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Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 11:05 am
by stevebroad
Talking of handbrakes.........

I made a carbon roof in a day but have spent more time trying to decide on how to release the handbrake :-)

The Rally Design unit is designed to be used in an exposed location, not covered by a console. The release is a simple latch that is lifted by hand. However it is inaccessible under the console.

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So I need to work out some kind of opperating mechanism that is accessible and neat. Simplest would be a rod and knob fitted vertically to one end of the latch, either to pull or push the latch. I also thought of a bowden cable strapped to the handle but this would have to be detatchable so the handle could be removed.

Any ideas? Are there any such items already out there that I could adapt?

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 11:38 am
by Chancer
My eyes arent good enough to see the detail in the picture of the latch but what I do think that I can see is a potential problem with bleeding the hydraulic handbrake master cylinder in its current orientation.

Dont the fluid entry and exit points need to be at the top? Maybe they are and I just cannot see.

Does the handbrake have a seperate mechanical linkage, I seem to remember that it did, road vehicles were supposed to have one but that may have changed with modern vehicles and the parking brakes that I can neither find nor use!

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 11:41 am
by Chancer
Did a zoom and the ports are at the bottom, in theory it wont bleed, practice may be different and maybe people have no problem perhaps using a pressure bleeder and actioning the handbrake at the same time.

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 12:04 pm
by stevebroad
Chancer wrote:My eyes arent good enough to see the detail in the picture of the latch but what I do think that I can see is a potential problem with bleeding the hydraulic handbrake master cylinder in its current orientation.

Dont the fluid entry and exit points need to be at the top? Maybe they are and I just cannot see.

Does the handbrake have a seperate mechanical linkage, I seem to remember that it did, road vehicles were supposed to have one but that may have changed with modern vehicles and the parking brakes that I can neither find nor use!


Not an issue. I had a similar set up for the brake and clutch master cylinders on the car back in the early 80s. Photo shows one of them plus remote reservoir during rebuild after fire.

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Quote from MOT manual:

Hydraulic parking brakes as a sole means of operation are not acceptable on vehicles first used on or after 1 January 1968.

My Elan was born in 1967 :-)

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 7:06 pm
by Chancer
Good to know re the cylinder operation.

A hydraulic service brake gives a useful early warning of impending brake problems/failure, on my Westfield I made a simple anti-theft immobiliser, it was a mortice rack bolt that locked the brake pedal down, I could slide my toe up the pedal shaft to pull the bolt down with the pedal (they have a ratchet action) and it would be locked down with all 4 wheels locked, no-one could see me do it even from the passenger seat, it needed a key inserting underneath the scuttle to release whilst depressing the brake pedal.

It worked faultlessly but one day I noticed that the brake pedal was not firm when I pressed it further down to release the rackbolt, "normal" braking operation was faultless and I would never have known till much later that a rear Wheel cylinder was starting to weep, it took several hours for the brake pressure to bleed off.

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 1:31 pm
by stevebroad
Did a similar thing with the line lock. When switched on it acted as a one way valve on front brakes. When the pedal was pressed it locked the front brakes. So, I could either lock them myself (put a lot of stess on seal if left for some time) or just switch it on. Any thief (if they managed to start it) would only get as far as their first use of the brakes :-)

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 1:32 pm
by stevebroad
I had planned to use rubber to seal around the handbrake lever. Then I remembered the piece I had trimmed off a new draught excluder I am fitting. It is made of bristles and could be perfect. Two longer pieces of course.

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Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 2:34 pm
by Chancer
Brushstrip, its commercially available in various lengths, some manufacturers have used if for sealing around the handbrake, many now use a plastic sliding "tambour" you might just find all the bits you need to adapt in a breakers yard because to go the tambour route is very complicated and time consuming, you are of course more than capable but time is finite.

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 2:44 pm
by stevebroad
Chancer wrote:Brushstrip, its commercially available in various lengths, some manufacturers have used if for sealing around the handbrake, many now use a plastic sliding "tambour" you might just find all the bits you need to adapt in a breakers yard because to go the tambour route is very complicated and time consuming, you are of course more than capable but time is finite.


