The wishbone therefore rotates on the poly-bush. This has two implications – firstly you can use bolts with fully threaded shanks, since the insert should not actually be rotating on the bolt. The thread of the bolt will therefore not damage the insert. The second thing is that the bushes need to be properly lubricated. This new set of wishbones gave us the opportunity to really pack in the red rubber grease. (Note – this does not apply to the shock-absorbers, which do rotate about the bolt). Many thanks to Chris for helping out with this sticky, icky job.

We got our engine mount brackets welded – big thanks to Ken of Zodiac Steel for assistance and doing such a good job. As soon as we had those sorted, we were able to properly see how the engine and gearbox would fit in. Needless to say, several adjustments to the bell-housing were needed, and we chopped some more bits off.

To fit the gearbox we needed to drill and fit the gearbox mounting plate. This is an H-shaped piece of steel plate, onto which the rubberised gearbox mount is, well, mounted. With the engine in place and the gearbox supported by a size-14 temporary mount, we could see if the mounting plate lined up with the mount points on the chassis. It was a wonderful moment when we realised that the fit is perfect. We marked and drilled the holes (8mm, although one was a slight miss, so it became a 9mm hole).

Feeling inspired by getting 3 out of 4 holes right, we marked and drilled the engine mount plates. We’d obviously improved our skilz, because we got 8 out of 8 of these right (no cheating here – 8mm holes for 8mm bolts, and they went in smoothly).

Checking the engine again, we realised that there was a risk that the starter would foul against the chassis. So it was another “engine out, attach part, engine in”. Only we realised a slight problem – the starter does not fit. There is a small sticky-outy bit on the sump that gets in the way. A couple of panicked phonecalls to Locost SA, and we confirmed that this needed to be chopped off.

It’s actually quite an easy job, but you don’t want to get all “power-tool” on it. The sump is aluminium, so if you get too aggressive you are likely to chop a hole in it. Another tool you’ll be needing for this job is a torque wrench that can handle 67N.m (thanks JR and Nick). The process is:

1) Remove clutch pressure plate (about 6-8 bolts, fairly easy).

2) Remove the clutch plate, to be left with the flywheel:

3) Remove the fly-wheel (6 bolts, fine thread), resulting in this:

4) Now you can get to the sump, and carefully cut the piece off. See pictures for confirmation.

You might need to remove two of the sump bolts, but we did not. You will not be able to use a normal hacksaw. A junior hacksaw got close enough that the last bit could be snapped off. Then a file neatened it up. One of those blade-only hacksaws will work, as will a dremel tool.

5) Clean off any loose shavings.

6) Put the flywheel back on.

Use a touch of lock-tite (removable) on each bolt, then torque to 67N.m. (Following all the right rules for tightening sequence. I tightened, bit by bit, a triangle of bolts, then chose the next triangle as starting from the opposite bolt that I ended on. Clear as mud?)

Leave the clutch and pressure plate off for now – they’re not needed for a while.

7) The starter motor now fits very nicely:

After this the engine went back in – we’re really getting our money’s worth out of that engine crane. The starter is a tight fit against the chassis, but it does fit. We then tested the bonnet for clearance – the dip stick handle will need to be “lightened”, but the 710 cap is fine (thanks to the bonnet scoop).

While we were fitting heavy things, we decided to balance it all out and fit the diff. It didn’t fit, which is a painful thing to find out while trying to hold that stupidly heavy piece of metal in place. The grinder was called to service again, but not quite vigorously enough. We actually think we might leave it as it is, since with a couple of spacer washers it fits fine.

EDIT 2011-02-25: It’s actually recommended by Locost SA that you rather grind away the webbing on the diff, than the diff mounting bracket. The theory is that the diff is more over-designed than the chassis mount point. We’re holding thumbs that it all stays together.

