Dials follow up

Just to follow up from the smudged dials I sent back.
When I was visiting the factory I mentioned them to GD and they were shocked that I hadn't had them back yet. They were sent off to the company that made them and were forgotten about.
GD got straight on the phone, gave a bit of verbal and were told they were being worked on. GD didn't forget as they instructed the company to fix them and send them to my address so they thought it was all sorted.
Anyway 10 days later they arrive. And a lot better finish.

The whole lot of 9 dials were re-done.
I'm sure it would have been done quicker had they been on my to need to fit list as I would have chased them sooner

Bell housing dialed in.

What a laborious job!
The process: Fit flywheel & bell housing, Torque up all the bolts, measure with dial gauge. Disassemble and adjust offset dowel pins, reassemble and re-torque. repeat till offset is less than 0.005" or 0.127mm tolerance.

I started off by checking the bell housing face was the same plane as the flywheel.

After my first attempt last week went ok till I took the bell housing off and refitted it as I wanted to see how much the bolts could effect it once re fitted as I wont be able to double check it once the clutch is on. Glad I did cos it went back on and was way out. This got me for a while as how to make sure it stays set cos you need to remove it to fit the clutch. After a closer look, I found the culprit. Old offset dowels, I remember Ken at EDA mentioning new ones to me now.
Went and got some new ones, about £15 for 7 thou offset. Checked where the high spot is and marked them as the slots are not to be used as a reference. These were a tighter better fit than the old ones, but this meant complete bell housing removal to move the offset as they now need to be punched out rotated then hammered back home.

So set about repeating the process all over again. Removing 2 flywheel bolts enables you to get the dial onto the inner edgeI tried to mark the housing but soon lost track, so made notes on paper.
I tried different methods, the arrow refers to where the high point of the dowel is in relation to the housing, I messed about with zeroing on 12 o'clock or zeroing on the high spot. I took about 6 attempts to get to number 3 when I noticed that I wasn't setting the dowels at exactly the same angles. 4 was looking better, then 5 came up trumps. The measurements are in 0.01mm so 0.12 would have been a safe tolerance, got it down to 0.05mm. I then had to test that it stayed the same when reassembled so I took it apart and back together, rechecked and all was as near enough spot on the same.
I Was well happy. A good day today!

Thankfully for those reading I wont go into working it all out as looking at the paper I have no idea how I did it, lol.
Andy's blog explains it better and shorted than I could ever hope to.

Visit to the factory.

I arranged a day with Andy for me to pop up as I wanted to see my chassis being fabricated and discuss some other things.
Was pleased to see it in the jig being welded.

Hard to see what is what.
This is the front

And the back.
There was a full Euro rolling kit order being preped for Spain.
Interesting where the pump and filter are mounted. hmm...


I also got to see how easy it was to mount the body.

So if all goes to plan, 4 weeks I'll be collecting it. :P

Now to get cracking and get the bell housing dialled in properly. It's been a bit tricky, setting it. You have to torque up the bolts, check with a gauge, remove it, adjust the offset dowels , refit it, re torque.... and keep repeating the lengthy process till its within 5 thou!
Back out there this week.