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'87 Coupe - Clubman Rally Car


JohnClayton
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  • 2 months later...

Hello all! It's sure been a while since an update was posted. Have been extremely busy with work but finally had a week off to get some work done.

The list (in no particular order) is as follows:

Engine, gearbox + prop installed. Engine runs sweet but has a coolant leak from weep hole on water pump. 

Majority of wiring has been installed. Rear loom complete, engine starts + runs from inside cabin now. Starter motor, alternator, horn, washers/wipers, heater blower, interior lights are amongst some of the working circuits. All hooked up to new fuse array in centre console and fed by a hefty bus bar.

Fabricated new top of clutch pedal to accommodate a ford clutch cable (eyelet instead of hook) as previous cable snapped!

Modified a reliant brake pedal sensor to fit - old was missing.

Throttle cable replaced.

Braided fuel line installed but needs new fuel line clips.

Exhaust cobbled together with parts from old exhaust and a variety of other pipes/bends my neighbour and I had laying around. Has a second cherry bomb in-line as it was a bit loud with only one! Downpipe from a 1600 CVH with flexi section from my Corsa! This exhaust will want replacing if we are to extract more power from the engine, but 'needs must' and it will do for now.

New door handle fitted so the drivers door can be opened from the outside again! yippee! Back of old handle had snapped off. 

Replaced rear light bulb holders with recon ones for a much more reliable connection. Put red fog light bulb in right hand reverse lens.

Replaced ARB drop links as old rubbers were extremely deteriorated + washers were misfits.

New/old stock chevette front hub bearings fitted courtesy of my neighbour Phillip.

New radiator mounts fabricated.

Retro fit a Corsa washer bottle and a header tank at highest point in cooling system. Almost self bleeds!

New camshaft bearings installed.

 

Still plenty to do including welding, wiring up lights, mounting seats, re-torquing head, change water pump. Also need to source a water temp and oil pressure sender that will fit the resistance curve for the Opel dash but will fit in the engine block. Might need to make some adapters but if anyone has any ideas I'd be grateful! It's one of those things I've been meaning to chase for weeks now!

http://imgur.com/a/En4eN

As always scroll to bottom to see most recent photos.
 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Looking to fit a pair of seats to the car. I have a red Corbeau forza and a black OMP, both out of date. Can anyone suggest a good way of mounting these (i.e. bracketry etc). Ideally the drivers seat would be adjustable.... If there's no easy solution it may just be a case of trial and error with the box section and the bzzt gun...

Anchors for Luke harnesses are already present so they should just clip in.

 

 

These are the seats as mentioned above. As you can see there is some form of seat rail but the holes don't line up without the seat fouling on the trans tunnel. in my mind the seat needs to be higher....

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Is the plan to use this on MSA rallies down the line? I can't remember.

If so couple of things to consider. With the new rules coming in January about Full Head Restraints you need to be careful where the rear harness belts are anchored. They have to be within 10degrees of horizontal behind the seat (not down to the floor). Fine if you have a rear harness bar on the cage but otherwise its an issue .

Next is how tall is the driver? The height of the seat relies on the height of the drivers head when sat in there wearing his helmet. You need head clearance to the roll cage bar above the door. This can be a major issue if he's tall. Also as you will need new indate seats before an event its worth considering how they will mount. Most if not all new seats are side mount style, rather than the old base mount.

I'm 6'1" and to get clearance in mine i had to completely reshape the floor to get my seat low enough. The cut out in the tunnel side is to allow the side mounts to bolt to a flat floor, and move the seat a little inboard for a fraction more clearance. To get the floor flat there was a lot of reshaping of the chassis rail lips and cross brace underneath.

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I also am using a Motordrive fiberglass seat as its thinner under the driver, there is virtually no padding (it is very comfy though) Cheap seats tend to have a much thicker base which in turn pushes the driver upwards, so again something to consider.

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Good advice. 

Yes, the intention is to [possibly] use this for Stage Rallying in the future, so the ideal mounts would be:

Co-driver: universal side mount brackets

Driver: side mount brackets with a quick fore/aft adjustment mechanism [if this exists at reasonable money and is acceptable by the scrutineers]

I would always recommend mounting seats as low as poss because:

a) if you roll you are less likely to hit head/compress spine (and the straps stretch a lot when you're hanging in them!)

b ) it lowers the CofG for better handling.

 

BTW, it appears that any links that you put in a post (e.g. to other threads on this forum) do not work -they just re-load the thread that you're already on (in a new window)!.  If you hover the cursor over the link you can see in the bottom left of the browser window that it displays the wrong web address.  I've no idea why this should be.  However, if you copy/paste the relevant weblink into a new window then it works OK.

Edited by JohnClayton
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There isn't a sliding seat mount mechanism for bucket seats that passes scrutineering as far as i know.