With the diff in place, it was possible to see how the gearbox and diff lined up. Badly, it turned out. The gearbox was shooting mortars clear over the head of the diff. Undismayed we put some longer bolts in the gearbox mount plate, and dropped it by about a centimeter. This lined it up perfectly, so we’re almost ready to order the prop shaft.

A small miracle happened during the week. We’ve been searching for ages for a solution to our alternator problem. We have a small, awsome little alternator from a toyota forklift. Unfortunately it comes with a v-belt pulley, not a 6PK pulley (which is used on the rest of the Rocam). Also, it doesn’t like high revs, and the test sheet shows its only able to handle about 6000 RPM for any extended time. The crank pulley on the Rocam is quite large, so if you put a small pulley on the alternator it is going to see some pretty high revs. This is NOT good, and others have mentioned burning similar ones out. So we want a big pulley which will fit the thing. The solution is a 6PK water-pump pulley, just like the one on the Rocam. If you attach this to the v-belt pulley, you are sorted. Well, we’ve been to several scrapyards looking for pulleys, with no luck. It seems you very seldom find a water-pump pulley separate from a water pump.

I posted for help on the forum (as I should have done first) and immediately found one pulley, and a suggestion to try Ford for spares. “Maybe they won’t be so expensive” – yeah right. So I got hold of Ford (it’s really worth telling these guys what you are doing, often they are very helpful) and I found out they do supply the pulley on its own. The price: r50 .11 ex VAT. I figured there was a number missing there – surely it’s R500.11? Nope, they ordered the part for me, and it came to R57 incl! Amazing. Even the guys at the parts desk were amazed (they showed me a much worse pulley for R900). The part number is XS6E-8509-AA if you want to find your own. I’ll post more info if it successfully gets attached to the v-belt pulley.

Our engine bay is now getting quite full, and we are becoming more and more convinced that the sequence we did the build in is just wrong. The brake and fuel lines really should only be going in once the immovable objects have had their say. As part of this blog I’ll put together a suggested build sequence.

Phew, long post! Till next time, happy building. Don’t forget, more build pictures here.

B

During the week D drilled most of the remaining holes in the chassis – not a small job, which gets worse as your drill bit gets blunter and blunter. One of the reasons we had not yet put the floor on was that it would restrict access for drilling these holes. With them done, we could now consider putting the floor on.

Before placing the floor, we finished the top holes for the side panels. This just involved fitting the side panels, measuring and marking the holes, and then drilling. We have decided to only fold the side panels over the top, which means the pop rivets will be visible. Although this detracts slightly from how pretty the car will be, it also saves 258g. Using a conservative model, this is worth 0.08s at Zwartkops. I just made that up.

To make life easier, we again turned the chassis upside-down. Silicone sealant is used as a glue, to minimise vibration noise and to seal the panels. The chassis was thoroughly cleaned prior to applying it. The laser film was removed from the floor panels (main panel, as well as the small front one). The panels were then carefully placed on the chassis and the previously-drilled were holes lined up. Mainly for a cool photo we placed all the pop rivets, and then began the big job of making the attachment permanent. This is hard work with normal, manual, pop-rivet tools. D had a Stanley riveter, which is designed specifically to nip off the tips of your fingers as the rivet is popped. Mine was a Fragram one, which was marginally better.

We had not drilled the holes for the bottom of the side panel yet (i.e. there were no holes along the outside edges of the floor). It was now time to temporarily fit the side panels, and drill these holes. We did these one at a time, since it was useful to have the other side of the chassis open for access.

The panel was fitted over the floor (the previous fold did have to be opened slightly to make this easier). Several pop-rivets were inserted along the top edge (which was underneath) to ensure we had got the alignment right. G-clamps held it in place. Then we used ratched straps to keep pull the bottom in, tight against the chassis.
The positions were measured, and then holes were drilled through both the folded edge of the panel and the floor, into the chassis. We will leave these panels off as long as possible, to ensure good access to the chassis while we sort everything else out. At this point we declared that the long saga of the side panels is over. Well, sufficiently for now.