Thanks for that, I was just going to buy another door strip :-)

Tanbour, as you say is complicated (and heavy) and I subscribe to KISS whenever possible.

Postscript. Just ordered a strip with 15mm long bristles so I haven't even got to cut them. ?5 instead of ?10 for a complete draught excluder.

Thanks again.
Steve

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 9:34 pm
by stevebroad
The new seat and roll cage have caused a bit of an issue with the pedals. They are now too close. even with the cylinders being vertical their position close to the bar that crosses in front of the box make the car almost undrivable.



I think that I can move the box around 25mm further foward with some cutting and shuting of the bulkhead/wheelwell. I have also ordered a new box from OBP, floor mounted rear facing cylinders which gains me another 50mm

[img][IMG]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm94/elanses3/20170129_104514_zpsskcnrlsn.jpg[/img][/img].

Hopefully this will be enough.

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 9:36 pm
by stevebroad
The new seat and roll cage have caused a bit of an issue with the pedals. They are now too close. Even with the cylinders being vertical their position close to the bar that crosses in front of the box make the car almost undrivable.

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I think that I can move the box around 25mm further foward with some cutting and shuting of the bulkhead/wheelwell. I have also ordered a new box from OBP, floor mounted rear facing cylinders which gains me another 50mm. Hopefully this will be enough.

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In order to be able to drive further than a 1/4 mile at a time I have had a 22 litre auxillary tank made. This will not be fitted when racing so a quick release fuel connector has been ordered.

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Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 3:38 pm
by Spyder fan
Steve,
I'm still watching and enjoying seeing your progress and problem solving abilities. I'm intrigued as to how you will plumb in the new pedal box so that the lines won't get damaged by your size 10's?

Keep up the good work

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 10:39 pm
by stevebroad
Spyder fan wrote:Steve,
I'm still watching and enjoying seeing your progress and problem solving abilities. I'm intrigued as to how you will plumb in the new pedal box so that the lines won't get damaged by your size 10's?

Keep up the good work


As soon as the box arrives I will be able to work out what I can do. Chances are that the box will have to be recessed into the floor. Hopefully I can sort this out next week. SWMBO is away for 4 days and I will miss her terribly, so, in order to keep my mind occupied I will spend most of the time in the garage :-)

Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:14 am
by stevebroad
Wife away so I can play :-)

The experimental master cylinder reservior arrived today. Needed to check that the aluminium used is suitable for welding before buying the other two. Cut it down to size and thinned the walls and cap. Original weight 227gms, now weighs 97gms, 31 of which are in the steel fitting so I will make some aluminium ones :-) It welded fine so I will order two more. The shortened height will help in fitting them under my legs in the floor. Also saves around 400gms.

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Re: Cosworth YB Turbo Into Elan

PostPosted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:17 am
by stevebroad
Fitting boot lid.

The carbon fibre boot lid was made (not by me) using the original lid as the pattern, so is slightly bigger. Even so, the fit is crap, or perhaps I should say within normal Lotus tolerances. Gap was uneven and big so I decided to attempt to remedy this.

First, I had to make the boot lid fit as best I could. The back will be secured with Quik-Lock push button fasteners.

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I decided to secure the front face using 4 carbon (obviously) dowels glued to the boot lid that slide into 4 carbon tubes fitted to the body. This worked out pretty well, even if I do say so myself. Next task was to work out how to fill the gap. My method, if it works, was to fill the gap completely, using (yes, you guessed) carbon fibre filler then to trim to the desired gap.

In order to prevent filler falling into the boot a barrier of Corex was hot glued to the underside of the boot lid surround. The boot lid edge was covered in masking tape in order to prevent the filler sticking to it (time will tell if this works). Filler was then used to fill the gap between lead and body. The bricks were used to align the lid with the body. Stiffening will be added to the lid to keep it to this shape at a later date.

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Next day...After an hour and a half of sanding and trimming, the boot finally came out! Next job is to tidy the filler up and infill some voids. Then I have to decide on a gap width and set about sanding.

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