But if you get the side mounts with multiple holes in then you can remove 4 allen bolts and move the seat to a new set of holes and re-attach in a few minutes. That's what we did on my mates E30 rally car so he and i could both drive it on a trackday. Takes longer to re-do the harnesses than to move the seat

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Was going to say the same - you cannot have [easily] adjustable brackets on competition seats.

For rallying (at least) there are specific rule about seat mounts, which generally require welded in seat bars across the floor (from sill to tunnel, generally) with particular sizes for the steel used. To those, you would generally bolt a set of side-mounted seat rails. If you position the seat bars and the brackets in a good position, that means it is possible to shift the seat position fore-and-aft by using alternative bolt holes in the seat mounts; they have quite a few so you could put the seat bars in a way that lets you change the seat position a few inches in either direction.

 

Also as mentioned, HANS-type 'Frontal Head Restraints' (FHRs) are mandatory for most motorsport disciplines from January. Besides the need for compatible crash helmets, the harness straps should run at a near-horizontal level from the seat back (think HANS state 0 to 20 degrees). If only being used for competition, with an FHR, then you may choose to fit the thinner type harnesses instead of the more commonly-used 3" belts, which had been more comfortable. There are now harnesses with narrow shoulder straps for where they sit on the FHR, as the HANS device spreads the load and also the thinner straps may sit better and possibly be less likely to slip than larger straps (though large harness straps do all work as well).

Would recommend reading up on the MSA 'Blue Book' regulations for seat and harness mounts. That includes the eye-bolts used for the harnesses, which need correct reinforcement that scrutineers could see and potentially check. If you don't have a comp licence, you can still get electronic copies of the Blue Book from the MSA UK web site. Check all sections on 'safety' and on 'vehicles - rally' and 'competitors'. Whilst working on the car, the points about roll cage mounts, door bars, seat and harness mounts, extinguishers, electrical cutoffs and also fuel tank venting may all save time if understood during the build. Mud flaps, safety film, belt cutters, spill kits and so on will be needed for rallying but are easy to deal with later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks guys, you've given me a lot to think about! Just got back to some work on the old girl.

After re-attaching the bonnet stay (finally!) I'm now tackling the front brakes. We are using Volvo 240 4 pots. I have sourced, from my neighbour, a set of NOS 246mm carlton vented discs. I have bolted these to the hubs with NOS chevette bearings. HERE'S THE BAD BIT! Unfortunately the 4 pots we previously had have been ruined by my young and naive self under instruction of one of the leaders at SKIDZ (where the car was previously held + where I was doing work exp a couple of years ago.) I had been told to grind the callipers down so that they would fit under the wheels. Unbeknown to me at the the time, I had shaved off a bit much and one of the internal seals became visible from the outside - OOPS. NEVERTHELESS... I have acquired a pair of bare calliper bodies, once again from my neighbour Phillip (who has been incredibly helpful throughout the whole build so far...) I have sent these shells of to be blasted + zinc coated at a small fee and I will transfer the NEW pistons and seals from the old calliper bodies... I'll be the first to admit it's a crying shame to ruin some nice callipers but hey ho you learn from your mistakes and all that.......

Next I have turn my attention to the ARB droplinks. NOS from Phillip. Yet to be fitted. decided to replace old ones after humming and harring for a while but finally decided the rubber was knackered...

I am in the process of replacing the TRE's. The threads for the securing nuts through the upright were completely knackered to the point that I COULD NOT tighten the nuts at all. Once again NOS from Phill.... this is becoming a theme! Rebooted + greased the new rod ends to be fitted. I also got a new tyre to replace one that was track use only - and re-sealed a leaky bead on another.

Finally got round to ordering the new water pump, unfortunately the old one started dripping from the weep hole after a while. Having bits apart gave me an excuse to remove the rocker cover and torque the head up fully. Using new gasket and plenty of hylomar blue when cover goes back on as it was leaking above cyl 1 quite bad before. 

That seems to be about it for now... will update as progress occurs :-) 

 

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Water pump arrived. In my haste I ordered the the viscous type. The pulley seems to fit fine so it should be okay. The old pump was making a lot of squeaking noises and water was gushing out the weep hole. After taking a snap of the inside it's easy to see why!

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The new one on the other hand...... :D 

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Shall be fitting sometime after work this week hopefully. Then engine will be running again...

Head fully torqued + r'cover reattached with new gasket + loads of goop!:thumbup

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Callipers after shot blasting. Coated in wax and packaged to avoid attracting moisture and currently being zinc plated! Thought I'd make use of the trip and got a friends set of callipers blasted + plated at the same time, hence two sets in the box! 

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Started delving into the dashboard and managed to get Volt meter + warning light working after wiring everything from scratch. The rev counter soon burst into life too after some fiddling, along with the water temp sensor. As I suspected the water temp sensor in the engine block is to suit the ford the engine came from. Therefore the dial reads the incorrect temp... Also as far as I can tell from wiring diagrams the Manta would have originally had 2 senders for oil pressure, 1 for the light (a switch) and the other for the gauge (a variable sender). Does anyone know where I can get these two? There appears to be a ford pressure SWITCH in the block but its always open circuit - broken?

