassis members to make sure you don't ding them
- the exhaust brackets fit straight onto the car's lovely paintwork, and so I was extra careful not to allow them to spin around as they were being tightened up
- the worm gear fittings to get the exhaust cover on are pigs to thread through, but with some WD40 and use of the thin screwdriver as a prod, it does work

Catalytic converter and downpipe from RHS

With some polishing, the exhaust will be a thing of beauty!

One big problem has occurred that I can't resolve without some guidance from Caterham. The header tank bracket does not have any predrilled/tapped holes to fit to. It clearly fits on the diagonal chassis members behind the engine, but there's nowhere to fit it. I may have to resort to self-tappers, or possibly tap new holes in the chassis myself. This must have been a manufacturing fault at Caterham, unless I'm completely off target here!
UPDATE1: there holes have not been drilled by the manufacturer. I am waiting for guidance from Caterham, but I think M8 rivnuts might be the right way to go here.
UPDATE2: Caterham are sending someone over to fit the rivnuts.

RHS - no holes to fit bracket

LHS - ditto

I've also got a few bits and pieces missing - you discover them as you go - including fuel pipe, without which I can't finish inside the engine bay.