The chassis then got flipped back over, to finalise the fuel lines and brake lines. We placed the gearbox to roughly see whether it would clash with any of the lines, and unfortunately it became clear that there would be a problem with the top fuel line. We had to remove two of the p-clips and then bend the line again. In the process we almost pinched it (too tight a fold). Fortunately we managed to un-pinch it, and the line has not cracked. A couple of bends later and it’s looking good – possibly even more secure than the last time. Of course, research has shown that s-bends in your fuel line assist with cornering and straight-line stability.

Original fuel line layout	Modified layout

The brake-line connections were then tightened, and the final p-clips attached. The only ones still to do are near the cylinders – we’ll hold off on those until the pedal box is correctly placed.

We also received our steering rack. We got it from Locost SA, although it’s been on order for several weeks. At one stage I tried to get a friend to bring one in from England. Unfortunately that plan was mucked about a bit by a volcano in Iceland, and some over-zealous health & safety officers. Looking at the size of it though (the rack, not the volcano), it might have strained the friendship a bit.

Placing the steering rack highlighted that the right front brake line may be in the way. Oh well, more rivets to be drilled out and moved.

Both front uprights have had their wheel-bearings fitted, although lessons were learnt while doing the first one. Needless to say the fit was extremely tight on this one, and the bearings had to be drifted on the whole way. The “Front Uprights” page has been updated, with lots of photos, to show how it’s done. It is a very messy job, but not too difficult.

In preparation for the assembly of the suspension, the drive-shafts have been assembled. These are those bits filled with bright-blue grease. They just needed a last bit of grease squeezed in, and then to be assembled. The gators (boots) have been held on with double cable-ties. Hopefully that is secure enough, and by doubling up there should be very little space for grease to get through.

A

last job that I’ve been avoiding was cleaning and taking pictures of the diff magnetic filler plug. This has been soaking in paraffin for months. Finally I got round to doing it – there were quite a lot of metal filings attached. These were rinsed several times in paraffin, and then I took some pictures. I wasn’t able to attract all the filings from the plug onto another magnet, so I took a picture of what remained. Maybe this will be useful information at some stage.

Things start getting interesting now…
B

That is an optimistic title – it’s not really looking like a car. However, it has some bits that can be recognised as coming from a car. If you look closely at those bits, you’ll notice they are in the wrong way round, but they are in nonetheless.

Before we could do any more work, we needed bolts. This takes a little time, as there are some recommended things to do. The first is to use high-tensile bolts. They are not much more expensive than the regular bolts, and certainly a lot cheaper than replacing whatever part fell off when the non-HT bolt snaps (and then there’s the medical costs). But HT bolts come in boring (and rust-prone) black – to improve their aesthetics they should be galvanised. This makes them a nice shiny colour, and is worth the extra effort for this alone.
However, this whole galvanising process takes a few days (min 24 hours, but it took a weekend plus 48 hours for our bolts). It is priced per kilo, we paid a whole R8. However, to do work on the weekend we needed temporary bolts – these were bought over the counter, non-HT. We’ve notified our medical aids.

On Saturday we started trying to fit all the suspension bits and pieces. It is an alarming array of parts – some with very subtle differences with regards to how they are fitted. However, a bit of trial and error saw us through for the most part. Referring to the various downloaded build-manuals also helped, and when we were done we were able to see quite clearly that the front upright was on the wrong way round, and the rear top wishbone connected to the wrong part of the rear upright. Good thing it was only ever meant to be temporary.

Another job needing doing was fitting the pedal box. It is a new design, and the chassis has not been modified to accept this particular type. This is apparent when you try to line the holes in the box up with those on the chassis. Remarkably two of the cylinders can be fitted without modification, but the holes for the third cylinder needed to be moved about 6-7mm. A dremel tool, a small file, a large file and finally an 11mm drill bit were called in to assist. It was not tidy, but got most of the job done. A trip to the hardware store the following day provided a coarser file (called “b@stard” – who knew), which finished the job in no time.