 

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 Also as far as I can tell from wiring diagrams the Manta would have originally had 2 senders for oil pressure, 1 for the light (a switch) and the other for the gauge (a variable sender). Does anyone know where I can get these two? There appears to be a ford pressure SWITCH in the block but its always open circuit - broken?

 

From what I recall, the Manta oil pressure switch worked the other way round to many/most designs.

Can't describe how right now, brain a bit fuddled, but think that it essentially needs a relay to switch the light on when no oil pressure, rather than direct wiring from switch to lamp. Or something along those lines. Sure someone will correct me if that is wrong and explain either way how the Manta setup should work, and how Opel/Ford/other switches operate.

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  • 2 weeks later...

From what I recall, the Manta oil pressure switch worked the other way round to many/most designs.

Can't describe how right now, brain a bit fuddled, but think that it essentially needs a relay to switch the light on when no oil pressure, rather than direct wiring from switch to lamp. Or something along those lines. Sure someone will correct me if that is wrong and explain either way how the Manta setup should work, and how Opel/Ford/other switches operate.

This is what I found in the Haynes

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It would appear the switch/sender are two different units and are wired directly to the relevant instruments. I think what I am going to have to do is TEE off the oil line so I can have a separate pressure sender + switch. Would anyone advise against this? Next question is going to be where to get an Opel sender/switch to suit. Will put an ad on wanted section.

 

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No the switch/sender are one unit on the manta, it has 2 terminals one for the warning light and one for the gauge. The electrics inside the sensor are separate but in one housing. It earths through the casing and engine block so no need for a 3rd wire.

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No the switch/sender are one unit on the manta, it has 2 terminals one for the warning light and one for the gauge. The electrics inside the sensor are separate but in one housing. It earths through the casing and engine block so no need for a 3rd wire.

This is the information I was looking for. THANK YOU! 

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  • 1 month later...

Right so a month has passed and I didn't get a lot done due to other commitments until a couple of days ago when I decided to finish the wiring. We now have all circuits except indicators/hazards. I am yet to tackle those. I still have a birds nest of wiring to label + tidy up but that's easy enough.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

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I still need an OPEL water temp sensor so if anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

 

The manta took the back burner for a bit as I had some welding to do on an old manky metro. 1 new sill and 2 inner wheel arches later.....

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Once that was out the way I decided to look at the volvo brakes again. I had the new calipers blasted, zinced and then I dusted them over in some redness (for +10 BHP ;))

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

 

So now I need new braided brake lines for the front to accommodate the new callipers as the old line has a banjo fitting and the new calipers do not. Has anyone bought braided lines for this set-up before (or similar) and could point me in the right direction? Ta! 

 

With volvo calipers comes clearance issues with standard Manta alloys (so I have learned). So I ask you this, would it be sensible to space the wheels out with some ridiculous spacers? John would rather we used the standard alloys as we have an abundance of them to lace with tyres for ease of changing at events. I have also contemplated machining away the inside of the standard wheels to fit but I fear this is a) not possible or  b ) more expensive than buying a different set of wheels. 

 

A GOOD set of 4 of these 14" BBS  with centre caps for £120

And a slightly dog eared set for £40 (the photo is a battered one)

These are a bolt on alternative as far as I know, no spacing or flaring arches required (and I think they look snazzy)

 

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Edited by Manta Mender
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Personally for the brakes i'd sell the volvo caliper and swap across to astra calipers and audi discs.

not only do they fit under the standard 14" rims easily, you can get aftermarket competition pads for the calipers, and the standard manta brake flexy fits them. So much easier to fit.

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Personally for the brakes i'd sell the volvo caliper and swap across to astra calipers and audi discs.

not only do they fit under the standard 14" rims easily, you can get aftermarket competition pads for the calipers, and the standard manta brake flexy fits them. So much easier to fit.

i was given Volvo 240 callipers to fit by John. I get the feeling they are a bit ol' fashioned now and there are better alternatives so we may end up doing exactly what you just suggested. Any ideas on the value of a pair of fully recon v240 calipers? How much would the setup you're suggesting cost roughly? 

Edited by Manta Mender
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Last time i sold good volvo 4pots i think i got £70 posted for them.

Astra calipers go for anywhere from £30 to 60 a pair in good nick, discs are about £60 plus they need machining on a lathe at about £20 or so (depending on what your local engineering place charge)

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Last time i sold good volvo 4pots i think i got £70 posted for them.

Astra calipers go for anywhere from £30 to 60 a pair in good nick, discs are about £60 plus they need machining on a lathe at about £20 or so (depending on what your local engineering place charge)

Awesome thanks David I'll have a look into this. 

 

 

Edited by Manta Mender
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