Day 83 – DIY flaring

Or will I? I came back to it at the weekend and after a few other little jobs like provisionally mounted the donor fuel filter after modifying the bracket so that it would sit upright.

 

  Then spent a bit of time of looking at the doors and working out how I am going to pour extra resin into the door without filling the Rivnuts full of resin to strengthen the hinge plate before trying to fit the bear claw to the door.  I also stripped back the door cable harnesses because I want to use the electric adjuster system for the wing mirrors. With those wires aside there are a number of other wires that can now be used to connect the window motor assembly and door release solenoid.

That done it was back to the main wiring loom.  Getting it in the right position is crucial.  If it is wrong by an inch I could end up spending a lot of time extending cables un-necessarily.  Also after browsing various folders of wiring diagrams from different cars (Ibis white, Burnt orange, Kawasaki green) I came to the conclusion that the wiring harnesses vary so much that there wasn’t an ideal solution, basic position or standard routes to start from and so I made my own up.  Following Ben’s instruction I fitted the tyrap fixing points along the underside of the dashboard beam and then realised the what ever I did the Windscreen wiper assembly was likely to foul the wiring.

So I dug out the Wiper assembly and following the measurements shown in one of the build manual photos.  I measured and cut the hole for the wiper arm spindle, measured off the amount of metal tube required between the spindle and the motor.  Looking at the assembly instructions it says to use a pipe flaring tool to create the flared end required to clamp in the spindle assembly, which I don’t own, or alternatively a pair of round nose pliers.

I don’t own any of those either so I looked around for an alternative.  A friend at work had suggested a round punch of some sort which I had so I gave it a try but the taper was too narrow and wouldn’t flare the pipe end enough.  I searched again and came up with an alternative my spring loaded centre pop and a mallet.

  

The punch tip was obviously way too small but the metal body had a taper that looked like it would do the job with some gentle persuasion of a mallet.  It worked a treat and I tested the position in place.

 

 

Now there was something I didn’t like about the wiper motor mounting. I’d seen it on the Orange demo car.  The wiper motor mounting bracket fastens to the car through the apron between the bottom of the windscreen and the bulkhead. There were two stainless steel round head allen bolts and when the bonnet is down they can’t be seen.  But I don’t like the idea so looked to try another solution.  I thought about making a bracket but a bracket didn’t look like it would work.  I thought about mounting it vertically on the side wall which would mean cutting the leftover pipe to suit (there is enough left of the pipe to make a second attempt after the first cut in case you screw it up) You can’t mount it horizontally because of the corner webbing.  I decided it was a possibility but I know the engine management unit mounts around there so decided to leave it with the pipe and spindle in place and went back to the wiring.

I stripped the wiper connection off the harness and pulled the cabling back up the loom so that it remained inside the car when the loom is in place.  I then looked at the wiring diagram provided with the wiper motor kit and promptly became confused.  So, I labelled the wires and it was back to the main wiring harness.

 

I decided the critical point is where the loom branches both backwards e.g. up the steering column and clocks and forwards e.g. to the engine bay.  I therefore decided the most obvious starting point was the brake light switch on the brake pedal. I found the connector and positioned the harness accordingly. Then Fitted the steering column mounting bracket underneath the harness and mounted the steering column. Now all I have to do is fix it all in place and connect it all together… hmm! Think I’ll have a beer instead and call it a night.