We were curious to see how well the diff fitted, so we dragged it along and tried to fit it. Our bolts are too long (although it does seem to take M12’s) but it did allow us to see where it goes. We can now finish the diff refurbishment, replace all the missing grease, oil and seals, and put it in.

To make things pretty, the front uprights, diff side-shafts and various other loose (and rusty) bits have been painted. It’s certainly a vast improvement over the rusty mud&grease-covered components they were when they first arrived.

Our plan for the way forward is to get some of the aluminium panelling in. We don’t want to restrict access to the chassis, considering all the brake lines and wiring still to be put in. However, we also want to fit the floor while we can turn the chassis over. So we’ll drill the holes for the transmission tunnel panels (because this is hard to do with the floor in place) and then we’ll permanently fit the floor. Just have to get the aluminium now…

It feels like good progress.
B

Just a short update – it seems the damaged front spindle is still usable, which is great news. A bit of fine-grit water-paper will be used to make sure there’s nothing sticking out to catch the new bearing, but other than that it should be ok.

The rear stubs and front uprights have gone in for machining:
1. Rear stub machined to fit bearings used in Locost SA hubs
2. Rear hub reduced to fit the golf brake disks
3. Front upright machining

Needless to say I’ll post pictures of these when they get back.

I finally finished cleaning all the remaining parts (of the diff, that is). Next step is de-rusting and painting (where applicable).

Also made sure I could removed the oil-filler cap of the diff. Despite its severely beaten condition, it wasn’t too hard to remove. The bad news is that it did have some metal shavings on it (it’s magnetic). I then removed the diff back plate – the diff innards look in excellent condition, and the oil tide-mark on the rear plate shows that it’s spent its life full of oil.

The gasket did not survive the removal of the back plate. This isn’t a major problem – will just use some silicone gasket builder (non-setting) when the diff is re-assembled.

B

The diff was cleaned using a combination of physical and chemical methods. A wire brush and electric drill took most of the gunk off – spraying it everywhere (you probably don’t want to do this near the clean laundry). Then a mixture of boiling water, household detergent and paraffin was used to get rid of the final bits. Once it was cleaned, it was given a coating of light oil to prevent rusting. This should be easy to remove prior to painting.

Stripping the front uprights:
When the uprights were stripped, one of the wheel-bearings remained attached to the hub. It seems it is a third-party wheel bearing (SKF), and it was very firmly in place. Wanting to get stuck into cleaning, I got impatient with this bearing and instead of asking for advice on how to remove it, I just went ahead. Needless to say this ended badly – with a damaged hub that will likely have to be replaced.

“Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.”

Al Franken, “Oh, the Things I Know”, 2002

B

Merry Christmas, I hope you’ve had a great day with family and friends. I did all the work described below yesterday, today I’m just catching up on the documentation.

As mentioned in the previous post, the hub nut of the left upright came away easily enough. The hub was then easily removed by gently tapping it out with a hammer and a piece of wood to prevent damage. Both wheel bearings were left behind, and the back one was removed from the hub carrier. The other one was trapped in place by the oil seal. The seal is an old plastic variety, and will need to be replaced. Over the next few days I’ll pick it out bit by bit and thus be able to remove the second bearing.

The other upright was much less cooperative (naturally). The workbench to which the vice is attached cracked – and had to be reinforced with long coach-bolts. The nut then came loose. However, the hub was also more firmly affixed and a lot of whacking was need to get it out. Finally it separated from the hub carrier, but pulled the second bearing through the oil seal. It’s going to be fun and games trying to get that off the hub.

This oil seal has a metal rim which, according to the Sierra manual, means it is a newer seal. Now you know.

It was then time to start cleaning the diff. This is really a simple job, and can be done in your bathroom sink, or a small bowl while watching TV. Not.

These things are unbelievably messy. There is so much grease it defies comprehension.

To make sure I put it all back together correctly, I gently engraved markers into the various spacers, shafts etc. I’m not sure this is strictly necessary, but I don’t think it will hurt.

The Torx bolts were removed without hassle, although it is quite tedious cleaning each head. It is very important to make sure the Torx socket seats correctly – if it slips under pressure you might seriously damage the bolt and then you will struggle to get it out. They make a very satisfying “crack” as they break loose.

Then as much grease as possible was removed using tissue paper. This revealed the circlips described in the Locost forum. These are nasty little blighters to remove if you don’t have the right tools – I tried using long-nosed pliers. I gave up, and went and bought a handy Stanley Circlip remover. This is a nicely made tool, as gripping the handles opens the circlip (there are a number of brands that open by separating the handles, much harder to do with one hand). Circlip removal is truly a breeze with this tool, although one did spring loose and fly into my stomach – stings.

There were no spacers and the joint slipped off the shaft with no effort. Well, one was a bit sticky and as it slid off it flew out of my hands into the air. Fortunately my innate Bafana-Bafana skills came into play, and I managed to slow its descent with my shin. I’ll heal.

Cleaning then proceeded, once again using tissues and brushes to take off as much visible grease as possible. Then paraffin was used to dissolve the rest. Make sure you wear gloves for this – it is not a subtle process. Finally, once they were mostly clean, a high-pressure hose was used to get rid of any remnants. I think a final clean will be necessary, but to prevent rusting the joints and shaft were sprayed with Q20. This will have to come off if they are painted in the future.

The gaitors are in excellent condition, although they contain tons of grease. Tissue got rid of most of it, paraffin the rest, and engine degreaser finally made them sparkle.

I only managed one side, the Lobros from the other side are soaking in paraffin.

My recommendations for this job – set aside a work area that can get messy. You WILL spray filthy paraffin everywhere; a grease-coated circlip WILL ricochet off your forehead into something valuable. Wear gloves – those yellow kitchen gloves are fine. They won’t keep you completely clean, but they will help. Have everything you need handy – prevents having to take gloves off unnecessarily. If your significant other loves you enough, or you have friends you can bribe with beer, it really helps to have a clean set of hands ready to apply pliers, open gates and taps, take photos etc. I didn’t, so there are only going to be pics of the clean items. Have lots of available rags, or a Kim roll. Don’t throw grease and paraffin down the drain – I don’t actually know how to dispose of it, but I’m finding out.

B

Who invented reverse-thread, and why? I bet there are a bunch of good reasons actually, but when the #$@! hub-nut is stuck fast, you really start to question whether you’ve got the thread right.

Today has been a good day. In the morning I managed to find two front uprights, and they look in good condition. Even better was that the pair cost the same as what I was originally quoted for just one.

Then I decided to put some more effort into stripping the diff. Armed with my sparkly new 41mm socket, and chunky 450mm 3/4″ power-bar, no hub nut could stand in my way. I followed the advice of the Guru, and dropped a car on the wishbone. I figured this was overkill, but why not. Important note – those wishbones have some nasty screws spiking out of them, make sure you don’t give your car (or more importantly, the missus’ car) a puncture.

I had prepared a steel bar to attach to the wheel bolts, to prevent the hub from rotating. I also had an old piece of steel tubing to extend the power-bar. “Normal Thread Hub Nut” came off very easily, and I thought that too much fuss had been made of this whole business. However, the force did manage to put a curve in the flat bar I was using to prevent the hub from rotating.

“Reverse Thread Hub Nut” was to teach me a lesson. Eventually I had to add two pieces of wood on top of the wishbone to try to distribute the car’s weight better to keep the whole shaft on the ground. I also had to reinforce my steel anti-rotation bar to prevent it bending. Finally the nut shifted, although about three times I checked that the thread truly was reverse. Useful note – the reverse-thread nut has a white nylon strip, whereas the normal thread (in my case) was green.

To finish a good evening’s work I popped one of the front uprights in the vice. This also has a 41mm nut, and once again the white one was reverse threaded. It came loose relatively easily. I’m holding thumbs the other is as easy.

Next the whole lot gets a good cleaning, to see what condition all the joints and bearings are in.

B

Don’t kid yourself, especially if it still has wishbones and drums attached – it is heavy. I reckon two chaps who are happy getting hernias might manage, but I’d recommend three.

D is on holiday, so B and his missus had to get the beast out of her car. Piece of advice – plan the move carefully, and use available support. We ended up roping the diff to the garage roof beams and inching it onto a piece of spare plywood. The car was backed up to the workbench, and the plywood used as a bridge. Now if we’d thought of that upfront, it might have avoided B having to support half a diff while his better half carefully reversed the car.

Then it came to stripping it. With much searching I had my first realisation – that this diff has Lobro joints, evidenced by the chucky flange-type knobs on connecting the side shafts.

Second realisation was that I don’t know what to do next. So it was time for my first post on the locost forum. There really are a great bunch of guys on the forum – thanks for all the help. With confidence that there wasn’t some unfound attachment holding the drum on, I acquired a larger hammer and thwacked them off. They came off pretty easily once I put my back into the swing.

Next task is to look for a 41mm socket to remove the hub nuts. No such luck so far (bad time of year to look for tools), so I’ll be hitting the shops again tomorrow.

I also purchased a T45 Torx “socket” to remove the Lobro joints.

B

A major step in the life of the locost builder is that first visit to the scrapyard. Especially if it’s been a long time since you’ve had dirty nails, and you get blisters using a broom. But like most things, once you give it a go it’s really not such a big deal.

We aimed to visit 3 scrapyards, in Springs and Benoni. Our primary target was a 4.11 ratio diff from a Sierra (independent suspension). Our hopes were not high, having read all the forum posts saying how hard these diffs are to find. We figured that at least we’d find out “how the system works”, even if we don’t find anything.

Three scrapyards, three strikes, we were out. Leaving the third scrappy (about 12h30) we saw a sign to another scrappy. It seems scrapyards in springs close at 12pm, while those in Benoni close at 13h00.  Deciding to give them a call, we were quite pleased to hear they were still open. We followed the sign and there it was.

B: “We want a 4.11 diff from a Sierra or Sapphire”

Them: “Which model is that”

B: “Ummm… bugger, should have looked that up. Never mind, just show us your diffs.”

None of the loose diffs had the even-prime combination we were looking for. So we moved onto the cars with diffs still attached.

D: “There’s a little metal tag, probably under all that gunk – can you read it to me?”

Them: “Oh-Six-Ee-Bee-Ar-Aye-Tee-One-Zero-Four-Point-One”

B: “Huh?”

So I checked, and this is what I saw:

Very excited we found out the price (reasonable, with room for haggling) but being clueless we were a bit worried that we’d get it wrong. So we decided to come back as soon as possible when we were sure that it was the right one.

A couple of emails to the Oracle confirmed our hopes, and gave us some guidance before purchasing:

• Check that it turns smoothly and that there is no grinding noise
• Have a look at the oil inside (large sump plug can be removed). Also check for metal shavings attached to the sump plug
• They are fairly indestructible – so don’t stress too much

A week later I was back, after phoning the friday beforehand to make sure they removed it for me ready for collection. Bright and early Saturday morning I arrived, and of course it was still firmly attached to the car.

This particular scrapyard doesn’t have a forklift, so it was removed by two chaps scrabbling in the mud, with dodgy tools. Finally it was out, and delicately put into the missus’ beautiful RunX. Getting it back out the RunX is a story of it’s own…

So we have our diff, it looks in excellent condition, and it’s onto the next thing. We just don’t know what that is.

B